Ao no Exorcist ch10

What I would give to swap places with Rin right now

「 10 – Proof 」With the surprise last month concerning the arrival of a new character, Rin and co. are in for a treat. With the new girl clearly interested in interrogating Rin by herself for some unknown reason, there seems to be a hidden agenda going on in the background. What does she want from Rin?

Ao no Exorcist「 青の祓魔師 」

Not a bad last sight before your death huh?

Chapter 10 – Proof
Read Online @ ONEMANGA

Summary: The mysterious new girl reveals herself as Shura, a high ranking upper first class inspector. After showing off her patch to prove her identity, she instantly takes Rin under her care in order to conduct an investigation on him at the Japanese Branch Headquarters. She also requests for a meeting with Mephisto after her investigation, since she has a few things she wanted to make sure of while she was there. After all is said and done, she commands for the rest of the student to return to their dormitories, since the day’s mission was completed.

Not long after, Yukio directs Shura and Rin into a secret chamber, which happens to be the center of the Order of the True Cross. The base of the Japanese Branch is conveniently hidden beneath the academy. It is revealed that the order has many branches across the world with a long history of exterminating monsters for over two thousand years. Soon, the group is greeted by Mephisto, who remarks that it’s been a long time since he last saw Shura. Shura ignores him and gets straight to the point as she asks why Mephisto has been hiding the devil’s son with him. Mephisto responds by saying that he is hoping to make Rin a weapon for the order by training him as a paladin. Shura asks if Fujimoto had a hand in this whole ordeal, and Mephisto confirms it by saying that Rin has been under his care until not too long ago. Shura then states that she will be bringing up the matter to the higher ups and in the meantime she wants to interrogate Rin in the Great Cell.

With the two now trapped inside the giant dungeon, Rin finally speaks and asks whether Shura had any relation to his dad and Yukio. Shura reveals that she had been a student of his dad’s, two years before the twins were born. Shura suddenly falls to her knees as the previous battle’s side effects took its toll but as soon as Rin gets close, she swiftly steals his sword away from him. Provoked by this, Rin’s flames start to erupt as he dashes in to take his sword back. We are then treated to a flashback when Shura was still a student of Fujimoto. It shows a conversation between the two where Fujimoto requests for her to teach Rin how to properly use the sword when he dies. Shura sees no reasoning behind this as she thinks that Fujimoto is only being a coward casting aside his son to her. She knows that he is not taking care of a normal human being, but he justifies his means by saying that he is creating a weapon for the order.

At the end of the flashback, Shura starts her own technique and Rin doesn’t understand why his father’s student would be pointing his own sword at him. She responds that it is part of her job as a first class inspector to eliminate anything relating to Satan as soon as possible. It is also her job as a student to clean up her master’s mistakes. She then proceeds to attack Rin and when Rin is hit down to the ground, goes in for the final attack proclaiming that his father was a coward for putting his faith into Satan’s son. Before getting hit however, Rin successfully defends himself and shouts that his father died in battle to save his life. In order to prove that he wasn’t a coward, he is going to be the strongest paladin ever to fulfill his dad’s wishes. This seems to get through to Shura as she then lets go of Rin, saying that she will wait until he gets stronger before returning the sword back to him. She wants his dad to be right as well so she awaits for Rin’s development.

Later that night, Shura meets up with Mephisto again to confirm that she will be reporting to the higher brass of the order about her findings. She adds that she will also be staying put in order to help look over Rin’s development. She then leaves, asking what Mephisto had in mind with his schemes. He replies that he intends to bring peace to both the human world and the Assiah. Shura remarks by saying that he was still just a demon and reminds him that the top brass still doesn’t trust him fully. The next day, Rin’s class were in for a surprise as Shura makes an appearance as a new teacher, taking over the previous teacher’s post as a Magic Seals instructor. It seems that she intends to keep a closer eye on Rin, but Rin is determined to prove himself and his dad right.

