If there’s anything we know about Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, it’s that when it needs to get serious, it doesn’t hold back.  Its ability to seamlessly enact tonal shifts is one of its most remarkable qualities.  And I’ve noticed that for the most part, the “serious” arcs in Iruma-kun are quite literally that.  They aren’t just action or violence change of pace subplots – there’s usually something that impacts Iruma on an existential level.  And this Six Fingers storyline seems to align with that on multiple levels.

One of the things I enjoyed in this episode was seeing the less explored misfits (the boys, anyway – the girls turn doesn’t come yet) show off their quirks magic.  Starting with Agares, who has his first real spotlight moment with his bishie reveal last week.  His “My Area” skill is extremely useful in multiple ways – it allows Agares to figure out there are magical beasts being incubated beneath the park, and then to protect Team Balam once one of them hatches.  More interestingly, he’s alert and quick-thinking enough to save his team – suggesting that we’ve barely scratched the surface of what this sleepy boy can do.

Most of the focus this week is on Team Kallego.  And it does nothing to shake the perception that these are profoundly unlucky lads.  Kallego, in fact, doesn’t start having fun until his team is under attack by the “Mountain Blue” magical beast.  Tough love is his teaching style to be sure, and he leaves it to the boys to figure out how to fight the beast. Which is a problem as none of them have learned offensive spells, and only Gaap’s “Wind Blade” is overtly suited to physical combat.

It’s Jazz who’s really called upon to shine here – which is interesting in that he more than the others did so in the Evil Cycle arc too.  He outranks his buddies by one, a fact they’re only too happy to remind him of as they’re being pummelled by the monster.  Fortunately for them Jazz has a complex from being abused by his older brother, and gets off on the idea of being treated like (and called) an older brother.  Even so, it’s only when Kallego-sensei gives him a push that Jazzy seems to have any inspiration about how to actually fight the Mountain Blue.

That existential part of this comes when the focus returns to Iruma and crew.  These events – and the way the visitors and even staff respond to them – are a harsh reminder of Iruma’s true reality.  As human as they act sometimes, these are demons, and demons are driven by different motivations than (some) humans.  I refuse to believe there isn’t just as much variation in demon nature as human – we’ve seen too much evidence of that to believe otherwise.  But they’re still alien to Iruma.  And seeing the park laid waste – the place where more than ever before he was able to be a carefree child having a happy childhood – wounds Iruma in a very profound and personal way.

This is all building to something, and that seems to be what happens when Iruma discovers that Kirio is behind all this.  It’s going to be fascinating to watch how both of them deal with that moment, but in the meantime as painful as this is, it really puts Iruma back in his element.  He’s selfless to a fault and cool under pressure, and constitutionally incapable of taking all this lying down.  One thing we know about Iruma is that if you push him, he fights back – that’s like therapy for him.  And right now, he’s got plenty to fight back against.