Now the question is, does the ice sink because of magic, or did Yuki make heavy water ice? Or maybe someone has a totally different question and I am the one overthinking things!
Yosh! Saga
Now the question is, does the ice sink because of magic, or did Yuki make heavy water ice? Or maybe someone has a totally different question and I am the one overthinking things!
It could also be one of the denser forms of ice. Ice II is dense enough to sink in water, though it needs a lot of pressure to create. I am sure Yuki would be more than capable of making it given the expressions of her power shown.
Most of the “exotic” forms of Ice are dense enough to sink in seawater, but even the ones most likely to stick around would require conditions both notably colder and far greater pressures than even those found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench to remain stable.
So magic is required either way.
Ice II is actually stable at atmospheric pressure so long as it’s kept extra cold, and I bet I know a celestial kitsune who is literally the first frost ever to touch the world who could do that.
Yes.. “extra cold” in this case being cryogenic temperatures (i.e., below −194.35 °C / −317.83 °F)
For reference, even the coldest parts of the ocean (under antartic sea ice) are only −1.94 °C / 28.5 °F
Still going to need quite a bit of magic doing the heavy lifting to keep that ball frozen.
She just flash-froze a huge amount of seawater into a glacier. I think Yuki has this figured out.
Just encase an ice sphere in a dense metal sphere that would eventually corrode enough to eventually release the ice sphere in a few hundred years.
I feel like everyone is ignoring the fact that “Amy” could just be heavy enough that she’s weighing the ice-ball down.
Unlikely sure, but plausible.
are a pair of teenage siblings going to find her while fishing?
Nah, she would need to be floating close to the surface for that, I think this is a situation where sometime in the future people testing nuclear weapons will awaken her and she destroys Japan for forty movies and games.
Skreeonk!!
Damn cold of Yuki.
Especially when the spirit was the one trying to descalate after Yuki broke in. I guess there is something particularly awful about this spirit? Because solitary confinement is god awful for a lot of reasons.
Yuki really doesn’t like fakes or people who mess with her friends, 500yrs might not be that long for a spirit
That’s true to a point. There is reason to suggest that the perception of time is not the same to them. But I’d point out they hadn’t done anything yet. More over the spirit tried to descalate before Yuki kidnapped them.
I’m expecting either the scene moves on and we see Yuki reunion with one of her kids in the office, or suddenly ice goes pop and it turns out it was like an actual fragment of amaterasu or something of similar celestial origin/power
Another episode of Holiday on Ice.
Almost all oxygen and hydrogen are relatively light, but the isotope difference for the unlikely highest stable isotopes are 20 %, while the density difference between ice and water (under normal circumstances) is 10 %. So indeed Yuki could ‘simply’ transmute normal allotropic ice and get it to sink. “🎶 Here comes that sinking feeling. Have you ever felt the sound of disappointment? (kerplunk)”
I’d assume it’s not -just- ice, so the sphere could be very dense. But also magic, or else that amount of ice would melt much faster.
Being forced to chill out for a few hundred years, harsh! Don’t cross Yuki!
Dang, she went Avatar on that fraud, or adventure time
The iceball sinks not because of the ice itself, but because of the weight of what’s within. Perhaps if the spirit unburdens themselves, they will see the surface sooner – though if their former medium is any sign, the spirit likely has a lot of self deception and ego to process first.
Also Yuki made a sweet ramp to launch the ball like a giant marble so there’s extra coolness (ha) points for that, plus it enters the water at speed. But my figurative money would be in the spirit weight argument.
That said, I kinda wish we could have gotten an answer for what the spirit really was, if only for closure purposes.
Spirits can weigh anything, but if it has human guise that doesn’t work. Then the weight within is mostly a human body, which is mostly water and roughly slightly denser than it (which is why we too float). Pure water is (almost) by definition ~ 1,000 kg/dm^3, while humans can be 985 – 1,010 kg/m³ and ice 917 – 931 kg/m³ (sez Google Search AI, nu guarantees). The iceball floats better because of the weight of what’s within.
Nuh! Typo: “nu” := no.
