Descendants of Darkness, Volume 3: Yami no Matsuei Book

People are going missing from Hong Kong. They're not dying when they're supposed to. These discrepencies are connected with a cruise line which travels between Japan and Tokyo, the Queen Camellia. Shinigami Asato Tsuzuki and Hisoka Kurosaki are sent on board to investigate, undercover.

The situation becames more complex when a series of murders begins, involving Tarot cards and messages addressed to a young girl, Tsubaki, daughter of the cruise ship's owner. To make matters even more complicated, her personal doctor is none other than Tsuzuki and Hisoka's old nemesis, Kazutaka Muraki. Reawakening Hisoka's nightmarish memories of him and doing all he can to crawl into Tsuzuki's bed by fair means or foul, Muraki seems capable of anything. More than capable of committing the murders on the ship. Only he adds to the mystery by dying in a bed of roses, left with a Tarot card himself.

What is going on the Queen Camellia? Which one of the elite passengers is the killer? How can Hisoka keep himself detached when his own dark intimacy with Muraki mingles with Tsubaki's love for her doctor, binding the two of them closer together? What can Tsuzuki do for his partner when he's in such emotional turmoil?
Artwork, plot, and character development all reached a new level in this volume. Hisoka's strength, vulnerability, and his curse at Muraki's hands were all beautifully depicted. The meld of his memories and emotions with Tsubaki's, their feelings about Muraki showed the tragic side effects of Hisoka's powers in action, deepening the bond between them. Hisoka's own response to Muraki, how he first sensed Muraki on board the ship, and the power of Muraki's curse were some of the most darkly sensuous panels shown in this series yet. Equally dark and sensual were the moments between Tsuzuki and Muraki, where Muraki reveals just how much he desires Tsuzuki's body and life force. The angelic/demonic elements of Muraki, even when lying dead, his relationships with certain characters symbolized by flowers (roses for Tsuzuki, sakura blossoms for Hisoka, and camellias for Tsubaki) added an additional level of depth to the artwork. The murders were gruesomely aesthetic, providing a menacing background against which Tsuzuki and Hisoka could shine, Muraki presiding over all like an angel, a demon, a ghost, a vampire, and a master sorcerer all at once. Throughout the plot, Tsuzuki and Hisoka's bond grew, becoming more tender until the last panels, which left the impression of the ultimate love story of the entire sequence was between the two of them.

For beautiful, complex artwork, playing out a symbolic storyline in time with a tight, main plot, developing and deepening the characters in the process, this gets four stars.