Welp.
— Wanna know what could’ve prevented this? Not letting Rintaro give up on saving Kurisu. But had we done that, we wouldn’t have this awesome spinoff with copious amounts of plot! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Anyways, I don’t like how most of the this scene is framed.
— One of the men says something about K-6205 being secured. For now, I’m gonna assume that this is their code name for Kagari.
— Oh hey, there’s also a girl with them. Judging by the way she moves, she might even be their leader. Unfortunately, she also has her face concealed, so we can’t tell if it’s Moeka or not.
— You’d think that after everything Rintaro’s been through, he’d install some security cameras around the lab. It wouldn’t prevent these masked men from storming the place, but a little warning never hurts.
— It seems that the masked intruders only want Kagari for now. They don’t appear to want to hurt anyone. Mayuri instinctively tries to help the girl, but Rintaro calls her back. All of a sudden, Yuugo shows up and starts kicking ass. Maybe he’s not a Rounder this time. Or maybe he is, and these guys belong to an entirely different group.
— The action here looks pretty bad.
— I love how one bald dude can fight off several intruders armed with guns. One dude even runs away his gun ready to aim and fire.
— Afterwards, everyone just goes their separate ways without alerting the authorities. Rintaro and Suzuha probably know that this wouldn’t help, but the others don’t. They just know that someone just tried to kidnap Kagari. Wouldn’t their natural reaction be to tell the police and seek out help and/or protection? There’s no reason for Kagari to think that those masked men wouldn’t try to kidnap her again.
— The wheels start to churn in Rintaro’s head. If the Rounders had attacked them, then Yuugo wouldn’t have fought against them. And if Yuugo isn’t involved in this attempt to kidnap Kagari, then maybe Moeka isn’t involved either.
— Our hero then takes it upon himself to protect his friends. Let’s see how far he’s willing to go, though. I’ve been waiting for him to take some action and not just cower in fear. Yeah, yeah, character development and all that. In other words, he can’t just get over his trauma in such a short amount of time. But like I’ve said in previous posts, I respect this iteration of Rintaro a whole lot less than the original one. I guess I just can’t get over the fact that he abandoned his quest to save Kurisu.
— Ooh, how suspicious: Alexis is not responding to Maho’s inquiries. Not only that, Amadeus is still down, and I doubt the culprit is just bad internet. I don’t know how I’d feel if the professor turned out to be a bad guy, though. It’s just kinda predictable, I guess?
— Apparently, Ruka’s dad (with Rintaro’s help) will take it upon himself to keep Kagari safe. I guess that’s why they don’t need to contact the police. I still find this is a bit silly, but whatever.
— Ruka overheard Kagari referring to Mayuri as her mother, so he’s naturally confused and frustrated about the situation. He’s sussed out the fact that others are keeping information from him, but Suzuha isn’t about to answer any of his questions. After all, it’s complicated. Rintaro doesn’t know want Ruka to know what might have been in a different timeline, so it’s best to just not talk about it all. Unfortunately, the more that you tell someone not to think about something, they more that they will. Try not picturing an elephant right now. C’mon, try not to picture it standing next to you.
— The following day, Rintaro summons up all his courage to confront Yuugo. At the very least, he needs to know what he’s up against.
— Damn, Nae is watching a terrible anime.
— Yuugo doesn’t deny anything. He simply asks for proof. That says it all, doesn’t it?
— Elsewhere, some of the girls are discussing these recent events. One of them even asks exactly what I’ve been wanting to know:
— Apparently, Rintaro told them to “hold off on [contacting the police],” and they all simply agreed to comply with his request. But I mean, he hasn’t been all there upstairs recently. I’m not saying he’s nuts. I’m just saying I’m not sure if I’d trust his judgment. Then again, these girls have never really exercised much willpower, so what can they do but listen to the main character?
— Do you really wanna bet on that?
— The show’s starting to plant clues in our heads. Yuki somehow injured her wrist, but she tells her friends that she had simply tripped and fell over yesterday. If you’ll recall, however, the mysterious girl in the helmet had to block a kick from Suzuha with her right arm. Trust nobody, man, trust nobody. What if Yuki is the bad guy this time? Then again, if Suzuhua’s mother was really some badass undercover agent, wouldn’t she be able to do a better job of concealing a wrist injury?
— We jump back to Rintaro, and he’s asking Yuugo to protect Kagari. Well, since the Rounders aren’t the bad guys this time around, we may as well employ their services.
— Our hero is freaking out real bad. Not only is he being a bit erratic, he’s raising his voice at Yuugo while beads of sweat are rolling down his face. He’s barely managing to pull this off.
— Suzuha and Kagari then show up at just the right moment in the conversation. She repeats Rintaro’s argument that since Yuugo saw the whole thing went down, he and his daughter are now also in danger. Ehhhh. I don’t know if I necessarily agree. One option Yuugo could explore is just taking Nae and getting as far away as he can from the area. Call it an impromptu father-daughter trip or something. After one or two weeks, he can check back in and see if the whole incident has blown over. After all, this shady business with Kagari has nothing to do with him and Nae. Yeah, he beat some of them up, but they didn’t even try to harm anyone else at the party. They just wanted the girl.
— Nae, however, also joins in on the guilt trip, so what can a father do but relent? He agrees to employ Suzuha and Kagari as part-time workers.
— Daru comes up with an excuse for why contacting the police is a bad idea: “You never know! The police might be connected to the crime after all.” That’s that. Problem solved.
— Rintaro tells everyone to steer clear of the lab for now, but the girls whine about how they would like to help. C’mon. C’mon. We’re dealing with dangerous people armed with guns. Sometimes, you just gotta know when to bow out gracefully.
— But wait, I shouldn’t write them off! When the entire group tries to look into the K-6205 code name, one of the girls take a stab in the dark and wonders if the code name might actually be a reference to Kochel numbers. The Kochel catalogue is a collection of Mozart’s works. That’s right, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
— There’s probably more information to unpack here if I new anything about “The Magic Flute,” but I don’t.
— Rintaro immediately calls Maho up and asks her to update him on Amadeus’s status. The AI is still down, she says. As soon as Maho hangs up on him, however, the guy instantly gets a phone call from the AI. I wanna say he’s perturbed, but that’s how he always looks.
— To be quite honest with you, I’m more shocked by the font on his phone.
— Beneath all the static, Rintaro barely manages to hear Amadeus calling out to him for help. All of a sudden, his special ability kicks in…
— Our boy just got dragged kicking and screaming into another timeline. Not only that, a certain someone is still alive.