The 24th Time: Reissued Warning (第24の時 再びの警告, Dai 24 no toki: Futatabi no keikoku)
Summary[]
Tokiwa, Machina and Rein are out to defeat a monster that had been reported to them. Luckily it is only a very small one that failed to fully transit from the other world to this one. Nevertheless Machina’s attacks don’t work on it. Tokiwa is confused as Rein had once stated that in a three-way battle the “mechanism” would win against the “shadow”. Rein further elaborates that shadow refers to ninja and not to any spirits or monsters. Fortunately Machina brought a special weapon imprinted with Kanata’s intent given to him by Kanata. The honor of using it on the monster goes to Tokiwa, since he is their leader. Tokiwa refuses, but after some flattery from Machina and Rein agrees to do it, and the monster is “defeated” with a single short slash.
At another place Kanata is fighting a one-legged umbrella, one kind of artifact spirit. This one does not go down that easily as Kanata had thought. He hopes that his father doesn’t find out he underestimated an enemy. After a short but fierce battle he is finally able to strike it down. The two women who had called Tokiwa’s Group for help are terrified by what they just witnessed and scared of Kanata. He apologizes for scaring them and explains how it’s his duty as a ninja to stay in the shadows and protect people from evil spirits. Upon hearing this, the women apologize in return and express their gratitude to a leaving Kanata for saving them.
Meanwhile Tokiwa, Machina and Rein are on their way home and discuss the reports they are getting. Haruka has stayed at home, because he only deals with sorcerians and not with any other stuff. It strikes that how, despite the many reports they get, the mass media have not picked up on any of these incidents. Machina says he’s found evidence of someone blocking this information and Rein adds that by now people have lost their ability to judge whether a report is real of fake. At this point Sennbeiser Suzuki suddenly appears straight out of a wall and tells them that his organization is blocking all information.
Machina instantly attacks him and is ready to kill him, but Suzuki requests that they first listen to what he has to say. Machina agrees, but tells him to hurry up so he can finish killing him.
Suzuki would have liked to encourage them, but alas he and his organization are the ones that have to clean up after them so it would be nice if Tokiwa and his friends were a bit more careful and considerate. Upon Tokiwa’s request he reveals that he’s from a special police until that deals with these supernatural phenomena. Sennbeiser Suzuki is, of course, a false name he uses to be safe from sorcerians who might cast a spell on him if they knew his real name. He also repeats his words of warning to Tokiwa who is still going after these monsters although he does not possess any powers. Tokiwa sees where he is coming from, but he cannot ignore the people who ask him for help.
Suzuki secretly is quite impressed by his sense of justice and courage, however he still thinks that they should quit as these matters are way too dangerous for them. He originally intended to scare them off, but now has to reconsider his plan as it might have to complete opposite result. He warns them again that they might get swept up by "the time of existence". This instantly triggers Tokiwa’s interest as Rein has referred to the “time of existence” numerous times in his dream and he asks Suzuki for an explanation. Suzuki in return wonders what exactly Rein is, because he has no information about her. Rein simply answers that “Rein is Rein” and Tokiwa apologizes on her behalf as her memory was a bit damaged at the time of her creation. Meanwhile Machina is still impatiently waiting for his turn to tear Suzuki apart.
Tokiwa still will not give up and keeps pressing Suzuki for answers and information about the changes that are happening in this world and this “time of existence”. To which Suzuki return that if he reaches for the truth any further his body will be burnt. Just like Icarus’ wings when he flew too close to the sun.
Characters[]
- Tokiwa Yasaka
- Rein
- Deus Ex Machina III
- Kanata Kusanagi
- Sennbeiser Suzuki
- Haruka Yata (cover, phone call)
- Meguru Yaegaki (cover, phone call)
- Aria (cover, phone call)
Chapter Notes[]
- The one-legged umbrella (傘一本足, kasa-ipppon-ashi)[1] is an artifact spirit (つくも神 ,tsukumogami)[2]. Artifact spirits are objects of daily use that have been used for a long time and developed life of their own (after being discarded).
- The attacks Kanata uses in this chapter are Shinen Iaigiri (志念居合斬り, Intent Iai Slash) and Ninpou Raishinha! (忍法雷針破, Ninja Arts Lightning Rod Blast).
- Machina intended to use Machina’s Plasma Field on Suzuki.
References[]
- ↑ Wikipedia article: Kasa-obake
- ↑ Wikipedia article: Tsukumogami