©C.A/B/ N,EP,P
The worst thing you can learn about someone you fear or hate is that they’re just like you. Up until the end of this episode, we were (meant to be) operating on the assumption that the weremonkeys were unthinking monsters, beasts without higher thinking abilities, hideously transformed by some dire means. That was a comfortable assumption to make because it nicely assured us that the yatagarasu were in the right. And while there’s a certain way of thinking that says that anyone who hurts you and yours deserves retribution, there’s one scene this week that gives us pause—deep in the Underground, Yukiya discovers a sort of catacomb, stacked high with bones. As he’s looking at it, two children come around the pile—children he quickly identifies as weremonkeys. One of them attacks him, and he fights it off, but then a striking thing happens: the other child begins wailing and crying. It’s a normal thing to do, especially for a little kid but it makes these monsters suddenly look so very human, something that previous episodes seemed to be working against.
That’s a theme for this week, the humanity of those our protagonists might not view as such. Yukiya and Natsuka head into the Underground to meet Tobi, the leader of this nation-within-a-nation, and as they descend the Ravine, all of the people we see lining the walkways are dressed in nothing but their feathered robes. Later on, we see a stripped-down Yukiya manifest his feathered robe, so the fact that everyone in the Ravine and Underground are only wearing them indicates that they don’t have the means to purchase or make other clothes. More than the ramshackle houses, the lack of other clothing shows us the poverty of these areas. Tobi and the king of Underground both have different outfits, marking them out as the upper class, even as Tobi sneers at Natsuka and Yukiya.
He’s at least a little within his rights to do so; Natsuka is by no means the politically savvy prince that his brother is. (Although said brother spends most of this episode sulking.) The elder prince is in no way prepared to bargain with Tobi, and we can see him being increasingly shocked and upset that his plans aren’t going as he thought they would. Even Yukiya’s status as a Northern lord isn’t working out for him; it’s Yukiya’s gumption that ultimately breaks the stalemate as he proves that he’s got more “fire” than the others’ preconceived notions of court ravens. Even before he agrees to take Ariadne’s thread and descend further into Underground, he’s willing and able to do what needs to be done to ensure that the negotiations happen, while Natsuka freezes.
Alongside all of this (and the confirmation that the kin’u isn’t good at staying where he’s told), we get more hints about what’s happening behind the scenes. There’s tacit confirmation that Koume’s father was involved somehow in the goings-on in the North, although it seems like someone may have jumped the gun, possibly the man himself. This should make Koume, now settled at court, even more suspicious, because again, she’s the only one who survived the monkey attack, which means that someone not only knew but was planning the whole thing. More interesting is that Masuho-no-Susuki is still in court, despite her declaration that she was going to take religious vows. She’s moving freely around the kin’u’s residence, which indicates a high level of trust—and she’s the one who dresses Yukiya up for his journey Underground. But more important is the fact that we see her riding in a carriage down to the Ravine, a folded garment and dark wig on her lap. Is she the woman investigating sagecap for the prince? Could she be an intelligence agent for the kin’u? She’s certainly smart enough and perhaps now is the time to start paying more attention to the woman behind the curtain.
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