Needless – Chapter 97

City arc is quickly becoming one of my favorite arcs largely due to how events are unfolding.  With virtually all the main characters making reappearances, several intense battles between unexpected fighters, and insight to major questions in throughout the manga (the Needless Hunt and Stigmata being prime examples), what’s not to love?  But probably my favorite aspect of City arc has been the individual time spent with all the characters, especially those who never had much time by themselves, like Solva for example.  This month, we were reminded of how awesome Solva is and how formidable a fighter she can be.  Actually, scratch that, we got to see her be even more outstanding and amazing than ever before.

Solva has always been a character that never really had a chance to stand by herself.  Whenever Solva was around, you could always count on Seto being right there with her.  They were always together, mainly because of their maturing friendship and that their fragments complimented one another to be a perfect pair, but they were always together.  But now, with the recent developments having them split up to take on an opponent each, we’re finally getting to see Solva by herself.

And wow, isn’t she something?  Solva has always had one of the better fighters in Needless thanks to her possession of the powerful fragment Magnetic World.  It has been utilized in numerous ways, from being an offensive fragment to a defensive fragment to even one that helps her and others move around.  It’s one of the most practical and useful fragments in Needless.  And just when you’re thinking we’ve seen it all from her previous fights, Solva uses some creativity with her fragment (not to mention sheer power and wit) to show us something completely original.  The first was her creating those metal wings with her magnetic powers and using her new ‘shield’ to ‘attack’.  And not just that, as a distraction, she was able to perform an absolute showstopper when she decimated her opponent by crushing them with an entire office building.  How incredible is that?  These few pages showed us not only how mighty Solva is but also how intelligent she is during a battle.  Solva was able to read the fluctuating situations and take the best course of action.  She was able to protect herself, do enough of an attack that would normally kill an enemy Needless, and then work to rescue Seto all quite swiftly.  Not to mention her personality throughout the fight was spectacular, too, switching between maniac to pleasant when she just wanted to mock or humiliate her opponent.  She really is a remarkable fighter and character and I’m more than pleased to see her featured to this degree in Chapter 97.  It’s about time we saw Solva be this awesome in Needless.

The remainder of the chapter revolved around Mio together with Setsuna and Kuchinashi and a continuation of Seto’s dire situation.  I particularly liked seeing Mio take a step back from Simeon and do what she thinks is correct.  It’d be wrong for her to go after Cruz after seeing her travel with him for so long and after they developed this special kind of friendship.  You do have to feel bad for Mio in this situation, too, being torn between the two sides.  One on hand, you know she wants to be with Setsuna and Kuchinashi.  On the other, you know she wants to be with Cruz, too.  It will be interesting to see how the two sides try to influence Mio and see how she responds.  I doubt either side wants to trouble Mio either, evident with Setsuna allowing Mio to make a decision based on her feelings.  Should be fun to see what happens here with her.  As for Seto, it appears the Eden’s Seeds are taking effect within her body to the point where her retina turned black.  It will be interesting to see what happens to Seto after this, if she gains a Stigmata or not.  One thing is for sure, she will become even more powerful and this might prove costly to Simeon in the long run.  But first things first and Seto needs to survive the horrific condition she is presently in.  Should be fun to see what happens next to Mio and Seto in Chapter 98.