Part 30: EX Update 9 - TV Drama Episodes 16~20

EPISODE 16 - ECLIPSE



We start with a shot of a man and a bed-ridden woman. X-rays show that the woman's bones seem to be disintegrating. The man tries to feed her, but she sits there in a trance muttering. He goes into another room where a little girl - his daughter, most likely - is sleeping at the table and he gently places a blanket over her before going outside. As he stares at the sky, a flash of light washes over the house.



Kyouji and Rei are at the office, with only one of them doing any semblance of work (take a wild guess who it is) when Mika comes in to bug Kyouji. While Rei is on the computer looking at a product placement for the special effects company Tsuburaya (who worked on the show), another creepy message shows up: "Strange deaths...men...their hearts...missing..."



Rei and Kyouji are on the case, and head out to where the dead body is. Using her powers, Rei gets visions of a man heading somewhere with a woman in a tan coat before seeing the same man dead with a hole in his chest.



Rei and Kyouji head to the bar from Rei's vision to discuss the case. As they're sitting there, the woman from Rei's vision comes waltzing in and takes a seat. She makes crazy eyes at a man, who finds it very attractive, and the two take their leave. Rei and Kyouji begin to trail the two, but lose sight of them.



We get some awkward erotica, something we haven't had the pleasure of seeing in quite some time. After a bit, the woman does the deed and sucks up his heart through his throat before eating it.



The next day, Kyouji and Rei visit of the house of who they thought was the criminal, and we find that it's the house of the man from the beginning of the episode. However, we find out that the woman has metastatic cancer and is bed-ridden. The investigation seems to be at an impasse, so Kyouji decides that he'll have to be the bait.



That night, the supposedly bed-ridden woman gets out of her bed and goes to the mirror to put on make-up. After getting dolled up, she puts on her coat and walks out the door. Her husband follows her out the door and watches as she walks into the night.



The husband calls up Rei and explains what happened. During a full moon, he made a deal with a demon to heal his wife, but the demon possessed her and now she hunts men's hearts every night. At the bar, Kyouji is getting close with the woman. They leave, and head to the church where she claimed her last victim.



Kyouji is going to pull his GUMP out, but decides otherwise. Like a dummy, Kyouji places his jacket (with GUMP in tow) on a chair far away before getting hot and heavy with the woman. The woman starts sucking his heart up. Luckily for him, Rei and the husband arrive just in time to save him.



Kyouji gets away from her and grabs his GUMP, but the husband begs him to stop. The demon leaves her body, and Kyouji seals it away. She dies.

End episode 16!

Key points:
- She's a maneater

EPISODE 17 - ILLUSION

I sincerely apologize, as this episode and the next will be summary-only!

While playing around in a photo sticker booth with Mika, Mika's friend Kanae goes missing. Mika goes to Kyouji to request an investigation, so he and Mika head to the photo booth in question. They notice that Jack Frost (yes, that Jack Frost) is one of the pictures avaliable to be put in the photo. After Mika and Kyouji use the machine and write various insults to each other ("No fun," "Kyouji's an idiot"), Mika disappears in a puff of smoke. When Kyouji sees that Mika has disappeared, he writes "You're the idiot" on the picture before disappearing in the smoke as well. They're both transported to a strange world, where they meet up with Jack Frost and Kanae.

At the detective agency, we find out that Mika and Kyouji have been missing for three days. Unfortunately for Kyouji, he left his GUMP in the office.

Back with Kyouji, it turns out that Jack Frost has been sucking people into his world for revenge against all of the doodles and insults that people have drawn and written over him in the photo booth. Rei manages to find where Kyouji is and comes to give him his GUMP. Kyouji doesn't want to use it because he doesn't want Mika finding out about his job, but the GUMP reacts on its own.

We return to the detective agency, where the scene from the beginning plays. This time, however, Jack Frost jumps out from the GUMP. It turns out that Kyouji sealed him without realizing it.

I slightly lied about pics, here's Jack Frost looking ridiculous against the live-action footage:



EPISODE 18 - SHADOW

We see a photographer named Kyoko, who is covered in bruises and burns, take pictures of girls one after another. When we come to the detective agency, Kyouji reads an anonymous letter that talks about how these models are all dying suspiciously. All of them become just skin and bone, looking almost like mummies.

At Kyoko's, we see that her bruises and burns seem to disappear with each model that dies. Rei and Kyouji come to visit Kyoko, when Kyoko asks Rei if she can model for her. Rei agrees, but as the camera's shutter clicks, Kyouji can see a black shadow falling over Rei. When they go back to the office, it becomes apparent that Rei's face is covered in dark spots. Rei freaks out and locks herself in the next room, so Kyouji decides it's up to him to figure out what's going on. The spots continue to grow in number, and Rei screams and breaks the mirror.

Kyouji goes to Kyoko's house and defeats the demon (Vouivre) that was possessing her. He returns to the office, where Rei is sitting with her face buried in her hands. When she raises her head, we see that the spots have all disappeared. Kyouji runs his fingers over her face, and the two hug.

EPISODE 19 - CLIENT



We start with a man running along the docks. Thinking he's safe, he stops and lights his cigarette. We see a shadow approaching from behind. He turns around, and it's the man that he was presumably running from. Before he can do anything, the man takes an ax to his face. His task complete, the man walks away.



At the office, Rei tells Kyouji that they need to get on this case. The man killed the night before had the same symbol drawn on his face that has been seen in other cases where shamans have been killed, so Rei thinks there's some deeper conspiracy behind this and has to do with a demon cult. However, Kyouji has yet to receive a strange message like all the times before.



Rei and Kyouji wait and wait until a fax comes in. Rei hurriedly grabs it, but then gets upset and storms out of the office. We see that the fax simply says "Be careful, Rei."



