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“The True Breadth of Genius”

Over the years in this fandom, I’ve rarely seen either Touka or Nemu get the respect they deserve in literally any sense of the word, but one of the senses I never understood was knowledge. While, yes, they lack experience in the world, it strikes me as odd that, despite extensive canon proof of the contrary, most people don’t seem to really understand just how much academic knowledge these two have in those noggins of theirs. I assume that a lot of this is simply a lack of in-depth understanding of the pair’s areas of expertise or the implications of what we know they know and can achieve. So, I’ve decided I will explain all of that, and I shall start with Touka before Nemu makes me want to punch a brick wall (her section will likely be easier to understand tho). Disclaimer that I am not an expert in a majority of these fields, this is just the product of many hours of research trying to grasp a general idea of what knowledge these two have.

The first thing we need to consider is that Touka is very tech-literate. This helps her case quite a lot. But, we also need to consider that before bonding with Nemu, she didn’t seem to see any value in the humanities, so that is the main… giant hole in her academic knowledge (up until later). I’ll cover the most obvious one first: astrophysics. I am sorry in advance for excessively technical terms, you will need to look up ten million things. But, it’s her entire THING. She’d follow RIKEN activities and would use the DARTS database, for one. Her knowledge is rooted in the mathematical formalism of general relativity and quantum field theory. Her proficiency logically extends beyond qualitative descriptions to the rigorous application of tensor calculus and differential geometry, just based on everything she does—the university professor debates (regular occurrence apparently), the one or two mentions of published papers or books in the field for some reason, her activities with the radio telescope, long etc. However, astrophysics is not in fact “whoa space” and that’s it, no, no. Touka’s understanding of the cosmos is mediated by a mastery of the Einstein field equations, which she approaches as a set of ten interrelated partial differential equations. She possesses a granular understanding of the metric tensor, and her ability to manipulate Christoffel symbols allows her to derive geodesic equations for motion in curved spacetime. Her expertise would include the calculation of the Schwarzschild metric for non-rotating mass distributions and the more complex Kerr metric, which describes rotating black holes and the subsequent frame-dragging effects.

Within the realm of quantum cosmology, Touka would engage with the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the challenges of reconciling general relativity with quantum mechanics. She definitely familiar with the concept of quantum gravity and current research efforts at institutions like the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics to quantize the gravitational field. Her technical knowledge includes the exploration of black hole entropy, specifically the Bekenstein-Hawking formula that the formatting keeps messing up so I’m gonna give up on trying to quote formulas. But, Touka understands the implications of this formula for the black hole information paradox and the holographic principle.

Her knowledge is most likely closely tied to the latest data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) linked earlier and its international collaborators—small tangent, but yes, Touka is definitely fluent in English, for coding and practicality on the internet. She’d have a detailed understanding of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and its role in resolving high-temperature plasma dynamics, and a central focus of her research would probably be the quasar PDS 456, where XRISM data has revealed structured ionized winds expelling gas at relativistic speeds. Touka understands the mechanism of galaxy-black hole coevolution, wherein the energy output from a central supermassive black hole regulates star formation within the host galaxy. She can articulate the difference between galactic-scale winds and the ultra-fast outflows observed near the event horizon, noting that these outflows carry significantly more energy than previously modeled.

Touka also most likely tracks the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which by 2026 has mapped over 47 million galaxies. Understanding of dark energy, the hints that the cosmological constant lambda may be evolving over time, which if true would necessitate a revision of the Standard Model of Cosmology.

Now, we gotta keep in mind that her primary tool for theoretical exploration is high-performance computing. Given that we know she has the coding ability to create software (Angels on the Road) and websites (Nemu MGS), she is most likely proficient in the use of nbodykit, which is a massively parallel Python toolkit for analyzing large-scale structure algorithms. This is helpful in astrophysics, obviously. She understands how to scale simulations using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) to model the evolution of billions of particles. Her knowledge of the n-body problem extends to the Circular Restricted N-Body Problem (CRNBP), where she can calculate the stability of Lagrangian points for complex systems, such as the Jovian system with multiple huge moons. She understands that while the two-body problem is completely integrable, systems with N greater or equal to 3 exhibit chaotic behavior and require numerical integration.

In her simulations that she definitely runs because she’s Touka and she nearly collapsed the universe with a machine once (From New Breath/A New Beginning), she uses GADGET-2, a code for cosmological simulations that incorporates smoothed particle hydrodynamics to account for gas cooling and star formation. Her research into orbital mechanics includes the efficiency of bi-elliptic transfers versus Hohmann transfers for deep-space mission design, noting that bi-elliptic transfers become more efficient when the ratio of the final to initial orbital radii exceeds 11.94. You are surely seeing why I apologized for Terminology and what I meant when I said we underestimate the wealth of knowledge in these girls’ brains.

But I am not done! Even if I don’t cover each topic exhaustively because I am rapidly losing the ability to parse words (my brain detests math), I want to at least cover most of the major areas of expertise we know Touka has. So next up is medical science. Rather obvious, given her father is a doctor and she herself was so ill growing up. This one is therefore more informed by potential feelings of frustration, desperation, and possibly even grief, rather than exclusively curiosity or escapism the way astrophysics was.

