Firefujoshi's activites

What happened with muichiro? Rereading rn and still confused

I love this story so much and I’ve been following it for years. Now that I get to read the ending, I literally started crying.

I originally thought that shinpei and satoko finally reunited in their old age, and even though it took so many years, at least they met. Then I thought about the ending more and realized shinpei was hallucinating. The true ending is that Satoko was dead, but wanted to ensure that shinpei lived a long life and die peacefully. I also have another theory. Hear me out:

Right before shinpei sabotaged the wedding, satoko already knew she had only a month left. At this point, she had already made the decision to make the best use of her time —> she knows she will die. Satoko wanted shinpei to live and she knew shinpei couldn’t live on without her. While she made plans with her bodyguard that she could risk her life to stop shinpei from killing, satoko likely also planned what to do if she eventually dies. That means writing the letters to old-age shinpei. Who else to plan this with, other than with her loyal bodyguard that would follow her to her grave?

Remember that satoko loved shinpei so much that she was willing to accept him, even after finding out he murdered many innocent, well-off young sons. There is literally no reason for satoko to hide that she’s alive from shinpei for what looks like 50+ years, ESPECIALLY when she’s values him so much and wanted him to keep on living. Satoko wanted shinpei to live until the end. That’s been shown by her gift of the bowl and the letters under the bed of her wanting to live, motivating him to do so as well. It’s not like satoko had a neurological condition that caused he decades of amnesia. She had an incurable heart disease. It is pretty unrealistic that satoko just hid from shinpei for so long.

Okay, let’s say satoko wanted to hide from shinpei. You’re telling me that in 50 years, shinpei couldn’t find satoko at all? The duke heir allegedly “helped” satoko with that foreign doctor to save her, but he also told satoko and shinpei both many times that the dukedom gets what he wants. He wanted satoko and shinpei to be together. This dude definitely would’ve spilled the beans somehow to keep them both happy, and satoko would not want 50 years of misery without shinpei knowing that shinpei can’t obtain happiness without her. Plus, the bodyguard even knew, as well as people in the duke’s house that day. If satoko was still alive, shinpei would have found out way sooner.

One counter against this is that the letters explicitly detail satoko’s life after her “death,” such as the miracle doctor that saved her or her working a hard job to continue on living. This is probably the strongest evidence we have that satoko actually lived. I wish she lived too. In all likelihood, that letter could have been written by satoko before she died. Satoko mentioned rewriting her letter countless times to reach him. There could have been countless different letters that she wrote of what happened after she died, or she could have written parts and used the help of others after she died to fill in other parts. Shinpei clearly wasn’t in his right mind reading the potentially notice anything off (if I was him I wouldn’t be either I mean who would) and can easily become overwhelmed by his emotions.

When shinpei saw satoko, yes we saw images of satoko and shinpei’s older selves. That was shinpei’s hallucination. Note that we never see satoko’s aged face. Why is this? Because satoko died and shinpei doesn’t know what an older satoko looks like. That’s why we see satoko’s wrinkled hands, but everything else is her 16 year old self that shinpei remembers. Shinpei cannot envision the older satoko, hence his hallucination is limited to the younger version.

That brings me to my last point. Throughout the story, shinpei is haunted by voices and hallucinations. He sees people and hears things. Any mention of satoko is enough to drive him crazy and has historically done so. Shinpei is likely in the last few years of his life. He’s visiting the island where he met the love of his life decades ago, reliving all their memories. That island will soon be gone. Shinpei is ready to stop living. Now bam, satoko’s bodyguard finds him when he’s about to die, to tell him that satoko is alive? Isn’t this choice of timing strange? Why tell shinpei that satoko is still alive and satoko now wants to meet him when shinpei is literally about to die? And that satoko has been living in their old house?

Thanks for bearing with my long explanation, here’s my conclusion:

Satoko has always wanted shinpei to live out his life without killing more people. She wanted to spend her life living with him, but if that wasn’t possible, satoko wanted shinpei to live a long life and die fulfilled. Satoko told her bodyguard to give the letters to shinpei when shinpei was about to meet his end and reunite with her in the afterlife. Now that shinpei has lived meaninglessly without satoko, not killing anyone, and ready to die on the island that will soon be gone, shinpei is ready to go but with many lingering memories. Satoko’s letters have brought shinpei his final peace where he can be with satoko again.

Beyond all of this, my theory is that when shinpei entered that small house with those letters from satoko, prepared to see her, shinpei could also have been dead. Dead satoko had been waiting for shinpei in that house to wait for shinpei to come to the afterlife. When shinpei reunites with satoko, he is already peacefully and happily dead. Shinpei and satoko see the afterlife young versions of each other, neither affected by time, and finally reunite to move on together. Therefore, satoko was still waiting for shinpei all along. Shinpei never figured out that satoko was alive because she wasn’t. Shinpei could only reunite with satoko once he was dead. (Guys this could be a wild theory but I want to believe that they reunited and lived happily ever after in the afterlife)

TLDR satoko helps shinpei die peacefully + (my theory) they move on to the afterlife together

One year ago, I was a world-class player in the game [Arcana]. However, everything I built up was de...