For a while there, this had the feel of a monster of the week arc. And it seemed like Mao had moved past that phase. But the tie-in to the canon storyline revealed itself soon enough, courtesy of Nanoka (for a change). In fact while we don’t yet know who the real top boss here is, one of the three main candidates was intricately involved in what happened here. And in fact he seems like the most likely if I was a betting man, though that’s assuming the big bad has even been introduced.
The main new player here, however, is Kagami Souma. He looks to be about fourteen, and there are definite echoes of Kimetsu no Yaiba in his story. A string of unsolved murders will always draw Mao’s attention, the gorier the better. Kagami-kun’s brother is a cop who should theoretically be investigating, but he’s laid up ill at home with Souma’s younger brothers and grandmother. It’s immediately clear that something is seriously amiss in the Kagami household, but just how much so becomes clear only after the boy talks with his grandmother.
The Kagami clan has a secret. And it’s connected to another clan, one we already know. The family inheritance is rather off-putting, and Souma’s brother is quite unable to contain it. But Souma’s zeal for trying to do so himself is alarming. He seems like a decent kid, but his obsession with the “beast” inside his brother reflects that something isn’t right with Souma. Soon enough that beast takes matters into its own hands, and that’s the last we hear from the grandmother. Who Souma apparently leaves as she lies – I mean, with the little brothers still in the house, seriously?
Nanoka is initially thrilled at Mao’s “sweet” insistence that she stay at his side (yeah, she’s in deep). But this is a training exercise, she soon realizes. Souma finds his brother and resolves to do what must be done, but – let’s be honest here – Mao’s intervention distracts him and allows him to be impaled by one of the beast’s tentacles. Nanoka immediately recognizes this ayakashi as having the same black evil energy as Yurako, which has obvious implications. The “brother” escapes (he’ll later turn up deceased) and Mao treats Souma back at the clinic. This includes removing the portion of tentacle left in his body, with the intent of intentionally fusing with him and claiming him as its host.
It’s not hard to guess the true origin of this family’s secret. But that becomes unnecessary when Hakubi shows up the Kagami house. At this point the moral lines among the Goko Clan survivors have been drawn pretty clearly, with Natsuno as the one possible exception. That Hakubi is very, very bad is beyond doubt at this point. He has no issues using Souma as a test subject once he reclaims the “family treasure” – a scroll stolen from the Goko storehouse on that fateful day a millennium earlier. But Souma enables this himself, opening the door at the clinic that Mao had sealed before he left. And honestly, Nanoka could hardly have done a worse job stopping him.
The fate of Souma is very much an open question at this point. Mao has again pulled him back before the ayakashi can consume him, but he’s already been turned by Hakubi to use for his own purposes. I don’t think Souma is completely gone – he’ll still be concerned for the welfare of his younger brothers I’m sure. But Mao can only save him if he has the will to be saved (and even then it’s a tall order). And we’ve already seen what happened to mortal humans in the hands of the Goko’s darker elements.
