Kurozuka 04: Shhh

IN A NUTSHELL: Kuro meets the rest of Karuta's friends...
EPISODE 04: Terracotta Men
War planes in the sky. Kuro, covered in bandages, wakes up in a crummy little apartment. Kuromitsu is right there, watching over him. He says that he had a dream and it's the same dream he's been having but now that he's awake, he can't seem to remember it. Kuromitsu assures him that she'd tell him everything as soon as he gets better.



Kuromitsu then leans over him, saying that there's no one like them in the world. They kiss, but the moment is interrupted when the alarms sound. Kuromitsu goes to the window and sees a man heading their way. She turns to Kuro then, telling him that they have to leave.
Downstairs, Kuromitsu hands Kuro his sword. She also explains that people have been pursuing them for a long time. Now that they are found out, they have to keep moving. Kuromitsu is about to lead Kuro through the backdoor when they hear their pursuer waiting outside. There is a tensed moment of silence before the man outside opens fire. Kuromitsu and Kuro manage to dock but the door has been broken and their pursuer now stands before them.


He identifies Kuromitsu, revealing that he is really after her. His hands also reveal a white glove with the triangular marking. Kuromitsu fires two shots at him but the man, a la Matrix, just bends out of the way of the bullets. Kuro then comes out of the shadows and attacks with his sword. The fight is brought outside with Kuro at a huge disadvantage. The man manages to get a bullet in him but this only causes Kuro to go into berserk mode. He starts moving so fast, he actually catches a bullet and flicks it away like some harmless thing. With this inhuman speed, Kuro finally kills the man.
Kuromitsu hurries up to Kuro to make sure that he is not hurt. Then, more of their pursuers shine a spotlight on them, prompting the two of them to flee into the night. While running away with Kuromitsu, Kuro remembers that he's had this dream before and that it's been happening over and over.


The next instant, Kuro finds that Kuromitsu is leading him through a dark tunnel. They emerge on the other side only to find the entire city in ruins. It's Post-Great Disaster, and Kuromitsu is saying that now humans can't pollute the air anymore. Kuro gazes at her for a moment when all of a sudden blood comes spurting out of Kuromitsu's body and she starts to fall down, down, SPLAT. Kuro howls in anguish, whirling around to face the culprits. He recognizes the triangular mark on the masked soldiers' armor just before they open fire upon him.
Kuro falls near where Kuromitsu's seemingly lifeless body is lying. He tries to crawl towards her but before he could reach her, men in large suits arrive and take her body away.



When next Kuro wakes up, he is back in Asuka in a strange apartment. There are wires attached to his body. He is trying to remove them when a blonde woman greets him. She introduces herself as Rai, Karuta's friend. She tries to chat him up at first but Kuro is not in the mood. Finally, she tells him what she really wants: she wants him to join their group. Apparently, she knows that Kuro is a vampire and she also seems to know Kuromitsu (or at least her name). Kuro, at first, refuses to get drawn in by her but upon mention of Kuromitsu's name, he later capitulates.


Rai takes him to meet their leader, Izana. They are met along the way by Kuon, who does not seem to take too kindly to Kuro. The two ruffle each other's feathers when Kuon moves to take Kuro's sword away and Kuro takes this as a threat. Rai finally comes between them and tells Kuon off. The room where Izana is in is very cold because, he explains, it's the temperature required to preserve the miitsu. When Kuro asks what the miitsu is, Izana just mysteriously says that it's something that must not come into the hands of other people.

Once the two of them settle down, Izana echoes Rai's earlier speech about Kuro fighting with their group against the Red Emperor's Army. He even goes so far as to show Kuro the place where Kuromitsu was supposedly being experimented on by the Red Emperor's Army.
Kuro starts howling once he sees the rock where Kuromitsu fell unto. Her blood is still on it. However, Kuro also remembers that it was not the Red Emperor's Army who took Kuromitsu that day twenty years ago. He finally recognizes Izana's face as one of those men in suits.


At this revelation, Izana confirms that Kuro is really who he says he is. But now Kuro is angry and demands to see Kuromitsu before he would agree to anything. At that moment, Kuon arrives and he and Kuro break into a fight that would have turned serious had Izana not step in and break it. He tells Kuro that whether or not he can see Kuromitsu would have to be decided by a person known as Saniwa.

COMMENTS:

The timeline is beginning to make sense now. So is this going to be a futuristic story after all? Because the majority of the plot seems to be happening in Asuka.

This rebel group of Rai's and Karuta's doesn't seem to be up to any good either, even though I like the two characters so far.

Kuromitsu dying, getting kidnapped, being experimented on is a bit painful for me. I never liked damsel-in-distress characters. Isn't she immortal? Where are her powers? She ought to be at least a bit more powerful than Kuro since she is his creator. And speaking of which, whatever happened to that blonde dude who made Kuromitsu to what she is? I do hope Kuromitsu isn't going to spend the rest of the series just being somebody's captive because that would be a bummer.

Less action this episode. Instead, Kuro and Kuromitsu's lives together before their separation gets fleshed out a bit more. So basically, they've been living their lives on the run. Yeah, I pretty much knew that already. Still, that was a good scene with the Matrix special effs and Kuro dodging bullets and slicing a fat piece of lard without any effort.

More blood, please.