Some theories about this crazy future arc.

[makeste]

So I made this really long timeline/theory thing attempting to sort out all of the mysteries in this arc. Because speculating is damn fun.

First, I made a list of the mysteries we've got so far, by category lol SO NERDY.

The Set-Up

• Who was spying on Reborn, Lambo and Tsuna when Reborn got hit by the bazooka?
• Who was it that hit Yamamoto and the others with the bazooka from behind?
• Why is the bazooka malfunctioning (sending them only 9 years and 10 months forward, and not sending them back after five minutes)?
• What is the non 7^3 radiation/where does it come from/why is it deadly to the Arcobaleno?

The Millefiore

• What is Byakuran's master plan?
• What is Byakuran's relationship with Shouichi?
• Why did Shouichi join the Millefiore and why does he so badly want the Vongola to DIEEEEE YOU SCUUUMMM?
• What is that machine Tsuna saw in his dream, and what does it do?
• How did Byakuran and Shouichi know the TYL!Vongola had been swapped out with middle schoolers?
• How did Byakuran convince Uni to join forces/what did he do to brainwash her?

The TYL Vongola

• How was Future!Tsuna killed?
• How did Future!Gokudera know the younger Vongola would be brought to the future?

Those are the main ones, or at least they're the ones I've been pondering since I first started reading this arc. And from what I've managed to put together through guesswork, this is the theory I've currently got. Actually, it's more of a timeline than a theory; basically, this is my best guess at what's been going on in this arc.

• At some point during the ten-year gap, Irie Shouichi, possibly still harboring a hilarious grudge against the Vongola family for perceived wrongdoings and mental scarring, joins the mafia. Possibly the Bovino family, when he finally tries to return their goddamn box. (Or maybe he's recruited by a researcher such as Verde; thanks to ravenlock_3 for pointing this out!)
• Rings eventually become the new in thing and everyone has to have one. Sometime around this point, an up-and-coming punk named Byakuran becomes the new boss of the Gesso family. Somehow or other he comes across a MACHINE that's huge and awesome but needs to be powered by an RPG-like combo of mystical rings and binkys. He decides he wants this AWESOME POWER for himself and so begins on an epic quest of plotting and schemery.
• As the mafia families become increasingly violent in their greed for RINGS OF POWER, Sawada Tsunayoshi, up-and-coming boss of the Vongola family, makes the decision to destroy the Vongola rings so as to prevent more senseless bloodshed. Oh Tsuna.
• Temporarily pwned by lack of mystical items to power his doomsday device, Byakuran sulks until one day, fate smiles upon him in the form of a chance meeting with the aforementioned Shouichi, who's getting bored tinkering with bazookas in the Bovino R&D department and wants a project he can really sink his teeth into. And also, REVENGE since it's a nice bonus.
• While fucking around with the Doomsday Machine, Shouichi discovers a random and extraordinarily useful effect; it can do this cool thing where it produces a type of radiation THAT KILLS CURSED MAFIA SUPERBABIES. SWEET.
• Also, since that whole "Vongola rings being destroyed" thing is rather inconvenient, Byakuran has Shou-chan, with his Bovino know-how, begin work on a modified ten-year bazooka that will A) send targets to a specified point in the future rather than precisely ten years foward, and B) function for more than five minutes. Byakuran's plan is to target the Vongola kids just after they first acquire their rings--in other words, right after the Varia Arc. He wants them to be as weak/inexperienced as possible; the easier targets, the better.
• While Shou-chan is working on all this, Byakuran busies himself by hunting down the Mare rings, which are in the possession of the Giglio Nero family. He starts by murdering their boss with the non-7^3 radiation, possibly through the aid of an inside man, Genkishi.
• Byakuran then eventually maneuvers the Giglio Nero's new boss, Uni, into meeting with him to discuss the future of their two families. Except that once the two are alone, Byakuran... does... something... and somehow brainwashes her. JUST AS PLANNED!
• Encouraged by his success with Uni, Byakuran gets ambitious and decides to take the risky step of inviting Tsuna to come negotiate as well. Once he has Tsuna there, he attempts to use the same brainwashing trick that worked on Uni.
• Except that it doesn't work out, for two reasons. One is that his brainwashing isn't quite as thorough as he believes (Uni still had enough of her wits to send Gamma a message by returning his box to him). And the second reason is because Tsuna has inherited the Vongola gift of intuition strongly enough to help him fight it off. (Uni seemed to have the same ability, after all, which might be what enabled her to eventually resist.) Somewhat discouraged by this failure, and in a bit of a bind as Tsuna's guardians realize their betrayal and rush to their boss's aid, Byakuran resorts to Plan B: just shoot him.
• With Tsuna dead, Byakuran decides to go ahead with the original scheme, and starts killing off Arcobaleno in earnest, while simultaneously hunting down the Vongola and their allies. The more chaos, he figures, the less likely they'll be to put up an effective resistance when he swaps them out to take their rings.
• TYL!Mukuro, uniquely positioned to gather info on the Millefiore through his possession of Glo Xinia's box animal, gets wind of Byakuran's plan and manages to get word to TYL!Gokudera, who takes steps to counteract it by leaving an encoded message for his younger self. (Props to dosage for this theory. ♥)
• Somehow or other (possibly with the aid of a modded bazooka), Byakuran manages to send one of his agents ten years into the past to start targeting the young Vongola. Said agent manages to nab Lambo's bazooka and modify it according to Shouichi's designs, then sits back to wait for an opportunity. Once Reborn, Tsuna, and Lambo are alone, he hits Reborn with a blast of non-7^3, immobilizing him and allowing him to be hit. With Reborn (and soon after, Tsuna and Gokudera) out of the way, he proceeds to target the others, setting up the current circumstances in the manga.

As for what the machine is? Well, it's just a guess, but there were three inventors who first discovered the blueprints for the original boxes, right? Innocent, Koenig, and Verde. Now, I'm basing this on the assumption that the DOOMSDAY DEVICE is powered by the tre-ni-sette--which is just a theory, mind--but isn't it a weird coincidence that one of the three inventors is an Arcobaleno, and one of the three components of the 7^3 is the set of Arcobaleno pacifiers? Now, supposing that either Innocenti or Koenig has ties with the Vongola, and the remaining one is connected to the Giglio Nero? That accounts for the other two tre-ni-sette components--the Mare rings, and the Vongola rings.

What I'm trying to get at is... is it possible that the white machine was created by those three scientists? After all, if it really is powered by a combination of rings (and pacifiers)... wouldn't that essentially make it a giant box? A box that could, in theory, be activated by someone with (since it would contain all seven types of rings) a Sky flame?

In other words, someone like Tsuna... or Byakuran?

Anyway, I'm sure a lot of this is wrong, but it's always fun to guess, and this arc has given us one hell of a fun puzzle to sort out. Thoughts/rebuttals/other theories?

(ETA: Though I can't figure out where to fit it into this post, xylara also has an awesome theory that Byakuran may have actually had this planned out since the Varia arc. Now THAT is a villain.)