Thanks for tagging me @rainbowchaox,it was fun, if a little surprising on the quiz part. The tragic kinda hits the nail on the head, but apparently I'm also a villain..? 'xD
I'm gonna tag @moonflowerwrites and @enjoyjellime if that's okay for you guys.
Even though I haven’t been as active as I used to be for several months now, I still love Death Mark and your work with all my heart (and everyone else’s too! You guys are amazing at bringing so many different perspectives and life to the series!). You’ve made me laugh, cry, and enjoy incredible stories with a very interesting take on one of my favorite visual novels!
I enjoyed doing this, though I confess I didn’t expect to be struck by an arrow with my name on it when I saw my result. What can I say? Angst, analysis, mysteries, and the characters’ layers are everything to me—I crave them just as much as the tenderness, hope, and longing that may be found there.
I’m going to tag @princess-mach, if that’s okay with them!
This is so stupid but I needed to get it outta my system so I scribbled it this morning. I saw an Alien Stage version of it which inspired me.
"Being a Spirit Doctor right now is all well and good I guess, but once we have kids you can't be putting yourself in danger like that. Hell, the minute you're pregnant I want you to avoid anything spirit-related; there's no way I could keep my blood pressure level not knowing what sort of mess you’re getting yourself into or what you might be exposing our kid to. And I'm not stopping at one kid, we'll at least have three so you need to look after yourself. Pregnancy is no joke, and there's no way in hell I'm letting any spirits fuck up our family. So from now on-"
My next doodle is gonna be lobbing a beer can at Mashita’s face, for self-deprecating and cathartic reasons!
So some interesting pieces of info to share about the Death Mark reboot!
First is the Death Mark reboot is at set to scheduled its release in 2027 !
Second piece of info is Chikami, producer of the Death Mark, is conduction a poll/survey on possibly changing Yashiki's age for the Death Mark reboot on his twitter account. The options are:
1. Keep age as is (late 30's-early 40's)
2. Younger than his current age (late 20's)
3. Older than his current age (50's or above)
At time of writing there's till 3 days left to vote!
Yashiki 4 drinks in: haha if we poorly translated the kanji in your name literally it could something like "enlightenment under truth" or "enlightenment is right below", what a fitting name for a detective!
Mashita 8 drinks in: yeah and your name "8 floors 1 guy" sounds like a crazy porno
Theory about the TV scene of the bad ending of DM2
Ever since I noticed this little detail in the bad ending of DM2, I haven't stopped thinking about all the implications that the impact of Yashiki's death, his relationship with the rest of the Mark Bearers and in general, the meanings behind the actions of many characters may have.
My head went down the rabbit hole analyzing in every possible way every bit of Spirit Hunter data, stories, what can be found of the manga and the CD dramas (they should be considered a sacred treasure for evidencing how eccentric our beloved anxiously stressed bunny is).
Spoilers for all of Death Mark, Death Mark 2, NG and extra content such as the CD dramas, manga, etc.!!!
(By the time I was writing this post the Kaerazu DLC had not been released for the west nor the latest streaming about a new game, and I haven’t seen them yet, so any extra information or lore shown in that chapter and streaming I will disregard them and ignore them completely).
So, we know from the bad ending of DM2 that Yashiki dies at the hands of The Departed and his body is left (aside from some beautifully grotesque CGI) on top of the clock tower. But aside from showing us an image of the outcome of the confrontation, we are shown via a news channel the headline about the death of a middle-aged man in Konoehara.
Obviously, it's Yashiki they're talking about, but the amazing thing about all this is how the news even got out.
Guys, Konoe literally did everything humanly possible to cover up each one of the students' deaths (Including Sakamoto, Kinukawa and Douryou, depending on the ending). It wasn't just because it would be inconvenient in the investigation, but for the reputation of the academy and himself.
