I think that the theory that Kabuto is in a coma has some real weight to it and isn't just hopium, for one major reason: The other students don't know that Kabuto is "dead." If a student at your school not only died but was MURDERED, which is what the first few pages of ch1 suggest happened to Kabuto (notice the metal pipe), there is no way you wouldn't hear about that. At the very least, it would be announced at school, if it wasn't all over the news—which it would be, because Japan has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world. But it WOULD make sense for people to not know what happened to Kabuto if he was alive in the hospital, because that's confidential medical information. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk lol