Looks like I got that backwards (too) late yesterday night, maybe I should have cooled it. Anyway, the iceball doesn’t necessarily sink because humans generally float (with air in their lungs), but not as good as ice.
But it can, so is a fair notion of what happens in the comic.
The sphere of ice sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it encounters a volcanic vent that melts the ice.
While the spirit rises back to the surface, it meets a leviathan who swallows it.
It’s because it’s containing a really dense person.
…uwah
On the one hand this seems a bit harsh and rash. Delusions about her identity aside not sure if she was really malicious.
On the other hand they were considering sinking Phil so can also say this arguably fair retaliation.
Ah well Yuki can probably fish her out if they decide they can work things out.
She’s the Avatar! Watch as she is thawed by the ice by two eskimo kids in 10 years!
Surprised nobody pointed out the issues with sealing a powerful human friendly spirit. Considering the spirit was powering first responders to supernatural problems this also means the equivalent of a supernatural SWAT team just got laid off. Hopefully her area of responsibility was small otherwise supernatural fatalities in Japan are going to spike.
Why? Fear of her probably kept anything aware of and weaker then her to covert activities. Her disciple although rude has survived longer then the average black shirt Ranger, enough that he’s on the speed dial of the local police when something supernatural happens and he’s probably out too. From what we’ve seen of Ranger operations being a first responder to monsters must be VERY dangerous and have a very low life expectancy meaning this guy is probably the veteran one man unit type. He also wanted to minimize bystander casualties, which might not be a priority for his replacement, especially if they are the “mages are superior to muggles” type. (I assume his replacement would probably be drawn from the local mage clans, and for drama probably the one with issues about foxs)
The fall out of this could be it’s own story lol but it does make me very interested in this story arc. 🙂
Technically Naoko’s family could fill in. But it does bring up a good question of what exactly this restructuring would look like, because Inari indicated they’d drop the whole government organization in a heart beat if asked.
Which is just… Very vexing. Especially with the way Inari is acting. It’s Exo and Ama’s fault Yuki broke into their office and assualted them? Really now? I understand there is a lot of narrative short hand going on here to indicate that this is a corrupt organization and that Exo is supposedly just the tip of the ice berg.
But this is all predicated on Inari allowing this to happen. It just makes them and the kitsune’s by extension look weak, incompetent and spiteful. If fusing with spirits is such a bad idea and this organization is worth backing, why not pair them up with Kitsunes?
If the organization is problematic, why not start their own? I understand it might be a politically complicated situation we’ll find out about later. But Inari is a literal god. One the citizens worship, though to what extent we cannot say.
If all of this is going to hell in a hand basket, Inari can’t just casually waive off responsibility here. Especially if it’s a cooperative association. It also brings up what is going to happen to the Exorcist too. Because last I checked vis a vis Axel decoupling a spirit bound with a person is serious business.
I suppose at least this is a good opprotunity for Cypher and his crew to step in and pick up the reminents of the organization. It’s been a while since we’ve last seen them.
But this whole plot line feels convoluted honestly. Especially since Kate very specifically explained to the robots and Yuki a couple hundred pages back on why it’s a bad idea to fuss with the government.
I understand there are zero reprocussions for Yuki doing this, because honestly who could chastise her? But god bless this escalated quickly. I know the fall out probably won’t be acknowledged; but this is hellaciously reckless and a lot of innocent people could suffer from this.
I suspect Yuki also has a problem specifically with shrine spirits that think they are the real deal, and may be taking care of this one as a favor to the real one. Its one thing if they act as emissaries but that’s not what this one was doing
We honestly don’t know what they were doing. Which is why a lot of this situation is confusing. These two haven’t been around long enough to understand why there here, what they do beyond crisis work and if they have legitimate cause. Maybe they have just reason for masquerading as Amaterasu. If only to put pressure on local spirits with malicious intentions. Yuki kinda just came out swinging on this one.
