I would say, one thing in @Reiba1925 's favour is the fourth panel of this: https://mangadex.org/chapter/737813/15 : it seems the reason Sakura invited Shamiko to protect the town is because the two thinks very similarly. It sounds to me that Sakura thinks, at least, Shamiko can make our a large role out of it. And we know Sakura apparently isn't very intelligent; maybe she's actually as ditzy as Shamiko is?
@ascendedLight
On that line of thought, one thing in which Sakura and Shamiko are very similar is that both are sociable and open minded (I wanted to use mediator, but maybe that's not quite it). Shamiko's role to protect the town could be diplomatic, a role that neither Momo or Mikan would be great at.
Honestly, when it comes to wrong theories and Volume 3 being the planned end. I always theorised that Seiko was Sakura and that Momo just didn't recognise her after 10 years plus losing magical powers. X'D
From the little we knew of Sakura and how much Seiko hid stuff, it kinda worked. Shamiko had an essence of Sakura in her. Seiko often had sakura themed things, even if it was only because she lived in a sakura themed town.
Sakura started acting weird when Seiko would have been pregnant with Ryoko.
In my mind Shamiko was either a step-daughter or was purposefully kept hidden away, because she a weak demon. X'P
The whatever staff could have been Sakura's not Daddy Box's, Seiko just lied. And Momo and Mikan never saw the Whatever staff's first form when Shamiko first found it.
I was kinda sad when the entire thing with Sakura's core made that theory impossible.
Even with hindsight the two have very similar ditzy, busy, yet oddly responsible personalities.
So I am hoping still that through some crazy convoluted way or another it turns out Sakura lost her magical powers, became human again and placed her old core in Shamiko. And Sakura is Seiko... X'P
I just like that idea way too much. X'D
edit: And Ryoko looks like young Seiko, Momo has an odd amount of care towards Ryoko and looked at her a lot. Which made me think Ryoko reminded her of her lost sister.
@gpot97: I think Shamilator made a mistake at the left bubbles of the panels 2 and 3 from the left strip here: https://mangadex.org/chapter/760876/3 . The Yitian Sword Ryoko mentioned is a reference to the wuxia classic The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre and thus should be translated as "Heaven Sword".
At the risk of reopening a can of worms, here's my idle speculation on what the future might be:
Let's go alllllll the way back to the beginning.
https://mangadex.org/chapter/604557/3
How is she dressed? Like a queen. (I swear the bat wings are a brick joke, Ogura is totally gonna do it to her someday, just watch)
Shamiko's obviously never going to be able to take on a magical girl (not without becoming one herself, and that's not happening). They're superhuman combat monsters. She's never going to have anywhere near that level of hard personal power.
But there's more than one kind of power: there's the direct hard power that comes from personal strength, and then there's the indirect soft power that a leader wields through the strength of their followers.
She's been calling herself the "Queen of Darkness" lately; maybe at some point she'd start seriously trying to live up to it (but realistically she'd be more of a inspirational figurehead while her more capable friends do the heavy lifting), rally enough of the Dark Clan together, and bring the Light Clan to some kind of bargain through coercion, charisma, force, or brainwashing. A lasting peace is made, the curse on the Dark Clan is lifted; Sakura doesn't need to protect Shamiko anymore and can come out, Momo doesn't have to worry about serious threats to Shamiko anymore and can be her vassal, everyone wins. Just as Shamiko would want it.
I question if Joshua is ever gonna see the light of day again, though. Shamiko's never even tried to contact him,
and we know she has the means since she made that little figure of Shirozawa to let him communicate during the short time he was sealed up
. Frankly, when you think about it, she doesn't even know her father enough to really miss him. He was sealed away when she was still so sick she was basically sleeping 20 hours a day, and didn't even remember what he looked like until Seiko showed her that old photo. Freeing him might be on her to-do list, but it's waaaaay down there below making Momo happy and settling her life-debt with Sakura.
But hey, just stupid conjecture I came up with during 15 hours of a mind-numbingly tedious double shift at work today. I'm not even going to try and defend it.
Ito is a capable, competent, and resourceful storyteller, and I'm sure what she comes up with will surprise us all—as long as her health holds out long enough to fulfill her vision.
@shaeli
Regardless of your predictions, I just want to point out that the picture you posted was made way later and just added to Volume 1 tankubon release. You can clearly see how much the artstyle has improved compared to the first chapter. Incidentally the colored strips before Chapter 1 starts were all also added retroactively for the volume. Ito is just having way too much fun drawing as she says.
Just saying it was not originally intended to be at the start of the manga.
refining terms)
