Mei Yamamoto and the Wedding She Was Supposed to Have

Mei Yamamoto and the Wedding She Was Supposed to Have Mei is a week away from getting married when Masumi walks back into her family's life. Her grandmother has died, and she's worried there won't be any family at the wedding. So when this cousin finally appears, she's genuinely happy. She hugs her, introduces Hiroto, and starts talking. Masumi asks how her training is going. Mei has no idea what she means. I liked that introduction because it gives her a life before all the demon business takes it over. She's thinking about her wedding. The family stories about fighting creatures of the night are things her grandmother told her at bedtime. She doesn't expect somebody to show up and explain that she's supposed to inherit a pair of swords with Legion trapped inside them. Spoilers for Masumi: Blades of Sin #1–4. The trouble has already reached her before she understands any of it. Hiroto has given the Yakuza one of her grandmother's heirlooms. Mei thought it was just an old object. He knows more, but he's been threatened, and he's trying to protect her. Masumi initially assumes the worst about what's happened. Once Hiroto explains, it becomes clear how little Mei actually knew about the danger around them. Her first reaction to leaving is understandable. The wedding is next week. She's suddenly being told to pack, hide, and accept that the stories were real. Eventually she and Hiroto take a train, carrying pieces of broken statues that Masumi wants scattered so their power can't be put back together. The plan is to reach America, where Mercy can train her. There's still some room for them to be a couple on that train. They talk about the route, worry, joke about getting married in Vegas, and tell each other they love each other. Then the bomb goes off. Mei survives the wreck and finds Hiroto. That scene is horrible because the book has just let us watch them trying to imagine what comes next. They'd accepted that things were dangerous. They were doing what they thought would get them away from it. Afterward, Masumi begins training Mei herself. Mei wants revenge for Hiroto. Masumi tries to separate that from the responsibility they're supposed to carry, and Legion is much more interested in encouraging Mei's anger. She's grieving while learning that the weapons, objects, and stories in her family have rules she never knew existed. Even destroying a demon's vessel isn't a simple answer; depending on the binding, that can release it or accomplish nothing. The scene that stayed with me most is her meeting with Hiroto's ghost. She doesn't simply run to him. After everything that's happened, she suspects a demon, and he has to reach her with something personal from their lives together. They exchange the wedding vows they never got to say while he was alive. He asks her to keep living, including being able to love again, rather than spending the rest of her life mourning him. I appreciated that. He knows she's hurting, and he doesn't turn that pain into another obligation she has to carry for him. Mei goes on to help Masumi enter Shinobu's building. She wants to do more, but Masumi keeps her guarding the door when she goes into the final confrontation. She's still learning, and being willing to fight doesn't suddenly give her years of experience. I wanted more time with that part of her development. Masumi has been carrying this history for so long that danger is almost routine to her. Mei has had it arrive all at once: her family's real past, a responsibility she never trained for, and the loss of the person she was about to marry. Watching how she handles the training after that is every bit as interesting to me as the swords themselves.