Synopsis: Velou asks Bonkers to become a Hunter alongside him, and much to Bonkers' shock, Grimm and Porschen both agree as well. Grimm tells Bonkers that he has plenty of strength and guts, and tells him it's a waste to just want to use that to survive day-to-day. She say sthe guild doesn't need all of it's members to be gung-ho about things and hotheaded, as eliminating werewolves is often a slow series of smaller steps forward, so someone like him is more than fit for the job. She further adds that she's not sure where he got that idea, but the guild isn't looking for heroes – it's looking for people of all kinds, strong, fast, smart, hot-headed, level-headed, main character or extra, it doesn't matter so long as their useful, as their job is one that takes all kinds. She tells him he's writing himself off too soon, as he truly belongs in the guild. Bonkers is taken aback and asks if Grimm should really be saying all of this in the middle of a test, and Grimm assures him that she won't be showing any partiality. She then tells him that the battle to save the Jinmottes' town is referred to as the 38th, and that both she and Debonair were there, and she's sorry they weren't able to save the whole town. Bonkers says that's all in the past and there's nothing to be said about it now, but without their involvement the whole town would have been detroyed, so he's grateful. He suddenly realizes that means Grimm must be older than him though, so he starts to ask her how old but she cuts him off by saying it's time to get back to the exam. If they can't beat her when she's not serious about killing them, then the only thing they'll do even if they become Hunters is die, so she challenges them to show her that they can change their lives. Velou tells Bonkers and Porschen they'll have to go with Plan D, and the three of them rush towards Grimm. Grimm surmises that of the trio, Bonkers is their best frontline fighter while Porschen is their best rear guard, while Velou is the one that built that foundation. She thinks the time he's spent training on the Ironworks is what's allowed him to 'till the soil' of his potential and now it's starting to sprout, but she thinks it'll take more than a new sprout to beat her. She leaps behind them as they charge forward, and starts to run at them with handcuffs in hand. Velou turns around first and leaps at her, grabbing her around the waist as well as grabbing a pair of handcuffs and putting them on himself to stick himself to her and thus weigh her down. Unfortunately, it turns out to have no effect on Grimm whatsoever, as she continues to run towards Bonkers and Porschen. Porschen quickly lashes out with a spiked thread, and though it misses landing a blow on Grimm's face, she manages to make it wrap around Velou's leg. Bonkers quickly grabs hold of Porschen and, before Grimm can react, he leaps backwards out a nearby window. Bonkers says there's no way he's going to face Grimm head on, and having already spent his life running, he has no problem doing it again. The weight of Bonkers and Porschen pulling the thread down drags Grimm towards the window, but she stops herself and Velou from going through with her foot, as Bonkers uses the length of string to repel off the outside wall of the Ironworks, and leap through another window with Porschen in hand. Grimm remarks that running is stupid as it only means she's still going to chase them and they'll fail, saying that if they want to run, they'd better run for their lives. She then turns her attention to Velou though, chastising him for sacrificing himself too often for the sake of others. Velou says it's okay as he's sure they'll come back to rescue him, but Grimm says that while that may work in an exam, it's too risky out in the field, as it can easily lead to him throwing his life away. Down on the lower level, Porschen gets up off of Bonkers and Bokners asks if she's hurt. She tells him that she's fine, and tells him he worries about other people a lot. Bonkers says that's just normal, which she agrees with, and tells him to stop trying to force himself to be a bad guy when he's actually a pretty decent person. Bonkers is moved from everyone talking so positive about him today, and Porschen consoles him. On the Ironworks roof, Velou is re-jailed alongside Merrio, Cobbs, and Nulo. The guard named Laurell welcomes them back, and tells Velou that his plan must be working to some degree, as there are fewer and fewer people getting arrested now. Nulo says that's great, and Merrio says there's still another 45 minutes left in the exam so they should rest and recover for the time being. A narration box informs that the number of arrests has indeed gone down, but not just from Velou's plan – it was also a result of Grimm's merciless plan of knocking people out and coming back to handcuff them later on, a many participants were currently unconscious but not actually arrested as a result. In the coal storage room, Debonair has finally tracked down Tylty and Mylty, and praises them for choosing a location where she can't really use much of her powers, though she says that due to swords and guns being disallowed, this just puts them all on the same level. A battered Tylty says it looks like Debonair's having fun, and she says that she is, as even without her heat she can still rely on physical strength which she still has plenty of, and asks if Tylty has a plan for dealing with that as well. Suddenly, Bonkers runs into the room and yells Tylty's name. He leads a charge of a large group of participants towards Debonair, who is pleased to see so many of them coming for her, while Tylty is surprised he managed to bring so many people. Debonair thinks this might get a little rough even for her, so she decides to heat things up to a 'toasty 140 degrees'. The resulting explosion of heat sends Bonkers and multiple other applicants flying, but the crowd decides that while she's too