Anatomy, obviously, beyond what most students know, but also the molecular pathology of intractable and rare diseases. She’d likely know a lot about those, focusing on the ones with diagnostic uncertainty and complex phenotypic variability. She understands that while many rare diseases arise from well-defined pathogenic lesions, their underlying mechanisms are often poorly understood. Her research would include molecular diagnostics with integration of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics (multi-omics) to identify biomarkers and pathogenic mutations, intracellular signaling disruption which includes knowledge of how mutations in ion channels (e.g., KATP channels) or biosynthetic pathways (e.g., heme biosynthesis) disrupt tissue-level integrity, precision treatment logic which is modeling long-term clinical outcomes for therapies like growth hormone or enzyme replacement to bypass traditional trial barriers, and diagnostic reasoning that uses case-based advances to differentiate phenocopies (diseases that look identical but have different genetic origins) from true rare pathologies.

On this note, it’s possible Touka has used the CRISPR/Cas toolkit to design potential cures for genetic disorders, and she probably ran into a wall trying to find solutions for herself and the other two. A highly specialized area of her expertise could easily be haplotype editing, which selectively removes a mutated allele while leaving the healthy copy intact by targeting single nucleotide polymorphisms as genetic zip codes of sorts. I’d say she is likely familiar with the use of Cas9, Cas12, and the RNA-targeting Cas13, as well as CRISPR interference (CRISPRi). She’s probably studied a lot of other cases of different but somewhat similar diseases to what she and the other two had and tried to find some sort of connection, something, anything that works. Touka is also definitely aware of the 2025 discovery that neurons repair DNA damage differently than dividing cells. In neurons, the Cas9 protein persists longer, increasing the risk of off-target effects but also allowing for more predictable repair outcomes.

It’s very possible she also has knowledge of neuropharmacology, specifically the molecular mechanisms of disease, and she definitely follows the development of drugs that mimic physiological states, such as a 2025 drug that mimics high-altitude living to extend the lifespan of mice with Leigh Syndrome, a mitochondrial disease. Like I said, she probably looked into a bunch of other conditions and tracks research on them, so for example she’d be aware of research identifying FDA-approved cancer drugs that can be repurposed to reduce brain degeneration and restore memory in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Her technical knowledge would definitely include the role of the blood-brain barrier in all of this, including how genetic factors within its defense system can trigger neurodegeneration. I personally don’t think any of what the hospital trio had was neurodegenerative, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t look into it. Or oncology, immunotherapies, etc.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Touka without a space fascination, so she definitely looked into space medicine, studying the effects of microgravity and space radiation on human physiology. She understands that microgravity leads to systemic changes, including muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and cardiovascular adaptation.

Her expertise includes the cell gravisensing (yes, this is a real term, NASA has stuff on it too if you prefer) investigation, which examines how individual animal cells sense and react to gravity through molecular mechanisms. She understands the disruption of mechanotransduction pathways, such as integrin-focal adhesion kinase (FAK) signaling and the RhoA-ROCK pathway, which affects how stem cells sense substrate stiffness. Touka is also definitely aware that space radiation far more intense on the International Space Station than on Earth, that actually feels like one of her little fun facts she likes to tell in her quotes. She tracks the stem cells investigation for sure, which revealed that longer incubation in space results in more modifications of repair proteins and severe effects on DNA. She’d likely note that microgravity-induced formation of three-dimensional multicellular tumor spheroids provides a more accurate model for studying cancer progression than traditional 2D cultures. Because ha, space superior!

Do you see why everyone else sounds stupid to her yet? Nemu is just significantly more polite/tactful, but… I’ve met a few genius children of their caliber. The gap between them and the average person is incredibly vast and as I’ve talked about before, deeply isolating. But we gotta keep going! Chemistry next! Well, mostly spectroscopy and astrochemistry.

So, Touka’s chemistry expertise is most likely oriented toward the physical properties of matter and the characterization of extraterrestrial environments. She’d be using advanced spectroscopic techniques to analyze the chemical composition and thermal structure of planetary atmospheres, and she’d be proficient in using atmospheric retrieval tools such as TauREx 3.1 and the forward model ATMO. Her knowledge includes the interpretation of transmission spectroscopy data, and I would specify here but I do not get this part myself (I am stupider than Touka). She most likely understands out-of-equilibrium chemistry very well, where photochemistry driven by the host star’s radiation leads to the formation of complex organic compounds that would not exist in thermal equilibrium. Her research would involve combining laboratory experiments with photochemical modeling to elucidate the pathways of hydrocarbon and oxidized organic formation on temperate exoplanets. Again, it all goes back to space.

With astrochemistry specifically, she most likely focuses on the enigma of Earth’s chemical evolution and the quantification of prebiotic processes needed to support life. Which would mean she utilizes laser-spectroscopic diagnostic tools to monitor the pyrolysis of oxygenated fuels and the generation of reactive species like singlet oxygen, applying these principles to the study of early planetary environments. Her technical knowledge would include high-resolution spectroscopy of stable molecules, ions, radicals, and atoms in highly excited Rydberg states, which are relevant to stellar spectroscopy and the observation of hot exoplanets. She’d also track research on the vegetation red edge, a specific spectroscopic signature of photosynthesis that could indicate the presence of plantlife on Earth-like exoplanets.

