Let's talk about the clock keepers!
With the last chapter (124), we have a lot of new things to look at and mostly, a lot of new questions. So let's look at what we know about them for now!
NĀ°1's rumor shows right away what they are capable of. Putting even more emphasis on it and what they really do in the festival arc.
The owls eat away the time of whoever entered the boundary and wasn't allowed to. And the dolls Kako creates would answer the question of 'what happens to the souls after the body is destroyed' . (Knowing that Mirai can destroy the souls and bodies, so the Owls are probably not that powerful.) It's a cruel and awful price to pay, but not that surprising from the supernatural's perspective. Knowing the skate was 'a human who wanna play god and control time'.
What they are doing is also literally written in their titles, they are described as 'Time guardians, representatives of the Past, the Present and the Future', they are called clock keepers because they are protecting the clock that controls time within the school, act and punish according to it.
But with this chapter showing them in a really grim light, itās pretty hard to see how they can be described as āgoodā guardians.
The last chapter is really showing the danger Nene is facing. Showing the boundary as a cold place with all the things the clock keepers have been hiding. To show all the risks she is taking to go back to her friends knowing fully what could happen to her. If she tries to change the past, the clock keepers may change her into a mechanical doll wandering aimlessly in their cold boundary.
AidaIro have been tryingĀ a lot to show how wrong and dangerous they were in this arc. We saw them through a lot of characterās pov, and all of them have been treating them as the biggest threat like Akane described them in chapter 108.
Nene sees how horrible their methods are, everything is pointing at them for being cruel. They will maybe even not listen to her because she seems to have broken the representative of the presentās watch and Akane is nowhere to be seen.Ā
Do they just punish anyone that seems to get too close to their powers? Humans mostly? Since the clock keeper of the present is a human too, does it mean they are affected by this?
The only reason for this would be if they gain something out of it. Would it mean the dolls have a bigger use than just filling the boundary. But what for? A soul? A body? A kind of sacrifice?Ā
But it would be insanely hypocritical of Kako to do this, showing his clear disagreement about the pit god's situation and Hanakoās choice to not do anything when the school is in in danger.
Itās not impossible, but only if the representative of the present breaks those rules they would suffer the same consequences as a normal human, they clearly have āautorisationsā over anyone else.
And I also think it makes sense forĀ a human to be part of this mystery.
Let's look at what happened when they decided to rewind time too.
We just canāt decide which timeline is the worst. On one hand we have a muderous curse, and on the other hand, we have a whole school being 'killed' in record time, the students are being turned into supernatural beings and even if they can turn back they are still attacking other students and people present for the festival. The school is even more crowded than usual, the number of victims at the end of the day will be pretty horrible in both timelines. I am not surprised the clock keepers decided to act.Ā
Changing a whole timeline is a huge deal, we even know that all of the Mysteries have limitations, prices to pay to be powerful.
Shijima canāt stop drawing even if she wants to, Tsuchigomi has the power to know but is not allowed to act on anything, Hakubo can bring things back to life but also kills everything he touches, and the Clock keepers have mechanical/broken bodies.
It may be the price they pay for their powers, Mirai seems in better shape than Kako too. The latter has to keep his mask on to hide his fake eyes. And they are dolls, the things they create to punish people. They can use their power to change the course of events but then have to go to sleep for a really long time, here for around 50 years, and just hope that what they did was the right choice. Kakoās role is one of ācontrolā over a lot of things, so not being able to do anything and not have any relevance for a long time is a big risk and price. Even more knowing a supernatural needs their rumor to continue to spread around to exist.
NĀ°1 have a human in their team because they can break the ācurseā of their power. If Kako and Mirai canāt see anything and are forced to sleep to change the past, the clock keepers may use a human because they can observe what is happening in the living world, so they can observe the present. Akane was left to be the eyes Ā for the clock keepers in the new present like he is already in the original timeline. He reports things that seem suspicious to Kako.Ā Kako said it in his second appearance, their role is to observe at first, they take actions if they deem it necessary.Ā
Another thing to have in mind is that the clock keepers have also been kind of an exception since the beginning of the manga. They are the only mysteries to have āsplit powersā in three, and several representatives. They are clearly important for the mysteries, being named number one and the oldest. Most of them show up to a meeting when they donāt when Hanako, the leader, calls for one. NĀ°1 also don't fear to put their 'boss' on a trial.
