hyuse and chika should stay stapled together in the away mission. they become the most interesting versions of themselves when they're interacting with each other and they leave echoes on each other in a way that doesn't really happen with other characters.
like. so much of chika's depth and nuance was brought to the surface because of hyuse. there was inklings of it. in reiji's conversation with usami post one of the early matches about how chika would volunteer for the dangerous parts and was happy to be used as bait and what-not. and how osamu and yuma wanted to let her get into the habit of valuing herself and that's why they treat her so carefully and preciously...and like the sentiment is there and in the right place but it's almost like they overcorrected. osamu especially can't escape from his bias that chika is someone that he needs to protect and while yuma was the first to recognize that chika should be a combatant so she could fight, he also has his bias that she is a friend. a friend he wants to help and recognises, but ultimately a friend he wants to support.
and chika doesn't need support. like obviously she does, and everyone else has lifted her up to get her to this point, but also it's not what she actually needs.
so it's hyuse who just calls her out and says "you can shoot people." and not even in a cruel way. he's genuinely baffled because he doesn't understand why this has gone on so long and no one has addressed it.
and this sentiment is coming from the fact that this hyuse also has his own bias. and his bias tells her that this is a child soldier. because game recognises game and while yuma is also a child soldier, hyuse feels more structured and directly taught as opposed to yuma who feels like he was given lessons and training, but also heavily encouraged to figure it out on his own and define his own path.
that's why hyuse can speak so concretely about how to break down overwhelming things. that's why he doesn't say ambiguous lines of supportive dialogue, he actually breaks it down and offers insights and actionable, understandable steps.
chika doesn't need steps. from his point of view, chika is already there. chika doesn't need to be pushed or prodded or backed into a corner—she needs to make a decision. and chika panics and retreats. her friends and confidants take over to help soothe her and that's when she's able to finally say things herself instead of people assuming and diagnosing on her behalf. she's able to talk about how deeply she thinks about the way people think about her. about the lengths she goes to in order be amicable and not rock the boat. about how she doesn't say anything because last time she did, her friend got taken and she was so afraid of being blamed for it. more than her grief, it was her fear.
hyuse sees how she has comported herself in order to survive and he sees how that is no longer conducive to her actual goals. because there is a difference between "i want to fight" and "i want to fight".
so that's why he tells her to protect osamu and yuma in his stead. he doesn't tell her to shoot, he tells her now. and that says a lot about him as well.
he gives her a fucking fist bump im still screaming about it.
the way characters see each other being reflective of they themselves is oughhh. seriously one of the most attractive things about world trigger because of the diverse opinions, mindsets, and backgrounds that all feed into who they are, what they do, and why they do it.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
So I was looking back through the pages of the manga and I noticed something very interesting about Hyuse. It's a really subtle thing but it's been blowing my mind all the way to Saturn and back.
I had to split this post up because of the Tumblr picture limit so if you want the full version you can find it here.
When we first meet Hyuse, he's in the Aftokrator Away Ship, dressed in Aftokrator's military uniform, surrounded by fellow soldiers. And he looks like this:
Look at his hair. It's neat and tidy, slicked back to be smooth and out of the way. It's very round and flat and well-behaved, almost like it's been polished.
Soon after this, Hyuse is instructed to go out and fight Tamakoma-1. So he does. He goes with Viza and he fights Tamakoma-1.
But Tamakoma-1 isn't easy to beat. In fact, they're quite hard to beat, and Hyuse is encountering some difficulties. Their techniques and weapons are new, unusual and unknown to him - he's being exposed to how Meeden works for the first time. And his hair... scruffs just a little bit.
Just a little bit messier, not a lot to really matter. Could be just the effect of an intense fight.
Then he meets Jin.
And then he fights Jin. And after fighting Jin and learning that his fellow Aftokratans have left, he looks like this:
Those back spikes weren't like that before, were they? No, after having fought with Jin and being told he's been abandoned by his comrades, Hyuse's hair is definitely scruffier. (Also, doesn't that crack look weirdly like he's... crying? Food for thought.)
