Nabari no Ou – 08

「伝わる心」 (Tsutawaru Kokoro)
“Inherited Spirit”

Some time ago, Yae was crying over the body of her daughter, Alisa, and with the kinjutsu in her hand, swore to avenge her. Back in the present, Yae and Miharu are waiting in the parking lot, where Yae reads Miharu’s mind and realizes that he’s worried about not telling Kumohira about Yoite. After the two of them discuss about how Miharu always tries to resolve things on his own and how things are different on the surface/underneath, Yae tells Miharu that it’s okay to go find Kumohira. She also asks Miharu to tell Kumohira that if he fails, she plans to read all his memories.

Having been ordered to simply patrol the area, Yukimi and Yoite are loitering around instead when they notice Miharu running by. Meanwhile, Kumohira has made it to the room where Frosty is and begins an assassination attempt. While he realizes there’s a possiblity that the one in this room is a fake, he decides to act anyway, but not before asking for forgiveness from Asahi for killing as a ninja of the Nabari world, even though it’s not for her the sake of her son, Miharu. After using a flashbang grenade to blind everyone, Kumohira is about to kill Frosty, but is stopped by Yoite’s Kira. Seeing that they have Miharu hostage, Kumohira is forced to stop his advances, while Frosty and his bodyguards leave the room. With Yukimi busy talking to Kumohira, Yoite whispers to Miharu that the Kairoushuu are close to locating the whereabouts of the Kouga, whereas Miharu tells him that they’re get the Togakushi kinjutsusho in exchange for assassinating Frosty. Miharu asks if he should give it to him once he gets it and Yoite says that would be good, since they already have two of them.

Yukimi notices that Kouichi and Raimei aren’t around, but Nowake decides to leave with Frosty and the others anyway, so he tells Yoite to go along with them. When Yoite refuses, Yukimi notices that Miharu’s already back with Kumohira, who’s worried with how to deal with Yoite. After a bit of a back and forth exchange, Miharu stands in the way, claiming they won’t kill him while he has the Shinrabanshou.

Back in the parking lot, Yae notices that Frosty is about to leave the building, but he falls to his knees trembling in fear. Reminded of the lie that Nowake told her before about possibly saving her daughter with a new treatment, Yae drags Nowake out of the car, who has no recollection of who she is. As it turns out, Nowake had used her daughter as a human experiment in order to get a promotion from Frosty in the past. Nowake thinks that she would’ve died anyway, so he tells her it was needed for clinical data, but Yae already knows he doesn’t have an ounce of guilt regarding what he did. Laughing sadistically, she tells him that Frosty will die here and that he’ll be put at fault for it.

During this time, Kumohira, Miharu, Yukimi, and Yoite have all arrived and Katou tries to ambush Yoite, but fails to do so. In his place, Yae intercepts Yoite and starts using his inner thoughts about no longer wanting to exist against him, which causes Yoite to lose himself and start attacking spontaneously, killing all of Frosty’s bodyguards in the process. Yukimi however, notices that Yae used the Idzuna Shingan, making her a key person of Togakushi, so he tells Yoite not to kill her. Unable to restrain himself, Yoite is about to kill Yae, but Miharu screams for him to stop and manages to block his attack. Yoite is completely traumatized at this point, so Kumohira tells Yae to stop playing with people’s memories.

Yae then decides to kill Frosty herself, saying she’ll explain everything later; however, Kumohira soon realizes that he’s the one with memories that he doesn’t want to reveal and has no right to judge Yae, so he moves in to kill Frosty. When Frosty begs for his life though, Kumohira hesitates and is about to get shot for showing some compassion, but Kouichi appears and shoots Frosty first. With Frosty dead, Yukimi and Yoite decide to leave. Kouichi sees Kumohira trembling in fear after the ordeal, so he tells him that he’ll use the genjutsu on Nowake instead. With his genjutsu, Kouichi alters Nowake’s memories, making him take the blame for Frosty’s death, and places the gun in his hand after wiping it of his own fingerprints. Yae on the other hand is sadistically pleased at this outcome.

