#she may or may not be closely related to shiromori

[melodythebunny]

I’ve been in the mystery skulls fandom since it first came out. So much so, I made this ‘lil goober. She was made two years ago and I just recently remember her...

Avery ‘Ivy’ Kingsmen

Age: 100

Blood type: ?

Occupation: Being adorable, hanging out with her bro-bro

‘Actual’ occupation: Going to school

Favorite shows/games: Over the garden wall, AHIT

Favorite food: Anything sweet but does love some salty things

Instrument: Harmonica although she’s also good with a harp

Favorite animal: can’t choose one...loves animals in general

[tatttletalesocial]

MYSTERY’S TAILS GROW WHEN HE LOSES SOMEONE

oKAY SO. I was rewatching the MSA series and I found the Mystery’s tail count in his kitsune form fluctuates. I thought this was obviously intentional and went and found every single canon screencap I could of Mystery in his kitsune form and counted the tails:

You can see that the earliest we see Mystery canonically he has a count of 9 TAILS. In Ghost, however, he only has 6:

I’m not sure what happened here -- I guess we’ll come to know as the series progresses. But stay with me here: from this point in the Ghost timeline and onwards, I noticed a pattern. We know that officially, after this shot, the gang loses Lewis, or at least realises that he’s gone (not dead, but they think he’s missing in canon).

The next time we see Mystery’s kitsune form is in Freaking Out, and while I could not get a good enough quality shot to count all his tails, this montage with Arthur shows us he now has 7 tails:

I continued to monitor his tail count in The Future (we do not get to see Mystery’s kitsune form with all his tails in full view in Hellbent) and you see that since Freaking Out, Mystery’s tail count has remained the same; he has not  “lost” anyone in this time period--

However, we see in The Future that his tail count starts to grow. First, Vivi is attacked and injured:

We see a look of shock and fear on Mystery’s face, and then a blue stream bursts out of the heart--

And in this scene we actually SEE Mystery grow a new tail. After having Vivi hurt, he now has 8 TAILS.

The next incident is when Shiromori is dispatched (and she also has a heart that resembles an apple, how cool!):

Again, we see the look of shock and fear, and some might even say pain, before a white stream bursts out of the heart:

--AND HE GROWS ANOTHER TAIL.

Now with a count of 9 tails, Mystery’s reached the tail count of the earliest form we see him in. So what’s the pattern?

Everytime Mystery “loses” someone or sees someone important to him hurt, he GAINS A TAIL. (With the exception of perhaps Arthur -- but maybe this can be explained by Mystery growing a tail and having the count total 6 as a result of Lewis’ death and then growing to 7 when he amputates Arthur’s arm, or the other way around -- 6 injuring Arthur and 7 realising later that Lewis is “lost”.)

And how do we know this? Well, most obviously, we know Mystery cares about the Mystery Skulls group and this feeling of inclusion is returned by Lewis, as we see when we see Mystery as well in his locket:

But what about Shirmori? Isn’t he afraid of her?

Be that as it may, it still shows a great amount of emotion between Mystery and Shiromori and we see further hints to this complex relationship in The Future:

We see Mystery looking worried and regretful, Shiromori appearing surprised at his defence of her and we also see Shiromori with a tear in her eyes after gazing at the injured Mystery. This implies a deeper relationship between them than we previously thought and explains why Mystery was so distraught upon her demise that his “heart” burst and he grew yet another tail.

So what do we know? In traditional Japanese folklore, a kitsune’s tail count is usually either related to how old they are (100 years per tail) or how wise they are. In Mystery’s case, we see that since Ghost he grows a new tail everytime he loses someone important to him, and this may line up with the “more tails = wise” kitsune hypothesis.

But, aside from growing a tail each traumatic event, we see that each time his “heart” ruptures as well, which can’t be good. We see this firsthand with Vivi and Shiromori and we can possibly predict that one or more of the orange/yellow/purple streams are related to Arthur and Lewis.

But what of the green and the black? I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see about that. But what we can see is that there are eight “rupture streams” which I believe may represent “lost” or “injured” relationships/important people, and I’m guessing that the extra tail on his body (to make up nine) was already there (Mystery’s original tail) as foxes have a minimum of one tail.

So Mystery has returned to his original tail count and this obviously makes him very powerful as we see when he’s possessed by “???”:

But we also know that each rupture of his heart is damaging. When he reaches the eighth rupture he falls down, weak:

And we can also possibly hypothesise that the continued damage to the “heart” weakens Mystery or weakens his will -- we see after Vivi’s injury that Mystery has a total of 7 out of 8 ruptures and this is when we see the beginnings of the possession:

Could his will be wavering as his strength diminishes? And why does the injury of people close to him give him power despite it having a harmful effect on him and draining his strength?

This newest instalment of Mystery Skulls Animated gave us such a goldmine of new information and I absolutely cannot WAIT to see how it all links up in the end!!!!

Thank you so much, @mysterybensmysteryblog​, @artsyfeathersartsyblog​, @heilos​, @squigglydigg​ and @amtrax​!!!!

[arthurtristankingsmen]

Okay so I went back and I watched hellbent again, right? And I’m pausing and really taking a close look at the like flashback scenes, particularly shiromoris, and I didn’t really pick up on anything new until right after vivi hits her with the bat. It’s a shot of mushi standing where vivi is, and sure, that could just be a case of mistaken identity, but right behind her? Instead of our mystery, it’s an injured kitsune mystery— with nine tails and no collar. (Curse these ask word limits)

I think something similar to the future has definitely happened before, especially considering the lyrics. I mean— “I’m worried about the future and fuckin with the past”?

Honestly part of me even wonders if that kitsune in the flashback sequences is even Mystery. Like it looks like him!! but the eyebrows are wrong and so are the markings near his eyes and for his mouth. It’s possible that stuff changed after he was defeated by Mushi appearance wise (or that it’s an animation thing versus a detailed still), because in the frame in hellbent you see him with the brows again and no collar and beat up and he still has nine tails but-- it’s really confusing to me why the design is so clearly not the same one as the flashbacks in the facial sense? It feels off and i’ve been wondering about it since Hellbent came out and even mentioned it in my art server’s msa channel. 

Like-- in the frame where Mushi is flashed to in hellbent, Mystery looks injured, and you also see red petals flutter behind mushi. so it might be this has happened similarly in that shiromori tracked down and found Mystery (given the looks i definitely feel like he’d at least be related to the kitsune in the flashbacks if he’s *not* that one, which is very likely he is that kisune too). I think someone pointed out that Mystery when he shows in freaking out , the animation of his red silhouette is similar to the frame in which Vivi and Mystery are walking away in the ice fog-- i could certainly see shiromori having confronted mystery before and mushi protecting him and that similar scene happening before. And maybe she thought after a few hundredish years Mushi having died would make Mystery move on and come back to her (it may be parental/child relationship, or a sibling one if he’s related to the other kitsune rather than being the kitsune himself)-- so it’s a betrayal when she finds out  he’s *still* with that family line.