Inari explains why they would drop the agreement in a heartbeat- nobody in his org would fight Yuki as they know she’s too powerful so if she says jump they ask how high because they don’t want her to swat them. Exo and Ama had very bad luck perhaps because Yuki got there as they were discussing actions if they decided Phil was a threat that needed to be dealt with. Remember that they deal with supernatural stuff a lot and “kill it quick before it powers up” is from what we’ve seen a rather reasonable doctrine, especially since mass casualties are very possible if a hostile supernatural is allowed to finish whatever they were doing. With this in mind discussing getting rid of Phil is a very reasonable step since they have little information on him and need a plan if he turns out to be say an evil god level skinwalker or something. Problem is they started this planning just as Yuki got there it seems.
Ama’s situation will also be interesting in that it reflects what happens with old powers that are in the Celestial Realm now that magic has returned. Assuming Ama isn’t a fragment or have a connection to the real thing is it better to have an active false goddess or inactive goddess? Presumably the original is not influencing the world actively since otherwise how could a fake grow so powerful and be accepted even though Inari was in direct contact with it.? Does the original know and not care (maybe even preferring Ama do her “job” in the mortal realm so she doesn’t have to). Does faith in a goddess affect her power and is the original getting fed from people believing in Ama or is Ama getting a power up that way? Does faith only have effect up to a certain point as Ama denied to Yuki that she was generated by human worship meaning it’s possible for faith to create/empower entity s, but old gods not returning implies they don’t get a boost from faith anymore worth traveling back to earth.
As I wrote this I got reminded (because a family member is on a cruise) that Exo and Inari COULD pick up a phone, call the cruise line and get connected to the phone in the honeymoon cabin…
That is kind of my frustration here. Exo said “Maybe” we should consider the Suijin’s plan. Implying he was undecided and there was room for negotiation. Yuki is easily well within the ability to leverage her strength to get him and Ama to sit down and understand that ethics aside, her power aside. Attacking Phil would be an exceedingly stupid endeavor.
More over subduing the Magi was a multi-national opertation. That the first thing he found out wasn’t, oh yeah they subdued life and death magi on their own island. If not from the BFR, but his own country is weird.
A lot of these things that frustrate me is that it feels forced to make this guy the fall guy. I guess this isn’t really a plot point Sage wants to go on for long. But we went from, “Guy says mean thing.” To “Guy reasonably questions the dangers of an unknown military combatant on foriegn soil.” To: “It’s your fault this is happening.”
Yes this does bring up interesting lore questions on, spirits, the celestial realms, faith and even more mundane ones like; Is a local false diety better than an absent god? But those only matter if they come up. And we’re galloping through this plot point to string up Exo and Ama as villians.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. But a lot of these comments are reveling in Yuki and Inari abusing these two, and I’m flabberghasted. Inari especially doesn’t get a “get out of jail free card.” They are a god and have been at this juncture since ground zero.
They co-operate this government agency if only through tacit and explicit approval and assistance. They don’t get to go, “It’s all you Exo.” When stuff hits the fan. Even if Exo and Ama turn out to be absolutely heinous individuals whom are only the bare minimum of lesser evils. They only exist because Inari allows it. As a literal god, in power scaling we’ve only seen one stronger than him. Yuki.
Even if it was a problem of inability to leverage raw power. As appearently the head of kitsunes. (Presumably) He could have leverage intelligence and social manipulation quite easily. He knows more than many of the mortal agencies easily. With the proper pressure and them looking like chimera’s. They could easily apply for citizenship from a legal and ethical perspective. Many of them presumably being natural citizens. Even if hundreds of years old.
Using this and the need for aid in some form of spiritual law enforcement, they could have easily started there own agency. Presumably this joint commission is some form of compromise. But this brings up the question of respnsibility.
Inari implies that the binding between Exo and Ama is bad. Is it just this instance? Or is there a natural destabalization effect when fusing with spirits and mortals. The precendent between Axel and the Atlantian imply that is the case.
If so why allow it to proceed when Kitsune partners would likely suffice. If the initiative was absolutely neccessary for plot reasons. Why are you victim blaming someone you know is mentally crippled through something you at least tacitly allowed?