Oh, and a significant technical focus for Touka, given her radio telescope shenanigans, would probably also be the field of space cryogenics. “What does ice have to do with a telescope” a lot actually! Space cryogenics is essential for the operation of advanced telescopes and sensors, it’s necessary to maintain temperatures below 120K—and as low as millikelvin levels—to ensure the stability of scientific instruments and liquid propellants. Her expertise would obviously include the operation of various cryocooler types, for example stirling cryocoolers, which are efficient for medium cooling capacities (1 to 10 watts) and widely used in satellite infrared payloads, pulse tube cryocoolers, which are favored for vibration-free cooling, critical for sensitive scientific instruments, or superfluid helium systems, which are used for ultra-low temperature missions requiring extreme thermal management. She probably has mostly touched whatever it is she uses for her big telescope, but well, theoretical knowledge. She’s also definitely aware of the shift toward advanced lightweight insulation materials such as aerogels and multi-layer insulation, which are engineered to minimize heat transfer in deep-space missions. She also follows trends in the professionalization of biobanking (ISO 20387) and the increasing use of cryo-robots for automated sample management in medical research. Also statistical astrobiology, probably, but I am very tired of looking at equations I can hardly wrap my brain around, so I will give up here and hand Touka the win.

Fortunately for me, the next topic I do know a fair bit about: psychology! Which, I am assuming Touka knows basic concepts of because she knows what PTSD is and seemingly how to induce it?? Or whatever it is she wanted to do in Arc 1. Now, not-so-fortunately for me, Touka seems to approach psychology as a branch of neurobiology, so she’s thinking about human cognition more through the lens of neural plasticity, biochemical signaling, and algorithmic errors. Which… is deeply Touka of her. But really not the part of psychology I enjoy researching.

Okay, so, Touka’s understanding of learning and memory is centered on the mechanisms of long-term potentiation and long-term depression. She identifies the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor as the master switch for synaptic plasticity. Her knowledge includes the detailed signaling pathways that follow NMDAR activation and all the various chemicals and hormones in the human brain especially (which is all of them, technically). Her technical knowledge would logically extend to the role of specific brain regions: the hippocampus for spatial and contextual memory, the amygdala for emotional memory (and good lord does she talk about the amygdala), the prefrontal cortex as a critical hub for memory consolidation and retrieval… all of that. She is for sure aware of the tripartite synapse, where astrocytes modulate classical forms of plasticity through gliotransmitters like D-serine and ATP. And then, connectome mapping. She’d be well-aware of what’s been called the Connectome Revolution, and things like the Human Connectone Project. “What the hell is a connectome” well you see a connectome is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain—think of it as its wiring diagram. Touka likely follows the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s work on whole-brain connectome mapping at unprecedented resolution. And yes, AI knowledge, but not the AI you think I’m talking about, I mean combining fMRI, EEG, and single-cell transcriptomics to map neural pathways, or using algorithms from Google DeepMind (founded in 2010 and acquired in 2014, so again, not the LLMs we’re so tired of) to automatically identify neuron types and trace axonal projections. And nucleotide barcoding, which is a technique for dense mapping of single-neuron connectivity.

Anyway, on the other side of things, Touka has likely studied cognitive biases as some sort of systematic error in the human brain and probably views heuristics as mental shortcuts that facilitate efficiency but lead to irrational judgments. So she’d likely know at least the basics of confirmation bias (the tendency to support existing beliefs and ignore contradictory evidence), availability heuristics (overreliance on vivid or recent information while neglecting statistically significant data), anchoring bias (the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered), and automation bias (the preference for suggestions made by automated systems, even if they are incorrect). She probably applies this knowledge to debiasing her own analytical processes, particularly in the interpretation of complex datasets in astrophysics and bioinformatics. But uh. That doesn’t mean she applies this to her everyday life. Also, she’s likely familiar with the field of behavioral data science, which explores how humans interact with data and advocates for strategies that limit bias while upholding logic. Just because she seems to value logic so much in terms of efficiency and such.

Moving on. As you can imagine, all of this is bolstered by a robust foundation in advanced math (*quivers*) and computational science. I actually am a certified professional in IT, but uh, not on Touka’s level. That’s scary. But I can confidently say Touka is proficient in Python especially, since it’s used for data reduction and modeling. NumPy, SciPy, and Astropy. I can at least list a bunch of Python packages she likely uses, and different specialized softwares. And math scary but needed for biomedical research, for example linear algebra, differential equations, stochastic processes… Her computational knowledge probably includes the use of fast Fourier transforms to compute power spectra and the implementation of Markov chains for statistical modeling too.

Lastly, I need to address Angels on the Road or I will go mad. At some point, Touka gained professional-grade skills in software development, which is what let her create websites and mobile games with online features (as the silly Christmas game apparently had—it was invite-only, sure, but it had such… features). So full stack development, proficient in both client-facing and server-side components, mastery of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript/TypeScript for responsive mobile-first design (since the game was made for Ui and I do not think Ui is a PC girl), expert use of React, Angular, or Vue.js for building interactive user interfaces, and all the backend architecture stuff. Most definitely scalable services, probably using Node.js/Express, Django, or Spring Boot, which was unnecessary for the goal but her brain probably forces her to be the most efficient possible in all STEM fields. And the thing I hated the most in trade school: database management. She’d be proficient in both SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB) data modeling to cover her bases. Then, assuming she didn’t go hingeless and make her own mobile game engine, which given her willingness to learn phone repair on command she might very well have been willing to do, she definitely understands how game engines work. For example the different components of an engine, like rendering systems (3D shaders, visual effects), audio engines, and physics simulations (collision detection, gravity). To make the game comfy for Ui, there’s optimizing interactive user-friendly applications for mobile hardware and cross-platform compatibility, and then network programming which is usually a small nightmare. Client-server architecture, latency management, real-time protocols, cloud infrastructure… And whatever the hell she did to make the AIs in the game.

