The Eminence in Shadow – 32 (S2 Fin) – By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

Ah, are we already at the end? I was having so much fun. The first season spoiled us with twenty whole episodes, and this second only has twelve. But boy did it ever make the most of them, not least of which this finale, which wraps up the Oriana arc … and a lot more than that!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Perv Asshat and Queen Reina are dead, and the Black Rose has been activated. When Eta reports this, Alpha is unconcerned, because Lord Shadow is there. Unless the apocalypse is part of his plan, it won’t happen, legends be damned.

Turns out Rose’s mercifully cancelled wedding was attended by far more members of Shadow Garden than she thought, and they all rise up and recite their motto to Mordred, who has no idea how out of the league he and his metal dragon are.

The Garden members spread out to take care of the myriad beasts it unleashed upon the capital and minimize innocent casualties. Before heading up into the sky to fight Ragnarok, Cid gives Rose the nudge she needs, and she joins the fight on the streets to protect her people.

Mordred must face off against Beta and Epsilon, the former being an elf who resents that he wields and hides behind stolen Elven artifacts. The duo intends to teach him a lesson, and after that look forward to him telling them everything he knows.

After taking down a monster with relative ease, Rose is approached by Margaret, who like everyone else heard the message from the dearly departed king. There’s no time to apologize, but Margaret does bow her head, accept Rose’s orders, and recognizes her as Queen Rose.

While Cid toys with Ragnarok, happy to be in a real-life fantasy video game boss fight, Mordred ends up a defeated mess. While he’s in bad shape, he’s still confident Ragnarok will destroy everyone and everything, so he has no problem indulging Beta, Epsilon, and Rose with some high-level cult intel.

He starts by describing the world they currently inhabit as merely one of infinite dimensions. The worlds in other dimensions, called “realms” by the cult, are where they believe humanoids came from, which explains their dominance over the earth.

Those realms also brought magic and magical creatures. The Black Rose creates a portal between realms, and allowed Ragnarok, a creature of another realm, to pass through. This also pretty much confirms how Cid got here from the Japan of our realm.

Like Perv, Mordred loves his little arranged speeches, but just as he’s promising the ladies that their moments are numbered, a shattered piece of the ruined and defeated Ragnarok comes crashing down upon him.

As a smirking Shadow looms above, 559 makes her report to Alpha and Epsilon that all monsters in the city have been eliminated. She also makes sure to shoot Rose a dagger of a look, but Rose stares right back through her blunt bangs.

With Ragnarok dusted, the apocalypse has been postponed, but Mordred still manages to morph into his Final Fantasy Boss Form, losing much of his humanity but gaining a whole lot of power. Unfortunately, the most power he can muster wouldn’t equal the power in Shadow’s pinky toe.

Shadow demonstrates this by engaging Mordred in a quick but stylish and scenic battle, launching him up into orbit, then going into a monologue about man’s successful struggle to harness the lightning of the heavens (i.e. the power of the atom).

Of course, we know what’s coming. As soon as a rightfully panicked Mordred sets him up perfectly by asking “WHAT ARE YOU?!” Cid answers, this time with a contraction: “I’m Atomic.” The resulting eplosion creates a light brighter than dawn down below, where everyone who has ever interacted with Shadow look up admiringly and know exactly who’s responsible.

When the light fades and he returns from orbit, Alpha and Epsilon are delighted, and 559 is … well let’s just say she’s enjoying herself, shall we? But then something happens even Cid didn’t predict: Whether it’s the remnant of the Black Rose portal or a new portal created by I Am Atomic, it sucks Cid in with a burst of green lightning.

Just like that, Lord Shadow is gone, leaving behind his Seven Shadows, the Garden, and Queen Rose. I’ll give Eminence this: it’s not content merely to return to the status quo in this finale! This is the last we see of everyone we know other than Cid. I had hoped for an after-party, but the show had bigger plans.

In a realm where Tokyo is a charred ruin, Nishino Akane, the girl from the first episode of the series, wakes up, looks up at the crescent moon, and is reminded of an utterly average classmate she once knew. That makes this the same Tokyo Cid originally came from, only this is what has become of it several years later.

Akane is in her 20s, so I guess time flows differently between the realms? In any case, Akane (voiced by Horie Yui) is walking alone down an alley when she’s suddenly accosted by two toughs with cybernetic implants and knocked out with a stun gun.

Akane wakes up bound, and one of her captors addresses her as the “grand savior,” and their intent to turn her over to their bosses. The other captor, nicknamed “brainless”, goes off-script and starts choking her.

But just after looking up at that familiar crescent moon through the hole in the ceiling, Akane’s would-be attacker receives a devastating blow that shoots him clear across the building, while the rest of the ceiling shatters, revealing the night sky in which the moon hangs. Akane’s savior, of course, is Shadow, not the “Stylish Ruffian Slayer” from the first time he saved her. He’s back!

Presumably Cid knows where he is, but even if he doesn’t, he’s sticking with this persona for the time being. As for whether he remembers Akane, what her and this world’s whole deal is, how Cid will contribute, and whether he’ll ever return to his Garden are questions for future sequels, the first of which will apparently take the form of a movie with a release date TBD.

It goes without saying that whatever form future Eminence in Shadow anime content takes, I will be there for it with bells on!

The Eminence in Shadow – 31 – The Black Rose Blooms

Last week we got some majestic setup for the season-closing Oriana arc, but I didn’t know we’d get so much payoff right here and now! I am not complaining; this arc is moving, but doesn’t feel rushed and still allows for plenty of quieter funny moments like the sniping between Epsilon and Margaret.

It’s when he’s with Epsilon that the Black Rose comes up, but Cid thinks she’s simply talking about a Black Rose; the flower, because of course he freakin’ does. But now that he knows Rose is holding back for her mother’s sake, his main priority is freeing Queen Reina, which he hopes will free Rose to become the Tyrant.

