[This is the first episode to be extensively different from its manga chapter. To name just one thing, the teacher Yamase makes his first --and last--appearance in the manga here, though he's been a minor villain in the anime since ep. 1.]
We see Miharu's white cat, Shiratama, snoozing on his desk back at home. She wakes, seeing someone outside the window;
a man who grimaces angrily and uses a jutsu to vanish.
Miharu sets off for school and is met at his front door by Kouichi and Raimei, who say Thobari assigned them to watch over him. Fine, he sighs, just remind me to buy cat food on the way home. The man is still watching his house--
it's the teacher Yamase.
Thobari-sensei has told the kids to dispose of all the books on ninjutsu he has hidden in the school library. He feels they're safe returning to Banten for now, as it seems the Kairoushuu are concentrating on their mission to collect the scrolls
and won't be targeting Miharu for the time being. Attend your classes and don't call attention to yourselves, he cautions.
--In the library, Kouichi explains that Banten Village was founded by Iga ninjas during the Sengoku Jidai (the Warring States Era) just to be used as a dispatch post;
it didn't officially become one of the five major villages until the leader created its forbidden scroll, Engetsu-rin ("Full Moon Flower").
As they plow thru the dusty volumes, Raimei asks if they'll have to destroy the scroll as well, but Kouichi
says even he doesn't know where that is--all Sensei would say was that it's "in a place where it can be taken care of". While Kouichi destroys the pile of books with jutsu, Miharu reflects that though the scar from his facial wound has already healed,
he has no sight in his right eye. Shouldn't it heal as fast as a wound, he wonders; has the shinrabanshou already left me?
Kouichi asks if it's OK for Raimei to be attending school here instead of in Tokyo--won't her parents worry?--and she replies that they left her long ago, and no matter where she goes she's all alone, with no family or friends.
What does she mean by that, Miharu asks, aren't we your friends? She's caught off guard, and Kouichi chimes in that Raimei is certainly not alone. She blushes, says she should leave her sword in her locker--it's too conspicuous-- and dashes off. Alone in the stairwell, she looks down at the wrapped sword.
Friends, she thinks, and we see the day when as a small girl she was given the black-hilted blade. A woman with a strong, proud voice tells her that this blade has been handed down for generations of Shimizu; its name is Gamon, and it is the true soul of a samurai. She must never draw it unless she is ready to
bear the burden of both lives at stake in battle--that is their family's way. With the blonde woman who is speaking, we see little Raimei and a slightly older, red-haired boy, holding a matching sword with a white hilt. The woman [their mother, I'd guess] tells them that there is a strange and terrible power called
shinrabanshou, which both the normal world and Nabari once condemned to destruction. Because they failed to seal it, it has been reincarnated time and time again, an eternal monster. The Fuuma clan has given the Shimizu the position of watching over the shinrabanshou; these two swords are not only the sign of their samurai spirit,
but the fangs that will deal with any fools who might try to use the hijutsu for their own evil purposes. --The girl and boy listen with great gravity. You must carve that into yourselves, the woman says; do you understand, Raikou and Raimei?
Back in the present, Raimei wonders what Miharu would say if he knew that she's only using him to get to the Kairoushuu.
Kouichi gets a text message from Thobari saying that he'll be back from Fuuma tomorrow; on foot?
Miharu wonders dryly. Shiratama is happy to see that he remembered the cat food,
but when he comes inside, Miharu finds his aunt serving a snack to Yamase-sensei [apparently it's not unusual for
teachers to drop in on students' homes in Japan...]. She leaves on an errand and Miharu is alone with him.
What do you want, Yamase-sensei of the Kairoushuu?--asks the kid bluntly. Please save me, asks Yamase, and Miharu flatly says "ask the Kairoushuu for that".
[--Take close notice of his scornful indifference to this request.--]
Yamase --he looks haggard and exhausted--explains that he comes from a small clan within the Iga; he abandoned his family and sold out his friends to gain favor with the village leader, but due to his failure to bring in Miharu, he's been banished. Are you talking about being all alone, sensei?--asks Miharu. The man begs Miharu to correct his past so that he can get out of the Kairoushuu, saying that the
shinrabanshou can do this easily. Miharu says he isn't yet able to do that, and Yamase, furious, puts a knife to his throat, saying he's heard that the wisdom of the secret technique would come to anyone who drank its keeper's blood. The blade draws a trickle from Miharu's neck, but as the man leans toward him Miharu shoves him away and bolts.
Yamase gives chase, but the second he's through the door he's attacked by Raimei and Kouichi, who have him pinned
to the wall in no time. He looks up at them desperately: are you going to kill me? Aizawa-kun says "the world of Nabari is
not kind", but Raimei calls for him to wait and levels her katana at the teacher's throat. Do you know Shimizu Raikou, she asks; he carries a sword just like mine. Raikou?--Yamase asks. My older brother, she snaps, and we see a horrific scene: young Raikou, dripping blood, holding his bloody sword and looking over a roomful of corpses, as he tells his sister he's leaving to join the Kairoushuu.
He stained our samurai pride and honor, she says; he killed my father and mother! answer me! do you know him?
--Kouichi and even Miharu react to this. Yamase hesitates, then tells them that five years ago, when he still lived in Iga Village,
he met "a young man in a school uniform, carrying
a Japanese sword" (nihon-to, he says). I remember him well, because he asked me about contacting the Kairoushuu. He introduced himself as "Shimizu Raikou, a samurai"--exactly as his sister does.
