Curate, connect, and discover
because me and my petty self want to claim this headcanon :’)
mei and mitsuba haven’t been shown interacting aside a short time in picture perfect arc and it’s such a waste because their parallels are so absolutely interesting and i’m in love with the idea of sibling relationship shijimitsu
like
so
but
once, mitsuba tried to find a place to stay within the seven mysteries and kinda got rejected by most of them. however, the one he wasn’t shown interacting with was with shijima, and they get along together well enough, looking at their interactions in picture perfect...
not to mention these parallels;
they’re both 'fakes'. the second unoriginal versions of people who used to be alive, people who used to be there and talk to others and make an impact on the world.
their original selves were both artists. they drew what was important, immortalizing it in their photos and paintings and sketches and film. original mitsuba’s ghost took a picture of kou before getting turned into no. 3 by tsukasa. original mei drew her ideal self, in a tower, and created her second self. both these things were important to them.
their second selves were created because their original selves had a wish. to live on, and to have & stay with friends...
and slowly, their second selves started to grow indifferent to their original selves’ forms of expression. shijima seems to only draw for functionality instead of for her own enjoyment or curiosity or expression, but her art has so much more meaning now that they create more than just an impression of life—they make life. and mitsuba doesn’t even know anything anymore, amnesia go brrrr (ty @ocelotlesbian for pointing this out)
i have so much to say about how shijima’s art is being used more as a tool for convenience instead of how the original mei used it—even natsuhiko & tsukasa are trying to annoy her for stuff—and not to mention the things they could do with this ability if someone thought about it enough (she, tsuchigomori, yako & the clock keepers are so completely broken i can’t even—these are the mysteries, of course, but i’m so glad they’re passively watching everything unfold because if they took matters into their own hands it’d be absolute chaos look at the clock keepers arc)
and i henceforth i headcanon
these two siblings doing art together afterschool in an art room. do we normally see mitsuba in hanako’s bathroom after school? no... and he’s scared of tsukasa. absolutely traumatised. ignore the afterschool episodes, i want mitsuba to turn on his heel and walk straight to the art room, skipping the fourth step.
after he has his melancholy talks and tear-filled arguments with kou he goes over and whines to shijima and they watch a movie on a projector and eat ice cream from a minifridge.
bonus points if mei uses her sketchbook to draw tissues for them. they literally have infinite ice cream and tissues
after the aquarium trip, i don’t think he could return to kou’s house (teru) & he also loses more energy the further away he is from the school SO i’d like to say he walks over, finds shijima & just cries to her the entire time about how kou is being difficult
shijima (unbothered queen) hands him her sketchbook w a drawing of a tissue box inside and 'mhm's every few minutes
it’s such a nice dynamic i love them so much
WHAT IF THEY RELEARNED THEIR PAST SELVES’ HOBBIES TOGETHER
like mitsuba learning how to hold a camera w his hand
shijima teaches him how to sketch, they go on small trips around the school at night to look at items in the moonlight
mitsuba absolutely destroys any supernaturals in their way (i need shijima to force him to eat occasionally and he will have to listen)
no but shijima is perfectly able to handle them herself
cue shijima pulling a sword from her sketchbook and slicing supernaturals into pieces
but what if their past versions met in some sort of afterlife and mei teaches him to sketch & mitsuba shows mei his favorite photos and anglings and they watch birds & draw them and take photos and think about their lives and-
bonus: YAKO.
yako’s stairs are said to lead up to the art room 👀
so what if...
(i’ll finish this later lmao)
i need this to be canon. sibling mei & mitsuba. pls.
thank you for reading ♡ drink some water~
01/10/25 — put in extra stuff + fixed some inaccuracies