After leaving the protection of the academy to his restless students (and protection of them to Eris and Aqua), Makoto heads to the Merchant’s Guild with Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki. On the way, they defeat fifteen mutant monsters like it’s nothing. They find Patrick (or “Pat”) Rembrandt with an extremely cowed Zara.
He initially resented Kuzunoha because he reminded him of himself when he was young, idealistic, and naive. But while he still doesn’t think of him as any kind of merchant, he’s starting to realize why Pat is so gung-ho about supporting him and his trading company. They’ve tried and failed to profit off war; time to try something different.
Speaking of gung-ho, Eris is a little too enthusiastic about breaking out the banana leaf costumes and ice spells, and manages to get Aqua to tap the Rockies and encase the entire academy in a giant sphere of the stuff. Never mind that no one is able to go in or out; everyone inside is safe, and there’s apparently sufficient food and supplies for a few days.
When Mondo, who is fighting mutants with Lime in the streets, learns what his students have done, he prostrates himself before Kuzunoha and promises they’ll be punished. Makoto for his part doesn’t mind the methods; the fact is, everyone is performing admirably.
Makoto is particularly impressed by the plan Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki have devised to improve both his and the company’s standing not just in Rotsgard but in all the Hyuman nations. Thanks to all their good deeds (particularly those targeted at the rich and powerful), even when the nations learn they’re all at war with the demons, they won’t suspect Kuzunoha, but instead regard him as a strong and essential ally in the defense of their nations.
Sure enough, once Kuzunoha restores telepathy in the city (at the request of Sairitsu), all of the nation’s leaders learn that the Rotsgard attack was a decoy to draw their forces away from their respective capitals of Limia, Gritonia, and Laurel. But since Kuzunoha has done nothing but help them all this time, any suspicions of his working with the demons evaporates.
Now they are eager to return to their lands to regroup, and for that they’ll need his teleportation skills. While all this is going down, there’s the sense that Tomoe in particular is guiding him along a certain path she’s hopeful will lead to his emergence as a truly powerful entity. I’m thinking that may culminate (at least in part) in him gaining the Ultraman-like suit featured in the OP and ED.