Depending on the ending, Konoe managed to cover up the death of Izumi, Horikoshi, Manabe, Kakuta, Sakamoto, Kinukawa and/or Douryou. Manabe's death demonstrating the lengths he would go to cover things up, because seriously how do you easily allege that she runs away on her own from the hospital after a traffic accident, even with a brother as the director of said hospital? And pull it off?
That just raises more questions for me.
Yashiki was the last person he would want to see in a national headline as a tragic victim at his own school. Literally. His mere death could wipe out everything he was trying so hard to take care of in the investigation:
Sakamoto was a stutter away from poor Yashiki to report him for approaching the 2 girls and would have made a fuss if The Departed hadn't killed her or Yashiki confronted her in the true ending. The Sakamoto of the true ending, who is still alive, would have found Yashiki's death more than disturbing, extremely suspicious.
It is implied that many staff members and students found him strange and out of place, but he still managed to be popular among the students and it was hard not to notice him.
Ataka (One of the main producers of Spirit Hunter) posted quite a lot on Twitter pictures and random little facts about DM2 when it was released and a few months after, one of them being that the subject Yashiki covered as a substitute teacher at Konoehara was Japanese history, teaching the things he did and knew himself without using any guiding text.
We’re also told that his class was quite popular among the students (Either because he simply stands out too much by being himself or because of the free cake bakery this man apparently has), being hilarious when he was supposed to investigate and be a "professor" without drawing attention to himself.
Abe only treated him with respect (How he made a comment about Mashita cosplaying as a detective is something I will never let fall into oblivion) and you can tell his little fanaticism for him during the events of DM2 and alongside Hazuki in the DLC, Saki tried to help him on the sides with Mister Kokkuri's case and in the good ending you can see a scene where she expresses that after talking about him to her cousin, he definitely wanted to meet him too and they both wanted to hang out with him sometime, let alone Kinukawa and Douryou (Seriously. If anything, it's one of the main themes EXP decided to touch on in DM2 for whatever reason. Why EXP. W h y.) and as expressed by Sakamoto in the true ending, she reluctantly admits that his presence and lessons did benefit the academy.
Practically, everyone in Konoehara loved and/or liked Yashiki quite a bit, and to find out that the one person who had bothered to take the students seriously day after day, with a terrifying event like the disappearance and possible death of their classmates, not thinking they were saying stupid things or childish stories, passed away in the clock tower of their own school would definitely cause an avalanche of rumors and demand for answers, that is if it doesn't manage to become a scandal first.
Daimon is another important piece that could not have been solved for Konoe if Yashiki had died. Due to the jealousy and chaos unleashed by The Departed, Daimon fell into a coma, this being precisely the reason why Hiroo immediately entered the scene to back up Yashiki in his absence.
In the end, Daimon wakes up and everything was solved in both the good ending and the true ending, but we are not shown what happens in the bad ending. What could be assumed is that he is either still in a coma or dead in this route, and taking into account what happened in the Red Riding Hood case, this would be quite likely.
In the bad ending of that case, Shou, Hiroo and Banshee were left in a coma (vegetative state, to be honest) after being affected by the spirit and Yashiki hadn't properly saved her, and you can tell that the difference in spirit power between her and The Departed is huge, just to mention the fact that they are two spirits in one and there is a doll spirit involved.
Which from the theories and what little we know about it from Mary, Kakuya, Rosé and the red doll: If there is a singular doll spirit around, the level of cunning, strategy, emotional intelligence, spiritual power and holy luck to solve those shits must be astronomical for even a few to survive.
In that DM2 case, for Konoe it would not only be an immediate task to do something about Yashiki, he also needs to do something about Daimon, which would be complicated by having the rest of the Mark Bearers all over him because of what happened to their friends (Minimally to Hiroo, implicitly showing in the games her particular closeness to Daimon).
All the research and data collected by Yashiki was a giant stain on Konoehara's reputation. Sakamoto tried multiple times to ruin the investigation by not cooperating with him at all, accusing him of various ridiculous, baseless things as he kept trying to collect information from the students, directly ordering the students to throw away the notes from The Departed and making them wary of him because of her own prejudices.
