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tammaiyaI have to admit, 9 is one of my least favourite books. I found it and book 21 both really boring. Which makes it strange that I at least remember it better than book 5, because I think I liked 5 well enough when I was reading it. Nevertheless, there are still some things you have to know from it (which is probably why I still remember anything about it. That and the fact that the three OVAs are based on book 9), so.
Book 9 is set in Kyoto and Osaka. Ayako and Takaya are investigating in Kyoto; Naoe took on a favour from a friend in his capacity as Tachibana Yoshiaki, and is pretending to work as a secretary to a business man named Hasami while actually acting as his bodyguard and investigating these nightmares Hasami has been having. Takaya doesn't know Naoe is doing this because it's outside his role as an Uesugi, so he didn't bother mentioning it. It's been several months since the end of book 8, and they've barely seen each other; things are very strained and awkward.
Anyway. Despite asking for Naoe's help, Hasami is a bit vague about why there are people attacking him, but it turns out he bought a mandala woven from the hair of the Araki clan and someone is trying to steal it. This someone, it turns out, is the kanshousha Araki Murashige, the clan head and the only one not executed when his castle fell, because he'd left the castle. I don't actually remember who the castle fell to, but I think he was trying to contact reinforcements or something when his castle fell and his wife and all his retainers were executed. Their spirits are trapped in the mandala, burning with resentment for their lord who abandoned them-- except for his wife, who is the spirit guarding the mandala. He's trying to steal it and destroy it because he's afraid that someone will release the spirits and they'll tear him to shreds. He's struggling with himself, though, because he feels really guilty for not being there and part of him thinks he deserves whatever the Araki spirits do to him.
I don't remember what Takaya and Ayako were initially investigating in Kyoto; I think there was a report from one of the Nokizaru, the watcher spirits the Uesugi have all over the country, about something weird being up. This is the first time the Nokizaru are introduced, I recall, which is important, because the head Nokizaru, Hakkai, becomes a key character in the following books. Anyway, the something weird ends up being tied in with the same thing Naoe is caught up in, with the Araki and the mandala. It also turns out to involve the Ikkou-sect again, specifically the brothers Shimozuma Rairen and Rairyuu, who are trying to get the mandala for their own nefarious purposes.
What I remember about the plot other than that boils down to:
* Flashbacks about Haruie's lover of 200 years ago. They lived in Kyoto. She had kansho'd as a woman that lifetime for lack of choice and ran away from home. She was caught up in an attack when she met Shintarou and got really hurt, for memory. He was a doctor so he nursed her back to health. He covered her the next time she was attacked and lost an arm, which obviously made it hard for him to be a doctor, so she said she'd stay and act as his arm instead. She asked Kagetora to let her leave the yashashuu to be with Shintarou, and Kagetora said yes. Shintarou died young of illness, however, and Haruie has remained in the form of a woman ever since, waiting and hoping ever since that he'll be reborn, that even if he's had his soul purified, she'll know him. She's wracked with doubt about the futility though, because (unlike, say, Kousaka) she doesn't have the ability to recognise souls. She wants to believe that if was Shintarou she'd know, but she is losing hope and especially struggles with that in book 9. Araki Murashige looks like Shintarou-- she thinks he is him, at first-- and that causes her a lot of troubles. They end up bonding over losing their lovers.
* Unsurprisingly, Takaya and Naoe's paths eventually cross. Takaya is hearing a report from one of the Nokizaru at a hotel when Hasami (in Kyoto for a business conference) comes in with Naoe in tow. Takaya is very not happy. You cannot underestimate how insecure and possessive Kagetora is when it comes to Naoe-- that Naoe is taking orders from someone else, especially that he's working on a job that he didn't report about, threatens him. Naoe doesn't help, purposefully taunting Takaya by saying that Hasami has asked him to work for him permanently, and he's a good master, unlike SOMEONE ELSE Naoe might mention, so he's thinking of saying yes. Takaya is like FUCK YOU, I'M SO NOT JEALOUS even though really, he SO is, and then Naoe is like well if you're going to be like THAT, I'm going to drag you up to a hotel room and attempt to molest you! Except then Takaya has Kagetora's rape flashbacks for the first time and freaks out hardcore, and Naoe doesn't know what's going on but he does know that Takaya is honestly scared and stops, which is the one thing that can be said in his favour.
Have I mentioned that this book made me want to bitchsmack them both a whole lot?
* Then there is fighting and stuff against the Shimozuma brothers, who are still trying to get the mandala and also kill Murashige. As I recall, Rairen attacks Ayako and Murashige, and Rairyuu attacks Naoe and Takaya. Takaya and Naoe get kind of crushed and Takaya almost dies. Proving that when it comes down to it no matter how much he thinks he hates Kagetora he still loves him, Naoe freaks out a whole lot and screams both Takaya and Kagetora's names a lot. Rairyuu assumed his business there was done and flew off on the back of... some mythological creature or other to join his older brother Rairen. Takaya and Naoe manage to pull their shit together-- I think maybe Bishamonten healed Takaya, they were in the grounds of a temple when they got attacked-- and Takaya summons a herd (? flock?) of tengu to carry him after Rairyuu.
* I don't really recall what happened, but the upshot of it all is that any nefarious plans were defeated, Murashige got attacked by the vengeful spirits of his clan but his wife protected him, all the Araki ended up exorcised (including Murashige I believe), Ayako decided to keep waiting for Shintarou to one day show up, and the Shimozuma brothers were PRODIGIOUSLY PISSED, especially Rairyuu, who is apparently some kind of prodigy and not used to losing. He forms a powerful grudge on Kagetora. As for Naoe and Takaya, Takaya tells Naoe that he doesn't accept people who are weak and if Naoe beats him, THEN Takaya will let Naoe have him. This is intended as a spur-- you see what's going on in Takaya (well, more Kagetora)'s crazy head during the next arc and it makes a lot more sense in that way where you are like OH MY GOD, YOU ARE MADE OF CRAZY, but it kind of backfires spectacularly, as you'll soon see.
Anyway, it took me like two months to finish that book because I got bored and kept putting it down until I got halfway through. It just felt like filler, somehow. XD; Whatever, I finished it and finally got to the books 10-12 arc which is where things got interesting again. Unfortunately I don't seem to have many conversations or emails about this arc and I'm not sure why, maybe I was too busy reading it to spam about it. Anyway. I actually have like 4000 words of the last chapter of book 11 translated, but it's at home on my PC, along with the book, so I can't do anything about that right now. You'll just have to put up with my patchy recollection, which is very good when it pertains to Takaya and Naoe and a bit muddled when it comes to all the feudal lords that got involved in this mess. *g*
The majority of the arc takes place in Hiroshima, Miyajima and the Seto Inland Sea in general (WHERE I HAVE BEEN, MWAHAHAHA-- I really do have to write up that travel post) with a detour to Hagi in the 11th book. Which is somewhere in the same prefecture as Hiroshima, I believe, but I haven't been there. There was also some mention of Osaka Port somewhere in there too, but that's one of the bits I only have really fuzzy recollection of, so... yeah. orz There's a fairly distinctive cut off point between each of the books, though, so I can separate the summaries out.
Yuzuru and co are going on a class trip to Hiroshima as a pre-graduation thing. (Judging by Gokusen, this seems to be fairly usual for Japanese high schools.) Takaya isn't graduating-- best case scenario is that he repeats (this doesn't happen, clearly)-- so theoretically he isn't allowed to go. Yuzuru is adamant that he should, however, especially since lately Takaya just hasn't been spending that much time with him anymore, and Morino Saori is one of the organisers of the trip-- AND, Yuzuru says, CHIAKI CAN ALWAYS JUST HYPNOTISE PEOPLE (Takaya: ...................... Me: ahaha Yuzuru has joined the dark side.)-- so Takaya ends up going along anyway.
(Note on the above, for memory they DO end up going the hypnosis route. Chiaki is like, what's in it for me?
Y: >:(
C: ... oh, FINE.
Me: XD)
So anyway, Takaya, Chiaki and Yuzuru go on a class trip to Hiroshima, where it turns out there is something hinky involving ghost ships from WWII as well as the civil war period on the Seto Inland Sea and boatloads of people disappearing.
Meanwhile, Naoe is not doing so well. Takaya might have been attempting to motivate him in book 9, but instead Naoe suffers a total loss of confidence which is weakening his powers. You can tell from RIGHT THERE that this is all going to end in tears, and you would not be wrong. Ayako and Chiaki have both tried to tell Takaya that Naoe's losing the plot, that he's going to lose Naoe if he doesn't do something, but Takaya doesn't want to listen because he doesn't want to even consider that they could be right, so he goes back on the good old standby, repress and deny. Naoe continues to run around investigating despite the dubious wisdom of this (he's also investigating the ships thing. I don't think he's in Hiroshima, though; maybe that's where Osaka comes into it...), and ends up teaming up with Hakkai, aforementioned head of the Nokizaru. Which is just as well, because probably by about halfway through the book he's lost his powers completely.
Sadly, my memory of book 10 is VERY shaky. The name of the arc, Wadatsumi no Youkihi, comes from a Chinese woman (the Japanese is Youkihi, but it's Yang Kwei-Fei) who is said to have become a goddess of the sea in the 8th C. There were two sisters in the civil war period; the elder sister Tomo was deformed, so despite that she should have been married off first, the younger, Isari, was to be married to this feudal lord their father had an alliance with (or... something). Out of jealousy, Tomo burned Isari's face, but I think the lord took her despite the disfigurement. Tomo has now become... basically Youkihi's helper, and is attached to a. Shrine? Grotto? Something. I believe it was it was located on Mount Misen on Miyajima, anyway. (I've been there! and I'm going again, so I'll have to make sure to reread the Wadatsumi arc before I go next time.) She feels guilty for what she did, and basically all she wants is to protect the Seto Inland Sea. Isari is possessing a school girl in Hiroshima and wants revenge on Tomo.
