Eyes as clear as the blue sky…
This is the proof of the contractor,
The ones to whom the wind spirits left the entire atmostphere in the hands of, also known as “Kaze no Stigma” (The Wind’s Stigma)

Kaze no Stigma Episode 1 – Return of the Wind

Ayano, the successor of the Kannagi clan’s flame sword Enraiha, fights a monster in the temple, and manages to defeat it without much struggle. After finishing this job she had, she goes to meet her friends, who decide that they go to the seashore (to feel the see breeze), and go to karaoke afterwards. A strong wind blows just then, and Ayano comments on how she hates the wind.

The wind was actually caused by Kazuma Yagami, who just arrived at the house for a job request (to cast off an evil spirit). He stumbles upon Shinji Yuuki, who knows about his real identity of being a “castoff” of the Kannagi clan. He tells the owner of the house that Kazuma’s “Yagami” is just a fake name, since he is (or used to be) a Kannagi, in the same clan as he is. Shinji asks Kazuma about his reason for going back to Japan, and taunts him if he decided to go back to the Kannagis. Kazuma simply tells him “Over my dead body”.

The owner of the house tells them that he doesn’t care about their background, so long as they do their job and make sure that no harm will be done to the valuable things inside the room (because their reward is nothing compared to what it’s worth). Shinji and Kazuma taunts each other once again, and before long, the spirit that they had to cast off finally appears. Shinji was pretty hasty and simply casted the “spirit” with flame, which ends up reflecting the flame back to him (tenfold its original power). Kazuma lectures him that their enemy is not an evil spirit, but rather a demon / monster, so such tactics won’t work on it. Seeing the dangerous and life-threatening situation they are in, the owner of the house begs Kazuma to save him. He agrees to do so, after the owner offers to pay him tenfold of the original reward he would be giving.

Kazuma quickly defeats the monster with his powerful wind, and then tells the owner to give him his reward within 3 days. He goes to “wake up” Shinji who was lying on the floor and kicks him, much to the owner’s surprise. He tells the owner not to worry since a Kannagi like him is surely protected by the flame spirit (with him as an exception – because he was the only one who didn’t have the ability to wield flame).

Meanwhile, Ayano, who was running late for her curfew, rushes off after having karaoke with her friends. She stumbles upon Ren, Kazuma’s younger brother, who tells him about the news that his brother finally came back. Ayano couldn’t remember who Ren’s brother was, until he told her that his brother was the one she defeated in the battle for Enraiha four years ago. Ayano’s immediate response after finally remembering Kazuma was “Oh, it was that guy who I defeated with one blow! Though, I don’t think I can call that a “fight”…”, to which Ren cries due to her harsh comment ^^””

The news about Kazuma returning to Japan, and the fact that he has become a wind contractor becomes known to the Kannagi clan head, Ayano’s father through Shinji, who reported about the earlier incident. Shinji apologizes to Ayano’s father and Genma, Kazuma’s father, because of his weakness, and Ayano’s father understands him and tells him there’s no need to apologize for what happened. Ren and Ayano also arrives on the scene, and Ayano’s father explains to them about Kazuma’s return, his becoming a wind-user (which he just thought to be a rumor), and also about his change of family name (from a Kannagi to a Yagami). Ayano comments that what Kagami did was just absurd, to which Genma agrees and says that he is indeed a shame to their family. Ayano’s father seems to understand Kazuma’s situation and says that he pities Kazuma, because he wouldn’t have suffered this fate if he wasn’t born a Kannagi. Despite this, Genma tells him that this does not change the fact that he was a Kannagi with no abilities, and that there is no place in the family for someone like him. As such, he declares that he has no other son but Ren, much to Ren’s sadness. Ayano’s father says that what has become of Kazuma now is still good, since he has now mastered the wind arts (not necessarily “mastered” in the truest sense of the word… but the fact that he was able to become a wind contractor and is able to use it the way he wants). Ren wonders if his brother will still come back to their family…

That night, Ayano feels an “ill/ominous wind” as she was sleeping, and was awakened by it, but quickly went back to sleep and didn’t mind it much. On the other side of the Kannagi house (or Shinji’s house), a man(?) who looks like Kazuma (or rather, disguised as Kazuma) goes to Shinji’s house, and kills him and two other men from the Kannagi clan. (The man was shown in shadows, and uses his wind-ability, much like Kazuma, so he can easily be mistaken to be him) At another place, Kazuma was woken up from his nightmare about what happened in his battle with Ayano before (and his father disowning him afterwards). He suddenly felt something ominous, sensing some form of power nearby.

