#kaoru posting

Welcome to the “I should be working on my fic but instead I think about Kaoru” of the day!

I do not hide it, Kaoru is my poor little mew mew, my pathetic wet gremlin. He makes everyone’s life harder in Hakuouki (when allowed) and it would be the understatement of the century to say that there is something wrong with him. But, this is not what I want to discuss, or at least I don't want to discuss what's wrong with his mind. No, I want to discuss what is wrong with Kaoru as a oni. Kaoru is a pure blood oni in Hakuouki, and yet no one in the story seems to acknowledge this fact and the worldbuilding itself seems to ignore it.

So what's the deal with Kaoru? (there might be a following post later, once I have finished my playthrough of Hakuouki: Fleeting blossom of the dawn, for now I am basing this mainly on the movies and the anime)

Let's start with the basics of what we know. Kaoru is Chizuru's older twin (and seeing how much they look alike I really doubt they are the third secret kind of twins that can have different parents).

(I mean look at this: Souji is demonstrating it for us)

This means that Kaoru is a pure blood oni as much as she is. Yet, in both anime and movies we never seen him turn into his oni form before drinking the Ochimizu. It could be that he never had any good reason to do so. Indeed, other pure blood onis do not turn often and Chizuru herself does not turn at all (not even a beginning of transformation) in the anime. Besides, we see him use oni powers: healing abilities, supernatural speed (or mild teleportation?), wind control?, etc. Yet, you get this feeling that contrary to Kazama who is naturally superior/on even field with the best/most motivated of the rasetsu in his oni form, Kaoru needs to take the Ochimizu to catch back to both Kazama and the best rasetsus. The only time we see him transform in a "oni" form in the movies is after he drank it and he has characteristics of both oni (horns) and rasetsu (red eyes).

Furthermore, Nagumo Kaoru was born Yukimura Kaoru and yet no one seems to recognize him as the heir to the Yukimura legacy despite him being Chizuru's older twin brother. No one ever calls him Yukimura Kaoru! And to this I must add that apparently Chizuru's blood is necessary for Kodo's little rasetsu kingdom, yet he has Kaoru's active support (or are they partners? I personally headcanon that Kaoru thinks of each other as partners without really trusting Kodo and Kodo is manipulating Kaoru). True, fraternal twins are not closer genetically than any other siblings (and generally speaking brother-sister twins are fraternal except if they are the fourth kind of secret twins) so Kaoru might not just have what it takes, but still it is odd to see this three things together.

So, to go back on our original question let’s propose some hypothesis on what's the deal with Kaoru. These hypothesis are that, hypothesis, and they are not mutually exclusive. Also do not hesitate to tell me your thoughts on the matter:

The Yukimura clan is matriarcal (I don't know if Toki no Kizuna: Sekigahara Kitan gave extra info on this?), meaning that Kaoru is not considered the heir because he was never the heir. It is not impossible but seeing how Kazama treats Chizuru in the original anime I going to make a not so wild guess and say that not all demon clans are matriarcal.

Kaoru was officially adopted by the Nagumos and he can't just be a Yukimura again. Besides, after killing apparently everyone/most people (☺️) in the Nagumo clan, he became its new official head so maybe the oni world does not accept plurality of offices.

Not all pure blood onis are equal in their gifts and powers. Kaoru is just naturally weaker than some (one the headcanons I am following in my fic).

Oni powers must be trained to develop properly (an other headcanon I am following in my fic) and no one bothered to teach Kaoru or he was purposely sabotaged by the Nagumos.

The Nagumos clan did something pretty bad (understatement of the century) to him that eventually made him weaker. I am thinking experiments here.

fifth is that this fucking tweet keeps killing me