Nabari no Ou – 25

「二人」 (Futari)
“Two People”

Episode at a Glance:
In a panicking mess after killing Hattori, Yoite apologizes repeatedly but ends up ripping the Kairoushuu leader’s lifeless body to shreds with his berserk Kira. Feeling that he can’t make himself disappear, Yoite is about to kill himself, so Raimei tearfully calls out for Miharu to help him. Seeing that Miharu isn’t responding, Yae uses her Idzuna Shingan on him and finds out that he wants to be left along after being deceived for so long. The Shinrabanshou appears reiterating that thought and convinces Miharu to use her powers. Yoite is hesitating during this time, so Ichiki sends Hyou and Shigure to finish him off, but Yukimi stands in their way proclaiming that their leader is already dead. Yukimi ends up getting wounded for interferring, but manages to make his way over to Yoite and tells him that he has to live on, before collapsing in a pool of blood. Despite Yae’s protests, the Shinrabanshou releases its powers, causing Miharu to grow to gigantic proportions and leaving Ichiki wondering what she’s supposed to do now without Hattori. However, Asahi appears within Miharu’s mind asking him to forget everything and apologizing for burdening him with Nabari affairs. In response, the Shinrabanshou tries to stop Asahi but fails to do so, after which Miharu surpresses the hijitsu like his mother asked.

Waking up in a hospital, Miharu tries to leave, but Kumohira tells him to rest and that Kouichi is currently looking into Yoite’s whereabouts after he suddenly disappeared. Raimei then shows up and reveals that Miharu’s been in bed for the past five days. Out in the hallway, Kotarou amusingly shows Kumohira the Kairoushuu’s cover up for the incident, which they claim was an earthquake that resulted in no casualties. The Fuuma leader also bugs Kumohira about how painful it must be revealing the Engetsurin that he’s been hiding all this time. In Miharu’s room, Gau and Raimei bring him some food, prompting him to say they don’t have to be nice to him and can hate him for getting Raikou killed. Hearing this, Raimei slaps Miharu and tells him that there were lots of reasons why Raikou died, but that she nor Raikou would’ve wanted him to bear all the responsibility. Raimei then storms off, with Gau telling Miharu that he would’ve hit him if she didn’t. Meanwhile, Kotarou is still bugging Kumohira about what he’s going to do now that this “game” is over, adding that there’s no guarantee he’ll participate in the next one. Well aware that the Shinrabanshou still remains within Miharu, Kumohira gets annoyed and questions what the Fuuma leader is expecting. Dodging the question, Kotarou says he’ll just observe for now, so Kumohira leaves and chooses not to tell him where he’s headed.

Convinced that Yoite is still alive, Kumohira stops by Yukimi’s hospital room and asks him for his help, but the heavily injured Kairoushuu simply tells him to get out. He then meets with Kouichi, who’s figured out Yoite’s real name, but doesn’t have any other leads at the moment. Yukimi then comes along with Kazeho and provides them with the information Hattori gave him on Yoite long ago, adding that he’s counting on them to help the Kira user. Some time later back at the hospital, Juuji tells Miharu that he’s mostly recovered, making him hope he’ll be discharged soon. Kumohira then arrives, telling him that they believe they know where Yoite is and explains that he felt it was his duty to protect Miharu from those who sought to use his powers, after making a promise to Asahi and his grandfather. However, he tells Miharu that he’s decided to let him handle everything himself if he’s prepared to do so. Hearing this, Miharu questions if that’s why he used the Engetsurin on him, which Kumohira acknowledges. Miharu wonders if this means he’s free to use the Shinrabanshou now then, prompting Kumohira to say that it can’t be helped if it happens, even though he still doesn’t want him to. While that’s the case, Kumohira reveals that he’ll still try to stop Miharu if he does, even if he doesn’t have the power to do so. Figuring that this isn’t any different from before, Miharu proposes a condition.

Miharu later leaves the hospital and asks Raimei to let him go alone after running into her and Gau. Figuring that he’s leaving to find Yoite, Raimei agrees to let him go alone, but not before getting Miharu to promise to return with Yoite. On the train, Kotarou suddenly shows up asking to sit next to Miharu, saying he’ll tell him about how his mother’s life was snatched away by the separation jutsu. Miharu refuses though, saying there’s no point in hearing it now, which annoys Kotarou because Asahi apparently acted the same way. Upset about not being able to get the Shinrabanshou before, Kotarou reveals that he convinced Asahi to join Fuuma before, but she ended up joining Banten instead. He adds that he still wants the Shinrabanshou like he mentioned before, claiming that he’s similar to Hattori—in terms of ambitions as well. Instead of wanting to revert the world to a uniform state though, Kotarou wants to see how the world changes with the Shinrabanshou, without his involvement. Hearing how he’s willing to do anything to see this happen, Miharu figures it means he can do as he pleases. The two of them then reach their stop and Kotarou suddenly disappears, but Miharu suspects that he’s still around. Using a map given to him by Kumohira, Miharu makes his way to a church, a place that Yoite (Sora) used to feel at ease away from his parents. Inside, Miharu finds Yoite sitting on a bench.

