Volume 13

1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15
16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28| Top

Chapters Originally Published in:
	Shonen Sunday 2021 Vol. 52 - 2022 Vol. 11

Chapter 119: 抜け殻
Nuke gara
(Empty Husk)
Perched atop the roof that overhangs the shopping street, Nanoka watches as the new sink hole is patched over once again. Nanoka can sense that Byoki has departed the modern era and hurries back to the past to tell Mao. As soon as she passes through the gate she bumps into him. Worry turns to relief as Mao sees that Nanoka is alright. Due to Byoki's flight from the Reiwa era, he believed that something may have happened to Nanoka in the future. Nanoka explains that another sinkhole appeared before Byoki departed and Mao silently wonders if something had been buried in the spot where Nanoka's parents died. At the Five Color Shrine Byoki carries the hand and tosses it into the hole in the floor where it reattaches to the corpse that immediately awakens- cloaked in scars and with hair of pure white, Daigo returns to life. After shambling out of the temple he stares at the sky and croaks out the name "Sana". Elsewhere, in Kyoto, Natsuno finds Hyakka. Hyakka had heard that Natsuno was still alive but this is the first time he has seen her in centuries. They sit down and talk of old times, Hyakka says he heard that Natsuno was searching for a missing hand while she comments that she remembers him being fond of Sana. Suddenly Natsuno asks if Hyakka would like to know who really killed Sana. Hyakka is stunned by this casual inquiry and Natsuno hands him a piece of flint that he senses is infused with a powerful wicked aura. Natsuno explains that the flint will lure out the murderer but says that Hyakka should pay a visit to the army barracks in the meantime.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2021 Vol. 52 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 1
	Publication Date:November 24, 2021
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: Yokai Giga (妖怪ギガ) by Satsuki Sato ended in this issue of Shonen Sunday. The series began in 2017 and ran for 11 volumes. The annual New Year's cards are advertised for sale featuring original color artwork by each of the mangaka appearing in the magazine. Once more we see the story shift to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. By the Taisho era Kyoto was no longer the capital of Japan, however important activity was still taking place there. Genzo Shimadzu II, one of Japan's greatest inventors, was building the first x-ray machine in Japan only a year after its was first introduced in Germany. Additionally he made significant advancements in battery technology. The Shimadzu Corporation, manufacturers of medical equipment is still in existance today. Buildings such as Dendoin (抜け殻) in Kyoto are lovely brick relics of Taisho era architecture that still stand today. We see Natsuno getting some materials out of the wooden case she carries on her back. This case is called a "zushi" (厨子). A "zushi" is a double doored case used to store Buddhist sutras, however they are not always for religious items, wealthy people used them for storing scrolls and books. The Shrine Rat in Takahashi's Inuyasha carries a similar case. Table of Contents Q: If you could instantly teleport anywhere, where would you go? A: Okinawa.

