So I made this manga recently based off of Assault Lily's new main story chapter New Color Days. It was roughly written for my own entertainment, and while storyboarding it, I was unconsciously putting more emphasis on Moka's interaction with Fujino.
As with most of what I do, I go with feel more so than intent, so none of the characters' actions are my deliberate narrative choice but simply imagined them how they would act given the circumstances...
and then I try to ponder about it much later instead. So in this post, I will try to make sense of the dynamic between the 3 osananajimis with the emphasis on Moka.
Obviously this is all just what I conjured up in my head and the official is 97% likely different from my imagination. But if your curious about this little delulu, please go ahead...
Moka is a boosted lily but we dont know if she underwent enhancement voluntarily like Akehi.
The theory in my head is that she didn't voluntarily receive enhancement. In fact, New Color Days could even suggest that she only received enhancement because of the CHARM experiement later on that was depicted in the chapter. She gives the impression that she also had high enough lily aptitude as a child. At least high enough to have felt traces of Shizuka's magie before she officially signed up to a garden.
To some extent, even madecs do have lily aptitude so it goes to say that Akehi also would have, too, but not as high as Moka's at that point.
In the last chapter, Moka felt that it's "nostalgic" when Fujino hugged her and Akehi. Moka only recently came in contact with Fujino's magie again, namely when she almost killed Fujino, but thanks to that, she tapped into that long lost sensation of Shizuka's magie. Of course she doesn't remember all of the interaction but I do think that between Akehi and Moka, Moka is most likely to be the first to figure out the truth due to those dots connecting. However, Moka is a little bit on the 天然 side so I can imagine her not realizing what she already knows, too.
There's a situation in my head when i drew this illustration, that Moka would have dreamt of Shizuka protecting her while she was being consumed by the CHARM negative magie, and that dream slowly warped into Fujino's voice at the end of the light.
I tried to put this scene in the manga as an extra but I ran out of pages 😭
I like being able to use characters' psyche on these so I also back this up with a behavioral theory.
Akehi is too engrossed in the idea that Shizuka is still alive out there so the idea that Shizuka and Fujino are the same person is still a bit too far fetched for her...for now. The hug scene at the end where Moka noticed it being nostalgic and Akehi did not utter anything but is obviously concerned, to me, was more of about her bff turning out to be a boosted lily, than it being nosgalgic for her too.
She has more to figure out before she could arrive the eventual truth. Moka benefits from knowing about Fujino less so it is much easier for her to connect dots that's otherwise obscured for Akehi due to how close they are ~
In the manga, I tried to nuance it in a way that hints Moka already knows and Fujino feels that it's a prospect more difficult to deal with than if Akehi begins to suspect her (because Moka can tend to have a loud mouth mostly).
The last page of the manga is of Moka visiting a nameless grave and telling its rightful nameless owner that they can now part, as she is now able to let them go... In chuunibyo speak, that is.
In my head, Moka loves Shizuka no less than Akehi, and it would have been ill-written for such a character to write off Shizuka as dead without any twists to why she thinks so.
I think that in reality, Moka was only able to accept Shizuka's death because of the nameless grave that stood near their fallen childhood playground. To me, it makes sense for her to firmly hold onto that false acceptance especially after being rescued from a GEHENA Lab and having NOTHING to start over. I really wish to know more about her time in the Ilmin Lab because thinking that she didn't have ANYONE pains me just a little more than I would admit. It even more makes sense that she put more intensive research than Akehi given that she was the one who found Akehi in Kanba and was the reason she transferred and not the other way around.
To me, the biggest "hmm what if" regarding Moka right now is whether Shizuka found out before these events that Moka was being held by GEHENA, and this is why she voluntarily takes on duties of being sent away for special expeditions to find her. Fujino is a walking death flag that doesn't ever die but always makes you feel like she would eventually receive a final blow accidentally from the ppl she is protecting, and the argument against it falls into the oblivion because she do be a character in despair hiding behind the comedy.
The addition of Moka and the revelations surrounding Fujino stirred a long lost favorite trio dynamic that I've had since NanoFateHayate and this is the reason why I have so much brainrot going on so I apologize to the folks waiting for me to talk in this depth about ShenYu... Despite the amount of content that ShenYu has, substance on their involvement with recent events has been on the lowest point these days. Given how extensive Yurigaoka is, I would be a rare case to still be demanding they have space where their relationship before the anime can be explored but I will continue doing so anyways. Until then, I will keep brainrotting AkeFuji maybe w.
That being said I am still really being fed greatly by Assault Lily and I'm more nitpicking on this part but not entirely complaining about what is otherwise delivered.
I am working on a big project with Assault Lily x Ave Mujica right now (TBR April). A ShenYu standalone also is already in the final storyboard form (TBR Shen bday).
I will try to pace things well to avoid burnout but I hope to deliver on the planned dates.
This has been long but consider this post the last for the next couple of generations-
Here are some scaps and a doodle from when I was working on the linked manga:
