I have mixed feelings about the new chapter. While on one hand, "a beloved main character dies to spur the other characters on" is a very common trope for mangas of this genere... But Agni being the one to be offed is VERY devastating to me as a long-time reader, as I particularly liked Agni and the way he played off of the other characters.
However, I will reserve my judgment on this descion until I see the full effects Agni's sacrifice have on the story. Sure, this is going right onto my list of my least favorite scenes in this manga, but how low it falls will be determined down the line when we actually see if Agni's sacrifice has meaning, or if was a meaningless act - in the latter case I may drop this manga due to I dislike main/ core characters dying pointless deaths.
You spelled out my thoughts and feelings exactly. I'm really mad about this right now and thought of dropping it for two seconds, but I've been reading for almost 10 years. Just......of all characters, why Agni? And why break him away from Sohma when they are two sides of a coin its so awful
He's one of the only few characters that is good and mostly pure so I guess we had it coming. I forgot that this series can be cruel
This is going to be one of those moments in a series when you wonder "was it worth it"? The last time this happened was Maes Hughes in FMA. I remember how devastated I was when that happened. But It actually paid off in the when Roy's desire for vengeance almost made him a monster (Seeing Roy roasting Envy as Roy's vengeance slowly overtook him was not a pretty thing to watch.) Put Hughes' death paid off because Roy was able to realize that killing Envy wouldn't make ANYONE happy.
Hopefully we'll see Sohma try to come more independent and step into the role Agni saw him as because of this. If that happens, I think I can actually accept Agni's death.
But this is Black Butler. Tragedy is always looming and nothing pure remains that way. So we must wait and see how the dice fall.
The gunman is Lizzie.
I say this because, one, Soma knew the gunman. Since Soma greeted them with familiarity.
Secondly, Soma greeted the gunman with the generic pronoun, "you". Soma never greets Ciel with a generic pronoun.
Thirdly, the gunman is likely shorter than Soma. From the panels we see from the gunman's perspective, Soma is bent over to feel the gunman's forehead. Plus, to aim at Soma's forehead the gunman angled their hand upwards.
And some extra things to keep mind, the gunman likely isn't one of Ciel's servants.
With the above in mind, the list of characters that meets the above criteria becomes extremely limited. Off the top of my head, this list includes; Lizzie, Sullivan, possibly Ran-Mao, former classmates from Weston, and Harcourt.
The most likely imo is Lizzie due to (the possible foreshadowing) Ciel and Sebastian briefly muse that something severe has caused a dramatic shift in Lizzie's mindset.
The others from my list is unlikely mainly because Sullivan likely wouldn't jeopardize her current protection to personally kill a person. Ran-Mao uses giant maces to assassinate people. A Weston College student or Harcourt is also unlikely do to not having any direct like to anything related to things that would warrant Phantomhive attention.
This leaves us with Lizzie. The only other plausible alternative that I can think of is "a character we haven't properly met yet, but has been meeting with Soma offscreen".
I know that it wouldn't shoot Soma do to him being a useable pawn. Ciel uses people not kill without a reason, and he doesn't have one.
Also good to see Akihito how to use the guns you bring to the knife and fist fights.
Go get 'em tiger!
Yep. That backfired rather spectacularly, didn't it?
Still... Seeing Nakagawa cling to Touya like a chick cling to it's mother is rather amusing to say the least.
Now lets see if everyone can handle the all the new revelation from this chapter.
My guess is on Touya having to give Nakagawa a crash course in how the world works and having to beat Nakagawa off Kamio with a newspaper
There's no possible way that leaving such a strong impression on Nakagawa can backfire...
Nope. Can't say it with a straight face.
Yeah nakagawa had his crush on touya, and amano got a jealous.
Still... Mame! Stop ruining the mood!
Also lol'd when Sora was revealed to still have innocence and Kai (of course) didn't.
Since I haven't read the light novel of this installment of the Doulou Dalu/ Combat Continent/ Soul Land series (Has someone even gotten a decent way into translating Doulou Dalu II into English?) - as light novels tend to give extra insight in the characters' thoughts - I can't give a full and fair assesment of the fight...
But my current thoughts are as Such: The first death - Lin Xi - was truly a tragic accident. No one knew how powerful Ma Xiao Tao had gotten - not even herself. Although imo, the ref should have stopped the match there, but I digress. Now Chen Fei's death is a lot more grey. There are a lot of people at fault imo.
First is the ref. Yes, while the ref said that he couldn't guarantee any of the combatants' lives, failing to stop a second death is sloppy on his part - the text seems to imply that he was more busy looking out for the biggest talents of the Sun Moon Empire, rather than all the combatants.
Secondly, Chen Fei, even though he was the one who died, bears some responsibility for his own death. Chen Fei's inability to judge the strength of Ma Xiao Tao after it was fully demonstrated and rushing head-log to confront her without the personal strength, plans, and/or tools to make up for the difference in power - not to mention the fact that Chen fei was the only one who used his fists rather than a ranged attack - only further led to his demise.
Thirdly is Ma Xiao Tao herself. Here I'm going to use the "With great power comes great responsibility" argument. If Ma Xiao Tao knew that he Phoenix flames could go out of control again, she probably should have backed off and/or decided to just escape until help could arrive things might have played out differently.
Alternatively, since we didn't see the exchange of attacks that lead to Chen Fei's death it could also be possible Ma Xiao Tao warned the three to back off when she felt her Phoenix flames acting up and Chen Fei's rage blinded him to the fact that she warned them to try and save their lives and died as a result. However, even in this scenario, the ref should have been able to intervene.
This is the link for the light novel: https://cookiepasta.com/
However, it is behind the manga. So we don't really know their thoughts yet.
I'll second that agreed on it
I don't I've ever craved more from a yaoi one-shot before... This is a rather new experience for me. I suppose that that's a good thing - finally finding an author that can get me craving more from a one-shot.
Yep. I want to see more from this couple. A LOT.
This is not an oneshot :) it is just the first chapter of a full volume! So, you will get more from this one (●'◡'●)ﾉ
o/ WOOOOO! Good to know!
(●'◡'●)ﾉ
LOL!!
Could it be that if the twin theory is correct, and presumably the lie Ciel is referring to is everyone was dead when Ciel and Sebastian formed their contract...
Would it make sense that the other twin was some how reanimated by Undertaker, and then ended up like the teacher in the School arc? As it was shown that particular corpse seemed rather realistic and was able to out run Sebastian going at full strength.
If this is the case, it could explain how someone could take down Agni and still fulfill the requirements for Soma actions and the various reactions Soma and Agni had to the current senario.
If the twin theory is correct (I don't believe it because there's no reason whatsoever for 'Ciel' to pretend to be his twin - the family is dead, it doesn't matter who he is), then I agree with that being the lie. But Sebastian doesn't lie, so... I doubt the twin could have been/was reanimated - Soma would have questioned why Ciel was doing what he was doing as he was running away... I also think that Agni could have closed himself in the cupboard with Soma - the door opens in, he could have used his weight to hold it closed.
I won't ague the Twin theory with you as there are arguments for both sides and we don't have enough evidence to disprove the theory.
However, I will say Agni would have died regardless. Doing things the way he did Agni guaranteed Soma would at least survive the encounter. Sine we were dealing with attacker/s with guns - and even 19th century pistols could penetrate a wooden door and still have enough force to kill a person the other side. The attacker/s could have - and would have - easily shot Agni through the door and we still would have lost Agni - and possibly Soma.
Further the attacker/s had a mission - to vandalize Ciel's room and leave before he returned and eliminate all threats to the success of that goal. So any smart attackers wouldn't leave any threats to their mission free to roam around nor would they expend valuable time trying to go after a person who was not a target or a threat to the mission.
By holding the door shut from the outside, Agni gave the attacker/s the free access to the biggest threat at that moment, while simultaneously eliminating Soma from still being a threat by locking him in the room. So unless the attackers are revealed later to be utterly sadistic sociopaths - thus leaving Soma alive would likely be OOC behavior - going after a young man locked in a room would have just been a waste of time and resources, since Ciel and Sebastian could have returned at any moment.