WARNING: The f0llowing contains spoilers for Talentless Nana Episode 9, “Survival of the Fittest,” now streaming on Funimation.
Nana has encountered many tough super-powered enemies, including a future seer, a necromancer and a time traveler. She has successfully navigated all of these threats with her wits and some good luck. However, Nana may have just used up all her luck, as she finally meets someone she cannot defeat.
Nana took a huge risk last episode with her plan to get rid of Habu’s cellphone while giving herself an alibi. It turns out she let one of the dead corpses hold onto the cellphone. As the sun warms up the decomposing corpse, the tissue will soften and touch the cellphone, sending out the pre-composed message in Nana’s stead.
There are several uncertainties that Nana cannot control in this scenario. The corpse could soften too early and mess up her alibi, or the phone could also be discovered by Kyoya as they are burning the bodies, exposing her plans. But neither instance happened, giving Nana the perfect alibi, while also destroying the last shred of evidence that ties Nana to her crimes. Kyoya is therefore forced to admit defeat in front of their classmates, and Nana’s position as class leader is strengthened as a result.
Although Nana’s plan worked this time, she knows that she's not entirely safe. Kyoya still suspects her, and it's more difficult for her to kill anyone after four people died in a roll. What Nana does not expect is that Michiru, the only person who trusts and defends her no matter what, could stab her in the back. Just when Nana starts to trust Michiru enough to fall asleep beside her, Michiru wakes Nana up with a knife to her throat. Nana is shocked that she missed Michiru’s true nature, but is forced into a corner when Michiru tries to expose her fake mind-reading power in front of the whole class. While Nana manages to outsmart Michiru, she knows she is not able to stop Michiru so easily.
When Michiru confronts Nana again, Nana is prepared and exposes the flaws in this Michiru’s disguise. The fake Michiru’s hand is wounded when she tries to threaten Nana with the knife, the real Michiru would have already healed her wound while the fake Michiru still has a Band-Aid covering the wound. The fake Michiru is revealed to be Jin Tachibana, a member of the previous class on the island, and a shapeshifter much like Mystique.
Jin tells Nana that his class of super-powered people started a civil war not long after arriving on the island due to pride and misunderstanding, and almost everyone is killed in the process, Jin is the sole survivor of this conflict. Jin knows that the government has nefarious plans for super-powered beings because his classmates who tried to escape the island are all killed by the government. Jin returns to the island to investigate, but soon realizes the assassin Nana is an extra element that didn't exist for his class. He wants to find out Nana’s motivation as well as the purpose of the government that sent her.
Jin has been spying on Nana by transforming into various animals, so he saw all of Nana’s murders. Naturally, Nana needs to take him out, but this has proven to be an impossible task. At the end of the episode, Jin reveals that his real power is not just shapeshifting, he is able to copy the power of anyone he transforms into. This means he can wield the power of everyone on the island, including the immortal Kyoya. Jin has been purposely misleading Nana ever since they meet, suggesting that he is even a better tactician than Nana.
The introduction of Jin makes Nana’s situation even direr. Jin is the perfect counterpart to Nana, as someone who already survived a superpowered war, is incredibly over-powered, and also knows all about Nana’s secrets, Nana is completely helpless against him. But since Jin had plenty of opportunities to kill Nana in previous episodes, but never acted on it, this means Nana holds something Jin wants, most likely her connections to the government.