天下制覇

Rina gets a chance to seduce Shiika this time.

Impressions:

Did… did we miss an entire episode or something? Last episode ended with the Shiika summoning the snow firefly as one of the mushi resistance kids ran off to fight. Rina wasn’t even with Shiika. The jump is really bizarre and strange. Hopefully we’ll flip back to see what happened there and how they managed to meet up and escape. It’s a decent cool off episode after the end of the last one and gives Daisuke’s past with Shiika, but… seriously… what’s with the chronological skip here? Definitely not all that great of a move.

Summary:

Shika wakes up on a couch in a room full of paintings. Rina walks in and says good morning and asks her how she’s doing, and thanks Shiika for saving her.

Rina introduces herself to Shiika over breakfast, and says that she already knows that she’s Shiika. The two start talking and Rina says that she feels really happy that Shiika is here now. Shiika compliments her paintings and says how beautiful they are. Rina asks her what she’s going to do, and says that she doesn’t want to get in the way.

At a graveyard, Rina and Shiika are praying. Apparently it was Rina’s mother. She tells Shiika about how she started drawing because she didn’t have anything like a television when she was young, but her mother supported and loved her through it despite abuse from her father. Rina suddenly turns dark though and says how she had to kill to stop it, and that’s when she became a mushi user and did it with her own hands. Rina calls Shiika the snow firefly again and tells her that she’s the key to helping Centi and the others that have had their mushi killed.

Next we get a dressup montage of Shiika in various things, before they head out to lunch, Shiika making a mess of herself in the process. That night, Rina is receiving some information about Centi getting picked up. She then offers her cell phone to Shiika to call Daisuke, but she refuses, saying that she’s only supposed to call him when she’s scared. Shiika asks Rina if there’s anybody she likes, but she does the blush routine. The bath’s ready though, so it’s time for them to head into the bath. After Shiika gets out, Rina puts her head under to cover the tears in her eyes.

The two go to bed, but Rina notices that Minmin’s mushi is on the window. She heads out to the balcony to meet with Minmin, who is still going on about Kakkou before heading off.

At school, Rina notices that the shutterbug is late. She runs in as the bell rings. Daisuke heads in soon after, but trips on his way to his desk. Rina looks at him and blushes, and thinks back to a mushi resistance meeting with mosquito kid and the other. She gives them a peptalk about continuing to search for answers, but she’s also remembering Centi and the girl that Kakkou mindwiped and is sad/pissed at Kakkou.

Back at Rina’s house, Shiika is watching TV, but thinking about Daisuke and wondering what happened to him. Daisuke is also moping around on a rooftop somewhere about where she might be.  A little later, he’s meeting up with big boss Haji while thinking about the girl that he mindwiped. Haji says that he did good work on the last case. He brings up the snow firefly, but Daisuke tells him to shut up.

Haji starts talking about Daisuke’s first encounter with the snow firefly and we get an extended flashback to his various runins with it. It was something different than anything else they had seen and pretty much everybody was scrambling to deal with it.

He also remembers back to another encounter with the snow firefly… a field of complete destruction blamed on it. He’s beaten up, but continues to look for it. He eventually finds Shiika sitting in the snow. She says that her mushi is the snow firefly. He raises his gun to shoot it, but then lowers it. She asks him why… and says that it’s okay… she doesn’t want to hurt anybody else anymore.

He drops his gun all the way. Kakkou pets her on the head and then helps her up. She asks him his name, and while they’re talking, Haji is telling him to finish her off through his headset. She says that it’s okay if he kills it and then asks him if he’ll accept her dream. He summons Kakkou, and then shoots while saying that he’ll carry on her dream.

Daisuke is looking in the mirror with his gun. He gets pissed and throws it at the mirror, but says that he has a promise to keep.

In the yuri bed of Rina and Shiika, Shiika is telling Rina that it’s warm. She sees movement outside the window and thinks it’s snow… but it’s just raining. Rina brings up the question of a boy that she likes. Shiika won’t tell her who though.

At a computer somewhere, the shutterbug is watching a video from the park where there’s something descending as a glow starts from it.