(Woman instinct? I screeched in pure rage from the bottom of my hearth when I saw that absurd response and Yashiki dejected self to the point he dreaded speaking with you, because you’ve got some nerve to be this irrational with the guy who’s just trying to do his damn job to save children’s life’s, whether you like it or not or even believe in spirits it does not justifies under any circumstances refusing to collab and assist him, the specialist hired for that specific problem that no one wanted to deal with, when you’re ordered to do so you can at the very least appease your student’s worries and fears.
Yashiki is not looking for approval or to make everyone else believe in the crazy shit he’s seen and has to deal with on a daily basis, he legit only wants to do the job he was hired legally to do from your fucking boss and asked you personally to help him with, and to do that he has to talk with the children because no one else will give him any information no matter how much he tried to ask. There’re literally more important things for him to care about than some annoying teenager’s crushes on him that he doesn’t correspond at all or his appearance. And of top of that, having to be stigmatized as some child predator by the own dorm guard until he snapped at her and called out the academy’s own incompetence to take their own students’ worries seriously? Sakamoto, you’ve to be fucking kidding me- If that woman doesn’t have any haters, I’m dead)
All this while she herself refused until she had no choice but to tell him things about Konoehara's past, like the teacher in the Slit-Mouthed Kashima case, worrying more about the reputation of the academy than the deadly risk to the students.
While Konoe was trying to force her into accepting and helping Yashiki, it cannot be denied that Konoe shared a similar view by reiterating in multiple conversations that he would be the one who would fall and damage her reputation and image if anything that really happened came to light. Getting rid of and/or making sure of everything Yashiki had managed to find out and record would be a priority in trying to cover up his death.
Just by mentioning this, it is evident that covering up Yashiki's death was something he had to do immediately. But from that scene on the TV set in the bad ending, we see that this was not possible. Even if he had more than enough money, contacts and resources, he was not able to cover the most important one of all. Why?
Because of the Mark Bearers.
Trying to follow the personalities of the characters as canonically as possible, taking into account all the data from extra content such as the manga and CD Dramas and some Tweets from Ataka and Chikami, I would imagine the scene of how I managed to get the news out as follows, all assuming it as what happens to the other characters in the bad ending of DM2:
Mashita ran as fast as he could out of The Departed into the forest to give Yashiki a chance to flee to safety, being fully aware that to them he was the biggest threat to their relationship with their "Dear Husband" and that the likelihood of death was almost guaranteed.
The thing is, Mashita doesn't die.
Even in the bad ending of DM2, he doesn't die, and we know this from the call he managed to make to Yashiki in the other endings. The Departed sensed Yashiki's presence in the clock tower, where he must be in any of the three endings, so they immediately stopped chasing Mashita to go to him.
Mashita was already exhausted and in the middle of the chase he lost his phone, so he had to look for a pay phone in the middle of nowhere, hoping to hear that Yashiki was safe and how things were going on his side.
Yasuoka was the only person who would be at the infirmary to answer the phone, telling him that Yashiki had indeed made it out of the forest safely, but that he went to confront The Departed directly at the clock tower. Genuinely, I think Mashita could have run all the way to the other side of H City, but upon hearing that, he would turn into Princess Mach himself to reach and protect Yashiki from the dangerous spirit in the clock tower.
Mashita would be able to climb the tower all the way up because The Departed, having made their wish a reality and being satisfied for the moment, would leave that place alone to look for a new candidate. And entering the ceremonial hall, he would see him there.
Yashiki's body.
Whether one chooses to view the scene from a platonic-only point of view or a romantic one as well, knowing the implications Spirit Hunter has left on the deep relationship between Mashita and Yashiki and the popularity of that couple, it’s evident throughout DM, DM2 and the various mentions of Mashita by Yashiki that the two are canonically close.
