Gekiha Dan – Episode 44

Whew, last episode was fairly good compared to the episode before it, but we haven’t had much in the way of full plot progression have we? Mostly taking on a bunch of dudes one at a time but the way forward isn’t quite clear

This episode will change that, and as an unfortunate consequence of needing to be heavily plot focused, this Episode does not have a battle in it.

In spite of this, however, it is intended to be rather heavy in terms of plot, and unlike the great Toppa Bashin Episode that must never be numbered, won’t waste our damn time.

With that all sorted, let’s jump right in shall we?

Leaving off from last episode, after a pretty explosive showing from Yuuki and Kajitsu sharing the pain of their lives being taken, Kajitsu collapsed seemingly due to her low constitution.

Oh, we’re heading to the White World? That’s somewhat amusing, the Cast has been to every World except White, which has only been visited by Yuuki

I would wonder if Magisa had any remedies for this, given she’s an all-powerful perfect Witch again.

Apparently the OP lass in pink hair who can literally restore energy and teleport people can do nothing for Kajitsu… I have a theory as to why but that’ll come later.

Dan feels a strong compulsion to assist them, as due to their interference in his life, he was sent to Grand-Lolo, met Magisa and Zungurii, and Kajitsu even resurrected Dan’s soul from it’s crushed state after losing to Otherworld King.

Point is, he owes them, whether he liked it or not at the time.

It seems Yuuki wasn’t just being a massive brood, there isn’t a feasible way of assisting Kajitsu from here, even with Magisa’s godlike abilities.

That-a-boy.

Yuuki states his resolve, he intends to separate Kajitsu from Mother Core entirely, at the moment, 99% of all of her constitution issues come as a result of having a body not fit to bear the power of Mother Core.

Yuuki intends to destroy that connection, which if he can do so safely, should mean that Kajitsu can just be a normal girl.

…Well a normal girl with the memories of the Green Princess but semantics.

Yuuki states his aim was always to try and exploit Otherworld King in order to achieve that same goal, but ultimately Otherworld King proved to be a little too intelligent in that regard, and Yuuki ended up putting in all that work for nothing.

Dan chimes in, stating that Yuuki’s track record didn’t leave him brooding over past mistakes like that.

Covering the episode title this time because its… Ominous.

The End of the Green Windstorm.

Alright bros, sisters and other siblings not factored within the two, brace yourselves.

Yuuki casually mentions that Mother Core is too strong for a single person to handle by itself… but as far as I can tell, we’ll at some point hear about not one but 2 cases where a single person could very much handle Mother Core no problem.

Yuuki chastises his own inability to protect Kajitsu from her own and claims he’s not worthy to play Ragna-Rock because of it…

Pfft, if that was enough to make people unworthy to play the card then this card would have been banned a long time ago.

Card’s Core boost is so nuts and the card itself is so iconic, it eventually got a revival that made it ridiculously playable.

Dan asks the obvious question now, can Magisa do something with her OP powers?

I’m… not quite sure what this “Fate” is meant to be, just fucking heal Kajitsu! Try!

DO. SOMETHING.

Geez lady.

I will try to interpret this as favourably as possible but it seems like the nature of their existence suggests that their fate is simply being “Cursed”, things are not allowed to go well for the 2 of them, Yuuki is trying to defy this idea.

Mai makes the wild suggestion that if they’re having so much trouble fighting their own misfortune that they should just stop doing so.

Zungurii gives the only reaction that makes sense, basically “WOAAAAHHHHH THAT’S NOT NICE”

Mai states that Kajitsu is happy enough just being together with Yuuki, my guess is that she’s presuming half the issue with Yuuki and Kajitsu running headfirst into misfortunes is due to the fact that they’re trying so hard to erase the cause of those misfortunes.

Clackey also suggests that relaxation and just spending time with Kajitsu without fighting might be a good idea.

Can’t fight every battle everywhere at once.

Kajitsu’s awake, and mentions that she had a dream of the “White rose”

In essence, she had a dream about Yuuki.

The cast are finally nearing the White World…

Also gods that gravity shift is going to be hella awkward given the way it’s positioned.