The guy they both love is also running around somewhere with all the ghost ships, I think he might have been Murakami wasname, but I really don't remember.
As for the ghost ships, it's a CUNNING PLAN by the Anti-Oda Alliance, currently consisting of the Mouri, the Murakami, the Ikkou-shuu (yes, THEM again) and our good old friends, the Takeda. Y hallo thar, Kousaka, we haven't seen you for... a whole book or two. Actually most of the Anti-Oda Alliance doesn't show up until book 11, but whatever.
There's also this other guy running around called Yamanaka Shikanosuke, who is tirelessly loyal to the Amago clan who were wiped out by... either the Mouri or the Murakami, don't expect me to remember these things... and is trying to revive his clan. He ends up teaming up with Chiaki and Isari.
Back to the ghost ships, though. Somehow Naoe has ended up in the same place as Takaya, don't ask me how, and Takaya is being a total bitch to him. Actually, they're pretty much being total bitches to each other and are both trying to convince themselves and everyone around them that they don't feel anything for each other (oh, you guys. keep deluding yourselves. you may feel many things for each other, but indifference is not and will never be one of them), but mostly what I remember is that Takaya totally threatens to replace Naoe with Hakkai, because he's no use if he doesn't have any power. I kind of wanted to bitchslap him, but near the end of book 10 it flips into his POV and you actually find out what's going on in his crazy, crazy head. Basically he's petrified of losing Naoe, of Naoe just giving up and letting himself be killed or whatever, so he's trying to taunt Naoe into some kind of reaction, because that's the way it works with them. (I know this isn't news, but... you guys are screwed up.) Also, I myself had forgotten this, but quoting myself from an old post: "Takaya subconsciously slips into Kagetora's thought processes and when he snaps out of it he is like, oh my god, what are you THINKING, self!-- which is, if he gives in to Naoe, Naoe will no longer have a reason to fight against him and thus will lose interest and no longer have any reason to fixate on him and Kagetora will lose him. Even if Naoe's screwed up, at least he's still tied to Kagetora." Even TAKAYA realises that's messed up, and he's the one thinking it. ^^;
Anyway, things go from bad to worse, because when Naoe, Takaya and Yuzuru are on a ship together at the end of book 10 for... whatever reason... Kotarou the Fuuma ninja from the tsutsuga arc, who is working with the Anti-Oda Alliance, shows up and tries to abduct Takaya, the boat gets boarded by the Morikami, and then Yuzuru--
Wait, wait, I forgot to mention, you remember the demon's seed that got planted on Yuzuru in book 8? Well the Yashashuu (I think Naoe) managed to freeze it so Oda couldn't use it to take over Yuzuru's body, but it was only a temporary solution, and it chooses now to crap out on them. Oda takes over Yuzuru and is like AAAAAAHAHAHA PUNY MORTALS! at Naoe and Takaya, who are like OSHI-- and then he blows up the boat.
Check off "sunk out at sea" on the list of Shit That Happens To Takaya, then. Oh Mirage.
Sorry if that was disjointed, but it was the best I could manage almost a year after reading without the books here, and I think it hit the salient bits that you need to know for later.
Book 11 (one of my favourite books) opens with Naoe, Takaya and, joy of joys, Kotarou stranded on a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea. They managed not to drown, but thanks to the shock of the blast, Naoe is now blind as well as powerless, rendering him pretty well entirely defenceless, and Takaya is totally freaked out.
This is one of the bits I have actually previously semi-summarised, but that was a very patchy summary, so... to fill it in, yes, Kotarou is trying to persuade Takaya to join with the Anti Oda-Alliance in his capacity as the last surviving Houjyou. (Takaya: Did you miss the bit where I'm the last one because I EXORCISED the others?!) He tries to persuade Takaya that Kenshin is just using him and he should go back to the side of his true father. Takaya is all wtf no, but there's niggling doubt at the back of his mind. He's more preoccupied with freaking out over Naoe being blind, though. Naoe himself is understandably pretty shaken, which... in the special world of Naoe leads to him trying, once more, to jump Takaya, because, he says, what if my power and sight are just the start? What if I slowly lose all my senses so I'm no longer able to hear you or smell you or feel you or taste you? I need to memorise you while I still have the chance! and Takaya is all YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LOSE ANY MORE SENSES, OH MY GOD, DENIAL. Theoretically he should have the upper hand here because he is able to see and, y'know, kill things with his brain, but he freezes up-- until he gets rape flashbacks (Naoe still doesn't know about that) and has a panic attack and flings fire all over the place, at which point Kotarou comes into the cave and is like "you people, WTF?! DOES NOT COMPUTE." I almost, almost felt sorry for him, except he called reinforcements to pick them up, and it wasn't so much "hooray! rescue!" as "well, shit, we've been abducted". What makes this even better is that it's the Ikkou-shuu who come to collect them, and Rairyuu still has a grudge on Kagetora that he doesn't WANT to get over. He doesn't see why they have to make Kagetora their ally; he'd rather just kill him.
Takaya isn't overly keen on being forced to be anyone's ally either, and he's prepared to fight it except they take defenceless!Naoe hostage and that leaves him with no choice but to follow. They get taken to the Mouri base in Hagi, presided over by Kikkawa Motoharu, son-in-law or foster son or whatever of Mouri whoever-- there were three sons, one by birth and then Motoharu and I think Murakami Takeyoshi. The son by birth has moved on, meaning that the only actual "Mouri" is his own developmentally challenged son Terumoto.
Basically they reiterate the stuff Kotarou said about Kenshin using Kagetora, and that "Narita Yuzuru" must be destroyed, and that Kenshin is just planning to replace him with Kagekatsu (which is ironic, when you consider what happens in the next stage of the plot... ANYWAY) and that "Houjyou Saburou" should join them. Takaya is more shaken than he wants to admit, because he remembers at this point that Yuzuru is the reincarnation of Kagekatsu and Kagetora has some serious Issues about being cast aside (Takaya kind of does too, thanks to his mother), particularly as concerns Kagekatsu, who drove him to suicide in his first lifetime after their succession war. Nevertheless he's like, seriously, no means no, fuck you guys all so much, except then they lay it out in these terms: Either you agree to cooperate with us, or we kill Naoe.
T: ..................................
N: *allowed briefly to see T* Don't listen to them, Kagetora-sama! Forget about me! In fact, I want you to kill me yourself if you have to!
Then Takaya punches Kotarou in the face and yells that he'll never forgive him. It was very therapeutic-- or it certainly was for me, dunno about Takaya.
Obviously from a duty standpoint he should do what Naoe told him to, but in the end Naoe is worth more to him than duty, no matter how much Kagetora has hidden behind it before, and he very resentfully goes along with it. (On that note, Naoe totally expected Takaya to choose the Uesugi and is shocked when he chooses Naoe instead.) What makes him even more bitter and resentful about the whole thing is that he's severely restricted from being allowed to see Naoe that much; Naoe is put in service with Motoharu and they're kept apart. This gives Takaya a lot of time to sit around angsting and brooding and hating Kotarou a lot and hug spirit tigers. (I previously mentioned in the book 6 summaries, I think, that Kotarou has spirit animals he releases from stones-- pokemon got it from the ninjas first!-- and currently they're employed in Takaya's defence.)
The results of these musings are very interesting, because most of the time what he thinks about is Naoe. At one point he finds himself slipping into Kagetora's thought patterns, and when he breaks out of them, he's really shaken up, because wow, Kagetora is REALLY FUCKED UP when it comes to Naoe. Specifically, in addition to what Takaya realised in the last book about Kagetora being afraid that Naoewill not still love him in the morning will lose interest in him if he gives in-- I was totally right the first time, really-- Kagetora WANTS to Naoe to keep wanting him, wants Naoe to keep saying things like "you're mine", "I'll possess you", "I want to monopolise you", "I'll make you scream" etc. So in other words, all Naoe's crazyass possessiveness is actually 100% Kagetora sanctioned, whether Naoe himself knows that or not.
But oh-ho, even that does not scrape the barrel of Kagetora's crazy. Motoharu takes a liking to Naoe as a confidante and wants him as his own retainer permanently (Naoe seems to have that effect on people. See also Hasami from book 9.) and he thinks that Kagetora is a crappy master who's totally fucking Naoe up, which is... uh, true. But you know, it works for them. *cough* Whatever though, Motoharu and Naoe talk a lot, and Motoharu reaches these conclusions, and he asks Naoe to join the Mouri as his personal retainer. Naoe is kind like, er, thanks all the same, BUT.
M: *does not apparently understand not getting what he wants* You will be my new retainer!
N: What? But-- no...
Then, when Takaya finally caves and signs the alliance agreement in binding ink or whatever, he demands that Naoe be set free and Motoharu is like, ACTUALLY, he's decided he totally WANTS to be my new retainer. (Lies, all lies.) Motoharu is... kind of a bastard, really, even if he seems to think he wants what's best for Naoe.
Anyway, this sends Takaya over the brink into whole new REALMS of Kagetora crazy, translated because it must be read to be fully appreciated.
~~
"I won't let you see him."
"Let me see him now."
Takaya will not yield.
"I will hear his true feelings with my own ears. If he says his true feelings are to cast me away, then I will kill him with my own hands...!"
"I won't, I won't let you do that!"