What he finds instead is that when it comes to Reina and Perv, things have gone from a fantasy isekai to a soap opera. He believes if Rose learns the truth, it will enrage her sufficiently enough … to become the Tyrant. I loved Cid’s inverted face as he endured what is clearly his least favorite genre.

When Cid meets with Rose again, it’s as Shadow, whom Rose assumes is there to kill her. Instead, he asks her to follow him to the balcony outside Reina’s chambers. There, they not only overhear her and Perv getting it on, but discussing all of their schemes.

Reina admits to being the one who drugged her husband the king, all so she and Perv could be together. And once he marries Rose as a mere formality, they’ll “get rid” of her too so they can rule Oriana. Rose may well be enraged later, but in the moment, she is so disgusted she starts vomiting uncontrollably, then passes out.

Cutting through this devastatingly heartrending scene (considering what Rose is going through), Cid drops his Shadow voice to lay out his intentions directly, only Rose is out cold, so he gives a half-hearted apology.

With Rose at her absolute nadir, Cid tries one more thing to push her towards rebellion: he appears on her balcony as Cid playing Moonlight Sonata in front of the moon. Rose gives an exhausted, grim smile as she joins him outside, saying she’s killed her father, betrayed by her mother, betrayed Shadow Garden, and is hated by her subjects.

But she still smiles, because through it all, Cid has never been far from her side. Cid tells her he’s split the world into “things that matter” and “things that don’t”, because he had a dream that would be impossible if he didn’t. As scenes of their time together flash by, Rose takes this to mean he’s cast everything else in life aside apart from what matters to him most: her.

Cid goes on to say the world is “too bright”, that it makes it easy to see so much that one can lose sight of what matters. He believes the light of the moon to be the perfect level of illumination, making people look more closely at what matters. He then asks her what she sees in such a moonlit world, in a voice not too dissimilar form Shadow’s, and vanishes, leaving the Black Rose ring on the bench.

Turns out Cid wasn’t trying to give the ring to Rose. He didn’t even leave it there on purpose; it simply fell out of his pocket! But as he tells Epsilon back at the inn, he gave Rose “the key”. When he says “key”, he means the truth Rose needed to hear in order for her to rise in rebellion and become the Tyrant. But Epsilon thinks he’s talking about the key—the Black Rose—which explains why Garden hasn’t been able to find it.

Speaking of the Black Rose, Perv doesn’t open the box that no longer holds it until the day of his freakin’ wedding. I love how after his initial double take, he closes it, repeats the same villainous lines, and re-opens it more than once before completely flipping out. Cid would probably recognize the game too. And like Cid, Perv intends to fake it until he makes it (through the wedding) so he gets the seat at the Rounds Mordred promised.

As a gorgeous but focused Rose walks down the aisle to an organ arrangement of Moonlight Sonata (played by Cid of course) my first thought was How did her locks grow back so fast? But my second thought was just how awesomely she would blow up this wedding and Perv’s plans.

The thing is, Rose believes the ring is a wedding ring from Cid. I don’t think she knows its significance. As Reina tries to stay awake and Perv keeps rifling through his pockets, he says “I do,” and then when presented with the same question, she says “I do not.” It’s one of the most badass moments of the entire show.

Rose lists all of the terrible things she’s done, but is ready to look past those, as long as the kingdom knows the truth about Perv. She lists his misdeeds and pronounces him guilty. Refusing to give up on love, she puts the ring on her finger.

Then, to her surprise, it starts doing all kinds of weird stuff, like glowing, flashing, and finally projecting a kingdom-wide recording of her father the king. Addressing both her and his subjects and knowing he was nearing the edge of reason, he declares Perv Asshat to be the one responsible for destroying his mind, and declares Rose Oriana to be his one and only successor to the throne.

The king’s message ends with him saying he loves Rose, which brings tears to her eyes. When Perv starts bloviating, all of his allies in the court turn on him at once. Tearing off her extensions (she didn’t grow it back!) ripping her gown to reveal her sword, she points it at Perv and prepares to, I assume, take him into custody.

But then all of a sudden his head goes flying in a fountain of blood. Rose looks as shocked as everyone else (including Perv). When the head comes to a stop right in front of Reina, she doesn’t have any reaction until the split-second before her head is separated from her body.

The culprit behind both beheadings is none other than Mordred, who was posing as the priest. Now that the Black Rose has a new master and is operational, he uses his little garage door opener doohickey to use the ring to “open the door” (but not to a garage).

Rose’s ring shoots another beam of light straight up into the sky, creating a portal through which the “Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm” emerges: Archfiend Ragnarok, a colossal metal dragon. It unleashes its breath and destroys a good chunk of the capital. Reminder that this is the WMD Oriana used against their enemies as a last resort, and it really shouldn’t be in a big built-up city!

Rose is still trying to figure out what the hell is happening when Ragnarok seemingly tries to lash out and kill her; that was my assessment of its gesture, and that also explains why the dragon’s arm is swiftly cleaved off by Lord Shadow (revealing cables and tubes). Whatever else goes down here, he intends to keep protecting Rose, for whom he has such grand plans.

The Eminence in Shadow – 30 – Blunt Bangs’ Dream

Cid may have rushed to the Oriana capital to stop Rose’s ill-advised plan to marry Perv Asshat, but Shadow Garden actually beats him to the palace. As Lambda, Omega, and Chi discuss how 666’s judgment is in the hands of Lord Shadow, Epsilon just happens to appear just as Cid wishes to enter the palace. He now has a legitimate cover: as the famous pianist Lady Shiron’s secret apprentice, [Name Redacted].

This is how Cid, impressed by the lengths and breadths Epsilon will go to enhance her bosom (99% slime) meets Perv Asshat face-to-face, and he’s gotta respect the man’s dedication to the cookie-cutter villain role. He also notes that while the commonfolk have become downtrodden and cynical, these rich assholes are livin’ their best lives.

