The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 11 – Doing What Needed to Be Done

As she lies on the ground beaten and bleeding, Suzune remembers that dark, rainy day when she and Kazuki were at school late. She hid her sad smiles from Kazuki when he praised her for earning the teachers’ complete trust and exceeding their expectations.

Then they met Ken, who forgot his umbrella, ended up in another world, and Suzune was able to be herself, and Ken accepted her true self, not the fake Suzune she’d created back home. She thought as long as the three of them were together, everything would work out.

My attitude going in? If Suzune or Kazuki die, I RIOT. Well, we don’t know how this story ends, but so far, Suzune’s still right! Before the Black Knight can deliver a killing blow, Ken charges in at Mach K and delivers a hell of a right hook to the Black Knight, sending them flying.

When Suzune comes to, she and Kazuki are being healed by Ken. They were certainly in a bad way like his vision, but they were still breathing. He made it in time by not hesitating. They all stuck together, and things worked out.

As expected, the nanosecond things started not going exactly the Black Knight’s way, she (as it turns out) gets all whiny and petulant about How Things Are Supposed To Be, and fury at why those things Aren’t That Way. She’s nothing but a cheatin’-ass bully, and it’s time to put her in her place. Not only is Ken able to actually harm her and damage her suit of mana armor, but her attacks have no effect on him.

Throughout their battle Ken is surrounded by a green healing aura that turns her razor-sharp attacks into black goop. But this is no stalemate; Black Knight can’t hurt Ken, but he can most definitely hurt her. When Kazuki comes to, he and Suzune watch the battle and aren’t sure why Ken’s attacks aren’t continuously healing his opponent.

Then it dawns on Suzune: the Black Knight has a weakness to healing magic. Not only that, but Ken’s healing fists are powerful enough on their own to deal significant damage. When Suzune actually says the titular line, “That’s definitely the wrong way to use healing magic,” I did a fist pump.

At first Black Knight is able to heal her armor, but as the battle wears on, it’s clear she’s losing mana. We’d seen her in the past lazing around, sailing by with her nigh-invincible armor. But Ken isn’t tiring; thanks to his ridiculous training regime, this is a walk in the park.

When she tries to go all out with one final attack, Ken’s fist meets the tip of her enlarged sword, blows through it, surrounds both of them in an gleaming emerald aura, and delivers a devastating punch to her gut. The Black Knight is knocked out and her suit of armor melts away, revealing a beautiful young demon woman with silver hair.

She’s promptly tied up and taken as a prisoner. Suzune messes with him a bit by telling him she overheard his embarrassing shounen name for his attack, but then gets serious and thanks him for saving her. Since she and Kazuki are all healed up, they head back to the front, while Rose orders Ken back to camp with her.

While he, Rose, and the other healers continue to treat the wounded and poisoned, they suddenly see a bright flash of light mixed with lightning: Suzune and Kazuki have done their part by taking down the giant snake monster, which was never going to be as tough as the Black Knight with her reflective anti-hero armor.

With the capture of their most powerful knight and killing of the giant snake, the Demon Army beats a swift retreat, their morale in tatters. Amila is at least level-headed enough to know they don’t stand a chance against Rose, Siglis, and a second Healing Monster in White.

With the battle being a complete victory thanks to Ken, Rose gives him his proper due, while also praising him for making it back to her alive. She admits he reminds her of comrades who only live on in her memory who represented the best of the Rescue Team, and now Ken has similarly distinguished himself.

Upon hearing her kind words, Ken can’t help but tear up, reminding Rose that at the end of the day he’s still a green seventeen-year-old kid. When he finally runs out of mana and stamina and passes out in her arms, she holds him close and tells him he did good.

So did this episode, which was full of heart, emotion, and some outstanding character work while also providing quite a bit of nifty, satisfying action. It’s a true gem of an episode that brought the whole season together—an emerald, if you will.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 10 – The Black Knight Surprises

The morning of the battle arrives, and Ken wakes up to a rising sun and an uneasy heart. Suzune feels the same way, but compensates by flaunting her pretty battle armor and flirting with Ken. She wants him to “soothe her heart”, but when Ken yelps for Kazuki to rescue him like a demsel in distress, he does. We see that despite her lighthearted surface, Suzune’s hand still trembles as she grasps her sword.

Now we know why Wrong Way took so long to give us an action-packed battle: it doesn’t really have the budget to actually pull one off. The battle loses a lot of grandeur once it devolves into a sequence of panning and shaking stills. Still, I’ve long since been okay with the so-so- production values because the character work has been so solid.

