Kaze no Stigma Episode 4 – Contractor

Screenshots

Summary

Ayano and Kazuma come face to face with Ryuuya, and Ayano could not believe she wasn’t able to sense his presence at all. Kazuma explains that a first rate wind-user like Ryuuya (with the youma) can completely hide their presence without being noticed by a flame-user like her. As they commence their attack on Ryuuya, Kazuma specifically instructs Ayano to “not stray away from him no matter what”, and Ayano tells him not to order her around for she knows just what she has to do. Ayano summons Enraiha, and goes to attack Ryuuya, while declaring that “there’s no youma the Enraiha can’t defeat”. Ryuuya simply smiles at her confidence of winning against him, and makes Ayano eat her “words of declaration” as he proves just how strong an opponent he is to even be of match to her. Ayano’s in a pinch as she struggles to even defend herself against Ryuuya, and tells Kazuma as to why he’s not supporting her as he said. It seems that Kazuma simply used her as a ‘bait’ to buy him some time to save Ren, leaving Ayano to fight alone as he gives her a ‘cheer’ to do her best before leaving. Ayano gets furious about this and calls him a “traitor”.

In the mountains of Honokagutsuchi, the Fuugas are setting their plan into place, as they make Ren dispel the [great youma] Gehou-sama’s seal. Hyoue commands the youma to devour Ren, and unleash the power to annihilate the Kannagi, but Kazuma comes in time, “hits a thousand (the Fuugas) in one blow (of his wind)” and saves Ren. Kazuma’s attack inflicts some damage on the youma as well, rendering it unable to move for the time being. He uses this chance to get back Ren’s consciousness with his wind, but instead of welcoming Ren “open arms” with their reunion, he scolds him for being easily captured like a “damsel in distress” despite the fact that he’s a guy. Kazuma pinches him hard on the cheeks as he makes him understand these words, and deeply apologizes to his brother (to also break free of his “pinch”).

Hyoue gains consciousness, and questions why Kazuma is hindering their plans, when he’s supposed to understand the disgrace and humiliation they feel, since he was able to experience the same thing they did – being looked down on by the Kannagis. Hyoue is pretty sure that he must have a grudge against the Kannagis too, and Kazuma doesn’t deny this (he even gives his scornful reply of “Well, yeah… I completely understand you”), but since he was promised a reward of a hundred million yen by Soushu, he took this “job”. Ren is surprised that he came for the money and not to save him, and Kazuma corrects this as he tells him that he’s simply “taking what he could get”, referring to the fact that he intended to save Ren, and also took the money as an extra bonus – “hitting two birds with one stone”, as Kazuma puts it. Hyoue could not believe that a guy like Kazuma will hinder their plans, and the Fuugas launch an attack on him, but he easily counters this with a single strike of his wind.

Just then, Kazuma feels the presence of Ryuuya who successfully came back from his battle with Ayano, which means that she lost in their battle. Kazuma and Ren couldn’t believe Ayano could lose against him, but realizes that Ryuuya has become strong as the youma has fully awakened and enters his body, transforming him into this enormous “green goblin”-like figure. Hyoue is ecstatic with the awakening of their Geho-sama, thinking that it will heed its order to kill the Kannagis. His happiness didn’t even last for a second as Ryuuya lodges his attack on the Fuugas instead, annihilating them before finally leaving to wander around.

Ren couldn’t understand just how Ryuuya killed the Fuugas who were supposedly its allies, and Kazuma tells him that the youma (Geho) has been sealed in for a long time that it has lost its sanity, leaving with it only its anger towards the Kannagis. Ren comments on how terrible this is, but Kazuma says that they simply “reaped what they sowed”. He wants to chase after Ryuuya, not because he’s concerned about the welfare of the Kannagis, but was rather worried that he won’t get his reward if Soushu gets killed. But before that, they proceed to where Ayano is first.

They find Ayano lying lifeless on the ground, whose body is close to becoming completely devoured by a youki, unless they find some way to take it out of her body. Ren wonders if there’s no means to save her, and Kazuma tells him that it’s not impossible to save her, but contemplates that using the “valuable medicine” he has would be a waste on her (since he won’t be able to obtain something like it again for the second time). Ren could not believe that Kazuma considers the medicine more important than Ayano’s life, and gets even angrier at him when he mentions that there won’t be any problem with Ayano’s death, their father will even be more delighted since the Enraiha will be passed on to Ren.

