Kaze no Stigma Episode 10 – People One Ought to Protect

Ren’s saga continues and much has been revealed in this episode, particularly the truth about Ayumi, and her connection with the ‘ritual’ to be performed by the Tsuwabuki clan, as well as the relation of the pixie’s egg with all this. The episode’s title pretty much sums up what Ren has gone through in this episode, as he questions his resolve to protect the ones he love. Surprises await you as these things are unveiled, but with much more questions left to be answered.

Summary

Ayumi requested Ren to take her to the sea, for her to witness its beauty for the last time. Ren gets surprised but what she meant about this, but she hesitates to answer and simply holds on to Ren’s arms to warm him up in exchange for his coat. Ren gets flustered by this and tells Ayumi that there’s no need for her to worry about him, but wasn’t able to go against her when she gets saddened at the thought that he didn’t like what she’s doing. Kazuma on the other hand is simply observing the Tsuwabuki’s residence from a distance, waiting for developments that are going to happen. Tiana gets all bored with simply waiting but Kazuma tells her to stay put so they won’t be found out, and also makes her realize that she’s actually the reason why they’re doing this in the first place.

As Ren and Ayumi ride the train, Ayumi confides that she intends to go back to the Tsuwabuki after this, despite the fact that she’s simply being used by them since it’s the place where she really belongs. A slight earthquake occurs along their way, and Ren thinks about how there’s been a lot of earthquake occurrences as of late, but Ayano stays silent about this. They walk past a convenience store and Ren decides to treat Ayumi to some manjuu buns, making her smile with glee as she’s able to taste something this delicious for the first time in her life. Ren then asks her about going to the Kannagi’s residence instead, knowing well that his family will be able to protect her this way. This however isn’t possible for Ayumi because of her role in the upcoming ‘grand festival’ of their clan, which Ren finally realizes after she poses him this question about the festival.

At that time, Kazuma also explains to Tiana about why the Tsuwabukis have to do this ritual, telling her about the history of Mt.Fuji, whose last and biggest eruption occurred 300 years ago, which gave birth to this powerful ‘majuu’ (devil / evil spirit) whose roars beckons the eruption of this volcano and brings forth earthquakes with each step it makes. The one who confronted this majuu is the head of the Tsuwabuki clan at that time, a woman who prayed for several days unto the Earth Spirit until it was able to bestow her its power, allowing it to seal the majuu residing in Mt.Fuji but cost her life in exchange. This seal however could only hold the majuu for 30 years because it’s too powerful, hence the Tsuwabukis continually perform this ritual once every 30 years, where they sacrifice one clan member who’ll give her entire power for this ‘seal’ to the cost of her life, much to Kazuma’s disgust over this ‘sacrificial ritual’.

As Ren finds out that Ayumi is to be the sacrifice for the ritual, he can’t help but think why of all people it should be her, to which she says that it’s something that one of the Tsuwabukis has to do. Ren was about to say that such a thing could be done by another person instead, but she stops him from saying such harsh words, not wanting to taint him with what he’s going to blurt out. Nevertheless, Ayumi expresses her happiness at what Ren showed her, considering that no one else has treated her with such kindness. Becoming the sacrifice for the ritual is Ayumi’s own decision, and it’s got nothing to do with the Tsuwabukis. She takes pride and joy in the fact that her death will be a means to help out many people, allowing her to watch over the entire country as her prayers get becomes assimilated into the mountains of Fuji.

Ayumi doesn’t have any memories of her past because she was simply given memories of someone else, and it’s for this reason that she wants to make her own genuine memories before she dies, thinking that seeing the skies, the moon, the stars, and the sea with her own eyes is far more beautiful than the ‘memory’ she has of them. Ren however can’t simply accept that she’s giving up her life like this, and swears to protect her no matter what. He believes that there’s got to be some way to prevent her from dying, promising Ayumi to take her no matter where she wants for her to have even more memories, bringing her to tears at the thought that it’ll be great if such a thing could happen.

They finally get to the sea, making Ayumi all excited that she’s finally able to see its beauty with her own eyes. Ren thinks that seeing the sea during the daytime would’ve been more beautiful, and decides to create a glow of light as an imitation of the sun with his fire, moving Ayumi to tears as she thinks about how happy she is for being able to live and meet Ren and witness all these beautiful things.

