Fitz is walking down the hall with Princess Ariel and Luke when she spots Rudy flirting with Pursena. Fitz stops in her tracks, stares, sighs, and then walks straight into the wall. It’s clear to both Ariel and Luke that Sylphie likes Rudy, but are surprised to learn she hasn’t told him her true identity.
Her worst fear is that she tells him and he doesn’t remember her, but Ariel gives her leave to deal with the situation as she sees fit, so there’s nothing stopping Sylphie from telling Rudy…except herself.
Just when I thought this was the direction the episode was going—with Slyphie telling Rudy who she is—it takes a hard left to something else entirely. When Rudy asks Fitz about someone who knows summoning magic, she says a special student called Silent Sevenstar is a specialist.
Rudy knows her as the person who improved the school’s menus and invented uniforms and blackboards, and thus suspected she might be someone from his world. But when he meets her, she’s wearing the same white mask worn by the woman who was with Orstead when Rudy was nearly killed.
Rudy quite naturally wigs the fuck out and even loses consciousness, coming to in Fitz’s lap. Sevenstar removes the mask and speaks Japanese as she reveals her true name: Nanahoshi Shizuka. She was the last person Rudy saw before he was killed and reincarnated in this world.
Shizuka is excited to meet someone else from her world, and has a lot of questions for Rudy, but more importantly, now she believes that since she’s met another person who was sent here, he’ll help her find a way to send them back. But while she doesn’t like this world and has people she wants to get back to, Rudy obviously doesn’t, and has no regrets.
There’s something else different about Shizuka: she wasn’t reincarnated here: she teleported into the middle of the Asura Kingdom with her body and identity intact. Furthermore, in the five years she’s been here, she hasn’t aged a day, and unlike Rudy has absolutely zero mana. While Orstead took her in, she doesn’t believe he summoned her.
Despite having different goals, they both have something the other wants: She’s willing to provide Rudy with information about the mass teleportation, if he’s willing to lend her his mana for her experiments in getting back home.
Throughout all of this, Fitz is listening but unable to understand, as they’re both speaking Japanese. But Rudy agrees in principle to their deal. Shizuka proceeds to tell him more about the mass teleportation incident, this time in the local tongue. But when she says that when she arrived five years ago, the disaster might’ve been the “backlash”, which is to say, her arrival caused it.
When Fitz hears this, he loses it and attacks Shizuka, who defends herself with the rings she’s wearing. Rudy holds her back and tells her she misunderstood: Shizuka was a victim, like them; she wasn’t trying to be teleported, nor did she want to be. Fitz apologizes, and cleans up the mess she made.
Having heard enough for now, Rudy takes his leave with Fitz, saying he’ll think about what Shizuka has said and offered. Shizuka presumes and looks forward to working with him. On their way home, Fitz walks a bit behind Rudy, catching up to his larger gait and asking if he trusts this person. Rudy says he mostly does, even though “parts” of what she said rubbed him the wrong way.
This probably isn’t the best time for Sylphie to reveal who she is, so she doesn’t, but is clearly frustrated about having the opportunity—and indeed this episode—snatched from her by a newcomer who is yet another young lady. Perhaps next week, an episode called “These Feelings,” some progress will be made.
Meanwhile, this was an extremely expository episode, but it dealt with some huge ideas, and Wakamiya Shion’s vocal performance gave Shizuka depth and gravitas. Now we know for certain there’s another Japanese person in this world, and while she’s been with Orsted this whole time, she doesn’t consider Rudy an enemy or a threat, and indeed needs his help. It’s certainly a lot to think about.
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