Yeah that is odd. I'd have to go check out the books again, but does she wear it all the way through, or maybe she just wears it so that Yuri doesn't catch on earlier that she is now an alien? Or I guess still utilising the borg might be better than ripping her arms apart all the time heh. But that's all I can think of.

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I guess she and Kumi kept wearing their borgs to keep up appearences. Wouldn't Megumi get suspicious if they just stopped wearing them?

But Megumi already knows about the Yellow Knife. She interviewed Kasumi after she fused with it. But I think the Borgs are going to start fighting with the other clans over who really has control over the humans and Megumi wants the drills to be the dominant clan.

By the way, who is Kasumi's new friend in Emulators? She has her hair tied up into a bun all the time, and they look so alike, at first I thought they were the same person. What is her name and is she fused with any alien?

I don't think that her name is stated. I believe all of Kasumi's new "freinds" are students she tricked(or not) into following her. Heh, Kasumi's like the leader of a Yellow Knife cult or something.

I believe that's what it is too...before Sayuri met Kasumi she wasn't like that but the Yellow Knife in Kasumi was controling her and "attracked" Sayuri surrendering herself to the Yellow Knife. However I don't think she was completly fused because in the end, she needed a borg when Monami picked her to be an alien fighter.

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I'm pretty sure Kasumi was changed on some basic level by her fusion with the Yellow Knife. She's shown 'spawning' yellow knife pods out of her strange new eyebrows in that vat of milk in her room, which her 'cult' is later shown cultivating in pots (the Yellow Knife is a plant alien, if i remember correctly). These folks are all probably Yellow Knife hosts as well, or wish to be (or are under the sway of the Yellow Knife's empathic/psychic power).

I also think that the reason Kasumi continued to be able to use Borg drills after she fused with the Yellow Knife was because she was forcing her symbiotic partner to do it. In Kumi's memories that Megumi recovered after Kumi died, Kumi witnessed Kasumi forcing her unwilling symbiote to open up so that she could put it on her head. One they're 'linked' like that, I don't think the Borg has any choice but to succumb to her will (such as when Yuri's overpowering fear forced her Borg to develop to 'adult' form prematurely, to defend her).

Therefore, Kasumi forced her Borg to develop into 'adult' form, while still using it as just a mindless tool. After Monami took Kasumi's (probably lobotomized) borg to host Kumi's memories, Kasumi was probably no longer able to use Borg drill abilities. She may still have her yellow knife abilities, but she probably can't form her antenna just out of her hair anymore; I think the standard, un-fused Yellow Knife have them bursting out of their skin (eew).

Not sure what to make of how they 'restored' Kumi, as she's technically 100% Borg symbiote by the end. Maybe they cloned her a new 'host body' with cell gel or something, so she can 'fuse' with a human without sacrificing anybody. In that case, she'd pretty much be exactly like the adult host/symbiote pairs, but with only one mind.

Regarding Yuri... my theory is that _she_ is the true 10th generation Borg ^_^. My reasons for this are as follows:

Her hair spiral - That's her _natural_ hair. Megumi and Monami still wear Borg symbiotes after 'fusion,' and while they're probably not 'human' anymore, as their bodies have been modified by the symbiote (evidenced by the cross-shaped pupils when the Borg mind is in command), the drill abilities are still part of the symbiote. When her Borg died, Megumi lamented that she'd have to go back to being 'normal.' Yuri's symbiote died, and was recyled by Megumi at the end of the third manga, but Yuri's hair is now spiraling on its own, with no symbiote attached to her head, so she's obviously been altered in a way that's somehow different from other hosts.

The unstated purpose of a 10th generation Borg - It was determined by Megumi and her Borg that Kumi _couldn't_ be a 10th generation Borg because she retained the instinctive need to fuse. They then callously commented that they'd know more after she died (probably due to being unwilling to fuse). Therefore, they're trying to create a generation of Borg that no longer need to fuse to survive.

If Yuri is displaying Borg-like traits without obviously being a Borg symbiote or expressing the need to fuse (like Kumi did), she might be the next evolution that they were trying for, or perhaps a partial form of it. Her spiral _did_ increase from the end of the third manga to the beginning of Emulators.

Anyhow, that's my theory, anyway...

Thats a great theory. Now that I have read it, it's really starting to grow on me. It makes sense about Yuri being a true 10th gen borg, along with what you said about Kumi and Kasumi.

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I think you are right. I think all the aliens can do the drills, not just the Borgs. So the Yellow Knife can do both drills and sonic waves.

Also in volume two, when they go into the forest of spaceships, Kasumi’s Borg is bleeding because the drills in Kasumi’s head are going right through her Borg, not coming out of it. Ouch. So I think that means it was her Yellow Knife making those drills not her Borg.

I’m pretty sure Kasumi fused with her Yellow Knife only, not with her Borg. I think she stopped wearing it and gave it back to Megumi even thought it never said.

I think Kasumi’s Borg was jealous of the Yellow Knife. You can see in the manga in the part where she is hugging and squishing the yellow knife and saying he smells like her big brother, the Borg’s eyes are narrowed, like he is grouchy.
That’s a cool idea but I don’t think Yuri is really 10th generation. She isn’t really fused. She was just interrupted before she could finish fusing and that’s why she has that twist in her hair. The Borg spit only landed on her hair. She isn’t connected with her Borg and she can’t really twist or control or attack with her spiral hair.

She also can’t twist or control or attack with her spiral hair.

She isn’t a generation anything because her spiral hair doesn’t actual do anything.

When her Borg was fusing with her, the Borg spit (eww), only landed on her hair so that’s the only part of her that fused.