My Thoughts: Crap that summary ended up being way longer than I originally planned. I really need to work on trimming it down but oh well. It was fun to write and helped me remember more of the details in the chapter so all good.

Anyway, we now get to see more of Shura Kirigakure, the mysterious hooded person from the back of Rin’s classes. I always thought that she would be some shady guy who doesn’t really know how to socialize but thankfully for us, it was actually another female addition to the cast. She sure knows how to make a first impression though, what with her revealing outfit and unique (but totally awesome) name.Shura actually means bloodshed/carnage so you can be sure to expect more fireworks from her in the future. We are also introduced to a couple of her sword techniques so it is justified that Fujimoto holds her in such high regard. But anyway, back to the way she looks. At first glance, I actually thought that she was just a carbon copy of Yoko from TTGL (refer to blog header for comparison). This certainly seems to be the case in terms of her hairstyle and attire, since not that many characters usually strut around in their bikini tops. The only difference seems to be her striking tattoos on her torso, her lack of hotpants and a penchant for swords rather than giant sniper rifles. I am certainly not complaining about her appearance though, since I have been bemoaning the lack of any fanservice characters up to this point in the manga (sorry Shiemi, you’re officially categorized as “cute” as far as I’m concerned). I’m just a little disappointed in her lack of originality design-wise (here’s hoping that her hair isn’t red too) but hopefully her personality will make up for it the more we get to know her.

As for the other stuff in the manga, Shura reveals a couple interesting points about the hierarchy of the order. It seems like the fact that Mephisto might be a double-agent hasn’t been overlooked by the top brass, since Shura states that they still don’t trust the poor bugger. Tough cookies, since their intuition is right in this case, what with him scheming behind everyone’s backs with Satan himself. Good to know that the higher-ups aren’t all a bunch of ignorant idiots. To what extend do they know however is still a mystery, and I’m sure they don’t know too much other than the fact that he can’t be trusted as a demon. He most definitely won’t be holding such an important position if they did know about his background activities.

The revelation of Shura being Fujimoto’s student also seems interesting, since it might mean that there might be other former students out there with their own orders from the old man himself. I’m sure someone as elite as him must have more than one disciple, other than Yukio and Shura. This will probably be revealed much later into the future but it’s an interesting food for thought. I don’t really agree with Shura’s view of Fujimoto being a coward though for raising the devil’s son. She is probably just worried about his master but she should know better than to second judge his actions. Rin has indeed grown up to be a decent enough kid and although he was the reason for his father’s death, he seems to be sincerely intent on gaining revenge by being the best paladin he can be. A tough task ahead but he should be able to do it. I’m hoping for some trouble down the line with his demonic lineage, as the premise has added some interesting possible future twists (much like Allen and the 14th from DGM). I’m sure the mangaka will be exploring his demon side soon enough, which will be very frightening prospect for his twin Yukio.

Anyways, it seems like Rin is starting to develop some Naruto-esque powers of persuasion, changing Shura’s mind about killing him into a supporter of his cause. That stuff aside, I hope we get to learn more about the order soon, since it seems like there’s much more behind all this. (BTW was it just me or was the art really sketchy in this chapter? It seems to be rougher than usual and you could definitely tell on some of the Shura panels)

/ 3 Commentsleave a comment /

• Prince Leon says:

  April 9, 2010

  What an interesting place to have a tattoo!
  My recent post K-ON!! ep. 1

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  • Bass says:

    April 9, 2010

    It's a visual trick in order to attract your eyes to it.

    At least you'll have an excuse if you're caught staring :lmao
    My recent post Pokémon Black & Pokémon White Announced

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• Queenofmuffins says:

  July 22, 2010

  Wow, I really love reading your summaries of our chapters. You make some excellent points- I didn't connect Shura with Yoko, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of TTGL. ^^;

  Keep up the good work! <3

  Reply