Chapter 72 of Made In Abyss dropped just days ago, and it’s one of those chapters with immense lore significance.

Before continuing, a bit of a disclaimer: There will be huge spoilers ahead for the Made In Abyss manga, up to chapter 72 (current as of this posting), and for the video game, Made In Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darkness. If you wish to discover the surprises yourself, don’t continue reading this article.

With that out of the way, let move on.

At the beginning of chapter 72, Riko reveals that she plundered an artifact from the remains of Cravagli which allow her to view a recorded visual message that he left, which functions like a video.

As the video plays, Cravagli shares lots of lore information. Of it, what I’m focusing on is his mention of a cave raider assassin who doesn’t just slay cave raiders, they make it so that no one even remembers them anymore.

As disturbing as this ability is, what comes as a surprise is who ends up being the assassin: the Hail Hex faction led by Srajo the Mysterious. And what’s more, cave raiders from Belchero Orphanage are among those slain who have had memories of them erased!

Srajo doesn’t issue a denial. Instead, she points out that the many whistles that she wears belonged to cave raiders which she wiped.

This doesn’t sit well with Reg, because some of the cave raiders might have also been with the orphanage. But Srajo points out that, because Hello Abyss passed the test with Nishagora, she doesn’t view them as a threat.

Suddenly, Ozen is back to being the kindest White Whistle that the group has meet so far, just as she had warned. But for the time being, Srajo doesn’t seem like an enemy.

But now, the Made In Abyss community is brainstorming just who among the cave raiders from Belchero Orphanage may have been slain by Hail Hex, whether Riko or Reg may have otherwise remembered them, and whether they were orphans, themselves.

But I have an idea of who one of Srajo’s victims may have been. And it’s not a nice theory.

Among those deleted may have been none other than Aki, the protagonist of the Made In Abyss video game, Binary Star Falling Into Darkness.

For those unfamiliar with the game’s story, it initiates months after Riko departed with Reg. At the outset, there are multiple new cave raiders among the orphans. Among these being, Tiare, Dorothea, Raul, and the protagonist, Aki.

The events of the game seem anachronistic, favoring fan fantasy over consistency with the manga. Though this seems to be the case, the game was made with direct supervision of the Made In Abyss series author, Akihito Tsukushi.

Initially, Riko and Reg are well ahead of Aki in their expedition. As one would expect. But then, something interesting happens: Aki crosses paths with Riko and Reg in the 4th layer, at some point before the pair meet Nanachi.

Considering that Riko is trying to speed run her way to the bottom, while Aki has made multiple returns to the surface, this shouldn’t be possible. But, we might have a hint at an explanation in Nishagora’s off-hand comment about how time flows differently around Riko’s group, though we didn’t get an explanation.

As Aki’s adventure continues, he eventually meets Bondrewd and Prushka, before Riko gets to meet them. And afterwards, Aki becomes a White Whistle, and descends into the sixth layer, apparently before Riko did.

That’s difficult to explain unless the “time dilation” is actually a “time warp”, which I already did a theory on. While the theory is dated, some elements of it might still hold up.

Not only did Aki meet Riko and Reg, he was also present for Hablog’s conversation with Nat and Shiggy about Bondrewd the Novel. A conversation he wasn’t present for in the manga.

Because he wasn’t a character in the manga, and Binary Star wasn’t canon? Or was it because both the manga and the game were both canon, and the game was showing us what really happened?

So far, things are looking bad for Aki. And not just him, but also Dorothea and Tiare. And let’s not forget Raul… Oh, wait…

So, is there some way out for Aki? A way that allows him to live, and be remembered? After all, many players sent him beyond the absolute boundary. We’d like to think we did him a favor.

Well, you can probably breathe a sigh of relief. Srajo herself said that she wears the whistles of the cave raiders she erases. And Aki is a White Whistle. See any white whistles among the one Srajo wears, besides her own?

Of course, it’s possible that Srajo might choose not to wear it. After all, for a White Whistle to slay another one might be scandalous.

But don’t worry, because that’s not all we have that exonerates Srajo, and allows Aki to live.

The ending for Binary Star doesn’t tell us much about what Aki does after his descent into the 6th layer. But it does tell us that he gets a reputation, and a White Whistle title: The Sovereign of Phantasms, Aki the Unseen.

Simple logic goes that a person cannot have a reputation if there’s no memory of them, as a memory is necessary for a reputation. And because a memory of Aki exists, he didn’t have a run-in with Srajo which ended in a bad fate.

Right? Right?!?

But as for what comes next, we’ll be waiting for the next issue to see. And it could be months before that happens.