WSR 9-9-12

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Magi 196

Last time, it looked like our heroes had finally overcome the medium of Il Irah and prevented him from being unleashed into this world. They even say nothing could’ve survived something of that caliber of attack. But Yunan seems to think otherwise and Gyokuen says that they needed 72 to defeat it in Alma Toran and they’re only 13. The medium seems to draw rukh from the air itself this time.

Mu is incensed that Scheherazade sacrificed the last of her magoi to help them and it still didn’t work. Aladdin is confused and Mu explains that because of her Extreme Magic, Scheherazade and Titus are now both dead, though Titus was dead a while ago. Sphintus, one of Titus and Aladdin’s classmates at the academy, is grief stricken at his friend’s death.

Meanwhile, the medium is observed by Morgiana to be acting strangely. Yunan explains that the core of the medium, the rukh of the person who is at its center, is hesitating. The rukh and will of a person who has fallen into depravity and cursed fate is needed to control the medium. Aladdin concludes it has to be the chancellor of Magnostadt, Matal Mogamett and everyone else notices. The hesitation is due to a single grain of light, white rukh, which is a person who hasn’t yet fallen into depravity, which is able to hold back the medium after it was attacked.

Aladdin decides he will go into the medium using Solomon’s Wisdom. He even agrees to bring Yamraiha, since she was like Mogamett’s daughter.

We see Mogamett attacked by the rukh of those people he used as fodder for the magic furnace, cursing him. But something stops them from completely destroying Mogamett’s will. And it’s revealed that Titus was staving off the complete change of the medium to the black spot and holding it back.

Outside, Judal has appeared with Hakuryuu as they observe, the chapter ending on them.

Titus’s survival in the inner Rukh world is not surprising. And it’s a good use of this moment for another Solomon’s Wisdom scene, Aladdin helping someone more directly this time, since Alibaba helped Kassim previously when this sort of thing happened.

World Trigger 29

From last time, Utagawa bailed out, while Tachikawa is injured. Kazama should be considered as such as well, but either way, Jin’s advantage is fairly secure.

The battle between Arashiyama’s squad, minus Kitora, and Miwa’s squad, plus Izumi from Tachikawa’s squad begins. Shiori then begins to explain the type of Gunner Triggers, which number 4. The Meteor, the Asteroid, the Viper and the Hound all have their own specific qualities of attack. Some have guided bullets, some have bullets you can guide, some are explosive and some are basic with no special qualities but greater power.

It looks like Arashiyama might be attacked by a Hound’s bullets, but he’s shielded by Mitsuru with a Shield Trigger. Miwa then attacks with his special option in his Trigger, slowing down Arashiyama. Izumi then attacks with his Viper, but Arashiyama utilizes a Teleporter Trigger, avoiding the attack. He and Mitsuru attack Izumi, who manages to block the crossfire. Miwa compliments them on their teamwork.

Kitora and Yosuke are fighting elsewhere, Yosuke revealing he can shorten his Spear Trigger to fight n closed quarters. Kitora moves to another room and Yosuke is caught by a Wire Trigger she set, allowing her to attack and destroy his Trion supply, disabling him. But it seems he can still manage to counterattack. He knocks Kitora outside the window and taunts Izumi, who shoots at them with his Asteroid.

Mitsuru blocks the shots, but takes a hit to the head from Isami, the Sniper who was taking a break since he couldn’t hit Jin, and is out of the battle. One of Kitora’s legs is damaged as well, meaning this fight isn’t quite in their favor anymore. But their other sniper, Satori, is still around and the chapter ends on this. I imagine he’ll provide support in the next chapter. We may even learn more about Sniper Triggers in the process

Bleach 548

Last time the chaos continued and we established some of the fights between Stern Ritter and Soul Reaper (just realized the parallel letters there) and this time we continue with Marechiyo, Vice Captain of 2nd Squad, panicking at the sudden change in scenery. His little sister, who we only saw in omake before, asks him not to go, but he says he has to in order to protect everyone, since he’s a member of the Gotei 13. Then BG9, who stole Captain Soifon’s Bankai appears, Marechiyo determined to fight him in return.

