That's an icy grip a lot of us feel these days, I think. If it's not some micro-managing douchebag leader instructing us all how to live our lives like so many little clones, it's some billionaire's money flooding in to overrule the will of the vast majority of our interests so they can make another buck at all of the rest of our expenses. Whether or not it's "evil" in the classical sense is debatable, since one can chalk a lot of this up to addictive behavior and a societal fixation of the possession of capital as the only indication of virtue. In any case, it's clear that there are largely invisible forces working on us all the time, and even those who consider themselves "free" have a whole hell of a lot less control over their lives than they think.
Eri struggles against the force trying to yank her in front of the oncoming train, panicking at her voice's complete absence. She mentally begs someone to help her, but she seems to be at a lonely crossing, and I don't see a single soul near her.
But little Sayaka seems to look around in alarm, and announces with confidence that this drama isn't over yet. Yusuke asks her what she's talking about, Botan more kindly when she asks what's wrong, and Sayaka informs them that the curse didn't actually stop. The next panel is just their speech bubbles, but she is implied to be shoving Yusuke toward where Eri is in mortal danger, if his protests are any indication, and Botan promises that they'll be there in a shake.
Meanwhile, Katsumi is running along herself, alarmed at the curse being burned into her arm, and its power still being in effect, a power she's totally unable to control. She calls to Eri in her head, as if she too has lost her ability to speak.
Ew! What are those tendril things?? They look like they might be slimy...
Katsumi wonders where Eri is in her desperation to find her as she sprints along. The ghost student we met in the last chapter appears next to her, urging her on straight ahead. She comes to a fork in the road and looks left and right, questioning which route she should take. The ghost student points to the right, which Katsumi seems to sense and she dashes off in that direction. Shouldn't... Katsumi KNOW Eri's route home? Or did Eri take a different way? It just seems like she should be aware of all the places that her bestie might be.
Eri notices that Katsumi is on her way and seems to be mute again, but gives her friend a look that clearly communicates the plea for help again. Botan zooms onto the scene on her oar, Yusuke hanging onto the back while Sayaka sits behind her, pointing out where Eri is. Yusuke looks alarmed at the sight of Eri fighting the pull of the dark tendrils of the force pulling her toward the tracks, asking what the hell it even IS. As they hover uselessly over Eri's struggle, Botan explains that it's an accumulation of evil thought that was probably created by Katsumi.
That DOES seem like an awful lot for one kid.
Botan says that, really, the evil in Katsumi's heart was pretty small, just a bit of jealousy. But transferring that into the tangible effects of the curse, it enhanced the energy and attracted all kinds of evil spirits to grow it even larger. Ripping the curse up was too little, too late, because the amassed evil around her little kernel of jealously has now taken over with a will of its own.
The train's still speeding toward them, by the way, but simultaneously seems to be taking its sweet time for dramatic effect. Yusuke asks Botan what they can do, having all the answers as she does, but she asserts there's nothing they CAN do. Yusuke yells at her for a cosmic being who professes impotence, but she yells back that she's a GUIDE, not a MIRACLE WORKER. She explains that there are those in the living world that are SUPPOSED to guide and help the young'uns stay on the right path, but those closest to Katsumi really failed her in that regard, instead piling pressure on her that drove her to desperation. Now, BOTH girls are suffering for it. Big surprise.
But Yusuke lunges downward, vowing not to LET the girls suffer on his watch. Sayaka expresses shocked disbelief, while Botan shouts at him to come back, that this is BEYOND him. There's some sort of time dilation going on here, because Katsumi is STILL some distance from Eri, STILL on her way. There's also a small crowd gathered on the other side of the train tracks, some wondering what Eri is doing, some acknowledging that it looks like she's being dragged by something, and another calling to her that the train is coming and she needs to get off the track. As if she's unaware. She's still fighting against the yanking force, begging it to stop.
He's... BITING it???
The mass of evil spirits he's chewing on tells him to get out of the way, or they'll collectively swallow him whole, a threat the mass seems to find funny. Yusuke himself makes noises of alarmed confusion as a wave of malevolence rears and crashes over him, his clawing hand the only thing poking out of it. Sayaka cries out to him and Botan gapes, through which she says in despair that she warned him. Since when has THAT ever mattered with that kid?
Finally, the force of the curse overpowers Eri, and she is pulled straight forward through the air, something the watching crowd at the other side of the tracks recognizes with morbid amazement. She lands on the tracks with a grunt, and sits up as the train screeches ever closer, looking over with wide, fearful eyes. Katsumi's mouth is hanging wide open in a silent scream, tears flying out behind her as she continues to try to get to her friend's side. She reaches for Eri, but a snap sounds, and her hand comes against a barrier.
It's the mass of evil she summoned, rising in front of her, asking why she tries to save Eri as she screams in terror.
Suddenly she's shedding her clothes like a transforming magical girl? This chapter confuses me.
Anyway, Katsumi sees a vision of a younger her, from grade school, holding a slightly crumpled paper in her hands. She identifies it as one of the many times when she had just heard that Eri had gotten a better grade than her on a test. Katsumi always was just second best, and very bitter, because she knew she was going to hear about it from her mom when she got home for coming up short once more. But instead of placing the blame on her shitty mother yelling at her for getting SLIGHTLY less-but-still-good grades than her friend Eri, smaller Katsumi fantasizes about Eri not being around.
