Chapter 22

Chapter 22 (呪縛, Jubaku) is 22nd chapter in the Twin Star Exorcists manga series.

Summary
-…so Seimei!Rokuro’s appearance has everyone reeling in shock (t/n: I generally use x!y to refer to possessed characters)

-Kuzunoha!Sayo summons Kuzunoha’s guardians. There’s a total of 48 of them.

-The guardians of Kuzunoha would appraise the person. If there’s any evil within or the guardian spirit is not powerful enough, one’s guardian spirit will be eliminated and it means death for the exorcist.

(t/n: finally figured out the wordplay and meaning of 呪護者 as guardian spirit… full explanation in Chapter 21 summary)

-Benio recalls back to Shimon warning that the next examiner won’t be as forgiving as him.

-Also, as the number of guardians increase, it means that the guardian spirit has more potential power.

-then all 48 guardians are summoned. Shimon wonders is it because Rokuro is a Twin Star and what secrets does he hide.

-Mayura recalls Seigen 2 years ago saying: this guy is on an entirely different level from us. Was this referring to this form?

-the place start collapsing although there was a barrier being placed? could it be due to the presence of intense powers?

-Kuzunoha!Sayo and Seimei!Rokuro embrace while the 48 guardian kneel before they collapse.

-Seigen starts questioning Benio about that Seimei form. Benio says it happened 2 years ago. If it didn’t happen, Rokuro and Benio wouldn’t even be around today.

-Seigen thinks that the Seimei form resembles the equipment of the 12 commanders but Rokuro doesn’t know this kind of method which is very difficult…and does Arima know about this?

-Seigen says that Benio didn’t tell the higher ups as she was probably worried about how Rokuro would be treated if they knew. However, as a witness, one should be obliged to report to the higher ups.

-Whether the guardian spirit is dangerous to Rokuro, it will have to wait for Sayo to wake up first.

-Then Seigen being bitter over Rokuro being heavy ending up being taller than him lol.

-Rokuro wakes up and finds that something like this has happened before hmm. Sayo is on his bed too and cue more misunderstandings when Benio arrives pfft

-Sayo announces the result of appraisal by saying ‘I regret to say that… you’ll be able to go the island’ Rokuro thinks the regret thing is due the fact that he can battle.

-She also says that appraisal ceremony takes up a lot of strength so that it will need another week to recover this strength to do Benio’s appraisal ceremony.

-Seigen questions Sayo if Rokuro’s guardian spirit is really Abe no Seimei.

-In history, Abe no Seimei has never appeared as a guardian spirit before. And the twin stars thing would mean that Seimei is more likely to be the guardian spirit of the miko.

-During the appraisal ceremony, Sayo would be in a dream-like state. She can only convey Kuzunoha’s feelings to everyone.

-Kuzunoha had expressed her motherly love with the feelings of gentleness, joy and kindness. Kuzunoha can’t lie or be wrong, so the guardian spirit is really Seimei.

-During usual ceremonies, Sayo is able to identify the guardian spirit clearly. But it was very difficult to discern Rokuro’s guardian spirit. It was as if he was behind a blind, in a faraway place or through a telephone.

-Seigen wonders if it’s a characteristic of the twin stars. Is the resonance, ability to hear impurities, turning part of body to impurity due to their guardian spirits?

-There’s a lot of questions, but Sayo is sure that Rokuro’s guardian spirit is not dangerous. So far, Rokuro has showed only a fraction of this power. One day, he will be a huge hope for the exorcists.

-Seigen says there shouldn’t be any problem and leaves. Sayo thinks that he’s secretly smiling inside. She coughs blood nooooo

-Rokuro announces that he’s going to the island to Ryougo who cries in response since his ‘little brother’ is going to leave.

-Mayura trains and Shimon comes in. She asks Shimon if she could spar with him but Shimon rejects, saying that she is too weak.

-There’s some talk about how Mayura is half-hearted in her actions then Shimon starts talking about how Sayo is working so hard despite her unreasonable fate. Sayo is likely to not live beyond 20 years old and worst come to worst, she only has 4-5 years left to live.

-With every increasing year, Kuzunoha’s power becomes even stronger. Imagine a girl under 10 years old and has to fear death.

-Flashback time! Shimon was asked to find Sayo who was spending too long in the bathroom.

-He finds blood on the door. Shimon finds Sayo rubbing at the tattoos that were inked the day before. She thinks that her body is becoming ugly and she heard people saying that she’s just a human sacrifice for Kuzunoha. All Sayo wanted is to be like Shimon, to live and die like a normal person.

-Eventually, Sayo accepted her fate. Shimon says that despair is not something from outside, it is from within. As long as the heart does not falter, despair is not despair.

-Mayura says that it’s not the time to hear such things from Shimon and even calls him a crude gangster exhibitionist general (???)

-Shimon wonders what he’s doing, worrying for Mayura since mainland is so peaceful. Once, he asks Arima whether there’s a way to get Kuzunoha out from Sayo. There is no way one can separate host and guardian spirit. Only a taboo spell done by either host or guardian spirit can sever connection. Or the only way for guardian spirit to disappear is to achieve their mission/wish.

-He will only stay on mainland until Benio’s appraisal ceremony and afterwards he will return to his own battle.

-A random guy goes to some shrine in some urban legend. His friends get eaten by impurities and he’s escaping. He sees 2 figures arriving and tries to ask for help. He dies anyway, since these 2 are basara.

-They argue a lot, especially when shorter haired basara has a strange way of speaking as he kinda speaks in riddles. But anyway, they felt a strong enchanted power and they have only 1 target: Sayo.

Source: http://silveryogi.tumblr.com/post/137621569613