Spooky chapter for Spooktober, it seems
Regarding chapter 47, some takeouts :
Spoiler:
IF that "oni's arm" is indeed an Oni's arm, or better yet, a certain someone's arm, or THE arm that a certain someone has been searching for quite a bit, then 1/ that is one heck of a small arm, 2/ how did Reimu receive it ? Like, was it at the Hakurei Shrine all along or was it given to her, and if so, what are the specifics of it ? 3/ The fact that the item in question is also not with Reimu's physical body but instead with her in Hell raises some question regarding its nature, unless this is something like the case of Sumireko bringing items from the Outside World except we have Reimu, the "oni's arm", and some kind of weird Hell this time, and 4/ Does the arm allow whoever's got it to get into or to interact with a particuliar kind of Hell or any Hell, and only spiritually or not just spiritually ? And also, 5/ Tenshi to the rescue ! ... Probably.
Interesting enough,
At any rate, there's not a lot to take from chapter 47, seeing as it is only a setup for a resolution that's gonna be brought later. Speculation are possible, but aside from Reimu obviously
from her predicament, not much else is certain.
Considering that VFiS is coming up next, I'd be curious to see whether
os gonna be refered to in there or if we're gonna get a
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Anyway, on the more speculative, regarding the Sages in general, they generally seem to mainly protect Gensokyo from
outside interferences : Yukari from the Outside World, Okina from ... foreign energies (?), but then we have Kasen, who, uh, guides animals ?! As one of the Sage founders, that seems a bit ... unusual ? Anyway, ASSUMING that the
Spoiler:
Oni's arm introduced in this chapter turns out to be Kasen's missing arm, and considering that the Oni's arm apparently seems to allow someone to interact with Hell (or "a" Hell), and considering the fact that in a much, MUCH earlier WaHH chapter, Kasen did mention "beating up the servants of Hell" (iirc, but the way that remark came out was in a way so nonchalant it stood out in a weird way to me), and seems to not be very fond of Hell in general, then what if Kasen's role, as a Sage, was to, dunno, keep Gensokyo safe from the threats from down below ? Since the underworld and Hell are NOT part of Gensokyo ? (think of them as a very close neighboring country of sorts that is for example) Kinda "weak" if you consider the fact that Yukari could take the initiative to make an agreement between Gensokyo and Hell, which would be rather rude if someone else was already in the charge of that, but still ...