sugimoto's hunch about ogata possibly being in on the whole gold hunt to kill asirpa—thereby throwing a wrench in everybody's plans was not something I was expecting. this is either a red herring set up by noda or ogata's actual thought process. asirpa was probably right to suspect that there's something more regarding his motives than simply killing her. i'm still all for the orig trio potentially having a falling out in this arc thanks to ogata.

the series'll probably start fleshing out the theme of disappointment one or two chapters in the actual start of the battle. we already have some sort of setup for ueji's backstory and fully realized ones for ogata, usami and koito. we already have possible character conflicts set in place in line with the theme. the different flavors of disappointment they'll be showing is what'll thematically tie them to some of the characters in the story more strongly.

usami and koito'll probably have to duke it out at some point in the battle. their parallels as tsurumi's devout lapdogs at the start of the series are too potent to ignore imo. koito and usami "coincidentally" met tsurumi during their childhood. both developed an unhealthy amount of admiration and obsession for him afterwards. both didn't need to be given any sort of reward to cooperate with him. both strived for his approval. koito's growth in the karafuto arc's allowed him to see past the facade tsurumi's presented to him. usami's delusions about the lieutenant being his property is what keeps him a loyal lapdog.

• (ogata's already made mention of the fact that every single man in the 7th is there because tsurumi's deceived them. he's carefully chosen the most useful men in the army in terms of their loyalty to him and/or skills needed to do his dirty work.)

koito and usami are the ones shown to have relapsing doubts that tsurumi'd be capable of such a wicked feat.

• ogata was in it to kill hanazawa, which he thought would prove his ideology to be a universal truth and prove himself the superior sibling in his father's eyes.
• tsukishima was in it to finally be able to go home to igogusa.
• kikuta is a spy from central.
• tanigaki was already burdened by the shame of killing his brother-in-law and used the 7th as an escape from the heritage he left behind.
• evidence on yodogawa needlessly sacrificing his soldiers on the battle on 203 hill has his hands tied.
• the nikaidou twins' and ariko's reasons for joining the 7th are still unknown.
• kouhei's promised the chance to get revenge for his twin and kill sugimoto.
• arisaka only acts as an advanced weaponry supplier for the 7th.

(if koito somehow manages to make his escape from the 7th, will tsukishima follow suit? the hunt for jack the ripper's skin will put all parties involved in a state of disarray. the only people that'd probably stop them'd be usami and nikaidou. nikaidou's almost guaranteed to run into sugimoto during the whole chase. he'd be too preoccupied with killing him to consider them. usami's up against ushiyama. if they happen to ignore the fireworks signal that was sent out, they could make a run for it. will they have to side with hijikata to guarantee their freedom? would they even try in the first place? would tsurumi even be able to catch up? we have no idea exactly how far away he is from the brewery.)

(is usami going to die in the next few chapters? after the battle of sapporo, he'd serve no other use to tsurumi as he's getting increasingly unstable. he'd act as tsurumi's trump card against hijikata's group without hesitation.)