Now that we’re up to speed on the horrific circumstances of her past and torturous circumstances of her present, what does the future hold for Kamiki Izumo? Can she, like, maybe catch a fucking break at some point? The last couple weeks have made clear that she’s not just a prisoner of the Illuminati, but also convinced she is the only one who can and must bear this awful fate.
As she’s walked in cuffs down a long hall to her eventual doom, All Izumo can do is laugh and try to mess with Mr. Pink Hair, asking if he’s enjoying this. When he says there’s a chance she can walk away from this if everything goes well, she tells him there’s no hope for her: she’s a dead girl walking regardless of the results.
Her nihilistic attitude only lasts as long as the corridor, for when they reach Gedouiin she makes such a big loud outburst she’s able to swipe the pen from a guard, stab them with it, then cut herself with the spring and summon Uke and Mike.
When they tell her that people from the Order are coming to rescue her, she doesn’t want to hear it. The only one she’s relying on is herself and her foxes. She’ll escape, find Tsukumo, and get her to safety. It’s a terrible plan with little to no chance of success.
Pheles leaves the operation in Yukio’s hands, promising backup at some point but unable to tell them when. Inari Peace Town is full of brainwashed people who eat all day, like the pigs in Spirited Away. They’re then bussed off to a mall, for some unknown purpose. While Rin and the others ate food from Inari Peace Town, they’re saved from its effects thanks to Shiemi’s medicinal herb sandwiches.
Once they get past the first few guards and infiltrate the creepily deserted mall, they learn what happens to the people bussed there: They become Gedouiin’s experiments. The ones that fail become zombies, and he’s unleashed those zombies onto Yukio, Rin, & Co.
While the general zombie mall atmosphere is pretty creepy, it can’t really compete with, say, Jujutsu Kaisen, especially when the spooky zombies in question are lame CG models, some of which have identical blood splattering on their tunics. Some hand drawn stuff would pack more of a punch.
When Gedouiin learns that Rin and Yukio are among the Order intruders, he changes up his strategy, ordering the floor of the mall opened and all the intruders shunted into the foreboding-sounding “feeding area.” Feeding what fell beasts, I ask?
Izumo, flanked by an Uke and Mike determined to protect her they disobey her orders, try their best, but Shima is able to summon a demon that not only disperses the fox spirits, but eliminates them. Just like that, the foxes Izumo thought of as brothers are gone from her life.
Her spirit newly-crushed, Izumo is re-shackled and her long walk to her doom continues. As for Shima, if he wasn’t before, he’s truly an irredeemable villainous scum now, right?
As if the zombies whose head wounds healed wasn’t enough, now the exorcists are separated in different dark places, next to some kind of horrendous beasts that are excited for food. Rin recalls Shima telling him he’s going to have to be okay with killing humans if he’s going to have any chance going forward. The time for wavering and half-measures is over.
Saving Izumo means Rin will have to do a lot of horrible things and will have to live with himself. Even then, so as long as Tsukumo is in the enemy’s clutches, Izumo doesn’t even want to be saved. It’s just a big old downer. The good guys need a win somewhere in the worst way. Hopefully they can score one next week.
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