So Aftokrator loses and Hyuse is taken prisoner, and when we next see him, it's here:
Posture slouched, hands in his pockets, hood over his head. A very clear anti-social stance. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to talk to these people, he's pretty much doing this against his will. So he's reluctant, and he's hiding.
This is a common thing with Hyuse. It's how Ashihara communicates the distance between Hyuse and other characters to the audience; if he doesn't want to be there, he puts the hood up and he hides. And it's kinda interesting that the behaviour that is associated with Hyuse hiding is also the behaviour where he covers his hair.
His hair, which went from almost-uniform neatness in Aftokrator's ship to a ruffled mess after being on Meeden.
Do you see where this is heading? Let me keep going.
After the Aftokrator invasion, Hyuse spends some time among Tamakoma Branch as per Border's way of keeping him prisoner. He barely talks to any of the people there, but that doesn't mean he doesn't interact with them. He's still in the same space as them, sharing the same environment, so he continues to gain exposure to Meeden and its people, and he bonds particularly with Yōtarō.
Following this, the next major event in the story is the Galopoula invasion. Towards the end Hyuse meets with one of the Galopoula soldiers (Reghindetz) and demands to be taken with them so he can return to Aftokrator.
Hyuse fakes stabbing Yōtarō in order to convince Reghindetz of taking him with them, but Reghindetz flips out a completely grills him.
Chapter 135 is the first ever chapter to be titled with Hyuse's name; it's incredibly important to his character, and this panel is the centre of it. It takes up half the page it's on. Ashihara wanted to make it very clear to the audience that this moment for Hyuse is absolutely critical - and it is, because this is a major turning point in Hyuse's character growth. He's just had the blatant truth of what it means to be left behind by Aftokrator thrown right in his face.
And you wanna know what Ashihara chose to highlight in such an incredibly crucial moment for Hyuse's character?
His fucking hair.
His messy, fluffy, scruffy hair that looks absolutely nothing like it did when he first arrived in the Aftokrator ship. His hair, which has gone from neat and orderly and controlled to wild and free just from being on Meeden.
But the absolute wildest part? Hyuse looks like a teenager now. The more his hair fluffs up and gets scruffy, the more Hyuse looks like a normal everyday teenager who just grew up on Meeden/Earth. It's insane. It's surreal. It's absolutely off-the-walls batshit bonkers and Ashihara is a bloody genius.
It doesn't stop there either, because the very next thing that happens is the first time the audience gets to see Hyuse put on Lambyris. And lo and behold...
Hyuse, using Lambyris and wearing Aftokrator's military uniform, has scruffy hair.
Ashihara could've just made it so that Lambyris automatically gives Hyuse neatened hair, and excused the previous scruffiness with "he was in a fight". But he didn't. Instead he chose to show us Hyuse putting on Lambyris while looking like a normal teenager, and have his trion body load in with god damn scruffy hair.
What happens afterwards? Well...
Hyuse hides again.
Notice how he took the hood off when facing Reghindetz? He was confident then, self-assured. He had a plan and he was gonna act on it. Now, that's all been crushed. He's back to square one and worse, he's been confronted with the fact that he's been abandoned.
There's a distinct pattern to Hyuse's hiding. Whenever he's faced with something that shakes his world view and/or hurts his pride, he puts his hood up. He creates a second shield for himself and he uses it to cover up his key defining features. This isn't just anti-social behaviour, it's a defence mechanism.
The Aftokrator invasion? No hood, but the moment he's taken prisoner of war it's there. Aftokrator lost and then left Hyuse behind, and he's hiding how he's hurt by that. On top of that, he's being manhandled by Border.
Confronting Reghindetz? No hood, he didn't feel like he needed it. Post-Galopoula invasion? Hood up, head down, won't sit near anyone but Yōtarō. He's having to rearrange his whole perception of himself, Aftokrator and Meeden and it sucks.
