From Far Away, Volume 5 Book

Welcome to volume 5 of From Far Away! In this volume...there's a lot of hair. I mean a lot. Like Shepard Book levels of hair.



Also some people really try it with Izark and it DOES NOT go well for them.

We have a name for our ghostly boy - its Irkule! He's the spirit of the Morning Mist Tree and is simply at a loss as to how to help the villagers trapped by the hair monster of nightmares. Have no fear though he helps Noriko realize that just being herself is such a big responsibility.

Minor digression - from here on out its an important theme that each character, simply by being their truest self, can and will help others. Other then Izark none of the other characters in the main "good guy" cast have offensive supernatural powers, but they are able to achieve the results they do by believing in something larger than theirselves. Namely in Noriko and Izark, but also in the inherent goodness in people's hearts.

Back to the volume at hand, we also see Izark just...well he demons out. He and Noriko wind up in a nasty jam thanks to the hair demon nightmare thing and he loses control in his fear for Noriko. So Noriko sees the Sky Demon form of Izark (random aside: in volume 5 of Fruits Basket, this happens to Tohru and Kyo as well) and while Izark is busy alternating between freaking out and growing so frantic he can't think straight, Noriko realizes two things: 1) she can totally see why Izark is scared of being the Sky Demon and 2) him being the Sky Demon meant he'd leave her and THAT WOULD NOT STAND.

We have what young me jumped up and down about - a confession! And it works!

Its important to note however that at this point Izark is not really romantically in love with Noriko. He cares about her, he worries after her and he doesn't want to leave her side, but he's so frightened by what being the Sky Demon could mean he's not at liberty to love her. When Noriko confesses to him, while he's in almost full on Sky Demon mode, he's reacting less to 'omg she returns my feelings!' and more to 'omg she isn't scared of me and cares about me still?'.

We also get a side story about when Gaya met Izark for the first time (he's like...15?) that really illustrates why Gaya trusts him and why Izark trusts her. Also the words that Gaya speaks about the Founder of the Gray Bird Tribe are very important later on. Just saying.