Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 19 – The Golden Egg

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.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

KonoSuba 3 – 07 – Shadow of Destruction

Back in Axel, Kazuma and Aqua spend their 300 million Eris reward freely, constantly dining out at the finest restaurants. But while they try to put on the air of rich hoity-toity patrons, their less moneyed backgrounds rear their heads in the form of making remarks about their food that fall completely flat—complete with 10-second-long silences that again made me think the picture had frozen.

It’s unlikely they’re convincing anyone that they’re fancy, but the bottom line is they’re back home and having fun, and that’s fine with me! They also walk in on Megumin seemingly in the middle of a sexy torture sesh with Darkness and get the wrong idea. In truth, Darkness is training for the next annual Endurance competition, for which she is the reigning champion (no surprise there, as she’s turned on by punishment).

Fools and their money are soon parted, and Aqua spends a chunk on what appears to be an ordinary chicken egg. She was sold on its seller’s claims it was actually a dragon egg, and both his complimenting her beauty and her desire to raise a sacred white dragon led her to making a dubious purchase. Still, there’s a chance that it could be a dragon’s egg, isn’t there? I for one hope it is. Why should Chomusuke get to hoard the mascot role?

The gang stops by Wiz’s shop to collect their share of the stores sales as per their previous arrangement. Vanir throws in a fortune telling session for Darkness gratis, because he senses a “shadow of darkness” enveloping her. He asks her a bunch of questions she must answer honestly, leading to the others learning she’s now shredded, held up Megumin’s dress in a mirror to see how she’d look, and wears form-fitting armor knowing Kazuma will be looking at her.

But with all that silly stuff out of the way, Vanir does warn Darkness that disaster is about to befall her father and family. That’s probably why she’s so eager to undertake a super-high difficulty quest: defeating a Kowloon Hydra and claim the massive bounty. When calling him a hero and bashfully promising him a kiss on the cheek doesn’t work, Darkness bows before Kazuma and simply gives him her most pained, about-to-cry face.

Whether it’s genuine or not, it works, and the gang is back in the field. Aqua is the only one ho has to be dragged kicking and screaming; she’d rather stay with her “dragon” egg, which was left in Wiz and Vanir’s care. Megumin is excited to earn the title of Dragon Slayer. And Kazuma? I’m sure he figures he could always use more money, even as Vanir warns him he should spend what he has on developing new sources of income to avoid his own bad fortune.

We all know Kazuma cares about Darkness, just as he does the other three, and so he agrees to go on the quest. The plan is for Aqua to float around the lake, purifying the water until the Hydra that dwells beneath is roused, then Megumin will Explosion it to hell. KonoSu-Bing, KonoSu-Bang.

This plan wrecked when Aqua falls asleep in the middle of the lake and ends up on top of one of the Hydra’s many heads when it rises out of the water. Megumin can’t Explosion with Aqua there, so the gang’s in a bit of a pinch. But they’d dealt with tougher foes before. They just need to focus and trust in their talents!