Chapter 120: 睨み火
Nirami hi
(Fiery Glare)
Late at night at the army barracks a platoon of soldiers all sleep when suddenly flames begin to rain down on the grounds of the base. The soldiers hurry out and are confronted by flying, flaming eyeballs whose gaze knocks them out with a mere glance. In the distance Natsuno watches as Hyakka sends the eyes, a technique he calls glaring fire, towards the base. Hyakka explains that the flames do not actually burn but the gaze will put someone to sleep for three days. Hyakka adds that he is trying to coax Hakubi into revealing himself, as it was Hakubi that told him centuries ago that Mao was the one who murdered Sana. During the Heian era Hakubi recalls being awoken by their master and told to search for a runaway. Heading outside to begin his search he finds a miasma has built up around the Goko temple. Hakubi recognizes the miasma as the power that is infused in the scrolls he was given to use in curses, something that made his own arts more powerful when he used the scrolls infused with the dark concentration. He realizes that the runaway girl he is seeking must be the one generating the miasma- Yurako. The master tells Hakubi how to use a talisman to capture Yurako and when he sees her he throws out a storm of ofuda paper that causes her to crash to the ground from the back of the demon she is making her escape upon. When Hakubi arrives to collect Yurako he finds her murmuring "Mao". Days later Hakubi is having tea with Yurako and telling her of the glaring fire attacks that have been occuring nightly at the barracks. He knows Hyakka must be the one behind the attacks. Some nights later Mao, Nanoka and Otoya join Natsuno in watching Hyakka attack the barracks. Nanoka is shocked to see Natsuno's eye has healed after the severe wound she received. Suddenly Hakubi appears as well marking the first time he has seen Natsuno in 900 years. Natsuno cuts through the pleasantries and asks Hakubi directly why he tried to pin Sana's death on Mao.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 1 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 2
	Publication Date: December 1, 2021
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: In this issue of Shonen Sunday there are a number of advertisements for Takahashi related items including a collectible print (in three sizes) of her current cover for Shonen Sunday S featuring the cast of Yashahime. Also ads for the QPosket Lum figurines and the new episode of Yashahime. The military barracks give some insight into the status of the growing Japanese military in the mid-1920s. The Imperial Japanese Army had successfully defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and by the 1920s was looking to push back against western influence in Asia. In a few years Japan would develop the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (大東亜共栄圏) and by the mid-1930s plans were enacted to liberate other Asian nations from western colonialism, however this was actually a plan for Japanese dominance in the region (which laid much of the groundwork for the Pacific theater of World War II). The Mukden Incident (also known as the Manchurian Incident) is a few short years away from when this chapter takes place. In chapter 88 we saw Yurako knocked out of the sky by the storm of ofuda paper. The cause of that was revealed in this chapter to have been Hakubi. Table of Contents Q: What's a thing you've done lately that has left you feeling warm and fluffy? A: When a former assistant of mine brought their child over for a visit.

Chapter 121: 本物
Honmono
(The Real Thing)
Natsuno lays out the true sequence of events that took place on the day Sana died- that Sana's heart was ripped out by Yurako's blackness, that Byoki then appeared and only then possessed Mao and caused him to rampage. However Hakubi lied and said that it was the Byoki-possessed-Mao that killed Sana and soon everyone believed him due to the chaos of that day. Confronted with the truth, Hakubi confesses he lied to protect the image of the Goko Clan. He knew that he could not let word get out about Yurako and so he put the blame on Mao instead. Hakubi explains that he knew Mao had also met Yurako and made a strong impression on her. He adds that he believes Yurako killed Sana due to Sana being a rival for Mao's affections. Hyakka states that these are all lies from Hakubi- that Hakubi does not even realize that Yurako has Sana's face now and that all of these events were engineered so that Hakubi could take over the Goko Clan. Hakubi explains that Yurako is the embodiment of the power of the Goko Clan, that she has absorbed all of the curses that were cast against them and the laments that she changed her face to that of Sana when he found her twisted true face lovely enough. Nanoka realizes that perhaps Hakubi is actually in love with Yurako. In the dark sky overhead everyone senses Yurako's presence but when Mao shouts at the heavens demanding to know why she killed Sana, Hakubi flees and the darkness fades. Back at Yurako's home, Hakubi tells her that Mao knows the truth that she was the one who killed Sana. Yurako slaps Hakubi across the face causing the soldier to smirk and think how he likes to see her angry. Later Natsuno asks Hyakka why he was so upset by everything that happened tonight and he confesses he was the one that set the temple with all of the secret scrolls on fire when he was with the corpse of Sana.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2021 Vol. 2-3 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 3
	Publication Date: December 8, 2021
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: This is a double numbered issue of Shonen Sunday meaninging that nothing was published the following week in order to give the artists a break for the holiday season. This chapter references "jaki"(邪気). This can be translated as a "demonic energy" or "evil aura". Readers of Takahashi's work might wish to know that both Naraku in Inuyasha and Yurako in MAO use the same energy (jaki) at times. However, this is easy to confuse with the term "shoki" (瘴気) which is a poisonous vapor. Occasionally both are translated into English as "miasma" (which is not an incorrect term, though it can confuse the two source words from the Japanese which have different connotations). The difference can be difficult to parse. Jaki could be said to be malice and anger made manifest into an energy, a wicked power. Shoki has a more literal sense of a toxic, poison cloud. Shoki can be a term used literally as "swamp gas". So in summation: Jaki(邪気) - demonic energy Shoki (瘴気) - poisonous vapor Table of Contents Q: What kinds of foods and perishables do you always keep on hand? A: Eggs.