Just then, Mayumi arrives with Yuuji, and scornfully tells her that she wouldn’t have any more regrets given that she was able to do all this now. Ren notices the striking resemblance between Ayumi and Mayumi and wonders if they’re sisters. This makes Mayumi furious as she couldn’t accept that she is being thought to be the sibling of ‘that thing’ (Ayumi), while Ayumi simply stays silent and trembles in fear and sadness. Mayumi then asks Ren (‘politely’ yet in a sarcastic manner) to give back ‘that thing’ to her, warning him that his hostility towards her will simply mean that he’s going against the head of their clan as well. Ayumi then tells Ren that it’s alright, returning his coat as she goes to Mayumi and Yuuji is.

Mayumi confronts Ayumi, disdained at how she went all the way to the sea to escape them and slaps her hard without even listening to her explanation about not intending to run away. Yuuji gives hear a beating as well, despised that someone ‘filthy’ like her is calling him by his name, who even ran away and put Mayumi’s life in danger if she’s not found in time for the ritual, then makes her face the fact that she’s simply a ‘doll’ whose existence is nothing compared to Mayumi’s. Ren couldn’t contain his anger any longer as he sees their cruelty towards Ayumi and attacks them despite his confusion as to what’s to be considered as the right thing to do in this situation, remembering how he sworn to protect her no matter what.

Yuuji simply sneers at what Ren said about ‘protecting’ Ayumi and goes to confront him in battle, determined to defeat him and prove what ignorant people say about how the element of flame is far more powerful than earth, considering that the land he’s stepping on is under their control. Ren could simply evade from all the attacks he gives, making Yuuji remark how Ren is now witnessing the ‘real strength’ of the Earth user and confidently believes that a flame-user like him who needs to use their feet (to be on the ground) is certainly powerless against them.

Ren knows well that he’s at a disadvantage so long as he stays on the ground and thinks of what he should to do defeat Yuuji considering that he doesn’t have the ability to fly like his brother, then suddenly thinks of a plan. Yuuji mocks Ren that it would be better for him to just hand over ‘that thing’ (Ayumi) without protest, seeing how he could simply run away from all his attacks. Ren gathers up his power which Yuuji still finds to be useless, but much to his surprise, he wasn’t able to control the land where Ren is because he turned it into magma. The battle is reversed as Ren is finally able to attack Yuuji and renders him powerless against his powerful flame, which Ren tells him in return that this is the strength of a flame wielder.

Ren turns to Mayumi, asking what she intends to do now that she defeated Yuuji, but Mayumi simply throws this question to Yuuji, who still doesn’t give up as he swears to protect Mayumi with his life, despite the fact that he will no longer be able to fight at his current state. Just then, Mayumi grabs hold of Ayumi, remarking how Ren seems to have an unusual taste for falling for a ‘doll’ like Ayumi, which he doesn’t believe to be true, knowing that she’s certainly a human. Mayumi simply laughs at his ignorance, and calls Ayumi a ‘bad girl’ for not telling Ren about the fact that she’s simply her clone, who was made to appear and act as a 12 year old but whose real age (from the time she was made) is less than a month, having with it the memories of Mayumi .

Ren could still not believe this until Ayumi affirms this to be true, revealing that she was made for the sole purpose of being the replacement of Mayumi in becoming the sacrifice for the ritual. Ren falls down on his knees in surprise with all this revelation, and before Mayumi leaves, she tells Ren that nothing will really change if Ayumi doesn’t make it in time for the ritual because she can only live for only a month’s time (which is after the ritual is finished). She was created without thinking of keeping her for ‘long-term use’ according to Ayumi, a ‘makeshift clone’ for that matter.

Ayano arrives with Kirika at that moment, and Mayumi introduces herself and her follower Yuuji. Ayano sees Ren down on his knees and asks just what they did to him, to which Mayumi replies that they didn’t do anything to him physically (since they just ‘tormented’ him mentally), making her run towards Ren to check up on him. Kirika steps out of the car who exchanges greetings with Mayumi for the long time they haven’t seen in each other, and Mayumi asks her to send her message to the head of the Kannagi clan that they’re not making them take responsibility for this matter anymore since their ‘treasure’ that Ren took from them has been returned safely. The Tsuwabukis leave, but Kirika believes that this matter is far from over.

Mayumi arrives in the Tsuwabuki residence with Ayumi, making Kazuma wake up as he senses their presence. As Kazuma and Tiana takes a close look at Ayumi, they find out that the pixie treasure lies within her body, which Kazuma finds to be a dirty tactic, seeing how they’re going to use this girl as a sacrifice instead. Tiana gets aggressive and tells Kazuma that the time for him to fulfill her request has finally come, ordering him to cut open Ayumi’s heart to take back the treasure. Kazuma however nonchalantly says that they’re going home, believing that taking back the treasure on the day of the ritual will be far more interesting and exclaims how he can already imagine the look on their face as they stumble in despair from the heights of their joy as the ritual they thought will be a success comes to a failure.