Dan wonders if there isn’t a fast and simple solution to deal with this cycle of misfortune the Momose Siblings have to deal with, Clackey, more practically, states that the best they can do at the moment is get rid of the existing problem.

In news of the more literal variety, it seems the newspapers have caught up with Otherworld King’s nonsense, he seems to be making sweeping improvements with greeting the world’s leaders.

Here he is, shaking his hand with the Arab Oil Magnate, Mister Ahad.

I’d be surprised that just a rich person with heavy investments in oil would be considered a nation leader, but I suppose given that Otherworld King is rather perceptive about these things, he’d know to look not for places of perceived power, but places of actual power.

Kenzo rehashes the current belief of Otherworld King’s intentions, namely that he wishes to instate his Core System on Earth as well.

While the nation’s leaders, corrupt as they are, are all for it, the public are significantly more skeptical, they’re not certain that receiving infinite renewable energy is worth the instating of some twit who very clearly is vying for World domination by offering an energy solution he can take away the second it benefits him.

The comments here are all in japanese but lemme cover some of them.

1 user is mentioning that compliance should be relatively easy, the fact that it’s significantly more convenient should make it acceptable.

Another user doesn’t trust the process of terraforming a whole freaking desert.

Another commenter states that Core Energy and the way Otherworld King wields it isn’t something Humans can normally do.

All relatively good points.

Something about the newspaper article’s image is bothering Magisa however.

She thinks the expression on Otherworld King’s face looks a bit off, so she wonders if he might be manipulating a Pantera Doll designed to replicate his appearance.

…Foreshadowing?

Suddenly, we’re in a dark room, full of PCs, and Leon’s burst through the door.

If you think the “Invisible Government” sounds a little like the Illuminati, you’re not wrong, that’s precisely what this room of people is.

They’ll be named a bit later but I’m going to name them now, the reason is, is that after the end of this series, there’s a description of what happens between the end of this series and the start of the next one.

And it all hinges on the group of men in this room.

These guys are the most horrific people in the series, they’re called the “Fixer”

They function precisely like a conspiracy theorist would think the illuminati works, they control the world by essentially holding capitalism by it’s balls. World Leaders don’t make decisions, at least not by themselves, they’re at least in some way influenced by these guys. Naturally they’re not so significant at the moment due to the fact that Otherworld King has completely ripped through their paper-thin preservation of the status quo.

Otherworld King points to the image in the newspaper, it seems that newspaper article didn’t depict Otherworld King whatsoever, and was infact a message from the Fixer indicating their existence to him in order to meet with him.

Otherworld King starts by essentially saying they’re a complete joke, noting that the fact they even exist means that the events throughout history show proof that the world’s been controlled.

Perhaps within a human lifespan this might go unnoticed, but Otherworld King has observed all possible human eras up to Kazan’s.

It’s possible that across longer periods of time, their existence is more obvious.

Otherworld King notes that due to their influence and his sudden presence, controlling the world is now functionally impossible for as long as they’re at odds with each other.

So Otherworld King brings in his loyal men, a mix of Otherworlders and Humans, in order to threaten the Fixer.

I’d take this more seriously if both Belga and Magical Crown, 2 Battlers who are proven jokes weren’t part of the roster.

But physically, yes, Otherworlders have significantly more power at their disposal than humans do, even if Humans can weaponize their wisdom to their advantage.

Otherworld King drops the ultimatum, if the Fixer value their continued existence and the continued preservation of Earth, they work for him.

No questions asked.

It seems the Fixer had planned to get Otherworld King to cave under duress, their fatal mistake was not realizing that Otherworld King didn’t wish to do the same the second he identified them.

Idiots.

This is probably the one situation where I kind of wished the Otherworld King was just a little more cruel, as wiping out the Fixer would have done everyone a LOT of favours.

We’ve finally arrived back at the White Castle, and hey this garden is here now.

It seems that weird garden that Dan passed through to Otherworld King is emulative of the White Castle but that Yuuki was here when he fought Belga, they’re very similar makes.

Dan and Zungurii ask if Yuuki and Kajitsu grew all the beautiful roses here, but Yuuki admits that he basically didn’t do any of it, and that Kajitsu is just completely insane

Kajitsu grew them in the colours of the Lightbearers, and therefore the colours of Battle Spirits.

