天下制覇

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Impressions:

Let’s start with the bad news… Kekkaishi is on another hiatus until, if I read the message correctly, October 15th. *sigh* Man. If Kekkaishi had never taken a week off, it’s be nearly to episode 50.

Let’s keep going with the bad news… Gen died! No! Not Gen. Man, so sad. Stabbed in the back by that bastard Kaguro, who I’m loving more and more as a villain. Gen is really and truly dead though. So very much sadness.

Anyway, aside from a few hilariously awful frames, this was an excellent pair of episodes. I find it a bit funny that all of Kokuboro sallied forth, and only really Gagin and Kaguro got their hands dirty. The choreography was also fairly weak at times in comparison to past episodes, but it was still a pretty intense ride. I had a bit of a problem with Gagin as a dangerous villain just from how little he’s been a part of the story so far, and his main ability seemed to have just been being large and throwing fireballs, but otherwise, no complaints at all with Kokuboro’s first attack on Karasumori. Aside from the fact that it left Gen dead I mean. *sigh*

Good night sweet prince, I’ll miss you.

Yoshi looks stunned for a second, but then says that Gen looks really cool. Gen’s surprised, and then Tokine bitches at him for showing off while that guy above is still charging his shot. Gen gets ready to go after them, and Yoshi says they’ll support him, and that he’ll always have a place to come back to, no matter what. Gen walks off to get ready to attack while thinking that it’s strange how they don’t mind his beast form and aren’t scared. He will use this power for his own purposes and won’t let it control him.

The egg finally hatches, and a little facehugger emerges from it. It flies around him and then settles on his hand. He thinks back to Kaguro telling him that if it’ll hatch into a demon servant of his own. Gen crushes it and thinks that he doesn’t need this kind of power.

He takes a three point stance and get ready to leap at Gagin. Kaguro looks on with displeasure.

Yoshi and Tokine wonder if it’s okay to let Gen take the brunt of this. Yoshi asks her to not run away, and to stay by his and Gen’s side. She blushes and then calls him hopeless. She notices him trembling and slaps his back and tells him to get back in the game.

Shion wonders if Karasumori will be okay, taking the kind of shot that Gagin is charging. He finally shoots it, and Tokine creates a ton of barriers for Gen to jump on… and past the shot… slashes off Gagin’s three right arms. Tokine keeps making barriers for Gen and reminds Yoshi of elementary vector phsyics for deflecting the shot instead of absorbing it. Go high school physics!

Then, like an idiot, Yoshi makes a barrier that takes the blast full on. Tokine yells at him, but he tells her that he’s got his own plan.

At the Sumimura’s, Shige is still destroying Shion’s clones. They’re almost all gone by now, and he notices that nobody’s defending the Yukimura’s. He runs through their house, looking for Tokiko, and charges into Tokine’s mother’s bedroom, to find a barrier around the bed and the shikigami clone. He demands to know where Tokiko is, but the clone won’t tell him and says that it has everything in hand here, and that since they aren’t attacking her, this is clearly just a distraction to keep them occupied.

Shige has had enough and creates a number of shikigami clones of himself and then seals the entire house in a barrier. He then leaves things to his shikigami and Toshimori and races off to Karasumori.

On the way, he meets with Hiba who has only just now gotten to the area too. Hiba tells him that the rest of the Yagyu are on their way as well, but it’ll be some time. Masamori is flying there with a few others.

Yoshi’s barrier is holding under the blast while Tokine keeps making stepping stones for Gen. Gagin regenerates his arm, but Gen cuts it off again before it’s fully healed. He tries to go after the other arms, but Gagin makes a huge barrier and Gen is blasted away. He springs back into the fight. The tatoos on his body glow and he remembers back to Masamori telling them about how they’ll kill him if he over uses them. He doesn’t care though and charges forward.

He slashes through the barrier, injuring Gagin’s neck, but doesn’t break it. Yoshi’s barrier is still holding. Tokine wants to know what the hell he thinks he’s doing and Yoshi says that he’s going to throw it right back at Gagin. Tokine’s skeptical, but Yoshi tells her to just watch. He finally manages to pull enough energy in and sends it flying back. Gagin is distracted just long enough for Gen to tear open his barrier right before the blast hits.