Inside the Tsuwabuki mansion, Yuuji reports to Kureha that they were able to take back Ayumi safely, and talks to both Mayumi and Ayumi alone. Kureha expresses her ‘joy’ in seeing Mayumi again, telling her that she was lost regarding what she should do when she wasn’t around earlier, and lets out a devilish laugh as she touches Mayumi’s face. Yuuji who’s standing by outside the room gets surprised as he sees Kureha taking both Mayumi and Ayumi with her. The following day, Yuuji confronts Kureha regarding the whereabouts of Mayumi, seeing how she never came back after Kureha took her someplace last night. Kureha criticizes Yuuji for peeking into Mayumi’s room and calls him a stalker, but he simply ignores this and demands her for an answer, warning that he’ll certainly do something despite the fact that she’s Mayumi’s sister.

Kureha sneers at what Yuuji could do against her, but decides to take Yuuji to where Mayumi is as she sees how loyal he is to her. She leads him to the Tsuwabuki’s sanctuary, the very place where the ceremony will be held, and Yuuji vents out his anger on Kureha as he sees that both Mayumi and Ayumi were placed inside the crystal for the sacrifice. Kureha explains that the reason why Mayumi was placed there is because Ayumi’s energy became insufficient for the ceremony due to the fact that she ran away and so they weren’t able to complete the adjustments to her body. Mayumi will have to provide for that ‘insufficiency’ since their clan gives utmost priority to the success of the grand festival, but Kureha assures Yuuji that Mayumi won’t die from this, so long as no one interferes in the ritual and the seal will be complete at once.

The interference Kureha is expecting is from a wind user who also came to their place the other day with a pixie, whom she believes to be at par with her strength. Yuuji expresses his disbelief that someone as strong as Kureha would be his opponent and goes into despair as he thinks about the impossibility that he’ll win against such a person, prompting Kureha to ask him what he’s going to do if she tells him that she’ll be able to bestow him power which will allow him to protect the ones he love.

Thoughts

Overall, I found this a great episode, seeing how Ren develops from all this interactions with Ayumi. I was especially touched by Ayumi’s patriotism and willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of saving people without letting out any word of protests, despite their cruelty. I know that she’s simply a ‘clone’, but she has developed to have feelings of her own, and it’s admirable that she humbly accepted her fate as the sacrifice for the Tsuwabuki’s ritual. I consider her even more mature and whose life is more valuable than Mayumi actually, seeing how Mayumi has become all twisted, probably attributed to the deeds of her family o_O (Ayumi has certainly grown on me… and I love her dearly now… ;___;)

Animation-wise, I actually thought it became quite good… until I watched past half of the episode, then it became worse… x___x (somewhat like the quality in episode 7), particularly with the way Yuuji and Tiana looked like, but the way they animated Kureha remained consistent all throughout (favoritism? o_O)

Further thoughts on Ren

Under normal circumstances, I don’t really like guys who easily fall under the charms of a woman who shows a face of sadness or such other ‘tactics’, a trait I commonly find in male characters who are ‘spineless’ (especially if the guy already has someone he supposedly loves and still can’t resist the request of the other girl *remembers Kimagure Orange Road* D: ). But of course this isn’t the case with Ren because he has only set his eyes in Ayumi, his first love, and the reason why he can’t resist her is because he doesn’t want to make her feel bad (aww~).

Despite the fear I have that Ren might turn out to be the kind of guy I mentioned, I won’t go on thinking about that and be contented with seeing how cute of a couple Ren and Ayumi are (despite my sadness at the thought of what’s going to happen to Ayumi ;___; ). From the past episodes, we’ve seen how Ren has grown in terms of handling circumstances where he has to choose between what’s right and wrong for the sake of protecting the one he loves, as well as in coming up with strategies on how to go about defeating his enemies. He always thinks of his brother Kazuma when he’s faced with these difficult situations, knowing well how Kazuma can easily handle them. Ren however hasn’t gone through as much as Kazuma for him to become ruthless and simply kill of a person so easily, which is the reason why he got worried when Yuuji still stands up to fight him, because he wasn’t up to killing people just yet. The tension in this situation was clearly shown in the novel, where Ren thought about what Ayumi told him of that if blurting out ‘harsh’ words will ‘taint’ his heart, and was hesitating between ‘tainting’ is hands and kill him for the sake of protecting Ayumi, or leave things be and just let Ayumi die ‘beautifully’. But in the end, Ren wasn’t able to show if he really could kill off another person for the sake of protecting someone, because Mayumi already grabbed Ayumi and torments him before he can attack.

