Volume 18

The eighteenth volume of the manga.

To The Far Shore Part 3
Hanako and Nene have run away from the train, traveling alongside the submerged train tracks. Nene is pulling him along behind her and breathing hard, and one of Hanako's Hakujoudai are missing. Hanako is yelling to get her attention.

He eventually breaks free from her grasp, stopping them both in their tracks, and asks why she came here. He begins to say it would have been fine if Teru and Akane came and exorcised him, but before he can finish his sentence, Nene slaps him across the face.

Frustrated, she grabs his shoulders and yells at him, saying that she had only come to see the person that she loves. Hanako, stunned and unable to speak, listens as she goes on, noting all the trouble she had to go through to get here. She talks about how they were unable to come to the boundary, about her being trapped in the strange Red House, and about the weird pizza she had to eat to enter the boundary. She further notes that she got Kou to help her once she learned that Teru was planning to exorcise him, and that they then had to run for their lives to get out of there. Pushing him onto the ground, she asks him why, then, that the first words out of his mouth are complaints.

Hanako counters her words by saying he doesn't matter, and that Nene had wished for this in the first place. She made a wish to him to live for ninety more years in the real world, and he says that if they save Aoi now, then Nene will die.

Interrupting him again, Nene screams at him to stop, and that she doesn't want her wish to be granted anymore. She asks him why it ended up like this, and why he's always doing things on his own. Crying, she hugs him on the floor, calling him an idiot and saying she hates him.

Later, they arrive at some sort of indoor pool building, where Nene and Hanako are sitting on a spiral staircase. While Nene is dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, Hanako begins to apologize. He says that he knew Nene would never have agreed to him extending her lifespan like this, not by him sacrificing her best friend to do so, but he wanted to do something for her. As he's both a ghost and a murderer, he can't live alongside her normally, so he wanted their meeting to have meant something. He says that he wanted her to continue living, but by his own hand. He had to be the one to give her life.

After he apologizes once more, Nene considers what he said. She deduces that he's saying that he wants to have her all to himself, and that his words were an indirect love confession. Careful to not get too carried away, like in The Confession Tree, she tries to pry a proper confession out of him by slyly asking him why he'd do all of that for her.

When he continues to neglect giving her the answer she's gunning for, she worries that she really had misinterpreted what he was saying. Suddenly, he gets up, and hugs her from behind.

Hanako says that he never thought he'd see her again, but says he's glad that he did. Staring into her eyes now, he wonders what's wrong with him to be feeling this way. Cupping her cheek, hugging her once more, then threading their fingers, they gaze into each other's eyes... lean in... and smooch.

After the fact, Nene clutches him tight, crying once more, and says that she's happy she got to see him again, too.

Brothers
The chapter starts off with a colored page announcing the results of the Chapter 77 Project, the "Situation Vote", where fans voted for which character they thought was the best fit in a handful of specific situations.

The chapter formally starts by picking up near the end of Chapter 85, with Kou protecting Hanako from a lethal strike from Teru's sword. As Nene rescues Hanako, and they begin to run away from the train, Teru tries to chase after them. Kou stops him again.

Kou clashes weapons with Teru, who effortlessly blocks each of Kou's blows. As their weapons grind against each other, Teru says that this wasn't what he had meant when he told Kou to "follow Yashiro-san" in Chapter 83. But Teru figures that Kou already knows what he meant, anyways.

Kou says that he isn't trying to help Hanako, exactly, but that he's doing this because he wants to support his senpai, Nene, who he made a promise to.

Teru tells Kou to quit the heroics. Lamentingly, he talks about how he never expected Kou to be of much help here in the first place, but that he hadn't expected him to get in the way. He then says they'd have been better off if Kou had just stayed home to cook dinner for them.

Kou says he isn't trying to act like a hero at all, and that he's always found Teru's treatment of supernaturals weird. He tries to say that he thinks Teru's opinion that every supernatural is evil is wrong, but Teru cuts him off.

Teru says that Kou might be right in him being weird, and wonders if Kou sees him as a villain right now. But he says that this is the way exorcists must act, and that he can't be normal. He yells at Kou, asking him why he can't understand that.

Kou yells back, saying there was no way for him to know that because Teru kept him distanced from exorcist work in the first place. Teru wouldn't let Kou come along with him on missions as a child because it was too dangerous, and had him do house chores instead.

Kou says he doesn't really mind doing the housework, or anything, but that it makes him feel pathetic. He says that Teru started doing exorcist work younger than Kou did, and that everyone relied on Teru. Meanwhile, all Kou's done is take over the work his mom used to do. Frustrated, Kou screams and asks why he was the only one that ever did that.

