Tenten Kakumei – 09 – A Warm Hand

It was always held out before him: an invitation to fun, trouble, or both. Algard never quite knew exactly what he’d get when he took that outstretched hand, but he still remembers how warm it felt in his, and that he knew no matter what, he wouldn’t be bored. And yet, a time came when that very same hand felt as cold as ice.

Now Al wields ice in bullet, spear, icicle rain, and hammer forms in order to stamp out the sister he loved so dearly. Never again can their hands touch; not while both draw breath. A fight ensues between the unstoppable force of a super-regenerating vampire against the immovable object of a magicologist blessed with dragon powers. It starts out a stalemate. Yet Al can tell Anis is holding back. He might be too?

All this time, Euphie, the one person who could turn the tables in an increasingly brutal duel, is still busy trying to keep Lainie from dying of a stolen heart. Once she’s healed enough to speak, Lainie reminds her healer that as a vampire, she needs blood to wield her own magic. Euphie prepares to cut herself, but Ilia stops her, bites through her lip, then delivers her blood to Lainie mouth-to-mouth, healing her completely.

Now Euphie is free to intervene in the sibling fight just when both it and tempers are getting well and truly out of hand. By continually healing the wounds Anis causes and throwing everything he’s got her way, Al gets Anis to a state where she thinks killing him for real is the only way to stop him. And yet, she’s still able to hold back her killing blow when she sees the look on Al’s fast-approaching face is no longer rage or resentment, but resignation and even relief that his wretched existence is about to end.

Anis doesn’t like that face one bit, while Euphie knows Anis doesn’t really want to kill her brother, but is just doing it because she thinks there’s no other choice. So she creates another option by plucking Anis out of midair and tacking her to the ground, tells her that she and her brother are acting like a couple of damn fools, and they both basically need a good long time out.

Anis’ attack did enough that Al is lying in a defeated heap on the ground. He recalls a beautiful day when he looked up and found Anis up in the sky above him, smiling on him, before reaching out with that warm hand. When the two of them broke out of the castle to go on an adventure, they encountered a monster. Anis told Al to run while she dealt with it, and he obeyed, hiding in a tree hollow.

Al idolized Anis more than anything at this time in his life. But then horrible rumors spread that Anis was trying to off his brother to consolidate power, and Anis unilaterally decided the best way to prove to everyone that she had no desire for the throne was to renounce it and bestow it on Al. Little did she know that was the last thing Al wanted.

Both the day he slapped her hand away in response to her rash decision, and every day since, he resented her for giving up a throne that was rightfully hers, while cursing a world for being so cruel to her that she felt she had to. He hated this world that rejected his sister so much, he believed destroying it and starting over was the only way.

But Al shot his shot and failed, and accepts the consequences. His only “defense” to his father the king is that he was a fool, straight up, and will accept any punishment. His father disinherits him and exiles him to the borderlands to work for the kingdom until he “turns to dust”. His mother tries to bear some responsibility, and perhaps she does, but he says his sins were his own. Rather than her being a bad mother, he should have been a better son.

Anis also feels responsible for creating the monster that was Crown Prince Algard, saying if only she’d “lived a normal life” in this world (which we know to be an isekai for her) maybe he wouldn’t have suffered so much. Of course, during their battle, she said all she could ever be was herself, so she’s being too harsh on herself here. This time, Al holds out his shackled hand, and a tearful Anis shakes it to make up one last time.

In the following days, Lord Chartreuse and his son are executed for their role in the attempted coup, while both Anis and Ilia remain bedridden. Lainie has fully recovered, and she and Euphie are the only ones up and about the day Algard is shipped off. Lainie takes the opportunity to tell Algard that she’s convinced there’s true kindness in him that she was lucky to experience, she also won’t forgive or forget what he did to her.

When Euphie approaches him, he tells her not to put up a front, even if it’s second nature so the duke’s illustrious genius daughter. He gets in some final, half-joking barbs about her fitness as a fiancée, and then she gives him a well deserved yet oddly formal slap across the face that Al accepts happily, as he was just as deplorable a fiancé.

Here the two are able to be simply a man and woman, realizing that they were always terrible for each other and it was a wonder they were engaged as long as they were. And then, Al asks Euphie, quite solemnly, to please take care of his sister.

Just as only Anis can be the next queen, even in a kingdom where nearly all the nobles condemn her as a heretic, only Euphie can be the one take care of her. With Ilia still recovering from her injuries, Euphie makes nursing Anis back to health her primary responsibility. When she hears Anis muttering in her sleep about Al and being sorry, Euphie tells her to dream happier dreams, and kisses her on the forehead.