While Cid lacks a proper palace pass per the new security regs, Asshat allows him to stay, if he plays a song, confirming that he is indeed Shiron’s student. He whips out another lovely rendition of Moonlight Sonata (which may well be the only piece he knows).

A young maid is among those captivated by the Cid’s playing, while the rich folk are so engrossed in the music, they don’t realize Cid has sent out several slime tendrils to steal their jewelry, including a ring inside Perv’s pocket that we last saw Queen Reina retrieving from the ruins.

Cid is soon snatched away from Epsilon by the maid, who introduces herself as Margaret (voiced with her usual silkiness by Ueda Reina), who has no concept of personal space. That said, Cid learns that her bust is zero percent slime, but grows weary of her trying to “convert him to her religion”. Margaret happens to be Rose’s longtime maid, who now detests Rose after she assassinated the king.

While I initially thought Perv might have planted Margaret as a honey trap for Cid, she seems to be genuinely infatuated with him after hearing his piano. So much so that she tells him exactly where in the palace Rose is being held. Cid then comes afoul of a palace guard who has delusions of an unspoken romance with Margaret, when in reality she recoils and runs from his leering. In his exchange with this guard, Cid only says Sumimasen? over and over.

When Cid climbs up to the tower where Princess Rose is essentially being held prisoner, Rose is so goddamn happy to see him she runs into his arms. It’s a genuinely heartwarming reunion. Cid plays her concerned dear friend to the T, asking her what she means to accomplish by marrying Asshat.

Cid dramatically explains to her (all the while munching on cookies) how the two of them are the same: rejected by their peers, misunderstood, but always staying true to their chosen way of life (in her case, a fencer). But by pursuing this marriage, she’s “perverting” that way of life.

Cid isn’t putting on an act here, either: he truly believes everything Rose has done was building up to her becoming the Tyrant Queen, while Rose thinks he’s here to confess his love for her and dissuade her from going forward with her marriage to Asshat.

Cid makes clear he doesn’t judge her for stabbing her fiancé and killing her father, as he’s certain she had a very good reason for those things, but doesn’t understand why she’d undermine those actions by suddenly getting re-engaged to the fiancé she stabbed. Rose won’t, and likely can’t tell him the true reason, and instead draws away and begs him to forget about her.

Later, when the setting sun turns the sky blood red, we learn why she’s doing this, as Cid stuck around outside the window: Perv Asshat is holding her mother Queen Reina hostage, and not only is marrying him a condition of keeping Reina alive, but also being sufficiently “agreeable.” Ick.

Perv really buries himself in the despicable villain role here, choking Rose out before telling her to come with him so they can plan their wedding. Having absconded with her biscuits, Cid overhears this whole exchange. Now he knows the score, and he has a Plan B in mind.

That plan begins with him remaining undercover as Epsilon’s student. He stays at a spa hotel where Epsilon gives him a shoulder massage and an extremely eager 559 serves him fruit. Before he entered, 559 gives Epsilon her report on her failed mission to the ruins.

Epsilon says what happened was unfortunate but not 559’s fault; they should have taken greater care to ensure Rose and her mother didn’t come into contact at the ruins. We also learn that the ring Cid stole is called the Black Rose, and is essentially a last-resort WMD once used by Oriana to defeat its invaders.

That Lord Shadow met with 666 and didn’t punish her, and whatever he has planned is beyond their understanding. All they can do for now is support their Lord. Speaking of lords, Asshat has a video call with his ostensible boss Lord Mordred, assuring him he has the “Black Rose” (apparently unaware it’s not in the box).

But in truth, Perv intends to use the Black Rose to seize power for himself. We also learn that in addition to being engaged to Rose, he may have brainwashed Queen Reina to be, shall we say, more “pliable,” which, again, is pretty par for the course for a guy named Perv Asshat.

This was mainly setup, but filled with lots of great dramatic and comedic moments, often occurring at the exact same time. I was deeply invested in Cid and Rose’s talk even as I laughed at him scarfing down those cookies. Margaret made for a fun guest star, and most importantly Cid is no longer in the dark about why Rose got engaged. I’m looking forward to seeing how his Plan B unfolds.

 

The Eminence in Shadow – 29 – Cid the Fixer

Cid’s “Journey of Self-Discovery” brings him to the war-ravaged First Castle Town, and as fortune would have it, he ends up staying at an inn opened by Maria, the prostitute he saved in the Lawless City. It’s here where Cid thinks out loud and is totally misinterpreted by Maria for the first time.

She agrees with him that “things can’t go on like this”, even though he’s talking about his so-far aimless quest to determine what kind of Eminence in Shadow he needs to be while she’s talking about the desperate situation in the town.

While last week was all about the Seven Shadows, this week focuses on 664, 665, and Rose, who are not only in First Castle Town doing recon, but staying at the same inn as Cid. Naturally he doesn’t recognize two of the lowest-ranked Garden members.

He and Rose don’t cross paths, as she’s up in her room with the same basic dilemma as Cid: she’s not sure what to do now, but things can’t go on the way they have. Joining Garden wasn’t the cure-all she thought it would be.

To make matters worse, when she and her fellow 660s meet with the distinguished 559, while they’re the only two on-Seven Shadows who derive their power directly from Lord Shadow, 559 tells 666 she’s weak. The last thing poor Rose needs is people reinforcing her delusions!

Unfortunately, that’s not the only blow 666/Rose endures this week. 559 leads them to ruins where the Cult is operating, and Rose is shocked to find her own mother the Queen appears to be cooperating with them to unlock a Sanctuary-type lock.

559, who seems more than a little eager for a fight, swoops in and prepares to assassinate the queen, but it isn’t a Cult officer who blocks her strike—it’s Rose. Whatever is going on here, and whatever oaths she made with Shadow Garden, she’s not just going to let this bitch kill her mom. I can’t blame her!

