>>281603875
Before Prez died he should have
>realized he killed an innocent girl in Michiru
>admitted he was worse than everyone he targeted
>been exposed for at least one murder to the whole school
His perspective needed to be crushed and reputation ruined, then Sayo spiral into an unrepentant murderer as a twist of the knife. The serial killer in Shi ni Aruki at least had that moment of his worldview crashing down after Tokiko fucked him up Rube Goldberg style. I agree Kai got off way too lightly. But I just can't hate the Wiley Coyote speech vs fists conflict with Satsuki. And yeah it's hard to keep up a rational debate over ethics when one side's going completely killcrazy, even if a character like that maybe should exist short-term so Satsuki can have her "should I kill the Joker to protect Gotham" moment.
There was definitely something behind the scenes, with the 3 month hiatus before the last 20 chapters. But even with burnout I think the original ending would have still tied into chapter 1's mass death. Ryoko seemed to consciously reject some themes of the manga, whether in an attempt to not remake Shi ni Aruki or plain out of attachment to the characters. There's a shockingly low death count in the end and that just doesn't fit with 80 chapters of tension spinning plates that always seem about to crash.
>>281605022
If the cops ask, you found it by the roadside.