By growing them with the philosophy of something intended to be enduring, she’d hoped that the Roses would wither less.

Nothing quite like home I suppose, after all they tend to live in this castle.

Suzuri also notes that the place feels rather safe.

Damn Magisa, straight for the throat?

I suppose when your association with the bathroom is due to having the cubicle door kicked in by bullies, it’s not that it feels secure, but it stops people getting in. “It sucks but the alternatives are worse”

Oh that’s a fairly good point, with Grand-Lolo combined with the Human World, it’d be impossible for them to end their curse via marriage due to Human Laws potentially being imposed on Otherworld Space.

Seems The Fixer acquiesced to Otherworld King, now unable to resist him, he’s claimed control over even them.

I’m not really sure what the purpose of comparing political power to a Battle Spirits game is, but apparently Leon sees fit to consider the subjugation of the Fixer to be the equivalent of deploying a Nexus.

A strategy that by itself offers no progression to the gamestate but makes it easier for one to perform their intended goal.

Otherworld King literally has control of the Illuminati, but he’s still not happy.

Indeed, there’s not much more Otherworld King really needs to do, he’s won essentially. He just needs to sit back and wait for the necessary procedures to finish.

Otherworld King seems like he won’t be pleased with what he has until every last human swears fealty to him, the nation’s leaders and The Fixer aren’t enough, he needs the general public to be loyal to him as well.

Now it’s the “Attack Step”, so he intends to make an active move in order to erase the doubt of the masses?

It seems the promise of the Core System has The Fixers gathering info on Otherworlders, and as it happens the President seems aware of the Fixers.

It seems like the Fixers are trying to mobilize against Otherworld King after his power play to subjugate them to his will, but Otherworld King’s access to Mother Core’s Gates means he can traverse essentially anywhere incredibly quickly.

This makes him difficult to pin down.

And Zungurii finally asks the question that will trigger the explanation of what the show believes relevant enough to tell us about the Fixer.

That’s… a fairly concise explanation of them, yeah.

I wouldn’t really call them a Mafia, more like a Shadow Government but eh, semantics

Yeah at least the President only gets his position by making the public believe he’s a good person. Rather than just killing anyone who knows about him.

No one elects a Fixer.

ah of course the Militaries of the world wouldn’t budge when the potential for new ways to wage war are on the horizon, fuck those guys.

The President basically tells Dan that, as Dan isn’t a military, and is capable of imposing his will through Otherworld King’s rule, he’s the perfect middle ground when it comes to dealing with Otherworld King.

I suppose we’re running out of options beyond a head-on fight with the guy.

Clackey’s surprised that the Militaries of the World don’t want to mobilize against him.

Mai notes that right now information is really scarce due to the somewhat INFINITE NOVELTY that Otherworld contains.

The promises of the Core System are immense and well, it’d change all of everyday technology for the greatest of conveniences, so everyone’s somewhat stuck in making the drastic decision to try and nuke Otherworld King from Orbit.

Clackey notes that apparently some faction, not quite sure which as it’s never stated, are moving to real guns, which is a problem as it’s difficult to impose Otherworld King’s rule with a gun in your face.

Based on Magisa’s comment it’s also possible that Otherworld King’s forces are also moving to real guns, the lack of lethality of the Otherworld King forces likely contributed to the ability to impose one’s will through cards, but if they’re getting real weapons now, then it’s unlikely that the Core Soldiers would be able to pull that tactic again

That makes Otherworld King’s “Rule” a bit shit as no one could feasibly execute on it without getting, well, executed.

In spite of this, Dan states that currently, cards are their weapon, so they need to make the best use of them that they can.

Yuuki and Kajitsu seem to have spent enough time in the garden, and it’s getting windy, so they decide to go back inside.

But there’s trouble in paradise.

A dark wind seems to blow through the area, which causes all the roses to die out suddenly.

I see this is what he meant by it being the attack step, Otherworld King appears out of literally nowhere to launch an attack on Yuuki and Kajitsu.

Just incase you didn’t quite get it when he arrived.

Magisa’s anti-Otherworld King alarm seems to be ringing.

Magisa’s only able to identify the problem by the level of Magic she feels.

Zungurii wonders if it might be Kurotaru, as this occurred the last time Yuuki and Kajitsu were separated.

