Kaze no Stigma Episode 21 - The Berserk Wind User

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A duel between 2nd class players is being held in a coliseum, graced with many spectators who long to witness this fateful battle. Devil Summoner Rai and Shining Shin are the contenders in this match, who are determined to become a 1st class “seed” once they get to defeat their opponent. Shin throws insults at Rai for his incompetent abilities since he simply uses the powers of the monsters he summon and not his own.

Rai then shows him just how powerful he can be as he summons multiple beasts at once. Shin frantically escapes the battleground but the crowd stops him and demands to give them a good fight. Desperate and powerless in his current situation, Shin cries out his desire to have more power, which was granted to him right at that instant. He gets back on his feet and defeats the summoned monsters, inflicting damage on Rai as well.

Rai summons more beasts to defeat Shin, but Kazuma interrupts their battle, interrogating both players regarding Pandemonium’s whereabouts. With Kazuma ignored by Rai, he shows him just how serious he was with what he asked them earlier as he kills off all of the beasts he summoned. Rai tells Kazuma that he doesn’t know where Pandemonium is, but he doesn’t quite believe this. He ruthlessly searches for information directly from his head, leaving him almost lifeless. Kazuma does the same with Shin, leaving the crowd in frantic horror as they run for their lives.

The day after the incident, Kirika together with Ayano and Ren investigate on the case, and see traces of wind blades in the scene. They find it hard to believe that this is Kazuma’s doing, but this evidence together with the testimony of witnesses as to how the perpetrator is killing off people just to find out Pandemonium’s whereabouts points to no one else but Kazuma. In some other place, Utsumi has managed to level up and become a rune master, determined to seek revenge against Nanase.

Seeing how Wernhard is allowing someone like Utsumi to have powers and use it for his own will, Lapis starts to question just what his intentions really are. Wernhard admits that they have already gathered up most of the information they need, and that staying in Japan doesn’t have anything to do with the accomplishment of their plans. The reason why Wernhard intends to stay is for them to witness the interesting things that are going to unfold from here on, which Lapis couldn’t quite comprehend. Wernhard reminds Lapis that she might not be a human, but she’s no ordinary doll either. She was built to have emotions of her own, and Wernhard believes that being able to have her own consciousness, which will allow her to feel happiness and fun (and interest in things) is her greatest mission.

That night, Izumi and Catherine continue to keep watch over Nanase, where a ‘kekkai’ (force field / barrier) is built around her house for her protection. A sudden wind attack breaks the kekkai which Izumi created, and Catherine readies herself to face the enemy. Kazuma makes his appearance, and Catherine never suspected one bit that he was the one behind it. She even thinks that he came there to help them out, until Izumi warns her that Kazuma was the one who destroyed the barrier. Izumi questions his intentions behind all this, but he knocks her down unconscious to silence her. Catherine attacks Kazuma after insulting her abilities, but ruthlessly attacks her with his wind. He then lets out a sly smile as he sees Nanase being led outside her house.

The police finds out about this incident the following day, where both Catherine and Izumi are brought to the hospital due to their injuries. Kirika tells Ayano the details about the incident that night, making Ayano think that perhaps Kazuma sided with Wernhard for Lapis / Rin’s sake. Catherine explains that it’s actually the opposite. He simply used Nanase to lead him to where Utsumi is, in the hopes of finding out Pandemonium’s whereabouts. Ayano still can’t over the fact that Kazuma did all this. She knows for a fact that Kazuma is haughty, egotistic, domineering, a bum, and possess other negative traits which are too many to mention. But despite all this, she believes that this kind of deed isn’t something Kazuma would do.

Contrary to Ayano, Kirika wasn’t the least bit surprised about this, considering that this is the same Kazuma she met two years ago in London. They worked together in one case that time, and meeting the rumored “diabolic Wind User” certainly confirmed all the rumors she heard about him – someone who doesn’t hold back in killing people, and uses everyone and everything he can for getting what he wants. It was such an unpleasant experience for Kirika that she hoped upon not meeting him ever again. With this dark Kazuma that she knew, Kirika saw just how much he’s changed when she met him again in Japan.

Kirika doesn’t know exactly what triggered this change in him, but reminds Ayano that what they should focus on is bringing Kazuma back. Ayano thinks about Tsuoi Rin’s impact on Kazuma, that simply remembering this past he had was enough to revert him to his old self. Kazuma has long been trapped in this painful past he had, and Kirika believes that there’s no one else but Ayano who can free him from this – by showing him that the present is far more valuable than the past. Ayano can’t believe that Kirika would entrust this task to her, and was filled with much anxiety if she can really do this.

Thoughts

We finally see Kazuma’s dark side in this episode, which will come as a great shock for people who are unaware of the “real Kazuma” of the novel. The anime tried so hard to conceal that side of Kazuma, perhaps for this plot development to have more impact? I don’t know… >.> Despite how he was portrayed in the novel however, the difference between the normal heartless Kazuma and the berserk Kazuma (which is what he is now) is apparent.

This is exactly what Ayano was referring to when she said “Kazuma is haughty, egotistic, domineering, a bum…”, with all the negative traits Kazuma has (unfortunately, Kazuma was shown as a goody good throughout most of the series that people might actually wonder what his negative traits are) Ayano has indeed grown to know much about Kazuma’s (present) self, and she accepts him exactly for who he is. Despite the harsh treatment she gets from Kazuma most of the time, she never lost hope in him, and sees the good traits he has.