They have respect from the mysteries, but also from exorcists. None of the characters want to take action against them in a big part of the manga despite having caused a real mess across the school. Tsuchigomoriās yorishiro was taken for no real reasons than Hanako's plan, and Shijima 'āonly'āā trapped 2 students in her painting for example.
Teru always talks about the clock keepers like they are above the others too. He lets them have a pass on a lot of things and they are the only mystery he was willing to ask for help, probably mostly because a human is among them. But if the clock keepers always had such insane techniques to recruit a human (pretending to kill students (cf:chap 25 with Aoi)), itās strange that no exorcist has done anything against that. Teru threatened to get rid of other mysteries, like Hanako even when he is the leader. Even after saying how much he hates the timeline and being 'controlled' by them, he never actually mention getting rid of them after or regretting not doing it sooner. It's considered a problem for Akane for him, he is only ''vexed'' to work with them and he even advised Akane to be careful about the yorishiro to be able to use their power.
We can point out that the inactions of the Minamotos clan may be because the mysteries are the real āpillars and yorishiros of the gods (Kami)ā. Kako is the one who confirms that they are proxies of the gods , so close to deities. The mysteriesā yorishiros being clearly seals to a bigger danger (probably the pit god) But I still think the clock keepers have had a pass for the thing they did when others didnāt. Only two yorishiro were destroyed when they messed with the students' time.
The broadcasting club strengthened their methods with each new mystery and they had to use an old mystery power to do only a distraction for nĀ°1 with their usual use of Hanako and Nene, knowing that they are really cautious supernatural. They went right away for their weak link, the mortal one, and they are the last mystery they want to take out before the most powerful one (Mitsuba not even being considered as one) It's also the time where they finally use Natsuhiko's curse. A curse that can take out Mitsuba down immediately. They were rarely as pro active to go against a Mystery in terms of power.
The moment being ānowā is also something to note. The clock keeper's powers may be more āfragileā and/or powerful during this time, since the three days-ish of the festival are the time limit for people to forget if they ever rewinded time. The days before and during the festival are also the moment where the school time is the most unstable. Maybe they can do something that drastic only at this time, but itās also the period where they are the most āweakenedā hence why the broadcasting club may have chosen this precise moment to act on them, Natsuhiko taking contact with Akane only when the preparations of the festival started. I would say that they canāt change the timeline when they want, a power like this may need a pretty big limit.Ā
The whole school being infested and killing students, their big clock being threatened, the boundaries between the supernaturals and humans nearly donāt exist anymore, the āenemy have gone this farā with the curse on the school etc... The solution was to get rid of the root as Kako said. Because only rewinding time for the day wouldn't have been enough. I also think they didnāt mind what Shinigami did in the previous arc if it set things right. Kako even admits that Hakubo has extremes measures but doesn't stop him. It's not that surprising when you see what has been happening in the manga. They are ājudgesā after all and condemn things as they think itās better to do.
Number 6's story being the last arc before the one of the clock keepers, was full of insane and drastic measures from a lot of characters. The story has more skates, it's normal for its progression. The more we go into the manga, the bigger the punitions are too. They lost everyone to the severance in the previous arc but they could get back because they weren't 'dead'. Now they don't exist as 'themselves' anymore, they have to literally change time to go back to their statu go. The clock keepers have been in the manga since nearly 100 chapters, it's great their story and the way they are handling things are awful to the characters.Ā It doesn't mean they are right, but it's logical in term of story telling.
And now this is more of a personal preference, but I truly believe making a supernatural, especially a mystery, truly 'evil' now would go against the themes of this manga. None of the mysteries are shown through an āonly evil lensā. Obviously they all take drastic measures that are awful to the livings half of the time, their morals and comprehension of life and death are way different than humans, itās not even comparable. But the story always reminds us they do this for a reason, at least to them. Showing the clock keepers going 'oh yes we have been sacrificing people only to keep our power/be more powerful and nothing else' would be pretty strange in my opinion.
