Saiunkoku Monogatari Episode 12

Ryuuki’s practical lesson in dealing with women

1. Never go to a brothel.

2. Never compare them with any other girl.

3. Never tell them that you do not need to go to a brothel for services, since you can get it right in your house.

4. Never tell point 3 RIGHT in the brothel.

5. Never do point 4 to the girl that you like.

Heh, it seems that this is the starting of yet another arc: The arc where Shuurei is going to take her final national exam, the Kaishin test, as the envoy of the Imperial Court came over to pass her the results of her apitutde test. This is probably the start of a setup of another great arc.

There we go: Episode summary + thoughts further below!~

We see a young boy entering the town of the capital, holding onto a red token. There were however some thugs waiting at the main gates, gazing at the boy carefully. We switch scenes after the boy entered the town, with Ryuuki discussing about the influx of visitors due to the examinations. Ran had heard some strange rumors about something and he mentioned that he was going to find out more before telling Ryuuki.

As we moved scenes, Shuurei was using an abacus in a brothel, doing some accounting for the place. There was a man named Keichou who was interacting with Shuurei, nagging about her and telling her to start looking for prospective marriage partners. Shuurei was getting annoyed as she did not need anyone to tell her about it and asked him to mind his own business. It was then that Kochou, the #1 mistress of the brothel, came over to tease the young man, making Keichou totally embarrassed as he fleed the scene.

Kochou smiled as she said that she was going to miss Shuurei a lot, since she was about to leave and told her to come during her last day so that she could give Shuurei a present. Shuurei wanted to decline but was threatened with informing Seiran and Shouka that she was working in a brothel (LOL, OF COURSE NOT that way!).

Kochou also told Shuurei that there was an usual guest of 12-13 years old, sent in by someone who had paid for him. The guest was on the bed and we had a flashback of him standing in the snowy fields, among a field of graves. He woke up and was shocked at where he was. He then rushed down, only to meet Kochou and Shuurei. The little boy’s name was To Eigetsu and the only thing he know was that he was dragged to a restaurant and the next thing he remembered, he was here.

He then checked his money pouch, as he was embarrassed to stay in the place for free but found that his pouch was missing a lot of money. He panicked but Shuurei assured him that he could stay at her place until further notice. Eigetsu had in fact came from Koku province, quite faraway from here. In the middle of the trip back to Shuurei’s house, they met up with Seiran, who wanted to hold a celebratory dinner for Shuurei passing the aptitude test.

While Shouka, Eigetsu, Shuurei and Seiran were eating, they overheard two men who were dissing off about women joining the imperial examination and completely dismissing Shuurei’s chances. Shuurei was angry about the two men but Shouka secretly used his wires to cut down the table, making everything fall immediately (you go, POWER ASSASSIN!).

They then went on the topic about Seikintou, this special group of thugs with a blue cloth hanged somewhere on their bodies. In the downtown, there were a group of bosses that controlled and protected everyone in the region. The bosses had ignored the Seikintou but their actions seemed to be rather flagrant and Seiran said that the bosses would start to do something about it. The three were worried that Eigetsu might not survive, since it was dangerous to be in this area and adviced him to leave as soon as he finished his business. He said it’s all right until he found that something was missing (the red token).

He then rushed out of the eating place, with Shuurei and Seiran following them. It was then that Eigetsu was surrounded by a group of people from Seikintou, saying that Eigetsu had robbed one of their members. He then asked whether they had the token but Shuurei grabbed him away, escaping. The other members gave chase and they proved to be elusive until they met up with one of the members. Shuurei used the lesson taught by Seiran to hit the man on the crotch, flooring him immediately.

Seiran then arrived at the scene, with a messenger from the Kougarou asking them to go to Kochou for now. Seiran seemed to know about the place and said that it was the best way since if they had escaped, the thugs might be led to their house.

The scene changed as we see Ran, Ri and Ryuuki walking along the streets of the red light district, with Ri’s hatred of women showing immediately. They went over to Kochou and it seemed that Ran was the one that had sent Eigetsu into the brothel. Ran also mentioned to the ignorant Ryuuki that the whole district was everyman’s harem as Ran’s name was resounded by all the women here. He was probably very well known.

As they arrived at Kochou’s brothel, they went in while the scene changed to the Seikintou, with Keichou possibly an informant in the town. As he heard about the news of the kid going in with a woman holding an abacus, he realised that Shuurei would be there when Seikintou was going to storm into the brothel and used it as a stronghold. He seemed to be going there to warn them about the coming attack.

Back at the brothel, Shuurei met up with Ryuuki with a comical ending to the episode.

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Episode thoughts

Very interesting episode as I really missed the insane interactions of Shuurei and Ryuuki. The ending really made me laugh, with Shuurei’s various expressions being extremely funny to say the very least. We also seemed to have a complex kid in the name of Eigetsu. He seemed to be very good in accounting and probably would be one of the candidates for the test. However, the fact that Ran had picked him up was strange.

Why did Ran pick Eigetsu up? The other puzzling fact was how Seikintou was saying that Eigetsu had robbed them and he did not deny or agree with the allegations. He was definitely not weak if he was able to rob a thug that way but he was only a kid. The flashback of him on the snowy field of graves was really interesting as well. Who is this character? He is definitely very mysterious, very intelligent and yet another cool character to add to the mix.

Ryuuki’s ignorance to the outside world was amazing. The fact that he knew not much about the red light district clearly showed that and I am shocked that he was that uninformed about such things. However, that added to his charm as he was probably very mature when it came to decisions but speech-wise, he had much to learn from the smooth talking Ran. Ran and Ri’s interactions were always a joy to watch and this episode is no different.

Shuurei was at her best, with the hit to the crotch! I like her when she’s so feisty! The Seikintou also had various tokens on their charge. Was the token the right to participate the national exam or was it something else? The token was rather curious, since they had more than one on their hands. They probably had other victims already, considering they were always near the walls to catch unsuspecting victims.

Anyway, onwards to the next episode, can’t wait!