Disclaimer: I fully acknowledge that this is some next level crack theory bullshit. It’s all in good fun :)
So with the reveal that the Soga clan is super important and involved in governmental affairs, it continues to baffle me why the heck no one knew about Chihiro’s existence. A quick review of the timeline:
August 11 — Chihiro is born.
Exact Date Unknown — Peace deal is brokered
Exact Date Unknown — Malediction
September 30 — Seitei War officially ends
So that’s 50 days (plus approximately nine months of pregnancy) where Chihiro’s birth & existence were hidden — not just from the world at large, but also from close allies (ex. enchanted blade wielders, Counter-Sorcery Army/Kamunabi heads, etc.). A lot of people have pointed this out, but this is… really weird. It was weird when Kunishige (the hero of the Seitei War) was the only parent that we knew anything about, but now that we have confirmation that Chiaki was at least peripherally involved in governmental affairs (sending Shiba & Mashiro to retrieve the datenseki shard), it’s even weirder. Why the heck would Chiaki and Kunishige bother going through the trouble of keeping him hidden? Because only four people are confirmed to know about his existence at or around his birth:
1. Kunishige (raised him)
2. Shiba (helped raise him)
3. Akemura (gives him his bib, knows his birth weight)
4. Chiaki (assuming, since she gave birth to him and all)
+ Azami (not including him in the count since technically, the earliest we see him and Chihiro interacting is after he got his scar in what looks like Café Haru Haru, but it hasn’t been explicitly stated one way or the other)
This isn’t the first shonen I’ve read, so In today’s chapter, when we got to this panel, alarms immediately went off in my head:
Prophecies in shonen aren’t exactly a new phenomenon — in fact, we’ve already seen one in Kagurabachi:
tldr; Yura gives a “prophecy” to Samura that basically implies that Akemura will cause another Malediction in Japan.
I kind of brushed this off as Yura being Yura — him twisting information to try to manipulate Samura, which he does with other characters (setting up Hiruhiko to fail against Chihiro, telling Yukisada he’s the strongest fighter in the Hishaku, etc.). But… what if there really was a prophecy of some kind that there would be another Malediction (or other mass casualty event), this time in Japan?
However, I don’t think Akemura would do this to the same scale as he did against the people from the small island, since he views the majority of Japanese citizens as innocents. He takes this very seriously as well, and basically tells Samura and Chihiro to kill themselves if they place these innocents in danger.
Akemura has a very black-and-white sense of justice, and a strict moral code on who is deserving of protection and who is not — specifically, he puts a lot of weight onto the environment in which people were raised (and, by extension, genetics). Still, he views himself unquestioningly as a misunderstood hero:
Trope-wise, when it comes to prophecies, there are typically two paths authors take:
1. Info dump possible future events that the protagonist(s) must subvert or overcome to achieve their goals
2. Provide vague information that can be easily misinterpreted
It’s hard to say definitively what direction Kagurabachi will take, since we haven’t seen the original text, but if there’s any sort of vagueness, it makes me wonder if Yura misinterpreted this prophecy… Because there’s another Soga clan member who’s left-handed, wields an enchanted blade, and has sworn to protect the weak and innocent and kill all evildoers.
Crack theory time: Working under the assumption that Chiaki has some kind of clairvoyance/futuresight sorcery, she has a vision that Chihiro grows up to do some yet to be determined Bad Shit. We haven’t met her yet, so it’s kind of hard to say how she’d feel about this, so I’ll leave this part unanalyzed. Though I’d personally prefer if she rejected Chihiro and is alive, Deadbeat Mom Chiaki Propaganda 2026
And since this is all conjecture anyway lol If I had to guess, Akemura was aware of this prophecy as well, but due to his ideology, his love for his sister (and by proxy, her son) overrides his belief in prophecy… up to a certain point. Because this sure was a change in attitude after, like, twenty minutes.
Before:
After:
Kunishige knew about this too, hence why he took Chihiro to live in isolation in the mountains, away from society — not out of fear of Chihiro, but because of people’s belief in Chiaki’s prophecies. Yura eventually finds out about this prophecy, and misinterprets it as it being about Akemura.
Now… do I think that Chihiro’s going to end up as the villain of Kagurabachi? Absolutely not lol. But I do think it would be kind of neat if fate was subverted by the power of familial love between father and son, which has always been the heart and soul of Kagurabachi.
Anyway I’ll laugh at myself in a couple months when this is completely deconfirmed!
obviously we dont know who chihiro's first kill is and how he did it but i think chihiro can't talk about this with anybody in his circle of friends esp the adults bc he doesnt want to put that kind of burden or guilt on the people who let him go on this journey in the first place *ehem*shiba*ehem*. them being able to unload this with each other, i feel, must be cathartic in some way
edit: i also think chihiro wouldnt make any excuses for himself when he killed this stranger in particular; even if it did ended with him saving someone
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