Mashita has shown himself to be rude, a professional jerk and asshole, sarcastic, biting, leaving the job of being nice or gently appeasing anyone to Yashiki, distrustful, wouldn't hesitate to shoot a spirit whether it works or not (Which has already happened with Shimi-O, Mister Kokkuri and Kijima if NG's bad ending Drama CD is anything to go by) and somehow make it work, Withholding information to get what he wants (Christie would definitely still be mad at him for not telling her everything about the Red Riding Hood case), uninterested in the feelings of others and their opinion about him (Who knows just what the hell did he do for Ban of all people to still call him ‘The crappy detective’) and generally being hated by several characters after meeting him for a few minutes.
But the one obvious exception that has been shown in his brusque personality is with Yashiki.
For whom he has risked his life on several occasions by facing the spirits at his side, saving him from falling into the void in the Red Riding Hood case, has gotten another gun for him to be able to protect himself in case he can't do it himself, scolding him and standing up to him when he needs someone to bring him back to reality for his own good, comforting him in his own way when Yashiki believes that everything is his fault and trying to get him to acknowledge his efforts when he is more depressed than usual, leaving something evidently as important to him as his coat at Kujou Mansion, in a way marking the place as his own, being the only person in all of Spirit Hunter to call him by his first name in the case of Shimi-O, just three days after meeting him.
Yashiki for his part, has also shown a clear concern and level of importance for Mashita.
(You know, EXP could at least try and hide a bit how important the ill-tempered detective, Mr. "Deep bond" is to Yashiki. I don't see a straight explanation for Mashita being the only one with his own jazzy background music or the little mental and emotional meltdown Yashiki has when he leaves after Shimi-O or believes he's dead because of him at the hands of The Departed. Just him, no one else.
Come on man, at least disguise the overseas trip they had during NG which several fans treat as the honeymoon of these 2 or the constant calls they have, and that's if he doesn't materialize in Kujou mansion because he has "Nothing else to do" or "He was around the area"… An area surrounded by pure forests considering the official interactive maps. Uh-Huh Yashiki. Sure.)
I'm sure the developers haven't shown that much development to each other just because, but if anything for sure, they both care about each other's well-being.
So, to see someone important to him dead, in a pool of his own blood, covered in bugs and mold, making it look like all his hard work to save them all ended in his own undoing is unacceptable.
Unjust.
Yashiki doesn't deserve that kind of ending.
Even so, Mashita has no choice but to accept what happened in his absence.
The news would devastate the rest of the Mark Bearers. I see Suzu quite affected by the situation, due to the dream she had about Yashiki's final confrontation becoming a reality. (I'm not quite sure what conditions must be met to get Suzu to call Yashiki, but Suzu basically tells him that she was worried about him because she had had a nightmare involving him and a red room, which would be the ceremonial room of the clock tower).
Almost everyone was with Yashiki at some point in the investigation, trying to help and support him in any way they could, even being pushed aside for what he believed was to protect them. All to discover that their dear friend, the person they owed their lives to by saving them from Mary and deciding to dedicate the rest of his life to extending a hand to whoever needed it, spirit or human died in a grotesque way, with his name probably on the ground thanks to Sakamoto and leaving his efforts in vain.
Not only that, but the case also took Daimon as well, who they don't know if he will ever wake up now that the husband candidate he was related to has died. Knowing how close they have become through the CD Dramas and the extra panels in the manga, they would be too affected by how the case ended.
But they find out in the middle of it all that someone is trying to cover up Yashiki's death. And that was the last straw that broke everyone.
Mashita would never allow that.
Mashita knows perfectly well what it is to have his name stained, dragged in the ground by corruption and personal interests because of his own false accusation of sexual harassment
(With the era and stereotypes in mind, I assume it was a female coworker or something like that the person he supposedly harassed. Which I see as absurd to almost hilarious, even though it’s stated that he claims it’s false and the truth about what actually happened hasn’t been officially disclosed. Almost every single conversation this guy ever had with anyone from the other sex tells you enough about how he just feels about them in general. If they put verbal harassment, I bet not even him could try to deny that. But sexual? Hun, he’d rather die than touch a woman. Whoever made that report about Mashita clearly didn’t see him talking to one).
