nLoveless number nine……… (nnn)
KIO BACKSTORY??? okay not fully, not yet, but certainly more insight into his early attempts at friendship with soubi which is Intriguing. i’m Intrigued. those two play an interesting balancing act in that relationship with the way they argue and get along, and their personalities really match one another in a way i didn’t necessarily expect when first meeting them
like… wayyy back in whatever volume, i think around the time ritsuka was going through some more serious shit with his mother when she was tying him to a chair, we had a lot of characters Reacting to that abusive relationship in a very harsh and critical way. iirc the main culprits of this were the zeroes and nisei, which certainly makes sense considering their lack of apathy in general/towards ritsuka in particular respectively, but also set up the abuse in a really interesting way where it extremely Visible to outsiders and Known and Judged. this was especially true for ritsuka, who was criticized for not Just Leaving to stop the abuse entirely, without any of his deeper emotional motivations or feelings being considered.
in contrast… from what i remember, kio is first introduced to the story as someone who immediately freaks out over the creepy implications of soubi and ritsuka’s relationship, worrying over ritsuka and recognizing his ears and vulnerabilities long before he’s even met him. he’s critical of seimei WAY before we even kinda know wtf that’s all about, and regularly gets on soubi’s ass about both of these things.
comparatively, he’s certainly still critical of soubi and judging of his actions. but unlike those of nisei or the zeroes, his critiques always seem to put the safety and happiness of the people involved first. or to put this another way, rather than passing his judgements from a distance, kio (as he kinda implies at the end of this volume) can’t help but get more directly involved, nagging the objects of his worry to their faces instead of watching from afar. which as an approach has its pros and cons, certainly, many of which we can see in soubi and how willing or isn’t he is to give into kio’s worrying over him.
which is all to say i’m kinda freaked tf out by that silent ass reaction when they finally get into the house after the bloodless fight what?? is up?? with you bro, also HE HAS A TWIN SISTER?? oh lawrd, are we getting some kinda twincest psychological horror next. we can never have normal twins, not in this kind of fucking story
also did they just name drop all 7 members of septimal moon finally. and definitely include ritsu & nagisa on that list, did i just read that part wrong where they said they weren’t affiliated with septimal moon or were they straight up lying. or a spicy secret third option
okay i honestly don’t know what else to do with all the kio stuff even though that was the majority of the volume, BACK TO RITSUKA. he was very cutieful during that fight and i’m once again very proud of his conclusion to make decisions for himself, that really goes along with my conclusions from last time. nice. very heartbreaking to have explicit confirmation that his greatest fear is disappearing though, aaoough :( now it’s seimei doing audrina shit to him but like long term… damn you seimei……
also it was kinda super funny watching him get spells from ritsu and nana, idek why like. maybe it was just ritsu that was funny to me actually, like that old ass is still so adamant about trying to pass down the Secrets of Controlling Soubi™️ to anyone that seems to get close to him, he does NAWT wanna admit he lost him years ago. is that why nagisa pisses him off so much. cuz she reminds him of what he hates about himself HAH FUKIN LOSERRR 🫵🫵
pros of seimei slashing his eyes: he’s fuckin blind and can’t use his creepy preying eyes on any vulnerable nearby children anymore. cons of seimei slashing his eyes: those bandages look cooler than he deserves. also his pervert (derogatory) imagination still works too good eww
what else do i need to talk about. oh BLOODLESS, bro these sacrifices need to Chill the fuck Out about carving their names into the most obvious, painful place possible when they get a blank fighter what is wrong with these people. why does everyone hate blank fighters so bad are they all really that fucked up about the soulmate-isms. or maybe that’s just hideo’s problem and seimei is fucked up in other, more sadistic ways……… ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ
conclusion: I WANT YUIKO BACK IN THE MAIN STORY NEOWWW >:( everything sucks because yuiko isn’t here now. <- irrefutable argument
