hey if it makes you guys feel better+helps to resolve anything:
you need to read the omake of volume 10 to find out (it's in my google drive so i am happy to share with anyone!) but it HEAVILY IMPLIES that Kiku/Yakumo is NOT the father! i will explain below:
essentially it goes back to when konatsu was a teenager and Kiku is talking to the yakuza boss. She gets into a lot of fights and goes out late with guys a lot. Kiku doesn't know how to deal with her and has been ignoring her for a while. why? because Kiku has realised that she started developing feelings for him and it disgusts and distresses him. he blames himself for not acting enough like a parent, he feels guilty like he did something to make her see him like this. this is when he started pushing her away and being extremely cold and mean to her, and this is when she started acting out, hoping for any kind of attention from him. this is where/why their relationship broke down and was so strange. the impression from the yakuza boss was that he felt sorry for Kiku and saw Konatsu as a child.
it's also why Konatsu refused to answer the author's question of "is the child yakumo's?" because she had feelings for him until the end. he never reciprocated it, and there is some circumstantial evidence from the mangaka that he is gay.
it's likely that the child is from some unknown guy who she had a one-night stand with and not from Yakumo or the yakuza boss. remember that a running theme in the series has always been truth and the manipulation/concealment of it
hey if it makes you guys feel better+helps to resolve anything:
you need to read the omake of volume 10 to find out (it's in my google drive so i am happy to share with anyone!) but it HEAVILY IMPLIES that Kiku/Yakumo is NOT the father! i will explain below:
essentially it goes back to when konatsu was a teenager and Kiku is talking to the yakuza boss. She gets into a lot of fights and goes out late with guys a lot. Kiku doesn't know how to deal with her and has been ignoring her for a while. why? because Kiku has realised that she started developing feelings for him and it disgusts and distresses him. he blames himself for not acting enough like a parent, he feels guilty like he did something to make her see him like this. this is when he started pushing her away and being extremely cold and mean to her, and this is when she started acting out, hoping for any kind of attention from him. this is where/why their relationship broke down and was so strange. the impression from the yakuza boss was that he felt sorry for Kiku and saw Konatsu as a child.
it's also why Konatsu refused to answer the author's question of "is the child yakumo's?" because she had feelings for him until the end. he never reciprocated it, and there is some circumstantial evidence from the mangaka that he is gay.
it's likely that the child is from some unknown guy who she had a one-night stand with and not from Yakumo or the yakuza boss. remember that a running theme in the series has always been truth and the manipulation/concealment of it (●'◡'●)ノ
sorry for double sending my wifi was bad:
this is the "gay kiku" so called evidence, the mangaka specifically put him and only him in for a Japanese expo about LGBT characters in manga.
https://twitter.com/KUMOHARU/status/1132975043506462725
yea! so i found my google drive link which i will include below; but i think i may have figured out who the biological father of shinnosuke is, or who i suspect it to be. I feel like without a doubt, the father is Mangetsu.
here's why i believe this:
- in chapter 3, he asks yotaro about konatsu and in that conversation goes on to say that:
1) he's been to the house
2) he lived around the area while begging yakumo to take him on as an apprentice
3) talked about konatsu like they were more than acquaintances saying that he "would go mad with jealousy" because yotaro got to live with her
- we don't know for certain when he was living around the area, but if the timing was fairly short, then he could have been there around the time of conception
- shinnosuke looks exactly like him. and to me the kicker is MYOPIA/NEARSIGHTEDNESS! the daughter of yotaro and konatsu does not wear glasses. being nearsighted is a genetic trait. neither miyokichi nor sukeroku wore glasses or required them, and hence neither does konatsu. yakumo wore reading glasses for far-sightedness as he got older (which is a common part of aging) but he never required glasses in his youth, and hence never had myopia.
who is the only character in the series with myopia? mangetsu. shinnosuke also looks just like him. hence it's more likely than not that the biological father of shinnosuke is mangestu. konatsu probably didn't want to get together with her, because from the way he spoke, he seemed to be interested in her only for the relationship she had to sukeroku and yakumo.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tCeZ6hVS4wRhDDvKlsYK3dnm1qhsS5oZwqXPGX4DsE/edit?usp=sharing
i know i know, it wasnt sudden really BUT it wasnt explicitly stated, heavily implied yes... but not explicitly stated.
so im running off to the hills believing its the yakuza guy and not kiku-chan nyaha.
why? because it doesnt fit the characters imo.
i hardly doubt that kiku would see konatsu like that, however similar she is with miyo or sukeroku. instead, shouldnt that be the main reason he wouldnt lay his hands on them? still stuck on their deaths and haunted by their presence, he would feel guilt and be more haunted by his sins. cause im pretty sure he would feel guilty after they did the deed.
but thats my interpretation, dont blast me lolol. i just dont like incest in any forms of media. lolol