Yukimi slides silently up to a door with gun drawn; approaching from around the corner is Kouichi, who says with genuine relief, 'oh, it's only you guys'. Yukimi stares at him, realizing that he couldn't sense the kid's presence.
Raikou asks if they, too, were attacked by the school's students; you were also? asks Kouichi. They all react sourly at the sight of Thobari carefully checking a fallen Alya student for damage; that idiot, I do believe he's made of sugar, says Yukimi.
["sweet" and "naive" sound much the same in Japanese, so this is a pun.] Kouichi says it makes even him want to join the Kairoushuu, and Raikou graciously says they'd be delighted to welcome him, he should drop by anytime. Then there's a shattering crash from downstairs that shakes the building,
and Thobari stares--they're in the basement!
In the basement, a huge crater has been bashed into the wall, and the Kouga delegation faces off against the thin kid in the white scarf. Kira?, says Shijima. Yoite levels his forefinger...
You don't value your life, do you? Shijima asks. --Katarina lunges and grabs Miharu by the throat, pinning him to a bookcase and saying that his death won't be in vain; she draws a dagger back to strike, but a Kira blast hits her and she drops the kunai, howling in pain, her arm twisted like wire. Miharu doubles over coughing; a gloved hand grabs his arm and the DKA runs for it.
Shijima appears in front of them, wearing a wickedly long set of tekko-kagi (metal claws; an old --like, Edo period--ninja weapon). A forbidden technique that shaves away your life, she says; how does it feel, to be on the edge of death? She leaps; Yoite calls to Miharu to stay back and they fight hand-to-hand, Raimei noting in amazement as she and Juji run in that that girl's actually keeping up with the Kira user.
Or is the Kira user actually... Yoite gets in a blast that draws a spray of blood from her shoulder; she snaps,
that hurt! and comes at him again, whipping out a kunai dagger that nails into his leg. He grimaces in pain and falls. [He loses his hat at this point.]
Miharu runs to him and lifts him in his arms, calling his name, as Shijima comes on, smiling. Miharu glares at her, leaps to his feet and hauls over one of the towering bookshelves;
it sways and topples, blocking her advance. Yoite pulls himself up to his knees and uses a jutsu, and Miharu grabs hold of him just in time to swirl out of sight along with him.
Shijima grins...
Thobari stands by as Yukimi pounds on a locked door, saying that he was sure the map said this was the way into the basement. Thobari asks him if Rokujou intends to stay with the Kairoushuu. Yukimi smirks, realizing what a sore spot this is. Sure, he says; as I recall, he said he was running away.
You let him in without even asking him why? asks Thobari, and Yukimi replies, is that so wrong? I'm not as uptight as you about these things. He begins to kick the door. Don't be so serious about things, he advises the teacher, you'll drive everyone away. But being too soft on them doesn't work either (we see Raikou and Kouichi "torturing" a student prisoner by tickling him with feathers). He grins wryly at Thobari: we might be better people if we each took half of the other's personality, he observes, and starts kicking the door again.
In the sub-basement [the upper basement was apparently used as library storage; this one looks like science lab storage, all shelves of glassware and apparatus]we hear Yoite's labored, painful breathing. Miharu says they need to stop the bleeding--there's a chance the blade was poisoned, too--but Yoite is still in don't-touch-me mode. I'll heal if I rest for a moment, he says. He takes out the pills Kazuho gave him, takes one but nearly chokes on it, covering his mouth as he fights to swallow. Miharu is desperately worried. Go and find Yukimi, Yoite tells him, but Miharu says they need to see to his wounds first. Until you erase me, I will not die, he replies; didn't you make me promise? Miharu's afraid that if he leaves Yoite now, he'll be gone
when he returns. I can't die here, says Yoite, I can't... Forbidden to touch him, Miharu takes hold of his sleeve. This place is dark and smells like a hospital, he says...where do you think Yukimi-san is now? Yoite will only repeat "I can't die". Miharu suddenly has an idea; he sits up and says confidently that if they can't find the scroll, he'll ask yosei-san (it means "fairy") for help. He explains that the shinrabanshou appears to him as a girl and speaks to him, and that she's
always insisting that he should use the power. The hijutsu has consciousness? asks Yoite, amazed. It's a person? --I think that's something only its owner can know, replies Miharu. Lately she hasn't responded when he speaks to her... but, he adds to himself, I feel sure she will, because yosei-san wants me to call on her. He realizes that the shinrabanshou is the one that Shijima resembles.
...uh-oh, think of the devil...Miharu hears a soft scrabbling on the shelf overhead, and then her metal claws hook over the edge. She grins down at them. I found you, Shijima says.
Upstairs, the Kouga women are still attacking Raimei and Juji, firing explosives, though Raimei tries again to plead that
this is some plan of Kannuki's. Gas bombs and drugged darts bring first Juji, then Raimei down, but not before the Fuuma
girl hears them say "you two are important ingredients". Please accept becoming our provisions, says Subaru, for someone precious to us.
