This is a heavy one but on the topic of Ash , prostitution , rape and how he sees sex in general is one I always wanted to cover.
( THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS )
Ash has heavy trauma from his sexual abuse and rape by Dino and other men as evident in Private Opinion ( English fan-translation here by @yoru-no-gaspard )
Ash is angry and wants to make the people who hurt him pay so badly be he knows he cant make it happen by resisting and fighting back ( that could get him more hurt and even killed instead he is forced to play it smart. )
Ash was forced into prostitution by Dino.. He had payed sex with both men and women and he uses that knowledge to his advantage.
Ash may be desensitized by sex when he willingly lets people do things to him ( prison arc gang rape ) but that dose not mean he dose not mind it, he hates when he has to do it. He hates it even more when he isn’t in control at all.
So Ash dose not like sex but uses it to get what he needs ( prison arc sending a message to Eiji ) and he always has a plan that goes with.
Also Ash’s seduction methods don’t always lead to him having sex, he can trick people into making them believe that he will have sex with them but then dose not.
To explain that is by reading Angel Eyes ( the prequel to Banana Fish that takes place 3 years earlier ).
To Ash rape is about dominance and power and nothing more.
What Ash does next is simple, he makes them believe they CAN have power over him while in fact he is the one being in control all the time ( by having a plan for it ). Shorter even buys into this by believing Ash is helpless bait against the other men in the detonation center because he is just a 14 year old pretty boy.
Here is what happens later.
Ash knows when somebody wants to fuck him and when somebody wants to kill him ….reminder that he knew this at the age of 14.
Ash is smart and manipulative but he has to be to stay alive and this is where his similarity with YutLung starts to shine but then Shorter drops the truth on him and Ash gets emotional his composure crumples and we see how much this actually bothers him.
THIS…THIS right here ! Ash dose do all this to stay alive but manipulating people the way he dose and how he believes it was justifies “I was hurt and used so its OK for me to hurt and use others” sure but you wont be the same person anymore that is what Shorter is getting at here, you will become YutLung. Luckily for us he didn’t ,Shorter makes sure of that.
Then Vol. 17 happened
Foxx tells Ash that he knows why Ash wants to get away from Dino so badly , because he is sick of being used, abused and raped all his life, because the power that Dino’s has over Ash terrifies him and he want to be free of it.
Then Ash says he will fight back , actually fight back a rapist with no plan in mind, he knows Foxx wants to mess him up in the worse way possible and he knows if he resist it will just make it worse but Ash is DONE he is feed up. Eiji made him feel like a normal person, he has self worth now !! ASH FIGHTS BACKKK despite knowing there is nothing he can do to stop Foxx from raping him.
Dose anybody blame Ash for wanting a sexless relationship with Eiji ? I sure as hell don’t.