To make it exponentially more aggeiving; Exo is one hundred percent one the money. Kate did specifically send Yuki after them. Hell even when she broke into a sanctioned government office. He was polite enough to point out it was a recklessly foolish thing to do.
He didn’t fight, he didn’t threaten. He just pointed out the folly. Yuki then proceeds to escalate and kidnap the one person going; “Maybe lets not fight the 9 tail kitsune.” Then after being backed into a corner Ama doesn’t fight just continues to claim to be Amaterasu. (Which to be fair is looking super unlikely.) As a bid to avoid conflict. All of it was posturing.
Despite all this Inari is like; “Nope, your fault.” “What’s that. Can’t accept responsibility for your actions?” Really? During all of this he couldn’t interceed on their behalf and descalate by asking Yuki to consider even as bastards they keep the public safe. That the current generation has no really good alternatives at the moment?
I understand this is supposed to be the face slapping segment for the villians. But the actual sins Exo and Ama aren’t even being punished here.
You are making a lot of assumptions before the story has had time to dig in to what is actually going on. You seem to think Inari is a god, even though Yuki doesn’t claim to be a god and is Inari’s mother here. This spirit thinks itself a god, and it just got one shot by Yuki, who again, not a god. Inari is a kitsune, which is a powerful spirit, and is the leader on Earth of the Kitsune. Some people worship it as a “god”, but in Yosh! people worshipping you doesn’t make you a god. It’s an actual classification. There are gods in the lore. Most of them- dont mess with or walk the Earth, or any planet for that matter. Almost all the japanese lore beings are spirits, that have grown powerful through their own abilities, time, effort, or worship. Some spirits, aren’t good, and there are reasons for this. We’ll get into it- in the comic! As it continues- one page at a time!
@Sage
That is fair. I suppose Inari being a god is a presupposition I pulled from japanese mythology.
I will also concede that the story is posted on a schedule so getting too far off into the weeds every post date is mildly unfair. Since it’s not like you can post the whole arc at once.
That said, I do believe the grievances with Inari amd Yuki are justified here. Regardless of their personalities. The two are still legitimate law enforcement.
More over Yuki did have plenty of room to negotiate. Maybe Ama was winding up for a subtle spell we couldn’t see. But all current indicators suggest they could have been reasoned with.
Even if the connection between the two makes them mentally unbalanced. To date it was appearently stable enough retain governmental employment.
Factually speaking Kate did send Yuki after them. Even if knowing her character, this isn’t what she had in mind. I’m not quite grasping where Inari is pulling this is his fault.
More over I still say Inari has some culpability here. He specifically stated that he knew the exorcist prior to the bonding with Ama. Presupposing this is a government decision for their staff, Inari holds some responsibility for this.
I will concede this is presumption on my end. Since the when and to what extent Inari has been involved is unclear. But that Inari is aiding the government means some responsibility lands on their shoulders.
@Occassionally Posts
Since Sage has posted and basically let us know the topic will get dived into more I’ll try to cut my pondering. Instead I think we as the readers might be forgetting that Yuki is not a modern person, she is “catching up” but her mindset and experiences are old. She has lived a very long time and most of it on earth was during times when magic was prominent and so I’d guess very turbulent. But it also means to her “of course” there would be magic police, a human government without a strong magic police force during those older times was probably just waiting for a hostile entity to come along, take over, and blood sacrifice everyone. So with that in mind I’m guessing to Yuki’s view, Exo and Ama are low level beat cops, and to her this is a slap on the wrist since she didn’t just end them for daring to oppose her. And she did say she was going to do detective work so this could also be her doing “bad cop / old testament cop”. But our author has more story to tell and probably give us insights galore so I guess what I’m getting at is Yuki is being restrained, I think. Inari seems to have taken the role of head of Kitsune clan(s) while Yuki is away and so is more a powerful politician heading an allied faction in his interactions with Exo. The read I have is that he’s an advisor more then a manager and I’m guessing that’s because the Kitsune wanted to not integrate with the government (probably because then they would be tapped to be magic soldiers and police) but instead support the human government as a friendly supernatural faction. If this is close to true then he could “advise” Exo on bonding with Ama being a possible issue but likely got ignored by Exo seeking more power or government officials deeming it an acceptable risk, assuming Exo wasn’t bonded before meeting him. I’m going to enjoy finding out how much I guessed right and what I got wrong. /seal clap of joy waiting.
