There are like 4000 things to talk about in this page and I don’t even know where to start.
So let’s just go step by step.
We start with Fai drunkenly explaining to Kurogane that the reasons the Outo alcohol (Outocohol?) was as effective as it was is due to the fact that it was following the rules built in to the game. Now, I’m ignoring the fact that this is the first on screen time anyone has actually explained to Kurogane that Outo wasn’t real - because that’s a whole different thing that I will rant about until the end of my days. I think by this point in the story we just have to work off the unspoken assumption that there were a bunch of off-screen conversations that filled in all these gaps in his knowledge and that he’s completely up to speed with everything that Fai knows about Outo and Edonis. Anything less than that is just going to annoy me.
The fact that Fai compares it to magic gives a lot of perspective on a number of things. Firstly on Outo, because whose to say the game system wasn’t partially built with magic alongside technology? It would certainly explain some of the loose ends about how things were transferred between worlds, ie their fighting/ninja skills (as well as Mokona’s and, presumably, Fai’s magic) being recreated perfectly to the point that none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. If the effect of Outo’s alcohol was similar to, if not exactly, magic, then that would explain a lot of what went down, and how someone like Fai was affected more than he ever would have been otherwise.
But also we get the impression (again) that Fai’s first frame of reference for explaining things is to compare it to magic - because that’s what he knows the most about. He puts a lot of half-assed effort into denying the fact that he can use magic at all, when it suits him, but he’s a little less guarded here. Not COMPLETELY unguarded, because I’m not sure if that’s even possible, but he’s drunk-ish and they’ve been having a vaguely and undetailed good time for an entire night so a comparison to magic slipping through probably isn’t going to seem like much of a bad idea right now.
Only he knows STRAIGHT AWAY that Kurogane didn’t quite understand. STRAIGHT AWAY. There was no pause or expression of surprise from Fai, almost as if he’d planned to say the follow-up phrase right from the off. Which he might have. In fact I’d say it’s almost more likely than him accidentally slipping in a magic reference without realising, because this is Fai, and while Fai is slightly less guarded here, he’s always conscious of what he’s saying. He’s a master of saying things he doesn’t mean and just plain not saying anything when he knows something about what’s going on (and I’m convinced he knows a lot more than they’ve even hinted at). But what he IS being unguarded with here is his emotions - if in a tangental way. He wants that connection with Kurogane. No matter which way you interpret it, Outo made it clear that Fai really wants this closeness to another person - and with Kurogane in particular - and struggles with the idea where he doesn’t think he deserves it, and can’t quite believe that it could ever be mutual. So here we have Fai, slightly drunk, more unguarded than usual, deliberately dropping magic similes into the conversation and immediately dismissing thing because on some level he wants Kurogane to understand them. Almost desperately, he wants Kurogane to figure him out, but he could never ever say this or actually make it happen because of the mountain of personal issues that he won’t tell anyone about. Little does he know that Kurogane IS figuring him out more than he’s even aware of, he just keeps it quiet and stockpiles it for later use.
And lastly, the wording itself was probably either a hint or an outright clue as to how Fai’s magic even works in the first place. A “magic sign sitting inside your body and doing it’s work” sounds very much like a few things we’ve seen already, namely Fai’s tattoos, but potentially also something else. Who knows. DEFINITELY NOT ME.
The bottom right panel re-emphasises what I mentioned above, but in a slightly different manner. When Kurogane confirms that he thinks of Fai as a “shady character” Fai immediately looks away, saying “I knew it” and, even though he keeps his happy face on, it’s a clear echo of what happened between them at the Clover bar. Fai interprets Kurogane’s words as confirmation that either dislikes or disapproves of who he is, because that’s what he’s come to expect, when in reality the opposite is true. They’ve just spent all night drinking together. Kurogane would not be there if what Fai assumed was correct, and what Kurogane says next kinda hits the nail on the head. “It doesn’t matter what I think.” It’s ironic, because to Fai it VERY VERY much does matter what he thinks, but Kurogane means it dismissively, because a) he wasn’t entirely serious, and b) he doesn’t share his opinions that often anyway. He doesn’t see them as that important, and definitely doesn’t think they should affect how Fai sees himself, and yet little does he know that they really really do.
And then we move onto Kurogane bringing up the Ashura thing, but this post is long enough already. Though I WILL say that this last line speaks volumes about what he means already. He’s resigned to the fact that Fai isn’t actually going to explain his (ANNOYINGLY OFF SCREEN) reaction to hearing Ashura’s name, but he’s bringing it up anyway because it’s not what he wants. Not exactly. He cares enough to pry into Fai’s secrets and prod him to actually share them, and if Fai wasn’t as blind as he is he’d see that half of what Kurogane says is already confirmation of everything Fai spends so long hoping for.