Ren could not forgive this cold attitude his brother has with regards to Ayano’s death, and his entire body ablaze with fire in anger, as he demands him for the medicine. Kazuma simply provoked him to see how he would react, and seeing how Ren was able to wield his anger into flame makes him see how this holds the “key” to unleashing the power of the flame spirit within him. He stops provoking Ren, and calms him down as he tells him that he’s going to give the medicine to Ayano. Making Ayano drink the medicine from its bottle proves to be useless, and so Kazuma gives her a “mouth-to-mouth-intake” instead, making Ren blush furiously as he witnesses this scene.

Ayano’s wounds completely heal as she’s able to drink the medicine from Kazuya, and wakes up in surprise to see Kazuma “kissing” her. Ayano goes “deredere” as she blushes in wonder why Kazuma kissed her, but then realizes how she’s become “not her usual self” and reverts back to her violent self as she demands Kazuma for an answer while calling him “baka!” Kazuma reprimands her attitude towards her “savior”, and then Ren goes to hug her, overjoyed by the fact that she has come back to life. Ren goes to explain that his brother saved her by making her drink a medicine, which makes Ayano thinks that it’s some weird stuff, and so questions Kazuma what medicine it is. He tells them that it’s an “elixir”, which makes both of them stunned as they realize that this “elixir” is the “elixir of life”, a miracle medicine made from the essences of alchemy.

Kazuma tells Ren that it’s for this very reason that he mentioned about not being able to obtain it again, and questions Ayano if there’s something she has to tell him (demanding her for a word of thanks). Ayano humbly thanks him for saving her, and Kazuma tells her there’s no need for her to worry about it much, since he’ll just ask for an additional payment for the medicine – another hundred million yen. Before Ayano could blurt out any other complaints, Kazuma questions her as to how she lost against Ryuuya, considering that she even declared “There’s no youma the Enraiha can’t defeat”. Kazuma continues to taunt her, mocking her inability to directly hit Ryuuya (and the fact that she most likely “missed” in her attacks). Ayano could not utter a word of complaint because everything Kazuma said was true, while Kazuma sneers at her in dismay.

Ayano fights back and tells Kazuma that he was actually the one who left Ryuuya to fight her in the first place, but then Kazuma mockingly “apologizes” for not knowing that she was that weak, and continues his teasing “Don’t tell me the strength you showed me back then was already your real strength? I actually thought that you were just holding back because I’m your relative…” Ayano gets pissed at his comments and goes to attack him with her Enraiha, but Kazuma quickly grabs hold of her hand as he tells her “That’s more like it”, then flies off with his wind together with Ren.

As they are able to locate where the youma is heading, Ayano comments on how powerful it has become and couldn’t believe it’s Ryuuya. According to Kazuma, if Ryuuya continues to wander around like this, it’ll awaken all the youmas in that place with its evil aura. Ayano then asks if they’ll be able to win against it, and instead of answering her seriously, lets out another taunt “What’s the matter? You’ve become so afraid after losing against him once, Kannagi’s next clan head?” Ayano gets irritated by this and replies, “Of course I understand! It’s the Kannagi’s role to get rid of this youma, even to the expense of my life.” Hearing her words about taking her life so lightly prompts Kazuma to give her a “head-butt”, as he reprimands her not to say such things. “Death is the end of everything,” says Kazuma, “may it be your past or future… they’ll all disappear at once, and you won’t have the chance to make up for what happened.” Kazuma adds that as long as they’re alive, there’ll certainly be an opportunity to “fight back”, and the ones who get to live in the end are victorious. Then he gives them advice of not giving up until the end, no matter what.

As they chase Ryuuya, Ren notices the youmas being awakened below, and decides to undertake the job of “cleansing” these youmas with his fire. Kazuma lodges his attack on Ryuuya, which makes it infuriated because of the disturbance Kazuma caused. Ayano charges at the youma with her Enraiha, while Kazuma attacks it with his wind from behind. She loses her focus after their first exchange of attacks, but Kazuma defends her from the youma’s attack, and instructs her to keep focus on fighting. Ayano talks back to Kazuma, and Ryuuya attacks her from behind, making her land in Kazuma’s arms. Kazuma tells her that their current situation doesn’t look good, especially with Ryuuya becoming even stronger than he ever imagined. Ayano asks him what to do, but Kazuma simply advices her to simply think about defeating Ryuuya, and leave the task of “stopping Ryuuya’s wind” to him. Ayano wonders how he could possibly do that, given the enormous power Ryuuya has, but Kazuma just tells her that he’ll find some way to do it, and after that, she can deliver the “final blow”.

