Mitsukake. The second eldest of the Suzaku seishi is a tad more fortunate than Chiriko because he had a rather nice speech that wasn't involved with his death scene. He is one who many think of as silent, strong, and capable. However, I have an additional opinion about Mitsukake: he was self-absorbed and/or self-centered.

Before you reach for the link that will pop up my e-mail address and get ready to flame me, let me explain. This came up because I received something in a music evaluation that made me think and consider Mitsukake in a new light. The evaluations I received told me that I was playing too intimately and that I needed to be more generous with the sound. In other words: play louder, your performance was too personal and you needed to share the music with the other people in the room and not keep it to yourself. Mitsukake did the same thing and did not share himself with the other Suzaku seishi.

Mitsukake's power was one of healing, something he could only do once a day. In order to either complement this somewhat limited power or because he just wanted to, Mitsukake trained as a doctor so that he could help the people that needed his abilities. Mitsukake's life and joy was embedded in the help he could offer these people and in one other person: Shoka.

Shoka and Mitsukake were what could possibly be described as soul mates because they worked intimately with each other and because they were so very much in love. However, Mitsukake left one day and traveled about in order to offer help to those he could not reach locally. He left Shoka behind with plans to return to her, but did not return in time. Shoka caught a plague and died with the wish to see her beloved one more time before she left. Mitsukake became consumed by grief and became a hermit who refused to help humans.

This is one of the reasons why I consider Mitsukake to be selfish. A healing gift is one that is meant to help the world, yet he kept it to himself when he refused to help others. The only reason why he brought it back out again was because Shoka came back as a plague spreading, tentacle wielding demon. (And you thought tentacled critters were limited to the more hentai animes.)

Even when Mitsukake revealed himself to be a Suzaku seishi with healing powers, his exorcism of Shoka can be seen as a selfish action. He didn't help the seishi because the miko, one of the hopes of Konan, was ill, but because his love Shoka was the one who was spreading the disease. Please remember that Mitsukake was still refusing to help Miaka until the other shichi seishi brought up Shoka's name.

After that incident, Mitsukake joined up with the rest of the shichi seishi to summon Suzaku. Yet he still did not share himself. When I say 'share himself,' I don't mean just use his abilities to help the quest to summon their local deity. Sharing himself requires him to socialize with the other Suzaku seishi and not hide himself away in his little world of herbs.

Why doesn't Mitsukake share bits of wisdom and advice like Chichiri? He had a brief wandering stint and surely picked something along on his travels. Surely Mitsukake wouldn't wait for things to get desperate before he would help and advise his (younger) fellow shichi seishi.

Oh. Wait.

Isn't that what he did when he spoke with Miaka at Nuriko's death?

Mitsukake began to open up when Nuriko died, which was a good thing because the rest of the Suzaku seishi were speechless with shock. No one else seemed to be capable of calming Miaka after the first death. After this show of feeling, Mitsukake unfortunately retreated back into his shell and did not emerge until another Suzaku seishi died. Chiriko's death brought the healer in Mitsukake out again, but only to flail in rage since he could not do anything to prevent Chiriko's death. It seems that Mitsukake is slowly reassociating himself with the outside world again, but it is not happening fast enough.

Like some of the other seishi, Mitsukake's best scene was his death scene. Nice glowing chi balls everywhere. A sad look on both his face and on those around him. Tears too. And the thought that he didn't do enough.

It is only during the war when Suzaku has been sealed that Mitsukake actually wakes up and attempts to rejoin the human race. He is actually interacting with the people around him for once and helps them with their injuries. It's too bad that it took a power loss for Mitsukake to realize how much he could have done for the people. And it is with this realization that Mitsukake dies, giving up his life for the people he had previously scorned in memory of his Shoka.

Finito.

Looking for a place to send the flames? confuzcius@yahoo.com seems to be open.