In reply, Teru knocks Raiteijou spinning out of Kou's hand, and pins him up from behind against the train. Kou, now defenseless, is told by Teru that is was all because Kou was "too weak". As Kou cries, Teru admits, however, that Kou's weakness is something he's envied from time to time.

Then Akane arrives, with Aoi in tow, and asks what the hell is going in. After breaking up the fight, he asks why they started fighting in the first place. Teru explains that Kou let Nene and Hanako escape, while Kou trembles silently to the side. Akane berates Teru, saying they both expected Kou to turn on them anyways, and that Teru totally went overboard. In comparison, Akane's a lot kinder on Kou, who shakes off Akane's concern by yelling that he's fine.

Akane relents, and says that they can settle their family disputes when they get home. For now, they need to discuss what their next move is.

Kou lingers behind the group as they begin walking off, lamenting to himself that he'd never asked Teru to protect him in the first place. As he trudges through the water, unbeknownst to him, a shadow begins to form behind him. Teru looks back, noticing it before he does, and screams his name. Lunging forward, he grabs Kou and shoves him out of the way, protecting him from the attacker. The unknown enemy strikes his sword arm, causing Teru to stagger.

The attacker is School Mystery No. 6, the Lord of Death. He says that the boundaries stopped collapsing, and came to see what was causing it. He claims that Teru looks familiar, before correctly placing his identity-- a member of the Minamoto Clan of exorcists.

Holding a bloodied Teru up by the collar of his shirt, he fixes Kou with a glare. Kou stares back in horror, his brother's blood splattered on his body.

Demon
The chapter starts off with School Mystery No. 6 standing before Kou, who was now fallen in front of him. The Lord of Death holds an unconscious Teru in his left hand. He realizes that Teru and Kou are apart of the Minamoto Exorcist clan. He remarks that they've gotten a lot weaker, and drops Teru into the water below.

Kou rushes to him, calling his name. He turns Teru over, but he's unresponsive. Enraged, he then charges at No. 6 with his staff, Raiteijou, but No. 6 simply grabs his staff and punches him in the ribs. Akane then attempts to stop time, but before he can, No. 6 knocks the pocket watch out of his hand, saying he won't allow it.

With all three of them defeated, No. 6 is free to grab Aoi, and he uses a centipede-like supernatural to keep her restrained. He notes that the boundaries still haven't resumed their destruction, and guesses the three he defeated weren't the cause. Uncaring, he grabs Aoi's hand, saying all he needs to do is get her to the Far Shore.

But Aoi resists, shocking him with her anti-evil artifact. She asks why he'd do something so awful, saying she won't forgive it.

No. 6 closes her mouth with his hand, a smile on his face. He says that humans seem to like to ask him that, and that he's heard the word "why" from them plenty of times.

A flashback begins, with a shadowy samurai figure asking a much younger No. 6 that same question: "why". No. 6 notes that right then was the first time he was asked that.

The samurai is referred to as Yorimitsu-sama, and he had come to quell the demons on the mountain that No. 6 lived on. He'd defeated them all in the blink of an eye, and tells No. 6 that soon all of the demons would be killed. One such demon was one that No. 6 referred to as "master", and he was the master of the mansion No. 6 lived in. No. 6 remarks that, though he had no concept of family as a demon, he considered his master and fellow demons something similar to it.

Yorimitsu then tells No. 6 that he will kill him, and let's him choose whether to attack him or run away. No. 6 responds by saying he won't do either because he wasn't told to, and tells Yorimitsu to do whatever he wants. Yorimitsu finds this strange, as he says demons are born with the urge and desire to kill and destroy, but No. 6 is different. He's selfless, and desires nothing.

Calling him "defective", Yorimitsu decides to take No. 6 under his belt as a shikigami, putting him to work under him. Thus began No. 6's life with humans, working for Yorimitsu until his eventual death, and even longer after that for his other descendants. He did all manner of tasks for them, from fetching herbs to killing a house full of people. Despite this, and despite him obediently and efficiently carrying out all of his tasks, his presence made the humans he lived with uncomfortable.

One other such task he would do was capture runaway kannagi, then breaking their legs or gouging out their eyes if necessary. We see him do just that to a young kannagi girl, who yells about how she doesn't want to sacrifice her life for the people of the village. In response, before gouging out her eyes, he says that her role is to die, and that it's his role to do this.

No. 6 notes that his time with the humans, performing the role he was ordered to do, was no different from his time with the demons on the mountain.

