MAO (2022)

[MAO（マオ）]

Volume 13

Author/Artist: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Shounen Sunday Comics

Synopsis:
Nanoka investigates the newly reopened sinkhole near the gateway where she lost her parents.

Story/Characters:
After checking out the sinkhole, Nanoka crosses over to find Mao right there waiting for her, little surprise as he'd just encountered Byouki and was worried about him making contact with Nanoka. Even though she realizes it's inappropriate under the circumstances, Nanoka's tickled pink that Mao was so worried about her. It's pretty cute. Meanwhile, we see Byouki take the arm he found and add it to the body under the Goshikidou. We've got zombie Daigo, basically, but the reassembled body is an empty husk (haku without the kon, I imagine).

Natsuno shows back up to recruit Hakubi to do some low-level attacks on the Army barracks as a way to lure out Hakubi. She knows that he lied about Mao killing Sana and she wants to know the truth. Mao and Nanoka show up just a little ahead of Hakubi. It feels strange that having maintained a lie for hundreds of years that Hakubi would give up the truth so easily, but I suppose the lie only needed to serve at the time. The story that's presented (which could prove to not be true later) is that Yurako was jealous of Sana over Mao and Hakubi blamed Mao for Sana's death to protect Yurako. The way he talks about her, how her cursed form was beautiful, leads Nanoka to believe that Hakubi is in love with her, insofar as someone like him has the capacity for love. Yurako's presence cuts this little chat short and Hakubi withdraws. Needless to say, Yurako is furious with Hakubi for letting Mao know what happened (or letting him think some twisted version of the facts, as it seems just as likely to me that Yurako could have genuinely killed Sana or that there are some sort of extenuating circumstances). Cutting back to our gang, we find out that Hyakka had gotten particularly worked up over the whole Sana thing because the day she was killed, he was burning the storeroom at Sana's request. Because she sent him off after the fire was set, he felt guilty over the fact that she died not long after. We then hear Mao's story, that he was on watch that night and followed this mysterious light, only to find the master dead before being attacked by Shiranui. The nature of said light remains unknown.

After things settle down, Mao and Nanoka hash out what we know, then we're introduced to this water caster running a scam where he causes droughts and extorts villages for money. Mao and Nanoka go to investigate and at the same time, Renji and Mei are headed that way as well. There's this thug call Onitake running a racket where he drives villages into the ground and then takes over for land development, building factories and such. It turns out that Mei has a history with this individual. While Renji toasts Onitake's goons, Mei goes for Onitake himself, but then he calls in that water caster, Sasuga. Sasuga realizes the danger posed by Renji and Mei and quickly blows them away with a whirlpool.

Mei gets thrown a good ways and is impaled on a tree branch, which is when Mao and Nanoka stumble upon her. She looks pretty well done for, but then these vines emerge from the wound, push out the branch, and then seal everything back up. This is the work of a thing called a Haku Seed. It was something the master introduced Mao to during his apprenticeship. It can heal mortal wounds but the vines end up consuming the host. For Mei to survive as long as she has is irregular. Still, that doesn't change the near certainty that the seed will eventually consume her. Mao urges her to get rid of it, but she refuses, as she still has need of the seed's power. Speaking of seeds, the one she planted on Onitake before Sasuga intervened sprouts and he's on short time. Sasuga asks him what he's done to earn such a grudge and so it's backstory time. Mei is actually half-Japanese and her foreign father brought her to the village where her mother was born. Her father was teaching the latest agricultural techniques to the villagers and such and things were going well until Onitake came along. Her father was killed in a dispute with one of Onitake's goons and then the other dissenting villagers were buried alive in a mass grave to conceal the evidence, while Mei herself was being saved for later enjoyment. She gets set loose by a friendly villager working at Onitake's factory, but as she's escaping, she ends up falling off a cliff and is at the point of death when Shiranui finds her and gives her a new lease on life. Her little human kodoku is comprised of all the people connected to Onitake that she can find. When Sasuga learns that Mei is connected to the Kou Clan, he immediately jumps ship, much to Onitake's chagrin. Mei then takes her leave. Later, when Mao and Nanoka visit Kamon, they learn that he was the one who developed the Haku Seeds and also a way to purge them, which gives Mao hope that he can save Mei before the Haku Seed consumes her. Meanwhile, Sasuga manages to convince Shiranui to let him on the team, so expect future water-based battles with him.

We close on what seems to be a monster-of-the-week episode with Mao and Nanoka clearing an old house of spooks until things take a more serious turn as they find out the reason for said spooks is the grudge of an offended water god.

Art:
The art maintains the quality you'd expect from the series. I rather like the near full-page panel of an angry Yurako after she slaps Hakubi. And while Mei's usual nurse outfit is quite nice, she also looks rather fetching in a kimono. (When I saw an illustration of her in a kimono on the back cover, I actually thought it was a new character.) We also get some great reaction shots from Nanoka during the haunted house shenanigans.

Conclusion:
While we do get more insight into what happened all those centuries ago, I can't help but feel we've still got a few more iterations to go until we get the full truth. If you enjoy the story's way of taking us further and further down the rabbit hole, you should appreciate that. I felt Mei's traumatic backstory was rather well done. We'll see how Sasuga fares as an addition to the villains' side. All told, this makes for a solid read.

Rating:
Read It