It is the age of civil unrest in Japan--when Oda Nobunaga, the Oni of Owari, systematically slaughtered various clans in his bid for power. However, there were those who escaped. We see a woman running, carrying an infant in her arms (a very very quiet and sleepy infant, since he doesn't wake up until there's no one around to hear him scream...). She runs through the forest until she is alone, and begins a mysterious and powerful spell known as time manipulation. She holds up the baby, who begins to cry as he is sucked into the swirling vortex...

In present-day Japan, our high-school hero, Hanabishi Recca, is avoiding the onslaught of his long-time nemesis, Ishijima Domon. Recca is nimble as a monkey, which Domon yells at him often. Reminds me of everyone in Saiyuki calling Goku "baka saru." Recca also calls Domon a nose-pierced mongoloid, which pisses Domon off to no end. Anyway, while Recca fights with the typical ninjitsu, Domon is a purely physical, pro-wrestling hand-to-hand combat kind of guy. He naturally gets his ass kicked by Recca, who sets a trap for him, saying that a ninja should always be prepared. Domon foolishly tells Recca that ninjas suck, so Recca uses some of his home-made fireworks to toast poor Domon. When Recca leaves, victorious, he tells Domon that if Domon ever beats him, Recca will be his personal ninja.

Back at his house, Recca has a brief tussle with his dad, Hanabishi Shigeo. Shigeo-oyaji has a habit of smoking while making fireworks, to which Recca objects rather violently and without much success. All Recca really wanted was some lunch, but he ends up getting kicked in the face when he tries to beat Shigeo-oyaji up for smoking. Shigeo-oyaji then tells Recca he already are and Recca has to fend for himself. Recca one again reminds himslf that a ninja is supposed to endure...

He goes to eat his lunch, sitting outside with a soda and a hot dog. At least he's polite enough to say "itadakimaaaaaaaasu." While he's eating, several small children run by, accompanied by a young girl in a pink frilly apron (don't ask why...she's just girly like that). Recca's entranced by the girl and ends up pouring his soda into his lap and dropping his hot dog. Oops... ^_^ Then he goes to follow her. She and the children are walking by a construction site, but there's an accident, and a crane drops its load of what I think are industrial pipes, right on top of the girl and one of the children. Recca, coming around the corner, sees this and with a shouted, "Abuneeeee!" pushes them out of the way, being smushed by the pipes himself.

The girl in pink is horrified at Recca's wound (his head is bleeding!), and bends down, holding him close to her. Recca, meanwhile, has a dream where a princess (hime) thanks him for saving her. He wakes up to see the girl, and freaks out, typical boy-fashion. He runs away. The girl follows him to thank him for saving her. She shows him that she, too, saved him by healing him. Also, when she takes off her dirty apron she reveals a school uniform underneath, which is how she knows who Recca is. She introduces herself as Sakoshita Yanagi. Recca, to show her something cool, takes her to an abandoned warehouse and shows her his home made fireworks.

Yanagi: Kiree (beautiful)!

Recca(lookin' at Yanagi): You're beautiful...

Hork. But anyway, what might be a promising romantic moment is interrupted as a wind slices through the warehouse, tearing the boards off the walls to let in light and create shadows. From the shadows emerges a woman dressed in black with two moles under her lip and a madougu Ekai ball. She says her name is Kage Houshi and that she wants Recca to show her his Flame.

Recca has no clue what she's talking about. He and Yanagi try to leave, but Kage Houshi isn't about to let them. She beats Recca up and threatens Yanagi until finally Recca, in desperation, yelling at her to stop, accidentally calls his Flame. Kind of freaky for your arm to suddenly be on fire without hurting, I suppose. Recca sends his Flame to burn Kage Houshi, but it doesn't kill her. She tells him he'll have to be much stronger if he wants to get rid of her, and vanishes into the shadows. Recca picks Yanagi up and carries her home. When she wakes up, he calls her Hime, and tells her that she's his Hime and he's her ninja. It's so cute.

The next day, Yanagi is walking to school when she hears a voice behind her calling "Himeeeee!" It's Recca! He's running along on top of people's heads to get over the crowd to Yanagi. He stops before her, kneeling, and tells her that her ninja is there. Everyone stops and turns, going "Anato no?" until finally Domon, dead-pan, says "Anata no...ninja?" Everyone assumes that this means Yanagi defeated Recca in battle, which is kind of weird...so Yanagi runs and Recca follows her. Sitting under a sakura tree, Yanagi says, "Can you call me something other than Hime?" and Recca says, "Why should I, Hime?" ^_^ He's a pain in the ass, isn't he?

