Amazing, Roku! You really are the best!
Get even angrier. Let me see how serious you get.
That way, you can take your true form...
You're... a Kegare, after all.
Rokuro... is a...
Om tathagata udbhavaye svaha...
You're awake, Adashino-san!
Thank goodness...
Don't rush. You need to rest for now.
Thank you, everyone.
Are you sure you're okay, Benio?
The Millennial Dream Melancholic Misanthrope
I must say, it was quite a shock, Arima-sama!
You're alive!
Sorry to worry you all.
Were you sad when you thought I was dead, Seigen?
Nah.
Oh, you!
You sure you didn't cry just a little?
I don't have a single tear to waste on you.
You're so mean.
More importantly...
Don't you have something important to tell us?
Something important, huh?
There's no keeping secrets from you, is there, Seigen?
If I lay it all out, we'll be here forever,
so I'll fill you in on just the important bits.
Regarding what I saw and heard while I was using the Pursuit of Ages Ritual.
The Pursuit of Ages Ritual?!
But you couldn't have done that on your own.
You'd need someone threatening you, to send you to the brink of death...
You used Kuranashi?
Well, I knew he wanted me dead, after all.
So I did him a favor and let him "kill" me.
I see...
I guess I fell right into your trap.
The real world will be covered in darkness, and the stars will vanish.
No, they won't.
The deeper the darkness, the brighter the stars shine.
Powerfully... and beautifully.
Farewell, head exorcist.
Thanks to Kuranashi killing me,
the Pursuit of Ages Ritual was complete,
and my soul was separated from my body...
to travel to roughly a thousand years ago,
in ancient Kyoto.
There, I learned in complete detail the plans implemented
by Abe no Seimei, the greatest exorcist of all time and the founder of our order,
which would take shape over a millennium.
As he performed various spells
to help people live in peace, Seimei took note of the things lurking in human hearts,
such as rage, hatred, and envy...
and began to see them as the root of the disasters threatening the world.
Our world traditionally has the force that destroys and spreads, yin,
and the force that creates and concentrates, yang,
working in balance throughout the cycle of creation.
But the "malevolent feelings" of people manifested as beings of yin energy, Kegare,
known as evil mountain and river spirits at the time, began to warp areas of the city.
Seimei realized that the yin energy that people generated
had grown to the point that it was throwing the world out of balance.
And so, he ventured beneath the location that
would become the headquarters of the Exorcist Union,
and used his sorcery to create a another world...
And in its heavens, he planted a single seedling. That seedling...
is the Ame-no-mihashira.
The Ame-no-mihashira breathed in the malevolent feelings of humanity,
and beyond its extending branches, it created a barrier.
Seimei took the yin energy generated by these malevolent feelings
and sealed them into that world, hoping that the real world, inhabited by people,
would maintain its balance between yin and yang...
But the amount of yin energy people created only increased over time.
The other world became one marked by ruin and destruction...
Which is to say, it was twisted into Magano.
Not only that, but the yin energy from people continued to manifest
inside Magano, giving birth to Kegare with incredible power.
It was to counteract this that Seimei created the Exorcist Union,
along with granting particularly strong exorcists
with the twelve shikigami that he created himself,
giving birth to the unique twelve exorcists known as the Twelve Guardians.
Thus, the Exorcist Union has been battling Kegare for generations
using the spell power of the Twelve Guardians...
But in the event that this was insufficient, and Magano continued to spread
with Kegare growing more massive...
Seimei prepared the means by which the Twin Star Exorcists would be born.
So that all Kegare could be cleansed
and the malicious Magano could be destroyed,
by giving birth to the ultimate exorcist, the Miko.
That's certainly a dreadful story.
The idea of humanity being the source of all these damn Kegare...
That's not exactly a scary notion, after all this time.
No, that's not what I find frightening.
For him to craft such an elaborate strategy to cleanse the Kegare...
I've only ever revered Abe no Seimei before,
but now he seems a bit like a terrifying monster.
You're wrong about that, Otomi-san.
The truly frightening part
is what I haven't told you yet.
I guess that's all I can do for now...
Good work.
Thanks, Mayura.
It's okay.
You must be tired.
I'll prepare somewhere for you to rest. Give me just a moment.
I appreciate it.
But I think my mother is probably worried, so I'll just go home for now.
I see.
What about you, Rokuro?
I'm gonna keep an eye on Benio a bit longer.
I see...
Later, then.
I'd like to discuss what happened to you
beneath the Exorcist Union HQ.
From what you've told me,
I now understand just how important the duty borne by the Twin Star Exorcists is.
But what...
What does that have to do with what happened?
And just what was it, anyway?
Enmado Rokuro-kun...
I had tried to tell you about your origins in such a way
that would be easiest for you to accept and cause you as little shock as possible...
But thanks to the intervention of Ijika Yuto,
you found out in the harshest way possible.
I've failed in my task.
Please forgive me.
You don't need to apologize for that.
But you have to tell me the truth!
Is it like Yuto said?
Am I...
a Kegare?
It's true...
