Nil Admirari no Tenbin Episode 3

Woot! We finally got some good plot development this week, sorting out how there are three parties involved in the cursed tomes! The first one we already know: The Imperial Library Intelligence Asset Management Bureau (AKA: Fukurou). This organization is responsible for going out to collect and save the books, by removing the dangerous parts and copy the content of the book, and keep it safe in storage.

The second is: Kagutsuchi, befittingly named after the God of Flames, since their tactics involve burning the book. They are headed by Rui, who believes the best course of actions would be to permanently destroy the cursed tome, regardless of the value of the content inside it.

Then we have Karasu, who is being established as the villains so to speak. Unlike Fukurou and Kagutsuchi, they are suspected to be intentionally creating cursed tomes. These tomes are identified by its unique “Dark Aura” and adjourned a feather of a crow by the victim’s corpse. Tsumugi had witness a horrific scene of the victim who was possessed and was ran over by a train.

Sagisawa Rui, really came out swinging today. By day he is a student at the Imperial Captain University of Medicine, and by night he is the leader of Kagutsuchi. He began investigating Cursed Tomes ever since his parents died in an accident three years ago, (making me wonder if it had anything to do with their deaths.)

I find him to be a fascinating character, not because he is heck of a smooth-talker, but I was drawn to how he and Tsumugi seemed to just click with one another. An instant chemistry that felt as though it Hayato has fallen behind in the race, ahaha! But perhaps it was mainly because the two were actually able to have productive alone time to get to know each other. However the time spent alone was incredibly valuable, for not just the characters but the plot itself. He has also proven that he is a very intelligent character. We now know he played dumb during their first encounter, since he someone who  goes around to hunt down the cursed tomes to destroy them. The only thing I am not too sure whether or not his own forces went after him, not realizing he is their leader (well, that would be awkward), or he had deliberately set it up that way so he could gain more intelligence on Fukurou, who is basically his rival due to the difference of approach.

Truthfully, I think it is the later. I am suspicious of his following three encounters with Tsumugi, since it felt like it had been a calculated move. Each time he spoke with her, the subject of Cursed Tomes came up, and he carefully began to share his methods, as though to get a better read on whether or not Fukurou could be potential allies. And that is when their beliefs diverged.

Rui believes the books that have the potential to be dangerous should be destroyed, while Tsumugi doesn’t think it’s right to burn a book because of its potential to be dangerous, and believes they should be kept, even after the source the evil has been removed. However Rui also makes an excellent argument against that: The books aren’t the ones who are dangerous, it is groups like Karasu, who are exploiting it. And to stop them, Kagutsuchi is on the mission to eliminate them. Despite their differences, Rui still attempts to recruit Tsumugi to join his team, but as expected, she declines. Having Tsumugi a part of their forces would certainly speed up the process of tracking down the cursed tomes, however the only thing that it unclear to me, is whether or not he too has the ability to see the auras. Otherwise, how would he be able to identify the differences between an intentionally malicious tome verses one that is possessed by the author’s intense emotions? (Unless he brings them to someone who can.)

Regardless of his intentions, I do believe Rui is genuinely interested in Tsumugi, and there was some truth in his words of wanting to get to know her more (besides the use of sweet-talk to effectively and safely gain more information). Tsumugi on the other-hand, I have neglected to mention her feelings up to this point, but we can see she was quite smitten by him. By the look of it, it hurts her heart to some extent that they will be rivals instead of allies.

In other news, now that Hitaki has also been reported to have regained consciousness, I wonder if we will be seeing him again any time soon. Currently, he is not permitted to receive visitors, but I can’t imagine he is handling that well… We were also able to meet a friend of Tsumugi’s, who is now working as a journalist. I expect her to come in handy whenever Tsumugi is out gathering information.

Amid the goodness of the plot, one of my favourite scenes of the episode was the breakfast reaction. The boys seem to be used to going out for breakfast to a cheap restaurant, but are unlikely to ever return after having experienced Tsumugi’s legendary home-made miso soup, that actually has actual ingredients in it. The conversation of praising her voice (which was very pretty!) was also hilarious, especially with how Akira as usual, wasn’t paying attention to her so he was out of the loop, ahaha!

Actually speaking on Akira, I do want to note how every-time Karasu was brought up today, they cut to Akira, leading me to believe of all the members, he is the one who is who is the most invested in investigating this organization.

With that said, I am curious to see which way the story will go. We will need to sit tight a bit longer to find out whether or not they will be picking a route to work with, or just go for the open ending. As of right now, I am really liking the direction the series is going, especially the given pace. It is refreshing to be able to see the heroine be able to go around and be productive/doing her job all while actually progressing the plot, so I certainly hope we will continue to see more of that!