Summary:
The fight at Haru's school is covered up in the news reports for unknown reasons, but Haru and Mana knows they can't stick around anymore. The two of them ask the Hollyhock Syndicate to let them into the 13th District. The Hollyhock leader Matsu warns them that there are grotesque, horrifying monsters living inside the district, but Mana has seen these creatures before with Kuushirou and she and Haru still wants to go inside, so Matsu agrees to arrange for transport and protection. Mana also asks Matsu to prepare a special item for her and Matsu agrees as well.
In the days before departure, Haru and Mana visit Grandpa Kazunari and Seiichi, and Haru and Mana are surprised that Seiichi knows a girl who became a guardian blade and supposedly lives inside the 13th District. On the day of departure, Haru and Mana are assigned three bodyguards. The first is a female commando named Yaegaki who happens to be the person who rescued Haru from the 13th District. The other two are Crusaders who came to replace Kris since she is still recovering from her injuries. One of the Crusaders is a large and somewhat arrogant man named Alex, while the other is a quiet blond loli named Ruru.
Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea.
With everyone assembled, the group along with a few Hollyhock agents and soldiers begin their journey into the 13th District through an underground tunnel in a two truck convoy. Soon after entering the district the trucks come under attack by monsters. Haru, Mana, and their three bodyguards manage to bail out of their truck, but all the other soldiers and agents except one are killed. Haru is scared to death at first, but with Mana's encouragement he defeats the large monster with a Dragonfly strike, and Alex kills all the smaller monsters.
Examples of women who kick ass.
After the battle Haru suddenly spots his supposedly dead little sister Aki walking down a nearby tunnel. Haru runs down the tunnel with Yaegaki and Ruru in tow, but the tunnel entrance suddenly collapses and now Haru's group is separated from Mana's group. Yaegaki radios to Mana's group and the two group agree to meet up at a nearby subway station. Haru, Yaegaki, and Ruru travel down their tunnel and find the subway tracks, but unfortunately the tracks are inhabited by a group of giant spiders. Since Mana is not around, Haru is practically defenseless, but both Ruru and Yaegaki are prepared for the fight. Ruru blasts spiders left and right with her bladed pistols, while Yaegaki slices the giant arachnids apart with a sacred, wine-drinking long sword. After getting rid of the spiders, Haru's group arrive at the subway station, but Mana's group is nowhere in sight. Worried about Mana, Haru digs around the rubble at the exit and emerges out in the streets of the 13th District, with the ominous island of Yamata hanging upside down from the skies.
Home sweet home? More like a dangerous place full of painful memories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was excellent volume. XBlade was already pretty cool with the girls(and boys as well)-changing-into-swords concept and the fast paced action, but now it's even better, because we have monsters!!! I guess I have a special spot for monsters since I like Claymore and Gantz a lot, and those two manga have tons of monsters and action. Back on topic, I have always commented that XBlade has really crisp and detailed art, and it shows in this volumes with the monsters (and them being sliced and blown apart by our heroes).
The story is also getting exciting too thanks in part to the freaky monsters, but it's mainly because the story is starting to dwell into the mysteries behind the 13th District and Yamata. The entrance into the district was nicely planned out with the sudden monster attack and then Haru and Mana being separated. Without Mana, Haru is pretty useless for the moment, but his two bodyguards are pretty formidable. I am a little sad that our resident hot blond Crusader Kris is out of action, but Ruru the pistol-toting, drill-curl loli appears to be a capable replacement. Yaegaki is not bad as well with her wine-drinking long sword, and in addition she has a personal connection to Haru since she rescued him before. We didn't get much coverage on Mana's group in this volume, but that's going to come in the next volume.
The story is moving in the right direction now, but there are still a lot of questions surrounding the what happened in the 13th District. There are quite a few random characters moving around in this series and we don't know what they are up to. For example, there was the guy who gave Sakura the new sword in the last volume, and there is also Haru's little sister Aki who also appeared to Kazunari. Speaking of Kazunari, I still don't understand why he harbors a secret hatred for Haru. Haru was partially responsible for Kazunari getting his arm cut off during the fight against Sakura, but Kazunari's secret hate seemed to have stemmed before that. From what I've seen thus far it just appears that Kazunari is jealous that Haru is suddenly better at kendo then he is, and that's pretty dumb. Given the hate, I'm sure Kazunari will be playing a bigger role in the story somewhere down the line.
The volume 7 post will be up in the next couple of days.
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