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 – 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.

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.

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!