Chapter 023: Mountain Dogs

Mountain Dogs (山犬たち "Yamainutachi" ) is the 23th chapter of the Kekkaishi Manga written and illustrated by Yellow Tanabe

Summary
In a flashback, Ginro convinced Kouya to leave their mountain, due to shortage of food. The new location had the same problem, and Kouya wanted to return to the mountain, but Ginro died from starvation. Enraged at the loss of his friend, Kouya cursed humans for causing Ginro to die in such a way, and attacked the first one he came across. However, the human managed to kill Kouya.

In the present, Kouya is stunned to realize he isn't dying. Yoshimori recognizes that he isn't strong enough to defeat Kouya, and volunteers to be a decoy so Madarao can attack. Seeing them working together, Kouya grows angry, reminding Madarao that humans took everything from them. Yoshimori insists on standing in front of Madarao no matter what, and Madarao warns him that he'll die if he makes a mistake. Yoshimori says he has no intention of dying and leaving Tokine behind. Madarao prepares his strongest poison. Kouya vows to take back the mountain from the man who sealed him away, and tries to spear Yoshimori with his tail. Yoshimori slows down the attack by placing three Kekkai in front of himself. Kouya pierces all three, but Madarao sends his tail underground and spears Kouya from behind, stopping Kouya's tail only inches from Yoshimori. Kouya collapses to the ground.

Characters (in order of appearance)

 * Kouya
 * Madarao
 * Yoshimori Sumimura