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I believe that came from the original Japanese version. I try not to use the dub too much if I can avoid it, since (while I adore it) it does take some liberties with the script.



He doesn't wear one in the flashback to losing his tear gem, but I think he does wear one in the flashback to when he was a chibi himself (when he was toting around that big sword and wearing a cape). I know he doesn't when he's flashing back to getting his Jagan, but that makes sense anyway since it would have needed to be out of the way. It might be that he has the Jagan in the flashback because the animator wasn't thinking about it; I've discovered several other minor animation errors in the series before (one of which turned into a rabid plot bunny).



Oooh, that does make sense. I'm going to run with that for the time being unless something else comes up.



Yes, that's essentially what I'm saying. When two sets of absolutely dominant genes collide, having one offspring with one set and another with the other set is theoretically possible, and isn't any less plausible than any of the rest of the series as it relates to demons. I think it makes more sense than assuming Hina had two eggs going, which doesn't really work in the context of the koorime, given the setup for their breeding cycle.



Thanks tons, I'll look forward to it. ^^ I'll see if I can't dig up the untranslated somewhere else as well.

Took me a terribly long time to reply, I'm sorry. Anyway, REALLY?! Like what? (*enjoys plot bunnies*)




So, the original egg split is your theory? Makes more sense than anything I've heard, and given that we don't (and probably never will) understand demon biology, I'm accepting it as likely.

I am SO sorry this took so long. My scanner was broken, I forgot about the conversation, etc...^^' Okay, here's a scan of the YYH manga English version.



This is directly after the Yukina-saving mission, and the panels that are cut off are just Botan and Yusuke talking about how it was lucky that Hiei didn't kill Tarukane. Hope this gives some clarity as to something...

Ah~ You know, if I'd been paying better attention before, I'd have realized that it's been two years since Hiei found out she was missing, not necessarily since she's been missing. That makes a bit more sense, I guess, although one does have to wonder what the hell he was doing in the interim. But then again -- he probably spent those two years looking for her in the demon world, and that's why he eventually got the Jagan eye, which then enabled him to locate her, or at least to confirm that she wasn't in the Makai so he could widen his search to the Ningenkai.

That brings us right back to the problem with Shigure, though -- if Hiei didn't find out he even had a sister until he got his Jagan eye, which he can't have realistically gotten very long before the series, yet he found out two years ago that his sister was missing, but he didn't find out he even had a sister until he got his Jagan eye . . . eek *falls down*


EDIT: Or maybe it's not an error. More manga scans, bitte? Because it depends on Hiei's phrasing when he's talking to Shigure. If he says he didn't know he had a sister until Rui told him, then it's likely to be a canon error -- but if all he says is that Rui told him about his sister, that doesn't discount his having known before that. He might not have been able to find the floating island, but he would sure as hell have been able to find her and watch her sometimes if she was leaving the island periodically (as people have said she was). And I guess it makes more sense if he did already know about her; his memory is supposed to be eidetic, and has been ever since he was born, right? So he would have known and remembered from when he was an infant that he had a twin sister. Gods know the koorime were jabbering about it enough in the flashbacks.


EDIT EDIT: So I was reading the Two Shots manga, and when combined with the manga scan you just gave me, it provides us with a very specific timescale for Hiei's Jagan implant. He got it about two years before the series.

This shoots holes in all my theories, but I'll run with it, and see if I can't construct a timeline out of it.


A) Hiei knew from the start that he had a sister since his memory has been eidetic from birth, but didn't have it as one of his specific goals to find her -- just the island. Since she lived there, that makes sense, because he would find them both at once.

B) He discovered that she periodically left the island to play with animals, and watched over her at least once -- hence the flashback scene during the Rescue Yukina mini-arc.

C) He was sidetracked by something or other and didn't see her for three years or so, or else he looked for her, didn't find her, and assumed she had merely stopped leaving the island.

D) He found out independently of Rui that she was missing, probably through local rumor or chance information, given that he was still looking for the island also and would have been gathering data on it wherever he could (plotbunnyplotbunnyHO!).

E) He stepped up his search and got the Jagan implanted in order to find her/the island/the tear gem, and spent some time learning to swordfight with Shigure.

G) He went to the floating island, talked with Rui, had her confirm everything he already knew -- because he's just that careful -- and left again.

H) He tried and failed to find her in the Makai even with his Jagan, and (now that he was low-level enough to pass the kekkai, having been an A-class demon before the implant) he left for the Ningenkai to look.

I) He met Kurama while on the trail of a demon he thought had eaten a koorime -- this was purportedly one year before the series.

J) He either got distracted by the magical shinyness of the Shadow Sword or meant to use it to somehow further his search, and was subsequently knocked down by Yuusuke.

K) Things in the series progress as we know.


This means he did dither around and fail to bring his power back up much after the implant -- but I suppose that he really hadn't needed to yet. It looks like he spent most of his time after that (about a year and a half out of the two years) in the Ningenkai, where he might not have needed much power. Most low-class demons can live quite comfortably there if they're clever, which Hiei is. My only question is why it took him so damned long to find her -- even if he couldn't track her with his Jagan, wouldn't places where demons were present have been his first areas of search? And especially where lots of low-level demons were squatting together and not killing each other, which indicates something beyond simple hiding out?

Maybe I'm just thinking too much. o.o

It's a possibility . . . although I'm not sure why he'd be avoiding finding her, especially since he knew she was missing and might be in danger. It could just be that he tunnel-visioned and didn't think of it. *shrug*

I'm also taking back that he had to have found out she was missing independently of Rui. For Shigure to have given him the conditions he did for the Jagan implant, Hiei basically only had to know about Yukina, not know she was missing. His goal to find her and to find his people was pretty much the same up until they were no longer in the same place; I suspect it was held mentally as a separate goal so that he didn't lump her in with the village full of women he intended to exterminate.