Quickly now! To the Theorymobile!

[makeste]

Having finally recovered some of my brain function from Thursday, and having now read the actual scanlation of the latest chapter, I feel a little vindicated about some old theories, and a little speculative about some new ones.

And above all, I'm feeling kinda rambly, because this chapter still has me all revved up. SO HERE'S A BRAND NEW THEORY POST COMIN' ATCHA.



First of all, here's my previous theory post. We can cross some things off now, hooray!

• So Shouichi was the one targeting the kids with the bazooka, and he did indeed use non-7^3 radiation to assist in this task. Check!
  
• I was wrong about both the modified bazooka and the purpose of the white machine, but the idea behind the former theory was sound; Irie used the machine to prevent the TYL!Guardians from being sent to the past, which is also why they weren't switched back again after five minutes.
  
• AND WE NOW KNOW BYAKURAN'S MASTER PLAN.
  
  Step One: Collect the 7^3.
  Step Two: ???
  Step Three: Profit!
  
  ...Though we pretty much knew that already. But still!

And we also have a lot of new info on top of that, particularly concerning the Arcobaleno. Oh, and that thing where Shouichi is suddenly a good guy. That's pretty fun. So now a lot of things are suddenly making much more sense. My current thoughts:

The Arcobaleno

From Kirimi's translation:

"In this world, there are many rings that hold secret powers, but among them, the seven Mare Rings, Vongola Rings, and the Arcobaleno's pacifiers - that is, these 21 rings - are called… the 7^3. And, the ores of the 7^3 are the foundations that created this world."

"…At the very least, the Arcobaleno, the human sacrifices who assimilated the 7^3, whose mission was to guard the 7^3… Will not deny what I've just said."

(The scanlation up at OneManga has a slightly different translation: "The Arcobaleno who sacrificed themselves because they were ordered to protect 7^3 can't deny this story." I can't personally say which translation is more accurate, but until that's clarified, I'm more inclined to lean toward Kirimi's.)

Anyway. This is huge. Not only do we finally know why the Arcobaleno were chosen/created, but we know what their connection to the 7^3 is. So here's how I read it. Somehow, the Italian mafia gets its hands on super-special-awesome ores with the power to ~DESTROY THE WORLD~ (we won't ask how, because it's manga-logic) and sensibly decides that MAYBE IT'S NOT SUCH A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP THESE ROCKS ALL TOGETHER LIKE THIS. So it's ultimately decided that the two mafia families with the longest and most respected histories--the Vongola, and the Giglio Nero--will divide the ores among them and forge them into rings in the fires of Mount Doom.

But just in case something happens that compromises these families' ability to protect said rings (like, say, some guy named Byakuran showing up), they come up with one last fail-safe. Seven individuals are chosen from among the elite of the mafia--the seven strongest they can find. The third and final set of ores are made into pacifiers, and their power is somehow fused with the seven. These seven, the Arcobaleno, are tasked with guarding the power of the 7^3.

As for the curse, I assume that that's what comes of messing with the forces that created the universe. It's also possible that the babyfication could be due to some sort of immortality thing (you must live forever to guard the ores!), which would be kinda interesting, though there's not much to support it. And of course, their "assimilation" of the 7^3 also explains why the non-7^3 is so harmful to them. I'M ASSUMING THE TWO DON'T MIX. Just a guess.

Incidentally, all this really make me wonder just what kind of dream Reborn had when he first got his pacifier. Now I'm curious, dang it.

But, moving on!

Irie Shouichi, aka The Spy So Good His Own Side Never Even Knew He Worked For Them

OH SHOU. Little did we know that the entire time we were drawing up exciting little theories about this arc, we were operating under the retrospectively crucial handicap of NOT KNOWING WHO THE VILLAIN ACTUALLY WAS.

This seriously changes so damn much. Just for starters, it explains:

• Shouichi's extreme protectiveness of the round machine. IF THEY'D BROKEN IT THEY'D HAVE BEEN KINDA FUCKED.
  
• His disdain for the Millefiore jacket/uniform.
  
• His unease around Byakuran. Which suddenly seems quite justified. All that teasing on Byakuran's part suddenly has a way more sinister feel than before. Did Byakuran suspect him? It's really hard to say.
  
• His epic grudge against the Vongola, which I am suddenly inclined to view as overly melodramatic acting. It would explain a few things. XDD

But wait! There's more! Shouichi being a good guy raises the possibility of him having been working with at least several of the TYL!Vongola all along. Which is frankly the only way I can think of to make the following things make sense:

• Hibari knowing exactly when he would switch out. (It's worth pointing out that his switch only happened after Irie found out that he was fighting Genkishi.)
  
