WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Talentless Nana, Episode 11, "Invisible Blade Part 2," now streaming on Funimation.
In the past 10 episodes of Talentless Nana, Nana has murdered six people in a row and successfully evaded suspicion. Now, in Talentless Nana Episode 11, Nana gets a chance to show off her own detective skills after another student is killed by someone else. Since Nana knows this is not her doing, she decides to assist Kyoya in finding the real killer. For once, Nana is trying to help her classmates rather than hunt them, but in the process, she might very well hurt her trusting friend Michiru.
The victim in this episode is a popular student named Ryuuji Ishii, who has the power to infinitely shrink his body -- much like Ant-Man. His murder is discovered by his girlfriend Fuuko Sorano, who has the ability to compress air and turn it into a sharp and powerful blade. Ishii’s throat is slashed and stabbed in the back, so his wounds are consistent with Fuuko’s powers.
Ryuuji’s next-door neighbor Moguo claims that he had not heard anything from Ryuuji’s room at the time he was killed. Moguo was lecturing his three henchmen for five hours during the same period, and all three also claimed to not have heard anything. But Kyoya points out that they could have conspired to give each other alibis, so they may still be suspects.
The three henchmen have relatively weak powers compared to Fuuko and Moguo. One can imitate other people’s voices, but can only copy one sentence at a time. One can astral project -- his spirit can interact with things, but his body will be asleep when he uses his power. The third one has magnetic powers like Magneto but on a much weaker level. Although all these powers are weak, they can still be used for murder, to either trick their victim or manipulate the murder weapon.
Currently, most evidence points to Fuuko as the biggest suspect. Not only can her powers easily kill Ryuuji, but she also admitted to having drifted apart from Ryuuji recently. Moreover, Ryuuji’s room is very messy, just like being ruffled through by strong winds, and his window is open, allowing for better airflow and for Fuuko to use her powers. Ryuuji’s shrinking power also allows him to easily evade most intruders, so the murderer is most likely people he knew. But in many detective stories, the most obvious answer is not the real answer, and Fuuko’s sad reaction to Ryuuji’s death suggests that she is probably not the real killer.
Besides trying to solve the murder, Nana has to deal with her own problems. After she shared her past traumas with Michiru, Nana notices that Michiru starts to acting strange around her. During dinner, Michiru suddenly mentions her future dream of becoming a doctor like her father and asks Nana to go live with her and her family after they defeat the enemies of humanity. Nana took Michiru’s invitation as a mockery of her parents’ death and angrily leaves.
When Nana receives a new uniform courtesy of Michiru, she remembers that on the night she was burnt by Jin, Michiru helped her change and probably found her poison bottle in her old uniform, so Nana attributed Michiru's strange behavior to this. Nana goes to ask Michiru about the poison, but instead finds Michiru’s diary. It turns out Michiru is thinking about how to help Nana after learning of her tragic past, so she decides to give Nana the family she never had, but this inadvertently triggers Nana.
This episode explains why Michiru has been so trusting of Nana. She grew up in a very well-off family with loving parents, she has never encountered any hardship and sees the good in everything. When she was bullied on the island, it is probably the toughest thing she ever endured, and Nana saved her from it, so she became incredibly dependent on Nana. Nana is the complete opposite of Michiru, her dark past makes her suspicious of everything and not trust anyone, though even Nana is slowly warming up to Michiru's kind heart.
However, Nana’s realization of Michiru’s kind intentions might be too late, as Michiru is found in her bathroom passing out. There are two possible explanations, Michiru could have overused her powers trying to heal Nana and shortened her own lifespan considerably... or the secret killer could have already found their next target in Michiru.
