As Minoru considers shit, the next episode plays
Rehash of the end of the previous episode, except, we see [Cid]'s thoughts as well… funnily enough. The opening plays after he thinks that he's been slashed perfectly
Now that everyone has seen the craziness of his thought processes, Rose decides on her course of action. Naturally, it results in her joining the Shades on their couch, to hold his hand and also blush… that admiration is steadily evolving, friends.
Meanwhile, we have Klaus despairing at the world's only chance at salvation being a dumbass. Iris sighs.
[Rose], traumatized, shares a supposedly 'emotional moment' with [Cid], our bleeding 'hero', before she leads the students out behind the terrorists. Did I mention that she starts falling for him at that moment? Meanwhile, his body's been left behind, so we stare at it like necrophiliacs
Yeah, no, the entire group (SG aside) are kinda traumatized as well, for entirely different reasons
"WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Claire demands, being comically held back by a combination of slime, Aurora and Beatrix, though the latter two are also glaring at him. Alexia was similarly pissed, do lives mean shit to him?!
"Well, if I'm right, you'll see…" Minoru simply demurs. Already mentally noting the method, "Ah, thanks, Beta," she gives him her extra notebook and a pen.
Zeta was covering Eta's eyes less she tried it too.
It's a good thing that you, the dear reader, are not into necrophilia, for the moment [Cid]'s hand moves looks more like a necrophiliac's wet dream. Said hand forms a fist, before beating at his heart multiple times, with magic feedback each time. Naturally, he wakes up, gulping air, as he exults mentally at successfully executing the Mob-Style Technique- The Ten Minute Heartbreaker, before outlining the risks of the technique leading to actual death.
Did SG hear that?
Yes.
Did they panic?
Also yes. Emphatic really.
This time, Alpha herself was leading the charge, as she proceeds to lug Sherry off, make Minoru go into Seiza, and then lectures him for 10 minutes on the importance of prioritizing his fucking life, before Beta took over. In that vein, everyone got to enjoy ALL of the Seven shades lecturing the fearsome Shadow for his reckless idiocy. Delta's pouting face actually made a lot of the others want to join in on lecturing him. In fact, Rose did join in.
And Minoru? The dumbass was grinning through the entire thing, although he did listen to them, and took care of Delta's pout with headpats.
"Minoru-san?" He turned to Sherry, "Another one of those and I'll smack you," she declared, perfectly cheerful. Rose blinked at her while Alexia looked stunned, Claire proud.
"..."
[Cid] notes that magic is usable, as long as it's in thread form. He uses said threads to sew his cuts up, before taking his conveniently-placed jacket and wearing it, while heading out.
This just makes Klaus rather sad again, given that the man who has such skill is a bit of an idiot… A lovable one, but an idiot all the same. 'Then again', he muses, as he sees Alexia glance sideways at Minoru and gang, 'Maybe some insanity is required to take the cult on…'
He turned to Aurora, "Was the cult this insane in the past?"
She gave him a so-so look, before acknowledging that mostly nobody there was actually sane anyway.
Scene shift, as a very focused [Sherry] is attacked by a rather confident [Rex]. The man's reasonably strong, killing [Glen], but given that he needed the advantage of magic to do so, I wonder why he's confident… Anyway, [Glen] and [Marco] buy time for her to escape… in her flip-flops. This is relevant.
Minoru pokes Sherry in the side, making her squeak. "And why do you think you can sneak around in flip-flops?" he asks, amused. Though he's more focused on Lutheran's role, given that he's already 90% sure of the fact that he's behind it.
"... They calm me down," Sherry answers embarrassedly, Rose giving her a squeeze in comisserance.
Meanwhile, Alexia's gripped with fear, since the school's under siege, and the students are the only ones without magic.
"It's good that Minoru still has magic, even if I don't know how useful that's going to be, but I'm worried. Should we try devising a way for the students to have a similar capacity?" Iris was highly concerned, Claire perking up.
