Ao no Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati-hen – 09 – Cry for Help

Gedouiin, who I’m thoroughly sick and tired of because he’s such a pathetic joke of a non-character (he’s just evil incarnate), fills in our baby exorcists on just how freakin’ evil he is, getting tourists hooked on drugged food and then using them for human experimentation. But things take a turn for the bleak when they actually parade Izumo right out in front of Rin & Co., and when he rushes in to save her, she refuses to be saved.

We know Izumo’s deal: not only is she going through with this on the slight chance it saves her sister, she also doesn’t believe she deserves to be rescued. Instead, she believes her only path is alone, specifically in a one-on-one battle against the Nine Tails. If she can manage to dominate and control it, she can rescue herself. Dressed to the nines and outfitted with a special “Mask of the Chosen”, Izumo begins what might be her last dance.

The dance brings the Nine Tails out of her mother, but just as she’s steeling herself for the fight for her body, in her mind’s eye she’s impaled from behing by several giant claws. The claws are only in her head, but she undergoes pain unlike anything she’s ever experienced, and boy howdy does Kitamura Eri ever sell the agony. All the while, Gedouiin is barking at her to go ahead and die so the Nine Tails can take over.

Izumo eventually becomes (somewhat) numbed to the intense pain, as she lies on the ground covered in necrotic lesions from the process. Now she has longer nails, fox ears, and those telltale tails. She remembers Shima saying he was “tired” of his friends and family, and Izumo feels the same way: tired. She tells herself she always hated the people who surrounded her. And yet, at the same time, she was sad to see them argue. She finally tearfully accepts that maybe she liked them after all.

She asks somebody, anybody, for help, assuming it’s far to late for anyone to hear. But Rin hears her, escapes from the fleshy prison of a berserk chimera, and crashes down to where a shocked Izumo lies. Rin gives Gedouiin a punch that sends him flying, but honestly I’d have preferred a swift decapitation.

Instead, he’s only wounded, and decides to buy more time by dumping hundreds of zombies into the area. Izumo urges Rin to take her mother and leave her, but that’s not happening. After several episodes of mistery and hopelessness, things are finally looking up. Rin just has to hold out long enough for the others to arrive, and then they can all save Izumo together …  because it’s never too late to ask your friends for help.

7th Time Loop – 09 – Branching Point

Prince Kyle didn’t arrive from Coyolles alone: he brought his kingdom’s foremost scholar, Michelle Evan. Evan was Rishe’s sensei in the life she lived as a scholar, and here he approaches her of his own accord, fascinated by her herbs and her painted nails. After just a few minutes of chatting with her, Michelle wants to recruit Rishe as his apprentice.

Rishe is happy to receive instruction from him for the duration of his stay. Michelle also deduces that she is preparing to present the prince with a medicine made from herbs from her garden. She later meets with Kyle and Michelle, who vouches for Rishe on the potential efficacy of her medicine. Kyle admits he’s always been ready to do whatever is necessary to improve his condition, which includes enduring the medicine’s thoroughly disgusting taste.

Prince Arnold surprises Rishe by arriving as her escort home, perhaps due to his discomfort with her hanging out with Kyle and Michelle, two not unattractive men. Then the soiree celebrating Kyle’s visit arrives, and Rishe puts her focusing ability to detect Count Lawvine. Fearing he’ll blow her cover, her goal is to avoid him without looking like she’s avoiding him.

When she sees Arnold and Kyle heading to the balcony, Rishe follows them and listens in. Kyle gets down to brass tacks: he seeks a military alliance with Galkhein, in exchange for all the gems and metals Coyolles can provide, with no regard for profit.

Arnold sniffs out Kyle’s weakness and desperation, and rejects his proposal out of hand. He also correctly presumes that Coyolles’ once vaunted mineral reserves have already dried up. Kyle knows his request is foolish, but not knowing how much longer he’ll live, he’d do or say anything to secure the future of his kingdom.

Kyle thought Arnold would at least listen to an appeal based upon the welfare of the people, since his research into Arnold revealed a prince who through his deeds truly cares about his people. But Arnold, perhaps set off by the praise, reverts to his Bad Boy persona, telling him it would suit him better to simply invade Coyolles than extend a helping hand.