Kazuma uses his wind to cover Ayano as she charges her attack at Ryuuya, and decides to “borrow” some power from the skies, as he attacks Ryuuya with a technique Ren calls “down burst”. This causes some damage on Ryuuya, but was still not enough to defeat him. Ayano continues to attack, but Ryuuya’s strength never seemed to cease. This makes Kazuma use his last resort – using contracted wind spirit, and tells Ayano to buy him some time for this “preparation”. Ayano gets pissed at his bossy attitude, and even more so when he once again abandons his job of supporting her. Ayano tells him that if she dies (which will be Kazuma’s fault), she’ll certainly come back and haunt him in his dreams and not allow him to sleep in peace.

Kazuma calls on his wind spirit, allowing it to entrust him with the control of “the entire wind”. Ayano’s becoming impatient as he’s still not done with his preparations, and Ryuuya manages to attack her as she becomes distracted. Ayano lands on the floor, and starts thinking negative thoughts that she won’t be able to win against Ryuuya with her strength… but then she remembers Kazuma’s words “You’ll be the one to finish him”, “buy me some time”. Ayano ponders upon her current state, and thinks that Kazuma won’t expect any more from her, or believe in her, if she stays helpless.

She once again remembers Kazuma taunting her of being afraid against Ryuuya because she lost against him once, and gains the will to fight Ryuuya will all her might. Ayano gains enough strength to wield flame, a much stronger flame this time, as its color changed to a blazing red. She lets out her declaration that she’ll be able to win against Ryuuya by herself, and tells Kazuma to simply stay put and watch Ryuuya die. Ayano manages to hit Ryuuya with several attacks, cuts off his hand, and sets Ryuuya ablaze. No matter how much of a strength she showed however, it was still not enough to defeat him, and her power has almost reached its limit.

Kazuma comes right at that moment, and praises Ayano for her hard work. She takes notice of his blue eyes, and becomes stunned as she finds out about Kazuma being a contractor (or rather finding out that he’s the “legendary contractor”). Kazuma unleashes his immense power, and renders Ryuuya unable to move. He shows a gentle smile to Ayano, and holds her hand – a gesture of letting her “finish this job”. And so Ayano delivers the final blow, bringing an end to the youma. Ren sees that Kazuma and Ayano were successful in defeating Ryuuya, as he was also finished with his job.

Using the power of the contracted spirit drained most of Kazuma’s energy, and he ends up lying on the floor. Ayano approaches him, and says that Kazuma would most likely be able to win against the youma even by himself. Kazuma replies that it’s not quite so, since the contracted wind spirit isn’t an “all-purpose” ability, and Ayano agrees, saying as to how it took quite a lot of time to prepare for it. She grabs her by the collar, but Kazuma seemed to be straying his eyes from her, as Ayano demands him an answer as to when did he finish his “preparation”. Kazuma says that it was the time when she was attacked by Ryuuya and got “blown off”, and Ayano questions why he didn’t come and save her that time then. Kazuma tells her that if he already helped her out right then and there, then it’ll seem as though she’s a loser who had to rely on his strength.

He comments on how beautiful Ayano’s final attack on Ryuuya was, and she goes bashful, unable to reply to this unusual praising he’s giving her. Kazuma then finally finds the chance to tell her how long she intends to stay “on top” of him, with her “revealing clothing” showing her undies ^^;; Ren comes in just in time and witnesses the scene, and turns his back from them in embarrassment. Ayano could not utter anything else in disgrace and humiliation, and once again vents out her anger with her Enraiha.

