hontou ni sou omou?

Kikyou’s over-aggressive Rin Offensive results in her object of desire’s bewilderment and ultimate rejection of her feelings. After another excellent Kikyou-Lisianthus exchange (love the sudden snapping from one perspective to another, background music, variations of voice in Sia/Kikyou modes), Kikyou promises never to appear again. Sia explains that Kikyou was her younger twin sister that was never born (?) and whose consciousness resides deep within herself but that Kikyou is also Sia. (Interesting parallel to the Nerine-Licorice relationship.) Later Rin also rejects Sia who then starts to suspect that the person he likes may be Asa. Also glimpses that Asa was strongly on Rin’s mind, during the Kikyou interregnum, which are positive indications of a Rin-Asa ending. See Omni for screencaps (including an R-15 Sia screenie!) and summary.

I’m not entirely sure but my impression from the SHUFFLE! H-game was that Rin was able to help Lisianthus to use her magic to create a twin body for Kikyou to inhabit so that she could pursue her own happiness without the constraint of sharing bodies with Sia. But I rushed through that thread (and didn’t use my dictionaries) when SHUFFLE! 9-10 was airing so it’s likely I’m completely wrong on this. Alternative interpretation is that Sia and Kikyou work out some kind of arrangement as the game ending has Rin accurately guessing if the person he was talking to Sia or Kikyou.

There’s also no mention of Shinzoku polygamy in the anime. This is mentioned by Sia when she tells Rin that she has three mothers i.e. Eustoma has three wives. And Kareha makes some hilarous comments on the basis of this since she also thinks that polygamy is a natural state of affairs that should apply to the human world as well. LOL. If this is reaffirmed by the anime, then the Shinzoku and Mazoku ladies in the OP, whom I first thought were Lisianthus’ and Nerines’ mothers, might very well be Lisianthus and Nerine themselves in their respective worlds, pining for Rin in the human world.

Shigure Asa screencap goodness and Rin-Asa speculation:

Kaede panics after Kareha and Asa respectively suggest that Rin might have had an accident or been kidnapped on the way to Asa’s house. Well, that latter was closer to the mark - interception and seduction-abduction by Kikyou. While Kaede is lovely, sweet and caring, if I were Rin, I’d find her feelings to be just a tad suffocating. The whole police detectives, phone-tapping / tracing equipment and operations room set-up in the Fuyou living room made me feel that Kaede was over-reacting and Rin’s response was to feel less than comfortable. And usually if you report a teenage guy missing for less than 24 hours, most police forces probably couldn’t be arsed to do anything unless said teenage guy is the son of some big shot. Of course, if you are a Kitto Kitto Kaede member like Kurogane, one would read all that much more positively. ^_-

Rin wondering if Asa-sempai will be angry with him for not turning up just before Kikyou tries to seduce him with a very sexy red dress… or lack thereof.

Asa on his mind.

Not the first time that Mayumi is smiling wryly (ep 16) at Rin and Asa’s awkward couplely-type interaction.

Rin seems really concerned that Asa doesn’t think badly of him. Things are looking good for a Rin-Asa ending especially with Nerine and Sia acknowledging Asa as a worthy and currently superior competitor. But the determining factor depends very much on how Kaede’s backstory unfolds. If it is presented through Rin sharing his difficult and painful past (hinted at by his nightmare in Ep 5 and the fist clenching after pulling himself away from Kikyou’s kiss as well as when he rejects Sia) with Asa in the context of a strengthening relationship, then probably it will be Asa FTW.

However if there is some sort of Kaede Crisis which forces Rin to choose between Kaede and Asa, then the former has a good chance due to their longer history and a sense of Rin’s obligation to her (also hinted at in Ep 5). Against that, I would argue that there is a much stronger chance of an Asa Crisis, which the series has been steadily building up towards with her fainting spells and illness (Ep 9, 13-15). That in turn is linked to her aversion to magic (Ep 7, 15). Unlike the Nerine-Licorice and Sia-Kikyou Crises, an Asa Crisis should strengthen rather than undermine her relationship with Rin as an Asa Crisis will be likely to be (1) directly life threatening for Asa and indirectly so for Rin and (2) require Rin’s active intervention to leverage on their romantic bond to persuade her to do what she has sworn never to do in order to save Rin and thus herself. Essentially the final stages of the Asa thread in the H-game.

Miscellaneous notes from Ep 15. I also recalled, from Ep 15, that Nerine observed to Asa that the latter loved Rin as well and then followed by saying "And I’m sure that…" - did Nerine say that she felt that Rin also had feelings for Asa and to encourage her to be more open about her feelings?

And I can’t believe I missed spotting this Neon Genesis Evangelion homage the first two times watching Ep 15!