And thirdly, confronting the Border Executives. In order for Hyuse to get back to Aftokrator, he needs to join Tamakoma-2 as their second ace, and help them get onto the Away Mission team. To do that, however, he needs approval from the heads of Border - which means he needs Osamu to plead his case.
Notice how, by having him sat down, Ashihara made Hyuse shorter than Yūma in this panel? How Hyuse, who's normally the tallest out of Tamakoma-2, is depicted as smaller than their smallest member? And even more than that, how Osamu is now the tallest?
Where Hyuse is normally the guide, the advisor, the more experienced one that the others turn to, in this situation he is the one reliant on them.
And look, he's regressed. He's gone back to that flat-eyed stare he had when we first saw him in the hoodie, sat in the back of the car.
He's been placed into a situation where he is basically powerless and completely dependent on others to survive, and in response all of his defence mechanisms have gone back up. He refuses to emote properly and only talks when he feels it's absolutely necessary, and the hood stays firmly on - hiding not only his hair but his horns as well, the key defining feature of his Neighbour heritage.
But Mikumo succeeds in getting Hyuse approved for Tamakoma-2. And Hyuse, incidentally, goes back to being depicted as the tallest of the four of them.
From this angle, it also appears that he's no longer slouching. His confidence is slowly coming back.
So at long last, in Chapter 150/151, Hyuse joins Border. He rocks up at the induction ceremony in a customised C-Rank uniform, hair fully exposed and scruffy as ever.
i truly do appreciate the fact that with a wide a cast as world trigger, the og trio still remains the core of the series. like i know jin is technically also part of the protagonist core, but this is a story that has always been about osamu, yuma, and chika.
it's chika's motivation that drives them forwards. even osamu's personal drive to do what he thinks right was running in the mud before chika electrified him with her desire to join the away mission.
it's osamu's frustration that underpins the narrative. we explore time and time again examining what you specifically CAN do, what you want to achieve, outlining the steps towards your goal, and taking responsibility for your actions and the consequences. not just through osamu, but through many of the characters as well.
it's yuma's grief that haunts him and this narrative. the ticking clock that accelerates the cast, osamu particularly, and keeps things in constant motion. his grief also connects us to different parts of the cast, yuma himself seeking, making, and maintaining those connections.
everything in world trigger can flow back to one or more of the tamakoma trio and it's really nice how important they are among the sea of characters. it really is their story. and they are in every part of it.
i do have a headcanon that osamu's tendency to Say follow the law and be a good and polite citizen is largely informed by his father quickly realising if he didn't try to install morals in this guy, osamu would become a menace to society.
i really like that osamu isn't strictly even all that empathetic. he obviously cares about chika and yuma, but he helps them not because he feels bad for them or sympathizes—he literally can't. he never experienced something like what they went through. even the initial invasion that his classmates were commisterating over—he couldn't relate because he went to another school. he's an outsider to the trauma a lot of mikado city share.
that's the point.
he lacks experience. not just in combat, but in life in general. all its trials, its tragedies, its victories, and its swells. he was a normal boy. he is a normal boy.
and that's a good thing. he's exactly what a lot of these people need. osamu mikumo isn't kind or empathetic—he's moral. incredibly so! and he will stick by them even if it's unwise and it's unfair, because that's what he believes is the right thing to do.
