No.6 Discussion Board

I stumble over the wording "had been separated" ... maybe it wasn't his choice either? Like it's really weird to say it like that if he left. She could have said he left o.o

Okay, I missed a lot of good points so here I am going through the answers chronological xD Bear with me.

I have two theories in regard to Nezumi… the first one is, that he’s still a virgin. Some people think that he probably got ****d, or that he uses sex as a tool to get whatever he wants. But he’s a good actor and he’s not stupid. I dare to say that he could use his sex appeal as a weapon even though he didn’t have sex yet. He has books, he has theoretical knowledge, and to get some information it’s probably enough to play a bit with his “victim”, maybe a little kiss here and a little whisper there…

But “real” sex is way too dangerous. STDs, vulnerability… it’s just not really safe and Nezumi really wanted to survive. I guess for someone who has such a strong survival instinct, it’s nothing he’d do just for fun. I could imagine he has some other experiences… (Like jerking someone off or something ^^° if it’s really, really necessary…) But well, apart from that he had other problems than taking care of his sex life. XD That’s why I think it could be possible that he’s still a virgin.

Yeah, that would definitely be a possibility. I headcanon Nezumi to at least have some ... physical experience beyond kissing but real sex, I'm not sure. Though your theory strongly relies on the fact that STDs are still a thing in No.6.
I mean, they have superior medical treatments, I think you could savely assume that STDs aren't a problem in society anymore?
Additionally, he's really confident in his experiences while talking to Shion about sex and if he's still a virgin, I imagine he would rather bite his tongue off than admitting that xD So we'll probably never know ...

And you can eliminate the danger of vulnerability. Well, I'm conflicted but that's my standard with No.6 headcanons, so ... I can imagine both.

The second theory is that he had sex for whatever reason, maybe even some not very nice experiences, but I guess altogether; it wasn’t too bad, since sex seems to be a positive thing to him.

I actually never thought of that! Good point. I never headcanoned Nezumi to have had bad experiences with sex; he's just too damn cautious to get caught and **** but this strongly suggests that he indeed never did o.o

But I guess if he’s doing it with Shion one day, it will be the first time he really feels something for his partner and it will probably overwhelm him and scare him to death. ^^°

Yep, definitely.

(Okay, I just answered Ahiku in the end but let's be honest: That was one hell of an essay o.o!)

Funnily enough, @Weisel's icon is a constant reminder of that ;)
It wasn't just the Rikiga scene though. Shion already showed violent tendencies when he was twelve ("Destroy it all" and such). It's like ... well, at one point in Volume 7, Nezumi wonders when Shion lost his fangs and claws. I think they're just buried very deep and all the stress in West Block and the hostile environment brings that forth in Shion. He protects the people he loves no matter what and everytime he lost control, it was just that: Protecting loved ones (namely Nezumi. We never got to see Shion protecting someone else but I'm sure that wouldn't end up significantly less violent).
It's there. Shion might not have these instincts for himself but he sure as hell has them for others.

Nezumi's behaviour and words just gave Shion a name for it: Punishment. Nezumi was appalled that Shion would go so far but maybe he was just as appalled that he would use his own words to justify nearly killing a person. And maybe he finally started to see that he has had an influence on Shion after all and to wonder what else he picked up in the disguise of his pleasant personality.

To add to that discussion, I recently had a thought:
We established that Nezumi lacks the mindset of an abuser although his behaviour can be seen as abusive. His intention isn't to control Shion and making him dependent on himself but to make sure Shion survives. And Nezumi only ever resorts to violence (physical or psychological) when he's either afraid of Shion doing something that might very well end up killing him or when he fears for his own life because well, Shion easily triggers him.
Now, considering that Nezumi grew up in the West Block, was thrown into the underground of the Correctional Facility and lived in those caves until he could flee, I'd say that Nezumi's only reaction to fear is either fight or flight (which is basically the most normal response to fear of any kind. All humans have those same instincts and the decision isn't even made consciously).
Holding a knife to Shion's throat is really a no-go and I think we all agree that that's pretty ****ed up (I mean, apparently fist fighting isn't that big of a deal between boys? I see that with the male friends of a friend of mine. They're pretty much okay with that. A knife on the other hand is something totally different.) Okay, where am I going?
So, Nezumi was afraid (no way he wasn't; Shion making a serum out of his blood and going back to No.6 where he would surely be executed). But there wasn't a possibility to flee the situation. It was his home. If he flees from his home where should he go? Where should he feel safe again? With the flight response out of the way, the only way left was fighting. We all know how that ended (with Shion not being very impressed and Nezumi being very confused).

Ehm ... yeah, I hope it made as much sense as it did in my head. It's really hard to bring thoughts like these to paper :/ It's hot in Germany too so my brain is kinda fried.

I think whether or not a relationship is abusive depends on the offender's intentions and the victim's reactions for me. And Nezumi isn't a typical abuser (I might say; I'm not an expert on the topic) and Shion definitely isn't a typical victim of abuse. And saying that Nezumi's physical abuse triggered Shion to strangle Sasori and shoot Rashi ... Shion nearly choked Rikiga before and you can't tell me that little brawl that ended up with nearly-nose-biting could have made such a big impression on Shion. Shion wasn't a lamb to begin with and he wasn't all that mentally stable either.
Though I don't doubt Nezumi's influence on his break down after realizing he killed Rashi.

Ah, no problem xD It wasn't even my work; I just translated it kinda horribly.

Well, considering that "sh" is hard to say up to their third year, I'd say he'd probably say "ch" instead just like Shion. Otherwise, it seems to be individual how difficult children find words with "s" and "sh" so you could probably explain that Nezumi can pronounce "Shion" just fine with him just being talented and a few months older (which would probably explain why he'd have no problem with the "o" either).
He could say "Shin" though xD Or something like "Shi-in" or "Shi-an" or whatever when he just decides to purposefully say Shion's name wrong because he can't pronounce it right either way (but like this, no one is gonna guess he just can't pronounce it but rather think he just doesn't want to say it right and that would be very Nezumi - especially if he keeps it up when he finally can say "Shion" but has fun seeing Shion's reaction or something.)

Oh my god, the z to ch is definitely something to consider; just too cute >w<

@listenforthelove: That's actually a pretty good question but I don't know ^^" I just got the information from my best friend's lecture who's studying logopedics. I can ask her about further intel. Especially since said lecture didn't mention the other two vowels with a single word o.o (But I'd say vowels are kinda universal. Gotta be more difficult with the consonants; but there's also a distinct chronology to those. Although I'd say her lecture focus on the German language ^^)

Yeah, I think you might be right about Safu only realizing something's wrong with No.6 because of Shion's arrest.
When talking about that something that always comes to my mind is her scene with Shion in the forest park. You know, Shion complaining about it being artificial and Safu responding she doesn't mind because it's still beautiful? Same could go with No.6. She didn't mind as much as long as it didn't affect her. She complained about that random control when she went home with Shion but maybe only because it affected her directly in that moment (or rather Shion since they tried to separate them if I recall correctly).
So, yeah. Makes sense. Would explain why No.6 deemed her safe too. They never were quite good at judging people's actions when it comes to emotional matters.