SPOILER Summary: Young Queen Mashiro is concerned that the Nekokami (cat deity) Mikoto still hasn’t awoken from her mysterious sleep and she states this to the Meister Mai, who’s preparing a meal. They are trapped on a small chain of tropical islands. Mashiro is worried about her Meister Otome and friend Arika, though she won’t admit it.

Elsewhere, the SOLT (Strategic Otome Limitation Talk) summit is underway, however it is decided that they must discuss the recent attacks upong the Windbloom and Aries nations by the unknown entity. As they talk, the “4th Column” Nao is on a mission with Nina to some ancient ruins in an icy, snowy land.

Meanwhile, several Otome including Arika are waiting on the conclusion of the SOLT summit in an indoor pool facility. Arika is not happy that Otome Maya-oneesama keeps a close eye on her, even when she goes to the toilet. Maya has her reasons and is there to prevent Arika from doing something rash in going to find Mashiro. Otome Chie steps in to stop Maya’s teasing and she and another Otome explain that for right now, the best course of action is to do nothing. After Maya stops young King Kazu from making out with his love and Meister Akane, they are teased by Otome Shiho until Otome Rosalie-oneesama begins teasing Shiho. Arika tries to take advantage of the situation and sneak away, but is caught by Maya and prevented from escape since her bikini top was removed by Maya. A drunk Otome Ein brings chaos to the situation be removing several of the girl’s tops.

Inside the ruins, Nao is marking her territory and talking with Nina, who’s holding a diary with instructions on entering the ruins and avoiding traps. Upon entering the first room, Nina informs Nao that the first trap is a pit trap. Nao has a negative remark on this kind of trap when Nina accidentally sets it off, causing them to fall.

Meanwhile, Headmaster Natsuki talks with Youko about the petrified Otome. The Otome are alive but other than that, they’ve made no progress in freeing them, nor have they heard from Midori, who’s also out on a mission with the cyborg Rad. However, there is concern over the plant-like thing that took over the mausoleum and while its growth on the surface seems to have stopped, it is growing underground still.

We then see Nina in a sleeping Sergay’s room where she opens up his luggage and removes his diary. She goes to her room where she looks at a picture of herself, Arika, and Erstin, her roommates from her days at school to become an Otome. She then opens the diary, but wakes up in the ruins, remembering that they had fallen. They are in another room where Nao has the diary and is reading it. Nao teases Nina about it and reads from a passage where Sergay apparently “noticed” his adopted daughter. Nao stops short though and tosses the diary back to Nina, who promptly embraces it. They continue through the frozen building, working past many traps and talking where we learn that Nina is still an Otome.

Still waiting for the SOLT session to conclude, Arika and the maid Aoi talk with Arika looking at Mashiro’s luggage. Arika remembers the fight she and Mashiro had and when Mashiro’s fat cat Mikoto leaps down onto the luggage, one of the cases opens, revealing a picture that Arika drew for Mashiro when Arika was still in school. Arika learns from Aoi that Mashiro considers the picture to be her treasure and takes it with her everywhere.

Back at the ruins, Nina and Nao continue to talk. Because of what had happened to Sergay in the Mai-Otome series, he no longer has any memory of raising Nina, so the diary is all Nina has left of her adopted father. The diary talks of something that Nina feels is a treasure of some sort, which is why they are there (in part I gather).

At the island, Mashiro and a young native girl child (with a hidden face under a hood like Jawa’s from Star Wars) have fishing poles to go fishing. The two talk about the Schwartz and how things have changed so that as they approach a gazebo shrine. Stating that the Windbloom and Schwartz should get along better, the girl has Mashiro stand in the shrine, then exits and kneels to pray. Mashiro is embarrassed by this, but the girl states that she made a wish for everyone to be able to return to their mountain to be with the rest of their people.

Returning to the ruins, Nao has a key which opens a door to a huge room. They discover a large cocoon and their presence is noticed by the strange entity. There are stacks of books everywhere and Nina finds a book with the Greek title “The Book of Neptune.” The entity attacks Nao, who recognizes it as the one who petrified the other Otome. Being the 4th Column, Nao activates her Otome abilities to fight the entity. However, a guardian of the room has also been activated, meaning Nao has two enemies to fight. The entity stands on the cocoon and it glows. Around the world, giant, metallic, plant-like things begin to emerge from the ground, apparently triggered by the entity.

Nao under attack from two sides, decides to take out the guardian first. She does and after dispatching it, a giant sword falls and is “caught” by the entity. As the sword stays suspended in front of the entity, three apparent eyes open within the cocoon and Nina races to prevent the entity from taking the sword. The entity easily doges Nina and Nao battles it. The entity sends a petrifying beam through Nao, pinning her to the wall of the room. Before she is petrified, Nao manages to use her energy webs to catch the entities weapon and attach the webs to the wall.

The entity takes notice of Nina, but it cannot attack because its weapon is being held by the threads. It pulls the weapon until the wall the threads are attached to come down. The entity has to move to avoid being hit by the falling wall while Nina finds herself glowing green and the sword glows as well. Both are pulled to places with Nina being pulled to a doorway that has just opened and is filled with a red energy. Nina is pulled into the energy field and the doors close, just before the doors and the wall around it collapse.

The people at the SOLT talks are looking at the plant thing that emerged nearby with Natsuki fearing the worst for the world should these things hatch.

At the island, Mashiro is dozing and the young girl notices that she’s got a bite on her line. The little girl wakes Mashiro and encourages her to bring in the catch. Unfortunately the line breaks and instead of a fish, a building emerges from the water. Mashiro and the little girl enter the building and discover an unconscious Nina there along with the Book of Neptune.

Thoughts: Maybe sales of the previous to episodes weren’t so great. I really didn’t need all the ecchi fanservice complete with naked breasts. Then again, the writers may not have had enough story for this episode and needed to kill some time. Either way, I didn’t care for it.

As to the story, it was interesting enough even though we didn’t learn squat about the entity. Obviously with only one more episodes, the explanations are going to have to come fast and furious to save time for the battle which likely will have to be shown as well.