amongst people who are very logical and pragmatic out of necessity (because that's what makes war and death and loss easier to deal with) osamu will choose to do the right thing, even if it's not always the correct thing. and that's what makes him such a fascinating mc to follow. it's why it's so rewarding to see what he will do next. not just because he's great at pulling off cheese strats or insane plays—it's because osamu is the one doing it.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Guy who asked Jin question back again because I have brain worms and was trying not to go too hard on a Yuma digression in the Jin and Osamu question but see. My fucking trap card (osayuu mentioned. I become feral. Such is the way)
Anyways Jin-Yuma-Osamu large scale invasion information gap my <adjective> my <sickos image> my <thing that makes me Be Come Evil in the DMs of friends and family>
Because like. I'm sure that after the fact Osamu debriefed about the whole thing with the rest of tk2, so some version of it gets back to Yuma eventually. And his and Jin’s goals are aligned right now so there's nothing to gain by making An Issue of it at this point (plus chika and osamu's feelings about the situation are doubtless a consideration). But also, the black trigger doesn't come out until Osamu is pinned. And he and Replica separate for the express purpose of protecting chika and osamu. And I wonder how all in on helping protect the city he might have been if the stakes were not precisely what they were. And I wonder about what he might feel with regards to being looped into another conflict between nations he's technically only marginally affiliated with. And I wonder if he thinks of politicians either playing on his grief or trying to, in their desperation to win their own battles. And I wonder. And I wonder,,,,
Of course Chika and Osamu are okay. And they're planning on going to get Replica back. So all's well enough that ends well enough, and there's nothing to gain from making an issue of it. But the guy has a lot of hours to himself to think about things so I doubt that it hasn't crossed his mind.
Edge of my fucking seat for the fic! I loved your other two a lot.
LMAO, please come to me with all your brainworms. i don't think you understand. i got into world trigger in like 2013 and it's just been in my brain ever since. it's THE series of all time for me so i have thought about it a lot and am only just letting out so feel free to poke at my brain. i love it <3
BUT YES. osayuu,,, my boys of all time. what if they were both feral for each other within meeting for literally no reason ever. what if they committed to being their most authentic selves and that's what pulled them together and now that they are together, they can be their best selves. i talked about chika only crying when osamu was around, but osamu only crying when yuma was around? goddd.
yuma is willing to not make it an issue, but i do think he does take osamu aside and asks him point blank why he forgives jin, but not kido. and osamu's answer is simply: well, he owes jin. and it makes yuma think a lot about that. about what it means to be willing to forgive someone because you owe them. (should he forgive his father for dying and leaving him alone. should he forgive replica for leaving him. should he forgive osamu for threatening to do the same. it's not as if there's exactly blame in his heart. but can you forgive someone only if they hurt you?)
and like. he knows the answer. he won't lie to himself. he was willing to play docile to people who were legitimately trying to kill him out of consideration for osamu. and yuma knows that osamu wouldn't mind and wouldn't blame him and i think there's a large partof yuma that doesn't want to address how angry that makes him. and maybe angry isn't the right word, but he definitely doesn't like how much power he holds in that respect. how much power jin and chika and all these people hold over osamu because osamu let's them have it.
if osamu had it his way, he would be someone's sword. he wants to be someone's sword so bad. he wants to be the shield. he wants to be fucking useful and he is willing to let himself be used because if he's useful, then people will stay with him. if he's useful, then rinji wouldn't have left.
but yuma flips osamu's wish on its head. yuma says no. you are going to be our captain. you are going to be the one leading us. we are going to put ourselves into your hands and you will have to take responsibility for making us care about you, for making us want to protect you, for making us want to live in a world with you in it even after we parted ways with the idea of us living a long life a long time ago.
yuma wants that power back in osamu's hands. so he'll heel. he won't make a fuss. maybe he'll look at jin a little longer than is polite, but he won't say a word unless jin brings it up first. because he knows osamu wouldn't want that, and yuma will do what osamu wants because those are his captain's orders.
and more importantly: because he trusts osamu would never make him do something he wouldn't want to do. osamu wouldn't make yuma figh for fake ass reasons like it's the right thing to do or it's what they would have wanted. osamu would make him fight because of something alruistic and selfish and stupid and sincere.
osamu luring people in with his normal boy rizz is so fucking funny. because he's not unhinged. let me be clear: he's not unhinged. but he is absurd and audacious and absolutely committed to the bit.
everyone is aggrieved when he starts inheriting some of karasuma's propensity for flat-faced lies. the first time he successfully pulls one over on jin, jin stared at a wall for an entire day. it was devastating.
