Kamisama Kazoku – 12

Summary:
Shinichi tells Samatarou that the two classmates who didn’t show up yesterday actually attempted suicide. Ai then recounts how long ago she had the same dream as everyone else, with the girl in the red dress motioning her over. Shinichi remembers that when they went to the water park, Kumiko had shown up in a red dress. This causes Samatarou to start wondering if Tenko wasn’t lying about Kumiko being a demon. Worried about Tenko, he rushes back to school. Along the way, he realizes that Kumiko isn’t the one important to him – Tenko is. But when he gets to the schoolyard, Tenko is nowhere to be found. To his relief, her chibi form appears and she seems to be fine. Shinichi notices that Samatarou is actually crying, but Samatarou quickly wipes the tears away. In class, Kumiko tells Samatarou that she’s got something important to tell him, so she asks to see him later in the school infirmary. Samatarou agrees because he also has something important to say to her. He then notices that Tenko is as energetic as ever when she waves at a passing helicopter like a little kid. While their teacher is calling roll, Samatarou intentionally tells Tenko that he’s going to see Kumiko after class.
When Samatarou arrives at the infirmary, he finds Kumiko already waiting for him. At her urging, he says his important thing first: he wants to break up. He’s been worried about Tenko and can’t seem to get her out of his head. Kumiko asks if he likes Tenko, but Samatarou doesn’t really know. He does know that it’s no good for him to go out with Kumiko in this condition. Samatarou bows his head and begs her to split with him, causing Kumiko to start laughing. She understands and agrees to their split. As for the important thing Kumiko had to say, she claims to need his help. More specifically, she wants Samatarou, the son of a god, to help her, the daughter of a demon. Samatarou starts freaking out that his secret has been exposed, but then quickly realizes that this must mean that Kumiko really is a demon. She admits that her mother is a demon and, being the daughter, so is she. Her mother had told her that she needed to consume human life in order to be healthy and from that day forward, her mother had aged rapidly. In order to help her mother, Kumiko was willing to go into people’s dreams, going after the people with weak minds, collecting their souls, and feeding them to her mother. Kumiko thought that her mother could be healthy forever if she kept this up.
But gradually Kumiko became disgusted by the cruel things she was doing. Her mother told her that to end all this, all Kumiko needed to do was to get Samatarou’s soul. With such a strong soul, she wouldn’t need human souls anymore. The problem was that Kumiko actually did fall in love with Samatarou in the process. Their date yesterday started out as part of a strategy, but Kumiko realized how much she really liked him. She knows that she’s now been rejected and wipes away some tears. Kumiko then tells of how she went to take the souls of their classmates last night but was not able to. And after her failure, she was seen by Tenko. Earlier that morning, when Tenko asked her about being a demon, Kumiko had confirmed it in a friendly voice. She had asked Tenko to keep it a secret from Samatarou so that she could tell him herself. Crying now, Kumiko apologizes for bringing this up at such a bad time. When Samatarou doesn’t understand what she means by bad time, Kumiko explains that it’s bad because Tenko is returning to heaven. She figures out too late that Samatarou hadn’t heard about this yet. With a stern look on his face, Samatarou pushes her onto the bed.
It’s at this exact moment that Kumiko’s mother breaks the window of the infirmary and flies in. Kumiko’s mother explains that although she didn’t get any souls, the large amount of nightmares shown to all of Kumiko’s classmates made for good nourishment. Even the suicide attempts gave her enough power to blow up a nearby factory. What’s more, the whole aging thing was just an act so that Kumiko would cooperate because she knows that Kumiko is weak in terms of her emotions. Samatarou tries to stand up to Kumiko’s mother, but she just blows him into the wall. He then tries to run away with Kumiko, but her mother blocks their path. By chance, Tenko opens the door and comes in. She notices too late that the woman she knows as Fumiko is standing right beside her, and her head is directly under Fumiko’s scythe. Samatarou tries to get her to run, but Tenko doesn’t move. Fumiko asks if Samatarou wants to experience the feelings of having the person he loves die. Both Samatarou and Tenko try to deny that they love each other, but Fumiko doesn’t care and prepares to swing.
