#no one else gives as much of a fuck about chikusa kakimoto than i do

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Chikusa Kakimoto, Assassination, and Rain Flames

subtitle: Mukuro Rokudo, do not use your fragile assassin DPS to fucking tank, you melodramatic asshole 

[image: three panels from the Kokuyo Arc after Chikua has first attacked Gokudera. Gokudera: “This guy... He’s no ordinary junior high schooler. Whether it’s his killing instincts or his fighting style... He’s a professional hitman!”]

I’ve talked before, if briefly, on why Chikusa Kakimoto is actually a pretty talented character. In the Kokuyo Gang lineup, he’s pretty identifiable as the “brains” to Ken’s “brawn”, even if they both ultimately follow Mukuro. 

Not only is it debatable how much education he received while growing up under the Estraneo (who were gunned down in the streets, even if they were children, if they showed their faces), it seems pretty likely that the Kokuyo Main Trio lived on the fringes of both regular society and the underworld. I mean, Mukuro up until the events of his arc wasn’t even recognizable as himself. 

Yet despite this huge setback, Chikusa still has grown to be pretty intelligent in knowing poisons, their antidotes, a second language, dealing with Mukuro, and how to handle extremely unique weaponry (which I feel as though he created and maintains himself, because that’s not a regular weapon at all). And yet it feels like he tends to be passed over pretty easily, even more than what often happens to KHR minor characters, whether in canon or in fandom. 

A part of that is probably his personality. As someone who RPs and writes Chikusa, it can be hard to puzzle out his personality or what’s going through his head. He’s a very quiet character who prefers to let his partner or leader do the talking. Thus, he can often fade into the background. 

But I think there’s something else, too, and it’s this: 

Chikusa Kakimoto sucks ass at fighting.

Oh, he can manage in fights against regular people, or average mafioso. Sometimes even above-average ones.  However, in a shonen fighting manga, that’s not going to mean much for long, and Chikusa is a minor character so he has even less of a chance for any thought to be put into him.

However, it’s not just that he’s bad at fighting... To be more specific, he’s bad at upfront fighting. Chikusa isn’t meant to be in this genre, because what he really excels at, what really makes him a dangerous force within the underworld... 

...are assassinations. 

We see this a few time throughout the manga, although Chikusa’s only two big fights are with Gokudera. (He participates TYL in the Big Clusterfuck (tm) and also during the fight against Team Giglio Ner in the final arc, although not with much attention paid to what he’s doing.) Both times, it’s not even a win, at least in the traditional sense. The second battle has Gokudera succumbing to the leftover poison effects and Ken coming in for an assist. And in the first battle, the way he wins isn’t that of an upfront fight, but rather... 

[image: Gokudera looking to where he thought Chikusa had fallen after he blew him up to fucking smithereens. “What-? He’s not there!!”]

Chikusa uses the smoke as a smokescreen for his own ends, vanishes from view, and reappears once it’s become certain that his REAL target (Tsuna) is there. That’s an assassin’s technique, and it shows that he’s pretty good at it for Gokudera to not have noticed at all until Chikusa makes his presence known a panel later. 

There are a few other places in which Chikusa very clearly demonstrates an assassin’s mindset and technique, even in his very first spoken lines. 

[image: two panels. The first panel has Ken saying “We’re boys from the next town, here for our away game, or something?” Second panel has Chikusa saying, “Quit fooling around. Finish it quickly, Ken.”]

Mukuro and Ken are very different from Chikusa, and like to draw out things in some ways although for different reasons from each other. Ken does it because he thinks it’s fun, and he clearly loves the thrill. Mukuro does it because he thrives on melodrama, and probably injects his veins with sheer Extra (tm) every morning. 

In contrast, Chikusa has no interest in hanging about. There’s no reason to fool around. To an assassin, you finish your target off quickly, and leave. That’s that. When you start thinking of Chikusa acting with some degree of an assassin’s mindset, a lot of other things and talents start becoming clearer. For example, in my last post talking about his talents, I brought up this moment: 

[image: a pane of Chikusa watching the fight between Tsuna and Lancia. “The Arcobaleno fired an instantaneous shot in under 0.05 seconds. It must have been a special bullet.”]

An assassin’s skills of observation are probably their most valuable skill, besides being able to murder someone and get away with it. Not only is this true in general, but I feel as though it’s especially true for Chikusa in trying to be valuable for Mukuro personally. (Chikusa tailor making himself for Mukuro’s use being a whole big post for another time, people willing.) Chikusa doesn’t have the multi-purpose eye that the Estraneo gave Mukuro, or Ken’s versatile Channels, or Chrome’s illusions. He’s had to make himself useful in other ways, and one of those ways means being able to observe, deduce, and keep up with Mukuro’s own train of thought. There’s a reason why I feel like Chikusa is essentially his Number 2, in a way that mirrors Gokudera very fittingly. 

(ANOTHER thing to babble about at a later date.) 

