Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 08 – There’s No Going Back

Gedouiin may be the Absolute Ruler of Illuminati’s Far East Laboratory, but in the presence of a temporarily conscious Lord Lucifer he devolves into a blubbering, idolizing supplicant. He wants nothing more than to help his lord accomplish his goals, and more importantly, that he is more important an asset then the “sow” commander or anyone else.

There’s just a small hiccup: despite him reporting that Kamiki Izumo is extraordinarily compatible with the Nine Tails, extensive testing has revealed that in fact she has a 99.92% chance of dying instantly during the transplant process. Gedouiin is going to run with those terrible odds, because he has to, but just in case Izumo dies, he at least wants to report to Lucifer that he was able to subdue the Spawn of Satan.

Yet, even on that front Gedouiin fails, at least this week. While the chimeras he keeps locked away are the stuff of nightmares, even Konekomaru is able to escape their jaws when he snaps out of his state of panic and anxiety and remembers what his friends told him he was capable of. He lures his chimera to a hatch and once the hatch is smashed open, he slips out of his cell and reunites with Kuro, who is very hangry. He also checks in on Yukio, who was able to subdue his chimera by literally stitching its body to the ground.

Bon initially tries to use his Dragoon’s bazooka, but when he realizes the chimeras can not only speak, but his chimera in particular wants to “go home.” He learns he’s dealing with an entity that still has a shred of humanity. Summoning a mirror of water, the chimera sees itself and collapses in distress. Bon then uses his Aria skills to help the poor wretched creature pass on in peace. I couldn’t help but thing of poor Mitty after Bondrewd’s experiments in Made in Abyss.

Shiemi is saved by Nee, who breaks them out of their cell by growing a huge tree and turns their chimera to dust. At the end of the ordeal, Rin can tell Shiemi is shaking with exhaustion and exertion, but still won’t give up on saving Izumo and Shima, if its the last thing they do.

Konekomaru is troubled that Rin, their ace in the hole, still won’t commit to using killing force against even things that were once human but can never be human again. Of course, if Rin does start killing humans, even to save his friends, it puts him on the path to losing his humanity.

But just as the chimeras can’t go back to their human lives, neither Rin nor anyone else in this lab can go back to who they were. Shima knows Rin’s weakness all too well, and as he counsels an increasingly desperate and unhinged Gedouiin, he’s counting on Rin’s inability to kill humans as the lynchpin in the fight to defeat True Cross and make Lucifers plans a reality.

Rin & Co. have escaped their cells, but they’re still deep within Gedouiin’s twisted madhouse. Things are likely to get much uglier before they start looking up, while the life of Izumo, who is probably feeling more defeated than ever after the loss of her fox-brothers, now hangs by the thinnest of threads.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Author: magicalchurlsukui

Preston Yamazuka is a staff writer for RABUJOI.