Just as she’s bringing the scythe down, Suguru’s voice tells “Fu-san” to wait. Tenko slinks away after the blade ended up in the ground, just inches from her head. Fumiko recognizes Suguru’s voice as “Su-san.” Suguru tells her that her movements are as beautiful as usual, and it seems the two haven’t seen each other in about a hundred years. Fumiko backs off, saying that it can’t be helped – if Su-san gives a pardon, she’ll leave. However, she warns Samatarou and Tenko that the next time they meet, she’ll kill them. As a parting gift, she slashes in Tenko’s direction, causing Tenko to get thrown back with a wound to the arm. While everyone is worried about Tenko, Fumiko disappears. Samatarou ends up carrying Tenko home – what he specifically calls her home – followed by both Suguru and Kumiko. The thought of her home makes Tenko start to cry. When they get there, Samatarou takes Tenko to her room and puts her in bed. Samatarou blames himself for what happened, but Tenko thinks he’s talking like she died. When he asks her why she didn’t run away, she surprises him by answering that she wanted to get closer to him. Samatarou then admits that he broke up with Kumiko. In thinking about who is most important to him, Tenko kept floating through his head. Tenko gives him a smile, but then she closes her eyes and her body goes limp.
Samatarou freaks out because he thinks that she died, but Mama-san comes in and knocks some sense into him. Mama-san says that angels don’t die like this; they are surprisingly tenacious. She promises to heal Tenko and makes Samatarou leave the room. Before he goes, Samatarou wonders if she’s going to heal Tenko with her goddess powers, but Mama-san says that she’ll be using a mother’s love. Downstairs, Samatarou has a discussion with his sisters and Kumiko about the current situation. Samatarou thinks that they should get Papa-san’s help, but Meme says that it’s no good. The door to heaven in their closet is gone. Chibi Samatarou then tries to call out to his father but gets no response. Kumiko thinks that her mother is definitely obstructing them in this sense. She stands up and apologizes because she feels that all of this trouble and Tenko’s wound is her fault. She tries to walk away, but Mama-san appears and makes her sit down again. Mama-san says that she hates girls who get near her Samatarou, but if Kumiko is truly troubled, they can’t not help her. This is a god’s house, so when someone comes wanting to be helped, they’ll help. These words cause Kumiko to start crying, which turns into bawling after she’s embraced by Mama-san.
Later that night, Samatarou visits Tenko’s room again. She’s awake, but she doesn’t want his kindness. She admits that she’s going back to Heaven, but Samatarou had already heard from Kumiko. She thinks he’s being kind to her because he knew and that he really doesn’t need her. Samatarou uses his hand to close her eyes and suggests that she get some sleep. As she falls asleep, Tenko says that even if he doesn’t like her, she wants him to say that he needs her. With Tenko now asleep, Samatarou walks back over to her bedside and kneels down to kiss her.

Preview:

So, Kumiko really isn’t evil, just her mother is!
I was wondering how this was going to work out since I knew that Kumiko appears with Tenko on the cover of volume six of the novels, so either she really wasn’t evil or they converted her over to the good side. Turns out to be the former.
It’s very interesting that Suguru and Fumiko are so well acquainted with each other that they call each other by “Fu-san” and “Su-san.” Even more interesting that Fumiko backed off because of Suguru. Combine that with the fact that it was Suguru who tried to convince Tenko that seeing Kumiko last night was a dream and the fact that Suguru is the one making Tenko go back to heaven – I can’t help but think that there’s something very fishy about him. Still, I can’t see him becoming a bad guy (it’s hard to hate a piggy bank), so maybe Fumiko just knows how powerful Suguru the archangel really is. There is of course still the issue of Tenko having to return to heaven and how that will be resolved (among other things). I guess we’ll have to wait till next week to find out. And speaking of which, next week is the final episode! Should be a good one. 🙂
As a side note, I think Kumiko should keep her red eyes out all the time since it makes her look so much cooler.