Maybe he is not a saint and what happened to him was totally unfair and false, but Yashiki?
Kazuo Yashiki?
The damn soft-hearted fool who was more good and human than any of them deserved to be, to witness?
The man who tried his hardest to help everyone else, ignoring himself and his own needs to the point of being oblivious to what is right in front of him?
No.
Over his fucking rotting corpse he would let someone so important to him be treated like that, unable to even defend himself against the false accusations that woman made about him, unable to do anything against the two love-sicked, obsessive and delusional brats who tricked him and made him suffer to the end, making him think that he killed a child in cold blood, killing him for a shitty ceremony where he had nothing to do and was a candidate to be their husband just for being himself, putting his kindness and solidarity in accepting a case that had absolutely nothing to do with him as a nonsense, a worthless case to begin with....
We don't know if this Mashita, the one from the games and canonical material, has killed anyone (Certainly the one from Blue Demise has, being creepy that there really aren't that many differences between that one and the canonical one beyond having murdered someone and being more openly sadistic); but I don't leave out the possibility that he seriously considered it when he saw the attempts of someone, of that man, one of those responsible for why Yashiki is no longer here, to hide what happened at the Konoehara academy.
Mashita had no problem in risking his life to unearth the truth of the case that took the life of his mentor, of whom little to nothing we know beyond being an extremely important person for the detective and to whom the coat he wears all the time belonged, but if anything is certain is that Mashita would be completely dedicated to expose and make pay all those involved in that case.
In fact, he can and has to follow the case.
As Yasuoka explains in the final moments of DM2, Mashita lives by the rules and standards of a cop, acting like one most of the time when he’s not being a pain in the ass to the others; even if it means sacrificing himself for a case or protecting those he cares about, he will do so instinctively.
And after those events, Mashita still has a score to settle with Konoehara: Mr Kokkuri.
If you choose to go with Mashita to the forest when the Fox Laccata are disposed with Yashiki, Mashita promises to return to the site with a bunch of policemen to reopen the case of his murder and confiscate the mushrooms that started all the mess.
Mashita would be Konoe's first and foremost instigator to bring to light all the scandals and what happened at the site so far, from the events of the town before Konoehara to Yashiki's death. He wouldn't give up even if they throw millions of yens, lucrative promises or threats to shut him up; he won't let any jerk with money and power get away with it after snatching another person important to him.
If anything, he would directly push the rest of Yashiki's friends to help him with this cause, it wouldn't be hard at all to convince them after all.
Because the rest of the Mark Bearers wouldn't accept the situation either. They would do something about it, because it's the least they can do now for Yashiki:
Moe would pull every link and contact she has on Monthly OOPARTS forums to get the story out with every little detail and fact.
Shou would go to the academy solely and exclusively to cause as much trouble as he could cause as a delinquent and alleged student with that uniform he got, even recovering and stealing any documents or objects from the multiple scandalous cases that the damn place that took away the old man, the adult he so much admired and considered being "The old man’s right hand" has had.
Eita and Suzu would publish the unfiltered story in as many forums as possible about the ghosts and rumors going around Konoehara Academy, with loosely censored information from those involved in each case. (I feel like Suzu would deliberately ignore whatever Mashita has explained to her about client-employer confidentiality. He decides not to point that out to her when he sees the first publications of the grieving girl).
The famous singer and lead idol of a highly recognized group Ai Kashiwagi would make mentions about the beloved person she lost in a mysterious case in a haunted academy.
Yasuoka has no reason not to mention that the recent spiritual doctor and former family friend died of spiritual causes in her interviews and public outings.
Hiroo's stubborn curiosity and perseverance would undoubtedly make her fight no matter the scandal or the consequences the attention might bring on her for retrieving everything they try to erase about the case and actively work with the detective despite their differences for exposing the principal.
