"The Wind Returns" is the first episode in the Kaze no Stigma anime series.
First Appearances(in order of appearance):
- Ayano Kannagi
- Spider Youma
- Yukari Shinomiya
- Nanase Kudo
- Kazuma Yagami
- Maid
- Mansion Owner
- Yuuki Shinji
- Mansion Youma
- Ren Kannagi
- Genma Kannagi
- Kannagi Sousho
- Masato Oogami
- Takashi Oogami
- Fuuga Clan
- Yuuki Shingo
- Takeya Oogami
Summary:
The episode begins with Ayano standing in front of a shine and summoning Enraiha. All of a sudden a stream of white string begins to be shot out of the shrine, which Ayano easily blocks with her sword. Soon the shrine breaks apart, revealing a giant spider-like youma. It fires another shot of web at her, also blocked with a swipe of fire. Ayano charges at the monster, but stumbles and a string of web is fired, catches on to her back, and pulls her into the air. She quickly blasts it with fire, rights herself, and lands neatly on the ground. Before the youma can attack again, Ayano summons spirits of fire, which light up her sword and concentrate into a ball of fire. This is launched at the youma and the monster disintegrates immediately on contact. Ayano swipes her sword on last time and the sword disappears when it is completed.
Ayano smiles and hurries over to Yukari and Nanase, who promptly ask how the fight went. Ayano brags in response and the three girls decide to go out for karaoke to "wrap up". But, before that, Nanase decides that they should go to "enjoy the salty wind". Immediately after, a gust of wind passes by, which begins lifting the girls incredibly short skirts. Once the wind dissipates, Ayano shouts "I really hate the wind!"
The scene shifts to a large mansion surrounded by trees. Kazuma lowers himself down in front of it and knocks on the front door. He is greeted by a young maid who leads him to a sitting room were the owner of the house and Yuuki are waiting. Upon realizing who the other "exorcist" is, the young man rises to his feet and begins to mock Kazuma, who isn't particularly interested in what his cousin is saying. Luckily, the two's employer doesn't care about who's helping him and simply wants to be rid of whatever is haunting his mansion, adding that nothing should be damaged in the room since it is "all worth far more than either of you are being paid".
Yuuki brags that he'll show Kazuma "how fire magic works" and Kazuma takes the moment to insult the young member of a branch family of the Kannagi clan. Yuuki grabs Kazuma's collar, but before he can do anything else, the creature appears. Yuuki hits the creature with a small fire ball, which momentarily engulfs the thing before being fired back and lighting the whole mansion on fire. The creature is revealed to be a youma and soon the mansion owner is latching onto Kazuma, offering many times what Kazuma was originally supposed to be paid to save him. Kazuma continuously refuses until the Owner says he'll pay a 100 times, which he finally agrees to. Kazuma summons many wind spirits, which he uses to put out all of the fires and slice the youma multiple time, killing it. Kazuma then goes over and stomps on Yuuki, who appears to be dead, telling him to "stop sleeping". Yuuki rises and Kazuma explains to the owner that the fire spirits protect all members of the Kannagi clan except him.
The scene shifts again to a Tokyo karaoke parlor, which Ayano hurriedly exits and starts running towards home. Nanase and Yukari walk out of the parlor and begin chatting, mentioning that Ayano has a very early curfew. The camera goes back to Ayano who runs across a small bridge, through a gate, and into the Kannagi property. Then some when calls out "sister!" and Ayano starts panicking, thinking she's been caught. But it's only Ren, who's ecstatic because his brother Kazuma has finally returned (even after Ayano admits that she forgot about him).
The camera shifts to a japenese garden and into one of the Kannagi houses, where Yuuki is kneeling in front of Genma and the Sousho after just telling them what happened at the mansion. The Sousho is happy to hear that Kazuma's doing well, but tells Yuuki to train harder from then on. Yuuki apologizes profusely to Genma and the Sousho but is interrupted by Ren and Ayano. The two children greet their fathers and the story skips to where Ayano and Ren are sitting down, talking about Kazuma. The camera focuses on Kazuma, who is floating over the city, while the Sousho expresses his sympathy for his nephew. It then goes over to Genma, who is very embarrassed and irritated about his son's actions. He then declares that Ren is his only son now, even though Ren is still hoping that his brother will return to the Kannagis.