Hakubo was only doing his job this whole time, being more a servant/slave unable to take decision on his own, Hanako has done of what he did out of love, Shijima tried to kill Mei only because she thoughts she was hurting her by existing, Yako wanted to see the only person she ever cared about and who teached her everything, etc
All rumors have a part of truths and lies in them we are missing a lot of informations here.
That would break the whole point of the mysteries and the fact we as readers try to empathize or at least have a perspective on why they do this. Even the God pit wasn't shown only as an evil entity when it has been eating dozens of people. And we could even argue that it tries to do the right thing from its pov by wanting to bring 'happiness' since humans asked for it, all of it is also being amplified by rumors. The villagers thought that to keep the pit god calm they had to sacrifice young girls, but it was also to ask for wishes, like 'happiness'. And the god pit answered.
This is more of a stretch now but Kako being so extreme in his rules and choices may be because he is the one who already saw. He is the oldest supernatural they introduce in the manga, he is maybe even older than the god pit. He doesnāt even hesitate to say what It is to Akane, he seems to be the only one knowing that Tsukasa and him have merged. (w/o Tsuchi probablybut too many rules forces him to stay inactive/silent)Ā What kind of perspectives are we missing?
Ā Going this extreme must be for a reason that we don't have for now. We don't know how many times they rewinded time, we don't know what happened to them.
And especially we don't know why they had to leave their city and country. Why did they have to go into a foreign land, keeping only the memory of an endless snow day spent next to the chimney with sweets and tea as the representation of what they can call home. It is also shown that the clock keepers, compared to other mysteries, spend a lot of time in the innermost reach boundary. Akane has clearly been there several times. And it's so personal too, they have their house here. We see that Tsuchi spends more ācasual/mundaneā time in the school than his boundary, Yakoās innermost reach is the start of the staircase where Misaki died, Hakubo's could only be described as 'the awful village Sumire was from' and Shijima's was Mei's dream. These last two mysteries never went into them before Nene appeared. Everything they still do and cook is filled with their previous life/home, and it's always shown in a reassuring light. I think there definitely will be a story around this, and I hope we will see how it's important to their roles, and their powers.
Their yorishiro is a key to the big clock to control time,something that exists for them only because they are a mystery. But it also seems to lead to an ever more āsecretā part of the boundary. I have no idea what it means for them, but fire and comfort are always here in all their āmost important placesā.
It's too easy for now, to judge them and only categorize them as evil. Yes it's insane what they do, and not right to any other characters. But it's also not that drastic when you know the consequences of altering Time and what already happened in the manga previously, the two ideas can coexist.
The clock keepers are not an exception among the mysteries in terms of personnalities, they have traits all of them have.
They represent Judgment, or at least think they represent it. All mysteries are arrogant, the one being the most neutral about it being Hakubo, he's just doing his job and knows his capacities. But the clock keepers? They really are, probably the ones with the biggest ego. Kako is arrogant enough to not even care and take his time when danger arises because he knows he has time on his side.Ā His introduction actually already shows this side, his first appearance showing he came late because what's the point of being on time when you literally control it. Nothing is a problem when you can just go back in time like it never happened.
Mirai may not go with the definition of arrogance at first glance, but she definitely shows it in a different way. The world is her playground, she is kept in the clock keeper's boundary because she can't help herself but use her powers and turn the whole school into a retirement home. Whenever she fights she has a big smile on her face and she is seen laughing a lot at people following her, acting like a child whenever she doesn't get her way. I think their arrogance is the main point of their story. They are awful because of it.Ā
It's no wonder Akane is in the clock keepers , the idea to judge someone forever and stick to it is something really strong for them too. Kako has been stuck on Hanako's first introduction to him not even wanting to see him again for a really long time, just because he said ONE thing and Kako made his whole view about it, even bringing it back in a trial. They make their views on something and just stick to it forever. Itās not that surprising to see they go this far for people who try to control time, because they think they are right.
Once again, itās easy to see whatās wrong with them but they are not only shown as evil supernaturals since the beginning of the manga.
