Katsumi
And Ka-chan is revealed! Her full name is Katsumi. Ka-chan is just a shortening of her name.
This also marks the end of the current chapter. I hope you enjoyed it 😀
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And with this, anyone who calls Reiniger a mad scientist deserves to have a dragon fluid sample dropped on them. Look at those notes. No mad scientist would be so concerned for his patient, nor would he react so poorly to such treatment.
Also, Katsumi looks absolutely majestic. And the image of a komaimu hybrid next to a proper komaimu is beautiful. Can we expect more imagery like that in the future? If not, where can I make a commission?
That, or he might be trying to figure this out so he can make a breakthrough and make something that can, I don’t know, make something to let him see it.
I don’t know. He seems to be a concerned scientist who is very upset about the care his patient has previously been subjected to.
I suppose we could call him an irate scientist. Would that work?
That said, I’ve admittedly encountered some fantasy work with actual ‘mad scientist’s who would react like that to treatment from other doctors – and then proceed to pull the same sort of stunts, just with their own brand of crazy rather than the prior mad scientists’ brands of crazy.
Their sort of stuns is usually worse, but also so crazy it actually works.
No one said a Mad Scientist can’t also care.
Reiniger’s personality and character is deeper than what you see on the surface ^^
If you really want to commission me, I can send you towards my price list:
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Well, she looks friendly…
or, at least protective
and those other Docs
were probably defective…
Things inexplicable
and things that are so new.
Sometimes, really rarely
one thing can become two.
She’s not about to harm
her little Lion Dog;
but thinking that she could
is no real mental slog…
I believe that Katsumi is kinda like a Familiar. She could possibly also be some sort of guardian that will be able to meddle with the environment if necessary. There’s my theory!
I don’t think she’s a ‘familiar’. Something I just recalled about these ‘Lion-Dog’ guardians. They come in pairs.
I looked up Foo Dog on Wikipedia. Not only do they come in male/female pairs, the female is usually has a cub with her. Maybe Jin is her (adopted) cub?
Hiya, Welshi. 🙂
I’ve already commented over at Kevin & Kell, but I believe our invisible “cat” could possibly be a Bakeneko.
japanese mythology is full of dog-like beings, not just the lion-dogs….there are also dog spirits, ghost-like and very protective (fun fact: inuyasha is based on them 😉
Familiar isn’t really the term I would use :p
Panel 3, Bubble 2! There should be a ze instead of the!
Maybe even “ven ze data”, or even “I don’t belief in coincidences, not ven ze data ist zo schtacked against it”. After all, ze Cherman accent isn’t because zey don’t half ze phonemes in zer language, mostly, but yust that zer used to using them differently.
(Though I do seem to recall the j as in just sound is at least very rare, if not completely unknown. But ve do vhat ve can do and don’t do vhat ve can’t.)
So you’re crumpled today, Ed? (Not Iron’ed)
German doesn’t have th but it has ä ö ü ß.
In general however you are correct.
It’s considered good practice to lighten up on spelling variant accents once you establish them, to avoid tiring the readers out.
Yeah, you’re right. Although, maybe his accent is just inconsistent xD
That’s sad, but interesting. I like that (possible) supernatural stuff is getting introduced into the story very slowly, and now Jin has two new friends who can relate to his situation of being harassed by “expert” adults who think something is wrong with him. Good page, and good chapter.
Thanks 😀
One of the things I’ve been saying to people is that there is no magic in the main Twin Dragons comic. Jesse’s Adventure is a spin-off kind of thing, so I took a looser approach to that, but in the main story, there’s no magic involved.
You need to initiate combat before anyone can see your pokemon Jin
Jin is the honest type. He would show all his pokemon before a fight xD
I guess the experiment was to see if another mythical hybrid could see Katsumi. Pretty sneaky, Doc!
Still, it doesn’t seem fair that Jin should have to be isolated like that. He seems to enjoy the company of others, yet aside from Dr.Reiniger, he is apparently cut off from anyone who could potentally be his friend. (Is this really the case? I could be misreading the situation.)
Also, I haven’t seen a single window since we entered Jin’s room. Personally, I find that locations without warm or natural lighting tend to feel confining, almost stifling for me. Are there windows, but we’re just not seeing them?
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound critical. I guess COVID-19’s social distancing guidelines are starting to get me down.
I’m thinking it’s a waiting room with potential for observation, normally to assess behaviour. Physical ability and preference of mental stimulus etc.
Some small rooms in hospitals can be without a wall to the exterior edge of the building. The options there would be windows to corridors or none. If it’s an observation room then they would be after minimal distractions so patient’s settle down and choose something to interact with.