Meanwhile, where Toushirou and Rangiku are fighting Bazz B, he remembers who they are. Cang Du, Stern Ritter I (as in Intimidate or such, we don’t know) stole his Bankai. We find out Bazz B’s Schrift name, the Heat, and he shows it off with more fire blasts. Rangiku tells the unseated officers to back off and leave the fight to her and Toushirou. They notice that the ice that protected them was very thin and are amazed it was able to block the fire.

Bazz B shoots off more flames, taunting Toushirou and saying that the ice is just delaying things. Rangiku tells Toushirou they’ve evacuated everyone and Toushirou apologizes for having to rely on her, which she smirks at, saying she’s happy Toushirou is relying on her now. Rangiku releases her Shikai, saying it’s time to start the Flaky Pastry strategy, which Toushirou says wasn’t the name of the plan.

Bazz B says it’s the same ice, firing off a blast at it, but only managing to melt the surface. Toushirou explains it’s a multi layered vacuum wall. When Rangiku returned Haineko to her Zanpakutou, the ice that covered the multiple layers of walls created by Haineko became a series of vacuums between the walls. He explains that Hyourinmaru is one of the few Zanpakutou that doesn’t suffer a huge difference of power between Shikai and Bankai, indicating that all the other captains who had Bankai stolen (Soifon, Byakuya and Komamura) can most likely still use their Shikai powers. In his case, he can only use a smaller amount of ice.

Bazz B is frustrated attacking even harder. But Toushirou responds that they won’t pierce it. The chapter ends as he says he’ll use a Vacuum Ice Blade on Bazz B, dealing a hard blow to the Quincy.

It’s interesting how the strategy works and how he can still fight relatively well against an opponent who could probably defeat him fairly easy if he wasn’t using the vacuum strategy to enhance his ice’s stamina. Of course a lot of this is Bleach’s typical element of surprise instead of raw power, which is a nice change of pace when you think about it. Of course, many shounen strive for this, but there’re always those battles where it’s a curb stomp by pure luck, but Bleach isn’t free of that either.

Naruto 646

The Juubi was summoned out last time and this time it starts to transform, Obito taking down the barrier he summoned, the Juubi sprouting tentacles and growing outwards like a tree. The tentacles start grabbing people, sucking out all their chakra and killing them. We see Killerbee is targeted by more of them. Gyuuki explains that this is the Juubi’s final form, the Tree of God and it can sense that he has more chakra than the others.

Madara and Hashirama are targeted as well, Madara explaining to Hashirama that chakra originally was only in the God Tree, man forcefully taking it. Now the tree is taking back what is rightfully its own.

Madara then gives a more detailed explanation. Before humans even had the concept of chakra, they were still waging war, the God Tree worshipped by them. One day, a fruit bloomed from it and a woman ate of it, even though they were told not to. The woman was a princess called Ootsutuki Kaguya and she wanted to end the war by gaining this power. She did so and her son was born with the same power. But the tree morphed into the Juubi to take back the power. But the son, Hagoromo, dominated the Juubi and came to be known as the Sage of the Six Paths.

Hashirama asks how he knows all this and Madara explains that it was written on the stone tablets of the Uchiha. He then explains his motivation for this plan. Since people gained this power, things only got worse than before, wars more common than ever. He despaired at the state of things and how they would never get better in his eyes. This calls back to Madara’s betrayal of Hashirama when Konoha was recently formed and the dreams of the future that he saw. This all comes back to his plan to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

So the fruition of the plan is when the God Tree blooms, its eye will reflect in the moon and the genjutsu will be complete. Madara says his plan is to initiate this himself, though I wonder if that means Obito is just providing the medium, while Madara is going to start the genjutsu itself through the God Tree, or if that was his plan and now Obito has changed things.

Naruto is grabbed by a tentacle/root and Tobirama and Minato move to help him. Hiruzen then appears, having regenerated, freeing Naruto and the group escaping. Obito tells them to just stay there, that their suffering will soon end. The chapter ends as we see the God Tree continuing to grow.

I’m wondering why the Uchiha got all this information. The Senju clan would seem to be a better candidate for this knowledge, but I guess there are so few of them, they didn’t get it, or it wasn’t passed down properly. Or it was thought that the Uchiha were more trustworthy, since they could understand things in a particular way and were more in line with the Sage of the Six Path’s intentions, whatever they might have actually been or not. A lot of this might boil down to a misunderstanding, though Obito does seem to resemble the Sage of the Six Paths at least superficially, from the ancient writings. But whether he’s actually doing what the original sage wanted or not is yet to be determined.