If your brain is slowly deflating: me too! I forget how smooth-brained I am in comparison to the geniuses over here. I do believe this covers most if not all of the fields Touka has expressed knowledge of, though non-exhaustively (for example I haven’t touched on her mechanic skills that we know she has), and surely you understand why at the age of 12 she went “that’s because you’re all stupid” (Ring Around Kamihama) when the others, even Tsuruno who is smart, instantly lost the plot when she brought up wormholes. Touka is far more knowledgeable than people give her credit for, but I do want to take a moment to muse on one thing about that. The difference between the way Touka treats her knowledge and the way Nemu treats hers. As we are all well-aware of, Touka has a habit of almost flaunting her technical knowledge, especially in the Magius and hospital eras, which is her at her youngest and most immature, so that makes sense. It’s a little contradictory in that we know she also guards her knowledge jealously, at least when it comes to space, but as we’ve been shown a handful of times, she actually does make a good teacher and appears to enjoy it. Particularly when her students show genuine curiosity and passion for the topics. Sakurako mentions this, and besides that, we see her teach others multiple times, her Exedra MGS being the most recent example of it. It’s very interesting to me. The Magius era was a time of rapid growth for her, and in Arc 2, she mellows out pretty significantly and has matured a noticeable amount, which I feel no one ever acknowledges for some reason. She seems to be permanently stuck in people’s memory as the flanderized screamy pretentious “nya” girl, and she’s so much more than that. Also, I would call her arrogant, but not pretentious, words have meanings and the meaning of “pretentious” is “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed”… which, no. Touka may be arrogant, but the knowledge she has is real and she has done her research work—plus in some cases she might just be suffering from average familiarity. The incredible miracle of older adults in-universe (the university professors) acknowledging someone so young as an intellectual equal is nothing to scoff at. They clearly respect her enough to request those debates, even if she maybe doesn’t care about that very much—see also her being like “nah it’s okay I was gonna meet some old guy but I can cancel” about it during Tracks of Cherry Blossoms.

As for Nemu, Nemu never usually “flaunts” her knowledge, it only informs her actions and words. Unless she’s explicitly asked, in which case she answers. And sometimes she may make a comment about it. This, I think, ties back to upbringing and both my autism essay and my gender essay. But see, while the sciences Touka studies do have relationships between them, they are not as… earth-shakingly brain-altering. As Nemu’s field(s) of expertise. So, let me just… begin to explain what exactly Nemu knows, based on what she’s mentioned in canon.

First thing you need to understand. Western lit history and Eastern lit history are completely separate beasts. Nemu dabbles in both, which is fascinating but logical (natural bookworm curiosity). Western literature available to us in the modern day has always been marked by Christianity/Abrahamic religions, while Eastern literature wasn’t, and you can really tell about as soon as you look at the staple classics. Why am I saying this as if it’s a disclaimer? Uh, you shall see.

So, Nemu’s primary expertise lies in literature. A fair few things picked up from the various past eras of Japan’s history (that I will talk about in a second give me a moment) tell me that she most likely read a lot of transgressive works that challenge societal norms and explored the boundaries of human desire. She’d likely have a pretty good understanding of how “obscenity” and “censorship” are historically and culturally constructed. I bring this up because! Two important literary figures in Japanese history are Ihara Saikaku and Edogawa Ranpo. I strongly encourage you to at least skim those Wikipedia articles. But anyway, Edogawa Ranpo’s mystery fiction and scholarly essays were not merely entertainment but a sophisticated effort to recover a queer past that had been suppressed by the modernization efforts of the Meiji period. Through an exhaustive study of Saikaku’s Nanshoku Ōkagami and other works, she’d definitely know gay people exist and probably internalize the concept of shudō as a martial and cultural institution. She’d understand that shudō, rooted in a culture of samurai bravado and martial loyalty, represents a set of assumptions profoundly different from the twentieth-century Japanese concepts of dōseiai (same-sex love), which were influenced by Western medical and sexological discourse.

But anyway, this part of research allows Nemu to use the analytical techniques of detective fiction to trace narratives of desire through history. She understands Ranpo’s… uh. You know what, just look at the title of this research paper. She’d probably eventually link back to writers like Ōta Nanpo (which would lead her to the history of woodblock prints if she hadn’t seen it already) and Kyokutei Bakin. In her own writing, she likely employs this queer spectrality, and I mean… I think we’re all on the same page here… But hey, at least this means she’s never had the “gay bad :(“ struggle. But yes, her writing probably contains subtle critiques of modern heteronormativity without forcing characters into contemporary straightjackets of meaning.

We can all also easily agree that Nemu has read Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase). Which gets us riiiight back to erotology. “How are you so sure?” well:

David Tod Roy calls the novel "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form—not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context ... noted for its surprisingly modern technique" and "with the possible exception of The Tale of Genji (c. 1010) and Don Quixote (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature."[5] Jin Ping Mei is considered one of the six classics of Chinese novels.