Back in Midgar, Nu gives a detailed report to Gamma about 559 and Rose, whom Gamma is willing to give up to the Cult for now. Her main concern is Mordred, AKA the Knight Beyond Men, who is controlling the Oriana Kingdom from the shadows with Asshat as his public-facing partner.

Gamma is content to not only allow Asshat and Mordred to make the first move, but give Rose to them, because she believes everything is unfolding according to the will of their Lord Shadow. Princess Rose is where she is because that’s where Shadow wants her. To what end? That’s for Shadow to know and Gamma & Co. to find out.

Of course, this is all a complete fantasy! Cid is, as always, making shit up as he goes along. As he continues his stay at Maria’s inn, he reads up on the current deteriorating civil and political situation in Oriana, notes how that’s a perfect situation for an Eminence to intervene, and learns from a headline that Princess Rose has returned to the capital.

“Maybe I should help with that,” Cid thinks out loud, “that” being the crowning of a new ruler in Oriana. Maria thinks he’s talking about breakfast, and says she’s fine making it on her own. He goes over in his head his role as “fixer”, guiding the new ruler of his choosing to victory.

He then thinks back to his heart-to-heart with Rose and considers that perhaps she looked so determined to do anything because she actually did seek the throne, and killed her father to pave the way for that outcome. He can respect hustle, and vows to help Rose become the next ruler.

“Yes, it’s delectable,” he says out loud of his plan, and Maria thinks he’s talking about his drink. I love their dynamic so much. As far as she’s concerned, they’re on the same wavelength, but they’re not even using the same radio equipment.

When some bandits burst in to “procure” what little money and supplies Maria still has for “the war effort,” and even propose she pay them with her body (talk about dropping the pretense!) Cid steps in … and proceeds to act like a complete weakling, allowing them to beat the crap out of them.

Even so, Maria thanks him for rescuing her, mentioning that in her former life as a prostitute she had to deal with their sort every day. She came so close to giving up so many times, but never did. She believes that defiance in the face of despair is what brought Shadow to her room, and led to her deliverance.

Cid proceeds to quickly run through all the adventures he went on while trying to execute the “Birth of Tyrant Rose” plan, including infiltrating a prison, staging a break, joining the volunteer army and winning a great victory without getting the credit for it. As he puts it, a fixer “is supposed to, like, stand out by not standing out when standing out,” which reminds me of my favorite fortune cookie fortune: “Show-off always shown up in showdown.”

Cid’s wanderings through the bombed out town bring him to the hideout of the bandits who robbed Maria. He learns they picked the side of the cult, and talk about a legendary treasure in the mountains. One of the bandits continues to talk about how they should have their way with the girl at the inn before getting out of there.

It’s only when this bandit doesn’t get a reply that he realizes all of his mates have been gruesomely slaughtered by Cid. He recites to them the only law of Lawless City: The strongest guy is always right. That makes him right.

That very night, Maria is going through her books and concludes that she’ll have to start selling her body to make ends meet. But she hears a bump from behind her door, and when she opens it, finds a huge bag of gold coins on the ground. Whether Cid intended it or not, she happens to catch a momentary glimpse of Shadow.

I love how he’s reflected in her green eye. Maria, realizing the same person who saved her in the Lawless City is continuing to watch over her, will most certainly never give up. I don’t know if she’ll ever join the Garden, but she’d make a valuable addition with her steadfast determination and tolerance for unpleasantness.

By the time we check back in on 559, we learn she’s been fighting the Cult officers for three days and three nights. 665 and 664 lie nearby, defeated and bloodied, while 559 herself is missing and arm and is low on magic, blood, and time.

Her haughty Cult opponent begins to describe how he’ll torture her before she dies, but we get another cool reflection of Shadow, the yellow full moon behind him, in 559’s eyes. Her grim expression turns to pure giddiness at her lord’s arrival, her arm is immediately regrown, and she slashes the Cult guy so definitively he explodes in a cloud of blood and viscera.

The first thing Cid wants to know is where the ruins are, because he wants treasure. Instead, 559 reports 666’s defection. Cid doesn’t get it, wondering if that’s an Employee ID number or something. When 559 recommends 666 be immediately executed for her betrayal, 664 and 665 protest, as 666 was only protecting her mother.

As 559, 664, and 665 continue to bicker, Cid isn’t really paying attention. He checks a newspaper that happens to fall into his hands with an article about Princess Rose planning to marry Perv Asshat. Because this doesn’t fit the plan to seize power he thought Rose was implementing, he becomes enraged, and promises that Rose Oriana’s “betrayal will be punished.”

Like Maria, 559 misinterprets these words to mean he agrees with her recommendation. But as he flies off towards Oriana, Cid is actually pissed that his latest plan to become a really good Eminence in Shadow is being undermined by Rose suddenly deciding to get married.

If there’s one thing me and Cid agree on, it’s that such a marriage can’t happen. He’s going to ensure Rose becomes Oriana’s next ruler, all while standing out by not standing out when standing out.

The Eminence in Shadow – 28 – Unleash the Dragon

With the Currency arc concluded, this week omits Cid entirely, which I’m honestly okay with as I’m still mad at him for the mess he made. Instead we follow Skel and Po as they find six VIP passes to the grand opening of the ultra-exclusive Mitsugoshi Hot Springs Land. Eager to go on a date with hot chicks, they stop by Mitsugoshi and end up on Nu’s bad side … until they mention Cid’s name.

Nu takes this to mean Cid called the Seven Shadows to assemble. At the meeting of the seven, Alpha presumes he has some purpose in mind for which a group date is a cover. It may even have something to do with the “Dragon’s Tears”, something he babbled on about when they were younger and led to them discovering the hot spring in the first place.

The only thing is, there are only three passes for seven Shadows. As all of them are eager to join Cid, they engage in a fierce battle … of rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets to go.