In the sense of being an entity formed from yin energy that is a threat to humanity,
you are a Kegare.
Then... It's true...
However...
You could also say that's not quite the case.
The fact that your yin energy was meant to cleanse humanity
is fundamentally different from Kegare.
I don't understand what you mean.
It's like this...
Seimei prepared the Twin Star Exorcists and the Miko for the sake of exorcising all Kegare,
and ending Magano.
He yearned for a time when, even without Magano,
the balance between yin and yang would be secure again.
But, at the same time,
if the malevolent feelings of humanity continued to grow,
and gave rise to an unending horde of Kegare...
In order to cleanse humanity itself,
with the intent of removing them from the world,
he prepared an incarnation of yin energy more powerful than any other.
To destroy humanity? Yin incarnate?
Seimei called him...
"The Cataclysm King."
The Cataclysm King?
The characters used mean literally "the king who destroys the stars."
And the Cataclysm King...
is you, Enmado Rokuro-kun.
So, either way,
the bottom line is that I'm not human.
I suppose, in the end, it still wound up being a shock.
Please, tell me...
What am I supposed to do?
All I can ask of you is to bring forth the Miko.
The yin energy in you and yang energy in Benio-kun will combine and create the Miko.
That should rid you of your power as the Cataclysm King.
Don't be stupid!
That's like...
You're asking Benio to be with someone who isn't even human, aren't you?!
I could never force her to do that!
I suppose you think it's cruel?
But I think that it's for the best.
Now, then... I need to be on my way.
The Exorcist Union is in tatters and needs to be put back in order.
And before that...
I promised to help get the Seika Dorm to assist in the town's recovery.
But you don't even have any ties to this town.
Don't I?
The responsibility for the Kegare not being contained in Magano,
and for the damage they wrought on this town, doesn't lie with the Seika Dorm.
It's the Exorcist Union...
No, as its leader, it's my fault.
There's no way I can ever make up for it,
but I can at least do all I can to help.
Welcome home!
You're so late, y'know!
Wha— You're...
No need to be so tense, now.
I'm not gonna attack you.
In the first place,
the seizure and loss of spell power isn't something I care about anymore.
What are you doing here?
I popped in through there!
How can you open Dragon Spots?!
When I saw Kuranashi-don do it, I figured out how!
I haven't quite mastered it yet, though, so I only managed one big enough for me.
You've got those miasma enchantments on, too, right?
Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's not a miasma enchantment.
Ro...
wen...
gaimu!
For the record, I learned how to do this when I saw Chihuahua-kun use it.
That's "Chijiwa"!
So, what does a Basara want with me?
I'm here to cheer you up, y'know?
Learning about your true origins can,
at times, bring a great deal of anxiety and fear.
How do you know that I'm troubled by my origins?
Did I not tell you when we first met?
I'm observing you.
So you know, then?
What I really am?
Yes...
The Cataclysm King, right?
Huh?
Or was it "a Kegare"?
In the sense that I'm not human,
they're the same thing.
So you're a Kegare, then!
Since we're both Kegare, you wanna get married?
Don't be crazy!
It's not crazy!
When you have love, a little age difference doesn't matter!
Age difference...
How old are you?
Roughly... a thousand and several hundred years old.
What with the "that's a little too much of an age difference for me" look?
No, that's not what I was thinking...
I mean, you and I don't even love each other.
You really love that flatty so much?
Maybe you should've kissed her before it turned out like this, then!
No... I'm glad I didn't.
I can't drag her into this.
This whole time, I've wanted to become the strongest exorcist
so I could exorcise all the Kegare and protect everyone.
And yet...
I, myself...
am not even human!
I don't get this Kegare and Cataclysm King stuff...
But I was apparently born to cleanse the world of all humans.
In that case... what am I supposed to do?
Why are you even hesitating because of that?
You said it yourself, right?
"I wanted to protect everyone."
When you thought you were human,
you chose what you wanted to do, didn't you?
How is that any different now that you're the Cataclysm King?
Whether you're human or Cataclysm King...
You're still you, y'know?
Oh, nice!
I wanna try something like this, too!
That feels great, y'know?!
When you're troubled, remember what's most important to you.
Bang!
What's most important to me, huh?
Here I am.
Yuto!
Well, you were taking so long.
I can understand being busy, but...
Would it kill you to be a little more considerate of me?
I've got my own concerns, you know.
What are you talking about?
I'm thinking I want to mess up this filthy world good.
You don't mind, right?
Actually, Roku...
What'll you do?
Will you stay with me?
How many times
do I have to tell you no?
Such a waste.
Even though you're the Cataclysm King, who could kill every last human...
Well, you can at least fight me.
What?
If you want to stop me, you just need to beat me.
Not that you actually could.
But if you won't fight me,
then I'll just destroy the world on my own.
I have the power to do it, after all.
Well...
I'll always be waiting for you, Roku.
Next Episode
George Elliot wrote, "Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love."
I want to tell that to Adashino-san, but...
Distanced Despite Their Love Farewell, My Precious
I wouldn't. Not now.
Yeah.
It might be painful, but be sure to watch next time.