A place for things

I’m at work so the most I can do is spill a little tea.

Below the cut please:

Yoneda is absolutely unstoppable. We already have the new previews for the latest Saezuru chapter, which is drawing closer and closer to the climax of this final arc. This time, there are two specific details that caught my attention that I just couldn't leave unaddressed.

The Parallelism of the Snow

First of all, the cover image shows Doumeki and Yashiro under a snowfall—a clear parallel to the very beginning of Doumeki’s story within the Sakuraika group. It is snowing in the exact same way it did the day Amou handed him over to Tsunakawa. It seems this crucial part of the story, which began on a snowy day, is coming full circle and closing under the exact same weather.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

This brings me to the second preview image: Amou requests a meeting with Tsuna to apologize. While the surface-level reasons are clear, there is a much deeper history between these two characters.

Amou and Tsunakawa were university classmates, meaning they have known each other for many years. In the Saezuru universe, they represent two sides of the same coin:

Tsunakawa, on one hand, is a successor by inheritance.

Amou, on the other, is Misumi’s illegitimate son, who became a boss through pure meritocracy and power.

Consequently, even though they have only met a handful of times throughout the story, they show an incredibly close bond through the sheer weight of the favors they dare to ask of and grant each other.

Chapter 37 Chapter 66

Loyalty and Favors Within the Yakuza

Back in chapter 30, Amou asks Tsunakawa to talk to the other bosses so they won't accept Hirata into any Sakuraika subgroups, and Tsunakawa agrees. Their conversation is deeply fascinating because Tsunakawa questions whether it wouldn't be easier to just put out a formal notice that Hirata is exiled, ensuring no one takes him in. That’s when Tsunakawa talks about loyalty and drops a heavy line: "A man without a group is dead." Pushing someone to those extremes is no small decision.

Against all odds, many years later, Amou turns to Tsuna for help once again—this time to take in Doumeki. Going completely against his own convictions of not accepting the "leftovers" of other clans, Tsunakawa complies. This is exactly why Amou goes to apologize to him: he knows perfectly well that Tsunakawa made a massive exception solely out of that surreal friendship they share.

The Illusion of Freedom

Furthermore, I love how Yoneda always positions them in spaces that are simultaneously vast yet enclosed: golf courses and fishing ponds. These are artificial, man-made environments that, despite seeming immense, are completely fenced in. It captures the very essence of Saezuru: even if you feel free, the yakuza remains your prison. Perhaps that’s why they look for these specific settings for their private meetings; it grants them a subtle illusion of freedom that, due to the realities of the mafia world, can never truly be real.

In case you don't want to be spoiled, but you are going crazy...

I offer you this stunning image of Yashiro as tribute.

Everyone else... below the cut please!

This was a really interesting and emotionally heavy chapter, and although nothing apparently moved forward between Yashiro and Doumeki, I think it seems obvious that something dramatic is going to occur within the next, few chapters as a result of this one and, specifically, from Doumeki getting shot while protecting Yashiro.

What's interesting about this chapter is that we see both Yashiro's and Doumeki's acts of indifference begin to crumble, though they're both still stubbornly holding onto them, too. Doumeki obviously acted on instinct when he shielded Yashiro from that bullet, protecting Yashiro's life, and exposing his true feelings in the process, and in turn, Yashiro was unable to abandon Doumeki while critically injured, interceding to keep him in his care and away from Tsunakawa's men and, presumably, Tsunakawa himself.

We also see Yashiro's true feelings surface when he tells Nanahara to "drive faster" while taking Doumeki to Kageyama's clinic. He's obviously worried about Doumeki dying, which Nanahara takes notice of and seems surprised by. That's interesting too, because it indicates that Nanahara wasn't aware that Yashiro still had strong feelings for Doumeki. In previous chapters after the time skip, Nanahara seems to want to keep Doumeki away from Yashiro, seeming suspicious of his intentions. Maybe he genuinely believed that Yashiro didn't want Doumeki in his life, which would make sense, since Yashiro's feigned indifference to Doumeki since they parted ways four years earlier.

More interesting, though, is that Doumeki essentially reveals here that he does understand that Yashiro was trying to protect him by pushing him away in the past. He reveals this by telling Yashiro that the reason he shielded him from the bullet was to repay him for protecting him before. In typical fashion, Yashiro denies this, and I think it's because Yashiro both genuinely fails to see or understand his own altruism and, as a result, continues to believe, now more than ever, that it's no good for him to be near Doumeki. As he's said in the past, he believes he just destroys what's beautiful and good.

One positive of all this is that I don't think Yashiro believes anymore that Doumeki hates him, but, again, I do think this event has likely just reinforced Yashiro's belief that being with Doumeki isn't an option, because when he's around Doumeki, Doumeki gets hurt. So him playing off his actions in the past seems like an attempt to ward Doumeki away, again, for Doumeki's sake.

Getting back to Doumeki though, and what him revealing he's always understood Yashiro was trying to protect him means, I think it pretty much definitively tells us that Doumeki hasn't been acting cold and indifferent toward Yashiro to punish him. I pretty much already knew that, as I think most people did. If Doumeki understands that Yashiro did what he did to protect him, then that means he doesn't hold any ill will or hurt feelings toward Yashiro, really, and he also understands that Yashiro didn't push him away out of any ill will or negative feeling toward him. Which tells us also that the way Doumeki's been acting has solely been an attempt on his part to keep Yashiro from running away again, not because he's trying to guard himself emotionally. Of course, this whole situation may throw a monkey wrench into that plan, if Yashiro really thinks being around Doumeki now will continue to endanger him.

Though I doubt that's how this is going to go. I think Yashiro is scared now of what Tsunakawa is going to do, and we know Yashiro won't abandon Doumeki if he thinks he's in danger. It's also going to be pretty much impossible for Yashiro to deny at this point that Doumeki's behavior since the time skip has been anything but an act. I think he genuinely believed before that it was sincere, that he'd driven Doumeki to hate him, but Doumeki shielding him has pretty much done away with any such notion. The question now is, how will Yashiro respond? Right now, he's still refusing to yield, and again, I think it's out of fear over what accepting Doumeki might mean for Doumeki himself. Doumeki's already landed in hot water by protecting Yashiro instead of Tsunakawa, which, once more, will only feed into Yashiro's past and probably present belief that he's bad news for Doumeki. I think the panels of him starting to reach for Doumeki, but then pulling back, are likely reflective of that feeling. He wants to be near Doumeki and care for him, but he doesn't think he can have that and also keep Doumeki safe

It's going to be harder for Yashiro to run away this time, though, both because there's the lingering threat of what Tsunakawa might do, but also because his own identity has long since cracked apart and left him, essentially, bereft and suicidal. He can't escape anymore into the idea that he wants or desires cruelty for himself. He understands now that he wants someone to love him the way Doumeki loved him, and has tasted what his life is like without that love, and without the coping mechanism of his past identity. It leaves him with nothing but the haunted memories of his past and present abuse at the hands of other men.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes. I hope Yashiro can, for once, be kind and more generous toward himself, and allow himself to be with Doumeki. I hope he can come to a place of understanding that he isn't bad for Doumeki, and that Doumeki didn't get hurt because of him. Before Yashiro can accept Doumeki's love and express his love in turn, he has to get to a place where he doesn't think so badly of himself.

I might be crazy…

But I don’t think I am.

💡