hontou ni sou omou?

Kazuki presses Himeko to continue the ceremony alone but she feels helpless without Chikane at her side. Meanwhile Chikane defeats all the other Orochi servitors to consolidate their power and position within herself. After receiving emotional support from some unexpected quarters, Himeko resolves to fighto - not for world peace but for love.

Despite complaining about the cheesy mecha designs, I did enjoy the fights between Chikane and Miyako (and then against Tsubasa). Souma’s training by the waterfall was unforgivable though. Augh. So awful. Especially if one is familiar with all those Chinese martial arts clichés.

After all of Chikane’s angsting over Himeko in the first half of the series, seeing how badly Himeko misses Chikane felt like it was building up to them actually being able to love each other. At this point, it’s hard to imagine how it will end happily though.

Mako’s reappearance (not seen since Ep 1-2) and defence of Himeko wasn’t all that surprising. She would probably get her metaphorical stride back after a while. It was slightly more surprising to see Otoha overcoming her jealousy of Himeko and urging her to be there for Chikane. (Though in terms of yuri love letters, it still ranks way below Shiori’s farewell letter to Sei and Kirika’s thank you letter to Mireille.) Mako’s and Otoha’s displays of emotional support make Himeko realize that she must fight, not so much for herself, but for Chikane and it’s a *such* a pleasure to see her determined and not bawling like a big crybaby for once at the end of the episode.