As Thobari stays with Kouichi's body, Raikou and Yukimi race into the library level. Raimei is just regaining consciousness;
debris is flying through the air and shelves crash to the floor. What's happening here?--asks Raikou.
Bookcases blow aside like piles of leaves as Miharu walks slowly forward, his skin lined with black shinrabanshou text, streams of green fire pouring up his body.
His face is distant, eyes focused on something we can't see. Yoite, he says...
The three Kouga women stare in alarm, braced against the rushing wind that fills the room.
Shijima, what have you brought here?--demands Katarina. Subaru lets fly one of her explosive missiles;
Miharu's lips move silently and the explosion blows back harmlessly from him, hurling the women against the wall.
Stop it, says Shijima to Miharu as they struggle to their feet, you still aren't in control of it.
A bolt of green fire leaps out of the swirling cloud that surrounds him and knocks them sprawling again.
--What should we do?--Yukimi asks Raikou, just as Thobari rushes down the stairs and past them.
He runs toward Miharu, calling to him, and another blast leaps out to throw him aside. Miharu, unearthly calm,
walks like a single-minded storm down the aisle...
...finds what he's looking for. Yoite, lying motionless amid the rubble. He kneels down by his side, extends a
black-scrolled hand, and the voice of the shinrabanshou says, Erase him? or save him first?
Miharu freezes. I'll give you my wisdom, she says. Miharu's head jolts back, green eyes wide; what are you going to do?--
she asks. Thobari charges in again, tackles him and pins him down. You can't use it! don't you understand that you could die if you use it?
he demands--but what he's thinking is just what am I doing? --Waves of green flame pour upward around them as Miharu
whispers, "save..Yoite..." Rojukou! shouts Thobari, trying to break the trance, and Miharu says "don't touch me"-- and another
explosion hurls sensei away.
Everyone stares helplessly as Miharu rises to his hands and knees. The thing most important to you isn't me, he says,
you just don't want to lose your purpose (or "yield to your own will"). Thobari gasps, remembering Kouichi's last words to him.
Miharu crawls to Yoite's side and lays a hand on his back, and light surges up as the shinrabanshou's host lets out
a wild, anguished scream. Thobari again pulls him away, and Miharu says "I'm not interested in your beliefs". Thobari uses
his release jutsu
to break the contact between Miharu and Yoite, and is shocked when the boy turns to him and shows his face--it's a racing
mask of black characters, only his mouth and wide green eyes visible.
For a flash his face is replaced with the cat-eyed, grinning face of the shinrabanshou [she looks exactly
like Shijima].
You're in the way, s/he snarls in a strange echoing voice, and sensei, desperate, cracks Miharu across the face with all his strength, sending the kid flying.
He crashes to the floor, breaking the current, and the attack ends. The lamps sizzle and brighten, and the lines of black text recede back into Miharu. We hear her voice:
you're still confused, she says; you want to fulfill Yoite's wish but you're afraid of the consequences. You'll need to be more sure of yourself before you can control the wisdom.==
Thobari looks down at Yoite...
As the Kouga women get to their feet we hear Yukimi cock his pistol. I hope you're ready to explain your reasons for calling us here, he says. Was Kannuki-sensei telling the truth?
You want to use us as materials for making Daya? --What?! gasps Raimei, and Raikou explains. She's about to let loose on the Kouga three when a door slides open, and there's Kannuki, holding a gun on all of them.
How convenient of you to all gather in the same place, he says; Daya is mine. For my sake you'll all be the first ingredients. The door closes and locks.
No amount of bashing will budge the door. The Kouga women tell them it can only be opened from the outside, and Raikou wonders what to do. Raimei asks Thobari where Kouichi is; he can't speak; Raikou tells her that he's dead, shot by Kannuki.
That's a lie, she cries, about to burst into tears, but her brother takes her face in his hands; we need to focus on getting out of here, he says.
Joji is watching over the still-motionless Miharu. Yukimi walks over: thanks to all your chaos, he says, they didn't have a chance to kill Yoite, so don't worry; he's tougher than he seems. He smiles.
He may pretend to be a shinigami who doesn't care about death, but he won't give up on living--that's just how he is.
And there he is, with his pistol to the old teacher's head: but he says firmly, if you're going to shoot, do it; I will never give the Daya Kinjutsu scroll to you.
Kannuki tells him that he'll give the signal to release gas and kill all the prisoners
unless he gets what he wants. All your cute little students and guests will become food for Daya, he smirks. [Creep.]--He adds that the Headmaster hasn't heard the rumors of the shinrabanshou's rebirth,
but everyone here--the Teachers' Committee, which has gathered--agrees it's time for Kouga to join the fray.
The Headmaster muses, "things have turned out exactly as he predicted--how impressive..", then says that the scroll has already been given to someone trustworthy, along with his will. I agree, he says, this academy has become outdated; Kouga Village will end along with my own life.
Kannuki says he'll kill the prisoners one by one if the old man doesn't talk. --Do it, he tells one of his cronies, but a kunai dagger whips out of nowhere and
kills the man at the door. Impossible, blurts Kannuki--leaning in the doorframe
is Kouichi. You should be dead, Kannuki gasps.
Kouichi looks up; his eyes are the same fluorescent red as when he mesmerized Frosty's aide, with cat-slit pupils,
and he smiles weirdly. Ah, it would be nice if I could die, he says...
