One thing we learn right away is that Kanata is most assuredly not an M. If he was, he’d relish the opportunity to be constantly run down, insulted, and belittled by Mystere, Noir’s bad-tempered alter-ego. But while he’s irritated by Mystere’s constant verbal abuse (she only ever calls him “Hack”) he mostly misses Noir and wants to find out how to get her back.
To that end, he takes her to Maria, who pretends to have uncovered nothing from her investigation while trying to provoke a strong emotional response in Mystere. She confirms that Mystere’s original Master was someone named Pascale. When Mystere leaves and is pestered by Flamme, Maria tells Kanata that she found a black box, but otherwise can’t learn more without the same equipment used to create Type Zeros.
Mystere scoffs at fellow Type Zero Flamme and says both Masters and Magus have become “wimps” in the 20 years since she was last online. But Claudia tells her if the world has gone from being a place where it’s all you can do to survive to a place where you can be “a bit of a wimp” and still go on living, there must’ve been some progress made. Kanata then gets Mystere out of the garage and takes her on a tour of the world today.
That tour is one surprise after another for Mystere, who cannot believe there’s a whole town, open-air market, and water park. She’s also struck by how Magus are for the most part treated equally, and shocked by the fact that humans come in droves to hear Ciel, a Magus sing. She quietly notes that “Master’s Project” wasn’t in vain.
After the show, Ciel shares a shower with Mystere, and tells her that Kanata isn’t just thinking about Noir while interacting with her. She tells Mystere that Kanata is a good person who views humans and Magus equally, and thus deserves a chance. Mystere, perhaps a little to eager to speak to Kanata, runs out into the garage naked and tells Kanata that she may be inadvertently blocking Noir from resurfacing due to her desire to meet her Master again.
Kanata agrees to do what he can to help Mystere learn more about what might have happened to Pascale in the last two decades. He and Ciel take her to the place where he found Noir, only to find the Coffin missing. He then gives Mystere the camera, which dredges up a memory of her and her Master taking photos together.
Certain her Master wouldn’t abandon her, Mystere concedes that she must have died. Kanata apologizes to Mystere, who calls him “Kanata” for the first time before telling him that’s why he’s a hack, then reverting back to Noir. Apparently satisfied that reuniting with her Master wouldn’t be possible, Mystere was able to lift whatever was blocking Noir from awakening.
That said, no sooner do Kanata and Ciel get Noir back home does Kanata mention offhandedly that the fact Mystere didn’t laugh at his mention of Histoire must’ve meant she wasn’t all bad, Mystere reawakens once more, pulls Noir’s coat back over her shoulders and activates its plug-suit like form-fitting vaccum, and orders Kanata to get ready, because they’re going to Histoire. Apparently, she’s remembered the way.
If you enjoyed Synduality: Noir’s first cour, which was a bright and colorful throwback to early 2000’s quirky mecha anime, you’ll enjoy the start of Part 2. Koga Aoi puts on a clinic voicing Mystere (who a lot like a pissed-off Love is War’s Shinomiya Kaguya), but it’s also satisfying to watch her hard edges gradually wear down in the fact of Kanata and his friends’ earnestness.
Now that she can come and go at will, I’m looking forward to going on an adventure with her, and learning more about the Histoire Kanata is so obsessed with. At the same time, we know that Ciel is an operative for Macht, while Tokio is getting into fights with unsavory groups looking for someone, so there’s a lot going on.
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