Thanks to Ciel’s duplicity, we know what awaits Kanata and Noir/Mystere in Carthage, but she does her best to hide her guilt on the preceding road trip. Noir mistakes a crab for an Ender, beats Kanata at chess, and sleeps with the rest of the girls in one carrier while Kanata sleeps alone in the other, and never the twain shall meet.
Only when they arrive at the derelict Tunis spaceport does Mystere emerge from Noir. The radar facility simply needs a jump, but once there’s power Mystere is able to fire it up and scan the area. There’s a contact on the scopes, but it’s incoming, which can’t be a good thing. Sure enough, it’s Kurokamen AKA Macht with Schnee, who destroy the radar dish with a shot from their cannon.
Kanata and Mystere head out in Daisyogre to investigate, and when he spots Kurokamen’s white Coffin. They meet outside their respective coffins in a tense standoff in which Kanata isn’t sure what’s going on at first. Thankfully, Kurokamen makes it clear: he wants Kanata to hand Noir over, without a fuss.
Kanata does make a fuss, and justifiably so. Schnee points out they could have killed him and taken Noir at any time, but his honor precludes him from such barbary. Instead, they’ll do it the proper way: an old-fashioned duel, only with rock-em-sock-em robots.
While Macht’s Coffin may be able to fly on its own, Mystere gets Kanata to realize he can use a fallen smokestack as a ramp to leap onto the flying carrier that brought black Coffins as Macht’s backup. Macht’s boss thinks he’s going too easy on Kanata, and he is: Macht will follow orders, but is doing everything he can to not kill him.
When Ellie and Ange see that it’s no longer a one-on-one duel, she joins the fight, distracting the Black Coffins while Mystere tags in for Noir and uses her Magus Skill to blast a hole in the earth. Daisyogre descends into subterranean complex where there’s still power, and find a foreboding metal hatch that says “ALICE.”
The next we see Macht and Schnee, their Coffin is being engulfed by flames; Kanata and Mystere ignited a bunch of rocked fuel beneath them. Unfortunately, Schnee is able to disperse the flames with an icy Magus Skill. Their Coffin is still in business, and as Macht grudgingly prepares to deliver a fatal blow to Kanata’s cockpit, his blade arm is smashed away by the gunshot of another Coffin.
It’s not Ellie, but Tokio, who has arrived in the nick of time. Mouton, whom Schnee seems to know well, successfully hacks Macht’s Coffin and deactivates Schnee and Macht’s dynamic cockpit. This allows Tokio to open the cockpit and confront Macht head on.
When Tokio removes Macht’s mask to reveal the same color eyes he has, my first thought was “whoa, Tokio, AKA Licht, must be Macht’s brother.” That’s a great soap operay twist and also explains why Tokio has such a rad butler; if Licht (“light” in German) and Macht (“power”) are brothers, Licht’s the rebellious one who went off to live the Drifter lifestyle.
Schnee manages to get back control and retreat with Macht, so the immediate threat of losing Noir is over. But Tokio chases after him, saying goodbye to Kanata in a way that sounds like a final one. As Ciel says, there’s no escaping “Ideal”, the organization Macht and Schnee work for.
So, the cats are out of the bag: now Kanata knows Kirokamen is after Noir, and there’s a lot more to Tokio than he previously knew. The cat still in the bag? Ciel managed to keep her cover.
Macht and Schnee likely try to nab their Key to Paradise again soon, and probably won’t be wearing kid gloves next time. But the fact they don’t really want to hurt Kanata leaves open the possibility both they and Ciel could rebel against their nasty boss.
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