Things begin to pick up as the pieces of Emperor Gaz are beginning to thin and the groups begin to converge on their locations.
Administrative stuff first then: SAO is boring the hell out of me so the current arc will be talked about in a trio-bundle if the last episode next week is decent and if not, I won’t talk about it at all and chug through the next arc. I’m quite busy this weekend if you couldn’t tell but expect Twintails up later and then Bahamut again.
I didn’t expect things to hit the fan that nicely by the end of the episode. It’s not such a plot cliffhangar but rarely do I get the chance to see shipwreck scenes with monsters to boot. We’ve got 7 more to go but at least things are already brewing up by the end of this.
So we technically escape the anime original territory and continue the story of gathering the remaining pieces. Chaika’s crew reach the port city where Clay Morgan resides and the trio note how it is their first time seeing the ocean. Chaika expresses her wish to discover more about herself and wants to discover the island. Toru asserts that she regain focus on the current task at hand to gather the remains before starting another project. The trio make their way to Clay Morgan’s residence and notice a line of people. Apparently, Morgan demands entertainment and the lucky people who make him laugh get money in return.
Akari’s bullshitting skills that helped them get through Dominica proves useful once again as Akari describes Toru’s fake capabilities that involve eating spaghetti through his nose. When actually confronted with Morgan, Akari demands Toru to do what she described to the gate guard which also happened to involve Toru being naked. Their bickering and Chaika’s Charlie-Brown style sheet costume gets Morgan laughing and he prepares to give them money. Toru responds that they are here for the remains and the sight of Chaika incites a panicking response. Morgan exclaims that he saw Chaika get decapitated by Hartgen, the leader of the execution force. Morgan flails his weapon and flees the scene. Toru and Akari chase after but ask that Frederika watch over Chaika for the time being.
Toru catches up to Morgan and gets into a fight while Chaika contemplates her will and decides to ask around town for information on the hidden island. Toru finds Morgan someone who still lives up to the hero status as Morgan’s skill with his polearm is nothing to joke about. Akari’s entry into the fight gets Morgan to talk but both parties reach an agreement. Morgan hands over the pieces of Gaz in return that Toru and Akari never show up again. Seeing as how traumatized he was seeing Gaz’s smile during death, he seemed to have feared the corpse and decided to keep it somewhere isolated but not technically thrown out.
We get a glimpse of Hartgen and his band of associates as well. Not one but two Chaika’s wearing black named Irina and Arina. Hartgen also has two familiar faces as his subordinates as well. Shin Acura, the teacher of Akari and Toru and a blonde, familiar looking “Cavalier”.
The duo return to their vehicle but find Frederika but no Chaika and Toru rushes into town to find her. Chaika apologizes but also gets a bit mad hearing Toru talk about how she should act about the situation. Chaika states that she’s willing to search for the island alone and Toru decides to consider himself fired to not get caught up with Chaika’s course of action. Akari follows her brother while Frederika herself states that the only reason she’s part of the group is to fight Toru later on. Chaika makes one last request to Frederika to fly her near the island as she’s certain it’s magic that is concealing it. On the beach, Toru lies down to rest while Akari becomes the voice of reason and provides an analogy to how Chaika feels about learning more of herself and her father. Toru is convinced and returns to camp only to see Chaika flying away on their dragoon’s back.
Toru and Akari head into town and are unsuccessful in finding a boat to their destination but spy a rather large vessel. It turns out to be owned by Morgan and the siblings pay him another visit. Needless to say, Morgan agrees to let them use it. Nightfall, the siblings board the vessel but are tailed by Red Chaika’s group that confront them in the middle of the boat trip. Heavy fog rolls in and their fight is delayed as a sea monster scuttles the vessel. Up in the skies, Chaika’s magic reveals the island but she is assailed by what seem to be dragoons. Frederika gets her wings torn off in the dogfight and the pair fall into the island below.
Damn cliffhangars. Hartgen is more or less the final boss in the visible future. I think I heard that the 3 crews we have running around are going to team up sometime or another.
Lair of the Idle 