Shijima hurls Miharu into a stack of boxes; Yoite places himself between them. Do you fear death? or is death a sign of hope to you? the golden-eyed girl asks. Agreeing to take on Kira is like choosing your own death. -- Yoite's eyes narrow angrily, but he doesn't budge. Is there anything important you want to protect before you die? she asks him. Are you hoping to die? Or since you want to disappear, maybe you're trying to avoid death?--both boys react to that and Miharu asks sharply, how do you know that? who are you? Kurookano Shijima, a student of this academy and nothing else, she says, and charges Yoite again.
The leg wound is bleeding; he grips both her hands and struggles to hold the metal claws away, and she sinks her teeth in his other leg. Miharu runs in to pull her away, she throws him aside, and Yoite, though losing strength, fires another Kira blast that drops them both to the floor. But to Miharu's shock she recovers almost instantly, her eyes lighting with a feral glow, and she grips his throat and pins him to the wall, staring coldly at Yoite. Do you want to use the shinrabanshou to fulfill your wish? she asks. It's a joke--you, looking to disappear to avoid death.
To Rokujou who carries this burden, you're nothing but an annoying shinigami who confuses his heart.
Yoite catches his breath, stunned, and Miharu tries to speak (probably to deny it) but can't. Suddenly an explosive blast hits the shelf (--oh, guess who...),
forcing her to release Miharu; Yoite calls to him, rushes over to catch him as he gasps for air, and --a blade flashes in from behind, running Yoite through.
His eyes go too wide, and he looks behind him at Katarina. Your body's no use to us, she says, so--just die.
She pulls out the blade, and Yoite falls into Miharu's arms. Miharu, horrorstruck, screams his name.
Blood splashes onto the floor as Yoite fights to draw breath. The three Kouga women surround them. You're quite stubborn,
aren't you? says Shijima, and Subaru tells them to give up--what did they think they could accomplish alone?
Miharu glares defiantly, holding him, and Yoite marshals his strength and points straight up; there's a shattering blast.
Yukimi, Thobari and Raikou roust two more students out of a closet and ask them if that teacher Kannuki is giving the orders. Please tell us what you plan on doing with Rokujou and the others, says Thobari, but the two exchange glances, throw smoke bombs and vanish through the back door of the closet. Yukimi sighs, peeved; they attacked us, but now they're the ones retreating, he says...then a light voice says, "hey, everyone," and they look up to see Kannuki with two pistols, one aimed at them and one directly against Kouichi's skull. -- Aizawa! gasps Thobari. Toss your weapons, orders Kannuki-sensei.
Yoite's burst of jutsu has gotten him and Miharu back into the upper basement--the library storage--and Miharu half-drags him to a spot with decent light,
telling him he's going to stop the bleeding. He opens Yoite's coat but is shocked to see how much blood there is--
the white sweater is drenched. He stares horrified at his own red-stained fingers.
"Miharu--" gasps Yoite, reaching up a shaking, bloody hand; he struggles and manages to half-lift himself. Miharu takes his shoulders; I'm here, Yoite, he says, stay still. But Yoite reaches out to him again, cradles Miharu's cheek in his palm; Miharu takes the bloodstained hand in both his own and leans his head into it, closing his eyes. When he looks at Yoite again the indigo-blue eyes are filled with tears. I don't want to die, says Yoite, barely able to breathe; I don't really want to die at all! Save me...Miharu...
Miharu gathers him into his arms, thinking: I don't know anything about Yoite;
I don't even know why he wants me to erase his existence, and I haven't asked, because it felt as if the thin thread
between us would break. But now... I really want to know. Because he seems so lonely...and it hurts him to be treated kindly...[In the manga, he even, in an eerily touching moment, senses the warmth of Yoite's blood] --(he remembers them on the temple grounds, and Yoite trying to reject the scarf) You're not an annoying shinigami, he says; you're exactly like me.
Kannuki tells them to hurry and drop their weapons. Huh, he's nothing to do with us, sasses Yukimi. Please, says Thobari. What are you, stupid? asks Yukimi, but Raikou gives him a sharp rap to the wrist that makes him drop the gun, then drops his sansetsukon beside it. What was that for, he demands indignantly, but the redhead just smiles.-- Kannuki, holding one gun on the threesome, walks Kouichi to the door and hands him a key. Unlock it with this, he says, and open it.
What are you plotting? demands Thobari. I don't have to tell you, replies the Kouga ninja, but Kouichi has it sussed: it's Daya, right? he asks. It seems like it.
