Shonen Beam

[scanlation by Binktopia]

Tokine’s dive to the center of the earth continues. She’s still using the Kekkai for makeshift stairs rather than just freefalling, a cautious approach that makes perfect sense in light of how much Mahora’s power has been built up.

As Tokine closes in on the center, we’re treated to a bunch of appropriately otherworldly imagery. When she actually reaches him, she wastes no time waking him up. Typical no-nonsense Tokine.

Interesting negotiating tactic

Well, Mahora’s awake now. Diplomacy commences with all the necessary formalities, and Mahora immediately responds by spearing her through the chest with a mass of shadow. This is a pretty neat development. I certainly wasn’t expecting the negotiations to be any kind of easy, but there’s no way Tokine’s done now. How exactly she copes with this will be an interesting measure of her training while she was out of the main story.

Spearing for a spearing

Leaving off at that ideal cliffhanger, the focus switches to Shichiro, whose land god makes a passing comment to the effect that whatever Mahora just did was significant. This is more reaffirmation that land gods are interconnected somehow.

Yoshimori’s mom shows up to ask Shichiro for help with the sealing. Interesting banter between the two, but most of it is just her continuing to to be supremely confident. As little as we’ve seen of her, she feels like an overpowered character already.

Either extremely powerful or extremely arrogant

We come back to Tokine fairly early. I was expecting to have to wait until the next chapter to see more of her.

… not that I mind at all. The panels that depict Tokine sliding out of a skewer are on the high end of fantastic. Her power-up, Utsusemi, is full-on intangibility, something that goes such a long way towards legitimizing her as a capable diplomat. She now has the technique necessary to stand against the worst of demons, nicely complimenting the levelheadedness she’s always had. Without there being some specific limit on how long or how much she can use this one, I sense a significant shift in her Tier List position.

Final Flash: Awesome Tokine chapter, period. Her character was lagging behind Yoshimori’s in power for the longest time. Here, she survives a situation that would likely have killed him, perfectly reestablishing her as a relevant character.