This volume is full of holiday celebrations in the House of the Immortal Dragon. Tatsu decides to wash everything, including the futon, on a day with wonderful weather, but Masa is there to disrupt the plans and challenges Tatsu to a day of having fun and ignoring chores. Then, Tatsu gets mixed up in a rap battle with another ex-mob boss. A local store hosts a costume competition, and the winner gets a Hots Springs vacation, so Miku makes Tatsu participate with her. Tatsu later gets involved in a Tart-off, a challenge to see who can make the best fruit tart. Miku's parents come for dinner, and Tatsu realized where Miku gets her awful knife skills from: her father. Dad decimates several ingredients while Tatsu helplessly tries to save the food and not offend Dad. Tatsu gets sick and wills his little yakuza cells to fight off the virus while Miku makes a terrible concoction she swears will make him better. Miku, Masa, and Tatsu celebrate New Years, and Miku gets supremely drunk. For Valentine's Day, Tatsu and several other ex-mobsters attend a cooking class to make a beautiful cake.
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Illustrated by Sean Phillips, colored by Elizabeth Breitweiser
Charlie is up on a ranch in Ojai where they are continuing to reshoot the movie with young starlet Maya standing in for Val. The official story from the studio is that Val killed herself, but Charlie knows she was murdered. He is still trying to find a producer with horn-rimmed glasses who might know something about what happened, but producers are dime a dozen and his description matches so many people in this town. Despite his better judgment, Charlie starts to fall for Maya, who is in a staged relationship with her co-star to drum up press for the film. But the young man runs his new car into an embankment and lands himself in the hospital. Gil also drums up plenty of trouble for a man who is supposed to be laying low.
Yuki and Zero are part of the Discipline Committee at their high school, Cross Academy, tasked with keeping the Night Class and the Day Class separated. When it’s time for the Night Class to go to school, they herd the rest of the Day Class to their dorms like a batch of cats in heat. All the girls have the hots for the beautiful guys of the Night Class, but Yuki and Zero know the deadly consequences of letting the two classes mingle. That's because the Night Class is full of vampires. These vampires are "pacifists" and agree not to feast on humans at least until they're done with their schooling. Both Discipline Committee members have tragic backstories: Yuki was saved ten years ago from a vampire attack and adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy, while Zero's entire family was slaughtered by vampires in front of him. A budding romance may derail the efforts to keep the classes separated, while Zero goes through an unwanted transformation that will completely change the dynamic of the Discipline Committee.
There are some pretty big spoilers ahead, so be warned!
At the end of volume one, Shinichi's parents go away on a vacation that Migi hypothesizes would be safe. A disturbing phone call from Shinichi's father has him on edge, just in time for his mother to come home, who has been possessed by a parasite! She stabs him through the heart and leaves him for dead, but Migi uses his abilities to send bits of himself to Shinichi's heart for repair. This disperses little bits of Migi all over Shinichi's body, which gives him some extraordinary abilities, but may be infecting his basic humanity and ability to empathize with others! Shinichi goes to the remote village of his parent's vacation, where is dad is hospitalized, and vows to protect his father from the parasite coming back to finish the job. While on guard duty, Shinichi meets another like him, where the parasite didn't make it all the way to the brain. The man and parasite share custody of the mouth and nose, and they all decide to team up against parasites who are hell-bent on destroying other humans.
Miku suddenly starts seeing really gruesome evil spirits. Instead of reacting to them, she’s convinced that if she pretends she can’t see anything, they’ll go away. It works for the most part, but it doesn’t stop Miku from feeling terrified every time one of them shows up. Miku and her friend try to live normal lives — getting tea, going shopping, but Miku’s constant moments of fear start to freak everyone else out. Miku buys some prayer beads to hopefully keep the spirits away from her, but every strand she puts on breaks and scatters beads everywhere. A vendor and spiritually powerful fortune teller gives Miku her best set of prayer beads, which also breaks, forcing the fortune teller into retirement in disgrace. All the fun and games are pushed aside when Miku comes down for breakfast, and finds much more than a terrifying spirit in her kitchen.
Volume five continues the storyline we had in volume four, where Tanjiro and Inosuke are battling a family of spider demons. Father has gotten into the fight, and neither slayer can cut this demon with their katanas. Tanjiro and Inosuke get separated, and Tanjiro finds himself face to face with one of the Twelve Kizuki, the most powerful demons. Nezuko, in an effort to save Tanjiro, discovers a special power she has with her demon blood. Rui, the most powerful of the spider demons, becomes jealous of the familial bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko, and it angers him even more. Tanjiro’s katana breaks, while both of Inosuke’s katanas break battling Father. Giyu, the slayer from volume one, makes a triumphant comeback and saves Tanjiro from certain death. We also meet a new slayer, Shinobu, whose breathing methods take inspiration from insects, and who uses poisons to take down powerful demons.
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April 2024
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