Why did these things happen? (Spoiler)

yeah I understand that part about brother taking the blame but here you can see in the end of episode 4 -










(here you can see the classmate part which likely is Shizuka I may be wrong but..) I don't think they are taking about Azuma's brother here... Even if the police had tried to investigate it further like asking questions to Shizuka, but she was gone already at that time, this likely stalled the investigation, making it difficult for the police to locate or take action against Shizuka as there were no confirmed evidence or anything....

@neel_senpai I think this is just gossip born from the fact that Shizuka was acting suspicious. They even say it's a rumor, If Azuma or anyone else had confessed her part, I don't think her involvement would be just "rumors" to people.

I mean logically speaking, it actually makes a lot of sense for there to be rumors about Shizuka being involved.

But the scene is interesting, because even though they are clearly talking about Shizuka's involvement, they are purposefully avoiding naming the person who got in trouble.

It's not in the images you sent, but I do remember a line specifically mentioning the person as "their son" or something like that. That's not something authors do by accident, which makes me think at this point you weren't suppose to know who actually took the blame.

But Idk, Maybe Azuma was the one who went to Juvenile detention. But I think if anything, this line makes it certain that Shizuka was never mentioned.

Point is Azuma is no longer all alone. Just that. Azuma can rely on brother but that doesn't mean brother has to take the blame. He's one of the smartest kids in the nation apparrntly. He would advise Azuma what to say and what no to say to police.
It's a powerful scene but I don't see why it has to imply Junya's gonna sacrifice himself for the brother. If Junya did, Azuma would still feel immense guilt, while Junya gets punished much more harshly than Azuma would. Junya already saved Azuma by stopping him. Azuma was planning on taking blame for murder! As evident in episode 6, Azuma still has Takopi's camera so Junya likely advised him not to take bloodied camera to police and confess only in helping hiding the body. So, you are correct in deducting that Junya stopped Azuma and told him to rely on him, but I don't see how that equals to him taking all the blame. It just feels wrong overall. I mean, Azuma was about to confess in murder for the sake of Shizuka, but he wouldn't confess in tempering with evidence (hiding body)? And let his brother become a sacrifice instead???
Where is it implied though? Gossip is clearly talking about Azuma. Women say "rumor is HIS CLASSMATE may have done the murder". Threy obviously mean Shizuka. Junya isn't Shizuka's classmate, Azuma is. So there you have it.
Later when Azuma talks to Takopi he says Junya got fired. In Japan he could have resigned or got fired for the same reason clinic closed down, because of social backlash and shame on family name. Junya not going to college can also be explained by him having to focus on family now that mother is bedridden. He can't take care of family if he goes to college!

Doesn't this make sense?

@Sigmar-Unberogen I don't necessarily disagree with you and you bring up a lot of good points that I hadn't fully thought about. But ultimately, as I said here:



I think the author was making who took the blame vague on purpose. So I can honestly see it going either way.

Truthfully, before the conversation I had on this thread, I had read the line about the "classmate" wrong, and thought they were talking about the person who had done it. With that extra context, it makes it a lot more likely that at least the gossip was about Azuma.

But then again, we also got information that the big brother was hanging out with delinquents, it's a thinner line of logic, but it would still make sense for people to say he was influenced by the classmates he hangs out with.

And I do think the goal of the author was to make us wonder about this, even if I'm not entirely sure why they did it.




I think you could be correct here, that the brother was just telling him that he isn't alone. But considering what we got from the brother's personality, and his tone, I thought it made too much sense.

He is the kind of person who would spend his last pay check on his little brother, he would rather work hard to buy a ring even if his parents would pay for it, he is portrayed as the idealized older brother.

Then you have a scene all about Azuma deciding to finally rely on him, a moment of bonding between the two. Even Azuma's final wish that Takopi granted was about him getting closer to his brother.

To me that just doesn't lead to the brother doing anything but taking the blame. I can't imagine him just giving Azuma advice, his characterization is too "idealized" for that, I can't imagine him being ok with Azuma facing what he has done, even if he knows Azuma's punishment will be much lighter than his. At least not without a fallout between them....

Wait a god damn minute, is that why Azuma wanted his past self to know he should get in fights with the brother?

I'm probably thinking 4 layers too deeply into it now, ultimately I don't think it actually matters that much.

The way I see it, Azuma could say Marina was already dead when he found her. He doesn't need to blame Shizuka. He could say Shizuka was already at the crime scene when he found her, but would say Shizuka didn't kill Marina either (I mean, that's how it really happened). Azuma doesn't need to mention alien/Takopi at all. He could say when they found Marina, she was already dead but don't know who killed her or why. Azuma can say he got scared, as a kid assumed police would blame Shizuka for murder (kids at school would suspect and did suspect Shizuka anyways), and in order to save Shizuka, he decided to help hide Marina's body. This way Azuma may even be seen as noble child who deeply cared about Shizuka and made a mistake trying to protect her. Police can't blame kids in this case. Police would suspect some adult did the murder. 1) Murder-weapon isn't found. 2) Apart from Marina's death, police has another headache to solve and that's Takopi's alien tech. They have to figure out where the mysterious coffin came from or why someone would waste it to poorly hide "some" 10 yo girl. I'd feel sorry for whoever's investigating the case lol.

You made good points overall, @traed.