I conceded as much in my post above. It is difficult to articulate why a lot of this plot line irks me. Or I suppose perhaps it’s very easy, which is why I have been posting so frequently as opposed to my namesake.
I personally usually don’t mind and despite how critical I am of the current story beat, I legitimately am enjoying watching it unfold.
Speaking at length with you and others and theory posting about the would be’s and could be’s is some of the most fun I have had with the media in the majority of it’s run time.
I’ve been reading Yosh! Since page 24 back in the day, back when Phil got the Chocobo materia way back when I think. So despite how my irritation may come off, I legitimately do enjoy the work and Sage’s writing.
Some of my ire isn’t even Sage’s or any of the readers fault. I’m in a bad place fiscally and my phone is the only median to access the net. So when I type out these responses, it generally takes me several hours to respond. Specifically because it fights me every step of the way.
So by the time I manage to get my post to go through it can be upwards of four hours of rewriting and revisions. Which doesn’t really help my points and I think leads to me straying a bit off most topics.
Which to be fair, is most definitely not anyone else’s fault but my own. For what it’s worth I hope that hasn’t been bleeding too much into my criticism of the piece as a whole here.
But as Sage said a while back, what you write and how it’s read are difficult to convey on the internet. So it’s more than feasible that some of my scalding ire with my posting conditions has bleed through from the posting system.
That said, to try to put a point on my criticisms and try to avoid straying as usual. While it is going to be interesting to see more about the socio-political angle of Inari and the rest of the kitsune. As well as the inner workings of Exo’s government structure.
I am to a point concerned that it won’t be handled very seriously. As yourself, others and I, have pointed out. There are some very serious complications for mishandling the fall out of this event.
Which to give Sage grace, he hasn’t had a chance to get into yet and me spawn camping the comment section doesn’t help.
A lot of my concern is the tone of Inari and externally Sage’s occasionally posts on this matter. A lot of this is shaping up to be; “Exo’s fault.” Which hey there has to be an antagonist/villian in every arc. If Exo’s that guy, he’s just that guy. I’m sure more will be revealed later.
But from my perspective we went from a really interesting plot point of Kate and Phil being at fault for a diplomatic incident. Which to surmise a very long winding perspective, Phil finally got busted for slacking.
He was told a long time ago his nascent magic was in fact under his control and if he put effort into practicing he could control it. A quick point being how the androids are typically unaffected by his abilities due to his affection for them. Despite the Null’s attendant tome not given this grace.
As was point out by others (and myself adnauseum to others I presume.) the Suijin was a legitimate threat to others. Or at least a seriously percieved one. One which in my opinion came about from Phil not being diligent in his practice.
Now would have been a perfect time to explore the side effects and responsibility for those actions in my opinion. Since Phil and Kate we’re treating this scenario rather irreverantly.
This would have allowed for a lot of good character growth that wouldn’t have been forced by undoing Kate and Phil’s abilities or writing a contrived scenario where they couldn’t win.
They could have easily handled the Suijin and to their credit mostly handled it rather well. Them being flippant with the Suijin not withstanding. Up to this point I was legitimately really hyped for this arc.
Phil and Kate get to experience some of struggles of the more mundane sides of supernatural work. Step on some toes and grow as people and recognize they were in danger of getting cocky and hurting others as a result. It was in my mind shaping up to be a good arc where all parties learn and grow from each other.
Which is why my commentary starts a little late in this arc. I was confused as to all the Ire Exo was getting. But that was fine, I’m not perfect and I’m sure I miss a lot of things. I was content to watch it unfold without particularly adding my commentary to the mix.
At least until a couple or so pages back when Sage let slip that Inari is a gender fluid deity that caves to human pressure to appear more masculine for work. Specifically for people like Exo.
