I could write an entire essay but I’ll keep it short just like w the other characters. I’m so proud of his growth as a character it’s been so much fun to follow along w and i just really really love his personality in general. I wish he could have kept his gloves for longer because i really liked him working around the limits of his powers through them and would have lowkey loved to see seba give him matching shoes to go w lmao. But either way his current fighting style has been fun to follow too and i’m looking forward to him being on par w sakamoto!!
I wonder (spoiler chapter 213) what would've happened if that plane never flew into the radio tower.
What would've happened if shin was able to use his esp to reach all of japan and tell them to shoot all of their bullets at the ground. (And natsuki didnt disable the guns)
I mean, Shin got this nosebleed after the first time, and its estimated that he reached only the district. Heisuke then had the idea with the sky tower, and maybe they could reach all of japan with the radiowaves. But lets think about it, all of japan?
Asakura already warned that there is no telling what this scale could do to his brain, Shin insisted on doing it anyway, Asakura again tried to explain or get Shin to listen, but again, Shin was confident with this. It's obvious that asakura didnt fully agree as we see his expression in the next panel.
But in the end, they headed to the tower anyway.
---
So now, lets imagine slur never interrupted that mission. They reached the top of the tower, shin with his headphones, taking a few breaths to get ready.
Asakura again asks: "Are you really sure you want to do this?"
"Yes, i'm ready, mister" His left hand on the railing, his right held the megaphone. His hair moved with the breeze that flew past them.
Asakura pressed his lips together and hesitantly turned up the output.
Shin took one last deep breath. Then, with all of his energy, he put his focus towards all of Japan. Every district, every household, every person. With all he got, he screamed, "shoot all your bullets to the ground!"
A second passed.
Immediately, blood shot explosively from his nose. A sharp pain errupted in his head. His breath hitched as dizzyness took over shin.
He tipped back, but caught himself with his other foot.
Shoot.
The pain was immeasurable.
Slowly, shin lost his grip on the railing. Everything seemed in slow motion. There was a loud ringing in his ear, getting louder by the second.
Did it work?
His eyes were blurry. He watched the city, as it slowly tilted and faded to black.
---
Heisuke watched in anticipation as Shin held the megaphone to his mouth and said his words.
Everything happened fast.
Heisuke barely saw how blood shot from Shin's nose, shin falling slightly back but catching himself with his other foot.
Then at the same time, gunshots echoed through all of japan.
Three times.
After that, it was quiet.
Heisuke couldn't believe it for a second.
"It worked!" He exclaimed with a smile. Then he looked over to the blond, who didn't seem to be moving. "Shin, are you okay?"
But shin didn't answer. Heisuke looked closer. Blood still dripped from Shin's nose, staining his jacket. His eyes seemed far away, unfocused.
Heisuke tilted his head, trying to figure out what was up.
Slowly, Shin's grip an the railing got weaker, until he completely let go and fell backwards.
"Shin!"
The body fell to the ground with a dull thud. Heisuke barely made it to protect his head from the hard floor.
Asakura immediately rushed over to him. Shin's body tremored.
Asakura swallowed. "Please be okay."
Heisuke watched his friend in horror. "What is happening?"
"Like I said, reaching this many people, it's a huge burden on his brain." He explained as they waited for shin's tremor to stop. His heart beat fast. He didn't like seeing Shin like that. "It was basically an overload. His brain now shut down to protect itself. At least thats what I think."
Though unconcious, the expression of the blond seemed pained. The slight crease between his eyebrow, the sweat dripping down from his face.
"How long will he stay like this?"
Asakura didn't know. He cursed himself - he knew he shouldnt have shin do that, yet he didn't only allow it, he was the one who helped him do it.
Asakura pressed his lips together. "Depends on the damage."
The best case scenario would be that shin woke up in the next few minutes. But asakura had the feeling it wouldn't be so easy.
Heisuke furrowed his eyes. Worry made its way deep into his heart as he remembered Shin's expression shortly before he fell.
Minutes passed, the shaking lessened, but there was no sign of shin waking up.
Asakura gently brushed shin's hair. Please be okay.
Eventually, they packed their stuff, heisuke picked up shin and carried him down the tower.
