Spoilers for TV anime Episode 10, “Let’s Split the Curse.” No spoilers from later, unaired novel material.
Keigetsu suddenly has a lot more presence in Episode 10.
By “allure,” I do not mean explicit sexualization. It is the combination of her sharp attitude, hard stare, stubborn pride, and the vulnerability that leaks out once she starts caring about Reirin. Keigetsu is still difficult, still prickly, but now emotionally exposed.
Then Consort Shu and Reirin turn the emotional friendship episode into complete chaos.
A hostage is taken. Keigetsu stops. The plan works.
It should be over.
A few seconds later:
Reirin: “Got an opening!”
The hostage resigns from being a hostage.
Then she stomps the enormous curse centipede.
Then she picks it up.
With her bare hand.
This woman is catastrophically unsuited to the hostage role.
1. Why Keigetsu becomes so compelling in Episode 10
The official title is “Let’s Split the Curse.” Reirin and Keigetsu confront the curse threatening the empress, while Keigetsu tries to shoulder responsibility for the Shu family’s wrongdoing.[1][2][3]
Earlier, Keigetsu’s jealousy, aggression, pride, and self-protection were usually in the foreground.
Episode 10 does not erase those traits. It adds affection.
She softens without becoming soft.
She is still abrasive, but she cares.
She still acts tough, but now she has something to lose.
That is why she suddenly feels more vivid and even elegant. The appeal comes from contradiction: pride, embarrassment, fear, resolve, and affection all occupying the same face.
2. Consort Shu’s hostage plan actually works at first
It would be too easy to say, “Reirin is strong, so the hostage plan was pointless.”
It was not pointless.
When Consort Shu restrains Reirin—more precisely, Reirin’s mind in Keigetsu’s body—and threatens her with a blade, Keigetsu stops.
She does not want Reirin hurt.
Post-broadcast recaps describe the same sequence: Reirin is taken hostage, Keigetsu suspends the counter-curse, and the centipede is released.[4]
So Consort Shu reads Keigetsu correctly.
Threatening Reirin can stop Keigetsu.
That matters because it shows how much their relationship has changed.
The plan succeeds emotionally.
Its problem is what happens next.
3. Reirin destroys the rules with “Got an opening!”
The hostage role assumes that the captive remains the person who must be protected.
Reirin refuses to stay in that role.
She waits.
An opening appears.
She strikes.
She escapes.
The entire leverage structure collapses because the captive herself changes the situation.
And this is not a random power-up invented for the punch line.
Reirin has always tried to train despite her sickly body. Once she gained Keigetsu’s healthy body, her drive and physical initiative became even more obvious.
So the comedy is actually character payoff:
years of established Reirin behavior arrive at the worst possible moment for Consort Shu.
The story sets up the classic “captured princess” symbol, and Reirin personally punches her way out of the symbol.
4. Then comes the bare-handed curse centipede
If the scene ended after the counterattack, it could still pass as a cool escape.
It does not end.
The huge centipede used for the curse gets loose.
Reirin stomps it.
Then she picks it up.
Bare-handed.
TOHO animation itself published the Episode 10 centipede sequence as an official highlight clip.[5]
The supposedly terrifying ritual object instantly becomes something Reirin treats like a piece of cleanup.
Meanwhile Keigetsu is the one visibly repelled by the insect.
The roles invert completely.
Keigetsu, the curse expert: absolutely not.
Reirin, not the curse expert: I caught it.
Of course that is funny.
In real life, however, do not imitate her. Nagoya City warns that centipedes can bite when contacted and that bites may cause intense pain, swelling, and fever.[6]
In reality, after “Got an opening!” comes gloves.
Reirin skipped that part.
5. Why the scene is so funny
The structure is almost mechanically perfect.
- The episode sincerely develops Reirin and Keigetsu’s friendship.
- Consort Shu arrives and shifts the tone toward horror with a blade and a hostage.
- Keigetsu genuinely stops, so the danger feels real.
- Reirin escapes by herself.
- She physically processes the giant centipede too.
- Keigetsu ends up looking more horrified by the bug.
The comedy does not erase the serious emotion.
Keigetsu stops because she truly does not want to lose Reirin.
Reirin fights back because she truly is the kind of person who acts instead of waiting.
So the emotional logic stays serious while the result becomes absurd.
The proof of friendship and the joke are the same action.
That is why Episode 10 lands so well.
6. “Split the curse” gets paid off in a very Reirin way
Reirin wants to share danger and responsibility with Keigetsu.
Keigetsu, in turn, will stop her own plan to protect Reirin.
They are no longer enemies.
But when the crisis arrives, Reirin ends up handling an unreasonable amount of the physical work herself.
Escape the hostage situation.
Counterattack.
Stomp the centipede.
Pick up the centipede.
Practically offer Keigetsu the last step.
The person who said “let’s split it” has already completed most of the physical section.
That is extremely Reirin.
Keigetsu, meanwhile, has gained a weakness precisely because she has learned to care about someone.
If nobody matters to you, there is nothing to threaten.
Once someone matters, fear increases.
Episode 10 treats that change sincerely as friendship, then immediately adds the joke: unfortunately for the villain, the hostage is Reirin.
7. Conclusion: Consort Shu chose the wrong opponent
The plan made sense.
Restrain Reirin.
Keigetsu stops.
And she did.
That was the winning line.
Unfortunately, the captive was Reirin.
She waits for an opening.
She strikes when it appears.
She stomps the escaped curse centipede.
Then she picks it up bare-handed.
Consort Shu planned for a helpless hostage.
That component simply never arrived.
Episode 10 first gives us Keigetsu’s awkward affection and resolve, then ends with Reirin physically demolishing the hostage trope itself.
“Let’s Split the Curse.”
The curse is fifty-fifty. Escaping captivity is self-service.
And the centipede is hand-held.
Ridiculous. Perfect.
Sources
- Official TV anime site futsutsuka.net
- TOHO animation, Episode 10 preview youtube.com
- ABEMA TIMES on Reirin and Keigetsu’s Episode 10 friendship times.abema.tv
- Episode 10 viewer recap used to cross-check the hostage/counterattack/centipede sequence note.com
- TOHO animation, official Episode 10 centipede clip youtube.com
- Nagoya City, “Centipedes and house centipedes city.nagoya.jp
