scalvin

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.)

then you smelled it. smelled like butter and sugar. mmm. this was good, right? at least until you smelled the faint smoke under it.

“oh. oh no.” you hurried toward the kitchen only to stop dead in your tracks.

a whole ass disaster awaited you. flour covered the counters. one pan had somehow melted on one side. eggshells here. eggshells there.

rudo stood on a stool and stirred something aggressively while riyo decorated something that looked like burned pastry with pink frosting. poor zanka held dramatically on a plushie while trying to fan the smoke out of the window with his free hand.

enjin stood in the middle of all of it. apron on, sleeves rolled up, hair hanging into his face. man looked exhausted.

the moment they saw you everybody froze.

“surprise?” rudo offered.

you just blinked at them.

“oh no,” riyo gasped. “she hates it.”

“i told you we should’ve cleaned first,” zanka hissed.

“you literally dropped the batter on the floor,” rudo snapped back.

“you stepped in it!”

“kids,” enjin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

the sight nearly made you laugh. nah, you actually giggled softly. then a full belly laughter as rudo poked accusingly zanka’s flour covered face.

“you look ugly as hell.”

“shut up!”

“enough,” enjin interrupted their bickering.

your chest warmed painfully at the scene in front of you. because this chaotic little family had become yours somehow.

rudo looked away, being a little embarrassed. “we just wanted to do something.”

“yes. rudo had told us about mother’s day and so we thought we should celebrate you,” riyo added brightly.

zanka shoved the plushie towards you, and now you saw it was holding a single flower. “these are from all of us.”

fuck, your heart was so, so full of love. you felt all warm and fuzzy and this was the best thing ever.

“thank you,” you whispered.

riyo suddenly grabbed your wrist. “sit down! sit down! we made breakfast.”

you eyed the suspiciously blackened food. “is it edible?”

“probably,” rudo answered honestly.

“It’s edible,” enjin corrected, though less confidently.

you sat down and yes, it was awful. too sweet. too burned. it was still the most delicious thing you ever ate. one of the best mornings you ever had and you knew, in a few years you’ll still think fondly of it.

riyo kept talking over everyone. zanka pretended not to care but secretly pushed the least burnt pieces onto your plate. rudo argued with everyone every five seconds while watching your reactions to make sure you liked everything.

and enjin watched you quietly the entire time, because seeing you smile made the chaos worth it.

later, after you all cleaned the kitchen together and the kids scattered off to do their thing, you found him outside. he was fixing something on his umbreaker, a cig hanging loosely from his mouth.

gently you hugged him from behind and kissed his shoulder. “thank you.”

“you deserve it, mama.”

the nickname affected you more than you let on. because enjin said it and he never said things he didn’t mean. some might argue you were more like a big sister, but what you felt came closer to motherly. so it made your heart burst with happiness.

knowing that he got you emotional enjin turned around and kissed your forehead.

home. all of them were your home.

While I didn't find an actual picture of the original Japanese panel, I found someone who wrote that speech bubble down. So for Enjin's many, many names we have:

Endoareiraikima

Irasutasurai

Makiada

Reotorago

Sufidi

Faajin

If there is a hidden name or message somewhere inside of these, then the original katakana writing will help more than the english transliteration but those aren't without their merit either, especially when you don't know how to see foreign words inside the katakana.

Not that I see anything there :D

Until now:

in katakana, Irasutasurai is the same forward and backward. So that's probably a joke name.

the Japanese pronounciation of Chimera is kimaira. That's the last 4 katakana in Endoareiraikima rearranged.

The Chimera is one of Cerberus' siblings, which I talked about here once. The rest of the names could hide things as well, but that's for me right now.