Domon shows up again to try to defeat Recca, demanding to know how Yanagi beat him. Recca says "Why should I tell a nose-pierced Mongoloid like you?" just to piss Domon off. Domon's ultimate retort is that Recca'd better be careful--how does he think Fuuko's going to react to this? Recca thinks about it for a moment. -_-' Then he grabs Yanagi, holding her over his head, and carries her to the roof of the school to hide. Yanagi says "Who's Fuuko-san?" Recca explains that Fuuko is his natural enemy, and they've been fighting since they were kids. Of course Fuuko's already found them, and she says how much her pride insists she kick Recca's ass, because he's the only person she's never beaten among their friends. Of course she doesn't defeat Recca now, either. She asks why Recca became Yanagi's ninja, and he say's it's because...he wanted to.

Fuuko's pissed, no da! She's practicing her aim by throwing knives at a helpless sakura tree when out pops Kage Houshi. Fuuko's like, "Who are you?" And Kage Houshi says, "I'm your shining goddess." Fuuko's expression is hilarious, especially with the Statue of Liberty in the background behind her...anyway, Kage Houshi offers a bracelet called Fuujin (wind god) to Fuuko, who at first refuses because it's tacky. But Kage Houshi demonstrates the power of the Fuujin, which is a madougu like the Ekai ball, and Fuuko's amazed...understandably so. Fuujin kicks ASS.

Meanwhile, in a nice high rise building downtown, a man is burnt to death. Mm, tasty. Our villan, Mori Kouran, is told by his son Kurei that a boy was saved by a girl with healing powers after an accident at a construction site. Mori Kouran is entranced. He wants to have this girl--if she truly has the gift of healing, maybe she could make him immortal. Mori Kouran freaks me out. I think it's the wall-eyes or maybe that freaky mole in the middle of his forehead that makes it look like he has three eyes...

It's night time, but the phone at the Hanabishi household rings. Recca answers it, surprised to hear Fuuko on the other end. He tells Fuuko she ought to be in bed, but Kage Houshi takes the phone and tells Recca they want to see him, and they're at the school. Recca's pissed. So he runs out of the house to the school to save Fuuko, going right past Yanagi, who's eating what looks like a chocolate fish. Recca reaches the school and confronts Kage Houshi and a delirious Fuuko, who's being controlled by a gem placed into the bracelet. She wants only to fight and fight, so it's Recca and his Flame versus Fuuko and her Fuujin. Recca doesn't want to hurt Fuuko, and Yanagi, who followed him, runs to find help. She ends up bringing Domon, who tries to snap Fuuko out of her trance. It's kind of cute, cause he's so in love with Fuuko...

Kage Houshi will not be defeated so easily, however. She increases the power of the gem controlling Fuuko, and Fuuko makes a tornado with herself at the center, effectively keeping Domon and Recca at bay. That is, until they realize they can go over the wind barrier and into the center. Domon gives Recca the alley-oop, and Recca shatters the controlling gem, freeing Fuuko from the need to fight and all of her clothes. Fuuko and Domon punch him and Yanagi calls him ecchi. ^_^ But now Fuuko is back to her normal self! Yay! I like Fuuko, she's cool.

Kage Houshi is glad that Recca used his Flame again and saved Fuuko. She also demonstrates that Recca will not kill her--because she is immortal. She stabs herself in the chest and doesn't die. Then she tells Recca that it's been 400 years, and she's the one who sent him into the future using the forbidden time manipulation (remember the first scene we saw? Yeah, that was Kage Houshi...you can tell by the Hokage tattoo on her hand). She then disappears per her usual method of transport. Here we also see for the first time a mysterious young man who was watching the whole fight...

The boy watching the fight shows up the next day at school. He stops Recca, who's his usual baka self, to ask some questions about the previous evening, introducing himself as Mikagami Tokiya (he's Recca's sempai, and, as Fuuko later notes, a genius and the smartest kid they've ever had at their school). Recca has no idea that Mikagami saw the fight, and Mikagami interprets his idiocy as a refusal to cooperate. He walks away with a promise to get the information he wants. Promise? Threat, maybe...

