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Young Shuri

The chapter opens with a young Shuri, now aged 14, fending off a barrage of five suitors. This is likely a subtle reference to the famous tale of Princess Kaguya, in which Kaguya-hime grows up to become quite renown for her beauty, causing five suitors to come asking for her hand. She however rejects them by asking the five of them impossible demands, which might reflect Shuri’s desires only for a man who is basically just Brook. In the end though, the Emperor of Japan falls for Princess Kaguya, but she is forced to depart for the Moon from where she originated as a divine being, leaving behind the emperor only a vial of the elixir of immortality as a parting gift. The emperor however utlimately refuses the elixir. This could be seen as further symbolism of Shuri eventually going to the Holyland, the land of Gods much like the Moon is treated in the myth, and the elixir of immortality symbolizing the immortality that both she and Brook ultimately attain, but let’s not deviate too much from the original scene here.

These are princes from five other neighboring countries in the West Blue, which makes me wonder if they are from any place we know of already, but we get no names for their kingdoms. Potential neighboring places we know of would be the Bollywood Kingdom, the Ilisia Kingdom, the Kano Country, or Toroa, but it’s hard to say. Shuri is currently 14 years old, which places us 7 years ahead of last chapter, or 63 years ago. This makes Brook 27 years old, or 11 years before his eventual death. It’ll likely take a few more years before tragedy really strikes Esperia, especially as Shuri looks just slightly younger than she currently does, though likely not by much. The difference in size between the two however is quite apparent even after she’s grown up, as after all it’s easy to forget Brook is 2.66m tall, or 8’8″.

Gunko is still crushing on Brook, given her interest in men who are strong and good musicians, but Brook responsibly keeps his distance because it would be inappropriate, even though he has zero hesitance in asking others for their panties like he does in the present too. Sadly I think that this is making it quite apparent that Gunko’s design having her exposing her panties wide in the open was likely indeed a Goda foreshadowing moment all along, despite how legitimately ridiculous it is, as some part of Shuri’s memories must’ve persisted, perhaps driving her to wanting to be recognized by Brook.

Brook’s Childhood

We go back even further into Brook’s past though, at an age where he was 11 years old, or in other words, 79 years ago, at a time so old Roger hadn’t even been born yet. This younger Brook looks even closer to young Teach, although in this case he still doesn’t have the lower eyelashes. He wears a pair of sunglasses on his head, which mimick his appearance on Chapter 726’s color spread, which showed all the Straw Hats as children, proving it wasn’t just simbolic but it was indeed Brook’s canon appearance as a child. Here however his clothes are far more tattered, a sign of his poverty. The design appears to be the same as the one on that cover just more tattered, and while he has the same pants, his shirt instead of having 9 on it (which on the cover represented him being the 9th Straw Hat), instead has “DIE”, which ties into Brook’s themes of death that he sings about across the chapter.

Interestingly, he mentions a father, mother, and brother, although we never get to see them. The way it is framed, it makes it sound as if they all starved off, while Brook may be the only one who still survived. Brook seemingly lives out his days alone in a garbage dump, only dreaming of potentially getting into a real musical academy, but being shunned by the people of the kingdom for his poverty. This dump, specifically referred to as the Garbage Disposal Plant (ゴミ処理場), appears to be located on the edge of the Kingdom, with one of the shots showing that it is located on the edge to the left of the large bridge which connects the kingdom to the nearby separated island. A poorly built shack appears to be what I imagine is Brook’s home.

A young prince Luven meets Brook, wishing to connect more with the poor and downtrodden of his kingdom to better understand his people, claiming “this too is Esperia”. He mentions being 21 years old, meaning he was born 100 years ago, being 10 years older than Brook. Brook calls him “ossan” at first (old man), but eventually switches to “aniki”, or “big brother”, which is the term we saw him using last chapter. This clarifies that while they are not related by blood, Brook does indeed see Luven like an actual big brother, with the events of this chapter finally clarifying why he saw him as a “benefactor”. We also get his laughter style, being a very traditional da ha ha ha, which contrasts with Brook’s unique yo ho ho ho.