• Mukuro seemingly knowing the true purpose of the white machine and sending a dream message to Chrome (and Tsuna, though it's not clear if that was on purpose) featuring a guest appearance from Shou.
  
• The fact that Ryohei--who as morphaileffect mentioned is the only one of the group with healing abilities--still has yet to switch out. They might have purposely waited as long as possible to increase the odds of the mission succeeding.

One major thing it doesn't explain, however, is why TYL!Gokudera would have told Tsuna and his younger self to kill Shouichi.

"When you get back, eliminate this person immediately! ...There's no need to hesitate. If only that guy didn't exist... Byakuran wouldn't be like this."

"Gather the guardians. With the Vongola rings, defeat Byakuran. Eliminate the guy with the glasses in the photograph. Everything will return to as it was."

It can't just be that TYL!Gokudera was in the dark as to Irie's true identity; his knowledge of Irie's plan rules that out. If he knew the TYB!Vongola would be brought to the future, he must have known about Shouichi and the machine. Furthermore, he says that by defeating Byakuran, the Vongola will be able to return to their own time. That makes sense--if they can stop Byakuran's plan, then they'll no longer be needed in the future, and Shouichi can safely return them home.

But why, then, did Gokudera tell them to kill Shouichi? There are only two possibilities that I can think of. The first is that Gokudera had reason to mistrust Shouichi and wanted to make sure he didn't double-cross them. Or maybe Irie had something to do with TYL!Tsuna's death (either accidentally, or before he joined the Vongola's side), and it's payback.

The other possibility--which is way more far-fetched, but also more interesting--is that Gokudera purposely told them to target Shouichi in order to give them the motivation to find him. Once they finally met up, Shou could drop his guise and join their side to help them (pretty much like he just did). The main problem with this theory is that it seems like a pretty needless risk, telling the Vongola to kill their own ally. Supposing they actually managed it? They'd have been kind of screwed.

And this is where we get to the final bit of plot the last few chapters have started to hint at.

TIME MACHINE!1

"I heard a while back that one time, he messed around with subspace energy."
"Why would he use something like that?"
"I couldn't tell, but it has something to do with the relationship between time and space. They call it time travel."

"The two points have finally been connected. Irie Shouichi was researching time travel so that he could return to the past for his target."

"I have a feeling that Irie isn't the main cause of all this. And if this clue is correct, this device that's used to travel to the past has a deeper connection."

Now, the obvious conclusion here, knowing what we know now, is that the time travel device Irie built was actually the round machine, which prevented the TYL!Vongola from traveling back in time. But I'm not so sure this is the case. There are several reasons to suspect that other time-traveling hijinks are going on.

• How would TYB!Shouichi have known to shoot the Vongola kids with the bazooka? It makes absolutely no sense for him to be involved in this unless he knew what his future self was up to. Now, it's possible that he shot himself with the bazooka a few times to exchange messages that way, but that wouldn't explain the timing of everything. Particularly because of Hibari's case, I'm inclined to think that he has a much more precise way of communicating with TYL!Shou.
  
• And then there's this. Earlier in this arc, when Hibari and Bianchi were explaining the origin of the boxes, it was mentioned that everything about their development "involved coincidences happening at a most unusual frequency." It's possible that this might turn out to have something to do with the 7^3, but personally, it seems kind of suspicious to me. Like Kusakabe says, "such coincidences don't happen that easily." So was it really coincidence, or was someone messing around with time to make sure events happened the way they wanted them to?
  
• Lastly--somehow TYB!Dino knew about dying will flames before they became the next big thing. While there is, again, a good chance this might have something to do with the 7^3, it's pretty strange. Particularly how he said they'd be important in "the battles to come." Very curious knowledge of the future on his part.

So let's assume that maybe, just maybe, there is another method of time travel out there and Shou has had access to it. Why is this important? Because it might help to explain the other major problem with the "Shouichi is a good guy" scenario. Namely, that whole "trying to kill them" thing. I think we can all agree that getting to this point hasn't exactly been a piece of cake for the Vongola kids. In fact, they're astoundingly lucky to be alive. .0024 PERCENT CHANCE OF SUCCESS, PEOPLE. This was by all accounts a suicide mission, and Shouichi certainly didn't make that any easier for them. So why so homicidal, o secret ally?

Just throwing this out there, but... maybe it's because he already knew they'd succeed. Even before they started. I'm just sayin'. Time travel.

...Anyway, that's about as far as I've gotten. Lots to think about! And who even knows if we're still anywhere near the end of this arc. Oh Amano.

haha guys I wrote so much. *dies of lameness*