My brother is acting a little strange.
The way things are headed, the other Kemonoists will be killed!
I decided to pin down the reason why Brother is acting strange on my own.
Saying goodbye was hard, but once it's all over, I'll tell them all I'm sorry.
Brother really isn't someone who would do these things,
and I'm sure the others will understand.
At the end, everyone will make up, and we'll have a happy ending.
This is the "Everyone Gets Along" operation I thought up.
"500,000,000 Likes" "Show all 5,000 comments" This is the "Everyone Gets Along" operation I thought up.
At least it was supposed to be. How come?!
Why are Brother and Nobimaru-kun fighting?
One of them will definitely end up dead!
"Episode 12: Kemono Incidents"
Brother!
Akira, what's wrong?
Nice, Akira-kun! The nullstone is mine!
It's the nullstone you're after?
It will do no good to races like yours that are weaker against the cold.
You can't even stand to touch it.
So it would seem.
So that's what it means to feed on life.
That was sloppy. This is why she ordered me to retrieve it.
That bitch doesn't care what happens to my body!
No, hold on. Now isn't the time to get upset with Inari-sama.
I should watch my language. I need to calm down.
If I can't touch the stone directly,
I'll just have to recover the whole person.
Taking someone alive--that's not my strong suit.
I have any number of ways that I could kill him,
but incurring the tanuki's resentment would be a hassle afterward.
Hold on! Is it possible...?
You're the...
...last one!
Oh, no! I'm a split second too slow! It'll hit me!
Sorry, Nobimaru. It happened so fast, I couldn't hold back.
Give me a break, here. I feel pain, just like anyone else, except for you.
I'll help you.
You're one of Akira's...
All we can do is knock him out and capture him. Do you have a plan?
Not at all.
You can't get close enough to hit him because he'll freeze you,
and even if you could get close enough to hit him,
--he'll just block you with his ice. --Mm-hmm.
Which means it will take one blow to break through his ice defense,
and another blow to actually knock him out. It will take two blows.
That will be kind of hard. Nobimaru, do you have any ideas?
Well, let's see.
I may have a clever idea!
Nngh, I won't let this cage get the best of me!
Oh, I'm out!
Aw, I can't move!
What was that? A light?
My ice is melting?! You mean, in order to combat my ice,
you set your own body on fire?!
Kabane-kun's regenerating body
is the very definition of a renewable fuel source.
This is the roast Kabane-kun whole plan that I came up with.
All right, Kabane-kun has the upper hand in strength!
I'm sure that Akira-kun will forgive him...
...if he breaks both of his arms.
Why, you...!
Tokyo... Kemonoist... Inugami...
A-Akira...
Must protect... Akira!
Hold on! Now you're just copying us, aren't you?!
Brother! Nobimaru-kun!
Somebody!
The fog is getting a lot thicker. They must have been fighting all this time.
I have to hurry, or one of them really will end up dead--
Huh? Hang on. Is that fog made of...?
I knew it! The fog is water! Which means...
Come on!
The fire went out. His ice is stronger!
Nobimaru, increase your flames!
I can't!
If the combustion rate exceeds your regeneration rate,
your body will come apart.
It will make you weaker, not stronger!
I can take it for a few seconds! Hurry!
That's Kabane-kun for you. This is what I love about him.
All right, I won't hold back, then!
Flame power max!
First blow!
Second blow!
Not enough! Kabane-kun, hit him again!
There goes his leg!
Not yet!
No!
I-Is that you, Kabane-kun?
Why are you out, Akira? It's too dangerous...
B-Brother!
Well, well.
It finally happened.
I wasn't certain it would, so I didn't include it as part of my plan,
but this is a relief. We win.
What does he mean? Brother, what's going on?
He has run out of energy. He has been giving his life to the nullstone.
He may have a tolerance, but he was unable to completely cancel it out.
If you leave him to it, he will likely wither and die.
Oh, please don't misplace your resentment.
Your brother used the power for his own reasons,
and brought his death on himself. That's what he wanted, isn't it?
No...
Oh...?
He can't... die...
I still haven't asked him about the nullstone,
and Akira's "light" wasn't us--
it was his brother! He can't die!
Null... stone?
I'm not going to let you die on account of this, Brother!
You big dummy! Why did you let this happen to you, and you alone?!
We're twins!
Take your pain, and your fear, and your hard times, and your agony,
and share half with me!
Brother,
don't die!
What is this? Something's coming into my mind.
Is this what Brother...?
This village is dead.
If it is fated to only have a male born once every hundred years,
then it's as if God is telling it to die out, isn't it?
How dare you... How dare you deceive me, and take Akira...
...and take Akira's life from him!
Nullstone! Hear my lament!
Kabane-kun, did you feel that? Just now, for a moment,
I sensed something like his memories...
Akira!
I had no idea whatsoever.
I loved it when you would occasionally smile, too.
I don't want you to die! We're here now, in Tokyo!
