Summary:
Mana continues to tell Haru the story of how she met Kuushirou: Thanks to Kuushirou's influence, Mana is allowed out of her room to hang out with Kuushirou, and the two grew closer every day. Kuushirou would go on business for a few days, and Mana always promised to wait for him to come back. However, after one mission Kuushirou barely made it back and suffered from bad wounds. It turns out Kuushirou was beaten in a sword fight, and in his half-unconscious state Kuushirou mutters something about a "guardian blade". While Mana is watching over Kuushirou, suddenly her father enters the room with a crazed look on his face. Mana's father reveals that Kuushirou is a special agent that he has been instructed to assist, but Mana's father isn't content with his current position and decided to betray Kuushirou. Instead of trying to kill Kuushirou himself, Mana's father allowed the enemy to send a cursed spirit to carry Kuushirou away. Mana fends out the spirit, but she knows that the spirit and her father will try again to take Kuushirou away.
Let go of him, you skank!!
At night, Mana sits on guard besides the unconscious Kuushirou, but she doesn't notice a dark figure standing behind her. Suddenly, Mana notices the cursed spirit going after Kuushirou again, and this time the spirit is much more persistent. Unable to fight off the spirit, the desperate Mana agrees to the silent requests of the dark figure standing behind her, and the dark figure blasts the cursed spirit away with the eye ion his right palm. After the spirit is defeated, Mana reaches out to the dark figure, and dark figure sneers and reaches for Mana with his right hand. In the same night, Mana's father was found dead in the castle with foam coming out of his mouth.
Back to the present, Mana states that this is how she became a guardian blade. Kuushirou was defeated by a man wielding a guardian blade, and so he need a guardian blade to challenge the man again. After that fateful night, Mana left the castle to travel with Kuushirou who slowly recovered, but the defeat has scarred him such that he never again smiled like before. Mana is crying at this point, but states that Kuushirou who attacked isn't the Kuushirou that she knew. Haru agrees with Mana and declares out loud that he is going beat some sense in Kuushirou, but he ends up slipping and making a fool out of himself. Mana takes to opportunity to hand Haru the object she has been carrying, and the object turns out to be a sword sheath. Mana tells Haru that Kuushirou is known for his attack off the draw, so Haru should take the sheath if he wants to travel with her. Haru gladly accepts the sheath and rallies his comrades to continue on, but he slips again and then discovers a large group of monsters gathering behind him. Haru summons Mana for combat, and he and the rest of fighters in the group charge right into the monsters. Somewhere else in the district, the girl who looks like Aki stands before Kuushirou who is half-encased in some sort of gooey solid.
Chaaaarrrrrggggeee!!!
Haru and allies managed to cut down all the monsters, but the battle has proved to be long and tiring. To help the group get some rest and replenish their energy, Kaya leads the group head to a base that she often visits. Upon entering the base, Haru and Yaegaki are surprised that so many people managed to stake out a home in such a hostile environment. Haru then notices a bunch of weapon-wielding men charging at the gate from the outside, and Kaya explains that those men are bandits who are under Yamada's command. Haru volunteers to fight off the bandits, but the base has plenty of defenses and the bandits are driven off with catapults. The defenses of the base are devised by two university professors, and many people from the university live within the base. Kaya and Haru's group are the met by a group of children and a young woman named Izumi who Kaya is friends with. Kaya tells Haru and the others that Izumi took care her after she escaped from Yamada, and some of the former Yamada members had helped put up the barrier around the base to keep the monsters out. Kaya states that the base is becoming self-sufficient, but they still need supplies from time to time. After looking around the base, Yaegaki becomes concerned about the residents and asks Izumi and Kaya to take her to the person in charge, but Izumi and Kaya suggests that Yaegaki and the rest of the group should take a bath and have a meal first.
Someone really does need a bath and a meal.
After the meal, Haru and Mana hang out together and Haru wonders what'll happen if Kuushirou returns to his senses. Mana states that she'll go back with Kuushirou but will visit Haru every so often, but to her indignation Haru has fallen asleep. Elsewhere in the base, Kaya send Hyakume off on an errand. Kaya then goes to find Haru and Mana, but she discovers that both of them are asleep and that Mana has drawn all over Haru's face. Kaya decides not to wake Haru and Mana and leaves on other business. A little later, Haru and Mana are woken up by loud noises. They run outside and discovers that the base is under attack from the monsters. Even worse, Haru spots Izumi and a child trapped in the midst of the monsters. Haru summons Mana and charges into the monsters, but their numbers start to overwhelm Haru. As Haru is being pushed back, Mana reminds Haru that he isn't fighting alone and can use her senses as well. Haru takes the advice and renews his attacks once again, and he manages to break through to Izumi. From the sidelines, Fujimaru is watching the battle and is impressed by Haru's growth as a swordsman. Elsewhere in the base, Kaya is trying to alert the President (the person in charge) to the attack, but her way is blocked off by Suou (who's wearing a mask) and Kaname.
Suou is obviously a fan of the masked pilots in Gundam.
Back outside, the denizens of the base are busy fighting against the monsters. Haru, Yaegaki and Fujimaru has killed all the nearby monsters and are moving to reinforce another location. On the way, Yaegaki notes that the monsters seem to be moving in an organized manner, and Fujimaru states the Yamada's spell corps have experimented with controlling monsters. Meanwhile, Haru has ran ahead and he spots Suou carrying an unconscious Kaya on his shoulder. Suou tells Haru that he'll be waiting for Hyakume in front of the assembly hall. Haru tries to go after Suou but he is blocked off by a group of monster, and after cutting through monsters Haru discovers that Suou is already gone. Outside the base, Suou tells the leader of the bandits to do whatever he wants with the base before moving on the assembly hall.
Back inside the base, Haru tells his comrades about Kaya's kidnapping and Suou's challenge to Hyakume. With Hyakume nowhere to be found, Haru volunteers to go rescue Kaya, but Fujimaru states that he'll be the one to face his former Seven Sheathes comrade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Decent volume. The story continues to grow, but there weren't any big surprises or very important battles in these four chapters. Rather, the latter half of this volume was setting thing up for a big showdown in the next volume between Suou and whoever wants to answer his challenge. It seems like Fujimaru will be the first to answer the call, but I don't think he has the ability to beat Suou in a duel. Fujimaru is still hurt, and Suou has a new and improved blade. The story might be setting up for Fujimaru's demise, although I doubt Haru and company will let Fujimaru go off on his own. Defeating Suou and rescuing Kaya is not the only problem for the good guys, as Suou's surprise attack has left the base vulnerable to the bandits. Looks like we will have at least two battles going on simultaneously in the next volume, and that should be something to look forward to.
The first one-third consisted of Mana's story. The circumstances of Mana becoming Kuushirou's blade wasn't too surprising (Kuushirou in big trouble, Mana can't save him), although the alchemist Zin (the dark figure mentioned in the summary) is still a big mystery. Not sure what he is trying to accomplish moving around and turning people into guardian blades, but it's probably for some malevolent purpose given the tone of the narrative. Mana's story also didn't reveal what happened during their mission into Yamada. I guess that will be saved up for later when Haru and Mana confront Kuushirou again.
Other minor notes: I liked the comedy in this volume, especially when Haru fell asleep on Mana. It was also fun to see Ruru falling to the ground in hunger after showing little expression before this point. We finally found out what Mana was carrying a sheath all these time, but it was little disappointing that Haru hasn't done anything with the present yet.
It's clear that there is still a lot to be revealed about the world of XBlade. There are a number of groups on the move and their motivations aren't clear as of yet. It'll be at least a few months before we find out any answers though.
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