This week starts, appropriately enough, with a birds-eye view of the capital covered in mournful snow. Alpha sits by the fire in her bare feet, utterly checked out now that Shadow has forsaken her. But, as Gamma visits her, she knows the reason: he discarded them because they couldn’t reach his heights. She blames herself!
But then Nu arrives with confirmed reports that Gettan has Cult ties, and the Cult was planning to release counterfeit bills. Suddenly, the gears turn in Alpha’s head and she perks up: what if Shadow did what he did in order to steal a match on the Cult and protect Mitsugoshi … protect all of them?
As she considers this, Beta arrives with a letter from Lord Shadow decoded by her and Eta. Before we even hear it’s contents, we know it’s more good news for Alpha that soothes her heart. In the letter, Shadow cops to having to “play the villain” in order to take it to the Cult while maintaining distance from Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi.
He even mentions that all of the gold taken from the MCA during the credit crisis is stored where they helped rescue Claire. “In the end you’ll understand”—Alpha couldn’t accept those words back when she was fighting him, but they were true: she does understand what he did and why he did it.
As for Delta, Alpha can sense she’s waiting outside like a dog that knows it did something wrong, but Alpha, Beta, and Gamma welcome her back with open arms. If she was doing a “hush-hush secret mission” for “Boss” (i.e. eliminating Juggernaut), Alpha is fine with that, because she’s back home safe.
Needless to say, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma have achieved new levels of delusion where their lord is concerned. In truth, I’m not even sure Cid expected Beta and Eta to decode his message, which was written in Japanese after all. I believe he didn’t, because when he reaches the facility where the gold is stored, there isn’t a single coin in sight.
Now we know it’s because Shadow Garden misinterpreted his note, went to this location and took the gold. But when Yukime’s attendants arrive to tell “John Smith” that they fear Yukime has been taken by Gettan, they inadvertently provide him with a scapegoat: It’s Gettan who stole his gold!
Yukime is exactly where she wants to be: standing in judgment of Gettan. However, her first strike doesn’t kill him, and because he’s a Cult member, he cheats by swallowing a magic pill in order and slashes her in the back again. But before he can kill her, John Smith arrives, and proves more than a worthy opponent.
In fact, as expected Gettan can do absolutely nothing against Smith, and he even mentions that this awesome power reminds him of the one who took his eyes. But Cid doesn’t care about any of that. He wants to know where his gold is, and keeps punching Gettan until he tells him.
Of course, Smith is not so clear as to say “I want my gold coins.” Instead, he keeps repeating his desire to “retrieve something very precious to me.” Both Gettan and Yukime believe that “something precious” is her. So with his last breath, he entrusts Smith with Yukime’s care.
Cid walks to where Yukime is standing, she embraces him, and he heals her back. She recognizes the magic and realizes that this is the same boy who saved her life back at her village. This brings tears of joy and gratitude to her eyes, but while she’s right about this being the same guy, she’s dead wrong about his intentions.
You see, because Gettan was choking on his own blood and teeth while saying those final words, Cid thinks he said the gold is buried beneath the snow (as the yuki in Yukime also means “snow”). He walked to Yukime because that’s the spot he thought Gettan gestured to. Sorry girl, he just wants that money.
Garter is arrested by Iris as the mastermind behind the distribution of counterfeit bills and disruption of the market. Yukime rejoins her attendants, telling them the “compassionate” Mr. Smith stayed behind to give Gettan a proper burial, unaware he’s only using that shovel to dig for gold that’s not there.
Alpha appears before Yukime to deliver a letter that Gettan wrote to her which was found in his office. She explains how the Cult got its hooks in him just like it did countless other people with something or someone to lose and proceeded to corrupt and destroy him.
Alpha goes on to reveal that Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi are one and the same, and that the Garden, led by Mr. Smith AKA Shadow, work tirelessly to bring down the Cult and ruin its plans. Thanks to him, they were able to retreive enough gold to end the credit crisis, and with the MCA gone, Mitsugoshi now stands alone atop the economic mountain.
Far from denouncing Smith/Shadow, Yukime accepts Alpha’s offer for her to join Shadow Garden, with Mitsugoshi as the front, and her organization as the underbelly. Considering Shadow saved her not once but twice and allowed her to get her revenge (or at least closure), Yukime is happy to accept.
The only loser in this whole ordeal, besides the MCA and Gettan, is Cid. Or is he? Sure, he wasn’t able to topple Mitsugoshi and indeed his actions ended up making them even stronger than before. And now matter how much he and Delta dig, he won’t find any gold in them snow-covered hills.
But Cid still won, because he still has the love and admiration of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and the others. He doesn’t necessarily deserve it, and he’ll certainly never fully appreciate it, but he has it, and that makes him a winner in my books.
That said, as far as he knows Alpha and the others are still furious with him, so after describing Santa Claus as a demon lord an villain of the highest order (a hilarious exchange), he announces to Delta that he’ll be going on a “journey of self-discovery”, with the goal of returning nonchalantly without apologizing to find that time has healed all wounds.
I never should have doubted Eminence. What this conclusion lacked in awesome combat, it more than made up for with its expertly wrought and highly amusing web of misinterpretations and misunderstandings. I had a big smile on my face as everything fell into place.
Cid broke Alpha’s heart last week, but now it’s whole again, and she and the others are more adoring of him than ever. It doesn’t matter if those weren’t his intentions. He doesn’t know it, but when he returns, Alpha will have a hard time not smiling.
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