It’s about as important as Journey to the West. Buuut, this book in particular extends beyond its reputation as erotica to its function as social satire and a novel of manners. It is literally famous for its hyperrealistic and explicit descriptions of sexual power dynamics within a household. Sound familiar? Perhaps some sort of influence? The thing about the novel though, is that the (male) protagonist’s decline acts as a moral structure that exacts retribution for sexual libertinism, which I’m sure was a great thing to add to the later Confucian philosophy that we’ll get to in a few paragraphs (I hope and pray). This knowledge is further augmented by her probably having read Taoism-related texts like the Classic of the Pure Woman (which is more sexology, that was a whole trend in the East where books were kind of like sex ed, there were a fair few manuals and a good amount of those were religious, for the harmony of yin and yang and all that). Copies of this text were preserved in Japan within the Ishinpō of Tamba Yasara, published as early as 982, which would be interesting from the viewpoint of historical cross-cultural medical and erotological exchange. On the note of cross-cultural exchange, I just want to say, Japanese libraries will put the Marquis de Sade right next to Kant and Plato in the philosophy section. WHICH COULD MEAN NOTHING /s.

All this to say, a lot of Japanese historical literature (and Chinese historical literature…) is erotica and a lot of that is gay. Which… spells great things for us I’m sure. Now, speaking of philosophy, Nemu’s interest in it seems to be rooted in the medieval debate on universals, and I’m certain she has read Classic authors like Plato and all the big names like Diderot—also pretty graphic at times. A lot of the concepts I’ll be talking about were taken directly from her henshin, as extracted here.

So, to begin with, Nemu has likely conducted a study of William of Ockham’s Summa Logicae, identifying it as a seminal work that challenged the metaphysical assumptions of his predecessors. This means she has a good handle on Ockham’s Razor—the maxim that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity. She understands Ockham’s nominalism as the position that only concrete individuals exist; universal concepts like “humanity” or “whiteness” are merely names (nomina) or internal representations produced by the understanding itself. Crucial to her identity as a writer is probably Ockham’s theory of mental language. Ockham viewed thought as a language with its own vocabulary, syntax, and rules, where concepts are naturally linked to the things they represent through a relationship of similarity or likeness. This provides Nemu with a pretty sophisticated understanding of semiotics: spoken or written words are conventionally subordinated to these mental concepts, which signify individual substances in the world.

From her research into Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things, she’d grasp the concept of the episteme—the historical a priori that organizes knowledge and defines what is considered “truth” in a given era. She understands Foucault’s archaeology as a history of the cultural unconscious, showing how European society has organized resemblances and differences into rational schemas, and she recognizes the discontinuity of history, understanding that transitions between eras (such as the shift from the Classical to the Modern age) involve radical mutations in how humans appear to themselves as both subjects and objects of knowledge. This is synthesized with Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology, from which she derives the concept of deconstruction and the critique of logocentrism (the privileging of speech over writing).

As we know, Nemu has researeched some into history and law, and she seems to have bumped straight into the tension between abstract moral reason and empirical social facts. Both the German Historical School of Friedrich Carl von Savigny and the Scandinavian Legal Realism of Axel Hägerström and Alf Ross are mentioned in the henshin, so we can only assume she’s compared the two enough for it to weigh on her mind to some degree. She knows that Savigny’s jurisprudence emphasized the historical evolution of law as a manifestation of a people’s custom and spirit, rejecting the idea of a universal law dictated by abstract reason. In contrast, Scandinavian Realism is a movement dedicated to destroying the distorting influence of metaphysics. Hägerström’s rational naturalism asserts that reality consists only of causal regularities in time and space, devoid of inherent values. She recognizes his claim that traditional legal terms like “rights” and “duties” are “important nonsense”—magical tools used by homo superstitious to maintain social patterns through coercive behavior. From Alf Ross, she learns to view law through the lens of logical positivism, where legal science functions to predict judicial decisions by analyzing how legal rules influence human behavior as empirical facts. What specifically she thinks of each and how it affects her… uh, Magius era. I am gesturing very broadly at the Magius era. In fact a lot of what we’re gonna talk about here was at its most prevalent during the Magius era.

Moving on, Nemu would’ve likely studied Paul Sagar’s The Opinion of Mankind which would introduce her to an alternative theory of the modern state. She understands that for David Hume and Adam Smith, the state is not founded on a theory of sovereignty or a formal social contract, but on the opinion of mankind—the psychological basis of political organization. So, she recognizes Hume’s declaration that because force is always on the side of the governed, governors have nothing to support them but opinion. This provides her with a realistic political theory, contrasting the idealized moral imagining of normative philosophy with a sociologically grounded understanding of how power operates through contingencies and common traditions. She is familiar with the distinction between Hume’s commercial sociability and the natural unsociability of Hobbes, and thus is familiar with the theory that modern economies and states run on the engine of self-interest and mutual utility rather than a rational plan.

