Sunday Japan time is definitely the day for legendary mangaka to have their say. Like Demons of the Shadow Realm, Mao is the product of a writer who’s under no pressure to make things happen quickly. Mao is at 28 volumes and counting and it took six years for this adaptation to even premiere after it was announced. So expediency is clearly low on the priority list. But like Arakawa Hiromu, Rumiko knows you have to keep playing out the line to keep the audience hooked.

“Hagunsei”. That’s a name we haven’t heard before, and it belongs to the sword Mao carries. Was Hagunsei someone of importance in the story beyond that? We’ll see. For now, the critical factor is that Nanoka’s ability to wield their sword suggests she too was cursed with the Byouki’s blood (not having spewed blood from every orifice and exploded). Unfortunately in wielding it she seems to have chopped poor Otoya in half. That would have been an even bigger problem if he were a real boy, but even as a shikigami (which is what he is) he’s in real danger. It requires some onmyouji prestidigitation from Mao to put him right.

Time is an important factor in Mao, and it appears to be somewhat flexible. When Nanoka goes back to the present, an entire week has passed. She later goes back to the past and 10 whole days have passed. So it’s not as if one timeline is moving faster than the other – rather, time seems to pass faster in whichever one she’s not in. Also, Mao informs her that he’s at least 900 years old, which suggests a possible hurdle for any future romantic relationship. But then, Mao clearly believes that being bathed in the Byouki’s blood has likely cursed her too, which seems to mean an extended lifespan.

Back at school – where I’m only now noticing that horrendous design on the slacks and skirts – Nanoka is researching to try and figure out what really happened. Her gal pals hook her up with Shiraha-kun. Ostensibly because he’s deft on the web and she’s clueless, but really because he’s crushing on her and they’re trying to grease the wheels. He finds out some interesting stuff basically confirming that the accident was not a natural occurrence (like the fact that she was thrown from the car despite all the windows being closed, and one of the first responder’s gloves melting when he touched her).

When she returns to the past, Mao has opened a clinic for youkai – proving that he bears them no ill will as a species. And that, as Otoya says, he’s better at fixing things than breaking them (obviously one of the crucial lines of the series so far). The investigation leads to a doomsday cult run by a “Priestess Shouko“, which Mao assigns Nanako to infiltrate. This looks pretty bog standard – end of the world prophecies which only the leader can protect against if you buy her magic stones, staged healing miracles. But it’s obviously connected to the Byouki mystery, and Nanako is about to find out how, it seems.