Mikagami is in a park by himslef standing in front of a foutnain when he takes the hilt of a sword out of his uniform jacket, inserting the blank tip into the water. To the sounds of "Mizu no Kenshi" (Swordsman of Water...Mikagami's theme....soooooo pretty!) the water forms into a blade on the hilt. This is the madougu Ensui, the water blade. Kage Houshi provides this information when she appears behind Mikagami. She knows him and she knows that he suffered for Ensui--seven years ago, Mifuyu-neesan was killed to protect Tokiya-kun and the Ensui. He's been seeking revenge ever since then. Kage Houshi even has a picture of Mifuyu-neesan, who looks rather alarmingly like Yanagi...and Kage Houshi tells Mikagami that Recca was trying to steal the madougu from Fuuko, paralleling Mifuyu-neesan's situation, to get him to fight Recca.

Later that evening, when Recca is picking up some cigarettes for his dad, he encounters Mikagami in the park. Mikagami demands to know who killed his sister. When Recca sees the picture of Mifuyu-neesan, he says, "Hime!" Mikagami assumes this means Recca knows it was his sister, but Recca says she just looks like someone he knows, which is actually true. Mikagami proceeds to wipe the floor with Recca, even defeating Recca's Flame. As he sapiently points out, water douses fire...and then he cuts Recca up. He's about to finish Recca off, pissed by Recca's continued ignorance of Mifuyu-neesan, when Yanagi shows up. It's hilarious to see Mikagami's reaction to seeing Yanagi for the first time. Ensui goes *sploosh* and disintegrates. Yanagi asks him why he has to do this--doesn't he have a heart? Mikagami smiles bitterly says he put his emotions away for someone. Can I just say how much I LOVE Midorikawa Hikaru? He is so good at playing the somewhat cold, rather obnoxious characters. I love Mikagami-kun, but he is a prick. ^_^ Anyway, Mikagami tells Recca that Yanagi saved his life...for now.

Later, Recca's really depressed about losing to Mikagami. Although he and the others go to an amusement park, he's still bummed. Yanagi goes to get everyone something to drink and is neatly yoinked into the house of mirrors by Mikagami. I'd follow him into a dark, secluded place!! ^.^ Realizing that Yanagi is late and assuming she's lost, Recca-tachi splits up to find her. Recca hears her shouting at him to stay away because of the danger, so of course he goes in to rescue her, apologizing for being so dumb to think that because he lost once, he could give up. He's not all that great at first, continually hitting mirrors instead of Mikagami, but he pulls a couple good moves--like using fireworks with his Flame like a bomb. In the end, he defeats Mikagami's Ensui with his Flame. There's one thing Mikagami forgot about...evaporation. Essentially, Recca concentrates his flame on Ensui and discombobulates the sword.

Mikagami tells Recca he can do anything he wants--even kill him. Recca's like, Che! Mikagami asks if Recca truly had nothing to do with his sister's murder, and of course he didn't. Kage Houshi shows up, and she tells everyone that she's glad she got to see them all in action (Domon and Fuuko showed up during the fight, but she stopped them from interfering). She tells them that they must be careful--that there is another Flame Master who will appear, and he is very dangerous and crazy.

Mikagami says it has nothing to do with him, and gets up to leave. First, however, he goes to Recca, asking him if he really thinks he can protect Yanagi. Recca vows to protect his Hime, or commit harakiri. Mikagami laughs, and says he won't need to--if Recca fails to protect Yanagi, he'll cut the younger boy in half. Recca's okay with that. ^_^ Then Mikagami leaves, and Recca can finally collapse. This is where Domon and Fuuko are treated to their first encounter with Yanagi's healing powers.

Kage Houshi watches with tears running down her face, saying that soon she'll tell Recca everything... as his mother.

A bad guy was watching it all, and goes back to Kurei to report. Kurei now realizes why it seemed so important to collect the madougu, and gives his weird maniacal laugh which never fails to amuse me. He says he will take care of the healer girl for Mori Kouran.

Of course you know Yanagi has to be kidnapped. Otherwise there's no conflict for Recca to meet Kurei, ne? Recca asks one of his substitute teachers, Tatesake Fumio, about the Hokage Ninja. Rather than risk dicussing it in public, Tatesako-sensei tells Recca to come to his house after school. Recca-tachi goes to Tatesako-sensei's house, discovering that he lives in a temple-like building and has a beautiful wife named Hiroko. Tatesako-sensei begins to tell Recca about the Hokage while Domon and Fuuko get some curry powder, and Yanagi and Hiroko begin to cook. Tatesako-sensei says that the Hokage were the Ninja of Ninja--living almost entirely in shadows, very mysterious and powerful. He has a scroll explaining some of their history, and Recca sees several familiar madougu on there, including Ensui, Fuujin, and Kage Houshi's Ekai ball. Oh, and the familiar Hokage mark from Kage Houshi's hand...