 

Next Episode:
「心紡いで」 (Kokoro Tsumuide)
“Spinning Heart”

Impressions:
Wow, I almost thought they were going to kill off Yukimi during the fallout of everything, but I was glad to see that he survived. On that note, if there was any doubt that Hattori was killed last time, watching his body ripped to shreds from Yoite’s berserk Kira pretty much settles that. While I can’t say for sure what the Shinrabanshou was going to make Miharu do after growing to gigantic proportions, the real question is how Asahi is still connected to the Shinrabanshou and how she’s able to surpress the mighty hijutsu’s powers. If I were to make a speculation, I’d say that the transfer technique Kumohira used on Asahi years ago failed, but somehow kept her connected to the Shinrabanshou.

As for Kotarou, I still find he’s twisted in his own way (especially seeing how amused he was about Kairoushuu’s cover up of the incident), but at least his type of ambition differs greatly from Hattori’s. Regardless, I was still happy to see Kumohira tell Kotarou off after he was literally in his face about everything. It was also nice to see Miharu get under the Fuuma leader’s skin as well, when he refused to listen to his explanations regarding how his mother’s life was snatched away by the separation jutsu (which is what my speculation above is based on). So as it turns out, while Hattori tried to change the world into some uniform order, Kotarou was interested in seeing how mankind can advance/evolve with the Shinrabanshou. He’s still goofy in his usual way, but is dead serious about wanting to see how mankind handles the hijutsu (for better or worse) without getting involved himself. I guess this explains why he was overjoyed to see Miharu going berserk earlier and didn’t care to help in the slightest.

Overall, this episode was really anti-climactic compared to the last one, so it looks like we’re well into the epilogue phase of the series. There’s still the lingering issue with Miharu and Yoite, but it looks like they’ll devote the entire final episode to that. Personally, I don’t mind that they’ve decided to allocate two episodes for “wrap up”, given how amazingly awesome the last episode was. In fact, I find that doing so helps emphasize the character interactions that I found so appealing about this series to begin with. This episode was a prime example of that, with everyone confused as to what they should do in the aftermath of the Shinrabanshou’s awakening. Members from Fuuma, Banten, and Kairoushuu no longer have the will to fight one another anymore and all seem to be trying to find their own paths from here on.

With that said, I really like how they chose to leave the narration out for the preview, which makes the next episode come off terribly depressing due to the music, but gives me hope that there will be a bright side to everything in the end.

 

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)
– Shimizu Raimei (清水 雷鳴) / Fujimura Ayumi (藤村 歩)
– Yukimi Kazuhiko (雪見 和彦) / Tsuda Kenjirou (津田 健次郎)
– Oda Yae (織田 八重) / Yukino Satsuki (雪野 五月)
– Fuuma Kotarou (風魔 小太郎) / Okiayu Ryoutarou (置鮎 龍太郎)
– Saraba (サラバ) / Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Minami Juuji (南 十字) / Koyama Kimiko (こやま きみこ)
– Katou Sourou (加藤 候) / Kakihara Tetsuya (柿原 徹也)
– Shinrabanshou (森羅万象) / Tamura Yukari (田村 ゆかり)
– Hattori Toujuurou (服部 柊十郎) / Nakata Jouji (中田 譲治)
– Ichiki (一季) / Amano Yuri (天野 由梨)
– Meguro Gau (目黒 俄雨) / Okamoto Nobuhiko (岡本 信彦)
– Amatatsu Kazuho (天立 和穂) / Kano Yui (鹿野 優以)
– Hyou (雹) / Suyama Akio (陶山 章央)
– Shigure (時雨) / Mizuno Risa (水野 理沙)
– Rokujou Asahi (六条 旭日) / Okamoto Maya (岡本 麻弥)
– Kurookano Shijima (黒岡野 しじま) / Shindou Kei (真堂 圭)
– Juuji’s mother (十字の母) / Dodo Asako (百々 麻子)