"The conditions of his life and his death rest solely with me. No one but me. Not even he himself. He cannot die without my permission."
"... Kagetora..."
"He won't have any interest in anyone but me. He won't see anyone but me. He is the pet dog of only me. It's all mine. His eyes, his voice, his words and body, his tears and sweat and fluids, his happiness and pain and pride and thoughts and knowledge, his memories... his history! Nobody can touch them, nobody but me is allowed to have any connection to his existence!"
~~
That's as far as I translated in that email, and I don't have the books as previously mentioned, but Motoharu's reaction is (as one might understandably expect) OH MY GOD, YOU ARE MADE OF CRAZY.
Anyway, that was the last straw to what Takaya is willing to put up with, and he snaps like a particularly brittle stick and goes FUCK YOU GUYS, I'M TAKING MY NAOE AND GOING HOME! >O only with a lot more rage and razing the palace down to the ground involved. Seriously, proof that you DO NOT MESS WITH KAGETORA when it comes to Naoe, there was a lot of exploding and trauma and Motoharu was like "is he some kind of DEMON? FSJKLSDJFS!"
The only thing Takaya cares about, though, is finding Naoe and demanding an explanation. (And this following is the scene I was working on translating but don't have because it's on my PC in Australia, sigh--
WAIT. *searches through flash drives and laptop*
... Argh, goddamn, still no. Although I DID find a translation snip from book 2 of Takaya's really girly crush and a humourous script-style summary of the first chapter of book 3, which... actually explains more than my real summary did. OH WELL. XD)
ANYWAY. Because Naoe is made of dumb, he doesn't just come straight out and say "no I didn't agree to be Motoharu's retainer" like any halfway SANE person would, even though he's thinking "why did Kikkawa-dono say something like that?". So Takaya continues to be agitated and psycho, and Naoe is apathetic and unhelpful and tries to goad Takaya into killing him. This bit's a little fuzzy; I remember what comes after in perfect clarity, but this bit there's a bit of a gap. I THINK Takaya has a gun that he's threatening Naoe with; Naoe is all "go ahead and kill me" and it morphs into an argument about Naoe's suicidal tendencies. He wants to die, he wants Kagetora to kill him, because he's already lost his sight and his powers and he doesn't see what he's got left. Takaya obviously refuses to shoot him, and Naoe tries to physically force him to pull the trigger. They wrestle over the gun, and Takaya's in tears begging Naoe-- he says, you can't die now, I won't let you, it can't end that way because it's not perfect anymore. You don't want to end it, because you chose hope, remember? You could have chosen our perfect end if you'd sealed us both in the tsutsuga mirror, but you chose hope! You don't get to change your mind!
Naoe is all, wait, surely you don't mean you WANTED me to seal us in the mirror? (seriously, this book just makes you think you can never underestimate how crazy Kagetora actually is; I was so, SO WRONG to ever believe Naoe was the fucked up one) and Takaya somewhat shiftily deflects the question by saying he let NAOE choose. He only gave Naoe one choice, and he chose hope, so he's not letting Naoe go back on that, at which point he manages to wrest the gun away and toss it and there is finally, fucking FINALLY hugging. I spent the whole book being like, THEY BOTH NEED HUGS. PREFERABLY FROM EACH OTHER. and so when I finally unexpectedly actually GOT my very satisfying hugs, I was really happy. Through all the, you know, crying like the total wimp that I am.
Except then it all gets ruined, because Rairyuu shows up to attack them (he really, really hates Kagetora, you guys, just in case anyone missed that, and pretty much is jumping at the first chance after chafing at the bit during the whole "alliance" farce) and while Takaya is distracted fending off Rairyuu, Terumoto (I'm pretty sure that's who it was, anyway. The last Mouri, the developmentally challenged one.) who he'd shot earlier and assumed was dead, grabs the discarded gun and aims for Takaya. Naoe senses it by instinct, steps in the way to shield Takaya, and gets shot in the heart. There is a lot of blood. There is a lot of trauma. There is... a lot of Naoe dying, and because he doesn't have his power, he can't kanshou, so there is a lot of Takaya completely flipping his shit. Seriously, he just completely lost the plot and razed the whole complex down to the GROUND in flames. He probably would have died in his own inferno if Ujiyasu, his father who took on the form of a dragon after death, had not come and taken him away. Many people including Terumoto did die; some, including Rairyuu and Kikkawa Motoharu, managed to escape via the moat.
Takaya's totally healthy and sane coping mechanism is first to decide to lay down and die because life isn't worth living, and then when he's told he still has things he has to do, to be like IT'S ALL A NIGHTMARE. A WORLD WITHOUT NAOE CANNOT EXIST, AND THEREFORE THIS IS ALL JUST A BAD DREAM, AND WHEN I WAKE UP, IT WILL BE OKAY. which bodes very well for at least the next book (and, I was later horrified to discover, the next 7 books to follow it.)
So in conclusion Naoe is dead, and Takaya is totally insane.
And I would just like to say, I TOTALLY CALLED THAT:
I am 1/3 through the way of book 10, and I can see disaster coming. It is mesmerising like a trainwreck. I'm serious, there are all these red flashing signs saying things like, "Something horrible and possibly incapacitating is going to happen to Naoe and THEN Takaya is really going to be sorry." Aside from Chiaki essentially warning Takaya the same thing and Ayako worrying over Naoe's ability to function, he's totally lost his spiritual powers right now and is, in other words, TOTALLY DEFENCELESS. And even though he knew he was weaker (though not how much) he was too proud to accept Ayako's help earlier... so if he continues in that fashion, Naoe is so heading for dead-ville. Not for real, since then it'd be hard to have another 30 books, but.
Not that this made me feel better. I admit it, I totally cried buckets. THEY WERE SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR.
Book 12 was the last book in that arc, consisted almost entirely of complicated plot, and... I don't really remember it. orz But I'll do my best.
Obviously there was no Naoe for the entire book 12, and Takaya, after being taken back to Hiroshima to finish doing his job by Ujiyasu, spends the whole thing in a state not even remotely acquainted with "sane". (Actually, including this book, Takaya spends 9 successive volumes being crazy in one way or another. I mean, above and beyond his usual baseline crazy.) Basically he runs around the whole time being like "Naoe's not here, but that's okay, because none of this is actually real and when I wake up Naoe is going to be there. *zen*" There was a big sea battle with all the ghost ships, and Takaya went and busted up the Anti-Oda Alliance's HQ with Kotarou's help (since Ujiyasu has sanctioned it. he never had any loyalty to the Alliance, just doing what Ujiyasu wants.) and there was a lot of panic and flailing and exorcism. Rairyuu continues to be crazy with hate for Takaya. I think he got mauled by a spirit tiger. Rairen got exorcised, I'm pretty sure, but Rairyuu just won't quit-- at the time I THOUGHT he was dead, but he totally keeps coming back. You can't get rid of him.
And apparently since Kousaka must always be there somewhere to be up on the goss, he shows up at some point, not to particularly STOP Takaya from trashing things, but to yell at him about Naoe. How can you just go on acting like everything's fine? You should have gone and died with him! (I will never understand Kousaka. I think he sekritly OTPs Naoe/Takaya, in the kind of way where he likes laughing at their pain.) And Takaya is all like, oh, but Naoe's not dead. This isn't real, you see! Which is enough to floor even Kousaka. XD;
Also, the thing with Isari and Tomo and something about Miyajima and the Itsukushima-jinja (which I have seeeeeeen *is shot*) is continuing on in the background, still linked to the main plot. I think Tomo is trying to stop the Alliance's nefarious plan because it'll destroy the natural balance or drain the Seto Inland Sea or something. Something bad, anyway. ... Actually, I think it MIGHT have involved draining the sea so Oda couldn't use his navy. Huh. But anyway, Isari manages to entrap Tomo and co (co including Takaya). My memory of this bit is kind of hazy, though... I think Isari eventually manages to forgive Tomo, but the schoolgirl who's friends with the girl possessed by Tomo gets possessed by Oda or something and all hell breaks lose. Argh, I wish I could REMEMBER this. There's also Chiaki summoning a herd or flock or whatever of Tengu. At some point Ayako meets back up with Takaya (this is while they're still on the mountain, she may have been looking for Tomo and her friend) and is like, "it's not true that Naoe is dead, is it?! ;_____;" and Takaya's like, la la la, this is ALL JUST A BAD DREAM, and this unsurprisingly does not make Ayako feel better.
But the upshot of all this is that any nefarious plans are dealt with, a lot of people are exorcised, Yuzuru is restored to them and they refreeze the gem, Isari and Tomo deal with their issues-- I think Isari asks to be exorcised and Tomo goes back to being "Youkihi", Shikanosuke decides that the Uesugi can't help him revive the Amago clan and joins Oda (Chiaki: ... d'oh.), and Takaya just wants to go to bed and wake up and find Naoe there again. There is no touching reunion with Yuzuru because Takaya's too preoccupied and crazy in the head. I felt kind of sorry for Yuzuru, you can't blame him for eventually catching the crazy himself.
Oh yeah, and Hakkai, who traced Takaya and Naoe to Hagi and was intending to try and bust them out, instead finds the smouldering ruins with a strangely familiar warrior spirit standing amongst it.
Me: Is that Naoe, or Kenshin? O.o;
Anyway, people of note who died or got exorcised: Naoe (temporarily dead); Mouri Terumoto; Shimozuma Rairen.
And people who will come back for more, like, look who's back, look who's back again, revenge of the... anyway: Kikkawa Motoharu, Murakami Takeyoshi, Shimozuma Rairyuu, Yamanaka Shikanosuke, Kotarou the ninja, and, as always, Kousaka.