Once the battle gets going, Rose and Ken advance into the battle area, and he ends up rescuing a number of soldiers, one in particular who was about to be killed. Suzune and Kazuki soon encounter the Black Knight, who is so laid back it had me wondering if they were also from another world. When the soldiers ignore Suzune’s orders to hold back, they pay dearly, as the damage caused by their strikes ends up reflected back upon them.

While Suzune and Kazuki seem to be doing okay in the heat of battle, it’s clear Ken is having a lot more difficulty. He even ends up in the same situation as the soldier he saved, about to be skewered by a demon foot soldier, only to be rescued by that very same soldier! I like the fact that the soldier, while perhaps not as strong or fast as Ken, has still seen battle, and so is able to think and act more clearly.

Ken’s vision also becomes clearer once he’s saved by the soldier. Specifically, the vision of Suzune and Kazuki fallen and bloodied at the feet of the Black Knight. He rushes to them as fast as he can, hopeful he won’t be too late. When a slash to the Knight’s back doesn’t heal or reflect, Suzune takes it as a sign they can’t reflect an attack they can’t see coming. Suzune has Kazuki use his light magic to blind and distract while she uses her lightning speed to slip behind the knight and stab them in the throat.

I am, and I cannot stress this enough, NOT COOL with this

But the knight simply chose not to heal their back wound, in order to trick Suzune. They also don’t need to actually say “reflect” to reflect. They reflect Suzune’s attacks, and she ends up with her throat and back slashed open, while Kazuki gets impaled on the knight’s greatsword.

It’s an exact recreation of Ken’s horrific vision, but hopefully Ken can get to them before they bleed out. Not only that, there’s a chance he just be the one who can actually harm the unharmable Black Knight … perhaps by , say, using healing magic the “wrong” way?

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 09 – Staying the Person They Admired

If only she’d stayed a little closer to her team, Rose might have been able to heal some of them. Instead, Nero is able to lure her farther away. And while both Aul and the others are able to fight Nero’s subordinates to a stalemate that earns them Nero’s praise, once he uses his cursed sword to compel his people to fight without regard for their lives, Rose’s people start falling one after the other.

The episode doesn’t spare the brutality of the ensuing bloodbath, as the knights call for Rose to heal them. Alas, when her eye is struck by the cursed sword, her healing magic has no effect, and her mana is drained. She can’t make it in time to save anyone, but Aul makes it in time to save her, at the cost of her own life.

Rose lashes out in rage and beats the hell out of Nero before throwing his own cursed sword into his shoulder. He is not immune to its effects, but he still has one subordinate in reserve: a young, inexperienced, and clearly freaked out Amila. In her face Rose sees Aul’s, and ultimately allows her to escape with her maimed master, though with her wounded foot it’s not like Rose can move much.

With her last strands of life, Aul puts her hand on  Rose’s pained, bloodied face and smiles. She has no regrets, is glad to have been able to fight under Rose, and knows the others felt the same way. She urges Rose to “stay the one they admire,” before breathing her last. Rose, utterly broken, lets out a primal scream.

She does manage to return home with the bodies of all her subordinates, for which the parents of one are grateful. But she asks the king to relieve her of her army command and revoke her knighthood. She refuses to heal her eye, so she never forgets the lives lost under her watch. She spends a month alone in the suddenly empty and silent barracks once so full of life. She even admits to a concerned Siglis that the thought occurred to her that death might not be so bad.

But Rose has no intention of ending the life Aul gave her. It’s only a matter of what to do with it. Visions of her subordinates and Aul appear before her and tell her that if any of them were acting like she did, she’d throttle them and assign them to training from hell. Aul then reminds Rose of what she told her: that everything changes, and you have to accept that and move forward.

Rose allows herself a few more minutes of fragility, and tears, then stands up and walks outside the barracks with renewed purpose and resolve. She’ll honor Aul and the others by creating a new kind of force, one that saves lives and won’t allow anyone on the battlefield to die. She knows she’ll need someone like her who can both heal and fight.

Back in the present, she tells that someone, Usato Ken, how glad she is to have found him, and that he should be mindful of how precious his existence is. As they near his first battlefield, we’ll finally, finally see how her Rescue Team system works, and how the Heroes fare, and whether Ken can save them from a supremely confident Black Knight, not to mention a grown Amila eager to kill Rose.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 08 – The Knights of Summer

Rose is at the reins of the wagon bearing the Rescue Team to the battlefield, and Ken is at her side. He asks about the demons they’re about to engage, and Rose describes them as being essentially really strong humans with horns and more mana.

When she asks if he’s afraid, he implies he’s much more afraid of her. He then says that he originally endured her punishing training simply to “get one over on her.” He expects an angry reaction, but doesn’t get one. Instead, Rose raises her hand to her hidden, ruined eye.