Dan however probably notes that the colour irradiating off Magisa’s staff is wrong, so it must be someone new.

Well it’s about time you had a battle with him then isn’t it if you wanted to finish him off.

Wait shit, NOT LIKE THAT.

Right, so Otherworld King seems to have gone balls off the walls and rather than battle Yuuki, he’s trying to completely kill him.

the King certainly covered his bases, somehow the Core Ship that Dan and the others are on have their doors completely sealed off.

Even Magisa can’t get through it, hot damn, Magisa gets her magic back and becomes near godlike and Otherworld King still has enough juice to out-do her?

It must be the collective ability of all the Magic that he stole from the Otherworlders.

The root cause seems to be that the Ship’s Core system is simply not functioning, much like the barrier from earlier but without any indication of one being active this time.

Suzuri gets some second hand terror, because while they’re locked in here, they’re unable to help the targets of assassination, who are still outside.

Yuuki tells Kajitsu to head back to Dan, not that she’d be able to get through the door.

First it was decaying winds, now it’s Gravity manipulation!?

Otherworld King intends to snuff out Yuuki’s life by crushing his throat.

Dude’s going full Sith Lord.

Kajitsu’s starting to tap into her powers again.

Really? Your Larynx is this close to being the powder Otherworld King adds to his morning tea and you’re STILL saying she shouldn’t use her abilities?

I can’t tell if Otherworld King is trying to snap his neck or rip his head off but given how much pain Yuuki seems to be in… It might very well be both.

Kajitsu seems to unleash her full powers at this moment in an attempt to save her Brother.

Just to hit home the potential effects of this, the White World is crumbling in reaction to this.

Ah you can see Mother Core over her chest, Kajitsu’s fully bearing her symbol.

This couldn’t be any more pointed if he blew a raspberry at her.

Ah yes, the ol’ “Fuck you gon’ do bout it?”

Sadly I don’t feel like Otherworld King is the type to find out after he fucks around.

Still, let’s see if the Graph holds.

Kajitsu starts by burying the guy under a mountain of stone slabs

Yuuki’s free from the force choke, but he insists on having Kajitsu not use her abilities.

Kajitsu states that she can’t forgive Otherworld King, because everything is going his way, and she can’t confirm the safety of the other Core Soldiers if he’s not dead.

Yuuki tries to point out that Kajitsu is the target, he aimed for Yuuki in order to get her to respond in precisely this manner to increase his chances of getting what he wants.

Likely the power to control Mother Core.

Kajitsu makes an excellent point though, if she can’t use her powers now of all times to completely eviscerate their greatest problem, then there isn’t going to be a time for her to use her abilities.

Kajitsu’s not only pissed off for Yuuki and Dan’s sakes, she’s also sick and tired of running away from a problem she wants more than anything to destroy.

She’s willing to take a risk with herself to that end.

Lovely a conversation this is, big bad’s about to bust out!

Well those stones don’t look like they fazed him, plus he’s practically destroying the ground with his punches.

Well if you ever needed a reason as to why people don’t just shoot the fucker, with a gun, this is why.

No footing for you.

A Fight scene that wouldn’t look out of place in an Episode of Dragonball Z.

The White World’s taking so much damage that large wall there has risen from the fissure caused by Kajitsu and Otherworld King’s battle.

Oh geez, it wasn’t just a fissure, a piece of the White World fell off!

…Also that’s a fairly high wave comparative to the buildings alongside it-

Oh that’s just a simulated high tide tsunami, holy shit.

Well, I dunno about you guys, but Otherworld King’s using one hand and Kajitsu’s using one and a half.

I think he’s winning.

The collateral damage is no longer being indirect from the pieces of the White World falling off, it’s expanded to causing Windows to smash and circuitry to malfunction and explode on Earth.

Otherworld King lost the beam struggle! He was forced to back off!

Jokes on you Otherworld King, Kajitsu has FOLLOW-UPS!

It seems Kajitsu is drawing even more power from Mother Core while she holds Otherworld King down.

Yuuki realizes that Kajitsu intends to draw more power from Mother Core, and tries to stop her, she can barely handle what she has already.

