This volume covers a very angsty and what seems like a potentially transitional story in the series. As I have in the past, I can't help but compare the manga and the same episode in the anime. In this instance the manga has much more depth to offer. In addition, he anime's timelines for the process were a little different and the characters actions, especially in the case of Tetsuhiro, made a lot more sense in the manga.

When the ministry discovers a discrepancy in the number of people disappearing in Hong Kong it appears that a common denominator is the Cruise Ship The Queen Camellia and Tsuzuki and Hisoka are sent in undercover to investigate. Because Hisoka is an empath being forced to spend time with so many people proves difficult, but Tsuzuki is in his element acting as a card dealer in the onboard casino. To the dismay of both Shinigami one of the passengers turns out to be the sadistic doctor, Muraki, who is caring for the daughter of the ship's owner. When a rash of murders starts Tsuzuki immediately suspects Muraki, but when Muraki shows up dead himself he and Hisoka are forced to look for other suspects.

I felt terrible for Hisoka in this story. Here we are presented with the details of his torture and death at the hands of Muraki. Hisoka's memories of the accident do serve as a catalyst to show how much he has grown to trust Tsuzuki, not that he would willingly admit it. I do enjoy the relationship between these two. Right now I'm not getting any BL vibes from it, just an affectionately antagonistic feel. It makes an already interesting mystery/murder/paranormal story even more appealing to me.

The artwork is still very nice although it troubled me that Hisoka and Camille looked so much alike in some places. It made it a little hard to tell them apart in the face only panels. The sidebars are always an interesting bit of trivia. The manga-ka seemed to get annoyed by her fan mail a little much although some of her complaints made sense (who wants to read about other authors in your fan mail?) She does make the comment about feeling like these characters are her children, which is an idea I'm personally rather familiar with.

There is only one more disc to the anime (three episodes) for me to watch and I'm guessing it will continue to follow the course of the manga. I am very happy that the manga has more volumes than that and am really looking forward to it. ( )