Shonen Beam

[scanlation by CXC Scans]

Sensible decision of the guys to leave someone behind to guard the girls. There will indeed be no lame hostage plots in this manga. Well, the president is already captured, but none of the “save the distressed damsel” plot that lesser series seem to love.

Matsurigi is indeed in the incinerator. Strange, though not entirely off-base, for him to cite his student council duties so insistently now. He’s clearly not the leader figure after being captured so easily. Still, it does provide us with a solid moment of comedy.

Student council members: They just always know

The next password hunt/test begins. This time, it’s a moral dilemma problem. One key, two doors, and something important behind each one. Fairly standard setup. Of course, ever the hero, Haiba vows to get both.

Moto vanishing the door is a pretty good utilization of his power. This is a clever way for him to contribute, and it also soothes one of my few lingering worries about this series. Up till now, we were dealing with puzzles deliberately written to make characters useful. While they were well-written puzzles, they were situational. Moto’s actions here show that Sakaki Kenji is abundantly capable of applying set powers to a wide variety of situations.

Opacity doesn't stand a chance

Unfortunately, seeing through the door does little to help the guys figure out a way past it. Matsurigi, about to be taken over by the shadow, seems resigned to lose his life anyway. Too bad he went under before he was able to spill that one critical bit of information about the shadow’s identity.

The shadow taking over Mitsurigi triggers an abrupt personality change. Evil Mitsurigi now is demanding to be freed. It seems like he’s going to play Haiba and Moto’s humanity against them. This would be an appropriate time for the hooded guy to step up to the plate.

Final Flash: Very solid chapter. This series has a good way of delivering situational uses for the limited powers it gives its characters.