I guess I can understand that. I find that certain types of lighting can have a strong psychological effect on me. I’m not sure how it is for other people.
you’re right, the real aim was to see if Katsumi is visible to them 😀
Jin isn’t confined there, he was there for a checkup and will go home the same day. He’s not being held in observation or anything. The room indeed does not have any windows, since it’s in the middle of the building somewhere. Some rooms are like that, I’m afraid :p
Another great chapter.
And wow, what a chapter it was.
Also, Ka-chan is BIG. 0.0
A guardian for the guardian.
Large Floof.
Thanks 😀
Yeah, Katsumi is big and looking out for Jin 😀
I wonder if Jin will get that big…
Or at least over six feet.
So I’m assuming Katsumi can’t physically interact with Jin or give him information he couldn’t have?
Test: Have Jin climb on Kasumi. Result: Jin cannot physically touch Kasumi.
Test: Hold up signs behind Jin and have Kasumi indicate if the sign is to the left or right, Jin communicates this to the doctor. Result: Katsumi searches for but cannot find the signs, because Jin doesn’t know where they are.
Might want to make her look a little more spectral so if she IS real it’s because she’s supernatural and not invisible and intangible despite having a physical body.
That could be why Dr. Reiniger is so convinced Katsumi exists, and why other doctors were willing to prescribe medication to a kid that’s clearly marked for adults only. “You’re clearly crazy. That chair that is hovering 10 feet off the ground couldn’t possibly be hovering 10 feet off the ground. Now I’m seeing it too! You’re making *me* crazy! Since I know I’m not crazy, I’ll prescribe things to make you not be crazy so I don’t have to deal with this stuff I can’t deal with.”
Not the sort of logic any doctor should do, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of doctors prescribing stuff to their patients due to their own issues.
While there are people who prefer to assume contagious hallucination rather that existence of something they can’t see, most of them change mind when that unseen thing lifts them, hang them on ceiling and leave them there long enough to think how could that possibly happen without any ladder around.
Katsumi is just being difficult with these tests. That’s why the findings are inconsistent and why the other doctors didn’t really believe Jin. If he gets a couple cards right but Katsumi refuses to do the rest of them, it seems like lucky guesses. The riding, well. Katsumi might not allow it :p
Very interesting end to the chapter! I hope Reiniger can eventually find an answer he is happy with. Though that might be a bit tough seeing as he is a man of science and Katsumi, if she is real and not a figment of Jin’s imagination, would clearly be supernatural. Judging from those notes too I hope Reiniger is able to exercise some control over what medications Jin is getting!
Jin isn’t currently on any medication. Reiniger is the LEAD researcher on hybridization and mythical hybrids, so he effectively took over Jin’s entire patient records. He’s not one to play around. He immediately stopped any medication that Jin was on. Luckily, he came in quite quickly and Jin hasn’t been put on medicines for long periods of times.
Panel 2: Why are they listing the marital status of a 10-year-old? Is there something about this world we haven’t been told yet?
I guess, “single” is short for “not married, no children, next of kin are parents or siblings”.
I don’t recall seeing a checkbox for marital status on any forms for any of the pediatric doctors I saw as a child. Admittedly, I was quite young. But I was still quite young when I first saw a GP rather than a pediatrician, and the forms there definitely did include marital status, despite the fact I was under 10 at the time, because the forms were the same for all of their patients.
I’ve heard of some medical practices where they have doctors who take care of both children and their parents, and if this were such a practice, I could easily see them having the same forms for all of them. Considering the psychological impact of having hybrid children and the fact that this is a relatively new phenomenon, I would think that there’s an inclination to have a ‘hybrid specialty medical center’ to want to include services for the parents – especially if they’re wanting to try to determine what these people have in common that caused their children to be like this, compared to everyone else.
So it seems reasonable to me.
Why does that field exist on the forms at all? Does marital status affect what medical treatment is best for a patient?
If a doctor needs to contact a patient’s next of kin, then they need a phone number or other contact data. Whether that person is a spouse or other relative – or just a friend – shouldn’t need to be registered. That smells of “let’s collect all the personal data we can just because we can”.
Maybe they think he ages in dog years.
Simple answer, standardized form for all patents regardless if the patent is 10, 35 or 90. I would be more concerned if the age listed on the form was that of a child and the marital status was something other than single.
It’s like the medical history questionnaires that ask whether or not you are currently pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, even though much of the population will never become pregnant.
And I, for one, am downright -incapable- of it! LOL
.