Chapter 122: 青い光の玉
Aoi hikari no tama
(Sphere of Blue Light)
Hyakka thinks back to the initial summons to the Five-Sided Temple and the fallout of that meeting. The survivor would inherit what Mao was promised- control of the Goko Clan. Daigo was the first to die and then suddenly a number of other powerful members of the clan were killed as someone suspected they may have been invited to the Five-Sided Temple. Hyakka was targeted but found the curses easy enough to counter. One rainy night amid the chaos that had broken out, Sana came to Hyakka and asked for his aid. The pair headed towards the storehouse where the Goko Clan's most precious treasures and techniques were kept. When Hyakka mentions this Mao says that must have been around the time that Shiranui had cut his face as he believed Mao had murdered their master. Upon finding her father dead, Sana asked Hyakka to burn down the treasure hall and all of the curses and tools stored there. She said she did not want the clan to carry on. She asked Hyakka to do this and then flee. As the treasure hall burned, Hyakka watched Sana kneel next to her dead father and take his hand. Initially he believed that she was mourning his death, however he watched her pry his closed fist open and then a small ball of blue light flew out and streaked away. Sana then told Hyakka to flee the temple complex though she told him she had to remain behind and see everything to its end. When Hyakka eventually returned he learned about Sana's death. Mao reveals that he too saw the blue light floating in the sky the evening that everything whent amiss. He explains that he followed the light to the treasure hall and that is where he found the Goko Clan's master already killed and Shiranui waiting to attack him. When everyone asks Natsuno if she is familiar with the light she states she was not and then makes ready to leave. She says she is no longer searching for the missing hand either. With Natsuno now departing, Otoya asks if they have any suspects about their master's murderer. Mao, Hyakka and Kamon all state that the master was very unpopular and that anyone could have held a grudge against him. In the countryside Daigo silently strolls into a small village where the villagers provide him with clothes and wonder if he is a foreigner. Unknown to him he is under the watchful eye of Byoki. Natsuno begins her journey as she thinks about the blue ball of light the others claim to have seen.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 4-5 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 4
	Publication Date: December 21, 2021
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: There is mention of the "treasure hall" in this chapter, the room where the most valuable teachings, scrolls and items are housed within the Goko Temple are held. In Japanese this is called the "homotsuden" (宝物殿). This is a standard name for places where important artifacts are held for safe keeping. In modern parlance, many "homotsuden" have become museums for items that belonged to members of the imperial family. The mystery of "who burned down the treasure hall" store room was first brought up by Byoki in chapter 19 as he implied he knew who it was (or at least that Mao's memory of what caused it was incorrect). An incorrect presumption about the fire was made by Hakubi in chapter 55. The mystery of what the blue ball of light is will be answered in chapter 142. At the end of the chapter we see Natsuno walking past a sign that says "Hayashi Dry Goods" (林乾物/Hayashi Kanbutsu). This is written right-to-left rather than left-to-right. This is called migi yokogaki and was seen in the early days of Japan trying to establish common writing rules for text that was not written in the traditional top-to-bottom style. We will learn the likely culprit of the curses that Hyakka was able to evade in chapter 148. One of the villagers comments that Daigo looks as if he is a foreigner (外国の人/gaikoku no hito). In the 1920s a "foreigner" could truly have been from anywhere in the world, however Daigo's origins in the Heian period (794-1185 CE) means that he was in Japan prior to the arrival of anyone from the western world (in 1543 when Portuguese sailors were blown off course and landed in Japan). Educated guesses would suggest Daigo is perhaps meant to be Ryukuan, Ainu or perhaps someone from Southeast Asia, though these are mere guesses. Ultimately, his heritage will likely be left vague. Table of Contents Q: Tell us your 2021 highlights! A: The steady advance of the Hanshin Tigers in the first half of the year.