Kajitsu continues to draw more power as she prepares to completely vaporize Otherworld King.

But you see, the problem with powering up.

That no one quite seems to notice.

Is that it leaves you…

…Completely wide open.

And using that opening, Otherworld King focuses and smashes Kajitsu’s symbol to pieces.

I cannot imagine what it feels like to have your soul, that which comprises your thoughts and personality, shattered into a million pieces, never to be repaired.

But I imagine it is not pleasant. And as Dan would probably attest to, excruciatingly painful, physically, mentally and emotionally.

It seems the second that Kajitsu’s symbol was smashed, the storms ended…

Otherworld King comments that, in a way, he granted Yuuki’s wish, by shattering her core utterly and completely, he freed her from the fate of Mother Core.

Well I suppose she’s free from any and all fates at the moment given that I’m fairly sure you’ve just done the equivalent a somewhat essential part of her being. The symbol of a Core Soldier is strongly tied to their ability and will to live, we haven’t yet seen what happens when it’s completely erased like that… but I imagine it’s quite fatal.

Oh fuck off with the Batosupi references for 2 seconds Otherworld King.

I couldn’t quite capture the sense of rage Yuuki is emitting if I captured every damn frame of this.

Just, holy shit, pissed doesn’t begin to describe how non-existent his temper now is.

Got him.

But y’know.

If we were just… 6 episodes later

That might have been convincing.

Sweet geez the level of foresight, Otherworld King waltzes up to them in “person”, channelling both his power and his personality through a Pantera Doll.

He aims for Yuuki in the hopes that Kajitsu would snap, forcing her to use Mother Core’s power, which exposes the symbol.

Then, smashing the symbol and robbing Kajitsu of her power and life.

Then knowing Yuuki’s reaction, installing a bomb just incase he’d catch Yuuki in the explosion after Yuuki slew the Pantera Doll

it didn’t work but damn it was good foresight.

These Pantera dolls are some advanced shit, they can act as physical proxies for Otherworld King to exert his will through, and even though Mother Core’s symbol was stolen from Kajitsu via a Pantera Doll, it was still transferred to Otherworld King.

…Also also, OTHERWORLD KING BEARS MOTHER CORE’S LIGHT NOW, OHSHIT.

Seems with the disappearance of that doll, the Core ship finally unlocked, but unfortunately the Core Soldiers were actively prohibited from being of any help.

Course, Dan sees the writing on the wall of what’s happening, doesn’t ask what, why, how…

He Just. Asks. Who?

The foreshadowing from earlier that Magisa brought up turned out to have borne fruit at the worst possible time, it seems Otherworld King can and was capable of putting either his own personality, or copies of it, into Pantera Dolls… Enabling him to effectively be in 2 places at once, with a large portion of his full power no less.

Mai asks Serge to find the Pantera doll to maybe see if they can extract some info, but sadly that self-destruct sequence seems to have covered that line of inquiry as well.

I’m with Dan on this, fuck you mean “prepared”?

Though I suppose they knew that something like this could have happened, which means there’s only one recourse.

Can’t even imagine the range of emotions going through her right now, her own mind is scared of losing the brother she cares about so much, the Green Princess’ memories of love for the White King probably isn’t helping.

…And more importantly, she’s dying, for a girl her age that must be petrifying

I wonder if the memories of the Green Princess can make that any easier.

Yuuki has Kajitsu hold onto Ragna-Rock, for comfort.

There’s also the promise of reincarnation that may offer small comfort compared to the fact that Yuuki now has to live the rest of his entire life without his Sister, and the memories of the White King stonewalling him from taking another lover.

As one final goodbye, Kajitsu uses the last of whatever power she may have had, to turn her corpse into butterflies.

If nothing else, she can make a few new lives rather than simply decaying or being ashes.

There are many thoughts I have right now, but the one that sticks out to me, in this moment, is the idea many people have when family, those further down the family tree, pass away.

And it’s that a parent should never outlive their child. I imagine the same concept applies to older siblings with their younger siblings, there’s just some colossal emptiness tied with the fact that they were never supposed to see their younger sibling die.

Now that Kajitsu has well and truly passed away, the cast begin to reflect.

Magisa reminisces about her first confrontation with her, which is where she learned the most about her.