The victors are Beta, Delta, and the rarely-seen Zeta, who are unenthusiastic to say the least upon seeing that Cid isn’t with Skel and Po. Still, the boys, led by the teachings of Count Virgin Boy and his World’s Best Love Tips series assure them he’s just running late. (Elizabeth and Mary, however, are also attending the grand opening)

Somewhat placated, the girls get changed into their cute swimsuits, and we learn that Alpha, Gamma, Epsilon, and Eta are also there to observe, with lesser members of Garden serving as staff. In their intense cat-dog volleyball fight, Zeta and Delta soon dispatch Skel and Po.

As the day rolls on and Cid fails to show, Alpha ponders whether he isn’t coming on purpose, and that his true intention was for the Shadows to simply kick back and have fun at the hot springs after so many long and punishing battles.

That said, she doesn’t claim to be able to ever fully comprehend Lord Shadow’s thoughts. We do get a nice shadow puppet play directed by Lambda that tells the tale of a princess that befriends a dragon; a tale that may carry within it the secret to what their lord truly seeks.

Once Skel and Po regain consciousness, they continue to follow Count Virgin Boy, who assures them that the girls only ditched them to determine who gets who, and that custom demands that they try to peep on them when they’re in the girls’ only bath.

When Eta’s anti-peeping system blinds the boys, one of their tears falls into the water and has an effect. When Eta turns the system against Beta and she sheds a tear, it has an even greater effect. The entire complex gleams with golden light, and a great water dragon emerges from the water.

With the apparent purpose of Shadow’s summons now clear, the Seven Shadows transform into their work clothes, albeit swapping their usual dark colors for white, red, and gold in order to maintain separation between Garden and Mitsugoshi.

The Seven Shadows dance among the water, Gamma trips and bonks her nose, and Alpha delivers a coup-de-grace to the dragon, which briefly re-appears before Beta in its golden form. Apparently the dragon’s soul had been trapped in the hot springs, and Shadow wanted them to rescue it.

While they may well have interpreted all of this out of thin air—there’s little to no indication Cid knows or cares about any of this and likely forgot what he said about Dragon’s Tears when he was younger—the Shadows believe their work for the day is done, which means getting back to the serious business of relaxing and having fun.

As for Skel and Po, they end up forgotten by their dates and don’t even clearly recall themselves exactly what happened on their date, only that they’re not ready to give up. Their faith in Count Virgin Boy, just as the Shadows’ faith in their lord, remains ironclad and unswerving.

The Eminence in Shadow – 27 – The End of Winter or Something

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.

The Eminence in Shadow – 26 – Once It’s All Over, You’ll Understand

Episode 26 usually marks the end of a two-cour anime, but thankfully we’ve got another half-cour left of Eminence to enjoy before the second season is out. And things escalate quickly this week, with Alpha and Gamma dispatching Delta to deal with John Smith. It’s reasonable that they assume even if he can defeat Shadows in the 660-range, he can’t beat the fourth Greek letter.

Smith, who is reading his journal of random notes, suddenly sees something moving extremely fast in parallel to the train. It suddenly maks a beeline for his cabin and blasts through the window. Smith’s magical threads stop her in her tracks, but Delta is able to burst through them, and even blast the roof off the train car.

Shadow counters by using the threads to bring all of the wreckage of the car on top of Delta, paralyzing her. She lies there under hundreds of pounds of metal, growling, until she has a good sniff at her foe and realizes it’s Boss! Unlike the 660s, visual disguises won’t work on her canine nose.

While I’m sure Cid didn’t intend for the Seven to discover him so quickly, he’s not surprised by how quickly they did and takes it in stride. He reminds Delta that an order from Lord Shadow countermands any order from Lady Alpha (whose anger Delta legit fears), and gives her a new mission: go hunt Juggernaut in the Lawless City.

That Delta does not return from her assassination mission, and when a lock of her hair is found, Gamma and Alpha expect the worst: Delta couldn’t have disobeyed, so she must have been killed. Gamma also reports the worsening credit situation, and a furious Alpha realizes Smith’s plan was never to profit off the market, but to seize it in its entirety once they and the MCA crumbled.

Gettan gets a visit from two Cult reps, who blame him for letting things get so out of hand to the point the Cult is going to take massive losses. He beheads them and orders every entrance and exit in and out of the city to be monitored. It’s a desperate move from an increasingly impatient Gettan who has yet to grasp just how thoroughly he’s been outplayed.

Two people who don’t seem concerned with the economic situation at all are Alexia and Iris. The latter encounters the former with a tall stack of books, and Alexia explains how she’s studying as much as she can about … everything to become a better warrior. That Iris walks away without saying anything makes me think she’s not interested in such a route, which is why it’s entirely possible Alexia could surpass her one day.

Cid actually makes an appearance as Shadow in his gaudy apartment with all the windows open. He sits near a brazier and shivers and sneezes as Beta gives him a report. He’s also taking notes, which she finds odd. Beta can’t help but tear up when she reports Delta is missing.

Cid can’t very well tell her the truth, so he simply says she’s “somewhere far away,” then offers a page from his notes (in a strange mix of Japanese characters, Western letters, and Arabic numbers), says he’ll teach her if she can decipher the code, and then takes off.

He’s aboard a train out of town, and even though Rettan’s henchmen have barricaded the track, he breaks through it with his thread and continues uninterrupted. Then, just as suddenly and even more stylishly than Delta, Alpha is facing off against him.

Alpha may be far more powerful than Delta, but she is still no match for “John Smith.” But just as Delta was able to sniff out her Boss, Alpha is able to determine he’s Lord Shadow by how he fights. But while she now knows Shadow and Smith are one and the same, she can’t understand why, and that breaks her heart.

Her whole life, all she’s sought is to be of help to Lord Shadow, the man who saved her life and those of her sisters. To support and understand him. Now, it feels like he’s discarding her. Could it be he doens’t need her anymore? All he’ll say is that Delta is far away, and that when it’s all over she’ll understand.

