Occult Academy 04: The difference between cowards and a pile of crap

EPISODE 04: The Collapse of BUNMEI

Continuing from the previous episode, Kozue is still missing, the Vice-Principal is still in love with Fumiaki, but now it seems Maya has also disappeared. The Vice-Principal thus commissions Fumiaki to help her find the two girls, but not before attempting to seduce him once more. Fumiaki all but agrees to the task and runs out of there like the hounds of hell are after him. Later, he encounters Mikaze and she offers to give him a ride. With much reluctance, Fumiaki accepts. LOL he never learns, does he? And he just about faints from Mikaze's crazy driving style. Finally, they arrive at some caves where they discover a secret compartment that leads into a tunnel. Mikaze's stories about these tunnels gives Fumiaki the creeps so when he hears an unexpected noise, he splits, leaving Mikaze behind.

Eventually, however, Fumiaki runs into a stalactite and discovers that he is pretty much lost and alone in a tunnel that forks in several directions. He sees a light at the end of one tunnel so he runs for it and is so very, very glad to find that it's Maya. Instead of 'happy to see him' Maya sucker punches him in the face. Together, they try to find their way out but instead stumbles into a cavern with a strange tree in the middle.

Fumiaki has no idea what it is but Maya claims that it's the Universal Tree. Nearly all mythologies of the world, from Europe to China and even to Japan, feature some kind of tree that supports the world and Maya believes that she has finally discovered it. To find if it is the Nostradamus' Key, Fumiaki takes a photo of it but his cellphone camera only reveals that this entire mountain, including the tree inside it, was wiped out in 2012.

Sensing Fumiaki's lethargic hopelessness, Maya once again reminds him (by threatening his life, of course) of his mission and of the fact that he is a time agent. But Fumiaki only tells her that his story was a lie. In the future, he cons people into believing he can bend a spoon with his mind but really, he just secretly presses the spoon to the ground and bends it that way. Nevertheless, the resistance recruits him as #6 and makes him a time agent, with or without his consent. The truth is, Fumiaki isn't even willing to go back to 1999 where he hears that five agents have already died at the hands of monsters.

Of course, when Maya hears this, she gives Fumiaki a beating so bad that he ends up in a pile of crap, which of course prompts another round of abuse from her. Because of the smell, she insists that he stay at least three meters away from her. Just then, the tengu appears and the two of them run for their lives only to walk straight into the tengu's lair. Maya then makes the connection between the tengu and the legend of the mothman and concludes that the two species are one and the same.

They also discover Kozue inside some kind of cocoon, which the tengu use to digest their food. To rescue her, Maya forces Fumiaki to get on all fours and then she climbs on his back and reach for Kozue. Maya is just able to get Kozue out when the tengu are alerted to their presence (there are a LOT of them). Fumiaki, who by the way is a coward if you haven't yet noticed, runs for it, leaving Maya and an unconscious Kozue behind.

Fumiaki runs all the way out of the caves, eventually smacking into a tree. Upon seeing the view outside the mountain, he bursts into tears, saying that he's alive. Meanwhile, back in the cave, Maya desperately scans her father's notebook for a spell to protect from tengu. But she runs out of time as the tengu swarm around her. She tries to fight them valiantly with nothing but her arrow-gun.

Then, when it looks like things are never going to let up, Smile and JK show up. It turns out that they have been conducting their own search for Maya and Kozue, using JK's dousing abilities. But even with these two's help, the tengu are still too many. JK is thus forced to take out his secret weapon: a piano. Smile is dubious he can do anything with the weapon. However, as it turns out, JK knows that the tengu cannot stand certain musical notes. By hitting these notes repeatedly, JK is able to stop the tengu just long enough for them to make their escape.

Outside the cave, Fumiaki is still waxing poetic over the miracle of his being alive when Smile and Co. run right into him, pushing him off the mountain in the process. He manages to grab on to the edge and accuses them of trying to kill him. But the others are distracted by an explosion coming from inside, causing the entryway into the tunnels to collapse, thus sealing the tengu inside. With this, the tengu problem is contained for the time being. Fumiaki demands an apology but Maya merely gives him a freezing stare and calls him a coward, which shuts Fumiaki up. But just when we think that he's found shame in his actions, Mikaze shows up and Fumiaki covers up his uselessness by claiming that he has taken care of the tengu.

Meanwhile, back in the academy, the Vice-Principal's lackey reports that the tengu problem has been taken care of, but the Vice-Principal is still wary of Maya's future actions.

I suppose Fumiaki's lie explains some of the more contradictory and outrageous stuff about him. But the fact that the Vice-Principal is actually in love with Fumiaki really gets me. LOL I'm still curious about Mikaze. I wonder what her role is in this series, apart form being Fumiaki's object of desire. I change my mind. I don't want a Maya x Fumiaki pairing. I want Smile x Maya. lol The wrench dude and the tsundere. It sure has a ring to it.

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