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Episode 2: Pant-Pant Sweat-Sweat Finals Are Scarier Than the Enemy!? |
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A starkly lit, black and white scene depicts two men being throw headlong
to the ground. Their enemy, Kijima Touta, turns and looks at the tremendous
flight of stairs leading up to the Gateway. A girl is running up the stairs
towards Kairei and yelling his name. "Please don't do it! Don't die!"
He prepares to close the Gate. Kijima begins running, but the girl stops
him with her sword. The Gate closes catastrophically, crushing the vessels
of the Dark Forces. Too late, the girl turns and runs for Kairei again.
Then the blinding flash of the Gate exploding blots out everything. Hazumi wakes up and realizes it was only a dream. Then she realizes something else: it's the day of her finals, and she hasn't studied at all. On the TV, the newscaster reports on the various disasters that have been occurring around the world. The death toll is now up to 20,000 just from the earthquakes and storms. Takumi walks by the TV and calls out to Hazumi that they are late for school. She has her nose buried in a textbook, trying to cram at the last minute. First she runs into the door, and later she manages to make them miss the bus. It is a hot day at school. The heat envelopes everything in a shimmering haze, and the students, taking their finals in a roofless and air condition-less room, are all sweating like crazy. Hazumi complains, "We can't take our finals in a place like this!" The other students remind her that she caused the destruction of the school, so that she finally apologizes. After school, she tells Yuuka that she failed both her tests, but her friend tells her to remain optimistic. When Hazumi says goodbye, Yuuka shakes her head. "Takumi again? You two are like best friends or something!" Waiting for Takumi later, Hazumi takes out a family photo (with her mom blotted out) and gazes fondly at Takumi's image. She thinks to herself that she and her brother aren't truly blood relations, and this leads to a chain of thought that ends with her deciding to confess her love to him. "A white chapel. A white carriage, and a white wedding dress," she thinks out loud, "And then... And then, Takumi and I..." She looks up to see her brother, and stops, having no idea how much he overheard. Since Takumi is somewhat dense when it comes to girls, he mistakes her cheer for something else. "I bet you aced your tests today, right?" he asks. She laughs, embarrassed. "In fact," she begins bravely, "I wasn't even close." He scolds her for not studying more, and adds that he'll study with her to help. Hazumi is ecstatic until their conversation is interrupted by Chiryuu peeking under her skirt. She kicks him away, but he returns and warns her, "You can't have summer vacation if you flunk your final." Hazumi is crushed; she'd been planning on doing all sorts of things with her brother during summer. She kicks Chiryuu away again and they start home. Then Takumi remembers that Hime, his basketball team manager, had called a meeting and leaves to attend it. Tenkuu and Chiryuu discuss the situation. Tenkuu tells the other man that the convergence with the Dark World will take place in only a few weeks. Takumi reaches the meeting place, only to find that it's empty. He calls out in puzzlement, then turns when he hears the door close behind him. Hime smiles at him. At home, Hazumi is still trying hard to study her English, even during her shower. A great example of this is when she is trying to remember the English word for muzukashii (difficult). Unable to remember it, she exclaims in frustration, "This is so difficult!" Finally, her shower finished, she looks in the steamed-up mirror and begins to write "Takumi + Hazumi." Before she can complete it, though, a hand reaches out to change it to "Takumi + Kasumi." She whirls to face her mother and the two argue about Takumi. Hazumi is reminded that she should study, and she mutters that she would rather fight Remnants any day than study. Her mother then tells her she probably doesn't realize just how difficult it really is to protect Takumi. Back at school, Takumi is finding out what Hime really thinks of him, but just as she backs him into a corner, a loud crash from outside interrupts them. Several trucks filled with Remnants have arrived. As the Remnants file out, Aoi cheers them on from atop one of the vehicles. Hearing the disturbance from their home, the Jinno women are ready to rush out when a red whirlwind lands in their hallway. A Remnant, dressed in a French outfit and carrying roses, greets them: "L'amour!" He introduces himself as Michel Yamada (v:Kameyama Sukekiyo), then grabs Kasumi. When she calls to Hazumi for help, all she gets is, "You two are perfect! I'll leave him to you, mom." After a brief struggle with Yamada, she runs out and hops on her motorcycle. Looking around, Aoi spots Takumi. She leaps for him, but is stopped by the appearance of Kazuma. He tells her she's not bad looking for an old bag, and with that, they launch into battle. Kasumi, after being thrown outside, launches her own attacks at Yamada: the Housewife's hellish Cannonade of Knives and Housewife's Textured Noodle Attack. She ties up Yamada, but a glow emanating from him changes everything. Tenkuu tells Hime to protect Takumi, and the two are running for cover when they encounter Murasaki. "Too bad," she says, "The game's over." Chiryuu agrees, "It is too bad. You're wearing pants." She turns to kick him, but a blast of power from his hands shoves her away instead. Elsewhere, Kazuma and Aoi's battle is stopped when Hazumi runs into them with her bike. Kazuma tries to take advantage of his situation to get a kiss from Hazumi, but fails. He tells her Takumi is safe, since he's with Hime. Hearing this, she drops him and takes off again. Kasumi is now trapped in some sort of dreamland created by Yamada. His sweet talk lulls her momentarily, enough to allow him to trap her. He explains the red of his roses comes from human blood, and invites her to make them redder. But she doesn't give up, and leaps up to the power lines and shocks him. Then she unleashes her ultimate attack, the Super Ethnic Champion Tabasco, Wasabi, and Hot Pepper, finally blasting her opponent into the sky. Hime and Takumi finally end up in the warehouse district, having run from Chiryu''s vicinity. The find a warehouse in which to hide, and are feeling relatively safe when the door is blown inwards to reveal Kijima Touta. "You'll never close the Gate on us again, Kairei," he declares, and attacks. His killing blow, however, is stopped by a wooden sword from somewhere. Kijima looks up to see Hazumi, who tells him she won't forgive anyone who would harm Takumi. Chiryuu blasts away most of the Remnants, with the exception of Murasaki. She scoffs at his attacks, labeling him as just another over-muscled, dumb man. She lets go with a freezing attack, but Chiryuu only compliments her on her foul mouth and invites her home. Even he cannot take her attack too well, though, and finally, he lets go with his own. The whirlwind catches up Murasaki and carries her away. Seeing Takumi unconscious, Hazumi goes all out. Unfortunately, she finds it isn't enough. Then she realizes this battle is going exactly like the one she dreamed in the morning. In both battles, she is knocked down by Kijima, but decides to protect her love even if it means her life. Kijima then launches a number of black spheres at her, too many for her to parry with her sword. In desperation, she makes a final attack but fails. Kijima brings up one hand and slashes straight into her. Thinking her out of the fight, he is surprised to see her stand again. He can't understand how she has such strength. They run towards each other, and his sword slashes all the way through her body. "What!?" he exclaims, as he sees her wound heal before his eyes. Her sword stabs into his forehead, while Hazumi herself is thrown back, her sword falling over the edge of the path. The Chiryuu and Tenkuu of the past hold Kijima, giving Kairei time to seal the Gate. Hazumi runs for him, already too late. "You must understand. Since I'm the Key, I have to die to close the Gate," he tells her gently. With a last scream, Hazumi wakes from her vision of the past. She decides she cannot let Takumi die. With her last strength, she shoots a blast from her sword, which then disappears. She runs to Takumi and tells him she'll protect him no matter what. Kijima runs for both of them, intent on finishing this once and for all. The entire bridge they are standing on begins to collapse, pitching all of them into the water. Chiryuu arrives just in time to see this and leaps into the water as well. |
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