Chapter 123: 雨乞い
Amakoi
(Bringer of Rain)
Back at home in the present day, Nanoka wonders about Natsuno's search for the right hand and the developments in the investigation of Sana's death. She ponders how the new damage done at the shuttered shopping street has already been repaired and Byoki's return to the Taisho era seems to coincide with Natsuno's abandonment of her own quest to find the missing hand. Nanoka travels back to the past and shares her thoughts with Mao who agrees that these things must all be connected. Mao expresses that someone is clearly manipulating Sana. Nanoka worries about how Mao is handling the revelations of Yurako's involvement with the death of Sana and he mentions that he had thought all of this would be over once he figured out what happened with Sana, but now Byoki, his fellow Goko Clan members, and so many other mysteries have complicated matters. Mao still wonders who was it that made the surviving Goko Clan immortal. Mao tells Nanoka if he cannot find the answers to all of these mysteries this will never end. Elsewhere some farmers beat a young man next to their flooded rice fields as they tell him to leave their village. It seems he said he could bring rain, but when the rains came they believed they were merely a coincidence and are now refusing to pay him for his help. The sleepy-eyed young man tells the villagers they will incur his divine wrath as he takes out his conch shell horn and blows it. Water bubbles out from the shell and surrounds their heads as he seems intent on drowning them there in the middle of their fields. At the Milk Hall, Tenko tells Mao and Nanoka about an unusual drought that has been plaguing some nearby villages and an odd young man will often arrive to pray for rain. Mao thinks this could be a water-user and decides to go and investigate Mikumari Village. On the train to Mikumari Village, Mei and Renji have been tasked to investigate what is causing the drought at Shiranui's behest. Mei thinks the droughts sound familiar to something that she has encountered before. Unbeknown to Mei and Renji, Mao, Nanoka and Otoya are also riding on the same train.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 6 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 5
	Publication Date: January 5, 2022
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: When Tenko is relating the rumor about the young man who comes to relieve the drought in neighboring villages she calls him a "shugenja" (修験者). A simple translation would be a "apprentice," however in a strict sense a shugenja is anyone who practices a form of mountain-based asceticism called "shugendo" (修験道). Shugendo is an amalgamation of Shinto and Buddhist concepts that originated during the 7th century (the Heian era). At the time of this story in the 1920s, Shugendo would have been illegal. The Japanese government had drawn a strict philosophical partition between Shintoism and Buddhism in 1872. Because Shugendo is a mix of various aspects of both religions it was banned until after religious freedom was allowed following World War 2. Mountains play a major role in Shugendo as they are seen as a holy site for deities and so much of the ceremony and practice of this religion takes place in mountainous areas. You can read more about shugendo in the cultural notes section. The village is referred to as Mikumari Village (水分村/Mikumari Mura). Mikumari is a Shinto god of water distribution. A literal interpretation would be "Moisture Village" or "Water Village". Table of Contents Q: What do you consider the main dish in a new years cuisine? A: Shrimp.

Chapter 124: 乗っ取り屋
Nottoriya
(The Parasite)
Mao and Nanoka survey the arid landscape of the drought-plagued Mikumari Village. At the same time Renji and Mei survey the village and notice the frame of a factory being built with a huge smokestack looming over the scene. They overhear an old man making a fuss, accusing some of the factory laborers of hiring someone to cause the drought. The laborers drag the old man into a nearby office and a slick, wealthy looking man named Onitake with the vague look of an ayakashi looms over him. The man threatens to make the old man's family disappear and sell off his granddaughters if he continues to make trouble at the factory site. Suddenly vines ensnare the man's thugs and Mei stands in the doorway stating that something similar once happened in her village. The man recognizes Mei immediately and recalls her village, Mitazono, where he had run a similar operation in the past. Onitake calls Sasuga, the young man that previously had been claiming he was able to bring forth the rain with his conch shell and asks him to kill Mei and Renji. Sasuga summons a waterspout to stave off Renji's kakachu and he hurls Mei from the office, impaling her on a distant tree branch. Mao and Nanoka hurry over and find Mei's vines removing the wooden limb from her torso and healing the gaping hole in her chest. Mao is shocked by the seed that is within Mei's body allowing her to heal herself so quickly.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 7 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 6
	Publication Date: January 12, 2022
	Pages: 3 (full color) 15 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: Mei's village is Mitazono Village (御手園村/Mitazono Mura). The kanji means "Handshake Garden Village". The ayakashi-looking man is named Onitake (鬼竹). These kanji mean "oni/devil" and "bamboo". The water-user in the previous chapter is revealed to be named Sasuga (流石). The kanji means "flowing stone" however 流石 is also a phrase meaning "as one would expect". Table of Contents Q: As a child, what did you use your otoshidama on? A: I'd set the money aside but before I knew it, it was gone.