Which to be fair is a legitimately interesting plot point. There is a lot of interesting nuance here to explore about identity, comporting yourself in society despite certain situations making you uncomfortable for the greater good. It would even be a good foil for Exo, even if I think it’s a particularly reductive and erronious character flaw to give someone whom is ostensibly an eastern mystic.
Whom despite Inari not being a god in the traditional sense. Would at least not find the idea of a god or spirit being gender fluid being strange or unsual.
This comment has since reframed the whole narrative for me personally. Because it retroactively changes it from, Exo is a terse government agent. To someone whom explictly is sexist. Something Sage admits was specifically the point of this character.
Which to be fair, Darius pointed out between our discussion a few pages back. Literally everyone besides myself grasped. So demarcations against my reasoning or room reading ability I suppose.
But following this point in the narrative. Exo and Ama have been repeatedly lambasted by the viewers, (Sage, himself to a lesser extent.) and the currently present cast.
I won’t deny that you bring up some sound reasoning for Yuki’s behavior and it’ll be legitimately interesting to see where this goes.
I’m personally invested in the culpability that Inari has in this governmental affair. But as you surmised, could chiefly be only a advisory role. Which would vexingly give him free pass on responsibility to this whole shebang.
Which is just exhaustingly dull. Exo and Ama, two very interesting potential characters as foils for Phil and Kate’s hubris gone.
Interesting philosophical quandries about knowingly handicaping yourself for the greater good of your country by destabilizing yourself fusing with a spirit. Gone.
The responsibility of Inari as his elder for not shuffling more resources to the governmental agency, thereby unintentionally causing this disaster, gone.
I understand that the arc isn’t over. That to give Sage grace he’s got over twenty years of writing chops and I should let him work his magic. But the disgression with which he’s writing Inari is just so vindictive.
Exo and Ama are getting absolutely zero benefit of a doubt here and are shaping up to be convenient narrative fall guys, and it’s just so frustrating. Because it strips absolutely all nuance from the situation here.
Maybe your right and it’ll be a Yuki/Inari Bad/good cop dynamic. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The absolute distain for the two characters is unreal. Most of it being from Exo treating Kate impolitely. Which is my own can of worms personally.
Maybe Sage will surprise us with a redemption arc. Inari made it sound like Ama was exacerbating Exo’s worst tendancies. Which will be interesting to explore if nothing else.
But I can’t help but lament that a really interesting nuanced dynamic is being tossed in the trash because as Sage said. “Exo is sexist.”
It’s feasible many of the possible themes I brought up earlier will be discussed later. Maybe Yuki will lambast Inari for being soft handed when dealing with political issues. Leading to people like Exo gaining power, or being crippled depending on how you look at it.
Hell Phil is a savy guy, maybe after breaking from this perspective he’ll own up in private to Kate about how he feels embarassed about his lack or control of his power led to conflict. That he recognizes he could have legitimately done more to train.
Hell maybe they’ll get a spirit bonded pair of handlers for their trip to help vacate the spirits temporarily in the area so this doesn’t happen again. Then Sage can explore those themes that way and Exo and Ama were just exploratory examples of what an unhealthy binding looks like.
I conceded this earlier to Sage, it’s legitimately unfair of me to theory craft every post update. Because I can box circles around Sage any day of the week. Not because I’m some prolific talented writer. But because Sage is writing what, two comics, a patreon and commissions ontop of that?
That’s legitimately not fair to him. The man’s busy and to be fair, legitimacy of things that are objectively my opinion aside, because ultimately they are irrelevant. Sage has been doing this for at least twenty years. Even all my criticisms aside, even I am legitimately a fan.
It just feels like a lot of this boils down to Exo bad because he said mean thing. Which is just frustrating. I expected at least Inari to reasonably understand that Yuki breaking into his office and assualting him as crossing the line. Even if he understandably wasn’t going to bite that bullet for him.
But those lines of; “From what I understand is your fault.” And “Still can’t take responsibility for your own actions I see.” I know it’s unfair and we’ll get into it. But like hot damn that gets me frustrated. Kudos for Sage for writing a compelling character. But god bless what an absolutely dismissively narcacistic way to frame this blow out.