▪	RELEASED BY:		VIZ MEDIA
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		YASHICHIRO TAKAHASHI / AYATO SASAKURA
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		220
		▪	RATING:		T+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		06/10/2008
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		06/06/2008
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

It’s tremendous action and suspense in this volume. While under Friagne’s claws, Yuji struggles to deal with his place in all of this. He doesn’t want to be a burden or a weakness for Shana and so reconciles himself to a suicide mission. However, when he learns Friagne’s true objective involving the entire city and activating the Devourer, he must race to try to escape and warn Shana before it is too late.

For Shana she struggles with the very human emotions of not wanting to harm Yuji. She wants to save him while everything as a Flame Haze insists she destroy the Denizen of the Crimson World at any cost - including Yuji’s life. It leaves her torn and vulnerable in her duel with Friagne. It is a fantastic visual fight sequence that is as emotionally loaded as it is page after page of striking imagery. In the aftermath Shana is staying on to protect the Mystes (Yuji) from being taken by any other Crimson Denizen. Determined to not continue to be a weakness, he begs Shana to train him and help him become stronger in order to fight by her side and help protect her.  The training proves rigorous and it will hopefully be enough as Margery Daw, the Chanter of Elegies, appears and Yuji is ambushed with Shana nowhere nearby!

The manga also includes a cute bonus story about Shana’s first bath in the human world.

IN SUMMARY:
It’s a tremendous action fantasy! Imaginative and immersing.