Kyle’s proposal of an alliance never happened in previous loops; once he rose to Emperor, Arnold invaded the rest of the world, including Coyolles. Rishe identifies this as a “branching point” in the history of this loop that will change the course of the future.

It’s the first sign that a war gripped by war that claims her life within ten years may still be on the horizon. But while still likely, that future isn’t set in stone, and there’s still time for Rishe to work to avoid it.

Shin no Nakama – S2 09 – What Love’s Got to Do With It

The gang has a meeting to discuss Chaos Reignsborough’s Blue Boy, specifically how they’re going to go about protecting Ruti and Zoltan from his hyper-zealous, destructive whims. Tisse provides well-drawn portraits of Van, Lavender, and Ljubo. Ruti declares that Van’s world is tiny, allowing him to trust his beliefs without conditions.

Van will disguise himself and reach out to Ljubo, but Lavender is the problem. Mystorm warned to Yarandrala that despite her tiny cute fairy appearance, she’s actually an extremely powerful monster they should a avoid a direct fight with. Rit decides she’ll try talking to Lavender, since both of them are madly in love.

Red sees Tisse out on the deck looking troubled. Her issue is not just that he’s powerful, but also a “terrifying human being.” She just can’t fathom how different he is from Ruti, despite them both being bona fide heroes. Red lays it out: Ruti is an indomitable hero, while Van seeks to be an invincible one.

Van is also little more than his blessing, which he levels up with everything he’s got. Ruti is more than her blessing, thanks in no small part to her brother’s careful guidance, and love. Tisse is glad Ruti had someone like Red, and now understands better what a disadvantage Van has.

After a tense introduction in a dark alley, Rit manages to get to Lavender’s tender side by basically baring her heart to her. She doesn’t want to talk about anything with her but love, and once Lavender can tell she’s sincere, learning that Rit gave up everything to be with her love, she’s happy to drink mead with her.

While they’re able to find common ground through the love they have for their partners, Lavender disagrees with Rit fundamentally on one thing: the ability for love to grow or change. Ever since she met Van, Lavender has been all-in on her love. It’s a feeling she’d destroy the world to preserve, and never wants it to change.

It’s hearing this that makes Rit realize Lavender’s love is not only one-sided, but entirely selfish on Lavender’s part. She doesn’t really care about Van’s feelings, which, if we’re honest, he doesn’t really have, since his world and his almighty are his entire world. Lavender is, at best, a tool to help him carry out the will of Demis, like everyone else. She’s only “special” insofar as she’s completely loyal to him.

Rit is wise not to bring up the contradictions or limits in Lavender’s love, but does warn her that at some point she’ll have to choose between Van changing and Van dying. If that time comes, Lavender promises she’ll simply die with Van. When Rit asks Lavender to ask Van to leave Zoltan, she refuses, and Rit doesn’t push the matter. Instead, they toast one more mug of mead to hopefully having more peaceful talks like this.

While Rit must by design wear her heart on her sleeve and exhibit extreme honesty with an entity like Lavender who could quickly sniff out her lies, Red takes a different approach with Ljubo, one that exploits Ljubo’s vices, specifically money (which he wasn’t born into) and gambling.

Red, slumped over, hooded, and with a purple face tattoo, goads Ljubo into betting on a fat dragon that ends up winning and earning him a bunch of cash. There’s no better way for him to ingratiate himself to the cardinal than by lining his pockets.

With Ljubo’s lust for gold sated for the day, Red shows him where he can spend some of his winnings on some quality wine and seafood. Yarandrala in an anachronistic bartender’s uniform assists Red with this, and Ljubo is impressed that a backwater like Zoltan has such good fare.

With his pockets and belly full and a nice buzz from the wine, Ljubo is sufficiently prepared to hear Red out. Here, Red weaves the story of ancient elven ruins around Zoltan being full of advanced biological weapons. Some are monster form like the dead Ogre King he shows Ljubo. And some have human form – like the girl Van fought.

Red tells Ljubo that the girl is the ultimate elven weapon to be used against the demon army. If Van fights her, and either or both of them die in the ensuing mayhem, it will be a huge blow to mankind. Ljubo agrees, and vows to recommend to Van that he give up on fighting the girl. That said, Van’s obedience cannot be guaranteed.