The camera pans over the Kannagi lands and focuses on a pair of shoes very similar to Kazuma's as they lower to the ground, then over to the sleeping Ayano. She is woken up by the harsh wind but quickly goes back to sleep. So the scene shifts to the two bleeding corpses of Takeshi and Masato Oogami and Yuuki, who is cowering against the wall. He begs the figure for forgiveness, believing it to be Kazuma. The camera turns over to the figure whose silhouette looks exactly like Kazuma's. The mystery person creates a blade of dirty, glowing wind; which heads for the screaming Yuuki and kills him.
The audience then sees a young Kazuma dressed in formal Japanese atire, screaming and surrounded by fire. We then see that it was created by a younger Ayano and that Genma is standing beside his frightened son. He yells at his son, stating his disappointment. Then Kazuma wakes up and scorns himself for still remembering that time. Glowing eyes appear over the man and Kazuma opens up a curtain, searching for his stalker without success.
Then it is morning at the Kannagi residence and members of the Fuuga clan, the Sousho, Ayano, and Genma are at the scene of the mysterious crime of the night before. The head of the Fuuga Clan steps out of the building and kneels before the Sousho, explaining that the crime could have only been done with wind magic. The two fathers are upset that Kannagis were so easily defeated, especially in their own homes, and "by something as pathetic as wind magic!" Genma does immediately apologize for what he said in front of the leader of a wind magic clan, but the head appears to be used to it.
Then the camera moves to Shingo, who slams his fist into the wall, blaming his brother's death on Kazuma. Takeya agrees, along with two nameless members of the Kannagi clan. The scene shifts again to the Sousho and Ayano, who are again talking about Kazuma. Ayano, like everyone else, believes Kazuma killed the three Kannagi, but the Sousho isn't sure and won't let Ayano take any actions until further notice. She leaves and the Sousho scorns his selfish daughter.
Kazuma is in Tokyo, walking in a crowd of people. We see a shadow flee from behind a "sale" sign after Kazuma looks behind him. Then the audience sees the Fuuga head kneeling in front of Genma and the Sousho again, having found Kazuma. The Sousho complement the Fuuga's skill, and then tells Genma to figure out who to send to confront Kazuma. He chooses Takeya and Shingo, who are then seen driving on a highway with Ayano n the back seat without permission. Takeya and Ayano don't want to be caught, but Shingo only wants to kill Kazuma by himself, or at least dismember him.
The car stops in front of a construction site and the group runs out towards Kazuma's location. Ayano is suddenly trapped in a wind barrier, but the other two keep running until they get to Kazuma. Shingo shouts at his enemy and Kazuma turns around, a little confused. The two Kannagis tell him about the crime and then we see Ayano blasting a hole through her cage. Kazuma promptly states that he didn't kill them and tries to leave without a fuss. Takeya asks for him to tell the Sousho that, but he refuses the chops part of a nearby bulldozer off and a Fuuga member jumps out. Shingo begins forming a ball of fire, but Kazuma uses his wind to make it explode and knock the two Kannagis unconscious. A glowing blast of wind suddenly appears that slices off part of a nearby building crushing the two branch members. Kazuma shouts to the sky that those actions were "a breach of our contract!"
Then Ayano appears, and immediately concludes that Kazuma killed her two relatives and begins attacking him. Kazuma dodges all of her attacks without using any wind magic, trying to explain himself, to no avail. Ayano lauches a fire ball at Kazuma, but he slices it in half with ease. Kazuma repeats himself but Ayano still doesn't believe him and tells her to figure out who did it herself. He then insults her fighting saying "if that's all the next head's got then the family's in serious trouble." Ayano insults her cousin back but Kazuma doesn't care, so he rises into the air and vanishes. We see him again floating over the city, thinking that he doesn't like to be used even though he'd be happy to irritate the Kannagi.