Sometime later, No. 6 is being told that he will watch over the next sacrifice, and to continue as usual; break her legs if she runs, gouge out her eyes if she resists, and get rid of anyone trying to help her. But the man ordering him pauses, seemingly troubled. He says that this newest sacrifice is only six years old, and very unreasonable. He thinks the Akane clan must have sent her to them so young because the family didn't want the child to resent them.

He doubts a demon like No. 6 would do good with kids, but guesses it'll be fine as long as he doesn't kill her. He tells him to do whatever he likes with her, and No. 6 obeys his orders.

Skipping forward, and a young girl in a fancy kimono is bowing on the floor in front of No. 6. She says her name is Sumire, and says that she is honored to be given this role, and that it's a pleasure to meet No. 6. After finishing her formal speech, she sits up, dropping the honorifics. With bright eyes, she innocently asks him if he's going to be Sumire's new husband.

No. 6 stares back at her blankly.

Demon Part 2
Continuing from the ending of the previous chapter, the young Sumire is asking the young No. 6 if he is her new husband. He negates this, stating she's going to be marrying God, and it won't happen till she's much older. Sumire then comes to the conclusion that No. 6 is her unlawfully wedded husband, and out of exasperation he agrees with that.

Following this, No. 6 starts to care for Sumire. As she is the youngest girl he's ever had to watch over, he starts doing different kinds of jobs, like playing house with her as her husband. She cooks him meals, cleans the house, and does his laundry, just like she were his wife. No. 6 comments that this is "strange," but Sumire criticizes his lack of life skills, saying he can't take care of her if he can't even do things like cook his own meals right.

No. 6 starts to say that it's his duty to take care of her, and Sumire says he should act as her husband if he's so worried about it. No. 6 then comments that he doesn't know what a husband does, and Sumire decides to show him.

The two of them go outside, to a field of flowers. Sumire chides him about complimenting her properly, and then No. 6 begins to hear the conversation of two passerby men. They spot the twosome, and call Sumire a "sacrifice" and No. 6 a "pet demon." Remarking on their carefree behavior, they comment on how they both must not know the fate awaiting Sumire to be able to act like that.

Sumire brings No. 6's attention back to her by placing a flower crown on his head, stating they "match." She then giggles, saying it doesn't suit him. They then hear chirping, and Sumire finds an injured little bird on the ground.

Skipping forward in time, No. 6 is walking home, dripping blood. Sumire has grown older, and was waiting for him to come home. She is surrounded by countless injured animals, that have been treated with bandages. In her lap is a rabbit. She tells him to change out of his dirtied kimono and that she'll start supper soon.

No. 6 makes a comment about how the number of injured animals in her care has increased, and that she must like taking care of them. But he questions why she does it: from his perspective, she gains nothing from doing it. Sumire responds by saying there is a meaning, and that these little animals can't survive without any help. Thus, she has total control over them: she controls whether they live or die. Their lives depend entirely on her.

Sumire begins to treat No. 6 as he ponders this. He asks why she wants control over them. Sumire responds that, when she herself dies, she wants the ones she leaves behind to grieve for her. She wants them to be so sad that they go crazy, and hopes they go to Hell.

Times goes forward, and Sumire is exorcising supernaturals with No. 6 for the sake of the village people. While most praise her, one girl throws a rock at her. Another yells at her, complaining that Sumire should have come here before her husband's leg was devoured by the monster. Another girl begs for her child to come back, who was presumably eaten by the monster. They say that it's all Sumire's fault for not dying yet, and that the monster wouldn't have come if she'd already been sacrificed.

A girl starts to throw a rock again, but No. 6 jumps in to protect Sumire and elbows her in the face. As No. 6 and Sumire walk away, one of the girl's angrily states she will kill her, as another villager tries to calm her down by saying she can't die before the ceremony. Sumire is laughing as she leaves with No. 6, but in the crowd they leave behind, one person ominously comments that "now's as good a time as any"...

In their house at night, Sumire is telling No. 6 that this will be their last time spending the night together. She asks him a favor, and he agrees. She asks him if they could pretend to do what a married couple does, just for tonight. No. 6 then pins her down to the bed, getting very close to her face, brushing her hair out of the way, tapping their foreheads together...

...before KONK!! He fakes her out, roughly smacking his head against hers. Sumire yells, asking him what he's doing. He tells her to go to bed, shutting the screen door behind him, and leaving her confused and rubbing her head. On the other side of the door, No. 6 wonders why she can't just ask him to save her. He wonders why she won't cry, even though she's about to die. He wants her to lie and do all of that anyways, even if she doesn't mean it.

