It seems that Koudou has perfected his Rasetsu unit to be able to function in the daytime. He deems them superior to humans and declares a new age of demons has begun.

As Chizuru moves with Kondou, Kaoru stands in their way and greets Chizuru. He tells her that he’s her brother and uses his sword as proof as his sword and Chizuru’s make a pair and are Yukimura heirlooms. And then comes a shock to her, Koudou is not their father!

Back at the fighting, Shiranui and Harada form a truce to defeat the rasetsu first.

Even though Koudou isn’t their father, Kaoru is still teamed up with him and wish to revive the Yukimura clan and wipe out humanity and he wants Chizuru to join. Kondou stands between them and fights Kaoru, but he is beaten down in a matter of seconds. But Chizuru still doesn’t yield and says that he made a promise to protect Kondou, so she draws her sword and prepares to fight.

This Kaoru angers to draw his sword and attack. He easily knocks Chizuru back, but couldn’t deliver a killing blow as Okita rushes in and continues the fight.

Shiranui finds himself only to have one bullet left. So he says that he’ll clear a path for everyone to escape. The others run for it as Shiranui fires a shot at, boxes of gunpower I think, which explodes to cause a distraction.

Okita has the upper hand against Kaoru, but due to his tuberculosis he falls down coughing without finishing Kaoru off. But, again Kaoru fail to deliver a killing blow as this time, Kazama comes in and stabs Kaoru in the back. Kaoru crawls to Chizuru, and then lay dead at her feet.

Kazama informs them that Koudou has betrayed the Satsuma clan and so must be killed. Chizuru asks for a little time because she wants to talk to her father to change his ways. Kazama agrees.

They bury Kaoru and head back to Edo. Because of the defeat, the Shinsegumi moves to Hatamoto.

As everyone are talking about Koudou and his ‘monsters’, Chizuru happens to be just outside by the door, so they stop.

Later Chizuru visits where she and Koudou used to live and realise that she barely knows anything about him. She meets Harada and walks with him. They then visit Okita and after a short pleasant chat, leave.

Next day, Kondou finally shows his face and he seems well. Shinpachi calls for a private chat and Harada goes along. Later, those two leave the Shinsengumi.

Now this I didn’t expect. Two of the main characters just up and leave? How come there’s been no hint of such a thing, it just happened. I really don’t get their reasoning for leaving. They’re in the middle of a war and they’ve seen how badly they’re losing, they can’t just up and leave, the Shinsegumi needs them! What are they thinking?! Well, I do hope they’ll return in the series at some point, they probably will, they’re too big to cut out completely.

Another thing that I didn’t expect was the death of Kaoru. He barely had any screen time in this season before he was so easily killed off. It was so anti climatic that I thought it was a trick and he was just going to get up. I mean, I thought demons could heal themselves, and it’s not like his head was sliced off. It just wasn’t emotional or ‘big’ enough. I have a feeling he’ll be back, I don’t believe he died so easily. Koudou will probably bring him back somehow.

So now Kondou’s looking to recruit new people still. Even though he just saw firsthand what happened with new recruits. Shinpachi emphasised my point from last episode, a few hundred untrained troops will be worse than not having them as they’ll more than likely disrupt the ranks.

Whilst not a lot happened this chapter there were quite a lot of crying and emotional parts albeit I didn’t think they were that well done, not emotional enough, but maybe it’s meant to be that way. There was the death of Kaoru and leaving of Shinpachi and Harada as the two main events. I thought most of the episode was rather calm, sorta like taking a breather.

There was one question I wondered, where was Hijikata? I thought they’ve already lost now, so reinforcements won’t help much, unless it’s for the next fight? Well, at least we know Chizuru’s safe, and Hijikata will be fine, I’m pretty sure of that.

Well then, I wonder where things will go from here. The reunion of Chizuru and Koudou is one thing, and Hijikata returning another. Dunno about the rest, I’ll just wait and see.