.
p.s. Hi, Ed! 🙂
Standard forms. There’s really no other reason why I included this. I took a standard form as an example and filled it in.
The way she sits by Jin, Ka-chan has a very protective feel to me.
I´m intrigued in what this will turn out to be.
She’s indeed very protective of Jin :3
Did any of the doctors try to touch Katsumi? Did any succeed?
None of the could touch her, no matter how well Jin guided them :p
It was quite a funny sight xD
He’s got his own guardian, nice. Mythicals might not be so mythical. 😀
Or even more mythical xD
Heh, had a little thought a just now. Now that the twins are heading home try and imagine what Kaya’s messages to Cleo are going to be like, especially as she describes Jin to her.
Kaya: OMG he was the cutest kid I’ve ever seen! His hair and tail had the neat little curls, paw hands and forearms, and he was so polite and formal!
Cleo: Sounds like a nice kid.
Oh yeah, Kaya will tell Cleo everything xD
SO FLUFFY!! Can I keep it??
And Ka-Chan does not approve of being called imaginary.
I doubt you’ll be able to keep her xD
The “other signs” the doctor mentions very well could be information-based tests, similar to the psychic flash cards. Asking Jin for information that constantly changes that he could never realistically know. I also do believe that if Katsumi were corporeal, it’d be an easy test to change the minds of the other doctors by climbing on Katsumi, so the fact that everyone but Reiniger doesn’t believe in her leads me to think that she is of a spiritual nature and cannot be touched the same way as other creatures.
Since mythicals are so rare and poorly understood, the other doctors probably just think some degree of precognition or psychic ability is just natural to this sort of species, similar to how fire-breathing is natural to dragons or other studied mythicals may have different non-observed powers that are still being studied.
Also, “Test results can NOT be explained” likely refers to those information-based tests.
I guess that Katsumi is not corporeal (because that is really easy to prove) AND that it can’t talk, so those information-based tests are not completely convincing but convincing enough for this doctor.
Oooh big boi is floofy! I luv! But what bothers me is isn’t schizophrenia and hallucination symptoms or disorders, rather than medications? Like that isn’t treatment…
Soooo. Jin is a komainu hybrid, and Katsumi is a full komainu. Does this hint that there may be full dragons somewhere, too?
That would be a pretty cool explanation for mythical hybrids: Their traits don’t come from fictional creatures, just creatures that are so hard to find that few (if any) have seen them.
Awwww… poor Jin… he’s too sweet to be suffering from people thinking he’s crazy! I’m glad that someone finally believes him. And here I was expecting Ka-chan to be another hybrid who somehow only Jin with his guardian status could see. Clearly I was mistaken. Still, a surprise cliffhanger at the end as always Robin. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to predict this comic for as long as I read it, and that’s amazing. No matter how long this story has gone on, you haven’t gotten lazy or sloppy. In fact you’ve only continued to improve. That kind of creativity and motivation are hard to find, and the artists who posses them are a treasure to us all. They’re the master storytellers who take their audience on an engaging and exciting journey no matter their age or the time that passes since their work. You’re truly amazing Robin, a gem in our time, and following along this journey with you for 8 chapters now has been an honor. Keep up your amazing work. Keep shining like a star. And as always, stay awesome!
They never mentioned the subject. Can’t believe something you have never been told about.
But clearly they can’t see Ka-chan.
well! That certainly went well! (Please dont ask rn im sleepy and tired)
i may or may not now be messing with the cobe of *MY TAB NOT THE WHOLE WEBSITE) This page.
I feel like he is indeed a scientist who was a part of WW2, just not on the side preforming the “exsparaments” which makes me feel really bad for the guy.
Just because he wears a monocle und has der duelling scar, mit un accent that is straight out of Dr Strangelove, does not make him a mad scientist.
If he went to Heidelberg University as well however, all bets are off.
Wow, Ka-Chan is cute.
Also terrifying.
Also terrifyingly cute.
I can really sympathize with Jin.
In 1961, I found the symptoms of the mental problems I was born with, …at that time, labeled in his paper by a Clinical Psychiatrist at the UW as “a whiff of Autism”. It took 30 years more for the psychiatric community to begin to admit that Asperger Syndrome was real, …and my family made sure I knew about each doc that denied *any* possibility of it, or of a genetic causation for it. It was all just something I’d made up in my head.
Then Bruno Bettleheim died, and doctors could publish about Asperger Syndrome in the US without risking their careers. It was put in the Diagnostic Standards Manual in 1994. Inside the family that was met with a resounding silence.
I *do* hope we find Jin having a better experience.