As Sumire falls to her doom, he comments that she was such an uncute girl.

After she's been sacrificed, the villagers throw a party. No. 6 watches with a neutral expression as they rejoice at the peaceful times awaiting their village. They make a brief comment about already having picked the next Kannagi, and decide that No. 6 will just take care of her again.

No. 6 reflects on what Sumire told him earlier:

"When I'm gone... I want there to be sadness. I want them to cry and cry. Feel miserable. Become so sad, they go crazy..."

No. 6 gets up.

He slaughters every single adult in the room. "I hope they go to Hell," Sumire had said.

The children left behind are crying, and a girl asks him why he did this. No. 6 reaches out for her, but changes his mind and leaves. He wonders why he did that himself. He doesn't know why.

Eventually, an angry mob finds him. With little resistance, they take him down. No. 6 comments that he felt neither anger, sadness, nor hatred. Only that he wanted to do things differently, and tell her things he never said.

Demon Part 3
The chapter begins with a flashback, where Sumire is about to be sacrificed to God and jump off the cliff. No. 6, who was present at this ceremony, wonders if he should have slaughtered everyone there, except for Sumire, and saved her.

But he wonders if saving her would even be the right choice, when she never actually asked him to do so.

Returning to the present, No. 6 is still holding up Aoi. She had asked him why he was doing all of this, and he finally informs her that he would like to know that himself.

Suddenly, a beam of lightning strikes the back of No. 6's head. He turns around, and we see Kou standing there and holding his brother's spirit blade. He tells No. 6 to let Aoi go.

No. 6 had thought Kou wouldn't be able to get here with the wounds he had inflicted on him, and tells him he's persistent. Enraged, Kou lets out a battle cry and attacks him with the sword. Getting a closer look, No. 6 recognizes it as the same sword that Yorimitsu-sama wielded. Kou informs him that it belongs to his brother.

As they clash, Kou explains that his Raiteijou was sealed, so it wouldn't have been able to defeat No. 6. His brother had told him that the sword he's holding now was used to defeat demons, so Kou thought it'd be a perfect fit to exorcise No. 6 with.

Kou is impressed by how strong the sword is, saying it's just as powerful as he thought it'd be, but laments upon how heavy it is. The physical strain of using it is also causing his previous injuries to hurt like crazy, and he wishes he could swing it around as easily as Teru does.

Seeing him in distress, No. 6 asks Kou if he's feeling alright. This only makes Kou even more mad, causing him to swing his sword. His swing ends up slicing through No. 6's arm, which delights Kou. No. 6 is unfazed, however, and simply yanks the sword out of his flesh. He knocks Kou off his feet by pulling the sword forward, and smacks him in the head and on his back. He then readies his fist, punching Kou in the face and slamming him into the ground.

After roughing him up some more, No. 6 asks Kou why he came here. He wonders if it was to save Aoi, who he guesses might be important to him, or if it was revenge for what No. 6 did to Teru.

Kou is silent in response. No. 6 tells him to go home, and that he has no interest in messing around with kids like him. As he's walking away, with Aoi in tow, Kou is angry that he was called a "kid" and runs forward to punch him. No. 6 easily thwarts his attack and grabs him, lifting him up by his arm.

No. 6 tells Kou that if he rushes in without a plan like this, then he'll die. But No. 6 wonders if that's actually what Kou wants, and then surmises that someone must want Kou to kill No. 6, even if it costs Kou his own life. A picture of a defeated Teru is shown, lying on the ground.

Kou denies this. He says that he's too weak and stupid for anyone to wish something like that of him. But that doesn't matter to him; he's still going to defeat No. 6, even if nobody is counting on him to do so.

Kou then outlines what he's going to do. He's going to save Aoi, and the injured Teru and Akane as well. By ruining the ceremony to sacrifice Aoi, he'll then be able to open up the Boundary again and get the supernaturals to come back. A picture of Mitsuba when he was disappearing during the Severance is shown. He further adds on that with No. 6's power to control both life and death, they might be able to help Nene with her lifespan, too. A flashback of Hanako cradling Nene's dead body during Chapter 27 is shown.

Kou begins to say that doing this will make everyone happy, but he remembers when Teru told him to stop "acting like a hero" and cuts himself off. He then chomps down on No. 6's nose, who is thrown off by this and left stunned for a second. Seizing the chance, Kou stabs No. 6 with the sword, telling him that he's going to make everybody happy.