How early do you suppose Jin knew about the whole osamu-is-maybe-gonna-die-in-the-large-scale-invasion thing? Because I guess in theory it could potentially have been at any point between the first time they met and that conversation he has with miwa on the roof. Like on one hand early is very fun in an emotionally fraught kind of way, if Jin pulls strings to get him in as a trainee because being able to gamble with his life will reduce civilian casualties down the line. On the other hand absolutely devastating realization to have to have once you kind of know someone. Do not envy that guy. 19 years old trolly problem lever operator.
It's also always been compelling to me that Yuma isn't there when Jin tells Osamu about choosing to let aftokrator focus on him and Chika. Because Osamu pretty much immediately forgives him, as is his nature and all, but I can't shake the thought that there might have been things he was leaving out about the cause and effect of all that that the little human polygraph over there would have caught.
anon, this is so fucking funny because i've literally been writing a fic about this very topic. well, not necessarily specifically about jin and how far ahead he knew of osamu's position as an axis point of fate, but it definitely deals a lot with jin's role as someone who's had to, in some part, define osamu's path. he's not leading osamu down any road specifically, but he's trimming the hedges, you know. he's giving osamu specific shoes and pruning some unfavourable paths and whether that means unfavourable to osamu or unfavourable to jin/the broader collective, is entirely up to interpretation.
my opinion is that jin knew pretty eary on. jin's side effect sees further into the future the more likely it is to happen. i think the aftokrator invasion is one of those very likely futures. i think osamu being involved in the invasion is also one of those likely futures. aftokrator could have gone anywhere, but the seeds were probably being planted long before what we see at the start of the series because they distributed a lot of RADS.
i do think all of osamu's roads lead to border. i don't think there was ever much likelihood in rinji accepting osamu as a co-conspirator because he cared about chika more than he cared about osamu and his little sister needed osamu by her side. i think it speaks a lot that chika only started to cry with osamu there. i don't think she cried when they were telling her parents or when her parents told her. she only teared up with osamu there so i think it was a fair read from rinji that his little sister needed osamu at her side especially if he himself was gone.
so, yeah, border was an eventuality. like rinji going over i think was a strong possibility. and these cascading effects lead to jin seeing this kid sneak in and a myriad of futures just open up.
because i think that's osamu's special protagonist power. he's not strong, he's not clever, he's not amazing—but what he does bring to the table is potential. it's his very feature as a captain—bringing out people's potential and figuring out ways to use them in clever cheesy ways.
osamu is at the intersection of a lot of different paths and if he's not directly related to them (he's the one who meets and brings yuma in, he brings chika in, he has a connection with rinji who is the gateway to all the hatohara stuff), he's been explicitly called similar to a lot of people (yugo, kitora's old self etc.) and he's a hopeless busybody who will inject himself into business (osamu crashing into like 7 board meetings). that's why jin invests so much in this kid is because he truly started to get so many gears spinning. the timeline on world trigger is insane especially after osamu touches the plot. because, you know, protagonist.
osamu meets yuma in december. it's like,,, march right now in canon? and think about how much has happened.
karasawa puts it best about osamu's role in all this:
maybe osamu isn't the direct cause, but he's the one who makes it possible.
and to your other point, i also think a huge part of why jin doesn't involve yuma is...because even though osamu's motivation is about yuma, jin's motivation is about osamu. remember that osamu literally threatened kido that he would never forgive him if he involved chika or yuma in his schemes. and here jin is explicitly stating that he very intentionally endangered both osmau and chika for the invasion and osamu forgives him.
it's not in his nature at all. osamu definitely isn't wise to everything that jin's probably 'done' for him, but osamu can very clearly see and understand that jin's played a significant hand in how things have turned up for him. it's about osamu recognising jin as it is jin recognising osamu.
(also if yuma had been there, i don't think he would have been very forgiving towards jin. that may be the osayuu shipper in me, but osamu is literally one half of his reason to keep on living. there's a lot yuma has staked on osamu and a lot he would do for him. keeping yuma separate gives all parties enough plausible deniability to keep the peace. politics like that is very much entrenched in world trigger.)