One Piece 721

Rebecca continues to explain to Luffy about the soldier she was trying to help, whom Luffy met at the entrance. Luffy’s more curious about how a toy is alive, but Rebecca then informs him about the situation a bit more, that toys function a great deal like humans, befriending humans and forming relationships of family, etc. Since Rebecca’s mother passed away, the toy soldier took her in and raised her as his own, so she regards him like her own father, who she never knew.

The Block D match is starting, Rebecca setting out, Luffy still eating some boxed lunches that fell on the floor and commenting that Rebecca doesn’t look like the other gladiator prisoners in the area.

Rebecca then starts a flashback to when she and her mother lived together. The scene then shifts to the kingdom burning after the royal army set fire to the villages. Scarlett, Rebecca’s mother, runs away with Rebecca in tow. They’re saved by what appears to be the toy soldier we know at present. Then Scarlett goes to get food and is found by the soldier, shot dead.  He gives the food Scarlett bought to Rebecca and before she starts to cry, he covers her mouth, some men looking for her. He explains that Rebecca’s mother used to be an important person and the new king, Doflamingo, is trying to eliminate all those people. Since Rebecca shares her mother’s blood, the soldier says he will protect her even if it costs him his life. I assume Rebecca and her mother have something to do with the royal family.

Rebecca runs away, saying she hates the soldier for not protecting her mother, but he tells her she can’t return to her home. We then see Doflamingo giving a speech to the people, promising them wealth after their previous rulers exploited them.

The solider protects Rebecca from some wild dogs and tries to cheer her up. They start to bond, Rebecca holding his hand even though his body is so cold, warming it with her touch. The two find a house and the toy soldier tells Rebecca he’ll have to go to the toy house at night, but he’ll return every day. We then see a series of events, as the soldier and Rebecca live together, Rebecca growing up. She’s almost kidnapped by slave traders, but he rescues her and they’re forced to run away again to find a new home.

The soldier then teaches Rebecca how to fight, in case something happens to him. The scene returns to the present as Rebecca thinks to herself that it’s thanks to the toy soldier that she learned to defend herself, protected by him all this time. She hopes he’s alright. As she goes into the stadium, she’s booed by everyone, and it’s explained that since her grandfather was the former king, she’s now the point of everyone’s hatred that lived under his tyranny. One Piece is on break next week.

The revelation that Rebecca is descended from the royal family was interesting, though I wonder if she got special treatment of sorts for becoming a gladiator or if she’s just that good after all the training.

Toriko 548-549

Midora and Ichiryuu square off and he reiterates that Ichiryuu will become food, further stating everything is food to him as he is now. He then uses Hungry Tongue, extending out his tongue, which has gotten muscular, destroying the Octoleopard in one strike and then wrapping it around Ichiryuu’s Chopsticks. Ichiryuu dodges Midora’s attacks and he retracts his tongue. Ichiryuu then says that he dodged them because Midora was uneasy.

Midora then wonders if it’s based on the square root law, which notes that there’s a ratio based on the square of how many particles/atoms are in an organism that behave differently. Thus, humans, having billions of atoms, have millions of atoms that would behave this way, logically. Ichiryuu says that even though Midora thinks he’s odd for using his minority of atoms to fly and the like, that the minority of Midora’s atoms are influencing him as well. But Midora disagrees, attacking with a similar tongue attack, but with thorns and multiples tongues as well. Ichiryuu uses a technique with his chopsticks to dissipate the tongues and then moves to attack directly with a pointed attack of the chopsticks, Midora blocking it with a Tongue Shield

Midora has paused to eat the “chopsticks”, but Ichiryuu appears behind him and as he attacks, he strikes only air. Ichiryuu says that it’s gotten too easy and he doesn’t even have to dodge now, Midora’s concentration slipping. Ichiryuu then attacks with a barrage of stabs with the chopsticks. He then taunts Midora, saying the minority of atoms has created an error in his movements, since he can’t keep up with them.

The chapter ends with Ichiryuu saying it’s his world now, his movements having become so precise and he and Midora now in what is called a Minority World. What this means will have to be determined next time, but I’d guess it has to do in some way with this somewhat vague notion about a minority of atoms in your body behaving in a different way than normal. I would guess this all comes back to Gourmet Cells, though in Ichiryuu’s case, he’s probably concentrating the power of the 10% of cells in his body with the Gourmet Cell power he has involving gravity and such. 

