#ty issa for helping me clarify this!!!

[ironclawpoint]

travis, jeane, and henry are shelter children: the abridged nmh3 headcanon for pals who havent killed the past

(and yeah there’s spoilers)

Who is Kamui?

In The Silver Case, Kamui Uehara is a legendary serial killer in Japan’s 24th Ward; he was arrested for the killings of several political figures in 1979 and suddenly broke out of prison and resumed activity in 1999. He notably had silver eyes. Plot twist: THIS IS A LIE, the 1979 Kamui and 1999 Kamui are different people (ish), and the No More Heroes Kamui is technically not this Kamui, even if he technically... is.

Danni, what the fuck.

Yeah man I know Kill the Past lore is fucked up.

How is this possible?

It’s a government conspiracy!!! The 1979 Kamui, also known as “Format” Kamui, had a personality type (obedient & with a lot of “criminal power” - aka capacity for chaos/destruction) that the Powers That Be determined would be really good for creating numerous controllable government sleeper agents to shift the balance of political power as they saw fit. This personality base was mass produced by imprinting it onto vulnerable young boys in the Shelters (Kamui Maspro) and later young girls (Ayame Maspro).

What’s a Shelter?

Horrible dystopian toddler reeducation bunker where young children were kidnapped, forced to do menial soul sucking tasks in a sterile environment, and reeducated before being subtly planted back into society as sleeper agents. Thousands of kids from the 24th Ward were taken. 1999 Kamui and NMH Kamui were both products of the Shelter. Specifically, NMH Kamui is the “ultimate” Kamui Uehara, having successfully absorbed the memories of previous Kamui consciousnesses to become a quasi-godlike meta-aware and fourth wall breaking being, in conjunction with the mysterious powers of the silver eye he had implanted into his socket, which also grants functional immortality...

DANNI WHAT THE FUCK

YEAH I KNOW BEAR WITH ME.

Isn’t that kind of like the Coburn Elementary stuff in Killer7?

IT SURE IS! Coburn and the development of Emir Parkreiner as a Japanese sleeper agent in American politics is quite close to Kamui/the Shelters. I also headcanon that Coburn is an American iteration of the 24th Ward’s Shelter Project, as, essentially, the government in both Killer7 and TSC are invested in controlling the population via (often violent) social engineering.

So how do Henry, Jeane, and Travis play into this?

As of NMH3, Henry has revealed that he and his siblings fled from their serial killer father and were captured and brainwashed into believing they had separate lives. In this headcanon, I posit that the three of them have been manipulated and influenced to become assassins due to whatever conditioning they received at this event, possibly at another Coburn-like project or facility. I’m undecided on whether the father who raised Travis / abused Jeane is their blood relative and the same as the serial killer or not, as it’s possible Travis and Jeane were returned to him after conditioning.

first of all HENRY HAS A FUCKED UP GREEN THIRD EYE LIKE EMIR. LIKE, LOOK AT IT.

NMH Kamui, in Travis Strikes Again, notes many similarities between himself and Travis: he has similar fourth-walling abilities to the type of being that Kamui has become and, like him, has a large amount of criminal power. On their own this doesn’t necessarily mean anything except travis fourth wall break kill real good, but combined with all the other heavy Kill the Past stuff we’ve seen and Henry’s backstory reveals, it’s not too tough to read into Travis having unknowingly developed into a being on the same level of existence as Kamui: in other words, a self-aware viewpoint for the player.

“Ayamestock” or “Kamuistock” characters, due to their conditioning, are often found in dangerous careers and think little of bloodshed; they are also usually being moved around like chess pieces by higher outside forces.

We don’t know what the hell the UAA or Sylvia is doing as of NMH3. The UAA was no longer false as of NMH2, but why do we still need this bureaucracy / to have the fights taped and widely circulated on the dark web as of TSA? Not to mention that Travis is an “above-ground” assassin while there’s an underground... tl;dr, I suspect Sylvia of manipulating Travis as a pawn, as she has since NMH1, in a way that might involve the Emerald Order and whatever figures were originally manipulating Travis/Jeane/Henry.

The siblings’ separation also fits neatly into the concept of the Shelters: at least one pair of siblings was separated via the Shelter Project, conditioned, then adopted into different families for the sake of spreading out that influence.

Travis has issues with unearthing suppressed memories (perhaps due to tampering?) in NMH3, plus Henry’s experiences with Mimmy in NMH2 suggest Henry does as well.

We don’t know much about Jeane, but “failed” Ayames and Kamuis -- those who didn’t take up the programming well enough -- are usually people on the fringes of society who aren’t placed anywhere influential and have to reckon with their latent violent tendencies some other way, ie CRIME and MURDERS. With her brothers as possible Kamuis, it’s possible she was an Ayame candidate as well, but remained an outcast due to her lack of compatibility. Ayames are also known for being purer / more given to bloodlust as the Ayame project, taking place after the Kamui one, had perfected the conditioning process-- see: the fact that she nearly took Travis out.

Finally: it would be cool and I like it.

#ty issa for helping me clarify this!!!