The power goes out and someone approaches the door. It's Koganei! Waaaaai! I love Koganei. He's just a kid but he's cool. He has the Hokage madougu Kougan Anki and he works for Kurei. He comes in saying he's going to kidnap Yanagi, which pisses Recca off. Koganei beats Recca around a bit, takes out Tatesako-sensei, and then when Recca's about to get serious...well, in comes the freakiest character in all of Recca, in my opinion. Nagai Mokuren, the Kodama, uses a bit of poison to paralyze Recca where he stands. He gives this chilling, gigglish laughter and says that he won't kill Recca, because he only likes to kill women. O_o Ugh. He makes my ovaries curl up and die. Anyway, Mokuren hears Hiroko-san and Yanagi, and using his Kodama (a madougu which grows and controls plants), stabs Hiroko-san and uses more poison to knock out Yanagi. Koganei stops Mokuren from killing Fuuko when she and Domon appear, but Mokuren's not too happy about that...so they take Yanagi and Tatesako-sensei and head out into the rain.

Recca can't believe he's just standing there while his Hime is being captured, so he pulls a knife out of his pocket and stabs his right arm in the bicep. Ow ow ow ow ow!!! That's Mitsukai's favorite melty part. ^_^ Screaming, Recca takes out Mokuren with a surprise attack and holds Yanagi, telling her she's safe. Koganei, however, whacks Recca with his Kougan Anki, knocking Recca out. I love that the Shinsengumi fansub of Recca translates Koganei's use of "niichan" as "bro." Fitting. Very good. I approve. So Recca wakes up in the hospital and learns that Tatesako and Yanagi are gone....

Recca goes to the ware house and demands to know where his Hime was taken from Kage Houshi. Kage Houshi explains that this time she didn't do it, and shows Recca where Yanagi's being held. Recca wants to go rescue his Hime, so Kage Houshi says that if he meets up with the crazy masked man Kurei and he thinks he can't win, to run. Recca objects, but she tells him that to endure humiliation is part of being a ninja, and that if he dies, no one will be able to save Yanagi. Recca sees her point, but who knows if he believes it. So he tells her that his opinion of her is starting to change, and when he gets back he'll have some questions for her.

I'm going to rather quickly summarize their battles inside Kurei's mansion....Recca, Domon, and Fuuko head to the mansion, going into the first hallway. There, they defeat a laser-equipped statue that shoots at moving objects. Their next opponent is a woman who controls mannequins, Katashiro Reiran. Reiran turns out to be a mannequin animated by the madougu Kata Kugutsu, used by a nine or ten year old girl named Morikawa Ganko. Ganko didn't want to fight them, so she joined up with them. Then they head upstairs to where a crazy murderer with a 200 year prison sentence waits. Domon beats Sekioh with his fists, using the madougu Kage Housh gave him--Dosei no Wa (Saturn's ring). Upstairs again! They now encounter the gaki Koganei. He nearly seals them off, but Mikagami shows up, cutting through the wall with Ensui. He calls Fuuko "saru" (monkey), Domon "gorilla" and Recca "sea monkey." It's hilarious. Recca-tachi goes on ahead while Mikagami defeats Koganei. This is where we see Kougan Anki's five forms--Kiba (fang--a halberd), Ryu (dragon--a chain and sickle), Kyoku (big scissors), Mikazuki (boomerang), and An (bow). While running through some trap-infested hallways, Recca blasted a wall with his Flame, which freaked out Kurei...because Kurei knows that only one person besides himself can do that. Kurei uses a trap door and sends them down into the basement where Mokuren has his torture lab. Recca goes apeshit when Mokuren plays the sounds of Yanagi being tortured, and beats Mokuren over the head with his stereo, then burns him with his Flame. There's an elevator that takes them up to the fourth floor where Kurei waits.