Seems that confrontation actually sparked a fondness for them, in an interesting way.

Kenzo thinks about the time he was with her in the Purple Prison, he likely felt safe with her there, given her many abilities with Mother Core.

Mai almost certainly became fond of Kajitsu during their girl talk, while she was looking after her for Yuuki.

Serge had to perform favours such as carrying her around, and we know he feels incredibly close to the women he chooses to provide service to.

Clackey spent so long hating her, and when he finally resolved that discord in his heart, he promised to protect her… And he very clearly failed.

Suzuri likely feels similarly, having had to protect her from Kazan during the incident in the Blue World.

Kazan salutes, Kajitsu, being the sister of a man he respected, also would have gained his utmost respect by proxy.

Zungurii has no kind memories to remember about Kajitsu, but he made great leaps in growth to try and rectify his understanding of her, and came to care deeply, having managed to make her pancakes she liked to eat.

And Dan remembers the day Kajitsu sent him to Grand-Lolo, the only reason he’s friends with any of these people in the first place, something he’s grateful for.

…And something he will never be able to repay.

Bit too late for Kajitsu, but the mission hasn’t changed. You never really know what you have til it’s gone, or in this case, they didn’t know how much damage Otherworld King could do, until he actually tried for once.

Dan may not have been related to her in the same way Yuuki was but I can imagine his rage directed at Otherworld King is insurmountable.

It appears that the Fixers are already at work for Otherworld King, the media’s manipulated the scenes that took place between Kajitsu and Otherworld King to make it seem like Otherworld King was trying to protect the Earth.

What a complete Rube Goldberg machine, even the event itself, however it happened, was altered to make him look good.

And of course, when asked to comment, Otherworld King was happy to lean into the lie.

To think he chastised Dan and his entire race for damaging Mother Core and yet he leads by despicable example like this.

He just slew a 12-year old girl and then trod over her corpse for his own benefit and he doesn’t feel an ounce of remorse.

Naturally, Otherworld King’s “reasonableness” vanished rather quickly after his battle with Dan.

He’s an incredibly vengeful individual it seems to me. No less fallible than any other Human at this rate. The second he employed his plan with the Pantera Dolls it was clear he was less than amicable.

It’s clear his words to Dan during their first bout was a simple politician’s trick, to get Dan to question his morals. Not like Otherworld King’s were any better.

Bit of a pickle isn’t it, they’re likely to face resistance from the Humans they’re also trying to protect.

I wouldn’t call them skilled, a skilled liar wouldn’t even let you exist with the disbelief.

Though it could be skillful in use, it doesn’t help that Yuuki might have been caught on camera, and Otherworld King has targeted the guy twice.

So I can understand that Kenzo might be referring to people like The Fixer, but uh…

I feel like “Adults in Suits” could be Lawyers and you kind of do want to listen to them.

Otherworld King was so bothered that the Humans didn’t like him that he barely got up off his ass long enough to make a doll get off it’s ass and hashed that problem out in a day.

The issue here might not even be winning, it might be the aftermath

at the moment, the world is against them, but even if they do win, they’ll have to deal with the fallout of a home who condemns them as beasts, or worse, who had faith in Otherworld King’s Core system that they were jipped out of.

The Core Soldiers may end up crucified for their victory.

Well now this guy’s just spouting nonsense, he claims the corruption of Mother Core was due to Momose Kajitsu… In the same breath that he claims Mother Core was warped by Humanity.

This man’s lived too long, he’s senile.

Well I suppose now that he bears it’s light, Otherworld King has a much more direct degree of control over the thing, though Yuuki mentioned that bearing it’s light caused Mother core to also control Kajitsu.

Oh drop the hateboner for Yuuki for 2 seconds Leon.

But its possible, if the Light of a symbol can create life energy, then keeping Yuuki angry at him makes for an excellent battle catalyst to produce Light to send to Mother Core.

Also, one wonders how Mother Core was stated to be impossible to handle for one person alone… But Otherworld King doesn’t seem to be suffering any adverse effects from bearing it’s light.

Seems Otherworld King’s doing the same thing Kajitsu tried to do to him earlier, he’s now accumulating the full power Mother Core possesses.

