The Koga Elder's Survival...

[Dragon]

Have you ever thought about the Elder's story? He was one of the Koga Ninjas that followed Kurojaki into the burning house... and while everyone else successfully burned into ashes, he somehow survived, body intact?

Some things I want to think about or discuss is like... how do you think that played out? I can only think of two cases... either:
1. Maybe he was one of the last followers to jump into the flames, so ...the house stopped burning by the time he got to it..? I don't believe that makes sense, as Gin and company watched the tragedy play out... unless he was away from the group and after seeing the fire in the distance, rushed over late?

2. Maybe he jumped in and after feeling how awful the pain was, was the only Ninja dog who just couldn't take it and jumped out, still badly burnt from the damage he got jumping in at all. Maybe he deeply regretted this and hated himself for being 'cowardly' but lived on to repay his fallen comrades somehow: by making Tesshin betray Ohu. But we all know how that ends... (random note: I find it pretty interesting that despite almost dying to flames, his 2nd attempt of suicide was by jumping down a waterfall. Interesting contrast!)

I like the 2nd idea more than the first one as it ties into GDW's events without having to be too unbelievable... well.. half believable.

Something else we should question is how the HECK he survived without any medical attention. You're telling me he laid in the dirt, fur and skin badly burned, near a burning smokey building ... and lived through it all without any human help!?

Another detail we're given is the subordinates of Tesshin's all have fathers, according to the Elder, that we saw in GNG who successfully died in the fire... so the elder, at some point, had to have made it to the Koga base where they hid their pups, and took care of them ... with this recently toasted body. And taught them the way of being a ninja dog.... I wonder if the Kogas had some healing springs along with those healing herbs.

Ofcourse the easy answer to all this is "it's an anime", but this is for fun, so let's think of some cool and interesting theories!

[Digsu]

One possibility I can think of is that he fell into one of the mansion's secret passageways/traps, where he was safe from most of the flames, and by the time he found his way out, the fire had already died down.

As for how he survived his wounds and made it all the way back home... it's Ginga, characters shrugging off near-lethal damage is pretty par for the course

[Flanoir]

This makes me wonder.
We know Gin, John and Akame had supposedly been away from Ohu for YEARS by the time Kaibutsu comes. Perhaps it's been retconned in some way since then, but what about Tesshin, the back-then heir? How long had he been staying with the Kogas by the time Weed meets him?
(Don't make me mention how stupid it is to have an heir barely a few months younger than yourself. The age gap between Gin and Weed is kinda insane, but at least it makes more sense succession-wise.)

[Digsu]

This makes me wonder.
We know Gin, John and Akame had supposedly been away from Ohu for YEARS by the time Kaibutsu comes. Perhaps it's been retconned in some way since then, but what about Tesshin, the back-then heir? How long had he been staying with the Kogas by the time Weed meets him?
(Don't make me mention how stupid it is to have an heir barely a few months younger than yourself. The age gap between Gin and Weed is kinda insane, but at least it makes more sense succession-wise.)

Tesshin was traveling with Gin and the others until 1,5 years before GDW, when Gin sent him to escort the pregnant Sakura back to Ohu. Some indeterminate time afterwards he happened to meet Sniper who lied to him about Kurojaki's death and he angrily left to rejoin the other Kogas. And no, it's not explained how he knew there were still other surviving Koga dogs left.

So he'd been staying with them for less than 1,5 years.

edit: Though in TLW it's said that the Koga Elder outright raised Tesshin so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Gingaddict]

I heard an interesting theory about what could've really gone on - it's suggested that maybe the Koga elder was actually Kurojaki's body double or even Kurojaki himself due to his missing eye.

I assume when the elder survived the burning, the pups of Koga themselves guided the elder to a spring so his wounds could heal. I mean the pups would have brought up on everything Koga and against Iga as seen in Ginga Densetsu Akame, all the pups started training very early on.

[Digsu]

I heard an interesting theory about what could've really gone on - it's suggested that maybe the Koga elder was actually Kurojaki's body double or even Kurojaki himself due to his missing eye.

I remember that Kurojaki's article on Gingapedia used to claim he and the Elder were the same dog, years ago before any translations, official or unofficial, existed of the GDW manga, so I guess it might have been a popular notion at some point. However, the manga makes it pretty clear this is not the case, as the Elder refers to Kurojaki as "Lord Kurojaki" (or "your father" when talking to Tesshin) and his death scene in TLW even shows Kurojaki's ghost welcoming him to the afterlife.

It's harder to disprove the idea of him being Kurojaki's body double, though some colored images like this one seem to depict what little fur he has left as being the same color as all generic Kogas.

[Jinto]

I have thought that maybe the Elder jumped in but then he didn't feel like being burned alive so he jumped out. Or maybe he jumped out because he remembered the pups and that it would be better to raise them to continue Koga dogs legacy.

[kahooton]

I heard an interesting theory about what could've really gone on - it's suggested that maybe the Koga elder was actually Kurojaki's body double or even Kurojaki himself due to his missing eye.

I assume when the elder survived the burning, the pups of Koga themselves guided the elder to a spring so his wounds could heal. I mean the pups would have brought up on everything Koga and against Iga as seen in Ginga Densetsu Akame, all the pups started training very early on.

This seems like the most likely option imo. Maybe the pups were looking for survivors after the fire died out, and found the elder as the only one. He could have asked them to bring him to the healing spring and rested there for a while, swearing to repay them by raising them after he had healed.