Aestheticism Review: Hoono Mirage

Hoono no Mirage Part III- Synopsis

Below are all spoilers since each volume’ story starts from where previous mysteries are revealed.

These summaries are really not so meaningful, because each story is really a high-paced, action-packed piece with twisty plots and classical and religious language that is rarely used elsewhere. Hope you can get a feel of their intensity. Also, you may get a feeling that there are melodramatic overtones in Mirage. Don't think that fans always read these with a straight face. (They love to draw Naoe with a chain since he had the nerve to say, "I'm your dog, Takaya-san.: Well, it's a quintessential yaoi romance. Somebody counted up to 201 fan web sites (pages) devoted to Mirage recently.

Before Vol. 15

mirage3.jpg (16613 bytes) In the middle of "The Empress at shore"(vol. 11-12) Naoe was dead and Takaya was in total denial. He has since lived in a seamless illusion by believing FUMA Kotaro was Naoe at his side. In "The Windy Cave to the Hades", (vol. 13/14) Takaya encounters a mysterious guy named Makoto KAIZAKI, a business aide to Takaya's enemy, with considerable psychic power, but who is, for sure, an ordinary human being. Kaizaki somehow reminds Takaya of Naoe in his secretive gentle whispers during their fights in Enoshima, Tokyo suburb. The fights involved the Secret Service (the Cabinet's Intelligence Unit), Takeda, local Satomi and ODA forces. A secret movement in Uyesugi army behind Takaya's back added to mysteries. Takaya's illusions about Kotaro's identity have already started to crumble because Kotaro cannot provide him with what Takaya desires from Naoe. Now Takaya starts to cultivate doubts about the whole reality around him.

Volume 15 - 19: Karin no Oukoku (The Kingdom of the Blazed Circle)

Kumamoto is a major city in Kyushu, the Southern Island of Japan at the foot of the active Aso Volcano. Takaya comes to Kojoh high school which is built in the old castle quarter of Kumamoto, as a transfer student with his mission of ghost hunting. The school is under the control of a young girl student, in fact, the Reincarnate Juri MIKURITA. Juri was plotting to recover an ancient artifact, the Golden Snake's Head, in order to build a kingdom of dead Christians who perished in the brutal 17th century persecutions. There are two renegade students who ultimately fight with Takaya and Chiaki. One boy turns out to be KATO Kiyomasa, a legendary honorable but fierce general in the Sengoku Era, and the other comes from the Himuka clan, descendents of an almost annihilated ancient indigenous tribe of the region. The artifact in question seems related to an ancient curse by Kihachi, the defeated demon, and Himuka's ancestor. Then, turn-and-twist fights of conspiracies and betrayals among six parties erupt around Kumamoto city and the Aso Volcano. They are Takaya's Uyesugi Yashashu, (Takaya, Chiaki, Haruie, Kotaro the Ninja master from Takaya's birth family Hojoh); a newly formed Uyesugi Army that seems to operate secretly outside Takaya's command; the Himuka clan who are carrying out a death wish of their ancient ancestral spirit Kihachi, who placed a powerful curse upon the people of Yamato (the current Japanese people); a mysterious religious cult of psychokinetic bird people who travel in the air at will; the Ohtomo clan who held the provincial lordship in the Sengoku Period with Juri Mikriya; and then, none other than the Demon King ODA Nobunaga, who has assumed the identity of charismatic rock'n roll superstar: SHIBA Eiji.

While encountering the enduring anger and despair of the persecuted Christians and the lost tribe, Takaya has to gradually accept his deepest fear: Naoe's death at Hagi. However, Takaya's tragedy goes from bad to worse: Takaya is to be expelled as the Commander of the Uyesugi Yashashu and specter army after his 400 years of painful devotion, by the will of almost sacred Lord Kenshin himself. Who will assume the position of the next leader of Yashashu? It's Naoe, whose charred body and soul were resurrected by Lord Kenshin. Still fragile Naoe seems to come to Kumamoto in order to plot Takaya's fall and a new plan to use the Golden Snake Head detrimental to the whole Kyushu land.

Despite all his agonies and despair, proud and lonely Takaya heads for his final fight with fearsome specters and demigods.

"Let the blaze burn us together, Naoe. -Burn me with your dead body, with all my flesh, bones, and soul, making us ashes together."

Volume 20: Jujika wo daite nemure (May rest with the Cross)

After the fighting and destruction at Kumamoto, the revived Naoe defects from his irreplaceable position as the next leader of Uyesugi Yashashu, and brings a distraught Takaya into hiding in a misty isolated mountain. The last curse of Kihachi turned Takaya's left eye into the poisonous, ruby "evil eye" that kills everything in its sight. Having been abandoned by his eternal father figure, Takaya is now a total wreck. What does Naoe do to Takaya, his one and only Master whom he loved and hated more than his own soul's destruction?

In the end, Takaya gives a doze to Naoe and leaves him, being afraid of killing him. (Well, he would, because this infatuated man tries to look into Takaya's eyes just to prove his love.)

Points of interest

Well, you know it. Needless to say that fans were overjoyed with this volume, if not annoyed by the fact it took 20 books. Otherwise it's with unusually very little development in the plot.

"Takaya drew his wrist closer. He silently kissed the scar, to Naoe's shock, the scar on the left wrist, It's like the Stigma -- The deepness of Naoe's pain. It's the only thing that saves Takaya.

