Unmarked spoilers are ahead, per Spoilers Off rule.
- He's a predatory older man, and does seem to have a weird thing for blood, even if he's not strictly speaking a vampire...
- He is technically a psychic vampire, but that doesn't get brought up much after volume one. The vampire motif isn't brought up that much after being solidly established in the Nagasaki arc where the rape and murder are revealed. But vampirism doesn't have much to do with AIDS, not even in media depiction. At least, not in so much as vampires=gay=AIDS. Not discounting the theory, as it seems reasonable, just pointing out.
- It was transmitted as part of rape and killed him slowly, but I'm not sure it quite hits the metaphor level. Because really, what would it be saying except Rapists Can Kill You Slowly, Too?
- How is this wild? Remember what Sagdalius said? 'I know all about that night...I even know about you, Konoe!' Where's the ambiguity here? That was before Tatsumi usurped Konoe's place in the main casting by Power of Bishie, so even if the series resumes (which it won't) it's likely it'll never be developed, but it's solid.
- That's still pretty ambiguous. Sagadalius didn't actually say what happened on "that night" or if Konoe was directly involved, just that he "knew about" Konoe. Also, the series has been off of hiatus for over a year at the time of writing this segment.
- This troper says: The Count is the father or other ancestor of Tsuzuki, as indicated after that damn party. Tsuzuki has demonstrated his incredible 'hanyou powers' a la Abe no Seimei, the Japanese Merlin who was supposedly half fox and who was the last person to have Tsuzuki's set of shikigami, and King Enma and the other people running the world want to use him in some way. They make reference, when they turn up in context of Konoe reporting to them, to their plans for Tsuzuki, the fact that Tsuzuki can't get away, the fact that they apparently killed off Muraki's grandfather Yukitaka to prevent his interfering with said plans (!) and so on.
- Fridge Horror: If the count is related to Tsuzuki in some manner, it makes all the scenes where he molests and sexually harasses him a hell of a lot more awkward.
- Wait, what's this about Muraki's grandfather being killed off by "them"?
- Way back in Tsuzuki's adolescence, this plan went into its first stages by sending a set of their goons, the shinigami, to force his powers to show themselves. Konoe was part of that team, and followed his orders in manipulating Tsuzuki into flipping his lid, causing the deaths of his family in the resulting power surge. For which Tsuzuki unfairly blames himself, Konoe with more justification blames himself, and Enma blames himself not at all as he is god and doesn't need a conscience. Even Muraki has more morals than this guy, although they assert themselves only as shards that prick him under the ribs and drive him to more frenziedly immoral behavior in reaction against.
- All of this so that Enma could get Tsuzuki squarely under his thumb, which he has done, and wait for the opportune moment to do whatever-it-is. He 'spoke' to Ashitarote, King of Demons, to get Tsuzuki out of his job as King of Dragons, which was apparently a sort of right-hand job to Ashitarote—don't know what the King of Hell can pull on the King of Demons to get his way (considering that despite translation these aren't mutually inclusive domains), but whatever it was, it was worth it to him.
- So only Konoe knows what's really going on, and the fact that even in their farcical daily life they are merely pawns of a cruel god. The Count may know something, too, and you'd think that as a Noble of Hell and clear supernatural being he'd be able to do a little more than Konoe, but apparently he's either helpless or has some kind of uninvolvement policy he can't break under these circumstances. So want to see the Count and Summons Department forming a subversive organization to free Tsuzuki and break Enma's tyranny. Muraki provides assistance and possibly dies (seriouslyforreallthistimehahaha) in the process, and Enma is deposed and his son takes over.
- Then Enma-loyalists in keffiyeh will take over the Ministry and threaten to blow up the world as a religious gesture. No, that's what happened in YuYu Hakusho. Plus, that Enma actually had a son.
- How is this wild? Remember what Sagdalius said? 'I know all about that night...I even know about you, Konoe!' Where's the ambiguity here? That was before Tatsumi usurped Konoe's place in the main casting by Power of Bishie, so even if the series resumes (which it won't) it's likely it'll never be developed, but it's solid.
- Jossed by the fact that Muraki, the person who raped him and therefore saw him naked, refers to him as male
- When Hisoka has a nightmare about Muraki on the Queen Camelia, we see his (decidedly male) bare chest several times. There is also a panel that looks like Muraki pleasuring him orally.
- He's definitely not human, as hinted at constantly - but it's never out-right stated he's of demon descent.
- It would explain why he's much sweeter than what one would expect of... well, the opposite.
- It would be an interesting twist; it's been hinted at so much it would just induce an eyeroll from this troper if he turns out to be a demon.
