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Title:  Kekkaishi #7

Author:  Yellow Tanabe

Publisher:  Viz

ISBN:  9781421504889

May Contain Spoilers 

As Gen and Yoshimori continue bickering about who’s the better kekkaishi, dark shadows begin to move underfoot.  The ayakashi, organized under the Kokuboro, are setting their plans to take over the Karasumori site in action.  With their new tactics and the ability to appear human, will Yoshimori and Tokine be able to withstand their assault?

The beginning chapters of Kekkaishi #7 were short vignettes of school life for our demon hunters.  The first chapter, Curtain Call, about a ghost cat and the teacher she possesses, was light-hearted and slightly bittersweet, as Yoshimori tries to figure out the circumstances behind the cat’s reasons for lingering at Karasumori.  The next few chapters try to put Yoshimori and Tokine’s relationship into perspective, and these were amusing because neither is quite sure what the other means to them.  Yoshimori is utterly devastated when Tokine bluntly tells him to get lost.  He looked so pathetic, curled in a ball of despair in his kekkai.  Poor Yoshimori!  It’s hell to like a girl as brusque as Tokine.

Tokine, on the other hand, is perplexed when she’s asked what Yoshimori means to her.  Are they colleagues?  Close friends?  Neither sounds right, and she’s thrown off balance again when her friend points out that she thinks that he’s in love with her.  Scoffing at the thought, she protests that he’s just a junior high kid.  Madoka quietly points out that he won’t be a kid forever, and Tokine is left to wonder if Yoshimori really will grow up one day.  I enjoyed their confusion over their relationship, especially with their family rivalries popping up to complicate matters further. 

Gears change midway through the book, and the atmosphere gets a little more serious.  Masamori has been inducted as the youngest member of the executive committee of the mysterious Shadow Organization.  As he’s introduced to his fellow committee members, he’s less than impressed.  He doubts that any of them are even human any longer, and vows to keep them away from the Karasumori site, even if he has to destroy them all.  Masamori is so arrogant and self-possessed, but I find that I can’t help but like him.  Maybe it’s his soul patch.

As Yoshimori’s grandfather continues researching the ayakashi skin, trouble is beginning to brew at Karasumori.  There’s a rumor that the demons are starting to work together, with a most remarkable payment for their efforts.  A furtive group of powerful ayakashi have promised to reward ayakashi who cooperative with them in a secret experiment by helping them to become human.  Wow!  What’s going on?  A human wanting to become an ayakashi makes sense, but why would an ayakashi want to give up their powers to become human?  Unless they can retain them?  Only future volumes will clear that up!

Yoshimori, Gen, and Tokine are facing a load of trouble.  A group of ayakashi, all wearing human skin, have invaded the school and politely, for a  bunch of demons, requested their presence at the wee hour of 3 am for a meeting at the Karasumori site.  When they arrive at the appointed meeting place, they are bewildered when the ayakashi claim to want to negotiate their terms for taking control of the site.  What sinister intentions do they have brewing under their artificial skin?

This was another entertaining volume, and it made me wish I brought the next volume with me to the horse show!  Now I won’t be able to find out what happens next until Sunday afternoon.  Kaguro, the leader of the group of ayakashi sent to Karasumori, is powerful and intimidating in a casual, almost lackadaisical manner.  Since he’s opted to sit this fight out, I’m very curious to see just how powerful he is. 

Grade:  B

Rated for Teen