Chapter 125: 魄の種
Haku no tane
(Seeds of Haku)
Mao remembers centuries ago bringing an wounded stray dog from the mountains to the Goko Clan's temple and asking his master if there was anything he could do to heal the animal before it succumbed to its injuries. The master placed a seed into the dog's wounds and as vines spewed from the hole the dog's injury was mended. In the Taisho era, Mei uses the same seed to heal her own wounds and Mao protests, telling her that using the seed is dangerous. Mao explains to Mei that the dog lived for awhile longer, but within a few months the vines erupted, covering the dog and strangling it death. Mao offers to remove the seed from Mei to save her life, but she tosses out a bramble of limbs and runs away. As she flees Nanoka notices she has left behind her kimono and hurries to return it to her. Mei is intent on catching Onitake before he can escape again. Inside the office, Onitake is hurriedly emptying his safe and telling Sasuga that he will hire as a bodyguard to ensure he escapes. Onitake recalls that his henchmen all vanished in Mitazono Village and he suspects Mei was the cause. Renji hurries to rejoin the fight as he recalls Shiranui's command to find the water user who was causing the drought and follow them. Onitake rubs his forehead where Mei flicked a seed and suddenly the knot bursts, flowers bloom in the pollen emitted from Onitake's head and he finds himself unable to move as roots tangle around his feet. Mao tries to tell Mei that killing Onitake is not worth it, as she explains she will tell him what happened to her village.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 8 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 7
	Publication Date: January 19, 2022
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: The haku (魄) referenced in the title is "yin energy" (as in yin-yang). Coincidentally haku was featured as a major plot element in the episode 39 of Yashahime that aired the week this chapter was published. You can also read more about haku in our cultural notes. The dog Mao finds in the past is a wild dog (山犬/yamainu). This can be translated literally as a "mountain dog" but it the connotation is more or less a "stray". However it can also be used to refer to an extinct type of Japanese wolf that is believed to have died out around the 1910s. At the end of this week's Shonen Sunday was a preview of next week's issue promoting MAO color pages, a Rumiko Takahashi pin-up and the first collected volume of Takashi Shiina's Yashahime adaptation. A new anime adaptation of Urusei Yatsura was announced on New Year's Day, so there is a lot of excitement around Takahashi's works at the time of publication. Table of Contents Q: What's the smartphone app you use the most? A: LINE. I've only recently made my smartphone debut.

