When a rogue giraffe spirit causes an unfathomable hiking accident， that’s more than enough reason for Kotoko to swoop in and clear things up。 But with Kuro’s cousin （and Kotoko’s nemesis） Rikka and her ability to shape the future involved， the giraffe isn’t the only one sticking its neck out…In/Spectre is gonna In/Spectre and that turns out to be the case here as we dive into a long， long story arc of the kind we haven’t really seen since the first volume， plus we see return of the series’ prim When a rogue giraffe spirit causes an unfathomable hiking accident， that’s more than enough reason for Kotoko to swoop in and clear things up。 But with Kuro’s cousin （and Kotoko’s nemesis） Rikka and her ability to shape the future involved， the giraffe isn’t the only one sticking its neck out…In/Spectre is gonna In/Spectre and that turns out to be the case here as we dive into a long， long story arc of the kind we haven’t really seen since the first volume， plus we see return of the series’ primary antagonist （not that she sees herself like that）。Rikka gives this story the extra shot it needs; her powers and her acting at cross purposes plus her dislike for Kuro and Kotoko’s relationship makes her an excellent foil。 She gets sequestered with our leads， which is a lot like setting the fox loose in the henhouse and the suspense from that is well realized。In fact， having her around shines a different light on the most annoying part of the series， the un-relationship between Koro and Kotoko， and beyond Rikka’s complaining it shows that there might be more to Koro than just griping or wishing he was anything but Kotoko’s boyfriend。So in addition to this dynamic you have the overarching mystery， where a young woman beguiles a bunch of hormonal college men and ends up involving them in her attempts to stem the tide of a curse that’s been dogging （giraffing？） her family for decades。Honestly， the less said about this the better as the surprises and twists are flying fast and furious， plus the uneasy feeling that the solution that Kotoko is heading towards just might all be part of some inscrutable plot by Rikka to force Kotoko into an arrangement she’s not happy about。 It’s like a layer of In/Spectre on top of In/Spectre and it’s wonderful。There are some interesting points raised about just how bad Rikka truly is and she at least gives lip service to some regret over a death caused by the incident that started the whole series off。 She’s better developed than a lot of antagonists and even with what we’ve learned of her backstory in earlier volumes she manages to make herself very sympathetic。As always， the series’ big issue is how wordy it is。 This is clearly a light novel’s text bolted onto the manga format。 I just dinged another book for doing this， but it mostly works here because I find the content so much more interesting than most light novels （and， to it’s credit， the story does offer up one really grotesque and well-done fight scene）。The other big bummer is that this is a long story arc and is not yet near finished （there are two very important descriptors in this story’s title and neither has come to pass yet）。 With the slow release schedule it’s going to be a bit before we see this finale and I’d really rather it was out now， which is a good sign。4 stars - talky and wild is this story in a nutshell and it’s a big arc with big things and some nice small character moments。 I would say it’s some of the best of what this series does well and a recommend if you’ve been with it this long。 。。。more