You know, considering that so far Kagetora has had two comebacks from the dead (one coming back as Takaya after the Oda thing, the other in book 7/8) and Naoe is about to have one of his own, it strikes me as amusing that Nagahide(/Chiaki) actually seems to get the most miraculous I aten't dead moments. Takaya wins for most times abducted (I think it's reached the point where I can't count on my fingers), but Nagahide probably "dies" most. I've still got 10 books left though, so that could change.
That was a really crappy summary of book 12, for which I can only apologise. .__. But at least it sort of serves the purpose of wrapping up that plotline and giving a sitrep of the characters, which is all you really need to understand the later books? /o\
AT LEAST MY SUMMARIES OF BOOKS 13-14 ARE FAIRLY COMPLETE.
... Okay, I lied, I have a completely comprehensive summary of book 14 and not much on book 13. XD; But most of the important stuff about 13 is retroactively explained when I'm explaining what's going on in 14, so I'll just stick to the important basic facts and the Naoe/Takaya moments.
* Naoe has been "dead" for two years. I howled with impotent rage when I realised this, because I HATE time jumps (not that I wanted 2 years worth of books without Naoe, but I just have a thing), and I sulked at the book a lot, but eventually I got over it. Takaya is 19 now. In the prologue, he loses control over his powers when he's trying to exorcise a spirit and either kills or almost kills the host-- and almost kills himself, too. This is apparently happening with growing frequency.
* As for what he's been doing since everything wrapped up in Hiroshima-- he woke up from his "nightmare", saw Kotarou, and hypnotised himself into superimposing Naoe over Kotarou. Since then Kotarou has been hanging around the Yashashuu as "Naoe", using his awesome ninja skillz to imitate Naoe's mannerisms. Chiaki and Ayako are not happy and suspect of ulterior motives. Chiaki and Ayako are, in fact, correct, as Kotarou still wants to subvert Takaya back to the Houjyou.
* Despite Kotarou's awesome ninja skillz and Takaya's self-hypnosis, he's still not enough Naoe to fool Kagetora-- he's got the loyal right-hand man part down pat, but he hasn't got crazy!Naoe down because he's incapable of understanding. He never calls Takaya "Takaya-san" and he doesn't say anything messed up or try to molest Takaya at all. Takaya is very confused. Kotarou is very miffed that his ninja skillz aren't working because dammit, they're impeccable!
This was hilarious enough to end up in two emails:
~~
I feel sorry for Kotarou beyond the telling right now. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. I'm in the middle of a scene which is like
Takaya: Naoe, why are you ignoring my feelings? D:
Kotarou: ........?
Takaya: Fine, whatever, never mind.
Kotarou: Kagetora-sama...?
Takaya: Isn't there anything you want to say to me? Anything you have to say? Something you can't help but do?
Kotarou: ?
Takaya: I'M HALF NAKED. WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO FUCK ME, NAOE? D:
Kotarou: *IS SO FUCKING CONFUSED*
I am not, actually, exaggerating. Condensing, yes; exaggerating, no. Takaya doesn't say it QUITE that bluntly-- or he hasn't yet, he could be getting there-- but it's pretty freaking blatant to anyone who has half a clue what's going on/isn't Kotarou. Although since he walked in on Naoe trying to molest Takaya back in book 11, you'd think he'd have SOME idea.
Not that Takaya doesn't still deserve many hugs and all, but I kind of can't stop the inappropriate giggling.
~~
Okay, you know how I said it was kind of inappropriately hilarious how Takaya didn't understand why "Naoe" didn't want him anymore? someone should seriously have video recorded that exchange and sent it to Naoe as a present. an "I hope you are stewing in your own frustration, jerkwad" present.
because seriously, it got funnier. takaya is so totally frustrated and kotarou is totally emotionally challenged. like, Takaya fully started taking his shirt of and being like... okay, you know how translating japanese sentence fragments is the biggest bitch ever? yeah, it's good old "omae wa ore ni..." so "you (do something) to me", from context probably "you don't want to fuck me? D:" except Takaya can't buy a verb.
and Kotarou is like, I do not understand, what do you want from me?
Takaya: Is this revenge? are you doing this to get back at me, Naoe? Do you really not have any interest in me any more?
Kotarou: *still doesn't get it*
o kotarou. I kind of felt sorry for him. but then I stopped feeling sorry for him in the next scene and resumed being creeped out by him, because he is still harbouring plans to convert Saburou back to the Houjyou and kill Yuzuru (ie Kagekatsu) and defeat Kenshin. And he and Takaya's birth father (the dragon) are still working in tandem with the evil cult who are partly responsible for Naoe's death. "death". what. Kotarou is all like, this is very strategically promising, I am in his confidences! and I am like CREEPED OUT, YO. I am so glad he is so emotionally disabled that he apparently he cannot tell when someone is hitting on him with all the subtlety of a mallet, because if he used that to manipulate Takaya that would be wrong and freaky beyond all belief.
meanwhile Takaya is basically crazy. he's self-hypnotised himself into believing that Kotarou is Naoe and it's making his powers keep running out of control because a) it takes a lot of power to make someone who is nothing like Naoe be Naoe in his head and b) it confuses and distracts him when "Naoe" doesn't act like Naoe. eg, by totally failing to try to molest him, say creepily possessive stuff, or call him Takaya-san. ever. Kotarou is using his crazy ninja skills to adopt Naoe's mannerisms and speech patterns which seemed nice at first but knowing his ulterior motives just adds to the creepy.
as for Naoe: worst boyfriend EVER, y/y? seriously, it's been TWO YEARS since he "died", and he couldn't even bother to show up and be like hay thar, I'm not actually dead, Takaya-san, you can stop grieving? not that Takaya is grieving, because he's too busy repressing and denying the fact of Naoe's "death", but he is definitely not healthy. crazy in the head and repression and half killing himself with his own power going out of control are NOT HEALTHY. Naoe is a jerk face. he doesn't even bother telling Takaya who he is when he runs into him, just confuses and upsets him (without him even knowing why) by giving him his (expensive!) jacket and saying the same thing he said at the end of book 8/the anime when he left Takaya at the pier. not that I'm up to that bit, I skipped ahead because there was a pretty picture [Edit note: the first picture is of Subaru from X, scroll down. I was comparing their "My boyfriend is a JERK" trauma faces. XD;]. *shifty* ALSO, in the "further nails in the coffin of Naoe being a DICK" column, character info from the next arc suggests he is still pretending to be Kaizaki and Takaya still doesn't know, and something about him being in charge of a new Uesugi Meikai army or something. Jerk! JERK! DON'T YOU THINK KAGETORA HAS BEEN BETRAYED ENOUGH, NAOE?!
.... in conclusion, Naoe should have tried playing hard to get for a while. after two years of "Naoe" not showing any interest, Takaya is practically throwing himself at him. you are a dumbass, naoe.
~~
Keep in mind that these were my thoughts at the time so I didn't know anything about what was going on in Naoe's head. Which sort of mitigated things a LITTLE but hm.
* Anyway. So the plot this time is set in Enoshima (where I am going! *IS SHOT*). This major real-estate corporation called Keibu is trying to buy out the whole area, which is a shrine area, and do major developments. They are clearly up to something seedy, and there have been a bunch of curse killings of people who have opposed the plan, so Takaya and Ayako are investigating. They get caught in a rockslide at the cave and they're not badly injured or anything, but then this guy calling himself Kaizaki shows up and Takaya is in shock from the moment he sees him. If he hadn't hypnotised himself into believing Kotarou was Naoe, he would have recognised him immediately. As it is though, Kaizaki is not possessed and not a kanshousha, so Ayako knows there's something weird about him but can't place it. He comes up to Takaya and asks if he's okay, and then-- as I said, an exact mirror of the moment on the pier in book 8-- he takes off his jacket and drapes it over Takaya's shoulders and says, it's cold, you should take care of yourself, and leaves while Takaya just stares at him in pure shock. Then Kaizaki leaves, and Takaya starts to cry and doesn't even know why, and Ayako is full-on freaking, like, Kagetora, that was WEIRD AND CREEPY, if you were a chick I would SERIOUSLY think he was hitting on you, and-- OH MY GOD, THIS COAT IS WORTH LIKE 60,000 YEN (approx $600) SHRIEK!
* Hakkai is with Naoe. Meanwhile, we don't know how Naoe is Kaizaki, considering he's not possessed or a kanshousha. What we do know is that Kaizaki is working with the Keibu group, who are actually all possessed by the Satomi clan. Kaizaki is their descendent, and they believe this is why he has powers and wants to help them. My suspicious feelings toward Naoe (mostly along the lines of "seriously, STOP BEING A DICK") grew.
* Meanwhile, Chiaki is chasing after some guy with the Takeda called Yamagata, falls into a trap, and gets his arse saved by none other than IROBE, the fifth member of the Yashashuu who is supposed to still be a child and none of them have heard anything from him since Takaya was found. Chiaki is understandably like, okay, you-- EXPLAIN. Irobe tells him that he's working directly under Kenshin's orders, and also that the Keibu are in fact the Satomi and they're working behind the scenes to take them down. Hakkai is there too.
and then at the end of book 13, "Kaizaki" was ordered to take Kagetora hostage, WHICH HE HAPPILY SKIPS OFF TO DO leaving me to be like, "UM" especially since the Satomi's grand plan involves handing Kagetora off to Oda for good will. Kaizaki and Takaya have a showdown, Takaya's powers run out of control again, he passes out, and Kaizaki carries him off. Which is the end of book 13, and pretty much had me going, "....................... you are the worst boyfriend EVER, Naoe." (I had this ever-present but fluctuating urge to bitchslap him going during books 13-19. Sometimes he was temporarily forgiven. Sometimes I fully wanted to throttle him for being a douchebag.)
