Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 21C

[unare_haineko]

Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…

Author: Unare Haineko

Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi

Rating:  R-ish, but NC-17 for this chapter

Summary: [Revised] Three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here), we have Juntoshi trying to raise their son Ayumu while the demons from the dark shadows that

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Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 1

[mmestrange]

Academic wrangling

It is likely that most of the minor cast in the academic circuit are connected to one another in one form or another, just in the same way the minor cast in the host club and drug circuit are connected to one another and JE in some way or the other. Remember, this is Itsumademo where to quote Miyazono, “there are no such things as coincidences.” The unifying common factors between both sets of characters are the JE characters such as our five main protagonists and the law offices of Miyazono Yuuichi.

The only question is how all the characters in the academic circuit are connected and how they are connected to the law offices of Miyazono Yuuichi and/or JE. I have no doubt Haineko will reveal that by and by.

Research Material & the Collision between the Greeks and the RomansLet’s start with the Restricted Materials archive in the basement. Yes, it is in the basement. That is significant. It means the knowledge is underground, not meant to be shared because it would be unpalatable to the masses. To take knowledge

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 2

[mmestrange]

(02) From the nature of the research (distilling poisons from nature and testing them out on animals such as Vesuvius and the other dead specimens in the laboratory), I hazard a guess that this mad scientist was after more than renown. He must have been in someone’s pay, otherwise he would not have been able to stay on after his sabbatical had ended. While on is on research sabbatical, one gets funding from the university giving you the sabbatical on grounds that you will go back to said uni, publish your findings and bolster the uni’s name and so boost uni’s standing in the eyes of the academic world and impressionable parents. The fact that Herr Doktor stayed on even though the uni he was attached to at the time must have recalled him to work and demanded he publish his work and the uni would have cut his funding had he not complied. When they cut his funding, how did Herr Doktor manage to find the funds to continue? Who was mad scientist researching for? And to what end

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 3

[mmestrange]

(03) The fact that there was no record of Herr Doktor’s employment and the existence of no records or documents in his folder should strike readers as suspicious. It was as though someone had gone through a great deal of trouble to erase the doctor’s presence, life and research. This smacks of a cover up by someone who is powerful economically and socially, someone with enough clout to pressure the university to bow to his/her wishes, someone who knew of the professor and his research (even though it was unpublished anywhere and Herr Doktor was awfully cryptic about his research with all his Roman references). All of which raises several questions

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 4

[mmestrange]

Herr Doktor’s notes are full of references to Janus, Angerone and Vesuvius. What does this tell us about the doggie? Firstly, Herr Doktor may have experimented on Vesuvius. Secondly, the name Vesuvius is striking. And thirdly, Isabelle repeatedly likens the dog to Cerberus - the three headed dog guarding the gates of Hades and in so doing prevents souls from escaping once they cross the River Styx

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 5

[mmestrange]

On the guardians of KnowledgeWe know from Ch 21 that Tony, Aides (an alternative name for Hades) and Isabelle looked through Herr Doktor’s research. Thus we may conclude that they know each other. Indeed, we know from earlier chapters that Ai-chan an Isabelle have some kind of odd friendship going on. And from Tony, Isabelle would have gotten to know Julie. As Mikeila was the research assistant to Herr Doktor, she must have been known to all three of them. As she is continuing her research with Tony, we can safely say that she is capable researcher in her own right and had not really transgressed in the same way the deceased Herr Doktor has done. She is still a discreet researcher even with Tony, and prior to that, she did not volunteer more than necessary when Herr Doktor passed on. What does that tell you? She guards knowledge and does not let it go to those who are (a) not ready for it, (b) unworthy of it, (c) inclined to misuse it, (d) judge it without examining it. This is in effect is the same thing Isabelle is doing vis-à-vis

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 6

[mmestrange]

(09)But still I wonder, did Herr Doktor really die of a stroke? Or did he die because he attempted to test the poison on himself? Or was he poisoned by some other agent? If so, who?

(10)Moreover, what were Mikeila’s motivations for working with Herr Doktor? Did she work with Herr Mad Scientist because she was blackmailed or was she infatuated with him or was she assigned to be his research assistant? Or did Herr Doktor Mad Scientist offer her money and she was in dire straits and so took him up on the offer?

(11) Since nothing happens here is a coincidence and Haineko never reveals anything unless it is has some literary significance or has some role to play in the overall plot of Itsumademo, I have to ask - how does the story of Herr Doktor’s research play into the story and the JE connection? There could be some kind of connection. Poisons could very well mean drugs. Drugs have hallucinogenic effects and such effects could be culled from a variety of plants such as mushrooms, fungi, some berries and nuts and even plant sap

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 7

[mmestrange]

There are people like Ai-chan who is the type who likes to think well of people. Isabelle and Miyazono don’t. It’s not that they don’t trust people. They do trust certain individuals. It’s just that there is something cold about them. People like Ai-chan are the sorts who think, ‘I don’t mind going out, wheeling and dealing and making the money. But if you ask me to sit down with an accountant and count every dollar and cent, I will find it sickening.’ He doesn’t want to sit down and do the calculations on his wealth/knowledge, he rather go out to make the money/gather knowledge and have someone else take care of the mundane monetary needs and so he shares his money/knowledge with this someone else (such as Iris). It’s almost like Ai-chan saying, ‘I’ll go out and find the money. You just look after it and pay the taxes and all that.’ Iris, on the other hand, has certain liberalities with the money, she can spend it on himself and she gets to use the knowledge how she likes and rule over all the other people in Ai-chan’s academic

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 8

[mmestrange]

You may say he’s stupid. Yet that’s the kind of guy he is. He can’t help being noble. In that sense, he is much more generous in a way that Isabelle is not. It isn’t that Isabelle is ignoble. No, she cares for what is just and what is just to her - that which is expedient. She is actually rather cold. Cold individuals are very often less noble than the genuinely warm hearted.

There’s this passage in 8.4.22 in the Cyropaedia where Cyrus and his men are discussing about what sort of wives they would like. It starts off humorously with jokes like men with hooked noses need snubbed women to even them out and things like that. The ancients believed a great deal in physiognomy, we must remember. Then Chrysantas cracks a joke about Cyrus and asks, ‘By the gods, would you be able to say what sort of wife would be advantageous for a cold king?’ We are told twice more in the Cyropaedia that Cyrus is cold, not just as a king but as a man as well. There is an element of truth in this observation even though it is said in jest. Cyrus is cold,

Analyses & Commentary, Chapter 21, Section 6, part 9

[mmestrange]

I speculate that she has some kind of a past, possibly spotted if not outright unsavoury. It could very likely be that she was some kind of lady cat burglar along the lines of Arsene Lupin. The fact that she claims antique locks to be her speciality hints at that aspect of her past. Notice that she picks the locks. Most other locksmiths would just cut the lock and force the door open. That’s what they do when you phone them and tell them that you’ve locked yourself out of your house at 1am in the morning. What sort of person picks locks, takes them apart and studies the mechanism in them? And we are indirectly told Sawaguchi has studied the locks because she can say exactly what was forced and where. Due to these instances, I am half convinced that Sawaguchi has a chequered past. Assuming I am right in this conjecture, then it is likely Miyazono had at some point defended her as his client in exchange for having her abilities at his disposal.

(14) Now, the fact that Isabelle phoned the law offices instead of Mme Sawaguchi personally