Something worth mentioning though is that I think this chapter makes it more clear who the inspiration for Luven was, as you may realize that messy spreading hair, the thick eyebrows, and even the butt chin are actually very reminiscent of the appearance of Ludwig Van Beethoven, and given how he’s the king of the country of instrument craftsmanship, being based on one of the most famous musicians of all time makes sense. Furthermore, Oda said Brook would be Austrian if he was born in our current world, and Beethoven, although born German, lived out most of his days in Vienna, Austria. Thinking about it, the buildings of Esperia are quite reminiscent of the architectonic style of Austria, with Vienna’s opera house being famously known too and having a similar architectonic style, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Oda’s inspiration for the kingdom. Furthermore this finally explains the name, as you may have never thought about it, but “Austria” is literally just derived from the word “East” (or its Latin origin, at least), because it was the country to the East of the Roman Empire. As we mentioned last analysis, Esperia is derived from Hesperides, which is the root for “West”, because it’s located in the West Blue. So essentially, the way this name reads, is that instead of Austria, country of the East, Esperia sounds more like “Westria” in its etymology, country of the West, so Oda just flipped the country’s namd around.

Luxuries

This also explains his name, which is written as ルーヴェン (ruuven) in Japanese, but could be romanized as Luven, Ruven, Reuven, Leuven, or any variation of that, since we don’t have an official romanization yet. However, the name is likely to be Luven, as it would be a shortening of Ludwig Van Beethoven, taking the first two and last three letters of his name.

As Brook offers Luven boiled frog and grasshoppers, Luven is reminded of all the luxuries he’s been offered as King, and how privileged he truly is. Brook helps cover the taste of the toad and grasshoppers with curry powder, which suddenly gives a lot more meaning to the fact that Brook’s favorite food is curry according to the Vol. 86 SBS. Luven recalls being served food, including the dollar abalone, a fish off the coast of the Euro Peninsula, a place we haven’t heard of before. Abalones are a type of sea snail prized for being a high cuisine ingredient since it is so rare to obtain and expensive. This is likely again though a stupid play on words by Oda since dollar and euro are two different types of currency.

He is also offered an A6 rupee beef (A６ルピ牛), likely called “rupee” as yet another pun on currency, based on the Indian rupee. This is particularly funny, because in Japan, the highest grades of beef are subdivided on a scale from E to A and from 1 to 5. In those categories, A and 5 are the highest, and so A5 beef (or “ego beef”, エーゴビーフ, as it is pronounced in Japanese), represents the culmination of the tastiest kind of beef. Some places in Japan, like Kobe, are famously known for their high quality A5 beef, which is sold at fairly expensive prices, but as someone who has had the chance to taste a very tiny yet expensive cut once, I can confirm that it does indeed live to the hype. That said, this is no mere A5 beef, but A6 beef, a number that doesn’t even exist in reality, showing just how prized this cut of cattle is.

Luven is also introduced to a young woman for what is likely prospective marriage, who is cited as being the young daughter of the Sufuran Zaibatsu (スフラン財閥), or what’s likely the Souffron Conglomerate. Considering that Saffron is written as safuran, sufuran may be a mix of the world souffle and saffron, but hard to say. The official translation wrote it as “Cefran”, so I think their line of logic is that it’s a rearrangement of the katakana for France (furansu) but putting the su at the start and the furan after, making “sufuran”. We’ve had a couple other conglomerates in the story, like the Lu Feld Conglomerate which funded MADS and appearead at the tea party, or of course the Wapol conglomerate after the discovery of wapometal. She is cited as having graduated top of her grade in Enoa Academy (エノア学院), yet another place we haven’t heard of until now, seemingly being a prestigious school found somewhere in the world.

Luven offers Brook money to help, but Brook refuses it, thinking him another poor person. Luven then instead brings a bottle and a box of what is either trump cards or meant to be a pack of cigarrettes, particularly as he seems to be smoking a cigar later. Although not exactly the most responsible thing to bring to a child considering the bottle seems to be of booze. Brook keeps playing his makeshift violin, which is made from bottles and strings, with its noise not even comparable to that of a violin, instead making weird noises like “geeeko”, “gigigi”, or “gugyurrr”.

We see that on the opposite side of the bridge, to the right, is Port Cello (チェロ港), the main port of the city that we also saw last chapter located in the same place, although now we get its name, fittingly based on that of an instrument. We see that the Marines have captured Brook for being in possession of “powder”, as they are inspecting the Mourlon Family’s powder smuggling business, of course referring to illegal drugs, just like the Five Great Families of our world traded, but they seem to have made a mistake and apprehended Brook just for stealing curry powder. This is the same Mourlon Family that would later attack Queen Candelle last chapter, so it seems that the two already have a history between them due to this contraband situation.