We then go back to five years ago, when she was the Knight Commander of an entire battalion, but also of a small and tight-knit group of elite, possibly misfit knights. Her deputy is Aul (Kohara Konomi), a happy-go-lucky young knight with a personality so much like Ken’s it’s no wonder she took a shine to him so quickly.

Her team of seven knights occupied the same barracks now used as the Rescue Team’s headquarters. And we already know that all of them, including Aul, will eventually die. The series could have started with Rose’s past, but presenting it now adds a layer of melancholy and grim inevitability. No matter how silly these knights act, I was already pre-mourning them because I knew their fate.

Of course, they don’t think they’re doomed, nor does Rose. When they enter the Darkness of Llinger and camp for the night, Aul can’t sleep, and instead joins Rose by the fire and asks her why she chose her as her deputy commander. She ends up essentially answering her own question: Because she was what Rose was looking for in a successor.

Aul was a troublemaker, stubbornly refusing orders she didn’t agree with. She was an immovable object everyone else gave up on, but Rose became the unstoppable force she needed to nuture her potential. She never gave up, and Rose never gave up on her, believes she has what it takes to succeed her as unit commander when the time comes, because as she aptly puts it, “everything changes”.

This is a very moving, intimate scene between Rose and Aul that really does a lot of legwork in terms of making Aul a compelling tragic figure. Kohara Konomi also really gives the role the gravitas it needs while still being silly and hyper when called for. Knowing that night by the fire will probably be the last for everyone but Rose adds to the somber, wistful vibes.

The next day they come across the Demon unit stunning and capturing shock wolves, likely so the mad scientist demon guy can develop stronger monsters. Rose is the first to emerge from the trees and give the Demons a chance to withdraw and avoid conflict. It’s a deal the Demons’ commander won’t take, because now that humans have seen them, they must die.

As soon as Rose puts Aul in charge of leading the other six knights against the rank-and-file demons so she could focus on the leader, my heart sank in my chest, because I knew this was the beginning of the end of her unit.

For those eager to see this series actually give us some action, we finally get some here the end of the episode, as Rose throws everything she’s got at the Demon, who is impressed by her speed and strength. The battle music comes correct here, and there are some flashes of decent combat animation.

He’s so impressed with her tree-hucking ability that he deigns to give her his name—Nero Argence—and deigns to ask for hers. He summons a nasty-looking demon sword and announces that he’ll be killing her now, but Rose nonchalantly cracks her knuckles and tells him she’ll beat the crap out of him before he can.

I certainly didn’t expect the show to suddenly go back in time just when it looked like we’d finally see her, Ken, Suzune and Kazuki in their first real battle. But having watched this flashback unfold, I’m not mad about it, nor am I even mad that it won’t conclude until next week.

Such is the nature of the show’s careful and subtle character work and writing, as well as the fact that Rose is Just the Coolest no matter what timeline we’re in. There will be time to watch Ken, Suzune, and Kazuki do their thing. For now, it’s important to watch Rose’s history unfold, and hope that it won’t be repeated.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 07 – Great Fool of Little Caution

Not five minutes after arriving in the remote but lively Water Kingdom of Maasa, a cloaked young lady approaches Satou, declares herself a big fan, offers him a bouquet … and then kisses him. This is no random girl, but the Maiden of the Water Ring herself, Princess Saphir Maasa.

When Satou looks down at his hand, he sees she’s already given him the Water Ring. Well that was easy! That said, she also throws a number of insults his way for being so wide open that anyone could have approached and married him.

In addition to being the fastest princess to marry Satou, Saphir also differs in her much more haughty attitude, her petite, slender frame, and, oh yes, she has a twin sister, Saphira, to whom Prince Marse made a promise to marry once he became the Ring King.

Saphira despairs that her sister married such a plain-looking man (Satou out here catching strays), while Marse broke his promise. So while there’s no actual drama about Satou gaining the powers of the Water Ring, there’s a whole lot of drama surrounding the family and kingdom he’s married into.

When the Gisaras Empire of which Marse is second prince failed to conquer Maasa with force, they sent him to court Saphira, only they fell genuinely in love. For Marse to return to her having ceded his destined role of Ring King to a stranger form another world, simply because he felt “unworthy”, is the deepest betrayal for Saphira.

There’s other issues: Marse’s undefeated general of a brother, First Prince Sluder, is in Maasa with imperial soldiers with the surface mission of protecting the kingdom from the Abyss, but it’s clear they intend to integrate Maasa into the Empire. Also, the twin sisters’ father’s mind has been overthrown, Theoden-style, by a mysterious Wormtongue-like Oracle.

But enough about all that, let’s have a pool party! Hime, Nef, and Granart show off their bodacious bods, and in a refreshing change of pace there’s no boob comparisons; Saphir isn’t shamed for her elegant slender frame, just her skimpy micro bikini. Why does a kingdom where people dress like ancient Greeks have such modern swimwear? Shhh…don’t worry about it.