Rei heads out, and we see the ax man from yesterday. Back at the office, Kyouji turns the computer on to find another message: "Emergency. The enemy is on the move. This is the information we have concerning the disturbance. Yesterday, one of our comrades was alone when he was killed. The enemy is the Shaman Killer. He is a formidable foe. Be careful, Rei! There is a possibility you will carelessly go out and become his target." Kyouji heads to the door, where he hears a knock. The mailman is there, so Kyouji quickly grabs his mail and heads out.



Rei is at the docks when she runs across the scattered remnants of a fortune-teller's set-up - sigils, cards, a crystal ball. Rei picks up one of the cards and gets a vision: the man from yesterday getting terrorized at his stand by the Shaman Killer. Rei follows the path of the man.



Rei makes it to the scene of the crime. As she's concentrating, we see the Shaman Killer approaching from behind. He goes to attack, but Rei dodges, pushes him down, and runs away. We're treated to a game of cat and mouse as the Shaman Killer attempts to find Rei as she runs and hides. As this is happening, Kyouji is trying to track down Rei.



As Rei starts a chant, a rough hand grabs her from behind and covers her mouth. After a bit of a misunderstanding, the man, named Tarumi, explains that he's actually a good guy but Rei doesn't believe him. After a bit of running around, Rei gets irritated at him and kicks him right into the path of the Shaman Killer. Rei realizes that Tarumi isn't in cahoots with the Shaman Killer when he gets attacked.



Finally, Kyouji enters the scene and seals away the demon possessing the man. After making sure everyone's okay, the three move to a location near the docks.



It turns out that Tarumi is the one who helped Kyouji after the events of episode 13. Tarumi took care of Kyouji's wounds and allowed him to take the Cerberus that Tarumi had. Tarumi is also the one who had been sending the messages related to the demon cult.

End episode 19!

Key points:
- A terrible way to die
- Rei is the Scissorwoman

EPISODE 20 - TRIGGER



We start with a shady auction going down in a dark, abandoned building. We see Kyouji outside the building.

Turns out that earlier he had gotten a message regarding the auction: "Steal today's exhibition at the dark auction." Kyouji begins to get ready, with Rei telling him that he shouldn't. Mika comes barrelling through the door, but Kyouji simply leaves through the door, much to her chagrin.



Back at the auction, the price keeps increasing as Kyouji climbs up the stairs. They finally have a winner, who approaches the auctioneer and his prize. The auctioneer grabs ahold of the item, but it begins to shake and spew light. The winner takes his sunglasses off in disbelief and begins shaking his head.



Meanwhile, Kyouji gets caught by the building's security. As he's getting chewed out, he hears the sound of men crying out. He quickly runs out of the security guard's grasp and up to the auction room. When he gets there, he finds everybody except the auctioneer dead in a pool of blood.



He turns the corner to find the auctioneer standing there with the winning item - a gun - tinged with a devilish green. He shoots at Kyouji before running off. The security guard comes into the room, seemingly unfazed by the fact that there are three obviously dead bodies. Kyouji chases after the auctioneer, and the guard chases after Kyouji but ends up getting shot. The auctioneer runs out of the building.



Kyouji chases him through the city until they end up in a stand-off near the docks. As Kyouji gets ready to use his GUMP, somebody else shoots (or maybe hits) him and knocks him on his butt. We see a smiling man (who is always smiling, I admire his dedication), who walks toward the auctioneer until he runs off. Kyouji is understandably pissed, and starts running towards him but is stopped. The man, a Dark Summoner named Todoroki, beats Kyouji's ass and leaves him lying by the docks.



The next day, Kyouji is discussing the situation with Tarumi. Rei, who was sitting quietly, leaves the room. She runs into Mika in the stairwell, who is sporting a Jack Frost keychain on her bag (I guess she forgave him for almost killing her?). Mika runs upstairs to the office, where she complains about Rei's stand-offish behavior. "That idiot..." Kyouji muses.



Rei heads to the dock and gets visions of the previous night's events. She pulls out a compass and, with the help of her powers, ascertains the auctioneer's location. She talks with Kyouji on the phone for a bit, telling him her location. She eventually makes it to an underground parking garage.



She runs into the auctioneer, who opens fire on her. He seems to corner her, but Rei has put down some kind of ward on the ground. She holds up her prayer beads and recites a chant, sending the man to the ground. He wakes up after a few moments, completely confused.



Todoroki strolls up to the pair, a smile still on his face. Rei yells at the man to run away, so he quickly takes off. Rei and Todoroki stare at each other for a moment before Rei grabs the gun off the floor.



The auctioneer runs and runs until he's at the entrance for the parking garage. Rei menacingly walks towards him and holds up the gun - turns out that whoever holds onto the gun is possessed by a demon. She shoots his leg to stop him from moving and then goes to shoot him through the mouth, but Kyouji is here to save the day.



Rei shoots at Kyouji, but only grazes his cheek. Rei attempts to overtake the demon, but the demon (Legion?) fights back. Kyouji pulls out his GUMP and begins to seal it, but Rei shoots at the GUMP and stops him.



Todoroki shows up, so Rei points the gun at him instead. Todoroki summons his own magic circle and easily seals the demon away. Kyouji crawls toward and grabs onto Rei while Todoroki gets the gun and points it at Kyouji's head - but it turns out there are no bullets left. After teasing Kyouji for a bit, Todoroki takes his leave, leaving behind a very frustrated Rei and Kyouji.

End episode 20!

Key points:
- A price to die for
- Call for the exorcist

BEST OF EPISODES 16~20

Another bonus with some more behind-the-scenes footage .