The following day, the Kannagis find out about the murder of the three men, and the wind-users of the Oogami clan (who served the Kannagis) to investigate on the matter. Their investigation show that murderer was undeniably someone who knows wind-arts, but the technique used was not at par with theirs (it was much more powerful). Ayano thinks that someone from the Kannagi is “baring his fangs”. Most of them suspect that the perpetrator is no other than Kazuma (judging by the way they were killed, and also because Kazuma would have the likely motive of killing them to take revenge on the clan).

Ayano tells her father that most of the people are suspecting that Kazuma was behind all this, and asks if she should go and she should go and attack him. Her father lectures her on her behavior, and tells her that violence shouldn’t be the means to settle things. Ayano tells her that if they want this matter to be resolved as quickly as possible, then they should act quick. And once again, his father disagrees and tells her that there’s no need for her to do so since there’s still no proof that Kazuma indeed committed those crimes. He tells her to just standby until they haven’t made sure of it yet, and Ayano reluctantly agrees (with disappointment)

That night, Kazuma walks along the city streets when he once again felt presence of something (something like a “sorcerer”, according to Kazuma), and it was different from the one he sensed that morning – different in terms of their strength. And he wonders just what was that “thing” (or what it was up to).

Investigation on Kazuma has also began, and the wind-users finds out about his current whereabout. The Kannagi clan head decides that they summon him to the house to discuss what happened, but if he doesn’t agree to do so, then there won’t be any choice but to do it by force. Shingo Yuuki, Shinji’s brother, and Takuya Oogami were chosen for the said “negotiation” task. The stubborn Ayano refuses to heed his father’s instruction and sneaks up with the two, wanting to confront Kazuma about the incident.

The three of them goes to where Kazuma is, when Ayano was stopped by a sudden gust of wind (or rather, a wind [force] (coming from somewhere not known yet) envelopes Ayano). As Shingo and Takuya confronts Kazuma about the incident, he bluntly tells them that he doesn’t know what they’re talking about. They then demand him to explain this to the clan head, to which Kazuma tells them that he’s no longer part of the Kannagis (or that he doesn’t have anything to do with them), so the clan head should be the one to come to him if he wants anything from him. He orders them to leave, and Takuya tells him to do what they tell them (or else they would resort to using force). Kazuma taunts them to show them what they’ve got, who easily renders them unable to attack. Kazuma no longer intends to attack them at the state they were in, when an invisible force (the same as what he felt that morning) suddenly attacks with a powerful wind from behind, and ends up killing Shingo and Takuya. Kazuma was surprised by what just happened, and knowing that it was the work of the wind spirit, he asks them just what is it that they’re doing (since it’s a violation of their contract)

Ayano who just broke free from the wind that enveloped her earlier, witnesses this incident and immediately attacks Kazuma in rage. Kazuma commands her to listen to him, since he’s not the one who killed them. Ayano of course refuses to believe what he’s saying, since she witnessed what happened earlier. Kazuma’s wind proves to be more powerful than Ayano’s flame, and defeats her in this battle. Kazuma once again tells her that he wasn’t the one behind what happened, and Ayano demands an explanation as to who was the perpetrator. Kazuma simply tells her that it’s another wind-user other than him, and tells her to investigate on it further by herself ^^” He (kiddingly, yet mockingly) criticizes Ayano’s lack of abilities and tells her that with someone like her as the successor of Enraiha, a dark future awaits the Kannagi clan, and then disappears (or should I say “fly” ^^”), leaving Ayano discontent with the lack of answers to this “mystery”.

Kazuma spends some time in deep thought, wondering about the “spirit” who was playing tricks on him. He has now become an enemy of the Kannagi because of that, yet thinks that this is still an interesting development. “I’ll let you (who’s doing these things in shadow) in for a big surprise”, he says, telling the spirit to watch out for what he’s going to do to it.

Thoughts

Despite the fact that I found the battle scenes not as awesome as I somehow expected, I still found this to be an interesting show~ The curiosity and interest I had when I first read about the story is pretty much the same after I’ve watched episode 1. People are saying that it’s like Shana, but I haven’t watched Shana, so I don’t really mind the fact that there are some elements in the show with the “Shana concept”. I’d have to admit that Kazuma’s voice wasn’t quite what I expected, since I was thinking a “deeper-sounding voice” would suit him more. But then again I got used to it, and I found Daisuke Ono as Kazuma quite fitting, especially in terms of portraying his sarcastic attitude and cockiness ^^”’ I’m keeping my hopes up on this one, and seeing as it has this mystery and intrigue elements in it, sparks my interest to watch it even more ^-^

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