Despite the chapter feeling kinda short, the fight between Asa and Ivan was absolutely worth it!! And it left us on such a cliffhanger too=3= Asa trapping herself with Ivan inside of her Tsugai was such a bold move,, the scene they left us with is very tense !!
Finally getting to see Asa in action properly again, my girl has so much aura lol and Gabby to the rescu, she's an awesome bodyguard gotta give her that lol (also noticed how she's the only being happy of Gabby presence ahah)
Tadera deserve much more recognition,, this king has never miss and the way he just can clock people's shit!! He might not be my fav but I love his character
Also I totally forgot to screenshot the panel of Hikaru post fight, but gis strategy felt very smart and desperate at the same, it made me think about what the limit of his Tsugai power was. Because ofc he's strong we know that but he can't possibly just draw anything to existence, there has to be a limit to that.
He's the second character of the manga to lose their right arm,, ppl in this universe just losing their right arm at any fight lol
Okay, I lied. Upon rereading just her parts, I realize Mineyama Anna is the most interesting character on the Nishino side.
on the first glance, Mineyama Anna seems like just a normal 18 year-old-girl with normal friends, normal(?) infatuation with some (murderous) older guy and normal highschool worries like hiding a (shady but well-paying) part-time job from the authorities, classes and cram school stuff and trying to get into the college of her dreams.
She tells Hana she knows nor cares anything other than what her direct supervisor tells her to do and is working the job because it pays her well + she gets to be with the guy she likes. But? I don't think that's the case at all? Hana is right, she is being forced/blackmailed into sticking around with the Nishino gang.
see the little pause + hiding her eyes behind her glasses + black background as she asserts she is in this business of her own volition. Obviously, she is lying because her bug has been parasitized and listened to by Nagitsuji.
Again, lies she doesn't know anything about her clients. Mineyama seems to have this quirk of stretching her syllables when she is putting up an act. Plus, no way in hell is it some silly-billy parttime job she can work for and quit at any time. She is stuck with the Nishino folks until they have achieved their objectives, whether she likes it or not.
Because her daemons are so damn useful to them!
In fact, if this theory is right, and their whole plan hinges on extracting the power of Seal and Break without any need for Asa or Yuru to be taken alive, then Mineyama is the linchpin of their masterplan!
Spoiler stuff under cut (+ tw gore and body horror)
So, Mineyama's dung-beetle tsugai is Soul Roller--the male Taro rolls the corpses into a ball, and the female Hime lays eggs in the meatball. When the eggs hatch, the hatchlings eat the meatball and emerge once they are fully developed as
Ugh. Real fun.
Do you know what's even more fun?
Ivan has way more reasons to fear her than the other way round. If, by any chance, he dies, her tsugai will simply, routinely roll up his corpse, lay eggs in it and bam! emerges a daemon!Ivan who will be forced into a contract where the contractor has no fear of backstabbing or betrayal from the human!Ivan (like in Shingo's case). If a crisis arises, the Nishino gang will be more interested in keeping around Mineyama, not Ivan. If Ivan dies, he dies--as always, the fucked-up gang will look forward to the daemon hatched out of his meatball lmao
Well, it is refreshing that in a male-female partnership like theirs, it is female cleaner who has the upper hand, and not the male assassin.
Is it why Anna was freely giving out his abilities to Hana? In hopes the Higashi side/Kagemori and co. could better formulate a plan to kill him if they knew his abilities? She does have her creepy-yandere-grin-since-I-am-putting-up-an-act face on here, but I am not so sure about this......... dead and daemonified!Ivan won't be any less dangerous than human!Ivan. but okay, that was something that stood out to me in chapter 35.
Most importantly, how in the world did she end up with a tsugai this morbidly useful? A recurring pattern is parents passing on their job, tsugai, cursed burden to their kid: Hana, Dera, Asuma and more. Were these two daemons passed down to her by her parents? Did her parents belong to the Nishino cult of whatevers and whatnots, but she wants nothing to do with them, just wants to live a simple life with her friends like Yuru and Asa?
Or, is she another of Minase's kids....?
I don't have enough proof for this, other than 1) their hair color being similar. + 2) 400 years is enough time for the woman to have a bunch of kids/tools to do her bidding. + 3) making her own daughter form a contract with a tsugai that turns corpse balls into daemons seems like a very Minasesque fun activity for her kid. just like sealing another child's emotions and abandoning him as a baby at an orphanage.
one detriment to this theory is this panel.
Unless Misasagi himself doesn't know Anna is Minase's daughter, and unless it is a rule to ask an assassin to borrow their cleaner or smth, it doesn't make sense why he would ask permission from Ivan to send Anna out on missions. And if Anna is really Minase's daughter, she would be as much of a VIP as Akio is to them.
so yeah, on the whole, what is Anna's stance on all of this? Since she was being listened in to, she could obviously not give away a lot of information to Hana, but she did what she could, risking her life. Implying, she is not loyal to Nishino + does she want to get away and hopes the Higashi/Kagemori side could help her out? She doesn't seem that poor seeing she is going to a good high school and cramschool. Does she hope of escaping the Nishino cult if she gets in to a dream college?
Also, the concept of stray tsugais. If her tsugai aren't that hostile to a new master like Magatsuhi, Mineyama could be heavily blackmailed by the Nishino gang as in, "we can simply kill you and contract the dung-beetle tsugai for ourselves. If you want to keep your head, better do exactly as we say."
Finally, chapter 46:
Oh dear. I hope Dera didn't unwittingly sell out Mineyama??? probably just my paranoia, since Dera has captured Nagitsuji, later would have the parasite tsugai contract broken by Asa, grill the guy for information, and then kill him(maybe?).....
.....but what if Nagitsuji starts suspecting Anna and manages to pass on a message to Misasagi in the meantime? that Anna is or might be a traitor? His daemons seem capable of passing messages around without a delay idk.
In fact, if Anna is not Minase's daughter, I don't see why Misasagi won't kill her rightaway and get someone else to contract the corpse beetles. She doesn't seem a combatant type, and even if she was, what can you possibly do against Heaven-Earth tsugai?? If anything, maybe, maybe Ivan looks out for her? idk, he doesn't seem too concerned about her, but whatever. right now he is trapped inside Yin-Yang anyway, so no help there either.
Ugh. I just hope Anna escapes safely out of all this mess.
All in all, what I am saying is that I would only be relieved when Hana finally just kidnaps adopts Anna as their "fourth secret love child". Dera brought in three, now it is Hana's chance. Go for it, Hana!💪
