Chapter 85
After last month I was prepared for a more sombre episode in which our gang anguishes over their shortcoming, but instead this month felt... elucidating, fulfilling, therapeutic in a way?
Honestly, this sensation that our gang has truly gotten the blessing and backing of a major organisation feels exhilarating, like they're taking them seriously!
The Gentouga Family
Finally, professional opinion on Keitaro's curse! I don't care how little clue we got, it feels great that someone is actually looking at it!
"Sensitive", huh? Not something he can treat "quickly", huh? Sheesh, just what monstrosity did Keitaro and Eiko make contact with all those years ago and how deep are its ramifications!?
And if I'm reading between Oboss and Yayoi's lines, something has changed with his right hand since their encounter with the Psychic Miko. And we don't even get to know if it's now better or worse...
But as much as it'd be nice to hear more, I get that this powerful curse is benign enough that it can wait while there's other more urgent and lethal priorities like the Replaced, Tein and the upcoming Night Parade on the horizon. (Really speaks to Kondo-sensei's writing of how convincing this is)
--
So the much rumoured little brother Rintaro with his high spiritual senses is at last named in-story and officially considered "gifted" huh? (The raws had Oboss acknowledge Rintaro and Keitaro by name in that panel!)
Whilst I can see how Oboss' claim of Rintaro being gifted and Keitaro being normal came about (because of their spiritual senses), what I'm more interested in is from
where and
who did such claims reach him?
Like, did Keitaro's shrine priestess aunt decide to obfuscate Keitaro's true potential post-incident from the other Spiritualists in order to protect and keep him from being noticed or investigated or something? But that wouldn't make sense, with how info on Rintaro is still in the open and effectively leaving him to get all the attention instead...
But I wouldn't take the above thoughts too seriously, onto the next topic.
The True Graduate House
I can't believe I didn't recognise that Oboss was describing the Houzuki Family's very own tragedy. Crazy what a little simplification can do.
I can't believe Oboss not only provided a new Graduate House, he furnished it into an outright Pokemon Center, restoration device and all that!
Nice to confirm that Yayoi's family wasn't descended from gifted bloodlines or anything, and they shouldn't be responsible for the basement too. And yet I wonder,
it can't be a coincidence that Yayoi's home was atop of a power spot, there's a conspiracy somewhere.
- The builders happened to ignore the underground room and continue building such a classy 3-storey house atop of it?
- Yayoi's family settled into this big house with just the 3 of them?
- Heck, when did they move into this house, before or after Yayoi's birth?
- And what are the odds there used to be something in the basement before the property fell under Oboss' notice?
While I believe Oboss' assessment that any boosts from this house to Yayoi's parents' spiritual strength is minimal at best, I get the feeling it's still more consequential than he realises at this point. Like, maybe this explains why her father's ghost is still earthbound long after 49 days, or that her mother acquired a womb that's ideal for Kuubou's nurture and hence became a target, or something.
I get the feeling that once Oboss witnesses Kuubou for himself he'll have new findings for Yayoi. And for that to transpire,
please make it past Tai Sui's foreseen future so you can tell Yayoi yourself!!
Tein
Tsuzura is 20 years old, older than Keitaro and Eiko!?
I didn't think we'd get his story right away, but this works. What a nasty tragedy...
We already knew Tein is a major threat before, but now it's personal and a character quest down the line.
And the crazy part is, I can't tell if this will be near or far future. On one hand with so much going on it'd be easy to think that Tein is something further down the line. On the other, based on the Supervisors' meeting Tein might be among the spirits attracted to the Replaced's upcoming Night Parade.
So what's the sequence of events here, between Yayoi's Forbidden Zone trial, the Night Parade and an encounter with Tein?
Closing Thoughts
I love seeing Oboss be so considerate of Yayoi, plus his latest support with the Kuubou investigation.
I love seeing Yayoi slowly warm up to his group, and how she finally has a professional she can reliably confide about the more personal questions she has of her family's tragedy. Questions she couldn't broach to her laymen friends, or even to Shami-san.
I love seeing our gang being positively received by his group, treated like allies. It's a good payoff of the Risu-tan arc.
And now that the mood's re-energised, next chapter should be time for our next Graduate to be emancipated and another Haunt to be visited. What excitement!
P.S. I like how our supporting cast are steadily having their own little character questline we catch up with from time to time (eg Keitaro/Eiko with their curse; Ai and Tai Sui; Tamamura with saving Mei; Tsuzura with Tein, etc.) To equate to Pokemon, it's like Scarlet/Violet with the three main storylines but the player gets to tackle the segments in whichever way you want.