Any comment on the artwork(TM)?
As a man of my word, let me first of all applaud Yukiji for being possessed instead of looking for someone else to be possessed. Wait, this line sounds weird, doesn’t it?
There is no way to be sure of what has happened, and as usual we have a lot of questions yet to be answered. Did Yukiji willfully offer herself to be the new host of the evil spirit? Did the evil spirit forcefully take over Yukiji’s body? Was the transfer accidental? What was Isumi’s role in this transfer? How is Hinagiku now?
Things get even more complicated as Nagi wakes up and sees Isumi wandering in front of her, while Maria says that she does not see our adorable ghost buster. The entire thing has gone from interestingly spiritual to unplesantly creepy with just a wandering yet “invisible” Isumi. Now nobody can deny the importance of this little one with no sense of direction…
Rest assured. This is not Yukiji.
On another note, we now see that the evil spirit has complete control over Yukiji, while he could only make Hinagiku weak and tired. If you would like to look an explanation, I can offer you one: it could be that Shirosakura has been protecting Hinagiku’s mind and body from being controlled by the evil spirit, but it drains Hinagiku’s energy. It would mean that it isn’t the possession itself, but the defence against the possession, that has made Hinagiku weak. Of course, I can give no solid evidence to support my claim, so if it turns out that Hinagiku has also been possessed and becomes even crazier than Yukiji, I can make no complaints.
For now, though, I am very grateful that Hinagiku’s “image” is being protected – then again, I cannot fault Yukiji for her behaviours. Not this time.
The point is, Yukiji’s mind and body have been completely controlled by the evil spirit – it now calls itself Higanman – so no matter how mad or how evil Higanman is, Yukiji is not responsible for it. More than anything, Yukiji is now the biggest victim of Higanman’s deeds: not only that she has completely lost control of her own mind and body, but she is (admit it) unfairly held responsible by the Ayasakis for the troubles that are not caused by her. Remember, Hayate and Ikusa are hitting Yukiji’s body.
Maybe this is the right thing to do to kidnappers.
I am not entirely sure whether I should criticise Hayate for attacking Yukiji. On the one hand Yukiji has been a huge headache for Hayate, so it might be understandable that he would like to give her a really huge payback with this opportunity. On the other hand Hayate should know full well that this time Yukiji is innocent, so once again it is unfair to punish Yukiji for something that she is not responsible for. Of course, Hayate has done a bit of calculation and concludes that Yukiji can survive his attacks, so he is actually trying to save her instead of attacking her. Then again, the expression on Hayate’s face as he attacks Yukiji reads pretty much like “I hate you so I attack you and I do not give a damn of what happens to you”, so…
Higanman seems a bit easier to understand. Most likely he is just a dead pirate who is pissed off because Hayate and Hinagiku have taken away his precious curry packs. It doesn’t really matter if a spirit cannot consume curry, or if he would lose the right to the things he once owned upon his death. What matters is that Higanman could only watch as his treasures were taken away by some random intruders. Anyone with the slightest bit of dignity would not allow that to happen – the Hell with logical or legal arguments.
You have to ask Isumi…
I don’t think Higanman aimed at the King’s Jewel in the beginning. Most likely he simply saw during the fight that Ikusa was in possession of something, so he took it away to give Hayate a taste of “the pain of losing something”. Higanman never intended to use the King’s Jewel to do anything, and he might be equally (but pleasantly) surprised that the King’s Jewel could considerably strengthen him. If this really is the case, then Higanman would be nothing more than a very powerful yet clueless troublemaker, instead of someone who has been targeting the King’s Jewel, hence knows the secret of the stones and thus could help “push the plot (TM) forward”. With great power comes great stupidity, anyone?
No matter what, Higanman is now the most imminent threat to Hayate, mostly because the pirate has taken away the King’s Jewel, and is (accidentally) exploiting its power. Meanwhile, for some reason Nagi has seemingly put herself into a situation that requires her to scream. That being said, I am not entirely convinced that she is in any real danger. After all, with the bad guy currently busy with the Ayasaki brothers, who else could cause troubles to our main heroine?
So, either Nagi is really under attack, or that Nagi is seeing something that surprises or even scares her. What could that be?
Hayate Report 
Yukiji rarely ever gets a chance to be a badass but when she does get that chance here, she still ends up being an inconvenience. On the plus side, seeing “Yukiji” stop Ikusa’s attack was satisfying. In a way, just like Masamune, the evil spirit can bring out someone’s latent strength… then again, I’m sure Yukiji was already capable of bringing out her full strength if someone important to her is in danger.