Depending on how many words the book 14 summary is, this... might not actually fit.
But I can try!
.............. It totally didn't fit. ><;
Book 9 is set in Kyoto and Osaka. Ayako and Takaya are investigating in Kyoto; Naoe took on a favour from a friend in his capacity as Tachibana Yoshiaki, and is pretending to work as a secretary to a business man named Hasami while actually acting as his bodyguard and investigating these nightmares Hasami has been having. Takaya doesn't know Naoe is doing this because it's outside his role as an Uesugi, so he didn't bother mentioning it. It's been several months since the end of book 8, and they've barely seen each other; things are very strained and awkward.
Anyway. Despite asking for Naoe's help, Hasami is a bit vague about why there are people attacking him, but it turns out he bought a mandala woven from the hair of the Araki clan and someone is trying to steal it. This someone, it turns out, is the kanshousha Araki Murashige, the clan head and the only one not executed when his castle fell, because he'd left the castle. I don't actually remember who the castle fell to, but I think he was trying to contact reinforcements or something when his castle fell and his wife and all his retainers were executed. Their spirits are trapped in the mandala, burning with resentment for their lord who abandoned them-- except for his wife, who is the spirit guarding the mandala. He's trying to steal it and destroy it because he's afraid that someone will release the spirits and they'll tear him to shreds. He's struggling with himself, though, because he feels really guilty for not being there and part of him thinks he deserves whatever the Araki spirits do to him.
I don't remember what Takaya and Ayako were initially investigating in Kyoto; I think there was a report from one of the Nokizaru, the watcher spirits the Uesugi have all over the country, about something weird being up. This is the first time the Nokizaru are introduced, I recall, which is important, because the head Nokizaru, Hakkai, becomes a key character in the following books. Anyway, the something weird ends up being tied in with the same thing Naoe is caught up in, with the Araki and the mandala. It also turns out to involve the Ikkou-sect again, specifically the brothers Shimozuma Rairen and Rairyuu, who are trying to get the mandala for their own nefarious purposes.
What I remember about the plot other than that boils down to:
* Flashbacks about Haruie's lover of 200 years ago. They lived in Kyoto. She had kansho'd as a woman that lifetime for lack of choice and ran away from home. She was caught up in an attack when she met Shintarou and got really hurt, for memory. He was a doctor so he nursed her back to health. He covered her the next time she was attacked and lost an arm, which obviously made it hard for him to be a doctor, so she said she'd stay and act as his arm instead. She asked Kagetora to let her leave the yashashuu to be with Shintarou, and Kagetora said yes. Shintarou died young of illness, however, and Haruie has remained in the form of a woman ever since, waiting and hoping ever since that he'll be reborn, that even if he's had his soul purified, she'll know him. She's wracked with doubt about the futility though, because (unlike, say, Kousaka) she doesn't have the ability to recognise souls. She wants to believe that if was Shintarou she'd know, but she is losing hope and especially struggles with that in book 9. Araki Murashige looks like Shintarou-- she thinks he is him, at first-- and that causes her a lot of troubles. They end up bonding over losing their lovers.
* Unsurprisingly, Takaya and Naoe's paths eventually cross. Takaya is hearing a report from one of the Nokizaru at a hotel when Hasami (in Kyoto for a business conference) comes in with Naoe in tow. Takaya is very not happy. You cannot underestimate how insecure and possessive Kagetora is when it comes to Naoe-- that Naoe is taking orders from someone else, especially that he's working on a job that he didn't report about, threatens him. Naoe doesn't help, purposefully taunting Takaya by saying that Hasami has asked him to work for him permanently, and he's a good master, unlike SOMEONE ELSE Naoe might mention, so he's thinking of saying yes. Takaya is like FUCK YOU, I'M SO NOT JEALOUS even though really, he SO is, and then Naoe is like well if you're going to be like THAT, I'm going to drag you up to a hotel room and attempt to molest you! Except then Takaya has Kagetora's rape flashbacks for the first time and freaks out hardcore, and Naoe doesn't know what's going on but he does know that Takaya is honestly scared and stops, which is the one thing that can be said in his favour.
Have I mentioned that this book made me want to bitchsmack them both a whole lot?
* Then there is fighting and stuff against the Shimozuma brothers, who are still trying to get the mandala and also kill Murashige. As I recall, Rairen attacks Ayako and Murashige, and Rairyuu attacks Naoe and Takaya. Takaya and Naoe get kind of crushed and Takaya almost dies. Proving that when it comes down to it no matter how much he thinks he hates Kagetora he still loves him, Naoe freaks out a whole lot and screams both Takaya and Kagetora's names a lot. Rairyuu assumed his business there was done and flew off on the back of... some mythological creature or other to join his older brother Rairen. Takaya and Naoe manage to pull their shit together-- I think maybe Bishamonten healed Takaya, they were in the grounds of a temple when they got attacked-- and Takaya summons a herd (? flock?) of tengu to carry him after Rairyuu.
* I don't really recall what happened, but the upshot of it all is that any nefarious plans were defeated, Murashige got attacked by the vengeful spirits of his clan but his wife protected him, all the Araki ended up exorcised (including Murashige I believe), Ayako decided to keep waiting for Shintarou to one day show up, and the Shimozuma brothers were PRODIGIOUSLY PISSED, especially Rairyuu, who is apparently some kind of prodigy and not used to losing. He forms a powerful grudge on Kagetora. As for Naoe and Takaya, Takaya tells Naoe that he doesn't accept people who are weak and if Naoe beats him, THEN Takaya will let Naoe have him. This is intended as a spur-- you see what's going on in Takaya (well, more Kagetora)'s crazy head during the next arc and it makes a lot more sense in that way where you are like OH MY GOD, YOU ARE MADE OF CRAZY, but it kind of backfires spectacularly, as you'll soon see.
Anyway, it took me like two months to finish that book because I got bored and kept putting it down until I got halfway through. It just felt like filler, somehow. XD; Whatever, I finished it and finally got to the books 10-12 arc which is where things got interesting again. Unfortunately I don't seem to have many conversations or emails about this arc and I'm not sure why, maybe I was too busy reading it to spam about it. Anyway. I actually have like 4000 words of the last chapter of book 11 translated, but it's at home on my PC, along with the book, so I can't do anything about that right now. You'll just have to put up with my patchy recollection, which is very good when it pertains to Takaya and Naoe and a bit muddled when it comes to all the feudal lords that got involved in this mess. *g*
The majority of the arc takes place in Hiroshima, Miyajima and the Seto Inland Sea in general (WHERE I HAVE BEEN, MWAHAHAHA-- I really do have to write up that travel post) with a detour to Hagi in the 11th book. Which is somewhere in the same prefecture as Hiroshima, I believe, but I haven't been there. There was also some mention of Osaka Port somewhere in there too, but that's one of the bits I only have really fuzzy recollection of, so... yeah. orz There's a fairly distinctive cut off point between each of the books, though, so I can separate the summaries out.
Yuzuru and co are going on a class trip to Hiroshima as a pre-graduation thing. (Judging by Gokusen, this seems to be fairly usual for Japanese high schools.) Takaya isn't graduating-- best case scenario is that he repeats (this doesn't happen, clearly)-- so theoretically he isn't allowed to go. Yuzuru is adamant that he should, however, especially since lately Takaya just hasn't been spending that much time with him anymore, and Morino Saori is one of the organisers of the trip-- AND, Yuzuru says, CHIAKI CAN ALWAYS JUST HYPNOTISE PEOPLE (Takaya: ...................... Me: ahaha Yuzuru has joined the dark side.)-- so Takaya ends up going along anyway.
(Note on the above, for memory they DO end up going the hypnosis route. Chiaki is like, what's in it for me?
Y: >:(
C: ... oh, FINE.
Me: XD)
So anyway, Takaya, Chiaki and Yuzuru go on a class trip to Hiroshima, where it turns out there is something hinky involving ghost ships from WWII as well as the civil war period on the Seto Inland Sea and boatloads of people disappearing.
Meanwhile, Naoe is not doing so well. Takaya might have been attempting to motivate him in book 9, but instead Naoe suffers a total loss of confidence which is weakening his powers. You can tell from RIGHT THERE that this is all going to end in tears, and you would not be wrong. Ayako and Chiaki have both tried to tell Takaya that Naoe's losing the plot, that he's going to lose Naoe if he doesn't do something, but Takaya doesn't want to listen because he doesn't want to even consider that they could be right, so he goes back on the good old standby, repress and deny. Naoe continues to run around investigating despite the dubious wisdom of this (he's also investigating the ships thing. I don't think he's in Hiroshima, though; maybe that's where Osaka comes into it...), and ends up teaming up with Hakkai, aforementioned head of the Nokizaru. Which is just as well, because probably by about halfway through the book he's lost his powers completely.
Sadly, my memory of book 10 is VERY shaky. The name of the arc, Wadatsumi no Youkihi, comes from a Chinese woman (the Japanese is Youkihi, but it's Yang Kwei-Fei) who is said to have become a goddess of the sea in the 8th C. There were two sisters in the civil war period; the elder sister Tomo was deformed, so despite that she should have been married off first, the younger, Isari, was to be married to this feudal lord their father had an alliance with (or... something). Out of jealousy, Tomo burned Isari's face, but I think the lord took her despite the disfigurement. Tomo has now become... basically Youkihi's helper, and is attached to a. Shrine? Grotto? Something. I believe it was it was located on Mount Misen on Miyajima, anyway. (I've been there! and I'm going again, so I'll have to make sure to reread the Wadatsumi arc before I go next time.) She feels guilty for what she did, and basically all she wants is to protect the Seto Inland Sea. Isari is possessing a school girl in Hiroshima and wants revenge on Tomo.