Given how Nemu seems to be a Mahayana Buddhist, it makes sense that she’d feel perfectly free to explore theology beyond Buddhism. Or maybe she decided on Buddhism after seeing the mess that Christianity was. Not sure we can pinpoint which one came first. But anyway, her exploration seems to focus on the mechanics of mystical experience and the dissolution of the personal ego. So for example, French philosopher Simone Weil. Weil’s concept of decreation—the intentional unmaking of the “I” to allow the Absolute (God) to pass through—and how Weil’s mysticism is a response to nihilism and absurdism (exemplified by Samuel Beckett), reframing the lack of inherent meaning as an opportunity to “naught” the illusion of the ego. Nemu can then identify the convergence of Weil’s thought with Eastern traditions, such as the Hindu concept of Ananda (bliss as the feeling of reality) and the state of the Jivan Mukta (one who is liberated while still in the body). She understands that for Weil, suffering and extreme affliction serve as a catalyst for deeper awareness of reality, contrasting this with the blankness of nothing found in nihilistic literature. On a related note, if we consider the “proof of God’s existence” bit in her henshin, we can assume Nemu has analyzed the classical proofs of God’s existence, such as St. Anselm’s ontological argument, St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Five Ways” and René Descartes’ Meditations. However, she’d filter these through the fideism of William of Ockham, who argued that theology is not a science and that the trinity is a logical contradiction inaccessible to human reason, as well as other thinkers and her own cultural environment (which is, not Christian). She understands Ockham’s position that the immortality of the soul and the infinity of God are known only through revelation, leading to a worldview where the most fundamental truths are contingent upon faith rather than proof.

Little bit of an aside. More Buddhism! I had to separate this bit from the Western/Christian ramblings. As a Buddhist, Nemu’s worldview would be defined by the tension between absolute non-violence and the skillful means (as in, upaya-kaushalya, the Buddhist term) required to save sentient beings from suffering. In the Buddha’s teachings, personal welfare and social welfare are not separate, but are two intrinsically interrelated aspects of the struggle for freedom from suffering: “In protecting oneself, one protects others; in protecting others, one protects oneself.” You may perhaps see where this is going and how Magius Nemu justifies the whole, mass murder thing in her head.

See, Nemu would be quite familiar with the narratives about things such as, killing someone who is about to commit a worse deed that would doom them to far greater suffering and taking on the suffering to save them from it. The key concept here is “I can take on all the suffering to save them”—which you may be familiar with! Remember when Nemu tried to kill herself at the end of Arc 1 (I need to specify because it happens really often) and specifically has a death speech naming Avici, the worst of the Buddhist hells, and saying she will be there for eons? Yeah. Compassionate violence, a transgressive act where you assume the karmic debt (and subsequent hellish rebirth) to prevent greater suffering. That means she’s able to view the potential sacrifice of the entirety of Kamihama through this lens of liberatory violence, where the intent is based on compassion rather than hatred. She can also connect all this to the 8th century Indian philosopher Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. This is a problem. The reason this is a problem is uh, well. Two famous statements made in that book are:

“Delight is the only appropriate response to suffering which takes away the suffering of the universe.”

“If the suffering of one ends the suffering of many, then one who has compassion for others and himself must cause that suffering to arise.”

It is irrational to prioritize one’s own safety over the reduction of suffering across the total system. Break the Magical Girl cycle. Suffer to save them. This is why she keeps going even after they discover that using her personal magic shaves away her own life force. I feel like she might even view the Magical Girl cycle as somewhat similar to the cycle of samsara that all Buddhists are taught they must strive to break out of. Historical research into state protection Buddhism (huguo fojiao) includes the Renwang Jing (Humane King Sutra), which justifies the protection of the state as the host of the dharma. She reconciles this with the Kyoto School’s Hajime Tanabe and his Logic of Species, where the individual is mediated by the nation. For a righteous leader, warfare or mass sacrifice may be a last resort to protect sentient beings, provided it conforms to the Ten Good Deeds in motivation. So… cough. Magius era. Anyway!

I know I said Nemu isn’t a STEM girl. And she isn’t, but unlike Touka, she isn’t allergic to the “opposite” fields of study. So, she distinguishes between the classical and quantum worldviews through their respective thought experiments. She understands Laplace’s Demon as a symbol of mechanistic determinism, an intellect that, knowing the position and velocity of every particle in the universe, could predict the future and the past to all eternity. She contrasts this with Maxwell’s Demon, a finite being who appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics by sorting molecules to reduce entropy without performing work. In a narrative sense, she views this as a metaphor for the authorial agent who attempts to create order and “heat” within a story. Finally, Schrödinger’s Cat to explore the absurdity of the Copenhagen interpretation, where a system remains in a superposition (both alive and dead) until a conscious observer causes the wave function to collapse. So there’s that bit, and she’s likely familiar with Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the concept of a paradigm shift (this is not only one of the terms in her henshin, but also clearly what MagiReco event Paradise Shift is referencing). Knowledge does not progress as a smooth accumulation of facts but through radical ruptures that change the very rules of the game. This informs her understanding of the Buddhist cycles of samsara and Nietzschean eternal recurrence, viewing historical and literary themes as repetitive movements within a changing episteme.

Ahem. If we GENEROUSLY interpret the presence of the word “libido” in her henshin to refer to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic drive theory (which… hm…), then that would mean that is the concept that’s stuck with her from reading his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. If we completely ignore everything else about the word and its implications, that means she recognizes how these drives motivate human behavior and serve as the engine of dramatic conflict. In her fiction, she likely applies this to explore the repressed desires that characterize the queer spectrality she identified in Ranpo’s work. And this totally has nothing to do with herself. This entire conversation Nemu had with Miyu in that one event is unrelated to this /sarcasm.

