Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 14 – A Plethora of Pleasantries

On Day 2 of the academy festival there’s a formal stand-up luncheon filled with foreign dignitaries, and to put it charitably, it’s not Makoto’s scene. For one thing, it’s full of hyumans, who are all beautiful and as such tend to look alike. One of the foreigners who stands out is Kahara Sairitsu, envoy from Laurel, due to her vaguely Japanese look and her bodyguards who are actually demons in disguise (whom we later learn were charmed by Tomoki).

Sairitsu is interested in Makoto due to the use of what her country calls “sage script”, i.e. Kanji. The secluded Laurel Commonwealth considers the two Heroes to be sages—those from distant lands with inconceivable knowledge—and she has cause to believe he’s one as well. Makoto plays it coy, but like it or not, he has Sairitsu’s and thus Laurel’s attention. Princess Lily notices Sairitsu meeting with Makoto and tries to pump her for info on both Makoto and the gunpowder tech Laurel possesses.

While chatting with the Rembrandt Sisters’ parents, Makoto is confronted by the long-haired blonde student whom he and Shiki fought off upon arriving in Rotsgard. The lad declares that he’ll be challenging Makoto’s students in the upcoming academy tournament. Makoto informs his class of the threat, but has full confidence in their ability to win, and even has them agree to withhold their most powerful abilities—they’ll be fighting Blondie with handicaps.

Turns out Princess Lily also knows Root in his capacity as founder of the Adventurer’s Guild. Root rejects the notion he backs Kuzunoha, but also warns Lily that she’s no match for Tomoe, and that taking on the trading company would be akin to engaging in all-out war with the demons. Lily seems to concede she should limit her goals to re-taking Fort Stella from said demons, and if no one “notable” presents themselves at the tournament, she’ll be returning to the empire.

And so the stage is set for the academy tournament, with Makoto’s students being pitted against each other. While in Rotsgard he can always feel the influence of the noble families conspiring against him and meaning him harm, whether it’s tactics like poisoning food or unfavorably seeding his students. He admits that being less than honest with all of these hyumans may be the reason things have gotten more complicated. But for now, in the tournament, hopefully it will be a simple matter of who wins and who loses.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 10 – Saved by Bananas

As Makoto prepares to wrap up the investigation of the Organization experimenting on demihumans, Shiki, Eris, Aqua express their dislike and distrust of Rona. During a one-on-one lunch, Rona warns Makoto about Shiki, Eris, and Aqua, as she once fought both with and against the lich and doesn’t know Makoto knows full well that they’re forest ogres.

Rona has fulfilled her mission in Rotsgard, so she’s headed back to the Demon’s Army. However, she gives Makoto what amounts to her LINE ID, so he can contact her telepathically should he ever require her aid. Always good to have one of the Demon Lord’s top generals!

After dealing with Professor Bright personally (and admitting he and the Org at least see eye-to-eye on the Goddess sucking), he continues teaching lessons to his students, now missing “Karen Force” but gaining the Rembrandt sisters.

Not only do they take every ass-kicking in stride, but they come to Makoto with a united voice, asking if he can keep teaching him during summer break. He agrees to weekly lessons after Shiki fails to make up a scheduling conflict, but insists the sisters return home for the second half of the break.

Just when the seven students, who through their trials-by-fire have become quite a tight-knit and cohesive group of friends, think they have a strategy to defeat the Blue Lizard, Makoto makes them fight two of them, albeit separately.

When the second lizard Zwei is called a jerk, she unleashes a can of extra whoop-ass on the kids, and Makoto apologizes, telling them that she’s a female and didn’t take kindly to the insult. The kids regroup and ask if they can go one more round.

After their training, Makoto takes the students out to dinner, and Shiki informs him he’s told them about the place where they can fight monsters and efficiently level up (they’re all members of the Adventurer’s Guild after all). But Makoto is still worried that they might face dangers if he’s not always present.

His solution, since he’s got ample bananas (for now), is to have Eris keep an eye on them on their training camp. When they pick a fight with a demi-dragon for whom they’re all twenty levels too weak (they’re all in the 70s), Eris traps it in roots and tosses it into the lake, deeply impressing and inspiring the bright-eyed novices. It is indeed going to be a summer to remember for all of them.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy – S2 09 – Man of Two Worlds

The man Lime encounters in the shadows isn’t Makoto’s comrade Professor Bright, but another man who is strong enough to block Lime’s slash with his wrist and knock him out with one halfhearted blow. Lime wakes up in a cell with the librarian Eva and without his katana, but uses a second magical knife to break them out. What they encounter is horrific: a lab full of failed hyuman and demihuman experiment subjects.

As thanks for freeing her, Eva offers Makoto the most information he’s gotten in a long time about his parents, who were apparently a nobleman and priestess in this world. They were to be married in Kaleneon, a state that no longer exists, and where Eva and her sister Luria are from.

Ashamed that they had to abandon their homeland, Eva and Luria are determined to return and reclaim Kaleneon out of the ashes of the kingdom of Elysion. Eva was where Lime was that night because she was seeking help from an organization of people who oppose the goddess.

When Makoto returns to his rooms, Lime detects the man who bested him, and Tomoe and Mio show up to provide backup. The man turns out to be Root, guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild. He’s also, like Tomoe, a dragon; an extremely old and powerful greater dragon she knew in her female form, but at some point grew bored and turned became a man.

If Root is indeed at or near the level of Tomoe and Mio in power, I suppose it’s a good thing he has no interest in fighting, though his attempts to flirt with Makoto only serve to antagonize them. As for the guild, Root himself founded it a thousand years ago, and his first master was someone from another world, from which he got video game terms like “level.”

Root set up the guild as a kind of check on the Hyuman population, giving them greater and greater levels and challenges that some Hyumans would lose their lives trying to achieve. When Makoto asks how someone from his world a thousand years ago would know about video games and the 16-bit limit, Root goes on to explain it as the result of time dialation between worlds,

Some of this goes over Makoto’s head, while Mio straight-up falls asleep after eating all the apples Root asked for. The big question Makoto wants to know is what the chances are of him returning to his world. Root doesn’t mince words: it’s not impossible, but he has about a one in 10 million chance of returning to the time and place he came from.

After all this enlightening information from a very fascinating new character, Tomoe escorts Root out, specifically so she can ask him if humans from Makoto’s world really only live a hundred years. When Root confirms they very rarely even get to that age, Tomoe is crestfallen, for that’s far too short a time for a dragon like her, and if she lost him, the world would lose its luster

Root can understand why Tomoe loves Makoto so much, as he’s an ordinary young man on an extraordinary path. He doubts Makoto would ever abandon Tomoe, but believes a “single catalyst” might make him change. While the other two heroes are choosing new paths for themselves in this world, Root can’t rule out the possibility Makoto chooses neither to stay nor go, but rather gain the ability to travel between worlds at will. All very intriguing stuff.