The guy’s taking in the full might of a power that threatened to tear Kajitsu in half just for using what she was innately given, and this guy’s just sat here with the greatest inconvenience being that being slapped with the might of Mother Core made his neck stiff.

Well, I guess he’s gonna sit here soaking up Mother Core’s Light like it’s some kind of sponge bath for a while.

Dan returns to Yuuki, potentially to try and console him.

Though it’ll be a little difficult.

Yuuki’s in a very self-defeating state of mind right now, telling Dan it’d be fine to call him a monster when he very clearly has done nothing wrong.

Dan even interjects that there’s really zero reason to think that.

Yuuki tries to refer to the wilted flowers and destroyed White Castle as evidence.

Notably the wording isn’t that Kajitsu’s symbol was smashed, it’s that it was stolen even though that’s how it appeared.

It seems regardless of which Core Soldier it is, unless they lose the light of their core naturally through abandoning the mission of a Lightbearer, if the Symbol is forcibly robbed from them, that Soldier dies very shortly after.

Dan interjects with Yuuki’s line of thinking, wondering if Yuuki intends to remember Kajitsu’s death as his fault, all because he wanted to separate Kajitsu and Mother Core, and while he technically got what he wanted, it resulted in her death

this is evidently not what Yuuki envisioned for his Sister, and he knew such a thing would be unsafe to do, there’s no sense in blaming himself just because someone who couldn’t care less whether Kajitsu lived or died did it for him.

It’s the entire reason they didn’t attempt this at any other point in time. It’d be like saying you killed a family member because you both were considering an operation with a high fatality rate but their life was cut short by some punk with a knife.

It’s not quite the same thing.

Yuuki interjects that Dan can’t possibly understand how he feels, because Dan has not yet found his once-in-a-lifetime love. Yuuki on the other hand had before he was born and has had her taken away from him twice, and that’s not considering the fact that Kajitsu was his only family in this life.

Dan interjects that while he doesn’t have a love of his life, he still has all his friends and would be mortified in a similar manner, but sadly that’s a non-starter, causing Yuuki to dismiss him.

Seems Magisa’s turned up, but rather than chime in with words…

She eases Yuuki’s pain, repairing the damage he claimed he caused, and restoring the wilted flowers.

The sentiment here is generally that beyond death, which is typically irreversible, most of all other damage can not only be survived, but fixed, restored, and forgotten.

Magisa notes that Otherworld King has very clearly fucked up somewhere, he may have stolen Mother Core’s symbol and bear it’s light, but its clear while he’s got a direct dialogue with Mother Core, he hasn’t taken control of it, nor has he extracted all of it’s power.

The reason being that Magisa’s potent Magic seems to be a form of Mother Core’s power, if she still has it, then Otherworld King doesn’t have full control over Mother Core.

Things are bad, but Otherworld King is far from being the God-King he’s evidently trying to be, Dan can still hope to challenge him.

And that’s the end of the episode.

There may not have been a battle, but this was a series of developments that were important, it’s clear that a battle would have disrupted the pace of the episode, we saw the introduction of The Fixer, as well as the furtherence of Otherworld King’s plan in obtaining Mother Core…

…As well as the permanent death of Momose Kajitsu. Sadly, though this is clearly a Shounen anime, Kajitsu doesn’t come back as a character, this is her last moment in the series.

Naturally people who watch later series note that she technically does return, due to the functionality of her situation as the Green Princess… but while the Green Princess’ soul will return, the character Kajitsu, is no more.

It’s an incredibly sad moment in the series even given the weirdness of her situation with Yuuki, which has unfortunately met a rather brutal resolution.

I mentioned a while ago that Otherworld King is one of my favourite villains, and ultimately that is true, he does a significant amount better than Uchuuchouten, his narrative ancestor.

For me, this Episode seems to tip my opinion of him a bit, as beyond this point the guy ceases to be anything more than a raving lunatic at the worst of times, and a measured sociopath at best.

Of course, the entire point of this was to highlight how deeply suppressed his evil infact was, and the level of power required to bring it to the surface, the promise of ruling Earth, as opposed to the other 6 worlds of Otherworld, very clearly corrupted him almost entirely. I just found his other appearances in this anime and others to be a lot more compelling.