And now. Pessimism. Nemu would be intimately familiar with the metaphysical feud between Arthur Schopenhauer and G.W.F. Hegel. Schopenhauer’s misanthropic philosophy is a form of dry and rational pessimism, centered on the view that the world is an expression of an unchangeable, blind Will (haha insert Will of the Universe joke). Nemu recognizes that for Schopenhauer, history is not a process of progress but an immutable essence of deterioration, and the only escape is through the contemplation of art. She contrasts this with Hegel’s concept of Aufheben (sublation) and the triadic dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Hegel’s optimism is the belief that human history is a predictable pattern of growth toward an ultimate stage of development. This tension between the “becoming better” of Hegel and the “unchangeable essence” of Schopenhauer has probably allowed Nemu to construct narratives that explore the conflict between progress and fate—and it probably bleeds a little into her relationship with Touka.

With all of this research and more (because this is not really that in-depth, I don’t want to drop 300 pages of men yelling at each other about morals and philosophy on you)… we can definitely see how Nemu might have a rich enough technical understanding of literary construction that her writing would be pretty solid. For example, she would’ve mastered the structural rules of the well-made play (this term is in her henshin too) as defined by Eugene Scribe, the importance of tight plotting, a calculated orchestration of theatrical effects, and a dénouement that resolves all conflicts through a series of twists. Then contrast this with the more fecund imagination required for great drama, and well, yeah, the well-made play is a bit like a bag of tricks that often relies on the long arm of coincidence. Scribe’s structural perfection clashes with Émile Zola’s novel The Masterpiece (also a term in her henshin), which she understands as an exploration of the struggle and ultimate failure of artistic creation. Alina would have a crisis about this probably. But Nemu recognizes that Zola’s naturalist approach, while attempting a classic directness and simplicity, often guides the artist toward passionless proportion, which may conflict with the creative passion required to produce a true masterpiece.

As per, again, terms we can extract from her henshin, her knowledge of narrative tools also includes the McGuffin—a device that motivates the characters but is ultimately irrelevant to the audience (this is Ui in MagiReco I am so sorry)—and deus ex machina. Note that she understands the latter not just as a lazy plot device but as an Ancient Greek tragedy invocation where a literal god resolves the conflict, this was A Thing. Which, by the way, Touka and Nemu themselves function as a deus ex machina themselves within the story of Magia Record, and it’s especially apparent after Arc 1, where their role is essentially either “the infodump button that explains things for us/the characters” or plot fixers that always have a solution when the plot needs it (which fits them in-universe, but comes at a cost). Anyway, the knowledge of these concepts allows Nemu to use these devices subversively, which probably makes for banger stories, hence the popularity she gained.

Finally, Nemu’s research into linguistics, specifically Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar and syntax. Human thought functions as an organized body of knowledge that makes conventional languages possible in the first place. By studying the written, spoken, and mental levels of language, she recognizes that concepts in the mind are the foundation of all meaning. This understanding of the rules that govern how infinite meanings can be generated from a finite set of terms lets her craft sentences that are both structurally sound and semantically rich, which again, important for narrative flow.

This wouldn’t be a Nahi essay if I didn’t proceed to talk about how both girls’ knowledge intersects and interacts with their bond. The best way I can refer to the process they underwent is a merging of the minds, I think. From the beginning, both were child prodigies trapped in failing bodies, and their relationship began not just because they happened to be fighting over Ui, but also as a survival mechanism in a world where adults were either pitying or stupid (sorry Touka normal people are not on your level), they found the only other person who spoke their language. They bonded via mutual exchange, if you think about it, because from the moment when they realized working together was a possibility (Christmas MGS), even though they argued still, it was crucial for their growth and their bond; the age old clash of sciences and humanities. It’s the first time Touka is forced to confront ideas she’s never thought about, on equal terms, and the first time Nemu has someone who can and cares enough to counter her. The fact that this was a bonding method becomes increasingly obvious as the story goes along and they start picking up bits and pieces of the other—like Touka recognizing authors Nemu has read or Nemu understanding black holes enough that her mind jumps to that for an metaphor/explanation instead of her original knowledge bank. I’ve gone over this. I also keep going back to when Touka met another great STEM genius in Agent Magica and was disappointed. Why would she be disappointed by someone she should’ve been thrilled with?

During the Magius era is when these two became a closed loop. Despite being surrounded by people, no one was smart enough to properly challenge them (except Alina Gray, who is a creature of whimsy, far be it from her to step on her friends’ toes). And they had no one else. They validated each other and any increasingly dangerous ideas, but the thing is, they have always, always wanted the exact same two things. To be loved, and to help. They uh, went about it in the most unhinged ways imaginable, but. After they got their morality pet back, they share an even tighter bond because they’ve gone through so much together that no one else can possibly understand (if Ui had a slight idea before, she sure doesn’t now), and now they share a responsibility to fix what they broke. And to finish what they started. They know they can do it, if they pool their knowledge together, because by this point they’ve realized that they are complements and that Ui was correct (Ui has been saying this for years, girls). I’d say even the way Touka goes about trying to spread the word about Magical Girls in Arc 2 is greatly inspired by what she’s observed and learned from Nemu.

