Hell’s Paradise – 12 – Welcome to Horai

Upon crossing the threshold of the gate to Horai, Sagiri, Yuzuriha and Senta are confronted by Mu Dan, AKA Jiujin Amoghavajra, the peony spirit and one of the Tensen. One look is all Yuzuriha needs to NOPE the fuck out of there, but she’s caught by Jiujin’s superior strength and speed.

As he monologues about all the fun ways he’s going to toy with her and the others before killing them, and Sagiri draws her sword to ask Jiujin to let her go, I was left lamenting that Yuzuriha was nerfed before we could ever see her at the top of her shinobi game.

Thankfully, that’s not the case, as Yuzuriha uses wood substitution to escape from the clutches of Jiujin’s formerly human homunculus-like “toys”, launches herself into the air, fires at least eight kunai into Jiujin’s back and throat, and beheads him with a graceful flourish. She kicks ass with style—a completely different style from Sagiri or even Gabimaru.

Before she does this, Jiujin informs them that unfortunately, there is no “Elixir of Life” to be found there. There is only tan, and if anyone other than a Tensen consumes it, they become trees like Houko and the villagers. Sagiri is crestfallen at the prospect of Gabimaru not being pardoned, but once she neutralizes Jiujin Yuzuriha tells her their survival is what matters most right now.

Yuzuriha’s indomitable optimism insists as long as they can stay alive, they can figure things out—but Jiujin won’t make staying alive easy. He regenerates like the Tensen before him, and even when Yuzuriha breaks out her poison slime prison, it only slows him down.

At no point is Jiujin really fighting with anything like his full strength or speed, which makes sense as he’s said he likes toying with humans, and if nothing else these humans are more special than most. For one thing, Yuzuriha and Sagiri both use their tao even if they haven’t mastered it.

Jiujin tells Sagiri that there’s no hope for her as her tao level is simply too low to be any threat to him, even if she did know how to use it. But like Gabimaru and Choubei, Sagiri is able to intuitively, spontaneously summon more tao through her breathing techniques. When she slashes him across the face, the wound doesn’t immediately heal.

As luck would have it, Sagiri’s tao is of a kind you could say Jiujin is particularly “allergic” to; it’s like poison to him. Now that the threat to him is increased, he whips out more of his abilities, like ninpo-like invisibility and briefly switching into a woman to use the other side of his yin-yang  tao.

Against any one of his opponents, that might be enough, but Sagiri, Yuzuriha, and Senta work as a well-oiled team, continually hacking at Jiujin and controlling his movements and position until Senta has him in a hold.

Sagiri is accurate enough to deliver a tao-infused slash across his midsection, where Houko says is the core of his tao. Jiujin goes down, doesn’t regenerate, and stops moving. Yuzuriha leans on Sagiri and declares a hard-won victory.

For the precious few minutes the trio are able to rest, Yuzuriha remains a ball of energy observing their opulent surroundings, while Sagiri hits the nail on the head by suggesting Senta has developed the sweets for Yuzuriha. He can’t deny it, but less than love or lust, it is admiration and envy for how free she lives her life.

Looking back on his upbringing, Senta wanted to be an artist, and grew into a good one, but his family wouldn’t let him pursue anything other than the life of a Yamada executioner and sword tester. He hated killing, and as he studied religions trying to justify all that killing, he rose in rank.

But he was still lying to himself about what he was. And while Yuzuriha lies to just about everyone about everything, she never lies to herself. She is always nothing more or less than Yuzuriha the kunoichi. Senta expects Sagiri to disapprove, but she can’t, because she has a similar soft spot for her prisoner.

Speaking of that prisoner, Fuchi read Sagiri’s notes on Gabimaru that stated he is heartless towards everyone and everything but a single person (Yui). However, his time on the island has changed him to the point he wants to repay Mei for saving him (twice now) by helping her to do or be what she wants.

