September 30th, Newlsetter 183

Apologies for this taking longer than usual, but that's what happens when you're sick in bed for a day or two... (and hence why I hate this time of year)

Tsukikage Ran
Black Cat
Kaze no Stigma
Glass Fleet
Pumpkin Scissors
Darker than Black

Tsukikage Ran 2- Ran, though quite a strong samurai, is also a huge sake lover… which means she runs into problems when she enters village where sake is banned (and is also known as the Devil’s Water). Fortunately for her, there’s an underground bar nearby… where she runs into Lady Meow again (who is quite drunk). The only problem here is that the sake is rather watered down, and she causes a bit of a commotion before she leaves. On her way out, she smells much stronger sake, and runs into an apprentice of a sake maker, who doesn’t have it quite down, but it doesn’t entirely matter to Ran. Later on she meets the sake master himself, and they’re on the same wavelength… though she doesn’t get any sake because it’s not ready, so she’ll come back tomorrow. The only problem: the ones who run the bar disapprove of full sake, and they attack the master (after getting the info out of his apprentice). This in turn causes Ran to go and deal “justice” out to the bar owners, shutting them down permanently. Later on, both Ran and the apprentice honor the deceased master, before Ran sets off again, saying she’ll drop by again when the sake is ready.

Black Cat 22- With the Apostles now disbanded, we get to see into how they’re going about rebuilding their lives, before cutting back to the situation with Train and Sven. Sven wants to go and get Eve, but Train reminds Sven of his own words about going off alone… and Train himself sets off to make plans. Rinslet, on the other hand, has brought a special guest for Sven to meet: Tearju Lunatic, Eve’s creator, and we learn something quite interesting: Eve’s role as a bioweapon was only a front for her true purpose: to merge with a program called Adam and unleash the power of Eden, which would basically turn all humans into mindless puppets, therefore achieving “peace”. Eve, meanwhile, is undergoing the process, and at first she fights, but soon gives in, allowing Eden to activate, as nanomachine rain spreads across the land, and people turn into cocoons that are swallowed by Eden, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by the former Apostles. Sven has to do something, but Train comes back in the nick of time, and he managed to recruit the Chronos Numbers… and Train’s group, Chronos, and even the old Sweepers head off the take down Mason’s group.

Kaze no Stigma 8- There are spirits supposedly haunting the school, and therefore Ayano is sent in to dispel them… with Kazuma as her bodyguard, and her friend Yukari and Nanase tagging along. As they investigate, Murphy’s Law pretty much comes into play… and it turns out that it’s simply been a pixie trying to scare humans away in order to protect a cherry blossom tree. So the group ends up getting a beautiful show… until Kazuma reveals that the pixies were really just teasing Ayano the whole time, something that does NOT set very well with her.

Glass Fleet 3- With the entire group now on Orleans, Michel gets a huge surprise as the ship s/he was travelling on with the crew gets turned into scrap metal. With Cleo being the culprit, Michel pursues him, even going out into the wintry conditions in order to confront him… though that turns out to be a slight mistake, and the two are forced to take shelter. Within their shelter (a cave), Cleo confronts Michel with some ugly truths about nobility, and in order to keep pride, Michel challenges him to a duel… one in which Cleo again turns out to be superior. However, as their duel ends, the snow also gives way to reveal a castle… which is home to a prophet, and the two receive… you guessed it, a prophecy, something about a two-headed eagle. Of course, also heading to this world are the Emperor and the girl who’s close to him, and they too receive a prophecy. And then to make things very interesting, all four end up running into each other at the bar, and a duel challenge is accidentally made…

Darker than Black 25- Many truths now come together as Hei makes his way deep into the gate with Amber, and she reveals to him exactly where Pai has been: her power caused her to fuse into Hei at South America, which is why he can use the power without a price (essentially, she’s always sleeping within Hei). Of course, this power is now needed to activate the Meteor shard. But Hei, being human as well, cannot do this, so Amber forces things to happened… and Hei is sent to a place where all those who have been killed are still around, and Hei must make a choice: to let either the humans live, or the Contractors… well, there’s option C: to be both a Human and Contractor, which means that though he’ll never see Amber, Pai or his other friends again, all humans and Contractors will live. Hei, however, decides to take this choice, and with one last bit of help from Amber, the reaction that would wipe out Contractors never occurs… and that turns out to be a problem for the Syndicate, especially now that Misaki has her boss’s confession. Hei manages to step in to prevent her death, but she also asks him not to kill her boss… and she unconsciously adds two and two, connecting the Black Reaper and Li/Hei… though he runs off as she makes this connection. Later on, she goes to his apartment, but Li has already gone… she sees him and tries to pursue, but he once more vanishes. Things end with Misaki saying that Contractors are now officially out to the public, and more incidents are occurring, true to her former boss’s words, though she’ll fight against the Syndicate (and Li is also doing the same).

Rollcall:
Jeff
Dave
Nick
Erin
Tom
Andy


And just a reminder, since I (and Dave as well) won't be at the meeting for this week, there will be lack of newsletter for a week