That’s not good enough for Alpha; not here and now. She continues her attacks, insisting that he allow her to remain by his side and let her keep supporting him. She even uses her Mistform, but he catches her blade in his bare hand, then blasts her off the train, just as easily as he did the 660s.

While I understand even Cid isn’t entirely sure what he’s doing, so he’s not being intentionally malicious, it still sucks that he has to hurt Alpha and mess with her emotions to such an extent. For all her power, when it comes to Shadow she’s still a scared, insecure, lonely girl who fears him abandoning her above all else.

Instead, he meets up with Yukime, who has procured a good chunk of the MCA’s gold reserves. She details how this will lead to economic chaos in the capital as the people demand redemption of their funds and business fall like dominoes. She then provides more of her backstory, revealing that Gettan was to be her husband in an alliance of Great Wolves and Spirit Foxes.

Everything was hunky-dory until the Cult got to Gettan and he burned her village and literally stabbed her in the back when she refused to submit to the cult as well. She blacks out just as Cid, in Stylish Bandit Slayer persona (with the bag on his head), slashes one of Gettan’s eyes while saving (and inspiring) Rose back in the day.

Yukime never met Cid, but worked her way up to Queen of the Lawless City so that she could take everything from Gettan the way he took everything from her. Since Cid is reclaiming all that he believes to be his (unaware it already is all his), he and Yukime make for perfect allies in this scheme. It’s all going their way so far, but I hope it’s worth it.

The Eminence in Shadow – 25 – Nothing But Paper

When Alpha learns that they have some “guests” from the MCA in the form of the elite Clovers, she prepares to send Nu to “welcome” them. But Gamma volunteers, and when she’s ignored she volunteers again. So Alpha sends her, along with Kai and Omega.

She does so fully aware that Gamma is the clumsiest person alive, but who can refuse that cute determined face? They get a jump on the Clovers, but while her escorts take care of two of the three, their leader manages to bop Gamma on the head.

If she were an ordinary human, she’d have died instantly. But she’s Gamma, and she’s back in action tonight, baby! Things go about as well as you’d expect for someone with ridiculous magical power but is made entirely out of thumbs. And yet, Alpha still gave her a chance, bless her.

Mind you, what makes Gamma so goshdarn endearing and fun to watch is that she never makes excuses and is never discouraged by her setbacks. Indeed, while she ends up blasting a giant hole in the department store, she manages to accidentally take out the top Clover when he tries to flee. No one is better at claiming the accidental as intentional.

When Garter gives Gettan a report on the Clovers’ failure, Gettan laments the Cult’s current deficit of resources, and makes clear he only needs the MCA to stay afloat long enough to serve his particular purposes. In a flashback we see him witness what looks like Cid in a paper bag mask massacring his village.

Meanwhile, Cid takes some time out of his busy schedule to spar with Alexia, who makes her season two debut. Alexia was one of my favorite characters from the first season so I’m glad to see her again, even it it’s only briefly. Driven by a desire not to be a passive bystander, she’s determined to get stronger for her sake as well as Rose’s, and Cid can’t deny she has gotten stronger.

That night he’s back in his John Smith persona, meeting with Yukime, who has a fresh sample of counterfeit MCA bills for him to inspect. And while you and I both know he can’t tell the real bill from the fake, he still pretends he does and manages to convince Yukime he does. The reality is that the counterfeits are actually of higher quality than the real thing.

Word soon gets to both Alpha and Gettan that the counterfeit bills are circulating in the capital. It occurs to Alpha that their rivals may be trying to tank their paper currency on purpose, since it will hurt Mitsugoshi as well. She’s actually spot-on in that assessment, even if Gettan is the only one who knows of the plan to inflate the MCA credit well beyond its means.

But here’s the thing: that Cult plan shouldn’t have been implemented yet…and indeed we know it hasn’t, because Cid—er, Mr. Smith unknowingly copied the Cult’s plan and beat them to the punch.

Gamma sends 664, 665, and 666 (AKA Rose) to intercept a cargo train out of the Lawless City carrying the counterfeit bills. 664 warns Rose to obey her orders and not improvise. However, like all members of Shadow Garden, 664 probably expected less resistance in this mission.

Shortly after boarding the suspiciously unoccupied train, 664 and 665 end up tangled up in webs of magical thread Rose manages to dodge. The producer of those threads reveals himself: it’s John Smith. Now Cid is officially actively working at cross purposes with his Shadows.

That said, he has no intention of harming them. When Rose rushes at him, demonstrating her power, he suspends her in webs with ease, then tosses all three of them off the train. By the time they gather themselves, it’s too far off to catch, but even if they did, they don’t have a plan to beat that masked man.

Rose curses herself for being “so weak”, not knowing that she was up against the strongest freakin’ guy in the world—and definitely not knowing that’s the same guy who gave her a cheeseburger a lifetime ago. The tragic irony is that Rose is extremely powerful; both back when Alexia could only stand by and watch, and even moreso now that she’s with Shadow Garden. She’s just no match for Shadow.

The Eminence in Shadow – 24 – Another World Is Not Enough

A group of ruffians start threatening seemingly defenseless employees of Mitsugoshi (Gamma’s corporation), but soon wish they hadn’t, as the three girls they’re harassing are actually full-fledged members of Shadow Garden. Alpha is leading a comprehensive purge of any and all threats to Mitsugoshi.

But economic battles in the Royal Capital aren’t just fought with daggers or swords. Po and Skel rock some Mitsugoshi knockoffs they paid out the ear for, while Cid wears the genuine article. His wardrobe is seen to by the girls, and it occurs to him they’ve gone too far in copying the culture of his home world.

To that end, Cid declares he’s going to “reclaim what’s mine”, and adapts an entirely new persona for that task: the “super elite secret agent” John Smith. Sure, why not?! He meets with Yukime in secret to discuss the escalating trade war between Mitsugoshi and the established Major Corporate Alliance.

