Tsuzuki just can’t keep from butting in where he’s not wanted, and this time it looks like his curiosity may have landed our dashing Shinigami in serious trouble. During an elegant tea in the mansion of the Count of Hades Tsuzuki wanders away from the table and discovers the Count’s magical library of books that are enchanted to write themselves. Peopled with characters from the Count’s fertile (and often salacious!) imagination, the stories play out across endless blank pages to amuse the master of the house. Incautiously reaching out to touch one of these fascinating pages, Tsuzuki falls headlong into the story, waking up to find himself trapped in a parallel, fairytale universe peopled by characters based on his friends and coworkers. Almost immediately Tsuzuki runs afoul of the Count in the story, and befriends a young girl modeled on Tsuzuki himself. Meeting a cute female doppleganger is weird enough, but helping her fend off the amorous advances of the Count is stranger still! Tsuzuki is up to the challenge, devising a series of tricks and stunts foil the Count and to attract as much attention as possible. Back at the Ministry Hisoka and Tatsumi are dismayed to find Tsuzuki apparently permanently trapped in the Count’s bizarre fantasy world, and set out to rally the strength and talent of the Department to get him back. This story is unapologetically silly, but Matsushita injects enough real tension and emotion into her faux-medieval costume drama to keep the story interesting.
Descendants of Darkness, vol. 5
Yoko Matsushita
ISBN: 9781591167785
Viz, 2005