Judging from what Kirika said and how she sees Ayano as the “only hope” to bringing Kazuma back, she seems to be pointing out that the reason for Kazuma’s change is no one else but Ayano. Despite how I love the Ayano x Kazuma pairing, I’d have to admit that the impact of Ayano to Kazuma’s life isn’t really apparent (especially in the anime, as I always say…). We get to see tidbits as to how Kazuma is able to gain insights and realizes things because of Ayano, with his thoughts in the novel. The impact that I see is in terms of how Ayano gives Kazuma much happiness and enjoyment (with all the teasing… ^^;;; ). She blurts out stuff which leaves Kazuma dumbfounded (like in the Misao arc, when they were fighting against the Vritra), which actually leads to developments as to how Kazuma sees Ayano. It might not have been mentioned, but I believe Kazuma admires Ayano’s strength and strongheadedness, as well as her vulnerability (which is why he wanted to protect her, way back in the fight with Geho / Ryuuya).

It’ll now be up to Ayano to convince Kazuma to finally let go of his past, and set his eyes to the present (set his eyes to her :p). How Ayano will make him realize that the present world (with her), is more important than his scarred past, is certainly something to look forward to. She has to show Kazuma that there’s someone in his present life who cares for him deeply, and accepts him for who he is. I’ll be cheering for Ayano :3

Kirika said that at this current state of Kazuma, he’s even more dangerous than Wernhard, since he won’t / can’t distinguish people and won’t hold back in getting rid of anyone who gets in his way. This is just what he showed in how he dealt with Izumi and Catherine. Let me just add something that the anime seem to have missed (or is this some information yet to be revealed… hmm). Kirika mentioned that Kazuma seems to know that all this is but a game Wernhard created, and Kazuma’s simply playing along with it. The usual Kazuma wouldn’t have gotten himself involved in this little “play” (hunting for the chosen ones) and would just find the boss in order for him to exert less effort as much as possible.

There were only slight differences I’ve noticed for this episode, mostly in terms of the improvisation they did because of the addition of Catherine. First, the 2nd class player Rai is actually ‘Kou’ in the novel and he’s the “Hell Hound” guy Kazuma defeated before. He leveled up and became the “devil summoner”. But apparently, the anime didn’t want to show this relationship when it should’ve been a nifty addition. After sucking both Kou and Shin’s minds for the information, Kazuma supposedly finds nil (and, they didn’t die… the anime made it seem that they did >__<).

He found out the useful information about Utsumi’s jailbreak and how he’s after Nanase from the police newbie Daiki. Remember that Kazuma wasn’t in the meeting when Kirika mentioned about Utsumi’s escape from prison, so there’s no way he can actually know about this unless he got some other information. It’s not really plot-critical, but it still gives ‘loopholes’ in the story, though people can simply ignore this and not really change anything.

When Kazuma approached Daiki, he didn’t notice the flare of Kazuma’s eyes and talked to him like usual. Daiki confided the information about Utsumi’s escape, and remarks that it’s really unfortunate that this incident should happen. They already lack manpower and yet they also have to assign bodyguards to watch over Nanase. Kazuma was pretty harsh in his reply, “Well, it can’t be helped. Ayano’s friend is involved here, and [the police] will certainly feel the wrath of her anger if anything goes wrong. Knowing that, Kirika must be desperate as well.” Daiki defends Ayano and tells Kazuma that she’s not that kind of person. He believes that Ayano is kind, and will certainly not do such an unreasonable thing. Kazuma simply ignores it and leaves.

When nighttime (or midnight) came, Kazuma goes to Nanase’s house and destroys the barrier she created. Izumi’s partner is just another member of the Special Investigation Unit, who went to get some stuff from the convenience store in the midst of Kazuma’s attack. Hence when he came back, Izumi is already unconscious and he sees Nanase being led outside her house. But he wasn’t able to find out where she went because she was led into this alternate dimension (which Kazuma had a difficult time finding as well).

There were also some things omitted in the conversation between Ayano and Kirika, like the humorous (and sarcastic) remark Ayano gave in the midst of her serious conversation with Kirika in the last scene. Remember that Kirika mentioned, “I didn’t want to meet him ever again”. Ayano then replies, “I see… and yet you guys were really close when you met in Japan…” Kirika explains that it was actually Kazuma who called out to her first, and she was really surprised to see how much he’s changed.

Another thing is that when Kirika told Ayano that they should put an end to what Kazuma's doing, Ayano shows some worry (just like in the anime) and tells Kirika "...Kazuma really liked Tsuoi Rin, isn't it? [enough for him to risk everything he has without any remorse, to the point of forsaking even morals and justice, just for her sake]" Ayano simply thought about this in the anime, and didn't really blurt it out. Lastly, when Kirika mentioned that there's no one else but Ayano who can bring back Kazuma, Ayano was taken aback and questioned this (I think that's supposed to be the normal reaction she should have had). Ayano says that there are other people whom Kazuma treasures more than her, like Soushu and Ren. Kirika however explains that both these two won't be effective in bringing Kazuma back the the present, since these people were part of Kazuma's life even in the past. Ayano came into Kazuma's life at "present" (after the tragedy), and is someone he holds dear (at the present as well), according to Kirika. Ayano was even more surprised and can't believe that she's actually important to Kazuma (and blushes), and Kirika tells her that it's ok to believe / pretend that it's true (since there's not much logical proof to support this (but I think it's evident that Kazuma treasures Ayano despite all the teasing and mischievousness, because she does look out for her welfare most of the time)). Furthermore, Ayano is from the Kannagi (referring to the fact that she's a worthy opponent to Kazuma), which makes her even more qualified for the job of making Kazuma back.

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