I’m fascinated watching Yomi no Tsugai and Mao play out side by side on my Sundays this season. Stylistically they’re as different as you’d expect from their legendary creators. But there’s a commonality in their old-school exposition. The plot thickens every week, but just a little. If you’ll permit a rather obvious analogy it’s like a chef thickening a sauce or stew with a roux or a cornstarch slurry. You don’t just dump it all in there in one go – you’ll get lumps. You have to add it slowly, stirring constantly, if you want a smooth final result.

No Nanoka, it wasn’t a coincidence – I think that’s safe to say. But knowing that doesn’t mean understanding how all these pieces fit together. Nanoka has a real problem here – the Byouki has apparently kidnapped her chibi self and absconded back to the Reiwa with it. And Mao, the strongest guy she knows, can’t follow. The world around her is in turmoil after the earthquake, and Mao is a wreck both physically and mentally after the Byouki escaped him. So what’s a girl to do? Should she stay with him – he eventually “proposes” she does so, as his assistant – or return to the present? And that’s assuming she even can.

Fortunately Mao has made many allies among the local youkai, and they come to his aid. Once somewhat recovered he tells Nanoka that he did manage to send a shikigami back to the Reiwa, though he’s unable to determine what form it will have taken. He also reminds her that the Byouki has the power to change people’s lifespans – which seems very relevant when she tells him about the state her grandfather was in on the day of the accident. Nanoka determines that she will go back and try to protect herself from the Byouki. Mao gives her a bracelet of stones he says will protect her from evil.

On the surface, a lot of things seem to fall into place here. Uozumi-san never seemed human, so she’s clearly the shikigami (though there is a brief misdirect to Shiraha here). The “smoothies” were her way to suppress Nanoka’s powers and try to shield her from the Byouki’s attention. As for Grandpa, the Byouki obviously extended his life, seemingly to keep an eye on Nanoka and make sure she reaches adulthood safely. But if the stones are to be believed, his protectiveness towards her is genuine – he may be acting as the Byouki’s proxy, but retains his sense of self.

That may all be the case. I’m just not quite 100% convinced yet, though. It almost seemed as if Mao was giving Nanoka those stones to make her feel better, and they were placebos. Which of course would mean the jury is still out on Grandpa’s intentions. Back in the Taishou, Tenko stops by to check on Mao, and informs him that more flaming heads (which I mistook for Mune-itachi last week) are terrorizing the locals in the Imperial Capital. Are these the same creatures that were at Fifth Street just after the earthquake?

In Mao, the Taishou isn’t the “past” per se. Time is fluid, and what happened 900 years earlier is clearly formative as to what’s happening now. In thinking back on the Byouki’s statement that both of them had been framed for what happened, Mao remembers one of his fellow apprentices. And in the city in the Taishou, the “master of flaming heads” of a traveling circus troupe has disappeared. Yes, this too is definitely not a coincidence, and we’re about to get a better idea of how this new figure fits in the puzzle.