so, what's up with byakkomaru?
really awkward time to be posting this, but i've always found it strange how he acted towards shinya compared to other demons, and pretty much refused to play by the Demon Rule Book. so here's a summary!
first of all, we need to talk about what a demon's purpose is (disregarding the black demon shikama subplot that mattered for like one chapter and was never mentioned again. yes i'm still mourning raimeiki and byakkomaru plot relevance. leave me alone).
so the ultimate goal of a demon is to regain a physical form by permanently possessing their host. to do this, they need to 1. awaken some sort of strong, usually trauma-based desire in their host by showing them hallucinations and then devour those desires to turn them into power, and 2. convince the host to lower the walls in their heart to be able to take over their mind.
this was shown very well in the beginning of the manga, where gekkouin 1. taunts yoichi with the image of his deceased sister that was killed by a vampire, awakening the desire of revenge in him, and 2. tells him that if yoichi lets him take over, he'll avenge her in his stead.
what this means is that a demon isn't supposed to be your friend. they don't give power to you to help you, but for their own selfish goal, to eventually thin out those walls that keep them from possessing you. they're meant to haunt you, give you custom-made nightmares for maximum terror, take your sanity in exchange for power. a demon technically wouldn't want their host to die, since it'd take away all chance to take their body, but they logically shouldn't care if you're harmed as pain could very well be used to manipulate you.
so! let's get to the part that's actually interesting. Exhibit A: Dad Mode
despite my earlier ramblings, byakkomaru seems genuinely protective of shinya. keeping him from being hurt means no benefit to him, and yet he goes so far as to straight up threaten mahiru. this scene also stands out because it was the first (and only?) time a demon took action to confront another without their host's knowledge.
byakko, i hope you know that you're a real one. the only real one, perhaps. keep loafin'.
Exhibit B: Refusing To Do His Goddamn Job
wow! your host wants something really badly and is asking YOU for power, offering up their everything in exchange! every other demon would be jumping at the opportunity. how easy it would be to ramp that desire up to the max and let him go mad! but, for some reason, byakkomaru entirely goes against his nature, and is just like, "no❤". he even acts like shinya is some stubborn child for even considering asking for more power.
and here you might say, well he has to act responsibly to make sure shinya doesn't die, because that would mean byakkomaru's end as well (#RIP to y'all... rough times...). and you would be correct. except in catastrophe, noya had absolutely no issue with endangering guren. he didn't care if they died as long as he got what he wanted first. but well, the demons were all human once, and they do have their own personalities.
Exhibit C: Abandon The Source Of Your Desire And Let Me Starve Or Whatever
other than threatening mahiru, byakkomaru repeatedly tells shinya to abandon guren.
he doesn't try to twist it in any way to manipulate shinya into giving him control, he just straight up believes clinging on will hurt him and he doesn't want that so he tries to steer him away. it doesn't seem to matter that guren is the source of most of the desire byakkomaru is supposed to be feeding on.
i don't know, maybe he's a vegetarian?
Exhibit D: What Even Is Your Goal, Honestly
as you may or may not know, this scene's chapter is titled "Two Demons". both guren and shinya turn into demons, horns and teeth and all. seems serious, doesn't it? this whole 'giving up being human' was the main thing they were trying to avoid in catastrophe. shinya's literal last words were telling guren not to give in to it. turning into a demon was a terrifying and dangerous thing that took an incredibly difficult exorcism to reverse. because once the demon has your body, they're not just going to give it back, are they? since that's like, their ultimate goal and all.
but fuck that! byakkomaru just turns shinya back to normal immediately after.
while guren, yuu, yoichi, kimizuki, have to actively fight against their demons to stay in control, byakkomaru never even tries to obtain it. which is especially odd considering it's been stated multiple times that Black Demons are the worst, the meanest, the most vicious of all. and then one of them just didn't read the user manual.
byakkomaru seems more like he's trying to protect shinya and keep him grounded than anything else. which is literally the opposite of what he's meant to be doing.
unfortunately, this is probably a result of the world's logic bending to whatever plot kagami thinks of, and not of byakkomaru actually being something special or kind. this whole thing is. none of it means anything to the story, as usual. but it's interesting to think about nonetheless.
stan byakkomaru!