And where is he now?--Raimei demands. He cowers back against the wall, saying that was the only time he met Raikou, and he really doesn't know where he is now. Raimei steps back in disappointment, Kouichi gazing at her sympathetically. Yamase chuckles as he gets to his feet and addresses Miharu, telling him that all shinobi in this day and age are after only one thing--
the shinrabanshou--and they'll always be near him because they desire him. More and more people will come after you to use you, Rokujou, he says, and your "good friends" are no different. Raimei gasps. Yamase uses a jutsu, leaps into the air and vanishes from sight.
Raimei begins to confess, but Miharu already knows she was using him. Everyone's the same, he says starkly.
(Kouichi tries to object to this.) It's just as he said, everyone's after me. Even though it may not be in me anymore...
Raimei takes his hand, and says that she's on his side; it's true that before she met him she thought of him only as
a means to her revenge, but even though she'll go on searching for Raikou, she swears she'll never betray Miharu or hide anything from him.
Believe me, she says earnestly. He actually smiles, and says he does.
[Coda to this sequence in the manga: Yamase, whimpering that 'a king should be merciful to his subjects', is touched on the shoulder by a gloved finger; as he crumples to the ground a voice says 'the shinrabanshou is mine,'
and Yoite is seen with the Rokujou house in the background. The Banten kids are there when the body is found, and react uneasily to hearing a cop say his head was 'ruptured from the inside out'. Yoite, thinks Miharu...]
Back in the Fuuma village, Thobari is cooking Durandal Family Irish Braise--my country's cuisine, he says proudly. [a rich stew of beef shoulder and vegetables slow-cooked in Irish stout--dark, roasted malt beer. Mmm.--recipe link below.] Saraba and Juji think it smells wonderful, and he says that he still cooks it often even though he's in Japan.
He dramatically tells the story of how his "nerdy, ninja-obsessed grandfather"
forced him onto the plane to come here for training. When they turn around, Kotarou, in one of his disguises
("the whirlwind, Tarou Zaemon!"), is already snitching from the pot. He's brought a report from Togakushi Village,
which they discuss over dinner. =) The Togakushi's public disguise is that of a small personnel dispatch company in Nagano, but in reality they do
corporate spying and high-level government intelligence work. The full name of their forbidden scroll is Iizunashingan;
Saraba says that it seems to be a spell based on the law of Izuna that "allows them to see written words", but she wonders
what it really is. (Incidentally, we learn in the manga here that it was at Fuuma-dono's request that Thobari established a ninja club at his school.)
As they peruse Kotarou's file of notes, he remarks calmly that he lost three Fuuma ninjas compiling that file, and he'll use Banten ninjas from now on.
Thobari stares at him--you mean three more ninjas died? Are your subordinates just tools to you, not comrades? Yes, replies the Fuuma master with a smile; is that wrong? Thobari is stunned. Saraba tells him that she understands his feelings, but this is Nabari, and the Kairoushuu are obviously prepared to use full force.
She may not like the leader's attitude but she doesn't think he's wrong. Juji agrees, and Thobari explodes: how can they take life so lightly? no matter what they're protecting, shouldn't they try to minimize the damage done on both sides? Kotarou smiles silkily as he pours more sake', saying that Thobari can't think it's possible to both defend Miharu and maintain such naivete'--
especially after being beaten by the Kira user. Thobari angrily replies that he has his own nindou ("ninja way"); even if it kills him, he'll find a way to erase the
shinrabanshou from the world without taking life.
Aaah! this is why I hate young men! yells Kotarou. He leaps onto the table and asks the teacher what his most skilled
technique is. Konjitsu, release technique, he says. Then let me see you release my transformation skill,
Fuuma-dono retorts, and lunges at him.
In a flash he turns into an enormous, serpentine green dragon, filling the room with coils and talons, and harries
Thobari relentlessly while delivering a scathing tirade. You won't be able to protect the Banten ninjas by borrowing
the keeper's power! You must never let the shinrabanshou become a weapon of war--that is our unwavering decision!
Thobari manages to perform a release and the dragon form dissipates, but Fuuma-dono instantly changes shape again,
this time into Raimei, then into Thobari himself--telling him that if he opposes the Fuuma ways he might as well be Kairoushuu--
and then into Miharu, saying "all you'll earn is hatred if you think only of me". Thobari is staggered, realizing the Fuuma lord's true power;
Kotarou easily brings him down. If you rely on kindness you'll lose everything, he says, calmly straightening his kimono, and asks Saraba to give Thobari a ride home to Banten. A long time ago, I too had a young and honest heart like yours, he thinks as Thobari rides away, but...
We see Raimei on the phone with Juji, learning that sensei is coming home by car after all. She tells Juji of the attack, and Kouichi says they'd better lie low for the night and keep close watch on Miharu. Miharu calmly sets about doing his homework, Shiratama lying on the desk at his side.
At almost exactly eleven PM, without the least warning, Raimei and Kouichi suddenly slump to the floor.
The white cat stares up and hisses. What is it, asks Miharu, and we see Yoite standing behind his
chair. Konbanwa, good evening, says the assassin's soft, even voice...
A typical recipe for Irish Braise.
...go on to next episode.
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