Nowake is later arrested and everyone has gathered outside. Kumohira is still reflecting on what happened, but Kouichi is just glad everything went well. Kouichi also asks Yae for the kinjutsusho as promised and she says she’ll bring it on the settled date, but Katou says that’s not necessary. He reveals that the scroll he’s been carrying is the real thing and not a replica, which surprises Yae since she doesn’t understand how he was able to hide that from her. Kotarou then shows up, explaining that Katou is a spy from Fuuma who was dispatched a year ago and spent the last six months in Togakushi. Katou is also able to use an anti-mind reading (アンチ読心術) technique that Kotarou developed. Feeling bad that he deceived her all this time, Katou apologizes and says that not everything in his mind that she’s read is a lie, before him and Kotarou both leave with the kinjutsusho.

Miharu and the others see Yae off at the train station, where she says she’ll never use the Idzuna Shingan again. Believing she dragged a lot of people into her revenge, she later tells her Togakushi ninjas that she doesn’t plan to come back, but all her employees think she’s just joking around and anticipate her return. Hearing this, Yae is moved to tears.

Next Episode:
「前奏曲」 (Zensoukyoku)
“Prelude”

Impressions:
Ah, the face of revenge. It’s never a pleasant one is it? Regardless, I guess this explains why Yae was so emotionally angered last episode when she mentioned that Frosty’s company performs experiments on humans. While I originally thought her motives were to protect the life of her daughter, the beginning of this episode quickly changed that impression. Given how the Idzuna Shingan kinjutsusho has been acquired now, I wonder if we’ll see much more of Yae in the future. I’d personally like to see more of her, but it’s hard to say if they’ll pull her back into the main story anytime soon.

There was finally some action this time around, but after skimming part of this volume in the manga, it seems like they removed any injuries Kumohira and Yukimi sustained from fighting one another. In fact, the two of them didn’t really fight much at all. Miharu still hasn’t shown any signs of ninjutsu, but he did throw an ashtray at Yoite’s feet. On Kumohira’s original attempt to kill Frosty, it was interesting to find out that he made a vow to Miharu’s mother, Asahi. I actually found this revelation pretty key, since it explains why he’s so protective of Miharu and why his way of the ninja involves not killing anyone or getting anyone killed. After Kouichi saved him, he did realize how naive he still is though, so I guess Kumohira’s character development is an important one to keep an eye on. Kouichi on the other hand is probably the most “together” of the group, but I get the feeling he’s also hiding something. Also, note that he used genjutsu, a magic-like technique, on Nowake and not a Geass. ^_^

I had a hunch there was more to Katou than it seemed, but I didn’t foresee him as a spy working for Kotarou. It seems like our Fuuma leader really does plan well in advance, which makes him seem like quite the tactical leader to me. As for Katou himself, he did try to tell Yae that his feelings for her were genuine, so I felt a bit sorry for him when she wouldn’t hear him out. I imagine it must have been tough on him these past six months, being torn between his mission and his feelings.

Next time, it looks like we’re going to see what Raimei’s been up to since she left.

Cast:
– Rokujou Miharu (六条 壬晴) / Kugimiya Rie (釘宮 理恵)
– Yoite (宵風) / Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀 みつき)
– Kumohira Thobari Durandal (雲平・帷・デュランダル) / Namikawa Daisuke (浪川 大輔)
– Aizawa Kouichi (相澤 虹一) / Hino Satoshi (日野 聡)
– Yukimi Kazuhiko (雪見 和彦) / Tsuda Kenjirou (津田 健次郎)
– Fuuma Kotarou (風魔 小太郎) / Okiayu Ryoutarou (置鮎 龍太郎)
– Oda Yae (織田 八重) / Yukino Satsuki (雪野 五月)
– Katou Sourou (加藤 候) / Kakihara Tetsuya (柿原 徹也)
– Nowake Hideo (野分 英生) / Yamazaki Takumi (山崎 たくみ)
– Eugene Frosty (ユージン・フロスティ) / Kano Takehiko (假野 剛彦)
– Fog Blue employee (フォグブルー社員) / Souma Yukito (相馬 幸人)
– Bodyguard (ボディガード) / Kuriyama Kouichi (栗山 浩一)
– Bodyguard (ボディガード) / Toriumi Katsumi (鳥海 勝美)
– Chauffeur (運転手) / Kuwabara Keiichi (桑原 敬一)