While those two tear each other apart, he and Yukime agree to “take everything.” Yukime also has a personal stake in this, as she owes the leader of the MCA, Gettan the Sword Devil, a date with her own blade after he scarred her with his. When the MCA coordinates major sales in all its affiliates to leech customers from Mitsugoshi, Cid learns that Gamma & Co. even started their own bank and issue paper currency based on a gold standard.

They learned how to do all of this by listening to partial stories about his world’s economy back when they were little (he namedrops “MHK”, a trusted educational source on Japanese TV). As the Postcard Memory that ends the scene makes clear, Cid is serious about letting the MCA crush Mitsugoshi so he can crush them, then start a whole new corporation…I guess just so he can say he did it?!

After discussing the concept of using paper money to create and extend credit to all of the people all while maintaining the same base amount of gold in a central bank, Cid—ahem, John Smith floats the ideal of creating counterfeit money. She says they’d get caught quickly due to the fact the money they hope to fake is only in use in the capital.

But Cid doesn’t care if they’re caught…he wants them to be caught. No matter what, news of the fake money will spread across the capital and trust in the entire paper currency system will gradually evaporate. He intends to capitalize on the ensuing bank runs, where they can really clean up. Yukime believes he’s test her sincerity, but in truth, she kinda came up with the whole plan for him!

That night, Cid finds himself feeding a half-naked Delta meat from his noodle bowl. When she smells foxes on Cid, he says he was hunting them. Fresh from a bandit hunt ordered by Alpha, she’s eager to hunt with Shadow, and won’t take no for an answer as she hangs off of him.

As Rettan’s underling Garter reports that the bandits aren’t working, he mobilizes the “Clovers”, his elite assassins. Cid indulges Delta and they do some bandit hunting in the sewers…or rather Delta does all the killing while Cid checks out their loot.

Among the bandits is Delta’s real-life brother, from when she was known as Sara. In an act that underscores her therianthrope might-makes-right philosophy, Delta kills him on the spot, declaring she’s not interested in weak brothers. She’d rather Cid kill her father, the chief, and make lots of new, stronger children together.

Delta’s late brother Zabra turned out to be one of those Clovers Rettan was hyping up. Granted, he was the weakest, but I imagine the stength gap between the strongest—or even Rettan himself—and Delta, let alone Cid, is wider than the Pacific Ocean. I’m looking forward to watching this war to tear down and rebuild the capital’s economy unfold.

The Eminence in Shadow – 23 – Rather Over the Top

Claire and Mary reach the top of the tower, but Cid isn’t there. Then, in an instant, Claire is impaled through the shoulder by one of the slowly awakening Vampire Queen Elizabeth’s tendrils. She’s then carried to Elizabeth’s waiting fangs, which sink into her neck. Moments later, the vampiress is beheaded =by Beta, who has arrived with 664, 665, and 666 to rescue Shadow’s sister.

Elizabeth’s head doesn’t stay detached, however, and as the queen continues to gain consciousness, she only becomes stronger. Beta knows they have a hell of a fight on their hands, but all they need to do is hold out until Shadow arrives. Juggernaut has a go at Liz, but gets dusted, and has to spend the remaining battle up in the cheap seats with Yukime.

They’re wise to keep their distance: Elizabeth is a whole other level of power. Beta even notes that her magical energy exceeds Lady Alpha’s, and not only is she and the other Garden lasses wounded and their blood used to heal Liz, but she is also able to control their possessed blood, or corrupt Shadow’s Blessing. She even awakens the possessed blood within Claire, who then suddenly awakens in a standard school nurse’s office.

Awaiting her there is none other than Nurse Aurora, who has brought Claire into this other plane of being not to explain everything, but just enough to get Claire on the right path. Long story short, Claire’s human and possessed blood is adapting and evolving, which means she’s becoming far more powerful, but also has a long hard road ahead. Back up on the tower, Aurora borrows Claire’s body so she can fight Liz, who is technically her kohai.

Aurora seems ready to cast her version of Shadow’s I Am Atomic before Liz’s flurry of blood blades forestall it. No matter; Aurora has done enough stalling to give time for “the star of the show”, Shadow himself. Beta’s look of elation when he touches down is priceless.

Surrounded by a cloud of shattered gold coins, Shadow dazzles all the more for a delighted Beta, who cheers him on as he confronts Liz and goes toe-to-toe for her in an absolutely bonkers, light-speed battle up in the sky with the blood moon as backdrop. As Yukime puts it, it’s all a bit over the top, but that’s why it’s so bloody brilliant and fun.

After fighting to a stalemate, the combatants pause, and Liz says her first words (in Hayami Saori’s voice), asking Shadow his name. He responds by saying “I … AM … RECOVERY ATOMIC.” Well, that’s a new one. Rather than destroying Elizabeth, this attack turns the entire Lawless City to monochrome, resets everything to before all hell broke loose with the ghouls and vampires.

Cid later explains, while waiting for Claire and Mary to have a cozy goodbye, that his ability simply quelled those various forms of magic overload, resulting in an “all’s well that ends well” state. He didn’t recover all the cash he had wanted, but knows he can always return to the Lawless City if he finds himself short on funds.

A guarded Claire also tells Cid about what is stirring in her arm, and he responds with a vow of unconditional support. No matter what path she chooses, he’ll be by her side. It’s exactly what Claire needs to hear, and it puts her enough at ease to fall asleep beside Cid on the train ride home.

That said, Shadow eventually ends up on another train at night to meet with Yukime, whose face we finally see in full. I love her regal, ethereal aloofness, so their future interactions should be fun. Until then, Eminence delivered yet another stylish barnburner of a battle.