Even if the ill effects of the dragon tattoo eventually clear, the fate of Algard will continue to weigh heavily on Anis like a ball and chain. In that regard, her and Euphie’s roles have now fully reversed: Euphie is now the freer one, with her clean conscience and strong sense of purpose. That’s why it’s absolutely crucial she stay by Anis’ side to help her climb out of the deep dark morass, just as Anis helped her. Euphie must take her warm hand in hers, and never let go.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 09 – Carolization

Kousuke describes himself as a sullen boy in his earlier years, preferring books to the tedium of other people. He was miffed when his mother described Carol as an angel, but then he got his first look at her, and became a believer. There she was, an real-life angel in the flesh. And that was it. He was in love.

After the warehouse incident, Kousuke wants to get stronger. He goes to the right place for that: the Aizawa Dojo. But he soon learns just how out of his league he is, whether it’s Tomo, her dad, or Jun. He also doesn’t realize how much it irks Jun when he talks about wanting Tomo to “acknowledge” him. Of course, Kousuke isn’t after Tomo that way.

Like Jun, Carol gets the wrong idea about Kousuke training at Tomo’s house (and she doesn’t even hear that he was in her bed when Jun knocked him out!). Carol is pissed, and decides to get back at Tomo by claiming Jun for a day, then telling Misuzu in passing that she shouldn’t think she’ll “get her way”. Misuzu always knew Carol concealed an edge, but even she’s taken aback to see that edge fully bared.

Carol comes right out and tells Jun the score: she was mean to Misuzu earlier, and by being with him she’s being mean to Tomo, but right now she just wants to blow off some steam. Jun assures her that Tomo won’t be quick to give up on a friend just because they were mean to her. Then Jun and Carol somehow end up in his room, and she kisses him and jumps on top of him.

She doesn’t take things any further, but when Carol asks him why he’s so scared of women, and how if that doesn’t change he might have problems with Tomo down the road. Partly because he’s terrified of Carol and partly because he wants to prove her wrong, Jun runs next door and gives Tomo a big hug. Carol follows her to apologize to both. She’s let off her steam, and now she’s headed home.

The next day Carol tells Kousuke she hung out with Jun, including in his bedroom, and is treated to a “really weird face”. She reports this to Misuzu, who wonders if Kousuke has ever seen Carol being serious. When she meets with him, she and we get the gist of Kousuke’s deal. He loves Carol, but the thought of getting closer to her terrifies him, because he believes he’s weak, and she’s still so dazzling to him it’s hard to even look at her.

Misuzu rightly deduces that Kousuke needs to see Carol’s vulnerable side, in order to shatter his longstanding ideal of her as an untouchable goddess. But to do so, Misuzu has to be cruel. She tells Carol a lie; that Kousuke doesn’t like her that way, and that when she told him about Jun, it was more like a father giving away her bride than jealousy. Misuzu fully expects Carol not to break that eternal grin, but the face Carol makes is so startling that Misuzu, Tomo, and Jun alike are stunned.

Carol heads home early, and Misuzu quickly gets with Kousuke to tell him to go see Carol immediately to resolve the situation. Once he’s viciously headbutted by Carol’s mom, he enters her room to find neither an angel nor a goddess, but a lonely girl crying her eyes out because she believes the boy she loves doesn’t love her back.

Kousuke steels himself, knowing there’s no going back, and pulls Carol out of the darkness by telling her Misuzu was lying to put her in “a vulnerable state”. Then he tells her, straight up, that he loves her. Carol immediately brightens up and even gleefully shouts banzai before advancing on Kousuke, whereupon her mom blows a whistle and declares that will be enough of that for now.

Carol’s mom later tells Kousuke that she once told Carol she looks cuter when she smiles, only to find she started to smile and never stopped. She constantly worries that someone might take that smile away, but Kousuke assures her he’ll never do that, and that Carol has more friends now who have her back through thick and thin.

That comes through the next day when Carol returns to class wearing a creepy bunny mask, filling a guilty Misuzu with apprehension. She removes the mask to reveal a big goofy smile, and instead of punish or scold Misuzu, she thanks her for pulling the not-always-pleasant but necessary strings to bring her and Kousuke together.

And that, dear readers, is how the chaotic comic relief character absolutely steals Tomo’s show, like snatching candy from a large, muscular baby. All hail Carol Olsten and Sally Amaki, long may they reign!