Luven rescues Brook in time from the Marines, declaring them “garbage”, which is a fitting parallel since Brook himself grew on the garbage heap and was considered by many as no different. Luven carries two blades while Candelle instead wields one, but interestingly Candelle’s move is actually quite similar to a move Brook would use in the future, called Aubade Coup Droit (夜明歌・クー・ドロア). Aubade refers to a song that greets the dawn, with the kanji reading reflecting this meaning, while Coup Droit means Right Strike, as he does it with his right hand, just as Candelle does here too. Since Candelle was the former knight commander before Brook, it is fitting that both learnt the same move.

Speaking of Candelle, when she is introduced again properly towards the end of the chapter, she has a very peculiar “DON!!” sound effect written around her. It is drawn similar to the shape of a cross, and fittingly, this was the same sound effect that was used for Mihawk at some points in the manga, down to the same shape. In Mihawk’s case is because his Yoru is in the shape of a cross, but what’s the reasoning here? Is there some deep crazy connection between Candelle and Mihawk, or did Oda choose it for some more banal choice, like it giving a regal effect? Hard to say.

Across the chapter Brook keeps singing this song speaking of how all kinds of creatures, be they cows or frogs, or slaves or kings, all become nothing more than bones when they die. The origin of these lyrics can be seen across the chapter: Luven, prospect to be King, is fed beef from the highest quality cows there are, while Brook, someone who lives out almost like a slave, eats frogs he has scavenged on a trash heap. Yet no matter their status, they are all just as mortal as each other. The lyric of course is highly reminiscent of the final verses of Binks’s Sake: どうせ誰でもいつかホネよ　果てなしあてなし笑い話 (it doesn’t matter who you are, we all end up as bones; a never-ending ever-wandering laugh tale), which once again tied with Brook’s original story in Thriller Bark about the mortality of people.

Apprenticeship

And of course here, this ties into the themes of this flashback, because ironically the intertwined fates of Brook and Shuri are one and the same. Brook does indeed eventually die, and once he does, he becomes bones, but unlike anyone else, he continues to live long after. Similarly, Shuri will be given perennial youth for Imu, treated and controlled like a slave to the point she might not know freedom or death ever again. We see a similar parallel as well in how Loki had to kill his father, Harald, who had become immortal in order to spare him a bad fate, whereas Shuri would have to kill her father and become immortal herself without even having a choice in the matter, tying into this arc’s concepts of mortality and the finite human lifespan. The two of them have in some way or another been condemned to not be able to truly properly die, at least so far, but unknowingly have been able to live all the way to the present, where hopefully, finally at last, they’ll be able to reconcile.

We continue with the next chapter where Luven appoints Brook as Candelle’s valet. As we mentioned last chapter, it’s clear that Brook picked up his swordsmanship techniques from her, which we see more clearly in a brief training scene later, doing similar thrusts with her blade. Brook however is lacking in all palace manners due to his upbringing in poverty, where he calls the palace ladies “beppin-san” (べっぴんさん), or essentially “hotties”, and casually calls Candelle by name without the promer “-sama” honorific. Across the rest of this brief section of the flashback, we see how Candelle keeps drilling good manners into Brook, which is how he eventually ended up having such a contrasting personality. When he was first introduced, Brook’s entire character shtick was being the “gentleman skeleton” as his introduction box mentioned, yet Oda contrasted that with his rudeness and lack of manners. Here we now see that his lack of manners is due to his poor upbringing, but his refined behavior is from everything that Candelle taught him.

In this first page, he is wearing a shirt with the kanji “gekko” (月光) on it, which translates as “moonlight”. In the next instead he’s wearing a shirt with the number 9 on it, a reference to the color spread we mentioned earlier showing all the Straw Hats as children. Obviously that 9 was meant due to Brook being the 9th Straw Hat, so I guess here it becomes a bit of a meta reference as it isn’t tied to anything specific in this context. In the next scene still he wears another shirt, this one with the kanji “un” (運) on it, which translates to “luck”. In the scene where they are seen walking around town, several women are seen fawning at Candelle, while on the other side is a man playing a musical instrument and a kid gathering tips for him, to which Candelle is seen tossing a coin.