Ren was completely shocked by everything revealed to her by Mayumi, and as we’ve seen from the preview, it’s going to take the likes of someone like Ayano to make him snap out of his thoughts and gain the resolve to fight again :3

On Yuuji

There wasn’t much shown about the past of Yuuji and Mayumi yet, and I wonder just what it is that made him so loyal to her… There’s got to be some deeper explanation as to why he’s so dedicated in protecting Mayumi, and is even like a dog who’ll do everything for his ‘master’ o___o Too bad Mayumi simply sees him as her follower… >< I wonder if we’re going to see some developments on both Mayumi and Yuuji with what’s going to happen in the next episodes, or perhaps they’ll be one of the other neglected side characters the author can easily kill off without much regard ><

On Mayumi and Kureha (as siblings)

Notice how Kureha is rather cold to her sister, despite the fact that they are siblings? Kureha doesn’t care about her sister’s life so long as their grand festival becomes a success and from the looks of it, it seems that she actually wants ‘something’ to happen to Mayumi, like she bears a grudge on her. It’s been mentioned in the previous episode that their father (the clan head) is bedridden due to a sickness, and I’m thinking that Kureha probably did something which made him fall ill (attacked his ‘mind’, or tormented him perhaps). I believe the real score between these siblings will be revealed in the later episodes, either next week or the next week after :3

On Kazuma’s ‘sane mode’

Kazuma seems to have gained back his ‘sanity’ in this episode as we don’t see him doing those hysterical laughs like he did previously ^^;;;; He showed this serious look on his face with the mention of having a ‘sacrificial ritual’, uttering his disgust over it as it reminds him of a similar thing happened in his past. Given this, Kazuma will be able to “hit three birds with one stone”, as he will be able to get the pixie treasure back, defeat the strongest clan of Earth users, and at the same time stop their ritual of sacrifice.

On Speculations and Other Predictions

From what I’ve seen in these last two episode, as well as what was shown in the preview, I’m thinking that the Earth Spirit bestowed its power to the Tsuwabukis with the condition that they’ll use this power to prevent Mt.Fuji from erupting, which will probably cause it harm as it dwells within the sanctuaries of the Tsuwabuki (or within Mt.Fuji).

The ‘theories’ regarding the pixie’s egg treasure from the discussions in the previous episode proves to be true, as we saw that the egg lies within Ayumi herself, which is probably what breathes her life. But given that the egg is Ayumi’s life-force, this egg would have to be retrieved before the ritual commences or else all its energy will be used up in the process of creating the seal. Given this, Mayumi will be left as the ‘sole’ sacrifice, which Yuuji won’t allow to happen because he certainly won’t allow her to die.

With Kureha promising Yuuji that she’ll bestow him power, I believe she’s going to ‘bewitch’ the Earth Spirit into granting her wish and do something to Yuuji, like perhaps transform him into the golem we see in the next episode’s preview, who’s going to fight with Kazuma to prevent him from interfering. Kazuma will have to face both Yuuji and Kureha in this case, considering that Kureha is the one Kazuma really wants to defeat.

I wonder if they’ll be able to put an end to this ritual, knowing that the only way they can stop the Tsuwabukis from performing this is to cast a seal on Mt.Fuji that’s strong enough to withstand for a lifetime, or perhaps defeat the powerful majuu itself (like in the case of Geho, who Kazuma simply defeated in a whim with his contractor powers).

On the next episode preview

It looks like the discussion of Ayano and Soushu about the Tsuwabukis I mentioned in my deep frying of the previous episode will be shown in the upcoming episode, where we’ll see how Ayano understands the ‘value’ of the Tsuwabukis with the ritual they perform, but could not accept the fact that they can simply perform this ritual without remorse and even takes pride in it. Ren snaps out of his daze and goes to where the ritual is being performed with the help of Ayano, and gets to have an encounter with Kazuma and Tiana who has another business in the same place. (I wonder how Ayano’s going to react once she sees Tiana…:p)

P.S. There’s no deep-frying this week, since this episode [once again] stayed faithful to the novel. I just mentioned some little tidbit regarding what was mentioned in the novel in my thoughts :p In any case, if GONZO keeps this up, I’ll end up not having any more deep frying posts… LOL

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