strong, they just need to overwhelm her with numbers. As Bonkers gets back up and walks towards him, Tylty asks him what he's even doing here, and Bonkers says to recruit him to help him rescue Velou. Tylty says he already said no to that, but Bonkers interrupts and says he knows all about what happened to Tylty in the last exam he took. He watched as the crew undermined each other constantly and caused everyone to fail, and he let it happen, turning his back on the others as well, though he can see now that this has left Tylty unable to trust anyone. Bonkers says that trust is a hard and scary thing no matter which side you're on, as the thought of not living up to expectations is scary, as is the idea of getting betrayed. He says Tylty is acting like a standoffish jerk to make sure nobody gets too close to him. Tylty accuses Bonkers of not knowing anything, but Bonkers says he knows because that's exactly what he was doing up until now. Bonkers says that in the end, the one person he trusts least is himself, but even if you don't trust anyone else, there's one person in this exam that still trusts you. Bonkers thinks about Velou and says this must be how he felt when talking to him earlier. Bonkers tells Tylty that if he just stares at the past he'll waste his life just like Bonkers has so far, but there's still time to change and find people who have faith in you. Bonkers once again asks Tylty to help them so they can help him, as their goal is for everyone to pass this exam. Review: I have to admit, the beginning of this chapter caught me a little bit by surprise. The end of last chapter already showed us Velou deciding to fully support Bonkers and try to get him to try and pass with them all, and while she's far less resolute in her own aspirations so far, it's not too surprising to see Porschen back him up as well. No, what caught me completely off guard was how much Grimm is in favor of him joining the guild. Her relationship with Velou seems to be unique with her interest in what was going on in his village and who he really is, but apparently her interest does extend to anyone else that she thinks might be of value in their fight against the werewolves. It doesn't mean that she's going to take it easy on them, but I do think that on some level, Grimm wants as many of them to pass as possible even if it means showing her and Debonair up, because it just means they're going to have that many soldiers in the fight. The dialogue continues to have all of these little hints about stories in regards to people's lives, and plot elements talked about rather brazenly and openly, and I continue to be really curious about all of these very specific dialogue choices. It's clear that the author has something grand in mind for once the series gets further down the line, though as of now, things sadly still seem to be leaning towards us potentially not getting that whole story told. The gag with Bonkers realizing Grimm must be even older than him makes me realize that I don't think any of the other participants has any idea about Grimm's other form, as I can't imagine Velou has mentioned it to them either. Since the test has a firm time limit already, I can't imagine part of his plan is to run out her own clock and cause her to revert, but the series continues to surprise me with how far ahead Velou is thinking, so we might see some form of that come into play before we're through, you never know. Grimm calling out Velou's bad habit of using himself as a sacrifice sort of feels like fore-shadowing as well, as it's really easy to see how a character like Velou, who constantly is putting the needs and well-being of others before his own, could end up in over his head in a hunt if he thought it would help save lives. If we do get to see the story go on for a much longer time, then I think we'll see something like that in the future. The notion of a lot of people passing not due to Velou's plan but due to Grimm's methods is pretty funny, and I could almost see this leading to a happy medium ground where not everyone passes (perhaps Tylty and Mylty fail, but with hope for the next time as they'll now re-learn how to trust, or something?) as Velou hopes, but a great number of them do as a result of something he didn't even come up with. There is one part of the chapter I'm not entirely sold on though, and that's the fight with Debonair in the coal room. Tylty did come up with a somewhat smart plan, though as Debonair points out he doesn't seem to have much in mind to deal with her plain old brute strength, but it seems to come to nothing in the end. The room is full of coal, but Debonair still uses one of her heat attacks anyway? Granted, she did say she couldn't use them 'much', not 'not at all', but if she's still able to crank things up to 140 degrees, then I wouldn't call that much of a handicap at all. It's sor tof hard to tell for sure if the explosion she causes is purely a heat wave or some of the coal igniting, but either way, your plan could not have failed harder, Tylty. Seeing Bonkers and Tylty reconnect is interesting though, as they've effectively switched places entirely from their introduction. It was Tylty who started off this storyline seemingly at Velou's side and primed to be one of his first friends, and Bonkers was the loud oaf who was probably going to be kind of a jerk and, maybe, turn out to be a better person. Well, Bonkers has more than done that by this point as he's turned out to have a heart of gold underneath all of that bluster, while it's Tylty who's a little too rough around the edges. With Bonkers of all people talking about what happened to Tylty last time and trying to get him to join up with the rest of them, it's going to be interesting to see how things play out next. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Chapter 14
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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