The Eminence in Shadow – 22 – The Maddening Thirst

The warrior Crimson captured and made into a guard for the gate of his tower witnesses the awesome power of Juggernaut and Yukime, but neither of them is a match for a third combatant: Shadow. Juggernaut sidesteps him and heads into Crimson’s tower, while Yukime notes that Shadow has helped some of her girls in the red light district, so she take her leave peacefully.

Beta is doing some research in the library on the cult and their level of technology when Claire and Mary enter via a hidden passage. Beta acknowledges both of them by name, but states her preference to not fight them. Her true target is the Blood Queen, a Progenitor Vampire. When Claire mentions her brother, Rose, AKA Number 666, speaks out of turn out of concern for Cid, but is chastised by Beta. Good to see ya, Rose!

Claire and Mary continue on, and witness Juggernaut take out Lord Crimson’s most powerful underlings. They try to stay in the shadows, but he detects them and engages them in combat. Claire even ends up punched in the face by an opponent for only the second time in her life, and is not happy about it.

Mary, meanwhile, is slashed quite badly, and in order to heal, she sucks some of Claire’ blood, which she takes with an unannounced kiss. Even with her vitality restored, she and Claire almost end up at Juggernaut’s mercy, but for Shadow, who arrives just in time to land on his blade and kick him off the tower before taking his leave—before Claire can recognize him.

Mary admits to Claire that despite being a legendary vampire hunter, she herself is a vampire, one of Vampire Queen Elizabeth’s closest servants. She regales Claire with the tale of “Haven”, the state of being that was achieved when Elizabeth led a group of vampires away from drinking blood, which allowed them to live peaceful lives in the sunlight.

Unfortunately, among them all only Elizabeth’s thirst for blood endured and strengthened, until the night of the last red moon. She went berserk, and a massacre ensued. She took responsibility by stabbing herself in the heart with a blade, but rather than turn to dust, her breath and heart both stopped, and she was interred.

After that, Lord Crimson took possession of Elizabeth’s body and spared Mary’s life. Claire says she can relate; she too believes she’ll one day become a monster, but until then, she’ll happily help Mary get Elizabeth, and possibly the haven she built, back, while she’ll handle getting her brother back.

Of course, Crimson has other ideas. While Elizabeth’s body has rotted away like that of any corpse, her heart remains intact, and as he places it into a sacrificial body in hopes of resurrecting her, Shadow arrives and ethers him in a ball of flame. By doing so, he may have kept the balance of power in the Lawless City balanced, at least for now. More importantly to him, he was able to fight the Big Boss before any of the main characters!

The Eminence in Shadow – 21 (S2 01) – Black and White and Red All Over

Our boy Shadow, sitting in his throne room, hears reports of stirrings in the Lawless City from the Seven Shadows. It’s your typical serious, brooding, self-important exposition scene…suddenly hilariously undercut by Shadow getting everyone to freak out about whether they have B.O.

Turns out it’s the red moon he smells, and rather than a bad omen, he sees the moon as no big deal, and intends to investigate the Lawless City himself. With that, Eminence is Shadow’s second season heads to a new place with lots of new and familiar faces.

It just so happens that coming off her Bushin Festival win (of course she won), Claire is also headed there to hunt vampires. Because she has a brother complex, she ensures they’re in constant contact by dragging him by the back of his collar through the city.

On the way they encounter Goldy and Quentin, having been defeated and now on sale as pets, but only Cid vaguely recognizes them. He then somehow ends up separated from Claire, has his pocket picked, and proceeds to use his slime to pick the pickpockets’ pockets. He’s already starting to like this den of villainy.

He likes it even more when another night under the red moon comes, and with it a sudden outbreak of ghouls (i.e. vampire thralls). He’s ready to go toe-to-toe but a badass-looking red-haired woman spots him, assumes he’s about to die, and “saves” him.

Introducing herself as Mary, an eminent vampire hunter, she then spews a series of cliches about a frenzy starting, the moon is red, their time is running out, and if he wants to live he’d better run. This whole scenario is like catnip to Cid. Meanwhile, Claire begins searching for him, killing ghouls as she goes.

From there we meet Marie, a bruised sex worker trying to wallow in despair when she hears commotion outside: the ghouls are biting people and turning them into more ghouls. When they invade the brothel, Shadow is right on time to behead them and save Marie. But she doesn’t just get saved in the immediate mortal sense.

Shadow parrots the exact same sequence of clichés he just heard from Mary, and they inspire Marie to get up and leave her life of turning tricks, quite assured despite her friend that Shadow can’t possibly be a bad guy. Perhaps she’ll end up in Shadow Garden like Rose, who unfortunately doesn’t appear…yet.

Claire’s search leads her to finding the remains of someone who vaguely resembles Cid, but on closer—heck, just on regular inspection, the head she’s holding had blue eyes, thus ending her grieving session. This needle scratch of a fact is pointed out to her by Mary, and the two decide to team up as they’re headed to the same place: the Crimson Tower.

A young, glasses-wearing student council-type dark knight and her few comrades who didn’t flee are about to be overrun by ghouls, but Shadow once again does the exact same thing he did with Marie: rescue the knights and say his borrowed spiel, only he adds a little extra.

Sadly, we don’t get to see him do it a third or fourth time, which would no doubt lead to a game of telephone-esque devolution of the phrases into something completely different and possibly cornier. But we do learn that the outbreak of ghouls was no accident.

Lord Crimson, one of the three de facto leaders of the Lawless City, intends to use the red moon and the blood of the city to resurrect the Blood Queen Elizabeth, who has slumbered for 1,000 years. He’s opposed by the other two lords: the stylish Yukime who rules the White Tower, and the musclebound Juggernaut.

As those latter two bicker and fight with one another (no enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend compromise to be found here), Cid decides it’s the perfect time for Shadow of the Shadows to enter the fray. The moon is red, and a frenzy has begun, but fortunately we’ve got plenty of time to enjoy more Eminence, which is back and as solid as ever.