Chapter 126: 御手園村
Mitazono Mura
(Mitazono Village)
Mei recounts her childhood, explaining that her father was a westerner who had come to Japan to introduce foreign farming methods. It was then that they visited Mei's mother's hometown- Mitazono Village. Mei's mother had died and they had returned to Mitazono Village to inter her remains. Mei and her father remained in the village for ten years, working alongside the villagers to help the crops succeed as they never had before. Mei recounts it was then that Onitake arrived and opened a factory in Mitazono Village. Soon the factory began polluting the crops and the town was divided into those that supported the factory and those that sided with the farmers. Mei's father opposed the the factory and when the local government officials refused to step in he took his complaints to the factory. Mei followed him and the other men from her village and witnessed one of the drunken factory workers brutally smash her father's head with a shovel, killing him instantly. Onitake then tells the others to kill all the witnesses. The villagers and the corpse of Mei's father were all tossed into a pit while Onitake tied up Mei. Terrified, she overhead the sounds of men of Mitazono Village being buried alive as Onitake's men talked about what their boss was going to do with Mei and how he would send her away to China after he tired of her. Luckily a childhood friend from the village saw where they had left Mei and freed her, helping her escape before the men could harm her. She fell off a cliff and into the polluted water where she knew she would die. It was then that Shiranui rose up from the water and offered her the seed that would revive her and heal her wounds, the seed that Mao has told her will eventually kill her. Shiranui trained Mei to manipulate plants and when she eventually returned to Mitazono Village she found a barn build over the mass grave of her father and heard that the man that freed her had disappeared the night she escaped. Mei reveals that Shiranui helped her track down the thugs that worked for Onitake; they were the men in the pit of the Garden of Longevity that she murdered. When Mao warns Mei that proceeding down the path of revenge and joining a new incarnation of the Goko Clan will lead to her death Sasuga pricks up his ears as if he recognizes the name of the clan.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2022 Vol. 9 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 8
	Publication Date: January 26, 2022
	Pages: 1 (full color) 17 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: The pin-up that was advertised last week turned out to be a vintage illustration of Urusei Yatsura repurposed to advertise the new anime adaptation. Twitter user @urusei_matsu_ pointed out that the illustration originally appeared in Shonen Sunday 1983 volume 21. An interview with the new voices of Ataru (Hiroshi Kamiya) and Lum (Sumire Uesaka) appeared this week as well. There is also the inclusion of a double-page spread catching readers up on some of the mysteries of the story. Mei reveals that her father was a foreigner. The term used is 外国人 (gaikokujin) so his specific nationality is not given (European or North American judging by his appearance). Because his death occured roughly ten years prior that would have placed his arrival in Mitazono Village sometime in the 1910s when Japan was embracing a great deal of Western industial models and methodology. An earlier example of a foreigner coming to Japan to introduce western techniques would be American William S. Clark who founded the Sapporo Agricultural College in 1876. His saying to his students, "Boys, be ambitious!" (少年よ大志を抱け!/Shonen yo, taishi o idake!) remains famous in Japan. In the flashback Onitake opens his shirt revealing his tattoos and a sarashi (晒し) tied around his stomach. Historically this worn by samurai to prevent their intestines from spilling out if their stomach was slashed. Mei's potential fate is being shipped off to mainland China. This flashback takes place at some point during the 1910s. During that decade Japan was increasing their involvement with China having taken control of former German conquests inside of China during World War I and issues the Twenty-One Demands which would increase their sphere of influence in eastern China. Another aspect of the fate of the farmers being buried alive and Mei's near fate of being sent to China is perhaps influenced by Sanpei Shirato's 1961 manga Akame (赤目). In the story a group of farmers are tossed into a pit and covered over while still alive. Their families are made to stomp on the covered soil, crushing their families who are buried beneath. A note from the author says this technique was used by the Japanese Imperial Army against the Chinese during the the Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II. In her childhood, Rumiko Takahashi was an avid reader of GARO magazine where Sanpei Shirato came to prominence. The identities of the yakuza in the hell pot from chapter 108 is clarified in this chapter. Mei's mother's remains are returned to her hometown as per her wishes. For more discussion of Japanese funerary practices and how those are depicted in the works of Rumiko Takahashi please consider giving our video a watch. Table of Contents Q: February 1st is the 69th anniversary of TV broadcasts (in Japan). What are your most memorable TV programs? A: Shin Hakkenden on NHK.