Surprisingly, despite the lack of any Battle in this episode, the show deigns to give us a card of the day.

And it’s the card who missed Card of the Day yesterday, Ragna-Rock.

I’ve nothing I can really say about this card given that no new context has arrived for me to put it in, however, what I can do is build a deck.

This is a deck intended to emulate the deck Yuuki used last Episode, with a few cards sprinkled in to make the numbers work of course. Naturally we will have talked about the general strategy but I’ll briefly cover it again.

The Deck is a Mega Core-Boost deck, using Fruit of Wise Tree, Reload Cores, and High Elixir to produce a wall of surviveability in order to maximize the amount of core gain. Naturally, decks with high core boost run low on hand cards fast, and so Hand Reverse exists to replenish the hand once it’s been exhausted.

In order to fill out the numbers, I included this dual colour support from BS09.

These 2 make up a few of the Hybrid support BS09 comes out with, with Green’s off-colour target being White for this set, Ookuchiba is a series of weak card clones that treat itself as a different colour, and the rulings for effects treating cards as other colours is that the symbol changes too.

So Ookuchiba, while a Cost 1 with no reduction, can function as White reduction.

Ralba on the other hand is excellent Core boost for white decks, it’s singular white reduction makes it worth running on it’s own even if you aren’t using Green, and finally, if summoned at Lv2, it can BE one of the White spirits you target for it’s lovely core boost.

The Charisma Battler page does have a deck for Ragna-Rock, but it offends me in the sense that the deck consists of 42 cards. And well, I’m such a big fan of 40 card decks that all my deck templates rely on this being true and I probably won’t be correcting it anytime soon…

…Ah why not.

Gives me a reason to use this template for a change.

Anyway, Galaxy was the introducer for the card on the post I saw when it came to this deck, so Galaxy will be the one listed as the designated Battler.

And, well, since I can only pick one colour for banners I’ll use Ragna-Rock’s primary colour, Green.

It’s got clear ideas, mainly intended to stall out for as long as possible until Ragna-Rock can trigger a sudden death situation, I’ll explain.

It shows preference for Fruit of Life rather than Fruit of Wise Tree, because while it doesn’t generate any core until level 2, you do draw cards when losing lives which can be valuable as Green and White have little Draw power, I presume Hand Reverse was too slow.

We’ve got 2 alternative double symbol Tribute spirits in the form of Sieg-Crimson and BlizzardEmperor Ullr, likely because they’re targets to be refreshed by Ragna-Rock and can enable one to stall until Ragna-Rock is acquired, Sieg-Crimson gains core after field-wiping and Ullr prevents damage coming from Cost 4 or less spirits.

The use of OldSage Trenton is creative, but Trenton comes with a nasty downside, sure when he’s summoned, he can summon Ragna-Rock for no cost, and he’s a valid tribute for Ragna-Rock making it an easy summon, but part of Ragna-Rock’s terror is that even when not tributing Yggdrassil for 6 core, it can still exhaust all opposing Spirits, something that won’t occur as Trenton stops the effects on summon for the cards it chooses to use.

The same is true for SkyDragonRider Platinam who can ignore Ragna-Rock’s need to Tribute, but gets rid of it’s on summon effect, it seems that Galaxy has engineered this deck particularly around Ragna-Rock’s Lv3, which would enable it to refresh the Double Symbol Ullr and Sieg-Crimson at the expense of it’s ability to use it’s nasty effect when summoned.

Granted, it’s also possible Platinam is here to facilitate the summon of those double symbol spirits, as so far I don’t believe a single Double Symbol spirit has appeared that has not required Tribute just yet.

In essence, the deck is definitely, probably good, it’s just my main gripe is it focuses on one effect at the expense of the other, causing Ragna-Rock to not be capable of using it’s full powers occasionally, and of course, it’s a whole 42 cards.

I definitely do like that they account for this with the inclusion of 2 Invisible Cloaks to cover the inability to use Ragna-Rock’s effect when summoned, and Emergency to keep the ball rolling after the first attack.

In any case, you’ve all got many decks to mess with now, and I get to use 2 of my deck templates, so I’ll see you all in the next one! buh-bye!

Time to see what the plot has in store for us, now that Kajitsu has been cruelly removed from it…