After the battle, we once again see a glimpse of the two policewomen investigating on what happened in that place by the mountains of Honokagutsuchi (where Kazuma and Ayano fought the youma), the blond-haired cop says “He finally came back”

Kazuma visits his father in the hospital, who asks him what he intends to do from then on, and he replies “Who knows?” Seeing his father reading a book as he lay in bed, Kazuma advises him to not push himself too much since he’s not getting any younger, in his usual sarcastic tone. As Kazuma leaves, his father simply smiles and calls him his “stupid son”

Thoughts

I can’t help but have goosebumps of excitement from watching this episode… I guess it’s because of the action + Kazuma and Ayano kicking-ass action that added to that excitement as well I just can’t help but wonder about the coming battles. We’re already given this exciting of a battle at the start of the series, so I certainly hope we’ll be witnessing more challenging battles later on (challenging enough to last more than an episode, perhaps? :p) So many things happened in just one episode… and I think Gonzo did a great job of executing this part of the novel (it retained the same “feel”, especially Ayano and Kazuma’s exchange of remarks… and of course the battle scenes proved to be more exciting in its animated form)^^

Kazuma and Ayano FTW! They’re great “partners” (in many sense). We see Ayano mature a little this episode, as she finally admits her lack of strength (and of course seeing Kazuma’s abilities will drive her to become even better), and thanks Kazuma (in her “deredere” self ^^). Her flame has gotten stronger I believe, indicated by the “blazing red” color of her flame in the last part of her battle with Ryuuya.

Kazuma continues to be cool as ever! His taunting against his brother, pinching him on the cheek as he scolds him… hehe… what a “sweet” brother And well, I guess he can just provoke about anybody… his brother, the Fuugas, and especially Ayano :p Though, I didn’t expect he’d be giving Ayano a head-butt there… lol. His words regarding death and all (that past of his is what made him realize all this) makes us once again see how deep his personality can be (and just how much ‘wisdom’ Ayano can learn from him perhaps). And Kazuma’s smile…! *gasp* *faints* sorry… the inner fangirl within me is acting up yet again… >_< Kazuma’s actually like Naru of Ghost Hunt, as someone else has pointed out too, but I find Kazuma much more cool, more of bad-ass, gentler (?), and well I just love him more than Naru ^^

Kazuma was able to “tame” Ayano’s brattiness, and I believe Kazuma has fun teasing / provoking / mocking her as well, especially because she always fights back (or if not, will end up getting all embarrassed, which is still an entertaining watch ^^) I’d have to agree with people with people who said that this anime won’t be complete without Ayano… I mean, the entire Ayano x Kazuma “chemistry” is actually one of the strong points of this show (or the “strongest point” that makes it so entertaining). And as I remember that “Ayano on top of Kazuma” scene… lol

And as for Ren… wow, my impression of him as being just a cute and weak little brother was completely changed. He’s strong enough to fight on his own (of course he knows his limits as well), and be of help to his brother than be a burden to him (I wonder if his sudden burst of courage was due to Kazuma’s “hard pinch” :p) And well, he even has the guts to fight against his brother if need be (when he got so angry that Kazuma seemed to be giving more importance to the medicine rather than Ayano…) Though, innocent and pure little Ren got corrupted by Ayano and Kazuma’s “love scenes” :p I don’t think he has any complaints with his brother and Ayano ending up together, since he loves both of them very much ^^

The blond-cop introduced in the end seems to know about Kazuma (trying to think as though she hasn’t seen spoilers yet x__x), and how she will “spice things up” between Ayano and Kazuma would be something to look out for ^^

The little “epilogue” shown with Kazuma visiting his father in the hospital was such a nice scene. Sarcastic as Kazuma is, dishonest as this father and son might be with regards to their feelings, we can clearly see that they love each other no matter what ^^

I still can’t help but think of the mystery surrounding the ‘elixir’… like, how exactly did Kazuma get hold of it? And regarding the next episode, looks that Kirika (the blond female cop) comes to the scene, and we’ll see her “spice things up” between Kazuma and Ayano, as she outright flaunts her being “mature” to Ayano and holds on to Kazuma like she’s his lover. Can’t wait to see Ayano boiling in jealousy

From the preview, I guess Misao (Kannagi’s maid) isn’t who we think she is… she actually has plans to kill Kazuma! But then what’s with the [almost] kissing scene between her and Kazuma… a trap? I never thought that Misao will play this role in KnS… as I just saw her as an “extra character”, simply a maid. LOL. Th ese unexpected surprises are just great ^^

And… is it just me, or is the animation better this time? I mean, it’s much more edgier and sharper (?) than the previous episodes. I used to notice how smudgy smooth the animation is, and I think it’s become better now ^-^

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