Summary:

Keisei’s death is blamed on a gas explosion, and the Kougon priests attend their own special funeral before the funeral that is open to the public. Unfortunately, none of the SH are allowed inside the temple and Makina is tied up back at Kougon HQ. Rinsen takes Ouri to meet Sougen, and Sougen mentions that Keisei was more than just his first student; Keisei was like a son to him. Sougen finally explains the mechanics of the CP-SH partnership and the ranks of the Kougon Cult.

Every SH has a CP that provides the SH with life energy, Run. The connection between the CP and the SH is known as En, and every CP is the Shugo of a specific area. There are over 100 CP in Japan, and Keisei was the Shugo for Ouri’s area. Rinsen wants to replace Ouri with a qualified CP as soon as possible, but Ouri surprises everyone by stating that he will not hand Makina over to anyone. When Sadahiro stops by to pay his respects, Ouri realizes that Sadahiro is the one who killed Minai. Sadahiro apologizes about Minai and tells Ouri to head to the Goryouzan mountains for some CP training.

Reaction:

Although we got a lot of useful side information about Kougon cult, this episode was more of a denouement than anything else. I’m not exactly sure why Aka and Kuro are divided up since Shikabane Hime should have just been a normal 26 episode season.

There’s not much new to say about this episode since the majority of this episode was told in recaps. Two things that now make sense are Isaki being so obsessed with getting a promotion and the En almost being severed in episode 1 (back when Keisei had just started working with Makina). I also figure that Akasha “healed” Ouri with an infusion of Run last episode.