Alexia gave her a "probably" while Klaus considered the knights.
[Cid]'s on the lip of a rooftop, staring at the school and smiling, as he summarizes the clichéd situation in joy. Nobody really gets why this is a situation that he's got on his bucket list though. He still criticizes their sense of aesthetics, since he thinks no one should wear black during the day… IMO, he isn't one to talk. He laments his having to wait for the damn night to come as he casually USES MAGIC TO SNIPE A FEW MOOKS DOWN LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL!
"Haaa.. why am I not surprised?"
At this point, Iris is just resigned to the fact that she is weak, not wanting to accept that she's been rather arrogant…
Meanwhile, SG are discussing the level of control needed to emulate the threads of magic. In their heads. Minoru is being helpful, adding anecdotes wherever necessary.
Rose is itching to join in the obvious mental conversation, since she wants the ability to defend herself in that situation. Sherry is just in awe of Minoru at this point.
Aurora was trying the method with Beatrix.
Just then, [Cid] notices a very familiar [Sherry] running around in flip-flops, as she tries to get somewhere without being noticed. As he mentally berates her in a deadpan tone, he also helps her. The motherfucker also monologues about the story progression without a care in the world as he helps her, before fucking JUMPING OFF THE ROOF AGAIN.
Safe to say, while there were some eye widening, mostly nobody was actually surprised at that, if exasperated by Minoru's theatrics.
Sherry inched closer, she wanted to memorise every detail to better her "stealthiness".
Cue montage of [Cid] being [Sherry]'s guardian angel, as she runs around as an inept spy, and he covers up for her. She's also thinking about the artifact used to enact this very problem as she moves though. In the end, she trips and falls onto a passing-by [Cid]... though I gotta ask, why are all the scenes showing [Sherry]'s skirt-covered ass? Is this a message?
As Minoru realises that the scenes show an increased emphasis on ass shots himself, he removes an oblivious Sherry and proceeds to chase Seiichi and Aethra around for their erotic choices of shots.
Aethra stops him with a finger, "Look, this sucks for me too, but we have to show them, besides what are you actually mad about? Seeing the scenes or Sherry's privacy being disregarded?"
"... I'm pretty sure that at some point, Claire's ass is going to be on parade. As powerful as you two are, do you really wanna deal with her wrath?" Minoru deadpans, as he pointed out an extremely unpleasant issue (mostly because she'll be screaming at their ears. The rest of that is her belonging only to Cid/Minoru). Not that he minds really.
As Claire realises this, she starts chasing them as well. Or tries to. Minoru is just that strong that he can chase two dimension hopping immortals no problem. Claire, despite being his sister, is just not that strong.
As [Sherry] thanks him for catching her and the {Eye of Avarice}, he berates her for her various unstealthy activities… when she's trying to be stealthy! [Lutheran] ain't here. Sus. Among Us level Sus. As [Sherry] show's her innocent love and hopes he's OK while searching for a book on artifacts, [Cid] susses out that she's the main character in this story. Of course, it's actually him, but nobody tell him that. Anyway, she finds the book she's looking for and infodumps on the {Eye} after he mentally laments the lack of a sidekick character that she can rely on. Of course, she casually reveals that he's just so powerful that he can't be affected by it, and his level of control is good enough to use powerful and effective magic without the {Eye} absorbing it
Alexia and Rose are now lapping at Minoru's coattails, wanting to learn that level of control and gain that much power. Minoru, amused, agrees, but states that they'll have to come to him when he's secure, to reduce the chances of the Cult countering them.
Iris nods, Minoru's methods are risky, but she won't take any chances the cult could actually harness that power.
"Oh, yeah, Minoru?" He stopped writing on the notebook, "In case it ain't clear by now, if this were all a show, or manga, or light novel series, you'd be the protagonist." Aethra states, dry and releasing a less-used accent in her irritation at that part.
He was frozen. He had no idea how to process that bit of info.