There, Kurei reveals that he gave Recca the scar on his cheek...also that they're both from the period of civil war in Japan, 400 years ago. At this point Recca also is shown that Kurei is a flame user as well. Kurei and his Flame, Kurenai, kick Recca-tachi's asses. Kage Houshi shows, telling Recca they should flee. Recca asks her to take care of the others, and she realizes he's preparing for his own death. So she suggests he remove his tekkou (arm protector) and release his sealed power. When he does, the power behind his Flame comes out. It's the Hachiryu--Yamata no Honoo, eight flame dragons with distinct characteristics as flames, and the second most owerful flame incarnation among the Hokage. Recca bargains with Resshin, the dragon leader, to defeat Kurei. Although Kurei is not defeated, he does depart, with dire plans for Recca's future. The eight dragons return to Recca's arm, but on the condition that if he wants their power he has to fight for it, and if he loses, they'll eat him alive. Outside, Koganei says he can't follow Kurei--whom he looked up to like a brother--because Kurei lied to him, and hurt Yanagi-neechan. Very sad.

Now is the time for explanations. They've rescues Tatesako-sensei and Yanagi, so they go to Kage Houshi's house int he mountains, although unbeknownst to them they are followed. Anyway, Kage Houshi reveals the secrets of the Hokage ninja: the Flame in Recca's arm is proof that he is the son of the previous Hokage clan leader, Ohka, and herself--when she was known as Kagero. Also that Kurei has the Flame because he is Ohka's son as well, with a woman named Reina. When Recca was born, he should have been a normal child, but his Flame was a bad omen, and the clan decided Kurei ought to be cast out. He was very bitter about this. Anyway, when Oda Nobunaga came to annihilate the Hokage and take their madougu, Ohka scattered the weapons, and the Hokage clan were killed, even the women and children. Kagero used the forbidden time manipulation to send Recca into the future (Kurei followed him), right before she was killed. However, by using the time manipulation she was cursed to be immortal. So she wandered for four hundred years until she found her son.

Recca thinks this is a load of BS and tells her so, but it's true. Mikagami stands up and says, "There's three." When Recca looks confused, Mikagami says superiorly, "You need work sensing your enemies." There are thee madougu users outside! The flying Hanemaru, Kuchibashimaru, and the stupid Tsumemaru. They are heroic! The triads! The three ...nincompoops! Well, Tsumemaru always says "san baka" instead of "sanbagarasu," which means "triumvirate." They're clearly not up to Recca-tachi's skill. Hanemaru tries to fly inside to impress them and ends up bonking his head against the ceiling. As Domon and Fuuko ask, "Baka ka?" They're there to catch the boy who burnt down Kurei's mansion. Hanemaru first accuses Tatesako, who says he was a prisoner. Then he accuses Fuuko, who says "Do I look like a boy?" While Mikagami is furious: "How dare you! You thought I was a girl, didn't you?"

Recca declares that he did it, and proceeds to beat the snot out of Hanemaru. Domon and Mikagami take care of tsumemaru, while Kuchibashimaru tries to grab Fuuko in his Kuchibashi Oh (Beak King--a long-distance gripping beak like weapon). Fuuko deflects the KuchibashiOh right towards Yanagi, who's saved by Kage Houshi, who's caught instead. Kuchibashimaru is threatning to kill Kage Houshi, and Recca's yelling at him to stop. Kage Houshi assures them that she'll be fine...because she is "shin no nai," and she can't die from things like that. But Yanagi is crying that Kage Houshi is bleeding and she must feel pain...Finally Recca says "Ka-chan o hanase yo!" (or something similar), which means "Let go of my mom." So cute. Anyway, Kuchibashimaru is defeated when one of the hachiryu (Nadare) gives her Dan En attack to Recca. Afterward, Kage Houshi apologizes to Recca for getting him involved, but he says that he wasn't thinking of blaming her. "Ka-chan...you didn't do anything wrong!" And Domon dabs at his eyes, saying, "He finally called her Ka-chan..."

Then Recca confronts Shigeo-oyaji, who admits that Recca dropped into his lap during a storm, and he couldn't get anyone else to take the baby in, so he became Recca's dad. It's very cute. Recca peed on Shigeo-oyaji's shirt. Recca asks who the woman in the picture he thought was his mom, and Shigeo laughs, saying that it's his favorite idol. Recca's so stupid, he didn't figure it out! Yay! Yay! Then Shigeo-oyaji tries to hit on Kagero-san, only Recca kicks him in the face. Recca goes to train in the mountains to get control of the Karyu, because he know he'll have to face Kurei again. Fuuko and Domon go off to train, watched by Ganko, with Tsumemaru's Oni no Tsume and Kuchibashimaru's KuchibashiOh. They don't really let you know what happens to Mikagami, but he's out there training too, I believe.

Recca-tachi must now face Kurei again in the evil tournament, Ura Buto Satsujin...

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