Damn, that’s one big dog.
xD
She looks angry, I’m betting it’s a case of “doesn’t wanna be seen yet”
My my, Katsumi does NOT look happy with that accusation..
That is what I call a cliffhanger 😅😁
That is a big critter, and looks rather irked
Aw! I like Ka-chan. =3 (Or would something like Katsumi-sama be more appropriate for those who are not Jin? XD; )
I’m betting she’s real – a komainu thing or something, probably.
Born on tax day? Oh dear. XD;
I like how Dr. Reiniger is a jerk with a heart of gold. Also, that he’s willing to recognize things as “too coincidental to be a coincidence.” X3 Both are qualities I can appreciate.
…Also, consider the fact that hybrids *themselves* just suddenly started happening with no apparent explanation (scientific or otherwise, AFAIK). One HAS to learn to be a little open-minded. XD;
…Now I want a Katsumi doll. XD;;;
I’d buy one
I assume that the traditional “white powder” trick has been tried. Flour is traditional, but it can be hard to wash out. Something benign and water soluble.
Wait… he appears to be able to touch it. Wouldn’t simply being able to climb or otherwise interact with it be at least a partial positive test?
A lot of children his age have imaginary friends. Katsumi may not be so imaginary but the normal clinical procedure is accept the child’s belief unless it is causing harm. As they grow older these things fade away. Or maybe become more real?
Obviously Katsumi must be intangible. Otherwise her existence would have been proven long ago. Yet the mentions of “other signs” and “all that has happened” indicate that Katsumi sometimes affects her surroundings in some way. I would guess that she won’t do things on request or answer questions. That would make it difficult to come up with tests to prove or disprove her existence. If she’s a guardian, then maybe she intervenes only when something threatens to harm Jin, or something?
“FOOL”, “IMBECILE, “IDIOTS” – Doctor Reiniger doesn’t think too highly about his fellow doctors, does he?
“the data”? So ze German guy iz able to say ze properly sometimes? Or was it a typo?
Also: Nice reveal that there’s a spirit guardian and I like that the doctor is a competent scientist. I wonder if he tried to talk to her directly, with the boy as a middle-man, and if Ka-chan can leave his side and e.g. go through walls and see things that the boy can’t possibly have seen.
I actually commented on subject number 1.
Horatio
https://www.twindragonscomic.com/comic/meet-jin/
Panel 4. The twins aren’t both looking in the same place. Presumably both would look at who is in the room.
Is it a small clue?
Good point; and Kai is looking plenty high enough to be look Katsumi in the eyes, while Kaya is looking down towards Jin’s level.
…Too bad though; it’ll be a good while before we find out for sure. 😉
I think Katsumi would be a positively gorgeous floof if she weren’t busy looking so imperious and disapproving. (And obviously a big less negative.)
Big ol’ floofy! =D
(Anyway I assume they tried the obvious of “have Katsumi try to interact with something that nobody else could”? Like, say, push something over that nobody else is near? You’d either have a giant, invisible floof, or a hallucinating telekinetic. Obvious special case either way. Actually, does she just go right through people? Soooo many questions I could ask that I really probably should refrain from…)
Finally a new page on gamer dragons!
Yeeeaah, that happens sometimes.
…;-)
Can anyone make out what that last word in the handwritten note in the middle of the document in panel two? It’s bugging me that I can’t.
To clarify, the handwritten note I’m referring to is “What IMBECILE gave him that (indistinct word)?”
Drug. It’s drug.
I have a serious question: how can a psychologist establish, as a fact, that hallucinations are either faked or not ordinary? Like, in this situation when the boy talks about a creature only he can see and interact with, how could they know that more is going than ordinarily?
At that point it comes down to the process of elimination. You start off by ruling out things based on symptoms. No history of seizures would rule out epilepsy, for example. Then, you start having to do tests and scans to see if that affects things. In this case, a lack of receptiveness to any medication means that it’s not caused by a mental or neurological issues. Kinda surprised they didn’t even bother to do an MRI, since that would rule out a brain tumor.
At that point, if you’ve ruled out everything, then you know that something else is going on. Thing is, we’re still not out of the process of elimination yet, since there’s one more question to solve. If the patient is faking it, there would be some obvious signs. In this particular test, if Jin was faking Ka’s existence he would have probably said that Kai and Kaya could see Ka, but correspondence would have shown that that was not the case. In this case, though, Jin did note that Kai and Kaya couldn’t see Ka, which confirms that Jin is seeing something that no one else can.
Plot twist: Ka-chan is actually Reiniger’s hallucination.
Ka-chan looks upset o_0