The guy they both love is also running around somewhere with all the ghost ships, I think he might have been Murakami wasname, but I really don't remember.
As for the ghost ships, it's a CUNNING PLAN by the Anti-Oda Alliance, currently consisting of the Mouri, the Murakami, the Ikkou-shuu (yes, THEM again) and our good old friends, the Takeda. Y hallo thar, Kousaka, we haven't seen you for... a whole book or two. Actually most of the Anti-Oda Alliance doesn't show up until book 11, but whatever.
There's also this other guy running around called Yamanaka Shikanosuke, who is tirelessly loyal to the Amago clan who were wiped out by... either the Mouri or the Murakami, don't expect me to remember these things... and is trying to revive his clan. He ends up teaming up with Chiaki and Isari.
Back to the ghost ships, though. Somehow Naoe has ended up in the same place as Takaya, don't ask me how, and Takaya is being a total bitch to him. Actually, they're pretty much being total bitches to each other and are both trying to convince themselves and everyone around them that they don't feel anything for each other (oh, you guys. keep deluding yourselves. you may feel many things for each other, but indifference is not and will never be one of them), but mostly what I remember is that Takaya totally threatens to replace Naoe with Hakkai, because he's no use if he doesn't have any power. I kind of wanted to bitchslap him, but near the end of book 10 it flips into his POV and you actually find out what's going on in his crazy, crazy head. Basically he's petrified of losing Naoe, of Naoe just giving up and letting himself be killed or whatever, so he's trying to taunt Naoe into some kind of reaction, because that's the way it works with them. (I know this isn't news, but... you guys are screwed up.) Also, I myself had forgotten this, but quoting myself from an old post: "Takaya subconsciously slips into Kagetora's thought processes and when he snaps out of it he is like, oh my god, what are you THINKING, self!-- which is, if he gives in to Naoe, Naoe will no longer have a reason to fight against him and thus will lose interest and no longer have any reason to fixate on him and Kagetora will lose him. Even if Naoe's screwed up, at least he's still tied to Kagetora." Even TAKAYA realises that's messed up, and he's the one thinking it. ^^;
Anyway, things go from bad to worse, because when Naoe, Takaya and Yuzuru are on a ship together at the end of book 10 for... whatever reason... Kotarou the Fuuma ninja from the tsutsuga arc, who is working with the Anti-Oda Alliance, shows up and tries to abduct Takaya, the boat gets boarded by the Morikami, and then Yuzuru--
Wait, wait, I forgot to mention, you remember the demon's seed that got planted on Yuzuru in book 8? Well the Yashashuu (I think Naoe) managed to freeze it so Oda couldn't use it to take over Yuzuru's body, but it was only a temporary solution, and it chooses now to crap out on them. Oda takes over Yuzuru and is like AAAAAAHAHAHA PUNY MORTALS! at Naoe and Takaya, who are like OSHI-- and then he blows up the boat.
Check off "sunk out at sea" on the list of Shit That Happens To Takaya, then. Oh Mirage.
Sorry if that was disjointed, but it was the best I could manage almost a year after reading without the books here, and I think it hit the salient bits that you need to know for later.
Book 11 (one of my favourite books) opens with Naoe, Takaya and, joy of joys, Kotarou stranded on a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea. They managed not to drown, but thanks to the shock of the blast, Naoe is now blind as well as powerless, rendering him pretty well entirely defenceless, and Takaya is totally freaked out.
This is one of the bits I have actually previously semi-summarised, but that was a very patchy summary, so... to fill it in, yes, Kotarou is trying to persuade Takaya to join with the Anti Oda-Alliance in his capacity as the last surviving Houjyou. (Takaya: Did you miss the bit where I'm the last one because I EXORCISED the others?!) He tries to persuade Takaya that Kenshin is just using him and he should go back to the side of his true father. Takaya is all wtf no, but there's niggling doubt at the back of his mind. He's more preoccupied with freaking out over Naoe being blind, though. Naoe himself is understandably pretty shaken, which... in the special world of Naoe leads to him trying, once more, to jump Takaya, because, he says, what if my power and sight are just the start? What if I slowly lose all my senses so I'm no longer able to hear you or smell you or feel you or taste you? I need to memorise you while I still have the chance! and Takaya is all YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LOSE ANY MORE SENSES, OH MY GOD, DENIAL. Theoretically he should have the upper hand here because he is able to see and, y'know, kill things with his brain, but he freezes up-- until he gets rape flashbacks (Naoe still doesn't know about that) and has a panic attack and flings fire all over the place, at which point Kotarou comes into the cave and is like "you people, WTF?! DOES NOT COMPUTE." I almost, almost felt sorry for him, except he called reinforcements to pick them up, and it wasn't so much "hooray! rescue!" as "well, shit, we've been abducted". What makes this even better is that it's the Ikkou-shuu who come to collect them, and Rairyuu still has a grudge on Kagetora that he doesn't WANT to get over. He doesn't see why they have to make Kagetora their ally; he'd rather just kill him.
Takaya isn't overly keen on being forced to be anyone's ally either, and he's prepared to fight it except they take defenceless!Naoe hostage and that leaves him with no choice but to follow. They get taken to the Mouri base in Hagi, presided over by Kikkawa Motoharu, son-in-law or foster son or whatever of Mouri whoever-- there were three sons, one by birth and then Motoharu and I think Murakami Takeyoshi. The son by birth has moved on, meaning that the only actual "Mouri" is his own developmentally challenged son Terumoto.
Basically they reiterate the stuff Kotarou said about Kenshin using Kagetora, and that "Narita Yuzuru" must be destroyed, and that Kenshin is just planning to replace him with Kagekatsu (which is ironic, when you consider what happens in the next stage of the plot... ANYWAY) and that "Houjyou Saburou" should join them. Takaya is more shaken than he wants to admit, because he remembers at this point that Yuzuru is the reincarnation of Kagekatsu and Kagetora has some serious Issues about being cast aside (Takaya kind of does too, thanks to his mother), particularly as concerns Kagekatsu, who drove him to suicide in his first lifetime after their succession war. Nevertheless he's like, seriously, no means no, fuck you guys all so much, except then they lay it out in these terms: Either you agree to cooperate with us, or we kill Naoe.
T: ..................................
N: *allowed briefly to see T* Don't listen to them, Kagetora-sama! Forget about me! In fact, I want you to kill me yourself if you have to!
Then Takaya punches Kotarou in the face and yells that he'll never forgive him. It was very therapeutic-- or it certainly was for me, dunno about Takaya.
Obviously from a duty standpoint he should do what Naoe told him to, but in the end Naoe is worth more to him than duty, no matter how much Kagetora has hidden behind it before, and he very resentfully goes along with it. (On that note, Naoe totally expected Takaya to choose the Uesugi and is shocked when he chooses Naoe instead.) What makes him even more bitter and resentful about the whole thing is that he's severely restricted from being allowed to see Naoe that much; Naoe is put in service with Motoharu and they're kept apart. This gives Takaya a lot of time to sit around angsting and brooding and hating Kotarou a lot and hug spirit tigers. (I previously mentioned in the book 6 summaries, I think, that Kotarou has spirit animals he releases from stones-- pokemon got it from the ninjas first!-- and currently they're employed in Takaya's defence.)
The results of these musings are very interesting, because most of the time what he thinks about is Naoe. At one point he finds himself slipping into Kagetora's thought patterns, and when he breaks out of them, he's really shaken up, because wow, Kagetora is REALLY FUCKED UP when it comes to Naoe. Specifically, in addition to what Takaya realised in the last book about Kagetora being afraid that Naoe
But oh-ho, even that does not scrape the barrel of Kagetora's crazy. Motoharu takes a liking to Naoe as a confidante and wants him as his own retainer permanently (Naoe seems to have that effect on people. See also Hasami from book 9.) and he thinks that Kagetora is a crappy master who's totally fucking Naoe up, which is... uh, true. But you know, it works for them. *cough* Whatever though, Motoharu and Naoe talk a lot, and Motoharu reaches these conclusions, and he asks Naoe to join the Mouri as his personal retainer. Naoe is kind like, er, thanks all the same, BUT.
M: *does not apparently understand not getting what he wants* You will be my new retainer!
N: What? But-- no...
Then, when Takaya finally caves and signs the alliance agreement in binding ink or whatever, he demands that Naoe be set free and Motoharu is like, ACTUALLY, he's decided he totally WANTS to be my new retainer. (Lies, all lies.) Motoharu is... kind of a bastard, really, even if he seems to think he wants what's best for Naoe.
Anyway, this sends Takaya over the brink into whole new REALMS of Kagetora crazy, translated because it must be read to be fully appreciated.
~~
"I won't let you see him."
"Let me see him now."
Takaya will not yield.
"I will hear his true feelings with my own ears. If he says his true feelings are to cast me away, then I will kill him with my own hands...!"
"I won't, I won't let you do that!"
"The conditions of his life and his death rest solely with me. No one but me. Not even he himself. He cannot die without my permission."
"... Kagetora..."
"He won't have any interest in anyone but me. He won't see anyone but me. He is the pet dog of only me. It's all mine. His eyes, his voice, his words and body, his tears and sweat and fluids, his happiness and pain and pride and thoughts and knowledge, his memories... his history! Nobody can touch them, nobody but me is allowed to have any connection to his existence!"