We're going to share lots of fun and happy times from here on, Yui-niisan!
Okay?!
K-Kabane-kun...
I'll help.
Brother! Brother!
What the...?
Inari-san...
I thought it was dangerous to touch it.
Oh, that's right!
I wonder if the lifestone is counteracting the nullstone's power.
Did you know that the two stones would fuse together?
Whatever do you mean?
That belongs to Kabane.
Give it back to him, Inari.
Huh? But is this the lifestone? Or is it the nullstone?
If it's the nullstone, then it belongs to the snowy village.
But the village has fallen, right?
Isn't it impolite to say it's fallen in front of its survivors?
Overly-conscientious men are such a pain.
If I can't have the nullstone, then there's no point in sticking around.
We're leaving, Nobimaru.
Yes, Inari-sama.
Nobimaru!
Come with us. If we ask Aya, she will heal your right hand for you.
It's thanks to you that we were able to stop Akira's brother.
I appreciate it, but no thank you.
This injury was brought on by my own gullibility,
so I will take it as an admonishment. See you later, everyone.
"Ohana Clinic"
so I will take it as an admonishment. See you later, everyone.
"Ohana Clinic"
Take care.
"Ohana Clinic"
Adding it all up,
it comes to this.
That's too much!
Is someone out there?
Kabane-kun...
U-Um... I wanted to ask your brother something once he's up.
That's all. I'll just wait over there.
Wait!
I was lying when I said I hated you!
I'm sorry! I thought that if I didn't say that, you'd all get killed.
It was a really awful thing to say.
But the truth is, I love all of you! I love you, too, Kabane-kun!
Terrific.
I'm sorry!
Terrific.
--No loud noises in the clinic. --I'm sorry!
--No loud noises in the clinic. --Terrific.
Kabane-dono, I am grateful.
I'm impressed that you could stop me.
Not at all.
I heard the gist of what happened. So the snowy village really is no more?
That's right.
The women deceived me,
and in despair, I gave myself over to the nullstone's power.
Before I knew it, everything around me was white,
and the only thing in my mind was Tokyo, the Kemonoist, Inugami...
...and... Akira.
So even while you were swallowed up by the stone's power,
you remembered what was important to you.
I met Inugami-san immediately after coming down from the mountains,
so I got away without the women finding me.
I'm surprised you got out safely.
I had collapsed from hunger, but then some humans rescued me,
and it was smooth sailing from there.
It's funny what cuteness can do for you.
Yui, would you tell me what you know about the nullstone?
I'm looking for my parents...
...and now they're stuck together.
Half of this is something my parents left with me. I'd like a lead.
The snowy village's history goes back for about a thousand years.
The nullstone is said to have already been there at the beginning.
They even say that the snowy village was made to enshrine the nullstone.
Kabane-dono, have you ever heard of the "Kemono Incidents"?
Kemono Incidents?
No.
By "Incidents," do you mean war?
Oh no, this is getting deep. I might fall asleep.
It means the war between Kemono and humans.
It was roughly a thousand years ago,
so that would put it shortly before the snowy village.
Inugami-san, you know about it?
But if something like that happened,
wouldn't it mean the existence of kemono has been known for a long time?
Quite the opposite.
We were known about long ago. Which is why war broke out.
Apparently, it was a positively gruesome war.
The land was gouged out, the rivers were contaminated,
and many on both the human and kemono sides were injured and killed.
In order to erase the memories of such tragedies,
the kemono mustered all that they had to reshape everything,
so that they could rectify the way they got along with humans.
It was the turning point that allowed kemono to live among humans.
A part of Japanese history that only kemono know about.
That is what the Kemono Incidents are.
For real?
I should have known that you would be familiar with this.
Oh, no. Sorry to interrupt you.
Such a conflict can never be allowed to happen again.
Which is how the kemono stones are said to have been created.
The ones who imbued the stones with their power
were the most powerful kemono of their age.
By passing them down to their descendants and other native kemono,
their goal was to have kemono restrain each other,
and preserve the balance of power.
You mean they made weapons in order to prevent fighting?
That's contradictory.
Kemono are not one monolithic group.
Keeping everyone in line through force is what works best.
If they left that stone with you,
then your mother or father must have been a fairly prestigious kemono chief.
Kemono chief...?
It's also possible that they were given it, or picked it up somewhere.
That is true, as well.
So let's go find out.
There are kemono stones all over Japan.
There's no question that your stone is one of them.
And the kemono who have stones handed down to them
are from lineages that possess great power in those regions.
There are likely to be clues left behind as to how your parents got that stone.
Hey, that's awesome!
Up to now, they probably wouldn't have told us about them even if we'd asked.
That's true.
If some stranger came up and asked me about the stones out of the blue,
I would probably dismiss them, too.
The stones are something akin to an ace in the hole to whomever owns one.
It takes some enticing to get them to talk. But now, we have that.
The fact that the stones fuse with each other acts as a bargaining chip.
We might find something out about Kabane-kun's papa and mama!