Chapter 127: 芽生の決意
Mei no ketsui
(Mei's Choice)
Bound up, Onitake demands that Sasuga kill Mei and all the others gathered around. Sasuga declines, saying he no longer wishes to work with Onitake. When Mao asks Sasuga how he learned to manipulate water he explains that the conch shell allows him to dry up water sources for villages and then charge to have the rain come and restore them. Mei thanks Mao and Nanoka for their kindness and then slips through a portal with Onitake in tow. Sasuga rushes through as well, deciding to follow Mei and Renji. In the escape Renji takes Onitake satchel filled with cash as well. With no one left to battle Mao and Nanoka go and visit Kamon to ask him about the Soul Seed that was keeping Mei alive. Nanoka is shocked when Kamon casually mentions that he made that centuries ago and had not thought of it in ages. Kamon explains that many other wood users had also tried to create the seed that their master requested, but it was Kamon's creation that was ultimately chosen. Nanoka tells Kamon that Mei has one of his seeds in her body and he wonders if she has adapted to it, though Mao reminds him what happened to other living beings that had the seed tested on them- eventually they were consumed by the ivy vines that would grow from within their bodies. Kamon reveals that he developed a way to kill the seed, but never shared it with their master. Kamon says that he can recreate the cure while Mao vows to use it to save Mei's life. Elsewhere at Shiranui's temple Sasuga reveals that he is a decendant of the Mizumari clan, a noted group of water users. Shiranui is familiar with the name from long, long ago and recalls that Masago worked with a young member of the Mizumaris. Sasuga explains that his recently deceased father told him that the Goko Clan's downfall is what also ruined their own family and if rumors of the Goko Clan's revival were true that if the Mizumaris could join them once more they might return to prominence. Mei and Renji return to the Hell Cauldron

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2021 Vol. 10 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 9
	Publication Date: February 2, 2022
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: Sasuga explains that he is a part of the Mizumari family (水鞠). Mizumari means "water ball". When Onitake is placed in the hell pot we once more revisit the other yakuza and sundry thugs that Mei had captured from chapter 108. More will be revealed about the Soul Seed in chapter 144. Table of Contents Q: What was a game you played as a child that left a lasting impression? A: Doodling.

Chapter 128: 廃屋の祟り
Haioku no tatari
(The Curse of the Abandoned Home)
With no further news regarding Shiranui and Hakubi's activities Mao is free to take up work looking into a supposedly haunted house. He claims that anyone that has lived in the house soon suffers from bad health and that when the house was going to be demolished the carpenters were injured one after another until even that had to be put on hold. Nanoka is surprised to find the crumbling house is built in a western style, and Mao reports that foreigners were the ones who originally built it. From the shattered windows ghostly faces all gaze out at Mao, Nanoka and Otoya as they make ready for the exorcism. Otoya gives Nanoka some of paper talismen to make ready for the work ahead. Mao follows a rancid smell and finds a large pot filled with a black liquid. Despite the house being abandoned for years the substance has not evaporated. Laying one of his talismen on the surface tendrils of goo emerge from the pot. In the other room Nanoka furiously waves her paper talismen around and watches in shock as they darken. Mao explains that she is doing a great job and the darkening paper means that she is doing the exorcism correctly. Nanoka, however, is frightened and does not enjoy being in the house. Mao spreads salt around to continue the purification ritual and then takes out a small coil of rope and watches as it squirms across the hardwood floor. Smashing through the floor Mao discovers the house was built on top of a well. Otoya explains to Nanoka that this may have angered a water god who in turn cursed the house. Suddenly black coils of what looks like hair erupt from the well and Mao becomes serious, shouting for Nanoka to stay back.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Shonen Sunday 2021 Vol. 11 MAO Tankobon Vol. 13 ch. 10
	Publication Date: February 9, 2022
	Pages: 18 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: As more foreigners began to live in Japan, they began to built western-style homes as well. You can read about western-style architecture in Japan here. The paper talismen or charms that Natsuno uses are called "reifu" (霊符). Reifu are a specific type of talisman known more generally as "ofuda" (お札), which are generally Buddhist or Shinto in origin. However the type used by Natsuno, reifu, were introduced to Japan from China and are Daoist. Ofuda were introduced to Japan via onmyodo before eventually becoming appropriated by Buddhism and Shintoism. These reifu are from a collection of 72 called the Taijo Shinsen Chintaku Reifu (太上神仙鎮宅霊符, "Talismans of the Most High Gods and Immortals for Home Protection"). Table of Contents Q: What comes to your mind as the ultimate dish to go with white rice? A: Salmon.

1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15
16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28| Top