(Part 1/?) Hey there! I love your theories and was wondering what your take was on this comment from Reddit: "Makes me wonder if this manga is setting up a Kazuma/Father villain combo. Kazuma is SERIOUSLY off his rocker right now, and what do Father and Kazuma have in common? Humanity.
Whoa, that’s an interesting idea! However, I can’t see that happening, as cool as it sounds. Adachitoka literally just had the chance to kill Bishamon off, and they chose not to do so. So having her die just a handful of chapters later wouldn’t sit right with anyone, I don’t think.
The most interesting part about this message though, is the prospect of the spells being powerful enough to wipe Heaven out. Primarily, a shinki’s ability to use said spells.
In truth, we only know shinki to be spirits of the dead, who were not corrupted in life or after death. Gods exist because of humans; a person goes their whole life believing in a God, giving them life, and in most cases, pass on to the afterlife. But some don’t want to die. The process of a God naming a shinki is sort of a return of service almost, if you think about it. It’s a God granting a spirit a second chance. Despite Bishamon having so many, though, it is clearly uncommon to find a spirit that actually hasn’t been corrupted; that actually didn’t want to die. Like, unless it’s a former shinki with no name.
We’ve seen (potentially) three of them in the entire series: Yukine, that little girl from the first few chapters (at first--she would later become corrupted), and possibly Mineha. And that’s over the span of 77 chapters. They have not since run into another spirit meeting the criteria. But despite being former humans, shinki are demonstrated to be at least marginally more powerful. Whether this is because they’ve been named by a God, I have no idea. But, think about a dynamic between a God and Shinki--or, more importantly, the guide post.
Shinki are supposed servants of the Gods. But if you’ve paid attention so far, you’ll have noticed that a guidepost actually has more say in things than the God does. They are in charge of the God, and show them how to be compassionate or chaotic. So if you consider the Teacher/Student scenario, that would socially put Shinki above Gods. Of course, this isn’t how the system actually works, because Gods are always seen to be more important and essential.
But without a person’s faith in life, a God is nothing. A God answers to their people. And a God also answers to their shinki. So that begs the question, how powerful is a shinki? The answer is, probably even more so than a God. They’ve been told Gods are superior though, and go their whole life and afterlife thinking that. They don’t think about the fact that a God is nothing without them.
I’m interested to see if this fact will be explored further in the series, for sure.