The previous night, the Oracle sent assassins to get rid of the Ring King, but Granart took care of them while Satou slept. Also, because she’s a catgirl, she’s just not a fan of the water. Saphir assumes Satou & Co. are pretending to have their guards down, but they’re actually having fun.

And then there’s Marse, who as Satou says, is having a rough go of late. His father and brother haven’t forgiven him for dereliction of duty, but his serving as a imperial spy mitigates that somewhat. When Satou asks why he didn’t become Ring King, Marse’s reasoning is both simple and understandable: he saw Saphira’s face in Hime’s.

Perhaps he didn’t believe he had what it took to take on the Abyss King. But Hime loved Satou just as Saphira loved him, so in that moment he didn’t want to be the one to break Hime’s heart. Now the Oracle issues a new order for him on behalf of the empire that is his one and only home: kill the Ring King and take his rings.

But those orders are flawed, because Marse never believed he was worthy of being the Ring King. He chose Hime’s happiness over his duty before, so I imagine he’ll stand his ground and make the same choice now.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 07 – The Essential Third Wheel

First, the bad news: For those of you hoping the action would get started, you’ll have to wait at least another week. Honestly, I was not one of those people. I’m glad to have as much time with these excellent, endearing characters as possible before the fighting, bleeding, and killing starts (also, there’s no guarantee the fighting will look that good).

Instead, this is a classic CBtS (Calm-Before-the-Storm) episode. Ken is haunted by the fox girl’s vision, but even when Rose returns from her scouting mission, he isn’t able to talk to her about it. Instead, he learns that beastkin who can see the future are incredibly rare and sought-after.

Kazuki and Suzune are summoned to an audience with the King, who informs them that the invasion of the Demon Lord’s army is about to begin. They pass Princess Celia in the hall, but Kazuki is still unable to call her simply “Celia”, which seems to disappoint her. Suzune notices the tension between them, but Kazuki scoffs it off.

That night, when Ken can’t sleep because of the vision of his friends dying, Kazuki pays him a visit, because he can’t sleep either. He admits he’s scared every time he has to face enemies, and terrified about the battles to come. Ken tells him all the comforting and supportive things you’d expect a good kid to say to his friend, and helps Kazuki feel a lot better about tomorrow.

The show has now demonstrated that it can not only give us wonderful scenes of companionship and affection between Ken and Suzune, but Ken and Kazuki as well. Even admitting how scared he is, Ken tells Kazuki he’s still the coolest. Ken also makes clear he’s just as scared, but he’s made up his mind to protect the people who matter to him.

Suzune, who was worried about Kazuki and followed him, overhears everything, and her heart is warmed by their pure bromance. Unlike Kazuki and Ken, Suzune seems eager to get down to business of fulfilling her role as Hero, and says nothing to Ken to disabuse us of that notion. If she’s scared, she doesn’t tell him. Perhaps she’s just that cool … I wouldn’t put it past her!

The next day, the king addresses his army with a motivational speech promising them that the Kingdom of Llinger will prevail thanks to their two Heroes and the Rescue Team. Celia remains in her chambers, looking worried, but Kazuki pays her a visit before he heads off to war tomorrow. He even finally manages to call her “Celia”, and she urges him to return home unharmed. I tellya, I’m loving this budding romance.

Meanwhile, when Ken is summoned to Rose’s room, something that’s never happened before, he’s not sure what to expect. She lectures him not to be clumsy on the battlefield, to know who to heal and when so as not to interrupt the flow of the fighting, and above all, to value his own life.

She also presents him with a gift of sorts: the same gleaming white battle uniform of the Rescue Corps she wears, and which is meant to stand out. While Rose doles out quite a bit of incidental physical abuse this week, there’s a lovely tenderness to the way she cradles his face in her hands.

Ken declares that he’ll protect everyone—including himself—once on the battlefield. Rose told him to keep spouting his ideal, after all, so spout he shall! This puts a smile on Rose’s face: she’s done all could to make him the man he is.

Visions be damned, he knows what he needs to do. He just needs to get out there and do it. I think the fox girl’s vision is of a future where he wasn’t brought to this world along with the Heroes. But he was, and his accidental summoning will be the reason the Heroes survive this world. He’ll survive it too, as long as they stick together.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 06 – Risks and Rewards

Satou wakes up to find Nef in bed with him. She’s there to assure him that his role as Ring King is simply to obtain the rings, and if he can do so without being acknowledged by Granart, that’s okay. He thanks her and gets up to prepare for his training, not so much as giving her a kiss. Meanwhile, Hime overhears catwomen talking about Granart letting the Ring King scrub her body, something she’s not that comfortable hearing.