Fuchi, unaware there is no Elixir of Life on the island, worries this new softness may prove a liability in Gabimaru’s mission. It may, but more importantly, after his battle the strain Gabimaru put on his body to defeat his opponent seems to catch up to him all at once, and he collapses like a sack of bricks with a blood fountain rising from his nose.

When Yuzuriha mentions that there are more flowers blooming around them than earlier, Senta shoves her and takes a projectile flower meant for her straight into his breast. He enters a dream state where a pile of heads from his hated duty are kicked away by Yuzuriha, who then opens an umbrella and dances in a rain of heads and blood while an elated Senta draws her.

Senta remarks that he doesn’t need to be too close to someone like Yuzuriha, but simply being allow to be by her side to watch her brings him sufficient happiness. You could call her his first and only true muse, but it’s too late for Senta. His backstory was a transparent death flag, and he has succumbed to the flowers to eventually become tan.

Jiujan re-emerges in their twisted colossal monster form, and with Senta out of commission, for the first time Yuzuriha can’t be optimistic. She tells Sagiri this is a monster too strong for them to defeat. But along comes Shion to bail them out at the last second. It’s too late for Senta, but not for Yuzuriha or Sagiri to keep living and figure things out.

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – S2 12 (Fin) – Morning Toast

As some point in the past when she’s a young woman, and in the present, Tokiko admires Chekhov’s Moon Rock in the case in her home, then and now looking somewhat weary.

The morning after Tsukasa and Nasa’s reception, she joins Nasa to watch the sun come up over fancy toast from Ginza and French butter. Nasa remarks how Tokiko’s particular way of doing things reminds him of his wife.

Tokiko seems to want to tell Nasa something important—perhaps about that rock—but Tsukasa interrupts, having been roused from that giant glamping bed by the heavenly aroma of toast.

Back home, Nasa informs Tsukasa that his apartment building has nearly been completed, which means they’ll be moving out of the spare room soon. They visit the place, which is bigger and more modern. His new apartment will also have a bathtub, something Tsukasa approves of until she recalls what that means for the two of them, then she blushes.

When Kaname hears the two are moving, she accuses Nasa of being a pervert and horndog, while she’s the one who jokes about wanting to peek in at the couple messing around. In truth, she’ll be lonely if they’re not there. Tsukasa assures her she’ll still see plenty of them both: she’ll keep working the front desk of the bathhouse, while Nasa will keep using the room as an office.

That night while on a stroll, Nasa hugs Tsukasa, and she uses the opportunity to be honest and forthright with her husband: his hugs suck. His tendency to position his arms around her waist puts her in an uncomfortable longcat position.

After drawing some diagrams on a rhetorical chalkboard, she gives him an example of the right way to hug someone shorter than him: by keeping his arms up around her shoulders. She in turn can pull him in closer; Nasa marvels at how much better a fit this hug is.

When it’s Nasa’s turn to be upfront, he asks permission to move Tsukasa back to the futon and adjust her pajamas, but Tsukasa angrily rejects the notion that she’s a messy sleeper, even though she’s the messiest. That said, if these are the things these two fight about, they’ll be fine.

Nasa is pondering photographing Tsukasa in her messy sleeping state the next morning, but she gets a call from Chitose: Tokiko fell. They visit her in the hospital where she’s well on the mend and in good spirits. When she excuses herself to go to the bathroom and grab a coffee, Nasa follows, leaving Tsukasa to play Tokiko’s super-difficult handheld video game.

On the hospital’s roof, Nasa asks Tokiko if she’s really okay, having noticed a change in her gait from the camping trip. He also brings up what she wanted to talk about. Tokiko doesn’t go into great detail here unfortunately, but she does give Nasa her moon rock.

She calls Tsukasa a “normal girl” and the rock “just a rock”, but it’s clear she cherishes both, and now she knows Nasa is the right person for Tsukasa to share her long, long life with. Tsukasa had told Tokiko to live her own life, but she’d hesitated to do so. Now she can do so without worry. Tsukasa is in good, kind hands that will never let her go.