Ā They are always shown as duty centered and described as stern and strict supernaturals. Kako doesn't hesitate to turn back time because it's Mirai who wrecked the school. So it's only fair 'because it's one of our own who did it, it's normal for me to fix it'. He works by the rules since his introductions in his manga, he is the most strict mystery and the one being the most bothered by what is happening in the school because it is āTheir sworn duty to protect the schoolā.
Ā And they are just once again, as a lot of mysteries, taking their roles to an extreme for humans' standard. Kako's problem is that he is TOO serious, he knows his role, he knows how powerful they are, he knows his duty and he will make sure to do it. Even if his methods are awful. And I personally think that's what their arc, the next chapters, will be about.
That they were wrong and that it cost the lives of a lot of people and that especially Akane was a victim of it too.Ā
Putting them as only ācold blooded and evilā characters is also not fair when there are a lot of little interactions that at least shows that they care about human lives and the school to some extent and Akane. Mirai literally took a blow for him. After getting destroyed, the first thing she does when she wakes up, is checking if he is alright and asking to be praised, she doesn't check anything else only making sure he is okay because she knows Kako can physically fix her. And we know that Kako can rewind Akaneās time, but he maybe would remember what happened, which means Mirai took the blow to avoid him to feel the pain of being stabbed. This wasn't even scripted since Akane planned for Mirai to escape. She acts like a kid more whenever he is around and wears the name he gave her like a badge, clearly having fun with him. She is absolutely shocked when he orders her to never take a blow for him ever again, saying she is a child rather than a beast/monster like he does in all previous chapters.
Kako forces Akane to have tea with them because he wants to congratulate him on a job done well. He is a bitch about it and is shocked because āwhat do you mean someone said no to him?ā and he uses his power to force him, but itās a classic supernatural move, he does this because he canāt fathom that Akane would say no when they baked cakes specifically for him, itās just another representation of his ego. Akane even admits that Kako listens to him at some point. If Teru wanted to ask for their help is also because they seem ā'āreasonableā'ā supernaturals.
Akane has gone through a development in the manga that makes him question A LOT of what he knows, sees and assumes, that's his whole role. In the last chapters it is shown that Akane has a hard time to pinpoint exactly how he feels really about the clock keepers because he knows what their real role is, they are 'protecting' and that's something he can understand. But he hates the way they work. He says it throughout the whole series, but what can he do? He is literally just a random human boy among god powered beings. And it's no wonder Akane is also one of the only half supernatural.
Their whole thing is 'being humbled' by humans in this series.Ā
And it's easy to say that humans are only victims in all the supernatural stories. They need to realize how much their actions and consequences are a part of the supernatural world. Supernaturals especially the mysteries, are bound by duties and rumors, they have to respect rules for the humans if they want to be part of their world, things happen because rumors were written, supernaturals start existing because of humans, the god pit became so powerful because humans made sacrifices asking for wishes. I kinda hope that Humanās greediness will be addressed, they are far more powerful than they think they are in the grand scheme of things.
And itās even more obvious when we see that all mysteries have a human and their death linked to their yorishiro. Which is also why I think there is more behind the clock keepersā backstory, we know nothing of it and it will give us a new insight at what is happening. What happened to make them feel so much that they now go to all those extremes to respect their sworn duties as mystery nĀ°1? I think they are arrogant and need to be put in place for what they are doing but I donāt think they are as greedy as a lot of fans are saying.Ā I have so many questions and I hope we will have some answers soon.Ā
We are missing information on so many things, why was Amane trying to get the clock moving too? He wanted to change time probably, but itās not as simple as trying to move a 'magical' clock. Was his fate a consequence of this at some point? If Kako already knew Tsukasa had the god pit in him why not do anything sooner (Tsukasa became a real threat recently though, since he was locked in Hanakoās boundary probably and the clock keepers waited to be active)
So many things canāt be answered for now and itās blurry on so many parts so itās easy to make speculations, but once again I think the important thing here is ānuanceā. Not all humans are āonly niceā and the supernaturals arenāt āonly evilā, otherwise AidaIro wonāt have any story to tell. And unfortunately I think it's a thing that has been clearly lacking in the writing of the recent arcs and the consequences of rushing storylines.
I am really scared for the next chapters but I also canāt wait for the clock keepersā story to finally be shown!Ā
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