Gagin is pissed as all hell and now missing all his arms. He starts blasting wildly from all his stumps at Gen. Gen keeps jumping around, but is starting to… uh… leak from all over his body. He grits his teeth and attacks again, finally completely destroying Gagin’s barrier. He leaps up behind Gagin and goes for the finishing blow.

Blood flashes.

Kaguro has stabbed Gen in the back with a pair of swords. The two fall from the sky, trading insults one last time. Kaguro says that it’s a shame… and then slashes his two swords out through Gen’s body. Kaguro lands on his surfing stingray and Tokine makes a bouncy barrier to catch Gen.

Yoshi glares at Kaguro and says that he doesn’t understand why Kaguro is tormenting Gen or did all this. Kaguro wonders if he really doesn’t know, and thinks it’s better than to let him try to become a friend with some -thing- like Gen. Yoshi tries to seal Kaguro, but he just flies away on his surfray. Yoshi tries to give chase and seal Kaguro, but can’t catch up.

Tokine yells for him, and he turns to see Gagin about to blast Gen and her. He’s forced to stop and turn back to them. He seals Gagin up and tries to dispel him again, but can’t hold the barrier. Tokine suddenly has an idea and forms her own barrier on the shot Gagin is charging, exploding it in his face. Yoshi takes advantage of the distraction and destroys Gagin.

The two Kekkaishi are yelling at Gen to wake up. He reverts to his human form, but still has the massive slashes through his body.

Byakku raises his hand, and the ayakashi fall back.

The Princess starts tearing free from her tubes and rises. She starts emitting a huge aura, sending Byakku into a panic. He rushes to her chamber and she demands to know why they’re falling back when they’re so close. He tells her to just wait a little longer, but she blasts him back and out. He lands on a surfray and tries to fly back to her. Her chamber erupts in electrical power which suffuses through the clouds.

Hiba and Shige see the black storm moving and feel an even more immense miasma. The two finally reach Karasumori and Yoshi tells them Gen is severely injured. Hiba is shocked at what he sees, realizing that Gen fully transformed again. Tokine tries to tell him that it was to save them, but Hiba says that it can’t be forgiven.

The Princess’ tails begin erupting from her chamber. Byakku keeps yelling at her to stop, and tries to get Shion to help, but she says it’s impossible.

Shige senses something and creates a barrier around them all just before a huge lightning bolt strikes. He says to leave the defense to him. Hiba says it would take a miracle to save Gen. Gen looks up and asks Giba to protect Karasumori because he couldn’t. He thinks to himself that this is the first time he really used his powers to protect someone else, and not just to kill.

Yoshi can no longer fight back his tears. Gen asks him why he’s making that face, and thinks that it’s weird that the things he’s thinking about right now are the last weeks he’s spent with them.

They suddenly sense a strange feeling. Yoshi remembers it as the same feeling as when Madarao’s friend was ascending to heaven. He yells at Gen to not give up and to keep living. Gen thinks to himself how naive and dumb they are, even as he fades away.

The Princess’ tails erupt from the clouds and start descending to the ground. A strange energy starts flowing upwards, but it’s not a miasma. Karasumori is reacting to her. The energy and her tails react, and the tails convulse wildly and then retreat. The princess screams in pain as she withdraws them and then passes out.

Byakku runs in and holds her. She has no idea what this power was or what the feeling is that Karasumori gave her, but it’s horrible. Byakku says that it’s impossible for now, and they’ll try again later. Byakku heads up and orders a full retreat. Kokuboro flies away en masse.

Shige lets the barrier drop and the miasma disappears. Masamori and his troops show up just then and he rushes over to Gen. Yoshi, still crying, yells at him for being too late. Masamori places Gen’s hands at rest over his body and then prepares to leave. Yoshi yells at him, but Masamori says that Gen was killed by Kokuboro, and the fight is with them.

After the ED plays, Yoshi is in a funk on his way to school, but Tokine beats some sense into him and reminds him that it’s up to them now to not make everything Gen worked for a waste. Yoshi says that he knows, and he’ll make sure that Gen giving his life wasn’t in vain.

Gen’s Final Battle