That’s right bois, I definitely predicted this 3 chapters ago, like I said in the spoiler thread lol.
That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been less interested in a Kingdom sub-plot.
I think what Hara is doing here, is trying to find a more interesting way to show us that the HSU is succeeding at these minor battles, the same way that the Gaku Ka and Gyouku Hou are. The problem is, I think I would actually have preferred that the HSU just got the same treatment that the Gaku Ka and Gyouku Hou did. Just give us like 3 pages of Hara being like “the Hi Shin Unit also kept up with the GH/GK units thanks to ....insert reasons,” and then move on. I do not care in the slightest about Rei or the current conflict.
If Rei is here to simply kill Kyoukai, then she should’ve just slipped into Kai’s tent at night and cut her throat while she is already extremely weak. There is no need for this big elaborate sub-plot about Rei joining the unit and causing all of this chaos if her ultimate goal is just to kill Kyoukai. Rei should already know that Kai is weak since the Shiyuu can perceive each other’s life forces via Shiyuu meditation.
I think what Hara is doing here, is he is creating a character who wants to break the HSU emotionally as a way to torment Kyoukai, who killed the last Shiyuu and abandoned the village in the name of the HSU.
If the point of Ren was to show Kyoukai realizing that the HSU was what teathered her to reality, then Rei is supposed to be the one who comes to sever that teather. That’s what I think Hara is going for, and Rei could actually be a twist on the “typical” Shiyuu like Ren was, in that by attempting to create a killer with no attachment to life, the Shiyuu accidentally created a crazed maniac instead.
Which, okay cool I guess, but I still don’t care. I didn’t care when Kyoukai fought Ren, and I don’t care about Rei either. Hara has created much, much more memorable villains in the past, and Rei just doesn’t do it for me.
If I had to sum up how I feel about this conflict objectively, in one word, it would be: generic. Which for those of you who care to read my posts, y’all know I’ve had this criticism about Kyoukai and her storylines multiple times in the past. Literally nothing about this interests me in the slightest.
I’d give this chapter about a 3/10.