![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Here do I swear fealty and service to KHR 253.
Fact: I have not been so hopelessly in love with this manga since we first saw the Sistema C.A.I. Everything about this chapter is awesome.1. Dude. Okay, when a chapter opens with the main character's goddamn corpse, you know it's gonna be good.
2. FUCK YES, Byakuran used his crazy sci-fi knowledge of new technologies to help develop the box weapons. Ladies and gentlemen, this means I was officially ALMOST SORT OF right about ONE WHOLE THING. BEST TRACK RECORD EVER, yes, I know. Please try not to be jealous. sob.
3. Thank you, Reborn--at least I know I'm not the only one who had these sorts of questions on my mind after Irie's explanation last week. So Shou accidentally went back and further fucked things up (GOOD JOB THERE, SHOU) by activating Byakuran's ability even earlier in his life. That explains a lot (I'd been wondering how the hell he managed to rise to world-class dictator status in less than a year, parallel world weirdness or not).
4. OH MY GOD just when I think things can't get any more complicated. XD Everything about this page is so nuts I don't know where to start. So on top of time travel and parallel universes, we've also got to keep track of memory wipes now? WHAT KIND OF MANGA DID THIS TURN INTO ALL OF A SUDDEN.
5. Yay, we finally get an explanation for how TYL!Shou communicated with his younger self. |D I kind of expected something like this; it's nice to be able to say that about one detail, at least.
Incidentally, Irie bribing Little!Shou by waving the secret of his future crush over his younger self's head is perhaps the greatest thing to come from this arc yet, and that's including the wall. "There's a secret written on it, so I've got no choice but to do it..." AND WITH THESE WORDS, A LEGENDARY ARC IS BORN. Sometimes there are just no words for how much I love this series.
6. "What's ironic is that those were also the happiest moments in my life." Oh my God how can I be cracking up and tearing up at the same page. ;_;
I think I've been a broken record about this lately, but I once again I feel compelled to say just how much I love Irie lately. He is so fucking awesome. Finding out that your best friend is destined to become the greatest threat to humanity in history--and then on top of that finding out that you're the only one who can stop him--would be a crippling blow to most people. But he not only accepts that and deals with it, he resolves to put himself at tremendous risk by spying on this man. Now I've thought Irie was tremendously brave for doing this ever since we first found out he was a double agent (going on a year ago now, wow). But actually seeing the flashback and hearing it described in his own words... just... I don't know. Somehow it still has that much more impact on me, and more. What a strong character. I almost feel guilty for loving the main trio so much, because otherwise Shou would be making a really strong case to take over as my favorite. XD
7. Bawww Amano remembered Lambo exists. XD (Actually, Gokudera remembered Lambo exists, which is interesting if you happen to be as preoccupied with the whole "STORM AND LIGHTNING ARE LIKE BROTHERS!!1" thing as I am. XD) So they finally made the connection between 20YL!Lambo's angst and all of the angst we've seen in this particular future. Not that it wasn't already obvious, but it's still nice.
8. ...
Okay, if anyone saw that coming, congratulations. You're the next fucking Nostradamus. XD
Oh my God. Oh my God.
All I can say is, my face probably looks awfully Basilish right now.
9. Oh fuck you too, Byakuran. You know, up until now, he may have been a dick, but at least he was willing to play along and give the Vongola a "sporting" chance. In fact, he almost seemed to enjoy it. But now all of a sudden, despite the odds being overwhelmingly in his favor, he doesn't feel like indulging them with one last rematch? Maybe someone's finally starting to feel that there's still a slight possibility that he might lose after all. Ohoho.
That said, it's still no excuse for conveniently forgetting that prior agreement. You're the one who suggested this game, Byakuran--play by the damn rules.
10. HOLY SHIT UNI, you have the best timing ever. DID GAMMA CALL YOU?!? I can't remember the last time I was so happy to see a surprise character entrance. Mostly because the look on Byakuran's face in that last panel is so damn satisfying I feel like punching the air in victory. FINALLY SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T PREDICT, CRAZYBOSS.
Apparently there's no Shounen Jump next week, so we'll all have to band together to survive during this difficult time. That said, this chapter was so thoroughly amazing I almost don't care; I feel like I could float right through the next two weeks entirely on the high I got from reading this.
no subject
But oh my God did you see Gokudera's face on page 11 when he realized? "Tenth... is still alive." Bawww that expression just killed me. ;_; Better to go through the angst and have a happy ending then to believe that no matter what you do, even if you do win the fight, the future that you're currently in can never be a happy one again. (Though now I wonder if anyone other than Irie knew that Tsuna wasn't really dead--did TYL!Hibari know that much too? If he did he really is a jackass, lol. XD)
Heh, yeah, even as I was reading this chapter and thinking "OMG!!!" and "SHOU YOU ROCK" over and over again, I couldn't help but agree with Tsuna that it might have been nicer to have this all explained ahead of time. Sure, the pressure would have been phenomenal, but they've done well enough under pressure before. (And at any rate, they couldn't have really done much worse, considering that they still lost. XD)
I WAS SURPRISED TOO. I had this idea that there'd be multiple matches--probably because of the way the Varia arc played out, like you said. And also because it would make no sense if only three of the main characters actually got to fight after all of that training. (And no, you're not the only one hoping that the rest of the Varia show up; I for one am wondering if Squalo really came alone. >_> Though maybe the Italy battle at the arc's halfway point was Amano's way of including them in this arc.)
I was just surprised because it seemed to contrast with what we'd seen of him so far, I guess. Up until this point he's been more than happy to dick around. Like I said, I take it that his sudden refusal now means that he might be feeling a bit less confident than he let on (and well, who wouldn't be after listening to Shouichi spill that whole master plan), which I definitely have no objections to. But it was still annoying. :P
And yeah, I still can't stop squeeing over it. I wonder if I ever will. ♥
(LOL, no problem; as you can see, I can't really stop myself from typing on and on about it myself. XD)