~~
That's as far as I translated in that email, and I don't have the books as previously mentioned, but Motoharu's reaction is (as one might understandably expect) OH MY GOD, YOU ARE MADE OF CRAZY.
Anyway, that was the last straw to what Takaya is willing to put up with, and he snaps like a particularly brittle stick and goes FUCK YOU GUYS, I'M TAKING MY NAOE AND GOING HOME! >O only with a lot more rage and razing the palace down to the ground involved. Seriously, proof that you DO NOT MESS WITH KAGETORA when it comes to Naoe, there was a lot of exploding and trauma and Motoharu was like "is he some kind of DEMON? FSJKLSDJFS!"
The only thing Takaya cares about, though, is finding Naoe and demanding an explanation. (And this following is the scene I was working on translating but don't have because it's on my PC in Australia, sigh--
WAIT. *searches through flash drives and laptop*
... Argh, goddamn, still no. Although I DID find a translation snip from book 2 of Takaya's really girly crush and a humourous script-style summary of the first chapter of book 3, which... actually explains more than my real summary did. OH WELL. XD)
ANYWAY. Because Naoe is made of dumb, he doesn't just come straight out and say "no I didn't agree to be Motoharu's retainer" like any halfway SANE person would, even though he's thinking "why did Kikkawa-dono say something like that?". So Takaya continues to be agitated and psycho, and Naoe is apathetic and unhelpful and tries to goad Takaya into killing him. This bit's a little fuzzy; I remember what comes after in perfect clarity, but this bit there's a bit of a gap. I THINK Takaya has a gun that he's threatening Naoe with; Naoe is all "go ahead and kill me" and it morphs into an argument about Naoe's suicidal tendencies. He wants to die, he wants Kagetora to kill him, because he's already lost his sight and his powers and he doesn't see what he's got left. Takaya obviously refuses to shoot him, and Naoe tries to physically force him to pull the trigger. They wrestle over the gun, and Takaya's in tears begging Naoe-- he says, you can't die now, I won't let you, it can't end that way because it's not perfect anymore. You don't want to end it, because you chose hope, remember? You could have chosen our perfect end if you'd sealed us both in the tsutsuga mirror, but you chose hope! You don't get to change your mind!
Naoe is all, wait, surely you don't mean you WANTED me to seal us in the mirror? (seriously, this book just makes you think you can never underestimate how crazy Kagetora actually is; I was so, SO WRONG to ever believe Naoe was the fucked up one) and Takaya somewhat shiftily deflects the question by saying he let NAOE choose. He only gave Naoe one choice, and he chose hope, so he's not letting Naoe go back on that, at which point he manages to wrest the gun away and toss it and there is finally, fucking FINALLY hugging. I spent the whole book being like, THEY BOTH NEED HUGS. PREFERABLY FROM EACH OTHER. and so when I finally unexpectedly actually GOT my very satisfying hugs, I was really happy. Through all the, you know, crying like the total wimp that I am.
Except then it all gets ruined, because Rairyuu shows up to attack them (he really, really hates Kagetora, you guys, just in case anyone missed that, and pretty much is jumping at the first chance after chafing at the bit during the whole "alliance" farce) and while Takaya is distracted fending off Rairyuu, Terumoto (I'm pretty sure that's who it was, anyway. The last Mouri, the developmentally challenged one.) who he'd shot earlier and assumed was dead, grabs the discarded gun and aims for Takaya. Naoe senses it by instinct, steps in the way to shield Takaya, and gets shot in the heart. There is a lot of blood. There is a lot of trauma. There is... a lot of Naoe dying, and because he doesn't have his power, he can't kanshou, so there is a lot of Takaya completely flipping his shit. Seriously, he just completely lost the plot and razed the whole complex down to the GROUND in flames. He probably would have died in his own inferno if Ujiyasu, his father who took on the form of a dragon after death, had not come and taken him away. Many people including Terumoto did die; some, including Rairyuu and Kikkawa Motoharu, managed to escape via the moat.
Takaya's totally healthy and sane coping mechanism is first to decide to lay down and die because life isn't worth living, and then when he's told he still has things he has to do, to be like IT'S ALL A NIGHTMARE. A WORLD WITHOUT NAOE CANNOT EXIST, AND THEREFORE THIS IS ALL JUST A BAD DREAM, AND WHEN I WAKE UP, IT WILL BE OKAY. which bodes very well for at least the next book (and, I was later horrified to discover, the next 7 books to follow it.)
So in conclusion Naoe is dead, and Takaya is totally insane.
And I would just like to say, I TOTALLY CALLED THAT:
I am 1/3 through the way of book 10, and I can see disaster coming. It is mesmerising like a trainwreck. I'm serious, there are all these red flashing signs saying things like, "Something horrible and possibly incapacitating is going to happen to Naoe and THEN Takaya is really going to be sorry." Aside from Chiaki essentially warning Takaya the same thing and Ayako worrying over Naoe's ability to function, he's totally lost his spiritual powers right now and is, in other words, TOTALLY DEFENCELESS. And even though he knew he was weaker (though not how much) he was too proud to accept Ayako's help earlier... so if he continues in that fashion, Naoe is so heading for dead-ville. Not for real, since then it'd be hard to have another 30 books, but.
Not that this made me feel better. I admit it, I totally cried buckets. THEY WERE SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR.
Book 12 was the last book in that arc, consisted almost entirely of complicated plot, and... I don't really remember it. orz But I'll do my best.
Obviously there was no Naoe for the entire book 12, and Takaya, after being taken back to Hiroshima to finish doing his job by Ujiyasu, spends the whole thing in a state not even remotely acquainted with "sane". (Actually, including this book, Takaya spends 9 successive volumes being crazy in one way or another. I mean, above and beyond his usual baseline crazy.) Basically he runs around the whole time being like "Naoe's not here, but that's okay, because none of this is actually real and when I wake up Naoe is going to be there. *zen*" There was a big sea battle with all the ghost ships, and Takaya went and busted up the Anti-Oda Alliance's HQ with Kotarou's help (since Ujiyasu has sanctioned it. he never had any loyalty to the Alliance, just doing what Ujiyasu wants.) and there was a lot of panic and flailing and exorcism. Rairyuu continues to be crazy with hate for Takaya. I think he got mauled by a spirit tiger. Rairen got exorcised, I'm pretty sure, but Rairyuu just won't quit-- at the time I THOUGHT he was dead, but he totally keeps coming back. You can't get rid of him.
And apparently since Kousaka must always be there somewhere to be up on the goss, he shows up at some point, not to particularly STOP Takaya from trashing things, but to yell at him about Naoe. How can you just go on acting like everything's fine? You should have gone and died with him! (I will never understand Kousaka. I think he sekritly OTPs Naoe/Takaya, in the kind of way where he likes laughing at their pain.) And Takaya is all like, oh, but Naoe's not dead. This isn't real, you see! Which is enough to floor even Kousaka. XD;
Also, the thing with Isari and Tomo and something about Miyajima and the Itsukushima-jinja (which I have seeeeeeen *is shot*) is continuing on in the background, still linked to the main plot. I think Tomo is trying to stop the Alliance's nefarious plan because it'll destroy the natural balance or drain the Seto Inland Sea or something. Something bad, anyway. ... Actually, I think it MIGHT have involved draining the sea so Oda couldn't use his navy. Huh. But anyway, Isari manages to entrap Tomo and co (co including Takaya). My memory of this bit is kind of hazy, though... I think Isari eventually manages to forgive Tomo, but the schoolgirl who's friends with the girl possessed by Tomo gets possessed by Oda or something and all hell breaks lose. Argh, I wish I could REMEMBER this. There's also Chiaki summoning a herd or flock or whatever of Tengu. At some point Ayako meets back up with Takaya (this is while they're still on the mountain, she may have been looking for Tomo and her friend) and is like, "it's not true that Naoe is dead, is it?! ;_____;" and Takaya's like, la la la, this is ALL JUST A BAD DREAM, and this unsurprisingly does not make Ayako feel better.
But the upshot of all this is that any nefarious plans are dealt with, a lot of people are exorcised, Yuzuru is restored to them and they refreeze the gem, Isari and Tomo deal with their issues-- I think Isari asks to be exorcised and Tomo goes back to being "Youkihi", Shikanosuke decides that the Uesugi can't help him revive the Amago clan and joins Oda (Chiaki: ... d'oh.), and Takaya just wants to go to bed and wake up and find Naoe there again. There is no touching reunion with Yuzuru because Takaya's too preoccupied and crazy in the head. I felt kind of sorry for Yuzuru, you can't blame him for eventually catching the crazy himself.
Oh yeah, and Hakkai, who traced Takaya and Naoe to Hagi and was intending to try and bust them out, instead finds the smouldering ruins with a strangely familiar warrior spirit standing amongst it.
Me: Is that Naoe, or Kenshin? O.o;
Anyway, people of note who died or got exorcised: Naoe (temporarily dead); Mouri Terumoto; Shimozuma Rairen.
And people who will come back for more, like, look who's back, look who's back again, revenge of the... anyway: Kikkawa Motoharu, Murakami Takeyoshi, Shimozuma Rairyuu, Yamanaka Shikanosuke, Kotarou the ninja, and, as always, Kousaka.
You know, considering that so far Kagetora has had two comebacks from the dead (one coming back as Takaya after the Oda thing, the other in book 7/8) and Naoe is about to have one of his own, it strikes me as amusing that Nagahide(/Chiaki) actually seems to get the most miraculous I aten't dead moments. Takaya wins for most times abducted (I think it's reached the point where I can't count on my fingers), but Nagahide probably "dies" most. I've still got 10 books left though, so that could change.