That’s because while she knows Satou has to gain the Fire Ring and marry Granart in order to defeat the Abyss King, she thinks it’s dumb for him to insist on defeating her in single combat. He wants to do it anyway because he doesn’t want to be looked on as weak or lacking, but his duel with Granart is interrupted by the Abyss Knight, who is possessing a previous suitor’s body.

When the knight summons Abyss monsters, the capable catpeople show off their warrior skills, having never stopped training since the last Abyss war. Granart, however, has more trouble against the knight. Satou insists on helping, not just because she needs the help, but because he wants to show her he’s not as helpless as she thinks. He’s able to get in close enough to use the Wind Ring to blow away the knight’s flames, allowing Granart to disarm him.

Satou strikes the final blow with his Light Ring-enhanced sword, and the crisis is averted. At this point, Granart is impressed enough with Satou and his potential to acknowledge him without a duel between them. But that’s not good enough for Satou.

Hime continues to watch silently, but Nef asks her to cheer for Satou, since he’s doing this for her sake. He confirms this by saying he wants to defeat Granart so he’ll look cool in front of his “most beloved wife.” Hime cheers him on by offering to have sex with him if he wins.

That does the trick, as Satou hears the voices of the Rings inside his head for the first time. Amused by his motivation, they agree to help him out with this fight, without him using the power of the princesses. Just for a moment, he’s able to predict her movement, which is all he needs to get her on the ground. Not only does Granart yield, but she’s so happy to have been defeated by a suitor she’s ready to start babymaking immediately.

Of course, Satou isn’t going to do this. For one thing, he has a “prior engagement.” He and Hime go to the bedroom, but just as they’re about to begin, he falls asleep, exhausted from all the battling he’d just done. Oh well!

When he wakes up with a nude Hime beside him, she jokes by saying he was “amazing yesterday”, but then Nef (also nude) pops up from under the covers to assure him that nothing happened. Granart (also nude) is ready to go too, but all this is interrupted by her attendants announcing that the banquet is ready.

At the banquet, Satou sits surrounded by his three wives. Granart tells him she was happy he wanted to make her acknowledge him rather than compromise. Hime remains uncomfortable, and decides to down a whole cup of wine. Satou takes her back to the bedroom, where she feels they have unfinished business.

But that’s when Satou tells her he’s waiting until they return to his world to take the next step with her “properly.” This comes as a bit of a surprise, since it might be some time before they’re able to do that. Heck, there are two more princesses he needs rings from. Not only that, but Granart (and Nef) both want to sleep with Satou too; not that he would even if he and Hime did it.

In any case, it looks like for the duration of his stay in Hime’s world, he’ll be abstaining from doing the nasty. Considering the situations he’s been in just this week (catnip?!) and is sure to end up in later, preserving his chastity might just end up being more difficult than defeating the Abyss King.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 06 – What Will Come to Pass if He Should Fail

Ken and Suzune are back at the palace with no harm done. Ken lets slip that the situation wasn’t nearly as treacherous as the king and minister might believe due to his training, but then sees Rose glaring and not only holds his tongue, but declares that his training has been hunky-dory, concealing how it’s often been indistinguishable from torture.

Kazuki is also glad to see Ken and Suzune are unharmed from their little excursion, and he and Celia notice how much closer the two of them have gotten of late. Celia also talks about how warm Kazuki’s bond with the other two are, and how happy he seems when they’re around. She asks if he’d “let her in” to that dynamic, starting by calling her simply Celia. We haven’t seen much of these two, but I like their vibes too!

Ken is worried Rose was held behind by the minister to get reamed out for letting two heroes get misplaced, but that isn’t the issue at all. Rather, the king has received reports that suggest the Demon Lord’s Army is on the move once again. He asks Rose to head out and scout their advance. His Majesty also asks if she’ll return to leading troops into battle.

This is when we learn Rose was once a full-fledged general, but allowed all her men (and women) to be killed. She hides a scar with her hair that reminds her daily of the debt she can never repay, though she hopes to forge the ideal healer and successor in Ken, training him to the point he’s able to cheat death indefinitely.

While I wish we’d gotten it by means other than Rose simply spouting information about her backstory, I’m glad to learn more about her, and it only endears her to me more as someone who no longer believes she has the right to fight, only to save and protect.

That said, she still puts a major wrench in the Demon Army’s gears when she destroys a bridge they’re building by throwing a whole damn tree at it. Amila’s hands are already full with the surprisingly willful and apathetic Black Knight, but when she spots Rose and shouts her name, Rose flashes a huge smile before slipping away.

I’ll be honest: I felt like Rose was throwing a lot of death flags this week, from the fact that she left Ken on a dangerous scouting mission without a word to him, only an ominous sealed letter and a map that leads him to the Fleur clinic. There, he meets the one-year-older Ururu.