- Sargatanas calls Tsuzuki a 'black sheep' (allusion to fallen angels, maybe?) and a 'poor little lamb' when he possesses him. Also, Focalor is outraged that 'a mere human' should inherit Sargatanas' position in Hell. Shouldn't those two (especially Sargatanas) be able to somehow sense it if Tsuzuki were partly a demon?
- Ruka calls him an angel in the Book Arc as well.
Being the son of a deity would explain his powers, such as the ability to control 12 of the most powerful Shikigami. The Count is also the Lord of the Castle of Candles; it should be easy for him to keep Tsuzuki's candle burning, thus effectively preventing him from dying while he was still mortal (until Enma interfered?). After the party in volume 9, the Count says that Tsuzuki's smile makes his life in the Castle easier (apparently he's imprisoned there - punishment?) and he asks the others to keep an eye on Tsuzuki for him. He even calls Tsuzuki "the only treasure he has left". Tsuzuki himself also says that "the aura of the Count felt somehow very familiar".
As for the Count's behaviour towards Tsuzuki... maybe Enma wants to keep them apart, to eliminate any influence that might interfere with his grand schemes (whatever those may be) and this is the only 'inconspicuous' way he can be close to his son... yeah, it's a big stretch, I know.
- Given the implication that Asato and Ruka may have been in an incestuous relationship, the gross behavior probably doesn't even need an alternative explanation. If the count really is Asato's father and their family name really is Tsuzuki, it could just be how the Tsuzukis roll.
So it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to think that the Kurosaki’s may have hired Muraki to figure out a way to get out of their curse. After all, Muraki not only dabbled in dark magic but also genetic research and the supernatural in order to bring his brother Saki back to life. Not to mention being an actual doctor. If anyone could possibly figure out a way to break this horrific cycle, Muraki would’ve been the perfect candidate for the Kurosaki family to hire and figure out what to do.So Muraki accepted the job and researched how to possibly break the curse. Unfortunately, he realized it was either impossible or completely beyond his means to break the curse. After all, this was a literal god he was dealing with. Muraki has enough power to fight on equal ground with the Shinigami, but a god? Muraki would’ve realized that he didn’t have the power to take on Yatonokami directly without risking his own life. However, it’s also been shown in-series Muraki likes to see his projects all the way through to a very violent, bloody end and so he wouldn’t have simply given up and walked away from this assignment.
So he came to the conclusion that the only way to break the Kurosaki curse would be the extinction of the family line. As Hisoka was the family heir and the next host, he would have to die so that there wouldn’t be another host for Yatonokami. It seemed too much of a coincidence that Hisoka was able to successfully sneak out the night he witnessed Muraki commit a murder. Perhaps that was due to Muraki’s intervention to lure Hisoka outside and kill him so nobody could save him? He probably also did not want to draw the attention of Yatonokami towards himself. Then who was the woman that Muraki killed? Muraki doesn’t kill without a reason. Maybe she was his assistant and he killed her so that nobody would find out about his plans? She might even have been just a stranger he found to kill to deliberately draw Hisoka’s attention towards him. Whatever the case, the fact that Hisoka was able to successfully sneak out and witness Muraki near the estate commit a murder seems too much like a coincidence.
Muraki later claimed that he raped Hisoka and cursed him to die a slow, painful death over the course of three years because a “beautiful boy” like him deserved a special death. But maybe the method in which he killed Hisoka—raping him and subjecting him to slow, agonizing torture before eventually dying, was nothing more than a simulation of what the Kurosaki patriarch suffers daily from being possessed by Yatonokami? Despite erasing Hisoka’s memory of who cursed him to die, Muraki couldn’t just left the Kurosaki heir simply die and be spared the misery of being the plaything of a god. So this awful curse may have been nothing more than Muraki giving Hisoka a small taste of the nightmare that would’ve awaited him as an adult. To Muraki, this three-year long torture Hisoka suffered before he died was but a mercy compared to what his father constantly suffered.
So while Muraki definitely crossed the Moral Event Horizon with his brutal murder of Hisoka, in his twisted mind he only saw it as a means to break the Kurosaki family curse. After all, with the family heir dead there would be no way for Yatonokami to be passed down to future generations and thus the Kurosaki family would no longer have to suffer under the possession of the god. As for what would happen if Yatonokami got loose without an heir to transfer to, well…Muraki probably knew of this possibility. But as he was only hired to break the curse, the risk of the god getting loose wouldn’t have mattered to him as it wasn’t his problem.
So Muraki’s murder of Hisoka might have been a horrible case of “wrong place, wrong time”, or it may have been the conclusion Muraki came to that was the only way to end the Kurosaki family curse.
