灼眼のシャナ II Episode 15

SPOILER Summary: The armor, silver arm is draining power from Pheles and she wonders who that is since clearly it isn’t Johan. Despite her grievous wound, Pheles is still determined to pull Johan out of Reiji Maigo. Wilhelmina uses her ribbons to forcefully pull Pheles away from Yuuji and down to the ground. Shana and Margery race to Yuuji, both of them in their transformed mode, and Margery begins a spell to bind Yuuji, assuring Shana she’s not going to kill him, as the only way to get this Silver is to extract it carefully from Yuuji, then take care of it. As Tanaka tries to guard the time-frozen Oga-chan, Margery begins the extraction process while Wilhelmina has to restrain the injured Pheles.

Within the Fuzetsu, Konoe-san and her butler, with large, glowing bracelets, silently climb to the roof where the action is currently going on. At the Bal Masqué base Seireiden, the “professor” Dantalion is working with Fecor as they along with Bel Peol observe a silver suit of armor with the head and right arm missing, held up by cords of some sort. They ponder this as Hecate arrives on the scene and confirms what Bel Peol has concluded — the original owner of Reiji Maigo has returned. Fecor is worried that their plans might be discovered. Since the vessel Konoe has done its job, Bel Peol suggest it might be time to leave.

Back within the Fuzetsu, Margery is working on extracting the Silver with Yuuji’s help. Sato and Yoshida are stunned to see Konoe and her butler walking within the Fuzetsu, something that is impossible. Back at Seireiden, Bel Peol breaks a chain she’d been toying with and that causes the butler to explode. Konoe flies up to where Margery has encased the Silver as well as shielding Yuuji and as Margery marvels at the power, Konoe summons a priest’s staff and breaks Margery’s spell bindings. She taps the armored head and commands it back within Yuuji. It complies and then Konoe stabs Yuuji with the staff, sealing the Hougu.

Shana races in as well as Margery, only to discover a gigantic cube about to knock them out of the sky. It misses and Alastor seems to recognize it as “Magnesia.” A storm of these cube-like particles fall within the Fuzetsu and Alastor orders Shana to retreat as they could seriously damage her. Hecate emerges in a burst of energy, guarded by Fecor, who’s unrestricted spell is the Magnesia, which is a defense nearly impossible to overcome. Shana goes to attack and Fecor launches the Magnesia against her, eventually forcing her away. Konoe, having sealed the Reiji Maigo, is then ordered to merge come to Hecate to be absorbed by her. Konoe does, slowly having her memories and experiences absorbed into Hecate. Just before Hecate absorbs Konoe’s body, Yuuji calls to her and she turns to look at him before disappearing.

On the roof, Sato and Yoshida struggle to comprehend what has just happened. Fecor confirms they’ve prevented the Silver from emerging here and sealed the Reiji Maigo. All that remains is to get rid of the Reiji Maigo’s container (Yuuji) and so Hecate summons the staff that Konoe had. Shana and Margery try to move in, but Fecor keeps them at bay until Wilhelmina enters the fray, using her ribbons to take Fecor out. Hecate attacks and Shana counters. As the two fight, Yuuji starts to fall and turns into Johan to the delight of Pheles but the surprise of everyone else including Hecate and Fecor.

Pheles and Johan enter her tornado and have a lovers reunion. Hecate and Fecor both attack the tornado, but their attacks are rebuffed. Since Johan wants a moment alone to talk with Pheles in peace, he and Pheles leave the Fuzetsu, with Shana rocketing behind. Johan kisses Pheles deeply and beings (apparently) pouring himself and power into her. Shana is afraid Yuuji will die and tries to stop it, but a blast of energy knocks her back. With this strange turn of events, Fecor inquires of Hecate about their next move. Hecate says they will retreat, to Fecor’s surprise. However, since they did the two things they set out to do, Hecate feels it is prudent to leave and they can take care of the rest later.

Meanwhile, Johan has fallen back into the Fuzetsu, pursued by Shana. Johan changes form back into Yuuji and is caught by Shana, who embraces him tightly. This is seen by Yoshida, who can do nothing but wish she were there as Pheles descends next to her. Once everyone is gathers, Yuuji confirms he is OK but weak from the power transfer to Pheles. Pheles is happy to have touched her lover again and Shana states that Pheles won’t be allowed to do that again. Pheles says she won’t try that again as Johan told her she couldn’t. When Alastor tries to get her to say more, she declines, saying that it is for their sakes as well as she and Johan’s. As such, she will leave him behind here. With that, she leaves.

The battle over and things returned to normal, Shana and Yuuji talk on the roof about things as Shana promises herself that she will protect Yuuji. Yoshida watches from a distance and looks at a cross she’d been given (by Pheles?). Elsewhere on the roof, Wilhelmina looks off into the distance and Sato asks Margery if it is all over now. Margery thinks that in fact it is only just beginning.

Thoughts: Wow! There was a lot happening here. First, Konoe-san being Hecate, or rather a vessel connected to Hecate, wasn’t surprising. The connection I had figured from the start, just how they were connected was really the issue. So really, Hecate appeared to do something similar to Pheles, only it was a superior job in that the Flame Haze actually trying to make the vessel reveal itself as Hecate came up empty. The bracelets were the key but clearly, not enough to give it up to Margery Daw’s spells.

The armored thing (The Silver) is obviously tied to Bal Masqué. The thing is, I thought it had to be Sabrac (or a piece of him) because it was Sabrac’s battle with Pheles and Johan which causes Pheles to seal Johan in the Reiji Maigo. Sabrac did something to that Hougu as well at that time. However, if that were the case, why would Bal Masqué care about it? Clearly they do because there was the armored thing they had at Seireiden (their base) with the missing head and arm has to be tied with the armored thing coming out of Yuuji. There has been no indication that this Sabrac is anything special to the Bal Masqué, but maybe he is. Margery has never mentioned the Silver as being Sabrac, leading me to think that maybe I was wrong and this Silver is not Sabrac.

Regardless, that silver armor thing explains why the Bal Masqué were so interested in the Reiji Maigo. But why would Hecate be so interested in sealing it back within the Reiji Maigo instead of setting it free or destroying it? And what did Johan tell Pheles that finally made her not only give up trying to free him from the Reiji Maigo, but also made her clam up? Is Johan in the Reiji Maigo as I seemed to get from the episode, or did he completely dump himself into Pheles as some other fans think? There’s definately something bigger going on here though and Bal Masqué didn’t expected the Johan element in the equation.

Now that Hecate has Konoe’s memories and experiences, I wonder how this will impact her, if at all.

Finally, poor Yoshida. I feel bad for her because really, she has no chance at being with Yuuji, not when Shana is a Flame Haze and can fight. All Yoshida can do is watch, unless that cross that I guess Pheles gave her at the end of the episode is something more. If it is, it would have to be a Hougu of some kind and considering how powerful the Reiji Maigo is, it could be something special.

Regardless, this was a kick-butt episode to be sure.