#bofoi

(Webcomic chapter 156)

Genos does not exactly believe him, swearing up and down that Bofoi was there when his family was killed. Bofoi assumes it is a manufactured memory, but we do not really know for sure what is real and what is not, because Genos' memories about before he became a cyborg do not seem to exist, which may or may not be due to trauma or something more sinister like memory wipe.

Then Bofoi drops the bombshell and tells Kuseno is behind all this, the mastermind behind the entire operation of human genocide. Genos heavily disagrees because Kuseno was attacked and killed last night and died on his arms, regretting pulling Genos into the fight with him, which he seemed genuine about.

(Webcomic chapter 156)

Bofoi may have known Kuseno as his classmate from a young age and may regard him as an evil man (look who's talking mr.mass surveillance guy), but the Kuseno of now is an old man with many regrets and someone who regards Genos like his grandson that he never had. Kuseno has grown to genuinely care for Genos and especially his quality of life which is apparent in the manga, like potato peeler and toothbrush installations and he went to check on Genos when he got a distress signal during the hot pot episode in chapter 89 - Hotpot and he has always shown concern for Genos' wellbeing. We've seen Bang change from a hotshot young dude flaunting his power to someone who's responsible enough to run a dojo and take care of delinquents like Garou. So why not Kuseno?

Before we get much answers, Genos is pulled away to Kuseno's laboratory against his will.

(Webcomic chapter 159)

In Kuseno's laboratory, we meet none other than the Mad cyborg itself, as it identifies, with Kuseno's face plastened to the screen. The now so called Mad Cyborg Kuseno tells couple tidbits about how it has multiple copies of it's personalities and how it stole data from Bofoi and got to work. This seems to be true, because Bofoi already told Genos that he knew Dr.Kuseno and Bofoi does regard Kuseno very highly.

(Webcomic chapter 159)

But this is where the web of lies starts to crack a little. First of all, the real human Kuseno we have seen on both manga and webcomic is kind and caring old man, not a genocidal megalomaniac who would call Genos stupid for his, THEIR ideals. Kuseno and Mad Cyborg Kuseno's personalities differ so vastly that it is very hard to combine the two into a singular being.

(Webcomic chapter 159)

Second, the Kuseno we knew was definitely still human and not an android with a copied brain like this Mad Cyborg proclaims he is. He sweats, tears up, eats and definitely bled like a human would with a heartbeat and Genos would see that in an instant if it was not so. He buried the man's corpse to his own backyard, he has plenty sensors in his body for scanning to ascertain if he was being hoodwinked by an android.

(Chapter 89 - Hotpot)

No, this smells too much like this Mad Cyborg is trying to gaslight Genos into believing he is the real Kuseno and not just an android himself called The Mad Cyborg who pretends to be Kuseno, who is responsible for the destruction of Genos' family and his hometown. Mad Cyborg Kuseno very dearly wants Genos to accept that the Kuseno he knew was an android without questioning it, which is another type of manipulating tactic used by people and ONE is pretty good at this psychology stuff when he builds his characters.

He mocks Genos at every turn and his agenda somehow seems to be to get Genos destroy his new Machine God Heart Gear, to what end we do not know yet but I have a theory that it is to push Genos past his limits now that he's been psychologically traumatized enough, so that he can take control of his body to do his bidding. He wants Genos to win, he even claps when Genos is sufficiently fired up enough to fight.

(Webcomic chapter 159)

One last thing: Kuseno has never been anything but kind to Genos. The following panel is an extremely cold take.

(Webcomic chapter 159)

Wow, just wow.

One would think that if the Mad Cyborg Kuseno's mission was to study Genos and battle data and so forth to pit him against his newest Machine God, he would deem all of Genos information as necessity in order to manipulate him better. To not do so reeks of arrogance and narcissism we didn't see displayed on Human Kuseno.

My theory is that Kuseno did in fact create the Mad Cyborg from things stolen from Bofoi who then, well, went mad because the AI was either incomplete or too perfect and thinks humans are the scourge which need to be eliminated. Mad cyborg escapes and Kuseno heavily regrets it because there is now a killer robot on the loose and it also kills his family and later Genos' family and he feels responsible for that. He takes Genos under his care and removes/blocks his traumatic memories in the hopes that he won't find out he's actually behind the Mad Cyborg, because it would just make Genos ultimately hate him. That's why he was also hiding so the Mad Cyborg would not get them before Genos was ready to face him.

It does not however explain the earrings which may have been used to spy on Genos, nor how Genos got pulled into the laboratory against his will, but it could be a failsafe made by Kuseno to ensure the Mad Cyborg does not go unchecked and left forgotten.

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Tl;dr: I don't believe Mad Cyborg Kuseno at all. He's a manipulator, through and through and I still believe that the real human Kuseno is a good person at the end.

Run Saitama, run! Genos needs you now more than ever!

-> read left to right ->

Happy Pride :)

Can't believe this shiptag was still sitting empty, aside from one (1) fanfic from a decade ago (bless you Queen). With no one else to pick up the slack and I hereby christen this ship HubrisSquared! (Or Boseno for you lamos)