She lets him watch her brother Orga heal a young child with stomach problems, and Ken is in awe of Orga’s dense, deep green healing magic. Ururu also asks about the Rescue Team members, admitting that she and Orga ultimately couldn’t cut it there, even though Rose had such high hopes for them.

When townsfolk enter the clinic to report an accident that injured three people, Orga puts Ken to work. When Ken’s magic falters due to his lack of confidence, Orga gives him a pep talk that helps him calm down. he remembers what Kazuki told him: he wasn’t worried about him and Suzune because Rose had complete faith in him. So Ken trusts himself, and is able to heal the man’s leg completely.

When Ken leaves, Orga tells Ururu the content of the letter, which I also felt was part of Rose possibly never coming back. Instead, it’s simply a warning to Orga to prepare for war. Ururu, like Ken, has no combat experience, so it’s going to be tough, but as long as the siblings stick together they should be okay.

As for Ken, he doesn’t know it as he buys some fruit for Blurin on the way home, but before long he’ll be on those front lines with Suzune, Kazuki, and Rose. Even if he did know, battle would have all felt very abstract were it not for the catgirl from the market touching his arm and showing him a vision of a bad future, Mirror of Galadriel-style.

She’s showing him what she says only he can see: a future where Suzune and Kazuki fall to the Black Knight. But now that he’s seen this future, he can work to change it. To do so, he must eradicate all remaining fear and doubt in his abilities. For fear, as we know, is the mind-killer.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 05 – Courting the Cat Princess

Hime is in bed with Satou, about to finally consummate their marriage, only to suddenly be swapped out for Nef! It’s only a dream, borne out of the very understandable feelings of anxiety and jealousy that arise when, say, the man you love marries a second woman. Not helping to allay this anxiety is the fact Satou has been very attentive and doting towards Nef since she started traveling with them.

Alabaster suggests they head to the kingdom of the Water Princess, but their next destination rolls up on them instead: the nation of Needakitta, which is a massive caravan of a capital. While I’m not sure about the spacial relationships depicted—being deep in the forest one minute and on an open road large enough to accommodate a mobile city—it’s definitely a cool concept.

Alabaster isn’t the only one who knows about the warrior cat-people who inhabit Needakitta: Nef knows a lot about a lot of peoples and places, because she’s so well-read. And while she’s initially spooked by the rope ladder they must climb to gain access, she soon gets so excited about all the sights that she gets separated from the others.

Fortunately, Hime is right there beside her, and the cat warriors are a lot nicer than they thought. While enjoying the Needakitta equivalent of crepes with what look like bean sprouts with faces, Hime wipes some Nef’s face, and Nef admits that Hime and Satou are so kind she’s come to think of them as her surrogate parents.

Not just well-read but also emotionally intelligent, Nef also apologizes for hogging Satou’s attention lately. Hime can shrug it off all she wants, but Nef knows it affects Hime because of the depth of her bond with Satou. Nef doesn’t feel anything close to that depth of feeling for Satou, at least not yet, and wonders if that will hamper him as the Ring King.

As for the Maiden of the Fire Ring, she’s the stunningly strong and beautiful Granart Needakitta. After she’s beaten every man (and maybe a few women) in the mobile capital, she’s been accepting challengers from all races and nations. As soon as she spots Satou’s rings she charges him and he’s defeated instantly. But Granart is magnanimous enough to allow him to try again another day.

In order to prepare for his next bout with the Fire Princess, Satou must do his best to get stronger. However, while a quick learner, he’s rather rubbish at the sword (a pity he never did kendo at school), as he’s unable to beat Marse, who admits he wouldn’t even be able to beat Granart. He got by wildly hacking at Abyss monsters, but that won’t work against a skilled swordsman.

While Satou is resting before his magic lessons with Al, Hime has him rest his head in her lap to motivate him, while Nef watches from a hiding spot. She also tells him that it’s fine with her if he’s not the strongest human being in this world. The Satou she loves because of his weaknesses as much as his strengths, and she feels it only right for him to be “a little uncool.”

Satou doesn’t want to settle for being too weak, as evidenced when Granart offers to throw her next match while he’s giving her a impromptu massage. Satou wants to win fair and square, if not with his woeful swordsmanship, than with the Rings of Light and Wind. Just as he was able to defeat a knight of the Abyss King with Hime and Nef’s power, he should be able to handle Granart.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 05 – The Place We’ve Made for Ourselves

The Wrong Way is drawing and keeping my interest the right way: by focusing on its lovable, relatable characters. I’d been looking forward to Ken and Suzune going on an adventure together all week, and I was not disappointed. Suzune is as excited as I am, not just to hang out with Ken, but for an opportunity to pet Blurin—even if carrying him is out of the question!

