The second season of the anime adaptationof Yoshitoki Oima’s manga,To Your Eternity, is currently airing, and it has wasted no time getting real and heavy as characters die, new characters are introduced only to be reduced to blips in decades-long time-skips. Despite the nature of Fushi’s condition making the timeline inTo Your Eternityan incredibly long one, there is something that has prevailed from the first season, before the forty-year time skip after Pioran’s passing at the end of the first season, and that has everything to do with the first season’s biggest antagonist, Hayase.
Hayase’s obsession with Fushi saw her go the lengths of even trying to bear his child, and she has passed this will onto her descendants as her legacy. As a result of Hayase’s influence, as well as stories of Fushi told by Tonari before her death, Fushi has become something akin to a god to the people who know of him. Six generations after Hayase, Fushi is both exalted asan immortal holy warriorwho destroys Nokkers by one side; and as an evil devil who brings misfortune by another. Let’s see how exactly is Hayase responsible for Fushi’s deification.
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Who Is Hayase?
In the first season ofTo Your Eternity, Fushi arrives in a place called Ninannah, which is a land of abundance where he meets March, Parona and Pioran. The people of Ninannah follow a custom in which young girls paint their faces with black face paint in a variety of designs until they reach a certain age, and on an annual basis, they select someone to sacrifice to the region’s god: a giant bear known as Oniguma – the Spirit Bear. This creature is deified by the people of Ninannah, and is credited with blessing the region; however, the people there are oppressed by a powerful country called Yanome, which seeks to take control of Ninannah. The Yanome are responsible for selecting the young girl who will be sacrificed to the Oniguma on a yearly basis, and once the selection is made, the girl is to be escourted only by a Yanome soldier and not to interact with anybody else – not even her parents. Hayase was the Yanome soldier responsible for the selection when March was chosen to be the sacrifice, and after Fushi’s intervention and subsequent departure, Hayase spent the next four years looking for him.
Hayase develops an obsession over Fushi after the events that occur in the Spirit Bear arc ofTo Your Eternityand eventually meets him again on the island of Jananda, where she tried to claim the immortal for herself. In this arc, Hayase goes as far as trying to forcefully procreate with Fushi. Her ambition ultimately fails; however, after the events of the Jananda Island arc, Hayase escapes the island and merges together with a Nokker that was on the island. Her obsession with Fushi was so great that she implants her will to claim him for herself in her descendants, forming the faction known as the Guardians and effectively creating a lore around her family and their connection to the immortal. To ensure that her desire is fulfilled, Hayase is reincarnatedin each of her descendants, who all try to seduce Fushi in order to achieve Hayase’s goal of having his children.
The Guardians
The most important instrument in Hayase’s obsession and Fushi’s deification as a result is the faction that she established, inspired by her experiences with Fushi on Jananda. The Guardian Force Unit is a special faction dedicated to protecting Fushi from the Nokkers, as well as combating Nokker attacks on human settlements. The leader of the faction is invariably one of Hayase’s descendants, and what they have in common is that they all host the Nokker that Hayase once merged with, effectively passing it on as a family heirloom. The leader of the Guardian Force Unit is also always compelled to attempt to court Fushi with the intention of procreating (with exception to Kahaku; at least not until Fushi begins touse Parona’s form more oftenaround him, which is much to Kahaku’s liking). These descendants of Hayase are incredibly informed on things regarding Fushi, and some of his past; although they are also fed a lot of praise directed at the immortal. Hayase’s conniving, scheming personality saw to it that she invent a lore that would enable her to continue to live on through her descendants, giving her ample opportunities to have Fushi return her “love” and procreate with her. The Guardians believe Fushi to be something that belongs to them, as Tonari points out, and as such, Fushi does not return their enthusiasm for him over the various reincarnations of Hayase who arise.
The Lady With the Owl
Tonari has a minor role in the second season as she hasa very difficult deathwithin the first two episodes after being reunited with Fushi, unbeknownst to him. She is one of the first people Fushi runs into after his lengthy self-isolation, and she tries to protect him from getting involved with the Guardians. What Tonari has in common with the Guardian Force; however, is that she also spent her life combating the Nokkers, relying on her tough experiences on Jananda in the first season. Due to Tonari’s antagonistic nature towards the Guardians, Hisame and all following Hayase reincarnations become instantly put off whenever Fushi assumes Tonari’s form, a factor that Fushi has weaponized against them on a regular basis.
Tonari is also responsible for news spreading about Fushi, firstly due to her antics as a child in the first season, as well as in her role as the leader of the island of Jananda after Fushi’s departure. While brief, Tonari served as an alternative to the Guardians, who claim to be on his side but also have ulterior motives. As one of the last remaining friends of the immortal, Tonari was one of the few people capable of giving an accurate account of what it may have been like to be in his company, which, when considered with Hayase’s passing down of a lore and will to her descendants, means that there are at least two separate ways in which Fushi as a figure of legend is cemented in the current age.
Nokkers
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