天下制覇

Hey, she said it, not me.

Impressions:

Whoa, a two parter? That’s crazy. It was very nice to get back to the normal art style this week, and we got a rather entertaining little fight out of BABEL vs the PANDRA grunts as well. I expected much better from Mio than to just flail at the Children, but I still chuckled at her "Tsundere for Queen" introduction speech. Maybe the Children will tone down their own in the future, not that I mind it, but it seems like they’re making a lot of jokes about the silliness of the sentai entrance lately. I’m a bit disappointed that Minamoto decided to not pick up the final solution Esper Killer pistol yet, though now I’m even more curious what it eventually is in the future that changes his mind and leads him to even carry it. There are all kinds of reasons to shoot Kaoru already though, I’m not so curious about that.

I’m a little skeptical about Kuromaki’s power and how much of a hold it seems to have on Minamoto. I’d think that they’d have ways to deal with these kinds of things, be it ECM, any of the telepaths, or what-have-you. Even moreso since Kuromaki used to be in BABEL so they would have had all sorts of data on her. They should at least have a decent way to get around it. I was actually thinking through a lot of the episode that they’d reveal in the last couple minutes that the Children were the ones caught in a dream, but the relatively few (up until this point, zero) number of two parter episodes probably had a lot to do with that. Minamoto has just proven himself far too wily in the past when it comes to Kyosuke’s attempted mind games to get caught in something like this. There’s always next week, though the preview strangely gave almost nothing away this time.

Minamoto and the Children try to tase Kyosuke into submission after making sure Kaoru’s okay, but he’s already escaped. Minamoto just ends up tasing himself when the doll falls on him.

PANDRA makes their getaway, congratulating each other on a job well done all around, though some are a bit worried about the beating Kyosuke took.

Kaoru wakes up at BABEL later with the other two watching over her. They teleport over to Sakaki and Minamoto, who are watching over a comatose Bullet.

Minamoto’s glad to see Kaoru up and about. They ask about Bullet’s condition, but it’s not great at the moment. Kaoru thinks that she did something wrong, but Minamoto reassures her and thanks her. She tries to glomp him for a kiss as her reward. Fujiko and the other brass comein and immediately get into an argument. The chief ends up glomping the Children, giving Fujiko an opening to grill Minamoto. She checks his holster and sees that he’s still carrying a ‘useless’ standard issue pistol.

She warns him that he has to start taking this seriously and needs to equip himself to be able to protect himself and the Children. Minamoto later goes through multiple levels of security and looks at the Esper Killer, a pistol with built-in ECCM and all sorts of other nastiness designed to be the ultimate way to take down any esper. He thinks about it for a moment, but closes the suitcase and leaves it.

At PANDRA, Kuromaki leaves with Kyosuke’s blessing.

Back at Minamoto’s apartment, he’s preparing dinner while Kaoru ‘helps’ by telekinetically chopping onions.

Aoi brings in the mail. Shiho reads it through the envelopes, but there’s one suspicious one that she can’t identify. Treating it very carefully, Minamoto has Aoi teleport the contents out of the envelope. It’s a strange photo. It flashes, and Minamoto appears in a snowy street on Christmas (with Hayate and Nagi walking by.) A girl runs up to him… It’s Kaoru. The two leave arm in arm.

Minamoto’s passed out on the floor. Aoi and Shiho try to figure out what’s wrong while Kaoru stands completely stunned.

Kuromaki declares that she’s got him now.

The girls bring Minamoto to BABEL and hand over the suspicious photograph. Minamoto is mostly gibbering happily in his sleep. Sakaki and Shiho try to look into Minamoto’s mind, but there’s a powerful shield preventing them from going into it. They both agree that it has to be the work of a telepath.

In Minamoto’s dream, Kaoru’s helping him prepare dinner. The conversation suddenly turns serious when Minamoto says that she’s not a child any more. He grabs her shoulders as she starts to cry, but the dream wavers and shatters. Minamoto stands in the ruined city, pointing the Esper Killer at Kaoru. His vision of the future repeats itself, and he shoots her.

In the real world, his breathing becomes pained and he starts to thrash.

The top brass return. They’ve got a trump card to lure out whoever’s responsible. It’s Suetsu. Oboro releases the Children.

Kuromaki watches BABEL from a nearby building. She spots Minamoto leaving, arm in arm with Hotaru. Trying to figure out what’s going on, she follows them, only to run headlong into the chief and Fujiko. The rest of BABEL rapidly surrounds her, but she’s got a huge attitude and refuses to give up.

Kaoru gets ticked and ready to blast her, but Muscle interrupts them by attacking from above. Kuromaki runs as he lays down curtain fire. Fujiko flies up to deal with him, leaving the Children to chase after Kuromaki, but Mio trips up Kaoru. She and two clones pop in as the tsundere answer to the Children prompting disdain from Shiho and Aoi. Fujiko deals with Muscle’s magnums with a kick to the jewels.

The Children somewhat ineffectually fight Mio, but when Muscle falls, she teleports him and herself to safety.

Fujiko catches up with Kuromaki, but she pulls a camera which sends Fujiko into a dream. Natsuko tracks Kuromaki’s vehicle from above and BABEL moves in, only to find that they’ve been misled.

Back at the HQ, the Children get the lowdown on Kuromaki. She’s a highly skilled telepath specializing in manipulating dreams that used to be a member of BABEL. Her code name was Dream Maker. Kaoru’s still sulking.

The next day, Shiki and his woman want to play with the girls, but they politely excuse themselves. Kaoru’s still down.

At BABEL, Fujiko’s enjoying her happy dream to its fullest, but Minamoto’s still thrashing about. Shiho and Aoi get into an argument over whose fault the situation is until Sakaki plays peacemaker.

Up on the roof, Kaoru continues to mope. Kyosuke teleports in to gloat. She begs him in tears to give Minamoto back to her, but he’s not about to do anything of the sort out of the pure goodness of his heart.

Preview:

All dreams must end.