The pair are accompanied by a royal guard and a mage, but it’s the Ken and Suzune show. When eight bandits appear, her face is glowing with delight, and she makes quick work of them with her electricity before their escorts can even spring into action. Unfortunately, all the ruckus stirs up a herd of boars, and Suzune and Ken are sent flying.

Being separated from their escort and isolated in the forest with no food might’ve been a problem for these two in their original world. But between the fact Ken was just here and learned how to live off the land and Suzune’s ability to easily zap fish and make a fire, all that’s left to do is wait until morning … and also talk about how things are going.

Suzune makes clear she’s glad to be in this new world, because it’s given her the freedom she always dreamed of. Ken knows that much, and while she’s still troubled by the fact he was summoned here against his will, he assures her that he sought a more interesting life, and is proud of the strength he’s gained. In that regard, he considers them the same.

When she compliments him on becoming so reliable, he returns the favor by saying she’s become more “human” to him: no longer the school idol atop a pedestal, admired from afar. Suzune likes that Ken feels this way, because she’d much rather be “closer” to him than that. When he hears this, Ken blushes, and Suzune messes with him a little more before letting him sleep while she keeps watch.

In the morning the two get the feeling a vicious beast is lurking in the trees, but it turns out to be Blurin, who followed their scent there. The bear then locates the den where his parents were killed, but doesn’t intend to linger: like Suzune and Ken, he knows where he belongs.

While it didn’t feature any fights with the demon king’s underlings and amounted to little more than a one-night camping trip, I came away from it more than satisfied with all the sweet Suzune-and-Ken time we got. They’re just such good kids, it’s so heartwarming watching them interact, and it was great to see them grow closer.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 04 – Those Who Can Do, Teach

Tsukimichi brings the focus back on Makoto this week as he and Shiki finally arrive in Rotsgard. When they encounter a group of guys in academy uniforms seemingly pestering a young lady, Shiki teaches them a lesson. The woman with aqua hair didn’t ask for help, but she extends an open invite to the restaurant where she works as a waitress.

Makoto thought he’d be taking the student entrance exam for the academy, but the paperwork from Rembrandt indicates he’ll be taking the teacher’s exam. Chalk it up to Morris needing reading glasses, but considering how OP Makoto is, perhaps a teacher is the more appropriate position. Like in the plaza, Shiki is quick to perceive Hyuman slights and rudeness, greatly aging the first employee they encounter; the second one is more cordial.

Makoto and four others are teleported to the test grounds, where they must collect three of one of three colored orbs within three days to pass the exam. This leaves us alone with Makoto as he troubleshoots and monologues. The red orb can only be neutralized and captured with a physical attack, the blue with a magic attack, and the yellow with a ranged attack. But because Makoto is so OP his initial attempts to collect the orbs only end up shattering them.

Over the next couple days he eventually finds the right sweet spot between too strong an attack and too weak an attack, but on the morning of his third day he’s attacked by an assassin. The assassin is no match for him, but was able to make the other three examinees drop out. After breaking his poison dagger with his bare hand (he’s immune to poison), Makoto paralyzes the assassin and kicks him into the stratosphere.

The red orb turns out to be the toughest to capture until Makoto realizes he can use the simple, non-magical knife he borrowed to prepare fish to eat. Once he has a red, blue, and yellow orb, he returns to the academy, where the proctor is gobsmacked. Examinees were expected to collect three of the type of orb that best matched their skills; no one has ever come back with all three types.

Makoto’s misunderstanding made his exam a lot more difficult than it needed to be, and by the end even though the test area was paradise compared to the wastelands he had grown quite sick of it. But thanks to his impressive performance, he is hired as a temporary instructor, and that appears to attract the attention of a certain bespectacled lady.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 04 – New Wife, New Strife

With Jade forbidding Satou from marrying Nef, Alabaster suggests they depart for now. The Abyss King’s forces are massing and time is of the essence: Satou needs to collect them most rings as efficiently as possible. They can always come back and try again. Satou doesn’t like it, but defers to Alabaster’s reasoning.

But then an Abyss Knight opens a hole in the barrier large enough for his minions to flow through, and just like that Jade’s status quo is off the table. He tries his best to fight the Knight, but is woefully underpowered. When Satou tries to fight with just the Light Ring, it’s not enough, even with Alabaster, Marse, and the Elder supporting him.

Hime hates how she’s not enough on her own to provide the Ring King with sufficient power to defeat a Abyss Knight, but she hurries to Nef’s room and explains the situation. Satou isn’t putting his life on the line because it’s his duty as Ring King; he’s trying to protect Nef’s home. But he can only succeed if Nef inherits the ring and marries him.