That we might.
Hooray!
--Yay! --Yay!
Are you sure about this, ma'am?
Pulling out of there as easily as we did?
After they claimed ownership of it? I don't want any trouble with the tanuki.
Not yet, anyway.
It's not as though I've given up on the nullstone and lifestone.
I just need to get it in a way that the tanuki can't argue about.
That makes sense.
In that case, we have just the person for the job.
I can't wait.
You can have the nullstone.
It's best to have it on hand if you need it to bargain with.
Thank you. When they got stuck together, I have to admit I panicked.
I hope it comes in useful. It's the least I can do.
Brother, don't take all of this on yourself, okay?
No matter what happens, I'm on your side.
Hmph, don't be ridiculous, Akira.
Your friends might have gotten killed because of me.
I know that! But even so, I don't want to leave you all on your own.
It's okay. Let me be. What I've done is far too grievous.
I succumbed to spite, got lost in it, and sowed the seeds of contention.
But that's not all.
I destroyed the snowy village. And all of the women.
There were innocent children among them, too.
That is an unforgivable sin.
I'm telling you, you don't have to take that all on yourself!
Half of it was because of me. You did all of this to save me, right?
You don't have anything to do with this.
I'm the one who did everything. I'm the only one who has to carry the burden.
How many times do I have to say it?!
You tell me that I have to smile,
but you don't know what makes me happy,
or what makes me sad, or anything!
I'm happy being with you! But keeping me from doing anything makes me sad!
Understand?!
Akira, too cold.
Huh?
Wah! Sorry!
I don't know everything about right and wrong,
but I think you're a good person, Yui.
Kabane-dono... Are you saying that you forgive me?
Well, that's nothing out of the ordinary with him.
Akira's clumsiness is way more trouble than you've been.
Now isn't the time to mention that!
Brother, you're the one who said that together,
we could survive the things that we couldn't withstand alone.
Starting today, the two of us are together again, okay?
I thought...
...as long as you kept smiling, I would be all right. But I was wrong.
What did you call them again? Crepes, or something?
Next time, we'll share one. I'm sorry for everything.
Mm-hmm!
Okay guys, hold out your hands.
Our hands?
I made up my mind that once this was over, we'd do this.
Make your fingers like this, and do this!
Operation "Everyone Gets Along" was a great success!
What are we doing?
Yay!
Yay.
Oh, come on.
Please, you don't have to be so wary of me.
What do you want?!
I'm here tonight to deliver a mission from Inari-sama to you, Kon-senpai.
--Really?! --Ew, yuck, don't touch me.
Oops, was that out loud?
What kind of mission? Hurry and tell me!
For heaven's sake...
You have one duty--win Kabane over and get his kemono stone from him.
Currently, Kabane's lifestone has taken a different form,
which for the sake of convenience, we'll call a kemonostone.
You are to play on his feelings and get him to turn it over to you.
You must not take it by force.
Please do not fall short of Inari-sama's expectations for you.
Please, Mihai-san, can you put Nii-san back the way he was?
I would like to ask, as well.
M-Me, too.
The bulk of the server maintenance is done, and I'm too busy right now.
However, I will be available during updates and as the other guild members need.
If you can wait until then, I'll fix it up.
Thank you, Mihai-san!
Venerate and praise me even more.
Now I can go out and travel with peace of mind.
Brother said he needed to go on a journey to reevaluate himself,
so I thought I'd join him for the first part of it.
I'm sorry, Inugami-san, but that means I'll be missing work.
It's all right.
We're going out of the office for a while, too.
Don't give it a second thought, just go.
Mm-hmm! Off I go!
Now then, the place we're heading off to is...
Shikoku.
It's where I'm from. There's someone there who's our prime candidate,
who has a stone different from ours, and might be willing to work with us.
Shiki...
Sorry, but I'm staying here.
Huh? Shiki, you aren't coming?
Don't make that face at me. There's something I need to stay here and do.
But I'll fulfill my promise to you.
Count on it.
Yeah.
Okay, we should get going, too.
I have a pretty good idea where Kabane-kun is going.
Please go with them, as a spy.
I'd like to stop by the park on the way, if that's all right.
The park?
Ah, the kitsune girl. It's tough being a popular guy, huh?
--Oh?! --Kon! Perfect timing.
I-I hear you're going to Shikoku. I'm coming, too. Shikoku has yummy fish.
Kon, you're amazing. How did you know we were going to Shikoku?
You were told by Inari to go with us, weren't you?
That's not why! You're completely wrong!
Are you sure?
I'm sure!
I'm a good girl! I don't tell lies!
Except I just told one now... You rotten tanuki...!
Can she?
If it's okay with you, sure.
Huh?
I'll bill Inari for your expenses.
It worked! I really am a good girl!
But hide your tail.
Sorry to keep you waiting for so long.
Now we can finally get started on your request.
If I work for you, Inugami-san, can I meet my parents?
All right, let's get going!
Right!