We start out with Hisako in her bed. Her eyes are wide open as she stares up on the roof. On the roof a black mass is spreadign like an infecting agent. As it goes for Hisako she cloes her eyes, the black mass now visisble on her skin, spreading from her hair to her eyes and mouth. Hisako dreams, reminsicing about a day she spent skipping school with Tusbasa. He tells her he doesn't want to go back to school, she calls it a punk rock attitude. She regerets not saying more, doing more. The darkness now infilitrates her dream self and forms a large eye, like a peacock feather, in the sky. Hisako wakes up, in her hand lies a crumpled up note.
Her mom reminds her about motorcycle riding class and also asks her to pick up some eggs for her. As she sits on some stairs a girl walks up to her. It's Mayastorm. She introduces herself as Mei and shows her a eletronic dog, it's a quirky introduction. Hiskao feels she can confide in her and she brings her along to a meeting that the note tells her about. The meeting is in an old abandoned school builing, all concrete and dark even on a sunny day. Before they enter we see the eye in the sky again.
Hisako tells Mei about her temple encounter. Mei thinks she is cool, like a super hero. Hisako then steps on what appears to be a stuffed animila toy. It makes a squishy sound but it appears to be dry at least. A cop notices them and scolds them for being in an restricted abandonded building. Togeter all three of them follows a dripping sound to a room adorned with notes and stuffed animals hangin like they are dead, with black liquid dripping from them. The shadow figure welcomes them and thanks Hisako for folling his note.
He informs Hisako that the three boys who bullied Tsubasa are the next ones to taste revenge. The cop is then revelaed to be made up of worms in a horror scene. He chases Mei and Hisako through the hallways. Mei then stops him using a gush of wind. Out of the cop the shadow figures appears and breaches her wind. Hisako then throws her eggs on him but that isn't what saves them. No that is her armored friend protecting them. The shawody figure dispers and Hisako mourns her mothers lost eggs.
We then follow the shadowy figure back to it's base, a normal japenese house. Inside a room filled with similair notes on the walls an overweight guy in his 20-30's removes a bucket helmet with connecting wries from his head. The helmet bears a noticible resemblances to a certain fez belonging to a certain king of shadows. He mumbles about knowing the girl from somewhere and then stares into the viewer as she says "Hisako". Still it's resonable to assume its' Mei he is tryign to remember and not the girl he set up a meeting with.
At the entrance cermoni for Irodori High School Hisako finds Mei, aprrently they are goign to be in the same class. Hisako narrates that the three boys who bullied Tsubase were found hanging at teh grounds of their old middle school. She rules out suicide.
We get Mei's full name: Mei Igarashi.
It's now set up for more students to join their gang in next issues as high school starts.
Review: Kind of a quick read. The art is great and very atmospheric but in some panels it feels less structured, almost rushed.
Mei and Hisako become friends in the way that people only do in stories were there is a lack of space to proper explore and interact. I'm trying to just role with it, accept it for what it is. The school scene is the best part of teh book. It's tense and wonderfully off. Teh shadow figure is less of a presence in this issue in the sense that he appears fully on fewer panels. Still his presence permeates the whole issue.
When it comes to Mayastorm I'm torn. It's not that she is handled badly but a lot of her introduction hangs on her being quirky and if the electronic dog scene doesnt' work for you she can fall a bit flat on her nose. Her gust of wind scene is cool as all power scenes are in this issue.
7/10 from me. I like what we get, even if it's not much so far.
EDIT: When I started this thread there were no other threads about the issue but juffuj5 created one during my write up. So moderators do what you feel works best with this one.