(Leaving aside some glimpses of her closeness with Yashiki, having the confidence to playfully tease him whenever he has a minor around or gets into a new dangerous situation with the willingness to help as best as she can, it really is worth emphasizing how much her relationship with Daimon is emphasized in some short moments. Since her introduction, we rarely hear from Hiroo without Daimon nearby or mentioned)
Literally this unhinged woman already has a considerable history of deliberately getting herself into deadly situations to satiate her curiosity and/or fulfill a goal, which is why Yashiki meets her in the first instance. Being on the brink of death to retrieve her map or prove a childish point to Mashita sounds more like a challenge than a discouragement to her. It's so iconic in Spirit Hunter that even the producers themselves acknowledge it.
(Ataka even responded in a tweet a few months ago to a random comment about a joke of Hiroo damaging a shrine and carrying a deadly curse on her, the response was basically 'Yeaaah, in case the protagonist can't save her in a Live or Die event, Hiroo would straight up die. Her curiosity literally is what causes her death should she be among the options of destroying that thing, yk how she is.' They implicitly indicate what this woman is willing to suffer and risk for an answer).
If Mashita is the first with the idea of bringing Konoe down and acting on it, Hiroo is the second.
Banshee and Tsukasa would be supporting these efforts as much as they can. Banshee has a whole system of sewers and the bunker to move around freely, he can safeguard anything found in this regard without having to worry about a third party destroying evidence.
Tsukasa was not directly involved at any point during the case, but losing the one trusted adult who encouraged him to go along with what he wanted and not what was forced on him would be enough to help Suzu and Eita draft some of the forum postings.
Konoe would probably be stressed and annoyed by the number of people after the guy he hired, but it would not be impossible for him to detract and do something about most of these attempts, going to legal fights or futilely trying to bribe and/or scare them. If that doesn't work, then get people and contacts to get rid of any information he couldn't handle himself
And it is at this point that the only person, other than Mashita, that I believe the news came out on that television and all of Konoe's attempts were simply futile from the start.
Christie Arimura.
Konoe was already screwed from the moment Yashiki died in that case, because among the reasons why Yashiki was a problem as a fatality there was one he didn't consider.
The kind of contacts Yashiki had.
It's obvious to us onlookers, but to Konoe, who didn't live through the same terrifying nights and life-and-death situations as all of them did 3 months earlier, it's not possible to gauge the kind of closeness and trust between Yashiki and the people who were all around him hanging around the academy.
These were not just kids he had run into around and acquaintances with enough free time on their hands to help him with a ridiculous job.
They were his friends and the closest thing Yashiki had to a family.
And although it may not seem like it, many of them have many influential contacts, are the influential contact or have jobs that would make uncovering an unusual death case front page news on any national channel.
I don't know if this tidbit is also known when investigating the forest in DM2 chapter 5 with Hiroo, but it is known that when Yashiki was investigating with Mashita, Yashiki made a small mention in an internal monologue about Christie sending him letters to the Kujou mansion and being during the events of the game outside of Japan.
Considering how much Christie simply loathes and is terrified of anything to do with the lethal spirits that Yashiki so continually faces and the CD Drama of "How to Make Good Coffee", it's almost safe to say that she had no idea what was going on in Konoehara until she returned sometime later; if anything, Yashiki would have just mentioned investigating a new case and that's it, without giving her any further details so as not to make her uncomfortable.
Not as much as Daimon and Mashita, but Christie spends every now and then some time with Yashiki as do the rest of the Mark Beares (The manga extras and CD Dramas show us that they literally spend most of their time at the Kujou mansion doing the most random things like telling him spirit stories, teaching him how to use a computer, or dressing him up like a hottie for a formal event); With no news of what has happened in her absence or why she stopped receiving her own letters from her friend, she would find out through the others of Yashiki's heartbreaking fate.