The three shirts, although seeming random at first, are likely based on Beethoven’s most iconic songs. “Moonlight” is likely a reference to Piano Sonata No.14, also known famously as the “Moonlight Sonata”, the 9 is likely a reference to the 9th Symphony, also known as “Ode to Joy” in its final movement, and the “Fate” is likely a reference to Symphony No.5, also known as the “Fate Symphony”.

Happy Days

As we return to the present past, Brook tells Shuri of a time that a Government ship with Celestial Dragons on it seemingly accidentally drifted onto Esperia. It’s made clear in this chapter that Esperia has seemingly been a Government nation this whole time, but the royalty still felt a lot of pressure accomodating the Celestial Dragons in the time they needed to prepare to depart again. So much so that Candelle, whom Brook calls “the country’s sun”, became bedridden for a few months, but after that, Luven took the throne and married Candelle, leading to the birth of Shuri. However, something isn’t adding up here. This is too much of a random fun fact for it to be irrelevant. What do you mean that a Celestial Dragon ship passed by and Candelle mysteirously became sick for several months? Brook chalks it to stress, but is it really just so? The Candelle that Brook remembers does seem to be a genuinely caring person, casting some doubt on the concerns we had towards her, but did the Celestial Dragons perhaps interfere with her to some extent?

We skim ahead over the next year, as we see the depth in the bond between Brook and Shuri. In one vignette she is training with Brook, although he is parrying her effortlessly, showing how he is still considerably better at swordsmanship than she is, despite all her training and renown strength. She keeps calling her father “papa”, despite his requests to change it to “father”, in the same way she later refers to Candelle as “mama” but corrects herself to “mother”. In another, he treats to a small injury on her finger with much dramatism, interrupting what seems to be a training duel with another subordinate who has a lump on his head, likely from being bested by Brook. In another she is rescuing a dog from the rain in the streets of the kingdom, while in the next we see her measuring her height by marking her age on one of the palace walls, something I’m sure some of us can relate having done in our chilhdoods too. The ages span from 7, when we first saw her in the flashback, to 12, although her current age of 14 is likely covered by Brook’s arm. Despite her best efforts to get on her toes though, Brook still largely surpasses her in height, due to him being a stunning 2.66m at present, making him the second tallest straw hat after Jinbe.

In the following vignette Shuri, in a more regal dress, gets mad at Brook asking a lady about her panties. Other prince suitors though are heartbroken that she’s ignoring them in favor of her servant. In the next panel she uses a skull to scare Brook, a really fun callback as we’ve seen Brook scared of skeletons in other points of the series too. Back then it was just Oda using the narrative irony of Brook being scared by skeletons despite being one himself, but here we have the context that it was seemingly due to Shuri just trying to prank him. Next is the two of them fishing at the junkyard where Brook originally lived, with a tune so catchy even the fishes are dancing. And then we see a scene where Brook has been hospitalized due to breaking a leg (maybe even a bone, huh?), but Shuri getting defensive towards the nurse of wanting to treat Brook herself. We see her mother teaching her to cook some food, which she then serves to Brook, who loves it, although she falls asleep from the fatigue. While we don’t get to see the food ourselves, I’m willing to bet this is once again curry, Brook’s favorite food, as we can see some darkish paste coming out of the pot which would make sense to be curry sauce.

All across this scene, Brook continues to sing a song, which he titles “hottokinahare” (ほっときなはれ), serving also as the chapter’s title, which translates as “leave me alone”, expressing Shuri’s desire to be independent on her own. This expression is not that common though, because it’s one that’s more unique to the dialect of the Kansai region of Japan, the one you might know for being where Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe, and several other important cities are located, with its own distinguishable dialect and local expressions that differ from the more common neutral you’d expect in Tokyo. The funny thing is that even Brook makes reference of this in the story: he claims this is an expression from a country in the West called “Kamigata” (カミガタ). In the context of our world, Kamigata (上方) is the old name used for the Kansai region, much in the same way that the Wa no Kuni, or Wa no Country, was the old name for Japan, so Brook is literally referencing the fact that this is a dialect from Kansai, but with its own version in the One Piece world, the only difference being that here it is spelled with phonetic katakana rather than kanji. The fact it’s in the West Blue is also a reference, because Kansai literally just means “on the West side of the wall”, being on the western side of mainland Japan.

