Surprisingly, Captain Taiki was killed at the start of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 238. Even though we got an opening scene that appeared to show him being killed, I was in denial until it was confirmed after the OP.
Characters being killed off isn’t all that uncommon in Boruto. It’s not like this is One Piece where it’s a very rare occurrence. But, I still wasn’t expecting a supporting character, especially one who isn’t even a combatant, to be brutally killed as Captain Taiki was.
Typically, when characters are killed in Boruto, they’re shinobi or bad guys who claim not to be shinobi. For example, the members of Kara, Mugino, Ao, and other random shinobi like those quadruplets in that one “filler” arc. I guess Boro’s followers died and they weren’t combatants. But they were still followers of Kara.
Something I found interesting about this whole situation is Hebiichigo’s reaction to Kyohou being named the prime suspect. As we’ve spent more time with Hebiichigo, she’s proven that my assumptions about her at the start of the arc were wrong.
I thought that if anyone was going to betray the group, it would be Hebiichigo. She looks the part, and at the start of the arc, she acted the part too. But, we now know that she’s much kinder of a person than she’d like to let on.
The explanation she gives for defending Kyohou is that she just doesn’t want him to be considered guilty because it reflects poorly on her as his ally. That’s already different from what I expected from her because it shows she cares what others think.
However, it becomes pretty clear that Hebiichigo actually likes Kyohou. I don’t think it’s necessarily in a romantic way. But she cares about him.
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Kyohou’s Rampage
When Kyohou was confronted by the passengers on the ship and accused of being a Funato member, I considered that they may be right in a sense. I never thought that Kyohou was an active member of the Funato. But, him being a former member made sense to me.
If he had the face tattoo that all Funato members have, that would be a good explanation for why he wears a mask. Most people of the Land of Water hate the Funato. So if he defected from the Funato to become one of the New Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he’d want to hide his Funato connection.
But, as it turns out, Kyohou was never a member of the Funato. His village was attacked and destroyed by the Funato. And this is why Kyohou acts the way he does. This is why seeing blood makes him go on a rampage — which I still think is a terrible quality for a shinobi to have.
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Something that doesn’t quite make sense, however, is that Kyohou doesn’t go on a blood-induced rampage in this episode. He goes on a rampage temporarily. But that was caused by him being accused of being a Funato and the killer of Captain Taiki.
When Kyohou actually saw blood, which he was cleaning off his weapon, he didn’t go into a rampage. This makes me think that there’s more to it than Kyohou going berserk when he sees blood.
If we think back to the previous time he went berserk, yes, there was blood. But, more importantly, it was Hebiichigo’s blood because she got wounded. Rather than any blood making Kyohou go on a rampage, it seems to actually be when he sees his friends get hurt.
Funato Sabotage
Eventually, it’s revealed that there really was a Funato member among the people on the ship. Of course, that would have to be the case if it wasn’t Kyohou who killed Captain Taiki. Nobody else would have any incentive to kill the captain.
The problem I have with this revelation, though, is that the conclusion Kawaki comes to isn’t really supported by his evidence. Somehow, he knew that the enemy was controlling the body of one of the evacuees on the ship — not just that there was an enemy among them.
What was his evidence for this? First, the news of what had happened spread too quickly among the evacuees. And second, the guy who claimed he saw Kyohou shouldn’t have been where he said he was. He claimed he saw Kyohou go to the captain’s room while on his way to the restroom, which is in the opposite direction.
Clearly, that evacuee is suspicious. But again, there was no evidence that he was being controlled by the Funato. Kawaki should have just suspected that this man was a Funato sympathizer or something. Or, perhaps that he was being controlled via genjutsu.
I guess it was just assumed that this guy wasn’t a real Funato member because he didn’t have the facial tattoos. But that’s not really a good assumption to make. And speaking of the facial tattoos, that was bold of this guy to suggest that Kyohou remove his mask.
How did he know that Kyohou would refuse in the way he did? That could have easily backfired if Kyohou removed his mask right then and there, showing everyone that he didn’t have the Funato tattoo. Then it would have been even more obvious that this guy was lying.
Oh, and using Kyohou’s body as bait makes no sense as well unless you know the enemy is controlling people from within. A traitor or someone being controlled by genjutsu isn’t going to go find the body.