WARNING: The following article contains significant spoilers for Episode 2 of Tribe Nine, currently streaming on Funimation.
Tribe Nine returns as the Minato Tribe attempts to teach its newest recruits about the simplified yet unforgiving rules of Extreme Baseball in Episode 2. As Episode 1 explained, the government enforced an "XB Law" to replace violent battles between Neo-Tokyo's various "tribes" with the sci-fi sport of Extreme Baseball.
Although the series premiere contained some dark imagery when explaining the violent state of the city that led to the creation of the law, it was generally more peaceful and positive than series co-creator Kazutaka Kodaka's flagship Danganronpa project, telling the story of the positive and surprisingly inclusive XB legend Shun Kamiya as he drafted the shy Haru Shirokane and boisterous Taiga to his Minato Tribe baseball team. However, revelations about Kamiya's backstory in Episode 2 could potentially bring the series more in line with Kodaka's previous, darker outings.
Kamiya challenged the rest of the Minato Tribe to an XB game alone, such is his unique skill. Minato Tribe players Taiga, Santaro Mita and Manami Daimon looked on as Haru tried to tackle Kamiya. Mita commented on Haru's brazenness, prompting Daimon to ominously comment that Haru "doesn't know." Taiga refused to let the issue go and investigated, and Daimon revealed that Kamiya used to be known as "The Destroyer." Destroyer of what? Fellow player Saori Arisugawa dragged Mita away before he could finish speaking, but he was clearly about to say "people." Was Mita speaking metaphorically, or did Kamiya truly used to be a killer before the days of Extreme Baseball?
Mita's creepy tone is similar to a kid telling a campfire horror story, even developing a spontaneous atmospheric shadow on his face. It's hard to imagine him being so playful when talking about actual murder. Arisugawa said, "Don't frighten him," to which Mita responded, "I ain't lying though!" Arisugawa's reassurance could imply that calling Kamiya a "destroyer of people" was an exaggeration, but she also expanded that "He's calmed down a lot," so even her defense of Kamiya refers to the way he is now and doesn't necessarily deny Mita's implication that he was a killer in the past.
In a later scene at Minato Tribe headquarters, Taiga was jealous that Haru got to try out Kamiya's volatile "beam bat." Kamiya refused to let Taiga hold it because "I don't want it destroyed," to which Taiga responded, "Give me a break, you former 'Destroyer!'" Kamiya's face fell as Mita and Daimon looked on in shock; a tense few seconds of awkwardness that felt like minutes. Kamiya quickly smiled again, joking about passing the title on to Taiga, devolving into the latter shouting indignantly about getting a better one.
Kamiya wasn't present when Taiga learned about his old moniker, explaining his initial shock. Killer or not, Kamiya has been reminded that his new friends will eventually have to learn about this darker side of him. The way Kamiya laughed off Taiga's words could be interpreted as more evidence that he has not killed people, as he can still react so casually to it. Conversely, it could mean that Kamiya was trying to change the subject and move on as quickly as possible, such is his shame over his dark past.
This scene is another example of how Kamiya's unpredictable personality defies expectations. This is the first time Kamiya has been confronted about his dark backstory, mere scenes after its revelation. His playful response to Taiga saying the controversial name is considerably less dramatic than the brooding or even aggression fans might expect from a "destroyer" who has just been called out.
The four Minato fielders interrupted the party to reveal that three other tribes had been "wrecked." The cause of this was Chiyoda Tribe's Ojiro Otori, last seen walking away from what looked like an array of bleeding bodies with baseball bats in Shinjuku. An earlier scene revealed the details of being challenged to play Extreme Baseball as Arisugawa told Haru that the loser of an XB game has to do whatever the winner wants, no matter what. The state of Otori's opposing Shinjuku Tribe team implies that these men might have staked their lives on the game -- and received a grisly punishment for losing.
The purpose of the XB Law was to prevent violence among tribes, but Episode 2 makes it appear as though Otori has twisted the exacting rules of the game into a weapon. If Kamiya became less violent when XB replaced tribe warfare, it's interesting to note that he could have legally chosen to keep using the game to end people's lives like Otori apparently does. Otori's actions also threaten to drag the now peaceful Kamiya back into a world where tribe conflicts are a matter of life and death. Kamiya seems to understand that Otori is a harbinger of the end of his peaceful days of relatively low-stakes XB, unsmilingly echoing Arisugawa's sentiment that the masked figure smells like trouble.
Kamiya may not have been a killer, but nobody in the Minato Tribe can seem to deny that he was a destroyer. After all, as a member of a powerful tribe, there are other ways the old Kamiya could have "destroyed" people's lives. Despite this, Kamiya's delayed reaction to Taiga's reminder of the name, as well as his subdued contempt for Otori, imply that he laments his destructive past. As Kamiya confronts Otori in Episode 3, he may also have to confront the very violence that once defined him.