Fog

We move ahead to Shuri at age 15, fundamentally just one year later. Unfortunately, this does seem to suggest the fear some of us might’ve had that even at present Gunko might still have the body of a 15 year old, but you know… Oda things. Suddenly, music vanished from Esperia, as a thick fog began to cover the country. We are given more context, where this mysterious fog causes wood and other materials to rot, making all the instruments the country was renown for beginning to sound poorly due to breaking away, making their famous music impossible to enjoy. Even worse though, this fog proves toxic, causing the country’s citizens painful symptoms, including the many coughs that echoed across the country, and in the worse cases, even death. Most ravaging of these losses however was the death of the country’s sun, as we see Candelle’s funeral, suggesting she succumbed to the toxic fog. But… it’s a bit off, isn’t it?

Mothers dying in flashbacks is nothing new to this story, but it yet feels like Candelle’s role was much unfulfilled here. Somehow, I cannot help but shake the doubt that the visit from Celestial Dragons some decade and a half prior had something to do with what was happening. After all, this was already pointed out but it’s more evident here with a larger span of time, but we saw Candelle at around a time in which Brook was 11, and here instead he is 28. That is a span of 17 years, enough for Shuri’s whole entire lifespan to have happened, and yet Candelle has hardly semeed to age a single bit. Many have speculated on if she was somehow granted perennial youth, especially as her daughter eventually would be too. Her behavior would seem to suggest the Candelle who raised Brook seemed like a genuinely kind person, especially seeing her smile at him during a scene where no one else was supposed to see her, but could something have changed her in between? Did she actually die, in spite of her youth, or could perhaps some secret be concealed here? Although it’s hard to shake off the idea she really might be dead considering that we see a burial grave which would supposedly hold her body in it. If anything though… was the fog even natural to begin with? We’ve seen uses of toxic gases such as in Zou with Jack, and while that was thanks to Caesar’s more recent developments, there’s still precedent for such types of underhanded tactics. Did the Government perhaps even orchestrate it themselves, all to plan for the kingdom’s downfall, or was it some other agent? Could it really have been just a natural phenomena?

Regardless, the fog eventually clears, but the damage has become too profound. The entire kingdom has been ravaged physically, and even the economy has taken a big hit, which makes it now impossible to pay the Celestial Tribute, although in this case we have a slight clarification that the heavenly tribute is payed in annual payments, much like taxes are in many places of the world.

Brook and Shuri continue to train, with Brook mentioning that he believes Shuri seems to be capable of almost seeing the future. This suggests that Shuri is developing future sight, which isn’t unprecedented as Rebecca had very good observation haki too, although it’s quite ridiculous that Brook seemingly still has no haki after 90 years when his 15 year old apprentice could. Regardless, Shuri seems to imply that Candelle also had future sight, which speaks once again of her strength. As the two of them talk, a small puppy can be seen barking next to Shuri, which is likely the same pup she rescued from the rain during the montage earlier, seemingly becoming a palce pet. Although it might be hard to see, Shuri can even be seen hugging the dog in the next panel, as you can generally make out his ear grazing her face.

The Princess brings up again Brook’s dream of wanting to be a pirate, harkening to that very brief memory she had when snapping out of Imu’s control of Brook telling her he always dreamed of being a pirate. Here he elaborates that while he still dreams of it, his loyalty to Luven and Candelle remains above all else, willing to do anything for them. Even when Luven orders his troops to prepare for war with the Government, Brook doesn’t bat an eye and instantly agrees to his orders. If you recall, loyalty has always been one of Brook’s strongest qualities, now having instead sworn his blade towards Luffy’s own dream, and this fact is really beautifully brought back in a recent chapter, when Gunko asked Brook to become her property, yet Brook declared that he would rather die than betray his captain.

The way this thematically ties back into this flashback is brilliant, as Brook here claimed that he would be willing to die for Luven or Candelle, and even Shuri too, even if she has to wring it out of him. But the irony is that he would not only be the only one to survive as both his benefactors died, but eventually would be condemned to not be able to die (although it’s still up for debate on if there’s a way for Brook to truly fully die permanently with his fruit, but at least by traditional means). It is evident that he decided to follow up on his dream of becoming a pirate after losing it all, but that’s a decision that clearly came at no easy cost, as the betrayal was so deep that he wanted to simply move forward and started focusing on his connection with his new family, the Rumbar Pirates, and Laboon.