Ichiryuu’s power at the moment seems very impressive, but I’d like to emphasize that he doesn’t have most of his Gourmet Cells activated, so this is probably his only major skill besides raw power or some other skills like Food Honor and such. Midora still has more to reveal in this fight and the conclusion is supposed to inevitably fall in his favor, unlike what it appears at the moment.

Continuing where we left off, Ichiryuu restates his position, that it’s his time now, implying he’s at an advantage now. Midora theorizes this is a world where the minority makes their full power known, but Ichiryuu retorts that they’re no longer a minority. He then attacks, by flinging a giant chopstick by using the other one as leverage. Midora says it’s too slow, but it suddenly speeds up and he narrowly dodges it. Ichiryuu is apparently using all of his strength, so the delicacy of the technique is gone. But he also notes that at this point he doesn’t need the control he had before and throws a barrage of chopstick attacks at him. Midora moves to dodge, but the ground is unstable and he’s struck by the attacks. He counterattacks with the Hungry Tongue as before, smashing through the chopsticks, but he attacks the wrong spot, Ichiryuu saying he hasn’t moved one step. Apparently Midora’s body isn’t even listening to what he tells it anymore.

Ichiryuu then explains that Midora’s theory was accurate technically, since the majority is now the minority of cells, the ground’s behavior due to the anomalous cells acting as they would, against gravity. Midora uses a machine gun tongue attack, a storm of hungry tongues. Even Midora’s own body isn’t listening to him, because the body is being dominated by its minority cells’ behavior.

But the true danger of the Minority World is shown, Midora not able to take in oxygen as well, the effect extending not only to the body’s conscious movements, but to the unconscious actions of the organ systems. Every system starts working in reverse, slowly killing anyone not able to escape. Ichiryuu says the moment he activated the technique, he had won, though he didn’t really explain exactly how he activated it. I would guess it has something to do with the Gourmet Cell that rules his gravity based powers, concentrating it into an isolated area like the Stray Islands. Ichiryuu regrets not having killed Midora and he says it’s been 500 years, which seems a bit excessive, especially since that would mean they’re older than Setsuno, who’s just over 200 or so.

He moves to use his ultimate technique, a single giant chopstick to crush Midora, but it gets pieces bitten out of it, which then transfer to the medium of the attack, Ichiryuu’s arm. 

Midora took advantage of the fact that the minority ruled by stabbing himself fatally, since the minority of his body would be trying to live compared to everything else moving towards death. The chapter ends as Midora has turned the tables, changing the Minority World into Hungry Space which I would guess has something to do with Appetite Energy. We’ll see next time.

Fairy Tail 351

Natsu is found by Lucy and her group, Lucy explaining that Flare isn’t their enemy, deciding to help them since she was raised in this village. He then says that since Fairy Tail is doing a mission, they have to make sure they don’t disappoint her, since she was part of this village.

The others tell Natsu that the Eternal Flame could help melt the ice, which Flare was guiding them to. Natsu then insists he heard a voice from the mountain. But Flare says it’s not a mountain, it’s the village’s guardian, which in perspective means the entire mountain is the flame, not just the part Erza found. Since the flame itself is frozen, things don’t seem much easier.

Gray, Happy and Charle appear, running from something. That something is the giant eyeball bird thing that ate Doriarte before.  Natsu tells him to attack it, but he says he could only manage it if he melts the special ice. The others are surprised and ask whether he can actually do it, Gray uncertain, but willing to try.

Natsu explains that the mountain before them is the flame, the two separating as Natsu confronts the eyeball bird. He sends the monster flying with a fire kick, but it recovers quickly and attacks Natsu, throwing him up in the air. Lucy is worried, but Natsu says he’s okay, since he’s trying to provide support for Gray. He then powers up a fire punch and slams into the monster, seemingly defeating it for now

Meanwhile, Gray explains that he can channel the special ice’s power and use Ice Make. He begins and the ice starts to melt, eventually thawing out entirely, but the Eternal Flame not showing up, shocking everyone.  The chapter ends as Wendy senses a great magical power in the area after Gray released the ice magic. I’m guessing the Eternal Flame may still be around, but it’s dissipated around the area or the ice’s power may still be unknown to an extent.