"... Was that revenge for him chasing after us?" Seiichi asked, the shades poking their broken master. Alexia was asking Beta what "protagonist" meant. Aurora seemed vaguely aware of the term.
Aethra shrugged.
So, [Sherry] can mod the {Control Device} to cancel the {Eye}. Good for her! She needs tools for that, though, given that she had to flee WITHOUT that. [Cid] goes to get them. Meanwhile, [Rex] and the Gaunt Knight have a stare-off… where the Knight intimidates [Rex], to his chagrin. Also, the Knight is informed of the fact that 'someone' took out their men- Thirds and Seconds. Eh, arrogant villains everywhere, it sucks.
Nothing was of note, but the Knight's voice seemed familiar to them.
Minoru sighed as he hugged Sherry tighter. Sherry, however, was going more pale by the second.
Sneak attacks occur as [Rex] and his goons are taken out rather silently. As [Rex] is paranoid with shock, our friendly [Cid] decides to greet him with a strong push. Assuming a self-acceleration artifact, a net of magic is used to counter that. Of course, villain monologuing leads to being blasted with no issue. From inside the net, destroying it. Using the same push, if stronger. Right towards a door, which he is kicked through. Of course, [Cid] manages to find every single kill of his and places it in the classroom he kicks [Rex] into. You gotta wonder how scared [Rex] was at this point. And of course, [Cid] kills someone who is 'awesome', in his own opinion.
Did I mention Klaus was again reminded that the lovable idiot known as Minoru is also the most powerful motherfucker in the world? Yeah, that meant a lot of fear.
"Dare I ask if you want my country as your own?" Fear is a good reason to ask about that.
"What? NO! That's just stupid! Why would I want to become King!? You might as well put Alpha on the throne for that!" Then again, he's clear on his goals.
Unironically enough, Alpha agreed, she may be frighteningly competent, but she had no lost love for the country, ruling would just be a massive pain in the ass.
Gama nodded earnestly.
Aurora seemed successful in the technique and discussed it among the shades for research.
[Nu], disguised as a student (real sus IMO, but let's go with it), reflects on the sitch, while contemplating killing an unconscious [Marco]. [Cid] unknowingly interferes before THAT, as he has her help him gather the required items- while doing the usual misunderstanding that leads to her thinking that he can modify artifacts. He also convinces her not to kill him. Gospel Truth FTW! SG rundown- They've infiltrated the campus and are on standby. However, only the {Seven Shades} can move normally… and [Gamma] the Klutz is the only one in the city. {Knights} are useless, owing to a leadership issue, and they're outside anyway.
Nu blushes, but Minoru pats her head to appease her. Of course, Klaus notes that the students' witness statements should be taken into account, given that he senses a different endgame.
"What do you plan on doing to counter the Cult's framing attempt?" Rose asks, curious.
"I'm sure the answer will be shown on screen." Minoru smiles mysteriously. Of course, he knows that answer.
Gamma pouts, being called klutz to her face hurts, she tries really hard to fix that, you know! Epsilon squeezes her.
A montage of the current situation rounds out the episode, cuing the ending featuring [Eta].
Alexia pursues her lips, "Okay, so is everyone clear on who the knight is?"
Iris looks pained and Klaus sighs, Sherry flinching, "... Unfortunately, yes, but I'd like to see his reasons first."
Minoru already has a gasp thanks to a lifetime of otakuness, but chuckled at everyone's conspiracy theories.
Sherry smiled weakly at them, "For what is worth, he does seem to care for you," Aurora tried to soften the blow, she doesn't know the full context, but even if it was pragmatic, Lutheran did at the very least try being a good father.
Beatrix gives her a similar answer, knowing her village elders were the same, "show the need for loyalty, but caring enough to treat your wounds".
Sherry's eyes widened at that, Claire and Rose joining in.
AN: Sorry for this delay- It was supposed to go up on Thursday, but stuff happened and I forgot- To make up for this, I'm planning a double feature ASAP.
Anyway,
Seiichi and Neutral are Bonkers at the Races!