Eitherway, Luven mentions that the Government accepted an exception for their inability to pay the celestial tribute, but this involved handing over 1000 citizens as slaves, which the king refused, rather being willing to abandon their membership of the Government, even if that meant war, with warships arriving in no longer than two months. The citizens panic, worrying about how other nations turned lawless, with a good example being the island of Sphinx, from where Newgate was from, which similarly descended into chaos until Whitebeard rebuilt it as a pirate. One citizen even mentions that they heard of a certain West Blue nation which vanished recently, and while our heads might turn to God Valley, that was 38 years ago, quite removed from the current time of 62 years ago. Maybe it could be what became Thriller Bark, but hard to say since the best we know is Moria moved Thriller Bark to the Florian Triangle a decade ago, but maybe it could’ve been destroyed long before. Really, it’s possible this could just be a place we still haven’t heard of, yet another victim of a Genocide Tournament or another Government incursion. Brook however tries to calm the people by telling them of other countries that the Government has been unable to conquer, such as the land of samurai or the land of giants. The former is particularly fitting as Brook was the one who first explained Wano and the samurai to Luffy at the start of Punk Hazard, remarking how they managed to stay Government independent and keeping them at bay, with this chapter finally giving us the context of how he found out. Brook believes that their country too will manage to stave off the Government forces, but unfortunately, they grossly underestimate the power of the world…

Invasion

Warships invade in full, with several Marine and Cipher Pol agents invading. Brook sings to himself the same chant, “hottokinahare”, hoping that the invading forces can be driven away. Interestingly, you’ll se Brook mentioning that their kingdom exists on “a map’s edge” (地図の端), which actually makes sense, because if you look at my own world map, you’ll see that I placed Esperia in one of the corners of the West Blue, which turned out to be a very appropriate choice given Brook’s claim here. Because in the standard way of drawing out a map of the world, which places Reverse Mountain at the center of the world, particularly as Oda depicts his map at least, the corner of the West Blue where Esperia would be is quite literally the corner of the map. This is Brook’s own way to say that Esperia is in some far off corner of the West Blue south-west, to the point that it’s just a singificant small blip on the larger map, but even so they should not be underestimated.

Brook rushes for the royal chambers, but there he is welcomed by a grizzly sight. Shuri is joined by two beings, having killed her father in cold blood. Of course, unlike Brook, we have enough context to understand: Shuri has clearly been controlled by Domi Reversi, as evident by the horns, wings, and eyes, although it seems Luven was too, as he also possesses wings and horns. Perhaps they were being forced to be pit against each other, or Luven was controlled just to make sure that he wouldn’t escape.

On the left is a large bird like creature with flaming eyes. This is a silhouette we should recognize, as it’s incredibly similar to the silhouette Mars had as the itsumade. It would make sense that Mars came all the way down to Esperia to ensure that the country was conquered, much like how Saturn was present at God Valley, and it’s also likely that here Mars served as Imu’s vessel so that he could cast Domi Reversi onto Gunko and Luven. More mysterious however is the other man, a man in a knightly outfit, a hat, and smoking a cigar. Although there might be some speculation that this man could be some high ranking Marine like an Admiral or some Government officer, it’s pretty evident he’s most likely a God Knight. This can be identified by the circular items found on his cape, which are the defining marks of the Celestial Dragons, and were also donned by the likes of someone like Garling or even Imu in his transformed state. It makes sense that this is an old God Knight we have not seen yet who came to accomplish this mission alongside Mars. After all, keep in mind that God Knights rotate every few years, particularly because they do not possess perennial youth in the same way the Gorosei do (although again, Gunko appeared to be an exception, for some reason we do not yet know). So this God Knight here may be one of the old ones who came before the next generations. The Gorosei implied there’s only eight God Knights at any given time, while at God Valley we saw seven of them that appeared to be almost the entire generation at that time, while we later saw Gunko and Killingham take positions, and Shanks and Harald being offered positions too although ultimately casting those away.

But while the pieces are falling together, there are still quite a few things we do not understand: why was Imu so interested in granting Gunko immortality, even seeming to keep her in his chambers as a personal assistant? Was it due to her blue hair, much like Vivi? And what of Candelle? Did she really die a natural death, or was there some other interference between? Just what was Imu’s grander plan with Esperia?