Other characters pick up on Chikusa’s abilities as an assassin as well, although they don’t outright say it as Gokudera first did. Going back to when Lancia is struck with the needles, consider his reflex time. It’s very clear that he realized that an attack was coming. If it had been aimed directly for him to silence him from giving away any of Mukuro’s secrets, he likely could have avoided it. However, instead, Chikusa aims for Tsuna despite Tsuna being the body Mukuro wants to possess. The implication is that Chikusa was banking on the idea that Lancia would focus on Tsuna’s protection over his own safety, only able to save one body and not two. It’s a move that proves successful. 

And in the moments immediately following it?

[image: Panel 1, Gokudera: “It’s the yoyo freak!” Panel 2, Reborn: “He’s gone. A hit and run...”]

There’s two main things to note in this sequence of events. The first is, obviously, that absolutely no one picked up on Chikusa’s presence until he had already attacked. 

The second is that, even as everyone is reacting to the sudden attack, Reborn confirms that Chikusa is long gone. He’s so gone that there’s no point in trying to attack him, or make a chase after him. This is Reborn, best hitman in the world even while stuck in the body of a toddler, making that call. 

Chikusa is really really good and really really dangerous... When he’s allowed to do things his way. 

So why not have done things his way in this arc?

[image: two panels. Panel 1, Gokudera: “You were pretty easy about letting them go, eh?” Panel 2, Chikusa: “Those were Mukuro-sama’s orders.”]

Again: Chikusa might be the brain to Ken’s brawn, but he still defers to Mukuro. In most cases, anyway. If Mukuro wants to be a melodramatic dumpster fire (which is always), then Chikusa will go along with it so long as it’s not a Really Stupid Idea. This means that, even when Chikusa is well aware that he’s being asked to do something which isn’t particularly in his skillset, he’ll go along with it, trusting the ends to justify the means and that Mukuro will be happy with the results. 

Also, I would just like to point out how Gokudera continues to recognize Chikusa’s talents. While he was more obvious about it when he identified Chikusa as a legit hitman in their first encounter, he’s also subtly acknowledging him when he addresses the fact that Chikusa could have been a much bigger problem for Tsuna and Bianchi (especially with them going to the only entrance to the next floor). Not only is Chikusa’s observational skills good in chaotic situations, as I mentioned before, but his weapon of choice also means that he could have gone for a wide spread of areas and been guaranteed at least one hit. 

And when the weapon involves poison... Sometimes a single hit is all that’s really needed. 

In all honesty, I think that some of the only reasons Chikusa even gets through the fights he does participate in would have to do with his dexterity... and a certain theory of mine. 

Let’s rewind back to the first fight he has with Gokudera. For all that he technically won it, Chikusa is still in incredibly shitty condition. But.... 

[image: three panels, depicting a group of adults and announcements that the police have arrived. Chikusa: “You’re Ken’s prey... It’ll be trouble if I intervened.. I need a shower...” And he shuffles off with a trail of blood behind him.]

I want everyone to bear in mind that, at NO point in his battle with Gokudera does Chikusa actually.... react to the attacks that are being leveled against him. Oh, sure, he responds to the physics of it all. When there’s an explosion, he’s blown back, or whatever, but he doesn’t really show any indication that he’s being hurt. That he’s feeling pain. 

And then he just... Shuffles to his shitty base. In the middle of nowhere. While evading police. Despite leaving an actual trail of blood behind him. 

When he finally arrives back in front of Mukuro, I’m fairly certain the reason he collapsed was because his actual body realized it couldn’t go any further, not because he was tired from all the pain he SHOULD HAVE TECHNICALLY been in. 

Here’s a question for any reader that’s beared with me this long: If all the Estraneo family experimented on all of the kids... What was done to Chikusa?

We know what they did to Mukuro, in giving him that eye. We know what they did to Ken, in giving him his teeth. Yet Chikusa does not display any such abilities so blatantly. While Mukuro and Ken showcase their abilities in all of their fights, Chikusa just comes to the party with yoyos and stubbornness. 

However... I think we’re given a hint of what was done to him, although it is only shown in the manga and the anime shows absolutely nothing similar to it. It’s only a single panel, and it’s not commented upon in any way. It’s during the final chapter of the Kokuyo Arc, where Ken is talking about their history with the Estraneo. In just one panel, we see a pair of Estraneo adults with one of them commenting “We’re still far from being able to use it.” At their feet is a small boy, with short black hair, bandages wrapped around his head, glasses on his face... and flames burning from his extremities. 

For anyone who pays attention during the Future Arc, it can be seen that Chikusa wears a ring with a blue stone in it. Thus, we can be pretty sure that Chikusa has Rain Flames, like Yamamoto, or Squalo. 

So.... What I feel happened is that the particular Estraneo experiments that Chikusa was subject to had to do with manipulating Dying Will Flames. Really, from what we can tell, most of the (successful) experiments were! Mukuro’s eye relies on the spiritual, an aspect that Mist is extremely connected to. Ken’s Channels are probably extremely reliant on the Sun Flame’s activation attribute. 

As for Chikusa... It’s hard to say what the intention could have been for Rain Flames. The flashback has the adults saying it’s essentially an incomplete experiment, and there’s no telling if they ever finished it before Mukuro slaughtered the entire Family. Yet I don’t think it’s much of a leap to say that Rain Flame’s “tranquility” factor could be adjusted until its owner couldn’t feel pain at all.