Hidden Problems

Hidden Problems is the forty-ninth episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the first episode of the fifth season.

Summary
The discovery of a discarded corpse not only reveals an old crime, but also old problems.

Episode in Detail


Having recovered from her previous fever, Yuw returns to her work at the police station. In the morning, after retrieving a cup of coffee, the overhears a conversation between Nithish Rabelais and Loco, during which they talk about the discovery of a female corpse related to a missing person case that went cold two years ago.

Yuw, panic stricken, rushes to the restroom, where Rutbouc instantly pries into the others thoughts, to try and find out what happened. As it turns out Yuw was the one to murder the woman, one late night after bumping into her in a bar and being overcome by negative emotions, because the woman reminded her of someone else. The giant forced herself onto the woman, then stabbed her and threw the corpse into the ocean surrounding the island.

Rutbouc, angry and disappointed with what she found out, gets into an argument with Yuw, who tries to come up with a plan to get out of the situation and avoid being caught, only to have the redhead dismantle all of the ideas as basically useless. During the cause of their fight, Rutbouc seems to lose control over her physical appearance and shifts into that of a lizard multiple times.

In an attempt to calm them both down, Yuw comes to the conclusion that they need to find Gwady, as the woman had promised them to help. Though still worried, Rutbouc manages to calm down a bit. The two are then interrupted by Yuw receiving a phone call from Ryahno, who is currently at the airport, and it seems that the giant completely forgot about having to leave for a mission with the rat dragon.

Once at the airport, Yuw meets up with Ryahno, while a very anxious Rutbouc is giving the giant a feeling of unease. It is soon replaced by a very strong obsession and urge to get closer to Ryahno, which escalates when the rat dragon heads to the restroom with Yuw following her. An attempt to sneak up on the woman is met with an instant readiness to hurt the giant, which causes her to snap out of her state of mind and back off. As she steps outside the restroom she realizes her actions and is put on edge by how Rutbouc didn't seem to have tried to stop her, accusing the other of hiding something from her. Her demand for an explanation is met with silence.

Later on during the flight, Yuw hesitantly, after a rough mental push from Rutbouc, approaches Ryahno on the topic of the redhead, revealing to the rat dragon, that they share a mind's space for quite a while already. Ryahno doesn't seem surprised at the revelation and instead appears very forthcoming, agreeing to try and help the two, by explaining to Yuw some of the problems she's struggling with.

Though the giant doesn't seem to understand them right away and ends up trying to find excuses for the examples of past acts that Ryahno gives her. As it turns out Yuw tends to subconsciously use forgetfulness in various shapes to get rid of responsibilities, even so much as forgetting previous help attempts by Ryahno. The rat dragon ends the conversation with the comment that if she forgot what she previously said, Yuw never cared about her opinion in the first place. Following the exchange, Ryahno refuses to explain any further on the matter and it takes a hurried intervention by Rutbouc to change her mind.

At the end of their mission together, Ryahno and Yuw find themselves at the home of the ant woman they had previously met up with, to stay the night. They are offered some local food, which Ryahno is enjoying, as opposed to Yuw, who misjudges her ability to handle spices and ends up making a rude comment on the local cuisine and people, which causes Ryahno to rudely elbow her in the side to make her shut up.

Late at night, Yuw finds herself unable to sleep, driven by anxiety over the discovered corpse and what to do about it. Rutbouc roughly tells her to calm down, but it barely helps and so she once more ends up without control over her lizard appearance, as Yuw's stress makes it hard for the redhead to control herself. The giant, overcome by a strong headache stumbles into the restroom, where upon looking into the mirror, she finds her eyes having turned orange as opposed to the usual purple.

Characters
The following characters appear in this episode (in order):


 * Tenyu Eesh Yuw
 * Hwong YiFung‏‎
 * Loco Wish
 * Nithish Rabelais
 * The Fisherman (mentioned, no name given)
 * The Murder Victim (no name given)
 * Rutbouc
 * Weido (hinted at, not directly named)
 * Gwadeweido (mentioned)
 * Kuraz Ryahno
 * The Ant Woman

Trivia

 * The beginning of the episode aimed to show off Loco's memory skills, since it was always one of her "super powers" and hadn't been used as much.


 * The murder victim reminded Yuw of Weido and it brought back memories of how close Weido was to Ryahno, hence the jealousy.


 * Ryahno was originally going to break Yuw's arm or at least give her burns in this episode, but due to the fact that they were on a mission and needed to work together, this was changed.


 * Some of the problems Yuw had, which were brought up by Ryahno, were based off of Zenny's real life experiences with some of her elders. The aim was to specifically point out that many people subconsciously remain ignorant by forgetting the responsibilities of their own actions.


 * The local food referred to at the end of the episode was heavily inspired by Mexican cuisine.

Links

 * Official link to the post on tumblr.