MAO

I love the supernatural mystery vibe they have going here. Congratulations Nanoka! You wielded the Sword of Hagunsei and slayed your first monster! Even if it's a sword cursed by Byoki that can only be wielded by Mao, because otherwise any other person whose used it has died before it came back to Mao (probably some stories there)! Meaning you are definitely cursed by Byoki somehow. Look, I know this is important plot relevant information, but Otoya's kind of split in half here, so could we help a poor guy out? Also, good luck to the police for trying to make sense of all this. And Mao? Telling a girl who just fainted to "wake up" is not going to work how you think it will. Ah, so Otoya is a Shikigami! Meaning if Mao can patch up a doll that represents him, he'll be right as rain! Even if Nanoka DID nearly kill him! So the time differential both ways seems to be a single day = five days wherever Nanoka isn't, so she has to manage her time wisely. Though I guess her grandpa being pretty accepting helps! Nice of Nanoka's classmate Shiroha to investigate the landfall that Nanoka was in...not for the incident itself but out of his interest in HER (even if it takes her gal pals for Nanoka to realize how hard he's crushing on her). But she has more than romance to figure out what with the mysterious fire she remembers and the Byoki blood that might have been on her. It's nice to see Mao running his Yokai clinic. Ultimately he's not a warrior out to slay all evil Yokai, but a healer who seeks to help others be they human or Yokai. Priestess Shoko (Marina Inoue?) is a psychic running a doomsday cult, and woe betide you if you get on her bad side or she'll prophesises your death...and it'll come true. RIP Yoriko's dad. But is there more to it? Mao recalls when Byoki seemingly killed his master and absorbed/downloaded the ability to control lifespans. An ability that granted Mao immortality and may have done the same to Nanoka. (Also, Mao is going on 919-920? Watch out you don't fall for an extremely older guy, Nanoka) Who better to infiltrate a doomsday cult filled with the young and innocent than Nanoka? And what better excuse to put her in a Taisho-era outfit that she looks fantastic in! Nanoka can definitely read some sus vibes from the doomsday cult, even if Shoko is apparently able to genuinely cure the sick...but Nanoka can SMELL the scam from it and Master Sogen. And also poor Yoriko who seems utterly shaken, probably because of her dad.

Pretty weird that they just glossed over the "cursed" part of the curse, because so far, it seems like a sweet ass blessing to me. Immortality, super strength, super healing, and a sweet-ass sword that no one can wield and always returns to you? Sign me the fuck up. I get that they are probably saving the downsides of the curse reveal for later, but it is slightly annoying how dense/slow on the uptake the characters can be. It's like they aren't really that curious about the stuff going on around them at all, and just going with the flow.

What. Otoya is still alive even after he got split in half? So, he's a shikigami. Was kinda obvious he wasn't normal. He probably doesn't age like Mao. But wait, did Mao "make" him? Wouldn't that basically make him his father? Weird. Do the police in this world know how to deal with the supernatural? That'd make them very capable. The time differences don't make any sense. At least for now. The first time she went to the Taisho era, no time passed in the modern age at all. If the time difference stacks every time she crosses worlds, it could be a problem. So, the accident happened in 2011. Ig that confirms the modern day takes place in 2019. Not so "modern" now. Feels like a lifetime ago. Ig they didn't go the Inuyasha route by updating the year for the anime. Makes me hopeful that this adaptation will be more faithful. Shihara is basically just Hojo if he were nerdier. Wait, if the great fire Nanoka saw when she was a child wasn't in the modern day, and it wasn't in the past either, does that mean there's a 3rd timeline? That'd be crazy. A priestess who can manipulate lifespans. What a scam. When she said the father would die in 3 days, it was pretty obvious she was just gonna kill him lol. Great prophecy. This was a good episode. Guess we're entering multi-episode arcs now.

Ok, so the Byouki connection is pretty much confirmed. Young Nanoka most likely got pulled through the portal as the car passed by the gate and that's where Byouki was rampaging. Given the time distortion, I think the event might have happened too far in the past for any of the yokai interviewed to have known about. But the priestess' prediction of a coming fire seems too coincidental not to be the same fire. But the timeline would be very, very weird if it was the same fire, unless Nanoka travelled to a different point in time when she was younger. Very interesting mystery.