Why is Cloud flame and its box weapon so... weird
Okay so before I talk myself into a corner, I'd like to establish my observation: the Cloud box weapons all have propagation factor, but they can only either multiply in number, or change size.
Like, with Iris, her way of using her flame was fairly basic in usage. She used her box weapon, a Cloud whip, to whip her cloud receptive slaves and propagated their muscle mass, sometimes even elongated their bone to make them bigger (in a rather unnatural way). Its straight forward, easy to understand, it's a propagation in size.
Next, Kikyo. His dinosaur box weapon was rather... normal in the large scheme of thing tbh. It made him into this... Hydra-Dinosaur-Medusa thing. His hair grew into spinosaurus heads that follows the common rule of Cloud's attribution: multiplication in number.
Honorable mention to Lal Mirch's box weapon, Cloud Centipede that could change its size and length, but not number.
However, Hibari's Cloud Hedgehog, Roll, funnily enough, could do both. And, horrifyingly enough, more.
So, Roll's usage could actually be splitted into 2 categories: how adult Hibari used it, and how baby Hibari used it. So, Roll under adult Hibari only propagated in size. It could expand, thicken, become thin layer and act a shield for Hibari, or roll forward. But never multiplied in number.
Furthermore, after being fed so much flame that its box got broken, it can do shit like this... like... how?! I don't recall any Box Weapon based on living creature can become a separate space the way Roll did.
Tbh, I have a rather... bizarre headcanon for this. It could be because of Hibari's secondary Mist Flame with its construction factor that mix in with the Cloud Flame to influence the Box Weapon (also like, the dimension thing kinda similar with what Mukuro's Vongola Gear can do yk). And only adult Hibari can do this because he has more experience with Mist Flame and more open to use it. But then Cloud Hedgehog is only for Cloud flame so it's impossible for his Mist to seep through. Unless his wave energy is already an incredible mix between Cloud and Mist, like Xanxus's Flame of Wrath, so much so that it can't be distinguish through Cloud rings, and Roll's also affected by this. And could this also be the reason that normal Cloud rings couldn't withstand his flame, thus break upon 1 use?
Also can we talk about how he had two, the same exact Cloud Hedgehog boxes? Like we're told that there only 343 designs based on living things made by Geppetto Lorenzini, and Verde team made 343 boxes based on the designs. Are you telling me at least 2 (because he clearly tried the Reverse technique once before, so at least one box had been broken to do it) of those boxes are of the same design? cus the numbers are not adding up.
Ok, moving on to baby Hibari. Now baby Hibari used Roll in the Vongola version, and X version more. But there's a snippet when we see him using the OG version, and upon being fed so much flame that it went berserk, it multiplied both in size and in number.
There's only one difference between the two Hibari: the Vongola Cloud Ring. Like adult Hibari only got one chance to put however much flame he could in the box before the ring broke, and the hedgehog would have to do bunch of stuffs with just that reserve before it went back into the box. (God adult Hibari was basically nerfed during the whole Future Arc, imagine if he got more Cloud rings or just the Vongola Cloud Ring. He'd probably solo the whole base)
Could this be the same for other Cloud boxes? That they require much much more Cloud flame for both of the factors to be used. What does it say about Hibari's flame, that afterward, when he had the Vongola version and X version, he went on and did insane shits like these? Like how strong, vast and dense his Cloud Flame has to be so that he can fight like this?
Okay, a little side track into weird flame territory since we're talking about it, let's discuss Skull. Skull is interesting in the way that his flame usage is rather similar to Iris', which is basically the propagation of human cells. But unlike Iris whose control is rather crude, as there is little to no finesse in the way those slaves' muscle grow (they grew in places that muscle shouldn't have been, pushing each other and probably crushing their own bones with their muscle mass), Skull's control on his Cloud Flame is absolute and instance. His cells grew instantly the moment he was hit, so much so that even when he got a critical hit from Squalo, he remained fine, albeit a bit hurt.
Now, human' cells have things like genetic code and more to tell them what they're and where they would be and how they would grow, so they could automatically slot into place during the propagation process. But it's the control Skull has that he could grow just enough of what he need, and not accidentally grow, idk, an extra finger or giving himself cancer, and that makes him incredibly strong and I don't think enough ppl is talking abt it (like just think about the potential)
Other than that, we have a rather fascinating OP factor of Cloud flame in general and Skull in particular. They can absorb other Flames. Other than Tsuna's Zero Point Breakthrough: Revised where his Sky Flame harmonize with other's and absorb it, no other flames is able to do this, other than Cloud. And if we went with how Hibari said it, it's sort of its default function.
And Skull? Oh he's just straight up absorb the whole flame attack from, what? four Varia. Like ez pz home boy only whine because he's hurt from Squalo's sword attack.
My working theory for this is because in nature, cloud has already been rather... versatile and can be affected by other elements (sun, lighting) to change and thus creating other phenomenon (rain, storm); also mist is like... thinner ground version of cloud anyway. And Skull's using his own body as a flame conductor, thus directly absorb other Flame types to himself. Though his flame isn't Sky, there's no harmonizing factor to neutralize the Rain, Storm, Lighting and Sun attributes. His body is probably fighting itself to stabilize, or using those attributes to stabilize each other (his Cloud can swallow the Sun since they're similar, the Rain's tranquility can block and neutralize the Storm and Lighting too) (Now it'd be funny if Skull got shot by Tsuna's X-burner, like would Skull's Cloud strong enough to absorb Tsuna's concentrated Sky Flame like I'm curious.)