A Fragment: Sabaku Junkyo (Martyrdom in the Desert)

Naoe desperately looks for the missing Takaya and comes to Tokyo in order to enlist support from his former acquaintances. He turns down a desperate plea to come back from Uyesugi. Naoe, then, meets with a Possessed named KTSURAGI Kazuzo. Having learned from him that the Star of Divided Destiny in Shikoku might save Takaya from his soul's ultimate extinction, Naoe agrees on traveling with Katsuragi.

Vol. 21: Retsumyoh no Hoshi (The Star of Divided Destiny)

The Shikoku Chapter starts in this volume and continues to date.

Shikoku is the Southwest piece of Japan where mikkyo (literally hidden teachings, syncretistic and cosmological, exoteric Buddhist schools) and animist beliefs are abundant (within books at least), particularly those left by the famous monk Kohboh Daishi. Reverend Kohboh is one of the most famous and mysterious religious leaders, the founder of Shingon Mikkyo (a Buddhist sect) and a figure worshipped in his own right.

Yuzuru Narita (actually Yuzuru has the soul of Uyesugi Kagekatsu, and also an embodiment of Miroku Buddha (Mytraya)) is now in the hands of the Takeda force. Haruie has been captured by Oda, and meets her previous comrade, to her astonishment. Nagahide (previously Chiaki) double-crossed his friends to join Oda.

Wandering aimlessly with his deadly evil eye in the mountains of Shikoku, Takaya meets cheerful MUTOH Ushio. Ushio's in an amnesia but Takaya notices he is a Reincarnate. Ushio, along with Takaya, is recruited by a group of local fighters: the Tosa Sekigei Shu (Red Whales) whose main body consists of independent landed warriors of Tosa (current Kohchi.) Takaya reluctantly joins the spirited fighter group as a single starting soldier by concealing his identity as Kagetora. Trained as soldiers, Takaya and Ushio join together to capture the powerful Retsumyosei (the Star of Divided Destiny), whose nature is mired in contradictory legends, from the Miyoshi force. One legend explains it as a traitor's star and another says it used to be a poisonous evil star that asked Kohboh Daishi to seal its power.

In the process of fighting, Takaya reveals his unusual qualities as a fighter and leader. The members of Red Whales: the leader Kusama, the second in command, Kada, and their lower ranks have their internal disagreements and different reactions towards Takaya, while passionately trying to fulfill their lost ambitions and protect Shikoku from the dominating specter generals at the return of Yami Sengoku.

Points of interests: Takaya desires Naoe at night by -- well... He takes a bath outside, making a pretty sight.

Volume 22: Sakigake no mushi (Worms in the Frontline)

Naoe looks for Takaya and the raided Retsumyohsei, often getting near Takaya's trail without knowing it. His companion Katsuragi seems to know about the Red Whales, and then finally Naoe finds a photo of Takaya taken by Ushio.

The Oda force sends Chiaki and Yamanaka (from the Empress chapter) to Shikoku. Later, the Date force, defeated in Sendai, travels to Shikoku to regain their footing, all of which escalates the war to dominate Shikoku. Takaya looks for a place to die, hating his poisonous existence, living without his beloved Naoe, but reluctantly becoming central to the Red Whales' wars. In the process, Takaya provokes hard feelings and doubts on the part of some members and the leader Kusama, while ingratiating himself with Ushio, Kada, the psychic doctor Nakagawa and others. Takaya's poisoned body brings mysterious transformation synchronic with godly blazes and his Powers become more and more uncontrollable. The Red Whales become more agitated and involved with their fights, also starting to suspect the then little-known power of the Uyesugi Yashashu to purify specters like them. Takaya gradually regains his will to live.

Volume. 23 - 28: Onshu no mon (The Gate of Vengeance)

The story of the following 5 volumes is so complicated, with so many intense characters, that it's almost impossible to summarize.

Naoe looks for Takaya, with the help of Katsuragi and a mountain god/girl Miho who loves Naoe, coming to be hunted by all parties, including his old Uyesugi force and the Red Whales who believe that Naoe is an assassin after Takaya, who in turn is panicked at learning of Naoe's pursuit.

Takaya and the Red Whales fight wars with turns and twists, to defend Shikoku from outside warlords and their men, including Takaya's old comrade Chiaki, and his old ally the Date clan. The Red Whales and Ushio come to trust and need Takaya, but then, the revelation of his identity as Kagetora makes them regard Takaya as their enemy and a spy. In the end, Takaya regains their trust and his footing as a leader in a fighting squad with his usual cool but charismatic manners and charms.

In the middle of the story of the Gate, Naoe finally catches up with Takaya. At a moonlit observation point on Cape Muroto, Naoe stops Takaya from throwing himself to his death in order not to hurt Naoe with his evil eye. Then -- (as you might expect) Naoe joins the Red Whales as a lower rank to be with Takaya, but later he tries to stop the group from using the Retsumyosei for the magic to protect Shikoku.

Meanwhile, the formidable potential of the Retsumyohsei, and the magical nature of the land of Shikoku established by Reverend Koboh, are gradually revealed. The Star can be used to create a powerful sorcery to turn Shikoku into a safe haven for specters. Used that way, it would not save Takaya from his destiny of extinction, as Naoe wants. What will Takaya decide after having learned of his damaged soul's promised extinction forever?

"In the moment they saw each other, all resistances have gone. No reason, no logic, no judgment, no sense of right and wrong has power any more. The two were like a pair of opposite magnetic poles. Not even a will anymore, but it's the destiny that binds them, the two alluring to each other. No way to resist the power. Looking into each other's eyes, their faces were drawn close ...to press one's lips against another's "