Kyoukai no Kanata Episode 9

Impression:
FFFF- I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT!!! IZUMI HAS HER OWN FUCKING AGENDA AND SHE DELIBERATELY WEAKENED AKIHITO’S HUMAN STATE SO THAT HIS YOUMU HALF WOULD BE STRONGER THAN HIS HUMAN HALF AND REMAIN IN CONTROL!
I am truly glad that Hiromi of all people had the brains to question (not that I ever doubted him) and investigate Izumi’s motives. He was suspicious right off the bat after having been reported of Akihito’s state and then witness Izumi manipulating Mirai by saying that if she encounters Akihito she must kill him. It turns out that the Nase Family have been not keeping an eye on Akihito because he’s a ‘threat’ but actually quite the opposite. He is a trump card! The youmu inside of him is said to be a piece of the Beyond the Boundary.
I am pretty sure I wasn’t the only one having trouble putting the lines together because we’re all kind of used to reading the subs that contain the whole information instead of different lines and pieces of it. It actually took me four rewinds to figure out that the subs were contained translations of all three lines that we could see. So I put the pieces together and this is what it basically says:
LINE 1: “Due to changes in the target of these observations, such phenomenon have a  tendency to disappear, and reappear frequently.
LINE 2: “As such I believe that the youmu inside of the half-youmu, Akihito Kanbara is the one known as, “Beyond the boundary. That is a safe assumption to make.
LINE 3: “I will continue to observe him, I guarantee that the data I have accumulated on him can be used for practical purposes.
The question now is, what are the Nase Family’s motives? Akihito is considered quite a valuable and extremely powerful youmu that to be used for “practical purposes”. At first I thought that well if they kill him he will no longer be valuable until I realized that perhaps they do need to kill him not for safety (that’s legit but not the honest reason), but to get their hands on his youmu ore/whatever they call that stuff. It’s like the Hollow Shadow all over again (that is also included in the class of ‘Beyond the Boundary’ as we learned about last week). With his immortality stripped, and the excuse that he must be eliminated because his youmu-half will overpower his human-half due to having been weakened, it makes it possible for them to get their hands on the other half of the Beyound the Boundary. Seeing how Miroku for example is absorbing the Hollow Shadow with that weapon he was using to absorb other Youmu, I get the feeling they (as perhaps the Nase Family had the same plan as well) intend to merge the two halves (or several pieces). As Mirai had been the one to defeat the Hollow Shadow thanks to her unique abilities, it makes sense why Izumi fully intends to use her as a tool by manipulating her to kill Akihito.
Despite the bits of actions and confirming my suspicions, my favourite part of this episode was Sakura just being there and comforting Mirai. It’s small, but special enough to warm my heart. A part of me wished that Mirai had told her what was going on with Akihito, but the fact she kept it to herself with the excuse that she doesn’t consider a spirit world warrior gives me the implication that she is either consciously or subconsciously concerned about bring up a subject that is very similar to the tragedy of Yui’s death.
It does surprises me a bit to see that Mirai is being manipulated by Izumi, not even hesitating to try and kill Akihito despite his warm human face popping up in her head. I found it more symbolic than it being practical that Mirai had removed her glasses because her glasses are in a sense her connection with Akihito. So she takes them off to break that connection and focus on the task at hand of killing him.
While we have already witnessed a prime example of Akihito’s youmu strength, I felt this mini fight between him and Mirai showcased the wide variety of abilities. Fire, Earth, barriers, negating Mirai’s powers at times, super strength, he has quite a selection. Hell there’s more up his sleeve, we all know it, like that roar that wiped out a huge section of the forest and took down two Spirit World Warriors and Ayaka (who is powerful herself when she goes all out). On top of that, even during the calm he was able to defend himself from Izumi’s attack.
It’s up in the air of what Akihito’s fate is at the moment, but given from the OP seeing him flying around in explosions, I suspect we will see him again as a Human sooner or later. I was satified with the procession of the plot mixed with fun action. I know there’s going to be a lot more as we draw closer to the finale, and I look forward to it!