The bottom line is that Red, Rit, Ruti & Co. don’t want to kill Van if they don’t have to. They want a peaceful solution, and that may require them to deceive Van. That’s a risky prospect, especially with Lavender discovering that Esta and her new Squire seem to be friendly with the apothecary who fought Van.

The Apothecary Diaries – 21 – Getting a Good Look

With Suirei in the wind, Maomao refocuses her efforts on keeping the apothecary clean with the Quack’s health (I love their cat-and-mouse dynamic), and learns that his family is the purveyor of paper for the emperor, but that may soon come to an end. The quality of the paper has fallen, but she doesn’t know why until the good doctor says they’ve started using oxen for the manual labor.

Whipping up some quick arrowroot gruel for herself and the doc, she tells him to wet his spoon in order to thin the mixture. The same is happening with the paper: oxen secrete a lot of saliva, and if that’s somehow getting into their glue, it’s resulting in less sticky glue and weaker paper. Seven minutes in, Maomao has solved a mini-mystery that might just have saved the doc’s family’s financial future.

From there we shift to Lihaku, who summons Maomao with what she hopes will be some new news on Suirei. Alas, he’s come to her to ask what it would cost to buy out a courtesan at the Verdigris House; specifically Pairin. His is no longer mere puppy love, nor does he consider her a pet or toy; she is the only woman in his world, and he has fallen for her body and soul.

To that end, he, a military officer who makes around 1,000 silver a year, wants to know what it will cost to buy her out, because he’s heard rumors that might happen soon. Maomao identifies two major regulars of hers, none of whom are a good match, then does a quick calculation of the revenue Pairin brings in to Verdigris and doubles it.

Maomao notes that Pairin is not just a graceful dancer, but an “invincible warlord in bed”; even servant girls have to watch out when her “hunger” grows. The ballpark figure Maomao comes up with is 10,000 silver minimum, which makes Lihaku wince, but he still asks whether he has a chance provided he can get that kind of cash together.

Maomao knows Pairin better than anyone; when she was first brought in, Pairin actually nursed her with that prestigious bosom. She was part big sister, part surrogate mom, and she and the other two princesses and the old Madame all took care of her. Maomao knows there’s some maternity in Pairin despite her insatiable appetites.

With all this in mind, she takes anyone wanting to be Pairin’s partner with extremely critical eyes. In order to properly assess if Lihaku is worthy of her, Maomao has him strip. First his shirt, then his pants. The musculature is there, and Maomao has heard from her sources that he also has stamina.

When the time comes to remove “the final garment” for an assessment of his manhood, the sight of Maomao kneeling on one knee right in front of Lihaku’s crotch is what Jinshi encounters when he enters the room. Needless to say, he demands to know just what the heck is going on.

Maomao is extremely matter-of-fact, even clinical in her explanations. Nothing untoward is going on, she’s simply taking a good look at him to see “if his body is good enough.” Even Maomao can tell from Jinshi’s reaction that he’s jealous, but when she further describes Lihaku, he can’t help but be impressed with her ability to assess someone’s personality based on their body, a crucial skill for an apothecary who might have secretive patients.

When Jinshi steers the discussion to his own body, Maomao says there’d “be no point” in learning about that, because he wouldn’t get along … with her sister. Now that he knows Maomao was inspecting Lihaku not for herself but for her sister, he meets with the man in person, and even offers double what he needs to buy her out. Jinshi would be buying Lihaku’s lifetime loyalty.

Lihaku asks how he can make such an offer to someone he barely knows, Jinshi tells him “his cautious cat” considers him a solid candidate. However, Lihaku respectfully declines his generous offer, asking what kind of man he’d be to welcome his wife with someone else’s money. If he’s going to buy her out and make her his, he’s going to do it himself, the way he thinks is right, and with Pairin’s own input on the matter.

Lihaku and Maomao write to Pairin, and she writes back to Maomao that she’s still got some work left in her at Verdigris, and is still “waiting for her prince” to come. That could very well be Lihaku, and for less than 10,000 silver. As for the rumor about someone buying a princess out, Pairin says that was one of the servant girls “getting the wrong idea.”

Maomao deduces that the one talking about buying people out must have been that man, i.e. Lakan. The preview suggests the biological father and daughter will be facing off next week. Perhaps we’ll learn a bit more about what exactly he’s after, and how far he’s willing to go to get it.