Kannuki, momentarily startled, grins. That's right, he says. To prepare the Daya kinjutsu, bodies of young ninjas are required. [Daya kinjutsu is people!--sorry, couldn't resist...] --The threesome gasp, shocked. Human life is the source of the great cure, says Raikou. Disgusting, mutters Yukimi, and Raikou thinks, a horror like that could never save Gau. --Thobari is not only personally but professionally appalled: you're planning to use your own students as materials to create Daya? You, a teacher at this academy? Kannuki laughs. This school is pathetic; this clan is in its last days, he says. If we sell Daya to the outside world, the world will be changed forever, and the academy will make a fortune.
The real world and Nabari--with these hands I'll change them both. --So those girls of the student council are trying to stop you, right?
--asks Yukimi. Kannuki scoffs. They want the Daya just as much as I do, but they're doing it for that dying headmaster, he replies.
Shijima and Katarina drag Miharu and Yoite in and drop them on the floor beside Raimei and Juji. This is taking longer than expected, they say, and only the headmaster knows where the Daya scroll is. Kannuki will probably threaten to kill the students
if the headmaster doesn't hand it over, says Subaru; that'll be our chance to take it from Kannuki. Even if we have the raw materials we can't make Daya without the scroll, says Shijima; will the headmaster hand it over? --If we're holding students from other schools hostage, he'll have no choice. Subaru sighs.
If he'd just entrusted us with the kinjutsu scroll in the first place, none of this would have happened... Katarina looks troubled. The headmaster doesn't want Daya to be made, does he? Even if we save him... Let's go, says Subaru. They walk off, but Shijima stands a moment longer looking down at the unconscious foursome. Everyone has something they want to protect, she thinks, something they'll sacrifice for. Is that the source of a human's actions?...
Your precious students will be useful in creating the Daya, taunts Kannuki, and he begins to force Kouichi down the stairs; but Yukimi produces a pen that's actually a chemical weapon, and hurls it, creating a cloud of choking purple smoke around Kannuki. Let's go, Raikou! he snaps, grabbing up his gun; Raikou retrieves the sansetsukon and they book at top speed.
Kouichi, finally free, sets about beating the hell out of Kannuki with brutal efficiency, but Thobari pulls him off. Kouichi faces him angrily:
but he's trying to kill Miharu and everyone else! We should still avoid needless killing, insists Thobari.
The force of the shot hurls him forward; Thobari, stunned, catches him, and he twists his head up to speak. You're terrible, he says; aren't you the one who was going to kill Miharu?...unless you kill, you can't protect anyone close to you...unless you kill...
[There are two other translations in which the gist of what he says is "I'm dying because of your naivete',
and Miharu will die this way too; you can't protect what's dear to you, you murderer."]
Thobari falls to his knees, gasping for breath, staring at his student's body in a spreading pool of blood...and then...
there's a burst of pale green lightning, and a roar, and the building shakes, lamps swaying--the force hurls everyone in
the library level back against the shelves, except Shijima, who stands like stone, watching;
and Miharu comes forward, green light spilling up around him, the same green as his eyes, and
rows of black characters racing along his skin as he turns his head, eerily calm.
Whew.
This, BTW, was the episode that cracked the Nabari fanbase solidly in half. Up to this point the fanboys could continue thinking of it as a kickass ninja show with some annoying emo elements, but after this one the boards literally filled with distressed howls
about how the cool ninja show had turned into a shounen-ai emo yaoi-fest.
Fangirls, on the other hand...well, beauty like this is rare, so rare... =)
c
...go on to next episode.
--He holds Yoite close. I finally understand these feelings of mine, he thinks. I've kept them to myself to spare you unnecessary pain; I couldn't ask what was in your heart. (or: I couldn't say that I wanted to know what was in your heart.)
Will you forgive me if I keep these feelings to myself?
--He looks up and cries out, Shinrabanshou, answer me! Yosei-san! No reply. --What are you waiting for?
I need you now! Haven't you been waiting for me to call on you?--we see Shijima watching from behind a shelf, grinning.
Answer me! screams Miharu in pure desperation, and Shijima throws a dart that pierces into his back. Time to sleep, she says as he slumps onto Yoite and they both fold to the floor. She stands over them, looking down at them as they lie there, Miharu's arm flung over Yoite as if protecting him even in unconsciousness.
[What she thinks is in quotes: did she somehow read it from their minds?] 'For my wish to come true, I will make myself a sacrifice', and 'for my wish to come true, I will sacrifice my apathy'...that's how it is, huh? She stares down at them...
Kouichi is absolutely infuriated. You're still saying that even now? he snarls.
Cut the crap, Kumohira-sensei! What exactly are you trying to protect--
--Alan Gabriel, er I mean Kannuki, pulls himself off the floor and gets to one of his guns--
--and shoots Kouichi in the back.
--he slides to the floor. Thobari howls his name in agony; Raikou and Yukimi, racing along, hear it and look at each other in dismay.
..go back to Episode Guide mainpage.