The rumored inhuman in the town is actually..Kizuna; Ningen Fushin episode 9 Impression

Finally the group is back together again after from two weeks ago both Zem and Curran takes a complete hiatus. The episode starts with a rumor of a stepping man; an inhuman which likes to abduct little children at the night and it's story is covered by a specific third rate magazine "Lemuria". This episode will finally introduces us to the green haired girl with glasses from the opening animation; who has yet to appear in person. Olivia Taylor is a journalist for the Lemuria magazine and she is practically the one who writes about stepping man. Apart from her journalist works, she is also an official adventurer and by the look of her unpredictable, and a bit clumsy acrobatic movement, it's save to say that her class is a hybrid between monk and martial artists. The story about the stepping man and why it has a connection to the survivor is because during his spare time, Kizuna loves reading about the local inhuman story. And somehow Olivia overheard their arguments about stepping man storytelling credibility; inciting further conversation between them; making her getting acquainted with them.

Kizuna be like: Stop u inhuman!... meanwhile 

Somehow the story links to that rumored inhuman because Zem incidentally witnesses a little girl being snatches in front of him. Here the audiences witnesses how Kizuna can presence Zem's being in danger even if they were not nearby. As he and Nick search for him, they finally saw him hugging a little girl trying to protect her from a semi transparent person. Yes; The rumoured inhuman is neither a ghost nor a demon like what the magazine said; but someone wearing an invincible cloak. Using his doppelganger technique, Kizuna tries to confuse and catch the perpetrator. To his surprise, s/he knows well how to use a chain and can do acrobatic movement leading the culprit leaving from that scene

I thought he would be like The Dark Knight "sigh"

The little girl that Vem saves from the inhuman's clutches introduces herself as Reina. She claims that she is hunting for that stepping man; whose hurts her mother before, making the poor lady undergoes medications in the hospital. In addition, She also asks Zem to let her becoming his disciple. However, the party knows that Zem had an unfortunate incident in the past because of a certain little girl who can't accept his rejection. Therefore, they were trying to "protect" him instead by rejecting her idea.  Zem calmly replies that he may accept her assistance after 15 years or so; showing that he is actually trying to cope with his traumatic past. Ok..so after witnessing a mysterious person trying to kidnap little children at night, the Survivor decides to make a man hunting and turn it into a job. prompting them to visit a certain bar in where a group of bounty hunters normally make their living.

The more this man talks, the more charge he gets 🤣

The Survivors is already known among the bounty hunter as a legit adventurer party. However, they are still newbie in the world of man hunting. Therefore, the bartender only gives them an easier target as a test if they are up for a bigger hunting. They were given task to apprehend a man names Hale Hardy in Garbage collection; technically he lives in a slum where petty criminals and drug users roaming free. The stench of that place; just as Curran says, is enough to gather maggots let's alone being hygiene. After a few skirmish with local thugs, they found the target and immediately caught him. Before leaving, an ex-priest names Nalgarva tries to stop them from taking his patient without his consent. For the first time, the word " Yellow Devil Disease" is mentioned. How the disease looks like and how it affect the patients is still a mystery as we barely see anything about it yet. So, for now we can only hope for another episode to explain the disease.  Alas it seems that both Hale Hardy and Mr Nalgarva hardly know about the stepping man. Yet, the apprehended man mentions a mysterious reporter giving free candies to little children and s/he might be one of the prime suspect. It takes no brainer that the one kidnapping the children is a reporter and s/he likes giving candies. We knows who it is even before she reappears right xD?

The plot twist can't be this convenience ..right?..Curran?

The plot twist in this episode is not too surprising considering that Olivia herself is the writer of the stepping man. The story telling is pretty much Peter Parker trying to cash in about Spiderman here. And with Lemuria being a third rate magazine, an overhyped story about scary spiritual being (which is actually a man-made Hoax) is sometimes needed to attract more readers (poor Kizuna XD). The problem here is Olivia doesn't make Stepping Man as your "friendly neighborhood Spiderman" but a problem for the community; making the street unsafe for children. She is neither innocent nor legit journalist but a clumsy con-artist trying to build "ghost story" with her being the main actress. Even worse, she doesn't stop only on scaring them but also start kidnapping them for real; making her a true lawbreaker. So, sooner or later the Survivors have to stop her; making sure that she got the punishment she deserved no matter what is her reasoning to do so. In my humble opinion, this episode is quite predictable at best and I can see a decrease of pictures quality in the animation (like from the beginning part when they meet Olivia). However, It has it own strength though; like when they are dealing with the bandit who tries to extort them. Instead of just leaving him, the anime gives a bit extra treatment to the character by picturing the reason for his wrongdoing (consuming drug to flee from reality) and how he gives them extra information about Hale; pretty much giving him a "small redemption arc". This anime treats even an extra character as a person with problem instead of just leaving him as it is. Giving us a better enclosure for even the tiniest detail.