No. 6 reflects on this, and as the sword is piercing him, we see a flashback of a young Sumire and No. 6. He notes that no one has ever asked him to make them happy, and that he has never wished to be happy himself. The chapter ends with the lightning from Teru's sword electrifying No. 6.

Fixing Mistakes
After Kou shocked No. 6 with anti-spirit lightning by piercing him with Teru's spirit blade, they are both panting and hunched over the floor. Kou thinks he may have won, but No. 6 lunges forward and grabs his face in his hand.

Preparing for the end, Kou is suddenly rescued by Natsuhiko. Kou, confused, asks him why he's here. Natsuhiko explains that he came to the Boundary in order to capture No. 6, as he told Kou he wanted to do in Chapter 65. He further explains that No. 6 was a real pain in the butt for him, since he kept stopping the supernaturals before they could rampage in the mortal realm.

Kou is shocked silent by this revelation, and Natsuhiko thanks him for his help, reaching a hand out to him.

The scene changes to Hanako and Nene, who still remain inside of the empty indoor pool building that they were in during Chapter 86. While Nene is busy showing him a puzzle she brought with her, and Hanako asks if she understands the severity of the situation they're in right now.

Nene informs him she does, and to prove so, she goes in-depth to explain exactly what the situation they're in is. Because Hanako tried to take Aoi to the Far Shore to extend Nene's lifespan, he pissed off Teru, Akane, Kou, and Nene. Since Teru and Akane would exterminate Hanako on the spot if they found him, Nene says that she ran away with Hanako, with some help from Kou.

After Hanako-kun apologizes for his rudeness, Nene grows quiet. After a moment, she says she understands what he was trying to do, and that Hanako was only trying to grant her wish for her. Nene says she's changing her mind, and that she wants to stop trying to extend her lifespan. She says that they'll let Aoi go back to the mortal realm, and that Nene will stay here in the Boundary.

Nene then tries to show Hanako-kun the other cool stuff she brought with her to kick off her new life as a dead person, but Hanako interjects. He asks her if she thinks that staying in the Boundary means that she won't die, even if her lifespan runs dry. Or, is it that she doesn't actually care if she dies?

She confirms this, and Hanako smiles. He asks her, then, if she'll never go back to the mortal realm, and stay here with him forever. Nene confirms this also.

Raining on her parade, Hanako informs her that the dead long to go to the Far Shore. He asks her if she, like other dead people, would want to go there with them. He tells her that if she chooses to stay here, instead, that she would become a supernatural. Nene looks surprised, and he asks her if she knew that supernaturals and dead people aren't the same thing.

There's a flashback as Hanako speaks, showing Kou and Mitsuba at the school entrance. Hanako says that if a dead person spends a long amount of time in the mortal realm or the Boundary, then they will gradually disappear. As an image of The Bent-Neck Boy at the School Entrance is shown, Hanako informs Nene that they may also turn into a supernatural instead, but there's no telling how much of their human selves will remain after their transformation. He says that the very same could happen to Nene, showing an image of a goopy supernatural creature with a Kamome Academy uniform, and that she could change so much that she might not even be "Yashiro Nene" anymore.

Nene starts crying, and asks why Hanako would tell her such a horrible thing. Hanako says that he's just telling her the truth, and forces her arms away from her face and begs her to listen. Grabbing her face in his hands, he looks into her eyes and tells her how childish she is, and how she's always acting on her own. He tells her she only ever thinks about the futures that are convenient for her.

But he bows his head, and asks her not to say it's okay for her to die.

Suddenly, Tsukasa appears out of nowhere. He asks Hanako what Nene should be saying, then. He informs Hanako that when he gave up, everything became so much easier for him. As Tsukasa speaks, an image of Hanako's past self, Amane, is shown, with a kitchen knife poised to stab his abdomen.

Nene and Hanako are both surprised by his sudden appearance, asking him why he's here. Tsukasa grabs Nene, and asks Hanako why he won't let Nene give up like he did, even though she wants to. He says that Amane can't grant her wish for her, and that he feels so bad for her.

Hanako swipes his knife at Tsukasa, freeing Nene from his clutches. He tells him that he wants Yashiro to live. Tsukasa parrots that back to him as a question, laughing as he does so, and with a big grin on his face, calls him "selfish."

So he asks what Hanako is going to do, then. Since Aoi's been saved, he can't extend Nene's lifespan by using her anymore. He has to think of some other way.

After Tsukasa taunts him some more, Hanako finally speaks. He says that if someone destroys the Yorishiro of every single School Mystery, then it is said that God will grant their wish.

Pleased, Tsukasa grabs both of Hanako's hands, and says, "Alrighty, then... Let's do it!"