It should be noted that Christie IS shy and quite withdrawn. Not only because of her own scandal for which she was forced to resign but also because that is the intention according to the official art collection with the initial concepts of the characters. Aside from being shy, she also must deal with her suicidal thoughts, the reason why she was even in that forest where she met Yashiki.
But we have also seen a brave side and a certain sense of justice in her.
For some reason, the fact that she was totally willing to rip Eita's head off when she first saw him with Suzu is very much ignored.
Did it look supremely suspicious and very out of context? Yes.
Did she care? As long the little girl in the middle of the night and in a desolate roadside parking lot got away from the suspicious guy, Christie was determined to ruin him if not for Yashiki jumping into the discussion seconds after processing that Christie had materialized to threaten the poor guy meters away from him.
Christie is passionate about journalism and if she thinks something is wrong or has a duty to report something, she will say so bluntly, sometimes forgetting that other people may be nearby (almost mentioning in front of Suzu what she knew about the Red Riding Hood case). From some of Shou's comments when they first met, it seems that Christie was particularly famous and good in her field, and it's not surprising considering the valuable information she provided during the Hanayome case and the information she managed to get in such a short time in the Red Riding Hood case despite Mashita giving her very vague details of what to do or what she was actually investigating.
Like the rest of the Mark Bearers, Christie has a good close relationship with Yashiki, at the very least being a close friend and someone who admires him and thanks him deeply for saving her life.
And when she came back, she finds out the blunt news that Yashiki had not answered her letters because of some casual situation or because he was busy in his investigation again.
He was dead. He died trying to solve a spiritual case, Daimon was in a coma or dead, and one of those responsible was trying to eliminate the evidence, belittle him and cover up his death and the whole mess, just to save his skin and avoid accountability.
Christie and Mashita (most likely who informed her of everything that happened in the case) would collaborate immediately after being informed of the case and through the contacts that her career as a recognized reporter would manage to make front page news with the story of a man who mysteriously died at the top of a clock tower of a prestigious academy.
Such juicy news, with evidence, facts, witnesses and testimonies of all kinds?
About the death of spiritual doctor Kazuo Yashiki?
Who really turned out to be Masamune Kujou?
The head of the family of the prestigious, ancient, occult-indebted and "blood-cursed" old-money Kujou family, that Masamune Kujou?
Konoe was fucked from the start.
Konoe can have all the resources he wants to cover up the shit that was caused at his academy, but Christie wouldn't have made it as a prestigious reporter if she didn't know how to navigate through that kind of people to publish a story of that caliber. Which can include not only Yashiki's death, but also the death of all those students and the stains on the history of that school in a more shocking and organized way than an internet forum or an occult magazine could.
Hence, the TV news report that we saw at the end of the bad ending.
While it could be said that an extensive investigation was done to expose all possible points just for the sake of investigating well, the director now knows perfectly well that he aroused the anger of almost a dozen people suffering a huge loss, who would do anything for that man who was only trying to help and extend his hand to whoever needed it no matter if they were alive or dead, of who tried to erase his trace in any way to save himself, but it seems that he was much more important than anyone would have imagined.
More than Kazuo Yashiki would have ever given himself credit for.
This post ended up being much longer than I expected. I wanted to portray as close to canonical material the thinking, reasoning and actions of the characters to explain how the events could have unfolded for us to see that news on TV, although at the end of the day this is my personal interpretation of that little scene, being also kind of biased by, for example, my personal take on Mashita and Yashiki relationship and particular hate against Sakamoto, Kinukawa and Doryou. While I don’t think it really impacts the main points of the theory, it’s something to have present when considering it.
How I started the descent down the rabbit hole began vaguely watching again some CGIs of Spirit Hunter. It struck me that unlike the other Spirit Hunter bad endings that usually only give hints as to how or at what hands they died at that point, in this one aside from showing Yashiki's death we have vague information as to what happened next.
It left me thinking "Konoe and Sakamoto practically did everything to cover up any 'stain' on their prestigious academy How the heck did Yashiki make it in the news if no one even goes to the clock tower?... Unless Mashita- Huh, well it’s not impossible and it does sound like him to do that…Hmm".