Present!Katsumi shouts at her past self not to think like that, not to start down that dark path. She switches to a vision of little Eri getting pushed around by a couple of boys, recognizing that Eri's being teased again, and that she doesn't feel so bad anymore, just wanting to help a friend. Smaller!Katsumi chases the boys away, jeering them for thinking they're such tough guys as they recognize her and run in fear. She consoles a weeping Eri, telling her to call whenever she's being picked-on for her friend to come and kick their butts. Little Eri apologizes, admitting to hating the way she makes Katsumi worry about her, and wishes she was stronger like her. Again, Eri bursts into tears apologizing, but Katsumi says that this is precisely what friends are for, implying it's rather silly for Eri to say sorry for Katsumi sticking up for her.
Present!Katsumi is kind of hovering over this scene, laid bare (literally, lol) by her realization that she feels terrible for having the thoughts she had, and Eri melted away all the awfulness. She had thought she was helping Eri, but over a panel of Eri's smiling face calling to her, she comes to understand that it was Eri helping HER. SHE claims to be the weak one, and wonders if Eri will ever forgive her.
After a series of triangle panels, a couple of which feature Eri's abandoned school bag and a few people looking out of some windows above in shock, we get a look at Katsumi and Eri's faces, both dazed in the wake of the emergency. They're being approached on all sides by several people, the train having passed, asking after them, the possible MOTIVATIONS for Eri going out onto the tracks in the first place, expressing relief that they made it, and also a grumbling about how Eri appeared to be floating there for a minute. Man, either that train was extraordinarily SHORT, or faster than I thought possible, huh?
Katsumi is amazed that they're still alive, and after a moment of stunned disbelief, Eri throws her arms around Katsumi's neck, bawling that she was so scared. She acknowledges that Katsumi saved her, though Katsumi pulls away and denies this. Eri makes a confused noise.
There's going to be a whole lot more crying on the way, I'll wager. I wouldn't stop crying for a WEEK.
Botan in still on her oar, her summary of events being that Katsumi's unwavering will to save her friend defeated the evil spirits. She supposes that in hindsight, the spirits didn't stand a chance. I don't know, I still think there was MORE than enough potential for this to turn out REAL bad. Botan asserts that the two of them will be alright now, though. Sayaka, however, is a little preoccupied with where Yusuke got to. Botan answers that his rash valor knocked him straight out of this world. LITERALLY. He's shown floating out in space over the planet, uttering a confused greeting for anyone that might be able to help him. Ghost in space!
Back in the faculty room that Eri was talking with her advisor before, someone gushes about BOTH girls getting perfect scores in all their subjects. Eri's and Katsumi's advisors sit across from each other while the girls stand off to the side, Eri's in particular holding up a paper and boisterously announcing that either of them would be a shoo-in for the exclusive private high school. He also assures them that whoever ends up NOT going will have no trouble getting into another very fine school. The girls tell him that they actually have a request about that, and he tells them to go ahead and ask. They ask them to please pretend that no choice has to be made, to which both men jovially tease that this could be arranged, but a moment later they fall into silent confusion. Then Eri's advisor SWELLS in his anger demanding to know what it is they mean. The girls say that they've decided they're BOTH going to another high school, an all-girl's school.
The men immediately protest, the exclusive high school they were competing to get into being the tippy-top of the country in terms of education, insisting the girls think about the prestige this would afford them. Eri's advisor promises that they'll write the one who doesn't go to the exclusive school a glowing recommendation for a ANOTHER good school, so they can both get into excellent places. He's literally pleading with them to take this nice deal, which is the bare minimum of what he should have been doing if one of them were going to the fancy school to BEGIN with.
Katsumi thanks him, but says they've decided on what they're going to do, as friends and not rivals. Eri follows up with the assertion that they'll decide on their own futures.
Most of these prestigious schools aren't much more than a famous name and a few celebrity endorsements anyway.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? A feel-good ending, especially considering all the grisly directions YT could have gone with this one. My suggestion that the ghost student could have been an evil spirit all along was one of my tamer ideas about how all this could turn out - since the curse was burned into Katsumi's arm, I was convinced for a while that the offending arm might get ripped off to ultimately stop the evil. Of course, this isn't THAT kind of comic, often going for the warm-fuzzy feeling rather than the more extreme toward the end, and the final image of the girls laughing together does make me pretty happy for them. After being pitted against each other by all the adults in their lives, having to compete for the kind of education that should frankly be available to EVERYONE, it's nice to see that they've opted out of that toxic race altogether and valued their friendship much more highly.
At the same time, the things I've mentioned strike me as missed opportunities, writing-wise. When a story shows me a ghost haunting a girl, insisting that he's trying to help her, but also admitting he's been summoned by a curse against her, I expect a writer to DO something with that. If not revealing him to be lying, then showing him struggling not to fall into line with the curse AGAINST the girl he's trying to save. When a story shows me that a sigil has burned itself into a girl's skin to avoid it's being destroyed easily, I expect a writer to DO something with that. And if it doesn't fit the vibe of what a writer is going for, then I expect something different to happen. Say that, SOMEHOW, the paper has become indestructible, or the sigil has appeared somewhere in her clothing that she doesn't immediately notice. THAT would also give an additional excuse for YT to take her clothes off in that one scene, lol!
Although, I have to admit that her being naked in her vision, as a metaphor for her true emotional state being laid bare, was really good visual shorthand. So often girls are stripped naked for no reason but reader titillation, so it was nice that there was an actual legitimate reason for it here.
I do have one additional complaint, though - there wasn't anything whatsoever for our main characters to DO. YT kind of hangs a lampshade on it, but it's disappointing to me that Yusuke does nothing in this chapter other than biting a mass of evil spirits and getting launched into space. The one action he did take made no difference, so ultimately he, Botan, and Sayaka were all just hovering around watching how things would turn out. It's oddly passive for characters that have been at least marginally involved in how things turned out in previous chapters.
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