Only a scant few weeks remain before the Thesis Competition, which becomes the perfect excuse for Tatsuya and Miyuki to scour Kyoto for the fugitive Gongjin Zhou. Together with Minoru Kudou, a Kyoto local, they comb the ancient city's streets in what appears to be a fruitless search. Even though the clock is ticking, all their leads seem to go nowhere-until Tatsuya gets word that Mayumi's bodyguard has turned up dead by the Katsura River. With new clues and new allies kicking the manhunt into high gear, the party quickly closes in on their quarry's hideout, unaware of what lies in wait for them once they finally catch up...
Tatsuya finishes the hunt for Zhou with the regular mix of violence, plotting and humorous interaction with friends. No high school stuff this time. It was a good book and a reasonable ending to the arc. Same flaws and strengths as always. I do find the loyalty mission really odd. At no point in time does the mission truly tests Tatsuya's loyalty since there is never a conflict of interest between anybody Tatsuya cares about something Maya should know. Then again, she might be fooling the other family leaders, but even that feels a bit weak.
It took me a long time to finally finish this one. It's not entirely the book's fault; other things have come up. However, this was not the most exciting novel in the series.
This is a filler episode. It ties up a loose end from long ago, but it's basically setting things up for what's to follow, and it's a bit of a slog. There were some humorous bits, there was a little bit of interesting detail on the magic system. The action was a bit bland, aside perhaps for one scene which doesn't involve the primary characters.
The first half was rather boring tbh. I’m just really not that interested in fight scenes involving Leo, Erika, and Mikihiko. The endless assaults from traditionalalists also got boring quickly. I did LOVE the many interactions between Tatsuya and Mayumi. They went on a date!! The latter half definitely saved this volume.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.