#suo arc

What happened…

Suo: We’re not anything.

Nirei, fists up: alright you fucking liar

What could have happened…

Suo: We’re not anything.

Sakura: *crumples to the ground in crippling depression*

The idea that he laughed in Nirei's face to further drive a wedge between them didn't track for me, and I've noticed that people don't seem to agree so I've kept it to myself. I think the laugh had more to do with the mask slipping. His carefully constructed control of the situation was spiraling out of his grasp in real time. He's trying to keep an indifferent attitude on the surface while beating one of his closest friends bloody, and the guy still asks him if they're friends after.

I think he just lost it. That this is a sign of hysterics. Not cruelty or malice for the sake of the act.

I think this because of the evidence in that moment. If you're laughing in someone's face, you do it in their face. It's loud, it's intentional, it's insincere. I saw someone point out that he's so good at faking his emotions he even faked the blush.

He's trembling. The laugh starts as a pfft. It ends with him covering his face, still trembling. These are signs of someone trying to subdue a reaction, to contain it, not performatively put on a show.

He's having a giggle fit here. Now we know it truly ends like this, and I don't know about anyone else, but that panel just makes me feel a little better about my own theory on the whole thing.

Because all the time without fail I encounter takes rooted on forgetting that, like:

- why does he know so much about people and gangs in Makochi?

- why does he know so much about people from Furin?

He knows basically what other people who live in Makochi do, because he has been frequenting the town almost daily for years, because he was there when Furin was changed.

Also:

- why did he come this far just to join Furin, it's suspicious

No no, the real question is why did he start attending middle School in Makochi, nothing suspicious about him joining a school known for protecting people when he comes from an organisation that protects people in the town he's already attending school at. And I suspect the answer is probably that they don't have official schools in Bankoku-Gai

- Did he come to Makochi after Sakura?

Nobody knew who Sakura was before the first day of class (Hiragi and vices and Kotoha being the exceptions), Suo just heard about the incident and put two and two together. Suo was already in Makochi 3 years before Sakura.

Most people: "I believe in you 🫶"

Sugishita: "Quit acting like a bagworm."

Sakura: *Immediately locks in*