---
"What did the kid do this time?" Miya sighed as she examined Shin. "This looks really bad."
Asakura and Heisuke stayed quiet. Boiled went somewhere else in the meantime.
Miya sighed - again. "I told him to watch his limits."
Again, guilt shot its way through Asakura.
"What will happen to him?" Heisuke asked, unsure.
"Only time will tell. This was the most I could do."
The door flew open. Taro stood in the doorway, out of breath. His eyes flew from miya, to heisuke, asakura, and lastly onto Shin, laying on the table. "What happened?"
Taro and Asakuras eyes met again. This time, asakura diverted his gaze.
"Taro!" Heiuske said. "Shin, he ..."
Asakura swallowed.
"He commanded all of japan to shoot their bullets at the ground. Then he passed out."
Taro furrowed his brows as he saw the blond, lying on the table.
They havent cleaned off the blood from his face. It looked messy. His jacket was stained with blood. Taro guessed from the way it looked that the blood came from a nosebleed.
His heart squeezed as he saw his expressionless face. The limp body.
"How bad is it?"
Asakura didn't think he would ever see a face with so much concern on a person who was once called a legendary assassin.
"Pretty bad, but time will tell. For now, all he can do is rest." Miya repeated for taro. "And god, forbid him to use his esp when he wakes up."
Taro nodded. Shin laid motionless. Taro wanted to clean his face and give him new clothes.
Deep worry settled within him. He didn't like seeing shin like this.
He wasn't sure whether he understand what asakura meant. Commanding all of japan? He didn't quite get Shin's new ability yet, but that seemed just ... too much.
How was it even possible?
His hands gripped the edge of the table tightly. So now, it meant waiting.
Just imagine you're freshly traumatized by thinking your family died and home exploded and now this group of people point their gun at you, but then suddenly, all of them move towards your former protege (now also part of your family) at the same time as he runs past you and shoot at him at once.
I wanna put more focus on shin knowing more due to his telepathy, if he wants to or not.
Of course he can tune in and out of thoughts, or at least he learned to at some point, but sometimes, especially with strong emotions, they get theough to him no matter what he tries.
Memories, thoughts, emotions of other people, pulling him in.
And durung his years, he gained empathy for many people around him. Strangers or not. He is the deep sea of knowing whats going on, he understands people to a point others cannot.
And this is so interesting, but also sad.
Because shin never learned to deal with any of those emotions. He never learned to emphazise with himself.
So each story he hears in his head, the sadness, grief, anger, the memories, everything he witnesses as if it were his emotion, his own story to tell, slowly weighs more and more in his heart. And he may understand the people around him, but what they will never understand his how its wearing him down. How the more knowledge he gains of others, the less he has of his own self.
Shin forgets who he truly is and what makes him special. He neglects his own self, caring for everyone around him but himself. He hears everything around him, to the point that the thoughts around him are louder than his own. And if he were honest, if it were ever silent, he wouldnt know if he deal with his own mind.
He witnessed so many different stories, emphasized with too many of them, that he never really was able to look at his own story and make room to process his own, tragic story. Space for everything that happened to him.
Still thinking on this dialogue from natsuki bc did he overthink this too? When shin reached out to help him despite everything before. He probably thought he’d never see him again and yet after everything shin reached out first and ended up giving his promise to save mafuyu.
Shin is protective of the people close to him and Natsuki had kidnapped lu and hurt heisuke (+ put the lab in danger though idk how much of his past he knew for the mission). Besides natsuki seems to live isolated too, distrusting others due to his upbringing but also bc he got dragged down by others. It is easy for him to hate others so shin even going so far as to help him out before the lab went down when they were just fighting each other must have stayed in his mind a lot. Since its someone actively living against his world view back then.
im also thinking a lot abt this panel:
cause the fact that shin was (more or less) willing to test one after another also helped a lot in natsuki opening up to him in that short time. Like yea shin had a direct connection to mafuyu himself but natsuki couldnt know in how far they had actually bonded. Bringing up his more positive memories though? Now thats a sure fire way to keep him in his mind
tldr i love these panels and being delusional abt natsuki thinking abt shin more than he himself would like to. He chalks it up to trying to figure him out but there might be more to it if he dug deeper
stormborns
germansingergirl