That was a really crappy summary of book 12, for which I can only apologise. .__. But at least it sort of serves the purpose of wrapping up that plotline and giving a sitrep of the characters, which is all you really need to understand the later books? /o\
AT LEAST MY SUMMARIES OF BOOKS 13-14 ARE FAIRLY COMPLETE.
... Okay, I lied, I have a completely comprehensive summary of book 14 and not much on book 13. XD; But most of the important stuff about 13 is retroactively explained when I'm explaining what's going on in 14, so I'll just stick to the important basic facts and the Naoe/Takaya moments.
* Naoe has been "dead" for two years. I howled with impotent rage when I realised this, because I HATE time jumps (not that I wanted 2 years worth of books without Naoe, but I just have a thing), and I sulked at the book a lot, but eventually I got over it. Takaya is 19 now. In the prologue, he loses control over his powers when he's trying to exorcise a spirit and either kills or almost kills the host-- and almost kills himself, too. This is apparently happening with growing frequency.
* As for what he's been doing since everything wrapped up in Hiroshima-- he woke up from his "nightmare", saw Kotarou, and hypnotised himself into superimposing Naoe over Kotarou. Since then Kotarou has been hanging around the Yashashuu as "Naoe", using his awesome ninja skillz to imitate Naoe's mannerisms. Chiaki and Ayako are not happy and suspect of ulterior motives. Chiaki and Ayako are, in fact, correct, as Kotarou still wants to subvert Takaya back to the Houjyou.
* Despite Kotarou's awesome ninja skillz and Takaya's self-hypnosis, he's still not enough Naoe to fool Kagetora-- he's got the loyal right-hand man part down pat, but he hasn't got crazy!Naoe down because he's incapable of understanding. He never calls Takaya "Takaya-san" and he doesn't say anything messed up or try to molest Takaya at all. Takaya is very confused. Kotarou is very miffed that his ninja skillz aren't working because dammit, they're impeccable!
This was hilarious enough to end up in two emails:
~~
I feel sorry for Kotarou beyond the telling right now. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. I'm in the middle of a scene which is like
Takaya: Naoe, why are you ignoring my feelings? D:
Kotarou: ........?
Takaya: Fine, whatever, never mind.
Kotarou: Kagetora-sama...?
Takaya: Isn't there anything you want to say to me? Anything you have to say? Something you can't help but do?
Kotarou: ?
Takaya: I'M HALF NAKED. WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO FUCK ME, NAOE? D:
Kotarou: *IS SO FUCKING CONFUSED*
I am not, actually, exaggerating. Condensing, yes; exaggerating, no. Takaya doesn't say it QUITE that bluntly-- or he hasn't yet, he could be getting there-- but it's pretty freaking blatant to anyone who has half a clue what's going on/isn't Kotarou. Although since he walked in on Naoe trying to molest Takaya back in book 11, you'd think he'd have SOME idea.
Not that Takaya doesn't still deserve many hugs and all, but I kind of can't stop the inappropriate giggling.
~~
Okay, you know how I said it was kind of inappropriately hilarious how Takaya didn't understand why "Naoe" didn't want him anymore? someone should seriously have video recorded that exchange and sent it to Naoe as a present. an "I hope you are stewing in your own frustration, jerkwad" present.
because seriously, it got funnier. takaya is so totally frustrated and kotarou is totally emotionally challenged. like, Takaya fully started taking his shirt of and being like... okay, you know how translating japanese sentence fragments is the biggest bitch ever? yeah, it's good old "omae wa ore ni..." so "you (do something) to me", from context probably "you don't want to fuck me? D:" except Takaya can't buy a verb.
and Kotarou is like, I do not understand, what do you want from me?
Takaya: Is this revenge? are you doing this to get back at me, Naoe? Do you really not have any interest in me any more?
Kotarou: *still doesn't get it*
o kotarou. I kind of felt sorry for him. but then I stopped feeling sorry for him in the next scene and resumed being creeped out by him, because he is still harbouring plans to convert Saburou back to the Houjyou and kill Yuzuru (ie Kagekatsu) and defeat Kenshin. And he and Takaya's birth father (the dragon) are still working in tandem with the evil cult who are partly responsible for Naoe's death. "death". what. Kotarou is all like, this is very strategically promising, I am in his confidences! and I am like CREEPED OUT, YO. I am so glad he is so emotionally disabled that he apparently he cannot tell when someone is hitting on him with all the subtlety of a mallet, because if he used that to manipulate Takaya that would be wrong and freaky beyond all belief.
meanwhile Takaya is basically crazy. he's self-hypnotised himself into believing that Kotarou is Naoe and it's making his powers keep running out of control because a) it takes a lot of power to make someone who is nothing like Naoe be Naoe in his head and b) it confuses and distracts him when "Naoe" doesn't act like Naoe. eg, by totally failing to try to molest him, say creepily possessive stuff, or call him Takaya-san. ever. Kotarou is using his crazy ninja skills to adopt Naoe's mannerisms and speech patterns which seemed nice at first but knowing his ulterior motives just adds to the creepy.
as for Naoe: worst boyfriend EVER, y/y? seriously, it's been TWO YEARS since he "died", and he couldn't even bother to show up and be like hay thar, I'm not actually dead, Takaya-san, you can stop grieving? not that Takaya is grieving, because he's too busy repressing and denying the fact of Naoe's "death", but he is definitely not healthy. crazy in the head and repression and half killing himself with his own power going out of control are NOT HEALTHY. Naoe is a jerk face. he doesn't even bother telling Takaya who he is when he runs into him, just confuses and upsets him (without him even knowing why) by giving him his (expensive!) jacket and saying the same thing he said at the end of book 8/the anime when he left Takaya at the pier. not that I'm up to that bit, I skipped ahead because there was a pretty picture [Edit note: the first picture is of Subaru from X, scroll down. I was comparing their "My boyfriend is a JERK" trauma faces. XD;]. *shifty* ALSO, in the "further nails in the coffin of Naoe being a DICK" column, character info from the next arc suggests he is still pretending to be Kaizaki and Takaya still doesn't know, and something about him being in charge of a new Uesugi Meikai army or something. Jerk! JERK! DON'T YOU THINK KAGETORA HAS BEEN BETRAYED ENOUGH, NAOE?!
.... in conclusion, Naoe should have tried playing hard to get for a while. after two years of "Naoe" not showing any interest, Takaya is practically throwing himself at him. you are a dumbass, naoe.
~~
Keep in mind that these were my thoughts at the time so I didn't know anything about what was going on in Naoe's head. Which sort of mitigated things a LITTLE but hm.
* Anyway. So the plot this time is set in Enoshima (where I am going! *IS SHOT*). This major real-estate corporation called Keibu is trying to buy out the whole area, which is a shrine area, and do major developments. They are clearly up to something seedy, and there have been a bunch of curse killings of people who have opposed the plan, so Takaya and Ayako are investigating. They get caught in a rockslide at the cave and they're not badly injured or anything, but then this guy calling himself Kaizaki shows up and Takaya is in shock from the moment he sees him. If he hadn't hypnotised himself into believing Kotarou was Naoe, he would have recognised him immediately. As it is though, Kaizaki is not possessed and not a kanshousha, so Ayako knows there's something weird about him but can't place it. He comes up to Takaya and asks if he's okay, and then-- as I said, an exact mirror of the moment on the pier in book 8-- he takes off his jacket and drapes it over Takaya's shoulders and says, it's cold, you should take care of yourself, and leaves while Takaya just stares at him in pure shock. Then Kaizaki leaves, and Takaya starts to cry and doesn't even know why, and Ayako is full-on freaking, like, Kagetora, that was WEIRD AND CREEPY, if you were a chick I would SERIOUSLY think he was hitting on you, and-- OH MY GOD, THIS COAT IS WORTH LIKE 60,000 YEN (approx $600) SHRIEK!
* Hakkai is with Naoe. Meanwhile, we don't know how Naoe is Kaizaki, considering he's not possessed or a kanshousha. What we do know is that Kaizaki is working with the Keibu group, who are actually all possessed by the Satomi clan. Kaizaki is their descendent, and they believe this is why he has powers and wants to help them. My suspicious feelings toward Naoe (mostly along the lines of "seriously, STOP BEING A DICK") grew.
* Meanwhile, Chiaki is chasing after some guy with the Takeda called Yamagata, falls into a trap, and gets his arse saved by none other than IROBE, the fifth member of the Yashashuu who is supposed to still be a child and none of them have heard anything from him since Takaya was found. Chiaki is understandably like, okay, you-- EXPLAIN. Irobe tells him that he's working directly under Kenshin's orders, and also that the Keibu are in fact the Satomi and they're working behind the scenes to take them down. Hakkai is there too.
and then at the end of book 13, "Kaizaki" was ordered to take Kagetora hostage, WHICH HE HAPPILY SKIPS OFF TO DO leaving me to be like, "UM" especially since the Satomi's grand plan involves handing Kagetora off to Oda for good will. Kaizaki and Takaya have a showdown, Takaya's powers run out of control again, he passes out, and Kaizaki carries him off. Which is the end of book 13, and pretty much had me going, "....................... you are the worst boyfriend EVER, Naoe." (I had this ever-present but fluctuating urge to bitchslap him going during books 13-19. Sometimes he was temporarily forgiven. Sometimes I fully wanted to throttle him for being a douchebag.)
Depending on how many words the book 14 summary is, this... might not actually fit.
But I can try!
.............. It totally didn't fit. ><;
