Bidden Calamity (招かれた厄災; Manekareta Yakusai) is the third episode of the Noragami anime adaptation. It aired January 19, 2014.
Summary
Yato digs through a dumpster to find clothes for Yukine to wear, while the latter wonders why he can still "feel" things around him even though he is already dead. After their would-be lunch is stolen by a stray cat, Yato calls Hiyori to treat him and Yukine to a meal. In the restaurant, the waitress fails to notice Yato and Yukine until they speak directly to her, and Yato explains to Hiyori that although people have the ability to see them, they rarely notice them and forget them almost instantly. Hiyori speaks with Yukine while waiting for Yato to exit the restaurant, and he tells her that although he knows he died, he cannot remember anything about his life prior to becoming Yato's shinki. Yukine then has a dirty thought about Hiyori, which results in Yato experiencing a shock of pain as he exits the restaurant. Yato chastises Yukine and tells him that gods and shinkis share mind and body, and so he can sense all of Yukine's sinful thoughts. Yato then receives a call from a client and teleports off with Yukine, accidentally bringing Hiyori along. The three of them end up at the shrine of Tenjin , the god of learning. Tenjin explains that he contacted Yato to have him kill some phantoms at a nearby railway track, and then calls upon his newest shinki Mayu , Yato's former shinki Tomone, to show them the way. After briefly arguing with Yato, Mayu leads them to the railway and explains that the area is plagued by "storms", which allows the phantoms to possess people and make them commit suicide on the tracks. Hiyori is determined to defeat the phantoms, but Yato declines and says that if a person wants to die, they should let them die. He then goes on to explain that once a soul has been completely possessed, it can't even become a shinki. This infuriates Hiyori, who then goes off on her own to try and defeat the phantoms herself. Yato is about to leave when Mayu reminds him that he'd already accepted Tenjin's money and Yukine chimes in to ask if it's okay to let Hiyori go off by herself, eventually convincing him to take the job. Meanwhile, Hiyori attempts to kill a phantom on the shoulder of a schoolboy by kicking it, but is overpowered and captured by the other phantoms, who then tie her to the tracks in the path of an oncoming train. She is saved by Yato and Yukine, who then manage to kill another phantom at the railway crossing and prevent a schoolboy from committing suicide. As the sun sets, Hiyori catches up to Yato and Yukine and expresses her pleasure at the fact that the former decided to help people after all. However, Yato shrugs off her praise and tells her that he refuses to let anyone die in front of the shinki if he can help it, and that people should appreciate what it means to be alive at all. Hiyori then recalls how young and innocent all of the shinki are and realizes that if suicide isn't how they died, then shinki are all people who must still want to live.
Debuts
Characters
- Tenjin
Adaptation Notes
- In the manga, Yukine does not have a dirty thought or stab Yato when he's talking to Hiyori outside the restaurant.
- After Yato and Yukine kill the phantom on the railway, Hiyori catches up with them and converses with them. However, in the manga she wakes up in her bedroom with her parents standing over her. She immediately hugs them both, traumatized by the experience of nearly getting killed by a train.