They also act as translators for each other, because to give you an example, outsiders have a pretty tough time understanding Touka, and we see Nemu interject multiple times or follow up after Touka to simplify or “translate” her words or what she means to say. Nemu knows her well enough to do that, and Touka allows it because she trusts Nemu and has grown to understand that it’s important for other people, yes, even the “stupid” ones, to understand what you’re saying and your intentions. You might think, oh, but Nemu doesn’t have this problem, and I’d say you’re correct—in the sense that Nemu knows how to talk to people. But that’s not what Touka is there to translate. Touka is there to lead in conversation with others because she’ll say the things Nemu might not (for social conditioning and guilt reasons), she’s there to stand up for Nemu’s anger that she so often bites back, to prevent Nemu from going on spirals in her head or bottling up thoughts and emotions, to provide a human outlet. Writing is an excellent venting activity, but ultimately not a person who can speak to you, so it’s best employed alongside a person who knows and loves you and is there to support you. Again, they speak the same language, they’ve finally found someone that gets it and have put in the work, and they’re not letting go.

I’ve been told more than a few times that Touka and Nemu give off the impression of something you cannot step into. Not necessarily because they’d be hostile, but because it would feel wrong, like you’d be out of place. The state of one is inextricably linked to the state of the other, regardless of distance (which is called quantum entanglement by the way). Sure, technically, you could separate them, remove one from the other. However, would that be a good thing? They seldom choose to be apart, and that’s for a reason. As early on as Sakurako’s first time leaving her barrier, they’re already going everywhere together and spending most of their time together—“we’re busy”, “we thought”… they use “we” more often than they use “I”. They don’t have to do this. They just choose to, because they’re smart enough to know that they are at their best with the other by their side. I’ve said this before, but again, Touka trusts Nemu to the point that Nemu is the one with her passwords (From New Breath/A New Beginning). Nemu trusts Touka to the point that she’s fine handing over her most precious creations and letting Touka hook those up to a fucking computer. We still do not know how they even go about doing that, but I’m sure considering Nemu’s experiences with her own magic, it’s not something to take lightly, and it probably gives Touka the ability to hurt Nemu deeply. Nemu knows she won’t.

Also, one thing I don’t actually think I’ve touched on in these essays before is that when your mind is so far ahead at such a young age and you’re in an environment as stifling as theirs was, you can often feel like you’re “too much”—not only do you not belong, but you know it’ll be worse the more you share about yourself. And people do very badly when they can’t share themselves with others. At least in space, they have each other, and that’s why they can handle it. To Iroha and Ui, the ascension is a tragedy, an ending far from ideal (which is one of many reasons I refuse to acknowledge the “ending” we got and simply consider Paradise Shift to be canon). To Touka and Nemu, it’s almost entirely perks: infinite time, infinite data, and their only intellectual equal right next to them. Plus, they’re doing something they know no one else can do, important work that they believe is significant enough—when coupled with the global APS—to finally redeem them. They finally solved one of the hardest problems they ever personally faced, too: how to exist in a social setting that feels like it wasn’t built for you. They don’t fit in with others, but they fit together. That’s where they build something new, exciting, comfortable.

Actually, on the note of the ascension. There’s a Mahayana concept called non-abiding nirvana, which differs from abiding nirvana. Abiding nirvana is the escape from samsara, breaking the cycle of rebirth, so you’ve achieved enlightenment and will never be born again. Non-abiding nirvana, however, is the idea that one can be a bodhisattva, attain enlightenment, enter nirvana, and still be reborn to save living beings. Although one dwells in samsara, one is liberated and experiences the bliss of nirvana. Specifically, this is done out of compassion for others, to help others, to lessen suffering in the world. Sound familiar? These two made and successfully pulled off an entire plan to sacrifice their human lives to become a permanent mechanism of mercy. The Automatic Purification System is mercy, I don’t think anyone would argue with me on that. In fact, I think I wouldn’t have to make this point for Iroha, for example, and that because of her much more outwardly kind and compassionate personality, most people will assume these things about her but won’t apply the same to Touka and Nemu, even though the plan was theirs.

Then there’s the fun little concept of ekībhāva. In certain Buddhist texts, there is the idea of “beings of one mind” and the word in general means things like unity, becoming one, oneness, that kind of thing. Post-ascension, Touka and Nemu have essentially achieved this. They sit on the same throne. Uh, metaphorically. I’m sure if they have thrones as Uwasa Queens they each got their own lol. But yes, Touka might roll her eyes if Nemu starts using Buddhist terminology and philosophical arguments, but she won’t disagree with the results. The APS will reach maximum efficiency (in Touka terms), and the APS will reach infinite compassion (in Nemu terms). The intensity of their bond is really difficult to describe with words, you’ll have to forgive me.

I’ve decided to dedicate one last paragraph to hammering home something I hope this essay has made blatantly obvious. You cannot apply Western standards and expectations to Japanese characters. You simply cannot. As you may have noticed in my brief explanation of Eastern literature. Also, these two deserve so much more love and respect than they get.

And my head hurts, I feel like I’ve aged 600 years over the course of visiting hundreds of sites and reading sutras and watching dozens of interviews with experts in all these fields, half of which sound like gibberish to me. No wonder Mifuyu knows they’d crush her at any game. But hopefully this proves my point.

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