One theory came, then another and then another, followed by intense searches for any official information of the game or Ataka and Chikami's Twitter plus the analysis of almost all the characters. Until I ended up coming to this conclusion.
Anyway, what I wanted to portray the most was how I thought the relationship with Yashiki and the impact he has on the story may come to affect the rest of the DM1 cast if something were to happen to him. I don’t think he's half as aware of how many people care about him, but I don't think anyone in his close circle would stand idly by if something like this were to happen to him.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone else had published a similar or more accurately summarized theory about that scene years ago. Maybe there's even already a canonical explanation about it and I just haven't seen it. But I wanted to share this theory and analysis that just wouldn't leave my head alone with the fandom.
This series seriously is very much discredited and dismissed as a weird visual novel with fan-service every scene, completely ignoring how deep and meaningful it can be if you look a little bit deeper. It deserves to be recognized and get some love ;w;
La chica deambula, teniendo no solo problemas al andar sin rumbo o siquiera pensando hasta donde llegar, también pensando que tanto avanzar
Teniendo siempre a su fiel compañera soledad, y a su hermana angustia día y noche a su lado, lo único que sabía hacer para poder soportarlas era seguir haciendo lo que hizo, hace y hara siempre
Caminar y seguir adelante
Y era por esto que todos la adoraban y miraban fascinados
"No importa que tanto me tires
O que tanto me golpees
Tomare todo con facilidad, lo pondré en forma de peldaño
Y subiré a la cima
Y una vez ahí, extenderé mis brazos al lugar de donde provengo, te buscaré y te ayudaré a subir conmigo y más allá"
¿Cómo fue que los demás vieron eso cuándo ni siquiera ella era capaz de soportarse al formar peldaños?
Pero siguió caminando
Nunca desacelerando su paso
Nunca bajando la mirada
Nunca molesta por lo que hacían los otros
Y, por mucho que lo niegue, así seguirá
Siempre
Pero estaba harta
Harta de seguir adelante
Harta de cumplir metas y ganar
Harta de que aquellas palabras y mentalidades que tanto se guardaba, generando dolores en su vientre y cabeza, jamás salieran por su tímida e inútil boca
Harta de su miedo de lastimar a los demas
Harta de cumplir expectativas y sueños ajenos
Harta de ser criticada por otros sin otro motivo más que la destrucción interna del otro
Ella cayó
Su cráneo, pómulos, pecho y el cuerpo entero resonaron en un horrendo ruido sordo. Ya poco le importaba que el llanto celestial terminara de empaparla por detrás, mucho menos que estuviera sola y extendida en aquel puente viejo en medio de la noche
En aquel puente del cual ha ignorado y abandonado su inicio hace tiempo, pero no siendo capaz de ver hasta dónde la llevará
Quería seguir andando
Tenía que seguir andando
Debía seguir andando
¿No es así
Las callosas y adoloridas extremidades se movieron y esforzaron hasta lograr sentarse y juntar su rodillas en el suelo. Incómodo, pero se sentía bien así
Cómo llegas a ser persona?
Porque después de la tormenta, está la calma
"Porque después del martirio...viene el paraíso"
Miro bajo su pestañas y enmarañado cabello a la izquierda y luego a la derecha repetidas veces. Con cada repetición sentía que el agua salada de sus mojadas y maltratadas mejillas corría más rápido; el corroer de su seca garganta dejo de sentirse molesto entre más trataba de reír
Parece que la tormenta durará mucho
Llorar y reír sirve para sanar
Pero para ella, era su herramienta para convencerse de sus esfuerzos
Pensando en ello, ignorando aquella vocecilla racional que siempre trataba de romperla una y otra vez; Tratando de mostrarle la verdad y que lograra ver la realidad
Siguió avanzando
Estaba cansada, estaba muy, muy cansada y adolorida