Kunishige’s Gamble To Prove Himself to Chiaki! Kagurabachi Chapter 129 Spoilers!

In the previous Kagurabachi chapter, Shiba helps hold off the Masumi in spite of his grievous injuries, all to ensure his friend Kunishige’s dream can live.

Kagurabachi Chapter 129 is titled, “Smelting, Part 4”.

This chapter has 15 pages.

This is the third chapter with 15 pages from the “Smelting” series of chapters in the Seitei War Arc.

This could be one of the last chapters Hokazono made before the month-long hiatus from June to July.

The chapter begins where we left off as the Masumi looks down on the injured Shiba but then feels the rain getting hotter because of the forge’s temperature.

Kunishige elects to throw quickburn feedstock every 30 seconds.

The heat makes it difficult to breathe within the forge, meaning the men are about to lose their lives here.

As Urita observes Kunishige’s iron focus, he comments that a high humidity results in the furnace being harder to heat and the temperature harder to control, as normally smelting was done in the dry winter, rather than in spring.

Normally, such differences would just make the heat distribution uneven.

The “taming of the gods” stage has become a life of death battle because the “gods” or the elements have been angered, since they are dealing with a divine material like the Datenseki, so the natural kami are also feeling the wrath of such an invasive procedure.

Seeing that they cannot put out the fire safely because going inside is a hazard, the Masumi decide to erect a barrier around the area to reduce casualties.

Kunishige recalls the day Chiaki became the Princess Soga, of how she has slipped away from him.

Kunishige and Shiba talk about the situation, with Shiba being the one to inform Kunishige and that they had ignored something they always knew about her, that she was part of the powerful Soga Clan that rules this country in secret.

Shiba offers to send Kunishige’s letters to Chiaki but as we know, a year later, they were caught by a maid.

Although Shiba encourages Kunishige they can try again after a cooldown period, Kunishige asserts that they do not want to cause her trouble but deep down, Kunishige felt that he was never worthy of her to begin with.

Back in the present, Shiba teleports into the forge as Joji tells Kunishige to get back for his safety but Kunishige assures him that he can handle it as fires going out of control during smelting is a normal part of the standard process.

Seeing the connection to the bellows and the slight purple colouration of the fire, there was a light charge; with that fixed, Kunishige could resolve the situation.

Urita explains to Joji that a light charge is when iron sand feedstock is insufficient.

We really are learning about Hokazono’s deep research into the art of traditional Japanese swordsmithing.

At 7:35 PM, Joji exits the forge, seeing his own limit, and he sees the rain evaporate as it touches the ground.

Shiba tries to convince Kunishige to stop as he is seriously going to die here.

Kunishige recalls how he and Chiaki promised to each other they would always do fireworks once a year.

Kunishige asks if she is sure to do that, which is implied to be a romantic gesture between them, with a guy who comes from “trash”.

There is a discourse of “blood” throughout the chapter.

Frustrated with having this conversation so many times, Chiaki pinches Kunishige’s skin, saying that Kunishige is his own person just as she is.

Chiaki rejects her Soga clan blood as being what makes her valuable, which Kunishige compares himself with.

But now Chiaki has to live by the “value of her blood” for the sake of love, of her brother, of Kunishige and Japan, by offering herself to the perverted Mikaboshi King, who seeks her blood to have a Soga-Mikaboshi heir and then end her for their millennia-long revenge.

So through the blood of hardwork, Kunishige risks his life to rescue Chiaki from a destiny she has long resisted.

Plus this devotion, aka Kunishige’s blood, will forge the Datenseki into the Enchanted Blades, a weapon of devotion to the country, which will eventually evolve into their counter, Enten, the Enchanted Blade for pure protection.

In Kunishige’s eyes, we see two images burned there, the despair:

Of his father’s abuse towards his mother.

And of his mother killing herself in the bathtub.

Confirming that Kunishige lost his parents through violence.

However, when he closes his eyes briefly, he sees.

Hope.

Of Chiaki.

Shiba lets go of Kunishige, encouraging him to keep going.

Urita says that tatara smelting is a human undertaking and he believes that Kunishige is that human.

Recalling the last letter he sent Chiaki, Kunishige states that this is the day he proves himself as they begin to fix the unstable heat with the added ironworks.

Kagurabachi Chapter 130 will be released on August 31, 2026.

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