After a one-week hiatus (due to a 24-hour telethon, not any sort of production delay) Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu jumps right back into the thick of it. The key story element here is Kurebayashi-san, the one external figure who Yoshiki has chosen to confide in. But she’s just a small part of a larger puzzle, the pieces of which are slowly starting to take form. Like the map images of a group of villages coming together to paint a picture of something larger…

Kurebayashi Rie has in fact saved the boys from whatever it was that accosted them in that family restaurant. She refers to it as a curse, something related to a ghost or spirit. As I’ve noted Kurebayashi-san has BME (Big Mom Energy) in spades. Just what she is in terms of the Kibogayama phenomenon is a mystery – that she has powers is indisputable even if their nature is unclear. But as a person she’s a caring, empathetic sort. She sees two kids in front of her and her instinct is to protect them, even if she knows one of them is something terrifyingly “other”. She’s both the most important and my favorite among Hikaru’s supporting cast.

For now, at least, Rie accepts the idea that Yoshiki wants to stay by Hikaru’s side and find a way for him to belong in this world. But she makes it crystal clear that even if he’s not directly causing the problems in the village – that’s the impurities – he is the root of the problem. He draws impurities like a lightning rod, she says (even if Yoshiki has to help her find the word). When he was in his place on the mountain, those impurities left the villages alone. Now that he’s by Yoshiki’s side, Hikar2 is drawing the foxes directly into the henhouse.

Kurebayashi has a dark past, we know that already. Now we see that her husband returned from the other side, and she chose not to immediately send him back – and her son paid a price for it (how great a place is unclear). That doesn’t mean she could do the same with Hikaru – he’s clearly something different than her husband’s spirit – but it has to be playing on her mind. For now she sends the lads to talk to Old Man Takeda (Sugou Takayuki, Elrond in the Japanese dub of Lord of the Rings) to try and learn more. And she tells them to name-drop her if he gives them any trouble – further proof that she has considerable status in Kibogayama.

Yoshiki and Hikar2 have a revealing conversation in their old clubhouse, where the crow they cared for is buried. Hikar2 asks Yoshiki how he and the original are different. “He could read a room, like a grown-up” Yoshiki says. And he was a “closed book”. Hikar2 also asks Yoshiki if he “liked” Hikaru – based on his hesitancy in looking at his own naked body. Yoshiki’s refusal to answer pretty much confirms the obvious, but what’s really interesting here is that Hikar2 picked up on the non-verbal cues here and guessed the truth. He claims to be completely different from humans  – and immune from human emotions – but clearly, he’s sensitive to them and has intuition.

Takeda-san’s daughter-in-law is initially hesitant in letting the boys talk to him – Yoshiki couches it as a school project – but Hikar2 mentions Kurebayashi and that settles the issue. And indeed, the old man is obsessed with her, insisting that they bring her to talk to him immediately, He describes her as a “true medium”, and asserts that he’s Next” – which Hikaru-kun takes to mean after Matasuura-san. Takeda-san is extremely hostile to Hikaru even without knowing what he is, blaming the Indou family for all the ills of Kubitachi and environs. And when Hikar2 admits he doesn’t know what the sin of the family is, that incenses the old man even more – and this unleashes something terrible that’s inside him.

Takeda’s transformation is of uncertain nature – whatever possesses him looks like a samurai from an older time. But his intentions are clear, and it’s lucky that Tanaka-san comes along when he does. The same apparition that attacked the boys at the restaurant has come to him (perhaps summoned) and confirmed the identity of what’s come down from the mountain. But just to make certain Tanaka uses Old Man Takeda’s katana to verify what he suspects – and the results would seem to do just that. Looping Kurebayashi into the truth was a game-changing moment; this seems to be another, even if this time around it doesn’t come via Yoshiki-kun’s choice.