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Investment Talk: Bulk resellers only. This is not a high value book and does not have much prospects to become so. It does have some cool art and characters though!
Thus Far: Aldaran, Kazuo and Minako formed a plan to take out the emperor and princes. The first step was to get Mitsura and in the process convince Goyo they're worth joining. At the end of last issue they achieved this goal. And now we await the festival.
The emperor has invited all the feudal lords to the palace. To declare loyalty and legitimize his claim to the Shidiman throne. He does not trust them though so each lord is only allowed to bring one boat and a small guard and even less into the actual meeting.
This is what Aldaran and the crew were counting on though. His distrust gives them easier access. So Minako and some of her girls infiltrate one of the lord's boats as 'a gift from the emperor'.
Meanwhile Goyo has his mean attacking guards across the city. This helps leave the palace less guarded. And with that everyone gets into position.
Aldaran, Kazuo, and Goyo board the ship with the help of Minako.
At the palace the lords are not being as cooperative as the emperor would like. They question his stronghold over the kingdom given the recent rebellion attempts. They also point out that there is nothing to gain from swearing loyalty to him. Only he would profit from such an arrangement.
The emperor knows this is coming however, so he reveals he has captured Kameko. The last of the leaders of the rebellion. This is a bit unexpected and Aldaran decides to deviate from the plan.
Originally Goyo was going to take out the emperor with a long bow, sniper style. Having taken over the lord's boat they were in position. But Aldaran knows if he did that now, it might get Kameko killed. So he calls off Goyo and tells Kazuo to cut anchor. They're going head on!
Instead of sniping the emperor, Goyo shoots one of the lords. This causes distrust and a brawl to break out. The lords start fighting but ultimately Hakara and Gurakai are way too powerful for them. Aldaran predicted this and with the deaths of all the feudal lords, his promise to Goyo, more power, has now been granted.
Hakara is splashing Kameko with alcohol when the three attackers arrive. Leaving us set up for the final battle. Goyo and Kazuo vs Hakara and Aldaran vs Gurakai, the emperor.
And this issue ends with the battle just getting started!
With only one issue remaining we can assume it will be all about this final showdown. Can Aldaran pull out another miracle and defeat Gurakai? Just how strong is Hakara? Kazuo alone has proven quite strong and with Goyo on his team will Hakara even stand a chance? Or is Aldaran right and Hakara is really the strongest of them all?
Still a lot to play out here. A little criticism, and this may simply be like I said, they knew they were going out of business already so started rushing things, but we've totally lost the overall narrative at this point. So many side characters being written out or forgotten. Everything has essentially been streamlined to this last battle which is a single issue long. It is what it is though. Still excited to see how it ends. Aldaran is clearly weaker than Gurakai. How is he going to overcome the power gap?
To Be Continued!
