Fandom stuff and theories

He'll live, trust.

But blind faith to the side, I'm sure that Enjin will survive for a few reasons. The biggest one is that his head is still attached to his body and that Eishia is here, too.

Another reason is that it's basically confirmed that the scar on his head is from the previous time he used Time Walk. This gives us a good setup for a third time usage. This one nearly kills him, while the third time would most likely kill him, which ups the stakes, raises the tension and prepares the audience for his eventual (possible) death.

But this doesn't only count for the audience. I don't think Enjin will manage to keep his watch a secret anymore. He would have to lie his ass off to explain this and that would be obvious and/or a break of trust with everyone else. It's likely he'll be honest with them and we'll get massive guilt among Rudo, Riyo and Zanka (which would already be there because he's at death's door right now). And with that guilt would come fear of what could happen to Enjin in the future if they failed again.

I'm specifically looking at Zanka and Riyo for future character work to come out of this.

There is also Enjin's second backstory to his Chimera identity. As long as Urana doesn't go into a completely different direction with this (which I doubt), Enjin has family history that ties back to Rudo's family and the past. We see glimpses of that when they spot the mural and when Enjin learns of Rudo's surname.

Overall, it also wouldn't fit the tone of the story for him to just die here without the narrative working towards it. Even Gojo had a narrative setup before he got bisected. This one is so sudden it would break the way Urana has been writing Gachiakuta for it to be true. (Or for it to stick.)

Yeah so, he'll live. And we'll fondly put that expression into his panel folders.

The supporters are mocked here; the Givers are mocked there; the only stable governmental structure that seems to exist on the Ground are the fucking police which raises some heavy questions on the [REDACTED] reveal that came out in chapter 165.

Seems like Ground society could be having a few issues.

New art but... Enjin why? Why that hair? Like I can see him doing it but...

While writing my Rayne/Orter fanfic, I came to the point where Rayne becomes a divine visionary which forced me to seriously deal with the strong and idealistic ambitions I wrote Rayne with which he canonically has, but which stand against a system that doesn't care and can't be changed.

That last chapter I wrote was entirely about Rayne... bending the knee to that system because that's what happened in canon, right? Rayne achieved the highest rank a single person can hold but it didn't serve his biggest ambitions. Instead he was folded into the system with only some small ways he worked against it.

The framing we have in this panel with Rayne and Wahlberg puts that ambition equal to Mash's that spans the entire story. Rayne and Mash are paralleled and so is their ultimate vehicle to achieve their dreams and ambitions.

But with Rayne we see something: Becoming a DV doesn't help you realise your dreams. It's fake. The title is meaningless if your dreams and ambitions aren't part of the system.

And so it's no wonder that in the end, Mash refuses to become a divine visionary as well. It doesn't serve him. He gets nothing from becoming the next star praised and prayed to like a god. Just living his life the way he wants with his friends and family in the open is more valuable to his dreams than dealing with an oppressive system while being an active part of it.

Was trying to look for a specific panel and what do I find? Ryoh in the original japanese referring to himself as ore-sama. I feel like I knew this already but it's funny to be reminded of it again, especially because Ryoh has Sukuna's voice actor.

And of course, the very next panel of this is Innocent Zero:

I can't tell how Mymo's (true) taunt will affect Rudo. On one hand, he knows that Mymo was full of shit. On the other hand, that statement will buzz around his head. Rudo might pick up on idiosyncrasies around him that might point at the wrong person being Regto's murderer.

He won't just believe that of course. But it would strain his relationships and affect his judgement. Which brings me to the Watch.

Enjin took it off.

Rudo has no idea how or by whom Mymo was cut and now he won't see the tool with which Mymo was cut, either. If Enjin doesn't tell Rudo the truth himself, then the entire Time Walk, Watch and Alto thing will remain his secret.

And Enjin already kept that secret for more than necessary. Enjin keeps other secrets as well like why he was in Mono when Rudo fell down there. It also looks like Enjin has bad family history with the Surebrecs.

Now that we know that Enjin's cut at the side of his throat is not life-threatening, I have to wonder...

...was this all? A cut that will scar and that's the end?

When Alto spoke of repercussions when using the Watch, while holding baby Rudo whose finger tips were already turning black, I expected a bit more. At least a race to Eishia to save Enjin's life.

But of course, it was always clear that Enjin wouldn't end up like Alto. Narratively in chapter 166, and mechanically in chapter 167. Alto heavily implied that he used proper time travel with the Watch. Enjin used a pseudo time stopping ability that didn't effect the time frame of the world or other anima sources.

So looking at it from that perspective, the cut itself would suffice as punishment. But what if there is more? A punishment that affects Enjin in different ways, maybe mentally?

The problem is that Enjin has used the watch once. If he already suffered repercussions then there should be signs but I don't remember something that could point into that direction. No suspicious behaviour from Enjin, no remarks from other characters.

I only remember one small thing I've been wondering about since the beginning.

Gob.

How deep was Enjin's friendship with him? Is the popular theory that Gob did Enjin's tattoos true? If yes... wouldn't their friendship have been old and deeper than what was shown? Enjin was distraught about Gob's death but for me it didn't seem like he lost a good friend but a good acquaintance with mixed signals thrown in. So...

What if Enjin's first punishment was forgetting one of his closest friends?

And the relationship we've seen between Enjin and Gob in the beginning of the story is what remained of that friendship: barely anything.

I know people debate who Rudo might end up with at the end of the manga: Riyo or Amo. But Chiwa, the only girl Rudo had a crush on, is not out of this equation yet.

At some point we're going back to the Sphere and we will meet Chiwa again which will throw the relationship she and Rudo had into a mixer however bad it ended. Alone the fact that Rudo will come back from the pit alive is enough to throw every thing Chiwa believed in about the life she knows into the trash. Things have to be reevaluated when executed people climb out of hell.

And when one major thing about your life gets unravelled the next thing gets unravelled, too. When Rudo comes back from the dead then who is to say that he really committed a murder to be thrown into it in the first place?

Of course, for Rudo, their relationship is destroyed. He was severely betrayed by her. She didn't believe in him like she said she would. And of course Chiwa had her reasons for that as well. She believes in how her world and her world's "justice system" works more than she believes in an individual person's integrity. But right there is the emotional betrayal that Rudo, even if he forgives Chiwa for believing the murder accusations, wouldn't be able to forgive and forget.

Exceeeeeeeeept it turns out that Chiwa picked that bunny plushie back up after Rudo was thrown down. It could've happened. She might've stuffed it into a corner of her home and Rudo might find it. Something like that would be extremely important for any amends Chiwa might try to make because picking that bunny up before Rudo comes back alive shows personal growth. And that could be enough to forgive the emotional betrayal.

Until now I kinda blocked out the fact that the Sphere also throws their human waste to the Ground. Every kind of disease that exists up there, bundled into their faeces and urine and chucked onto the heads of other people.