As everyone is reunited, some able to speak to each other, some not, Shijima thinks: what's most precious is different for every human, they fight and kill each other because of it, and not because they're unable to sense what's most important to each other.
But at least I understand what I wanted to know.==Juji wants to get the Headmaster to a hospital, but he says he's gravely ill; he's accomplished all that he should and is ready to die.
Subaru begs for the kinjutsu scroll, but he tells her he no longer has it, and has given everything to someone he trusts. She gasps: plainly she assumed she'd be that person.
In a flash she has her kunai dagger at Juji's throat and demands the scroll. Why didn't you leave it to me? I'd do anything to save you!==Subaru-kun, I'm sure you understand why, he says calmly, but she rails that she can't understand--and Yukimi coolly shoots the dagger out of her hand.
Katarina tells her to stop, that they're hurting the Headmaster more than anything else is. He tells them that he cherishes this moment and the knowledge of their love, and says, "Please let me die like an ordinary man." (Kouichi nods gravely, Shijima watching him.)
Looking up, he asks "are you the shinrabanshou, Rokujou Miharu-kun?" Miharu nods.
He says he's sorry they dragged Miharu into this, with the great burden he already bears, and tells him not to lose sight of what's in his heart. I'm tired, he says...his head falls forward and Subaru bursts into sobs.
[Just in passing: in the manga, Kannuki is just the front for the real plot, which is being carried out by a student named Ashikawa Tasuku who's a spy for a government agency called Kasa (umbrella) which has plans for Daya. Not here, obviously.] She starts to walk away, and Miharu calls out,
wait! do you know anything about the hijutsu? I do, she says, I know what you don't understand...She walks on. Miharu sighs. Yukimi-san, let's hurry back, he says. We'll soon have the Banten Scroll...
He deliberately rests his hand on Yukimi's back as they walk away, knowing Thobari-sensei is watching him leave with the enemy. Thobari shouts bitterly after him: the
shinrabanshou's power will not save anyone! if you use it, I'll never forgive you! Miharu stops, hands Yukimi the Daya volume, and presses both hands over his ears. And walks away.
[ --incidentally, ch. 38 includes a long conversation between Kouichi and Shijima, in which, among other things, he says that he hasn't the patience to play the impartial observer role she's chosen,
and intends to live as if he were going to die...and they both speak most wistfully of Sirius' peaceful death. They quite certainly know, and even resemble, each other..until she turns into Shiratama, Miharu's cat. That's right. They also agree that it's just possible Miharu-kun will be able to use the shinrabanshou, as long as he doesn't lose sight of what's
important to him; if Yoite's existence in his heart keeps its strength. We, the ones made by shinrabanshou, will continue to observe, they agree.]
...go on to next episode.
Miharu sits up abruptly; his face and eye have been bandaged, presumably by Juji. I'm trying to think, don't talk to me, he says. [Since no one is worrying about Yoite's chances of bleeding to death, I'm guessing that Juji
was also able to stanch his bleeding and tape him up somehow. I hope she remembered a tetanus shot for that bite.] --Katarina and Subaru are in a panic, sure that Kannuki will kill the Headmaster while they're trapped here.
The entire committee draws guns and opens fire, but Aizawa is rocked back only for an instant before tearing onto the room and cutting the cabal to ribbons. Why don't you die?! gasps Kannuki, emptying his clip into the silver-haired boy.
Aizawa grabs his face--his fingers are long talons. Because I can't, he says, and finishes him off.--The Headmaster stares. White hair, immortality...he says, don't tell me you're her... Kouichi kneels.
You've worked hard for so long, Headmaster Sirius Hashiba, he says, much calmer. Relax; it will be morning soon.
In the basement, only Yukimi and Raikou are still trying to force the door; the Kouga women huddle in grief, and Thobari and Miharu sit facing apart, not speaking. Suddenly it slides open, and there's Kouichi, smiling his usual sweet smile, as if nothing had happened.
As the group gathers outside to leave--Raikou patiently carrying the still-unconscious Yoite--Shijima walks up to them and holds out a book whose cover bears the Daya snake symbol. In accordance with the Headmaster's will, she says, I have been appointed to inform you of the terms of succession of Kouga Village's kinjutsu.
First, Alya Academy surrenders all rights to Daya. Second, the Daya volume shall be received by someone of Nabari who I, Kurookano Shijima, deem suitable. Third, regarding the future of Alya Academy, the teachers collectively
will choose a new headmaster, but the ninja training course will be abolished and the students enrolled in it boarded elsewhere. --She holds the book out to Miharu. I'm personally very interested in seeing how you'll affect the future of Nabari, she says. As for the Kouga, they'll abandon Daya and rebuild from the beginning.
Yukimi guesses this was the Headmaster's
intention in the first place, seeing the state things had come to here. And I thought you were just simple-minded idiots, she smiles. It's clear his choice of an heir was correct. He? --they ask. The one who triggered the breakdown of the Academy...that persistent man who suggested to the Headmaster who should be invited here, and personally appointed himself the messenger...
Yup: Fuuma-dono pulling everyone's strings yet again. [--Now we know whose prediction the Headmaster was talking about.]==I wonder if this is the result he hoped for, she says; the Headmaster is still a ninja, after all, and the World of Nabari is said to be full of secrets...==Who are you really? cuts in Yukimi.
She smiles. Kuruukano Shijima, she says; just an observer.
..go back to Episode Guide mainpage.