Kara no Kyoukai/Headscratchers

• In "Murder Speculation 2", right before Shiki gets up to kick some ass, the raindrops and Lio's saliva rapidly evaporate from her body and clothes. What the hell was that?
  • A Wizard Did It? Seriously, I have no idea, but I assumed that maybe her body was metabolizing the drug really fast and it was something like that.
    • Lio's saliva always evaporates really fast for some strange reason. I'm guessing her biting her thumb off allowed enough blood loss to dilute the drug in her body (which, incidently, is also how Mikiya was able to survive the drug Lio made him swallow). Either that or once she got herself free she was able to 'kill' the drug in her body the same way she 'killed' Asagami's illness in Remaining Sense of Pain. Either that or she was capable of 'killing' both the drug in her body and the saliva whilst still being handcuffed.
  • Two possibilites I've seen. First, at least in the novel, it's stated or at least very implied that she's been injected in the left (fake) arm. This is likely a factor. Second, the drug's power is stated to be less about the physical reaction, and more about Lio's blood contained there. His blood, being connected to the Origin, should help people awaken their own (and most likely destroy them in the process). Shiki's Origin being far, far, far more powerful, it simply overwhelmed the drug. The effect would be similar to a fever, I'd guess because that's how the body normally deals with foreign entities - i.e., Shiki heats up.

• In the last film, who was that drug dealer Mikiya spoke with? She looked and sounded strangely familiar, you know.
  • I got the impression it was Lio, just crossdressing to disguise himself/mess with Kokutou/because he's Lio. Serious Fridge Horror upon figuring this out the second time around.
  • She's just a regular drug dealer. Definitely not Lio, because he's been stealing all of her business due to the popularity of the Bloodchip and her refusal to sell them. Any resemblance to other characters is probably just due to Only Six Faces.
  • According to some sources, she is (or at least, shares a name with) Hotaruzuka Otoko, Shirou's employer from Fate/stay night.

• Also, could someone spell out what Touko's goal that defies True Ancestors' existence is for me, please? I seem to have missed that part...
  • I believe that it's "to find the ultimate body". (I might be wrong.) Touko's a doll maker after all, and the True Ancestors are imperfect clones of a planet's Ultimate Being.
  • That's more or less correct. Touko's goal is to find the 'original body', the template mankind is based on. Modern humans are too widespread and genetically diverse for this, in theme with the Nasuverse's ideas of copies being inferior to originals. True Ancestors are modelled on the Crimson Moon but their bodies were based on the original human template. Arcueid walking around means Touko's ultimate goal is right in front of her. Although, since she so rarely wakes up to do anything it's really a moot point anyway...
    • So, to set this straight, Touko wants to clone Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam?
      • No. The Nasuverse is an Alternate History in which humans are descended from an original template derived from the planet itself. That's why Heroic Spirits are capable of moving at supersonic speeds while modern humans can't. It's not because they're dead, they could do this even while alive. It's implied that the development of Magic Circuits are slowly shifting humans away from the original magic-users like Caster, who uses magic using the Divine Language instead. Gilgamesh and Medusa can sense the nature of magic within a magus' body before the magus actually releases it, and Gilgamesh isn't even a magus.
      • Rakkyo made it pretty clear that finding the "original body" was Touko's goal, but she had long given up. If I recall correctly, Ryougi Shiki's own body was the goal Touko sought - a body that connected to the original root of all creation.
• So...why the hell was Araya a counselor at the hospital? Was he just bored with his crazy Paradox Spiral experiments or something? I mean, sure, it'd be a good way to get to Kirie, but I don't thing a magus of Araya's calibre really has a need for fake identities or somesuch. He could probably just walk up the walls to her window or something. It would make more sense if he took that job when Shiki appeared in hospital, but that's when Touko came in. So...what exactly is up with that? Or maybe it was just another random guy who happened to share the name of the story's Big Bad?
  • I was under the impression that he was there to look for people with a body he could use for his plans, since it seems like it would take an accident like Shiki's to create someone with the Mystic Eyes or someone like Kirie who would be vulnerable to his offers. Or it could very well be that he was bored and just enjoys messing with people.
  • Araya probably worked himself into the hospital so he can observe Shiki. Once Shiki regained consciousness, Touko might have used her old connections with the guy to replace him on Mikiya's behalf -- if he refused, his plans regarding Shiki's body could have been exposed. Alternately, even a magus needs proper medical resources to keep that many brains alive for so long...

• In the movies, Mikiya openly states that she met Shiki in April. However, in the novels, it is heavily implied that we're supposed to think this was so; instead, the "April 1995. I met her." line was always meant to always be a reference to Lio's diary, when it was revealed (in the epilogue) that Mikiya met Shiki in March of 1995. Did the movie makers miss this detail, or is there a translation issue here?