New theory time courtesy of Storm Bringer code 10
This figure, who interestingly has their face pretty much obscured, caught my eye.
At first when I made the connection of based on the visual, a seemingly bulky built person wearing a traditional Japanese thigh-length kimono-style jacket, it made no sense. But then when I dug a little deeper and did some searching I realized the possibility of who this character could be might actually make a lot of sense.
The person I suspect this is could be is Taneda Santoka, director of the Special Division for Unusual Powers.
There are very obvious differences in design, the lack of his chest fluff accessory for example, and someone could think it may be "N", but we can tell from Chuuya's old photograph that it seems to be a different person since they seem to have a slimmer build. The similarities in design are too uncanny for me to ignore. Fukuzawa is the only other male character to wear more traditional robed clothing like that (and funny enough, one of Chuuya's original designs but that's a theory for another day).
I did some research because the placement of this mysterious figure and the lines from Storm Bringer made me curious.
This figure appears while Verlaine talks about military researchers, specifically the "Human Model System", in Code 10. It should be noted as it would have been a government program and government officials.
We know Taneda works with Special Division for Unusual Powers, an organization known for covering up incidents such as Shibusawa killing ability users during the Dragon's Head Conflict which saw the deaths of many Mafioso, possibly helped to hide evidence of the government run human experimental tests, the Arahabaki project.
Taneda also helped an ex Mafia member, Dazai, find a job despite his 'sordid history' by helping to clear his lengthy list of criminal activity which would have included homicide. They seemed to recognize each other too which is interesting, no Nikki, one theory at a time.
Taneda could've helped organize the Arahabaki project, potentially seeing it as a way to protect Yokohama the way they thought Shibusawa would do the same a few years later. Both were covered up when things went wrong.
What really made me suspicious is Taneda's ability, Hail in the Begging Bowl.
He has ability perception.
Hail in the Begging Bowl allows Taneda to see through the nature of someone's ability immediately if activated near him.
For instance, he was able to understand how the information exchange ability of Sigma works upon meeting up with him during the hostage incident orchestrated by the Decay of the Angel.
Moreover, as stated by Ango Sakaguchi, Taneda's ability helped the Special Division for Unusual Powers bury countless of malevolent and hostile ability users.
That means he would have been the perfect person to discover a five year old boy's ability, potentially becoming a candidate for weaponizing abilities and singularities. He could have seen this young man and worked with the researcher, "N", to bring them in for testing.
Taneda himself is still a mystery too. We don't know too much about his backstory or personality except this bit;
Not much is known about his personality. According to Fukuzawa, Taneda has "a ridiculous personality, a strange man in terms of a normal person."
That and Taneda was also the one present to strike a deal with Mori, giving Port Mafia the Gifted Business Permit, essentially keeping Special Division off their back.
This is all just speculation, but the pieces sort of fell into place after remembering his ability can perceive and understand other abilities. I always wondered how an amplify ability, as mentioned in Storm Bringer, could have even been detected. Especially in a young child that may not have even realized they had an ability.
Ah, I have so many questions. I look forward to seeing more with Taneda. I have a feeling there's a lot more to him that hopefully we'll see in future arcs.
