Pumpkin Scissors 17 — As Alice battles the leader of the Section I Claymore squad, the 908 trooper, Hans, leads Mione through the sewers. We learn of what happened to the 908 after the armistice, where everyone but Hans removed their suits only to die within minutes of doing so (Hans’ suit got stuck). Meanwhile, Captain Hunks confronts Major Connery, accusing him of wanting to sell the drug Himmel. The Major states that since the armistice, funding for the army is down and they need more money. He plans to remove Hunks as an obstacle, but Hunks counters by producing documents and an order for Connery to sign.

Alice defeats her opponent, but learns too late that the fight was a diversion. In the sewers, Oland and and Machs catch up to Hans and Mione and hatch a plan to defeat them. However, Oland is unable to resist the urge to reach out to Hans and nearly pays for it with his life. Using his “gift” of the blue lantern to stay alive, Oland manages to put Hans out of commission but other Section I troops are there and apparently kill Hans before killing Mione. Their mission completed, they leave and Hans’ body is sent to the female Kauplan member.

Thoughts: Interesting and while we get revelations about the 908 and a tiny bit more on the 901, we still have no progress on that story, nor why the war ended suddenly three years ago.

Pumpkin Scissors 18 — Sergeant Major Stekkin is worried about the mood of Section III since the conclusion of their last mission. So, she sets out to cheer up her team mates, especially Corporal Oland. Plan A involves her coming up with a song and dance, but as she’s testing it out on Mer-kun the dog, she’s seen by Oland and super embarrassed. Plan B has her ask Oreld for help, but his kind of help is of the adult nature and so that plan is gone. At the mess hall, Oreld and Oland get into a verbal fight over “saving lives” when Lahn , ex-Claymore One member, interpupts, giving the Pumpkin Scissors team grief and bragging about the new Double Shotel team. Stekkin decides to put Lahn in his place and attacks him with a move she’s named “Pumpkin Scissors.” This leads to a mess hall fight, which gets uglier when Lt. Webner goads Machs into the brawl just as security arrives.

Elsewhere, Major Connery queries his officers over the questioning of Lt. Webner and what she saw when the group of men came to steal a captured tank (early in the series). The officers reflect on the quality of the weapons given to the Waterworks staff and realize that while the Empire hasn’t been able to mass-produce automatic rifles, someone else has and it would be a good weapon to use against the Republic. Meanwhile, Stekkin and Oland talk and she sings him a silly Republic song to cheer him up. He appreciates this and goes to make up with Oreld. As they watch the last of the sewer refugees leave, Marielle comes to tell Oreld goodbye, after which she leaves and Oreld and Oland pleasantly agree that they will disagree over saving lives.

Thoughts: Fillerish, fun, but with hints of something more. Its hard to get Stekkin into episodes since she’s not much of a soldier, but this worked. And it was nice to see the aftermath of everything that was done over the last four episodes. I think that was what I enjoyed most.

Hayate no Gotoku! 06 — With Isumi safely with Nagi, Isumi lets Nagi and Maria-san know that Hayate is in trouble. Maria wonders if their instructions for him to protect the cashmere coat was incorrect. Nagi wants to go protect Hayate, who finds himself between the group of yakuza on one side and Isumi’s bodyguards on the other. Of course misunderstandings leads to both groups pursuing him rather than battling each other. Hayate manages to make it to the mansion, but when Nagi learns part of what Hayate told Isumi about her, she leaves Hayate on the door step until he gets ill. Isumi prepares him a delicious milkshake and Nagi decides to prepare him a meal. The standard bad food scene follows, but Nagi is touched when she overhears Hayate tell Maria that he ate it all because it was prepared by Nagi.

The following day, Hayate is better but runs into another maid. He informs Maria about this maid, who turns out to be Saki, the maid of another guest. She tells Hayate to bring her and the guest to the guest room. Nagi, upon hearing of this other guest, immediately has security dispatched to get rid of him. Hayate comes upon this guest, a rich boy Nagi’s age. The boy, Wataru, kicks Hayate into the nearby lake and Hayate doesn’t get mad. Saki comes but then the group are attacked by a security robot. More security droids arrive and Hayate rescues both Saki and Wataru, but as they approach the mansion, both are offended and cause him with them to fall through the mansion roof into the guest room where Maria and Nagi are waiting. Here, we learn that Wataru is Nagi’s fiancé.

Thoughts: More funny stuff. The food joke is old as the hills, but it was still played out nicely. Initially, I thought Sakuya was forgotten because she disappeared, only to reappear when Nagi goes to make Hayate’s meal. Tama also returns in this episode, but wasn’t used that well in my opinion.