Hime returns to the battle with Nef, both of them brandishing a giant warhammer they use to smash her petrified parents and free the wind rings. Nef dons her ring, then leaps onto Satou, kisses him, and slips the ring on his hand. While the wind barrier falls, with the power of light and wind Satou is able to destroy all of the minions and defeat the Abyss Knight.

He comes to flanked by his two wives, and soon meets Smaragdi, Nef’s aunt who left the village. Turns out the Abyss King used a black wind ring to trick her into becoming one of his knights, and Satou freed her. His reward is an awkward bath in the village’s healing springs, where Nef and the Elder almost convince Hime to make love to Satou right in front of them.

As for Smaragdi’s human lover of fifty years ago, it was Alabaster! He returns to her a necklace she gave him back then, but lies and says her lover is somewhere far away living comfortably. Either Alabaster feels he’s too old (despite Smaragdi being far older), or he’s too busy accompanying the Ring King to rekindle their romance.

Jade finally grows up and sees Nef off with a hug, and Nef joins Satou’s party as his second wife, a fact both Hime and Satou will probably continue to struggle with. On to the next princess!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 04 – Something Stronger than Fear

After the forest ordeal that led to Ken gaining a blue grizzly cub sidekick, Rose doesn’t sugarcoat her plans for him: he’ll be joining her in the vanguard of the coming war against the Demon Lord’s army, healing the wounded on the front lines.

The first battle will be led by Amila, who knows, fears, and hates Rose, but will be delegating the actual fighting to the faceless Black Knight. There’s also a demon mad scientist named Hyriluk, who developed the giant snake Ken and Rose fought, and has developed a stronger one.

Rose urges Ken to steel himself for the duties that await him, but she does at least let him sleep in a real bed. And while he was once annoyed by his roommate Tong’s snoring, now he finds it comforting. The next day, Rose has Ken run an obstacle course with Blurin (his bear) on his back, simulating the act of carrying a wounded soldier through the hell of battle.

Tong and the other non-healing members of the Resuce Team are all too happy to provide the hell, and after about four hours. Ken finally reaches his limit and collapses earlier than he expected. Rose tells him that’s due to the added stress of a combat zone, something he’ll have to overcome.

Next, Ken runs through the town with Blurin on his back, a sight that would be cause for concern among the townsfolk if he weren’t wearing the familiar garb of the Rescue Team. Everyone assumes there’s a good reason he has a blue bear on his back.

Ken, whom we know to be an extremely Good Guy, has a wholesome interaction with a grocer who offers him a free peffle (one of the tasty tomatillo-looking fruits of this world). He promises to return, which is when I imagine he’ll meet the fox-eared girl featured in the OP.

As Ken heads to the castle to visit Suzune and Kazuki, a flustered young man in a lab coat chases after him and soon falls behind. Ken eventually notices him and stops. Turns out this man is Orga Fleur, who along with his younger sister Ururu are the two other Healers in the Rescue Team.

Orga is appreciative of Ken’s healing, as he’s not as good at healing himself as he is others. He explains that in battles he and Ururu stay in the rear as supporters. When Ken asks what’s rattling around in his head—can he really be in the vanguard—Orga trusts Rose’s faith in him.

When Ken reaches the castle gates, he’s pleasantly surprised that Blurin, technically a monster, is allowed to pass along with him, as Rose vouched for him. Kazuki is out in the woods training with Sir Siglis (mentioned by name by Hyriluk as a human to watch out for), but Suzune is there, and overjoyed to see Ken.

Suzune is super excited to pet Blurin, but even when the bear rejects her with a rude swipe, she still “savors the feel of his toe beans.” Then Ken sees the callouses on her hand, takes it in his, and heals it, making her blush. When she asks if he came to see her, Ken says he came to see her and Kazuki. It’s clear Suzune wouldn’t mind being considered special to him … clear to anyone but Ken!

Visiting Suzune, seeing her callouses, and hearing that Kazuki is also training hard is ultimately what steels Ken for the battle to come, not all the running around with Blurin. Back home all he could do was admire people like them, who could do things he couldn’t. But in this world, there’s plenty he can do to support them. He can literally be the Heroes’ hero.

That night he spots Rose gazing at the moon and tells her while he initially feared the battlefield, his desire to save Suzune and Kazuki is stronger than that fear. Rose smiles, for this is exactly what she wanted to hear from her presumptive heir, and gives him a gentle punch to the chest, declaring him an official member of the Rescue Team.

The next morning, she surprises him with a mission: he’ll be joining Hero Suzune’s training outside the castle. Both Ken and Suzune are such cute and fun characters to watch, and their chemistry is so strong, their finally teaming up is something I’m very much looking forward to!