Episode 14: The One Behind the Forest Fire
Summary:
A beautiful young girl trudges through the bitter cold mountains. She collapses and is rescued by Riku. He takes her to the corpse dealer.
When Moroha, Towa, and Setsuna arrive at the corpse dealer. They learn the girl's name is Tamano, and she had escaped from Homura, an evil god from the Northern mountains. As the story goes, Tamano was raised by her grandparents at the foot of the Northern snowy mountains. Just after she turned 13 marriage proposals would arrive almost everyday. Her beauty attracted men from far and wide.
One night Homura suddenly appeared and dragged her away to the snowy mountains. She was forced to live in his mansion, which strangely always felt like Spring. At first he was kind, but then he became so jealous that if anyone as much as looked at Tamano, he would burn them to death. (Homura means flame in Japanese.) To keep men from looking at her, Homura locked her up. She managed to escape down the mountain. That's when Riku found her.
Since Riku is now in danger, the half Princesses are asked to slay Homura. The girls head to the mansion on Kirara and Takechiyo. As they get close, Takechiyo gets cold, drops the girls off, and returns home. Once entering the mansion, they find Homura frantically looking for Tamano. As they engage in battle, Homura reveals it was he who burned the forest as ordered. (Zero ordered him to do so. Sesshomaru hears and simply walks away....probably knowing they will survive.) Towa becomes enraged hearing this.
Back at the corpse dealers, Tamano is worried about the girls so she and Riku head to the mansion as well.
Returning to the fight at the mansion, just as Homura powers up (Goku style), Tamano calls from the flying Takechiyo. She tells him to stop. When Tamano insists she will never return to him, Homura begins to burn everything in sight even himself. He is reduced to nothing but ash. Again, no bounty for Moroha.
After the ordeal, Tamano thanks the girls and heads back to her grandparents.