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.