UQ Holder Manga Chapter 5 Review (Who says Eva has lost a step?!)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 5 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta cheerfully walks and sings beside Yukihime while Kuroumaru trails them at a distance. Touta hollers for Kuroumaru to catch up, but Kuroumaru refuses since they are opposites. Touta holds up the signed pact with Kuroumaru, making Kuroumaru irritated. Yukihime states that she no longer has a desire to kill Kuroumaru since Kuroumaru is a friend of Touta's, even if only on paper. This leads Kuroumaru to tell about the clan's mission and what failure would mean for Kuroumaru. Yukihime offers Kuroumaru a chance to be her disciple, something Touta is completely down for. The two of them decide on it, leaving Kuroumaru flustered and unable to get in a word.

Arriving at another village, they discover it has an onsen and decide to spend the night at an inn. This causes Kuroumaru to panic a bit, but Yukihime knowingly suggests that the two guys bathe together and that Kuroumaru should speak frankly with Touta. Touta drags the unwilling Kuroumaru off to the men's onsen. Kuroumaru is tepid and shy about entering the water, and as such, keeps a towel up in a covering fashion. When asked, Kuroumaru says that it is due to a lack of bathing with strangers despite being from Japan. Touta again suspects Kuroumaru of being a girl, but gets whacked before he can ask to inspect Kuroumaru's goods.

In the water, Kuroumaru starts to relax a bit, leading Touta to speak of Kuroumaru's clan. Touta asks Kuroumaru to come with Yukihime and him. Kuroumaru is taken aback by this and when offered a hand by Touta, starts to take it before realizing what this means and slapping his hand away. Touta asks why, leading Kuroumaru to say it is complicated.

Touta decides they should follow a male tradition and peep on Eva, who should be getting into the women's batch at an onsen on a nearby clifftop. Touta tries to tempt Kuroumaru by saying Yukihime has a hot bod, but Kuroumaru isn't interested. Touta isn't either, but Kuroumaru points out that if Yukihime is the real Evangeline, she's one of the strongest people in the world. Touta isn't so sure snf Kuroumaru is having second thoughts as well.

From a distance, Yukihime can be heard laughing, having heard the whole conversation. She challenges both Yukihime and Touta, the latter of whom she praises for his adolescent interest, and says that should they strip the bath towel off her, she won't stop them from seeing her naked. Touta is game and races up the cliff like mad. However, he's blasted away by Yukihime. Kuroumaru takes time to wrap up in a body towel before coming to Touta's aide.

Yukihime gives Touta a taste of real magic by using ancient magic to bring forth countless ice spears, causing them to rain down on the two. Kuroumaru no longer doubts this is the real Eva and races to save Touta. Touta is pleased, though Kuroumaru says it is only because of the pact. Touta asks Kuroumaru to throw him, so Kuroumaru does as he asks. Kuroumaru goes flying through the air and snatches a towel off of Yukihime's body.

Thoughts/Review:

Well now, well now.

I really do think Kuroumaru is a girl, though Akamatsu-sensei could be setting up the bishounen guy thing, or even someone who's genderless. Eva's remarks to Kuroumaru would seem to indicate that Eva know's Kuroumaru is a girl too, thus she's enjoying putting Kuroumaru into a bad position of having to bathe with a guy.  Assuming Kuroumaru is a girl, I suspect that the way Touta treats Kuroumaru won't change.  After all, Eva supposedly does nothing for him despite having a good figure in her Yukihime form.

Kuroumaru is massively strong to be able to fling Touta with that much force.  Question is, how'd Touta know that Kuroumaru could throw like that?

This chapter was done in part to remove all doubt that Eva hasn't lost a step.  I laughed out loud when Eva revealed she heard Touta's and Kuroumaru's entire conversation despite the great distance from her location to Touta's. Further, she blasts him off with no effort and with little effort, does her usual panache when it comes to massive, ancient magic spells.

This chapter was also done to continue to show Touta is more than he seems to be, something that has been hinted at for a while now. We have the impressive way he climbed the cliff as if it were nothing,  but also in how he snatched the towel from Eva.  I'm not convinced that was the real Eva though.  I can envision a scenario where Touta thinks he's gotten Eva's towel, but in fact hit a decoy, leaving a still towel covered Eva to gloat over him.

If Touta really did succeed, then Akamatsu-sensei is rapidly pushing forward his power progress for some reason that I can't fathom. I know some folks will say that this is a sign that Eva has gotten weaker, but I just don't see it that way.

I was glad to see Chachazero's little cameo. I really do hope an explanation of what happened to her is given at some point. After all, Chachazero had been with Eva for how many years or centuries, going back to when Eva was still not that strong.  Chachazero was Eva's partner, and since I'm confident Chachazero's body had a soul in it, then it was a true pactio, not a doll contract like Chachamaru had with Eva.

So, a fun chapter where we get to see Eva unleash a bit, Touta still be Touta, and Kuroumaru still behave like a girl.