Elsewhere, Maru ran into Cross, his older brother.
Without even looking back at him, Cross told him to go back and stay with the Earthlings. Maru tried to understand why. He could tell from the people he had met so far that there were good and bad people here, just like on their home planet. Cross understood that as well, but he reiterated that unless their ideas of what was good and what was bad were the same, it was meaningless, and it was not for Maru to decide. On top of that, at the moment the matter had split opinion. Either they coexisted, or they invaded.
Maru objected at once. His brother reminded him of his job as a warrior. He needed to spend more time with the humans, and then present his evidence for consideration. For now, Cross had his own work to do and did not want to be bothered.
Maru tried to get him to stop working for a moment and have breakfast together in the morning, bringing up how the sorcerers had shown him some nice places around town. Again he was shut down, and told that his brother was busy elsewhere.
At a subway station, having failed to scan himself through the gate, Sudugi realised he had forgotten to link his student pass and quickly told Yuka to head off without him.
Sometime later, on a rooftop overlooking the city, Sudugi found who he thought was Maru and told him he should probably step back from the edge. If anyone saw him from below, they would call the police thinking he meant to jump. He went on to ask what rules Maru had on his own planet, and was told to shut up before the alien darted off.
Standing there, entirely confused about what had just happened, Sudugi began to get angry, unable to understand what was wrong with Maru.
Not long after, Usami assigned Yuka and Sudugi a brand new mission. A man-eating shark was on the loose. It was a simple job, and all they needed to do was exorcise the beast. However, its location in Gifu left everyone confused, since there was no ocean anywhere nearby.
Moving into the mission, the trio travelled to Gifu Prefecture by train, as instructed, a journey of around two hours. While brooding over the previous night's events, Sudugi let Maru in on the fact that only cursed spirits appeared in Tokyo. They were a by-product of leaking cursed energy from Japanese citizens that eventually took shape.
For years now, the so-called suppressed threat missions, like the one they were on, had not happened outside Tokyo. Because of that, Sudugi could only assume that the new occurrence was because aliens had arrived.
Immediately bristling, Maru dismissed the idea, insisting that there was no correlation between his species and a random swimming shark that had just shown up.
Arriving in Gifu, the crew were given the rundown on the current events. The shark had apparently already claimed two victims, witnessed by at least three people. After interviewing one witness, an old man with cataracts, Yuka remained sceptical, but pressed on to meet the next one.
Off by themselves, Sudugi and Maru investigated the woods together.
After a moment, Sudugi asked Maru whether incidents like this were happening all across Japan because of a secret alien invasion. Offended by that, Maru snapped back that humanity's morality and rationality had not developed enough to criticise the actions of aliens. Blown away by the freeloader, Sudugi reminded him that the Samurans were the ones seeking refuge on Earth.
Confused, Maru asked why Sudugi was so on edge and acting suspicious towards him.
Sudugi lost his temper, because he knew they could both die at any moment on an assignment like this one. He let Maru know that he did not want somebody who simply followed orders weighing him down.
Fighting back, Maru said he could not get over how much Sudugi sounded like his own older brother, and asked him why he thought he was an idiot.
Letting all of it out, Sudugi brought up how easily Maru had subdued the kidnapper with his mysterious cursed technique, and asked why he had not just done that from the start. Maru tried to explain that his mission parameters had been different, but Sudugi only found it disgusting that he had put his orders above the life of a random child.
Then, taking both of the boys by complete surprise, the mysterious land shark made its appearance.
Quickly getting over the fact that it really was a shark, Sudugi dropped into his stance and prepared to attack the creature with the cursed tool Hanayagi, but stopped when Maru warned him that using the cursed tool could ignite a wildfire.
Acting on instinct, Maru launched himself forward, took hold of the shark and screamed back for Sudugi to strike it without using fire. Feeling as though he were being underestimated, Sudugi went to attack, and immediately stopped upon seeing a man's face emerge from the shark's lower body.
Looking at them, the man noted that he had not seen the two of them around here before, which shocked the boys, who screamed out in horror that it was some old geezer.
Getting the pair of them to sit down, the man tried saying that he really was not an old man. He was only forty-six years old. Then he asked what the hell they were doing out in the countryside. Cutting them off before they could continue talking, he further revealed that he was a former Jujutsu High alumnus.
Getting back on track, Maru relayed the mission details to him and asked whether he was the man-eating shark that had been terrorising the region. He denied it, since he only ate snacks and drank beer. His name was Osada, and he was a former jujutsu sorcerer. What they were hunting was not a shark at all, but a man-eating tiger that went by the name of Tadanosuke.
Having an in-depth understanding of Japan's map and what lived on it, Sudugi expressed disbelief that a tiger could even exist out here. Osada explained that a pair of tigers had been smuggled into the country by illegal foreign traders about a quarter of a century ago, and that eventually they had made their home in the mountains of Gifu. However, the recent restoration of a massive solar power plant at the top of the mountain had caused the river to dry up from the excess heat, forcing Tadanosuke to descend in search of water and prey, which had led to the attacks on the villagers.
That, in the old man's eyes, was when he, wearing a shark costume while pursuing the tiger, had been seen by the locals, who assumed he was the one responsible for the killings.
In truth, Osada revealed, he did not actually want to hurt the tiger. Instead, he wanted to save Tadanosuke, and planned to contain her at his home, far away from the town.
Suddenly, Osada noticed something and shot off at high speed towards it.
His séance cursed technique allowed him to summon and use the power of whatever he wore. By donning a shark costume, he could swim through the air and gained a nose sensitive to the scent of blood.
Reaching the point of interest, Osada darted around the tree expecting the tiger, and instead discovered blood splattered across the bark. His nose being what it was, he had sniffed this one out.
Realising it was a trap, Osada turned around right as the tiger leapt down from above, ripping its claws into the back of his shark suit and sending him tumbling across the ground.
Dashing in to help, Sudugi intercepted the tiger and knocked it away from Osada. At the same time, Maru rushed over and tended to the wounded sorcerer. He went to tell Sudugi to hold off for a moment, but Osada told them it was fine.
Haunted by memories of Tadanosuke's playful days as a cub, Osada accepted that the tiger he had once known was gone. With tears in his eyes, he begged Sudugi to release his old friend from her pain.
Moments later, Tadanosuke lashed out, trying to kill the sorcerers.