I wasn’t sure how this episode would be headed after Gai’s epic trolling of Shu by putting Inori into his classroom.  Either Gai has a sick sense of humor or there’s a reason he had Inori transfer to Shu’s class.  I’m fairly certain that it’s the latter, but I guess it’s one of those things we’ll have to wait and see.  The episode starts off with a mild recap where it shows people watching the broadcast of Gai’s message to GHQ from the previous day’s events and then to Shu’s classroom where his teacher informs them that GHQ has put them under a level 2 threat advisory.  He goes on to explain that GHQ has ordered all civilians to come forward if anyone has any information on the group Undertaker before telling the class to pay attention since they have a new transfer student.  Inori walks in and Shu stands up, exclaiming that it can’t be real, but instead of his class asking him how he knows her, someone else stands out and exclaims that it’s Inori from Egoist.  This causes the class to go into a frenzy and bombard Inori with questions about her band and what she’s doing there.  Several of the girls are complimenting her on her hair and makeup while the class representative informs Inori about where the nurse’s office is and where she can go to get her books.  Suddenly, one of Shu’s friends approaches her and asks her what she thinks of Undertaker.  Everyone is shocked into silence until the class rep scolds him; the poor boy simply explains that he feels that Egoist’s lyrics tend to be sympathetic with Undertaker.  Shu’s other friend Yahiro walks over to the group and apologizes to Inori for his friend’s behavior and tells everyone to calm down since they’ll have the rest of the school year to get to know each other.  Everyone mumbles apologizes to Inori and slink back to their desks, like puppies with their tails between their legs.

Throughout the rest of the day, the boys in Shu’s class can’t help but stare at Inori from afar, Shu included.  During gym, someone makes the comment that in real life, Inori seems more like a doll than a human being.  Shu agrees, saying that she almost seems like she’s a CG image instead a real girl.  His friend rounds on him, saying that he’s a moron for even comparing Inori to CG because it will hurt her feelings.  That afternoon, on the train ride home, Shu is sulking about what his friend said.  He’s bitter about the fact that his friend never even thought about what would hurt his own feelings, but he chides himself for being selfish again.  Once he arrives at home, he goes to unlock his door via the fingerprint recognition panel, but is surprised when Inori suddenly shows up and opens the door for him.  Too shocked to say much, Shu simply follows Inori inside before tripping over Funnell.  Jolted back to his senses after his fall, Shu calls after Inori and asks her how she managed to get access to his apartment.  As he finally manages to crawl his way to the living room (apparently he didn’t think to scramble to his feet first) he quickly covers his eyes when he finds that she’s in the middle of changing her clothing while sitting on his table.  Without missing a beat – or even squealing in shame – Inori tells Shu that Funnell got her access to his apartment.  She then gets up and walks over to him and crouches down next to him before telling him that she’s starving.  Feeling defeated, Shu asks her what she wants to eat and she tells him she wants an onigiri.  After making Inori her snack, Shu collapses in the living room and wonders aloud what he’s going to tell his mother when she gets home.  Without even looking at him, Inori starts rattling off facts about his mother, including where she works and the fact that she’s only home about once a week and likely won’t be home for several days.  Shu is shocked that Inori knows all of that information about his family, but then remembers that she is part of Undertaker.  Just then, Funnell notifies them that they have been called for a meeting with Gai but Shu is distracted by the doorbell ringing.

Shu goes to answer the door and finds his friend Yahiro standing there, holding a horror movie that he promised to let Shu borrow.  He asks Shu if he wants to watch it now, but Inori walks past Shu and tells him that he needs to hurry.  Shu nabs the movie from Yahiro and tells him that they can watch it some other time.  Yahiro nods and tells Shu to let him know how things go between himself and Inori; Shu agrees (without realizing the insinuation Yahiro was making) and runs after Inori.  The two of them make their way across town and Inori asks Shu if Yahiro is his friend.  Shu is unsure as to how to answer, but he supposes that Yahiro is his friend.  They eventually come to a grand building and find Gai in a really nice looking suit with Tsumugi and a few of his men behind him.  Shu comments on the fact that he doesn’t even look like a wanted criminal which causes Gai to chuckle a bit.  Gai then informs Shu that Inori has infiltrated his school because he believes that one of the students had seen Shu fighting for Undertaker.  Shu doesn’t believe him at first, but Gai asks him if the knows about something called Norma Gene.  Shu recognizes the name as one of the more popular underground drugs available and Gai informs him that he’s sure one of his classmates was buying Norma Gene under the name ‘Sugar’.  Gai then tells him that his mission is to retrieve the Void from this student and ensure that their identities won’t be leaked to the public.  The following day at school, Shu and Inori are crouching behind a pillar while Shu goes over the facts that he learned about the Voids.  Apparently, Voids can only be produced by people who are under the age of 18, though it’s unknown as to why that is.  We also learned that while the Void is materialized, the person who produces the Void is unable to remember what happened and will only regain consciousness once the Void is returned to them.  Feeling somewhat confident in the information, Shu lunges around the corner and attempts to release the Void from a girl in his class, but accidentally gropes the class representative.  Of course, everyone sees and posts a picture to the internet, which is completely mortifying to Shu.  He ends up hiding at his go-to spot (the place where he first met Inori) and Inori tries to give him some tips.

She tells him that the person needs to have made eye-contact with him in order for it to work, but Shu mumbles that making eye contact with people makes him nervous.  Inori suddenly grabs Shu’s face and stares him in the eyes – or so he thinks.  Turns out, she’s actually just looking in between his eyebrows, but Shu thinks that she’s making eye contact with him.  Deciding to give it a try, Shu runs up to one of his friends and without slowing down, he manages to retrieve his friend’s Void, though it’s not the one they’re looking for.  Feeling like he accomplished something, Shu returns the Void to his friend and starts running around the school trying to find the Void they’re looking for.  After running around all day and no success, Shu and Inori take a break and Shu wonders what the shape they’re looking for even is.  Inori says that the Void reflects the person’s heart, so Shu becomes confused as to why Inori’s Void is a sword.  Suddenly, the class rep shows up and chases Shu some more, but thankfully Yahiro appears and ushers Shu and Inori into the school’s theater.  Shu thanks Yahiro for his help and says that otherwise he’s have to keep running forever.  Yahiro laughs and says that’s what Shu would have to do if he had joined Undertaker.  It takes Shu a moment to put the pieces together, but he realizes that Yahiro was the one who saw him that day.  He confronts Yahiro about it and Yahiro goes off on him, but before he’s able to attack him, Shu manages to remove Yahiro’s Void, which is a massive pair of shears.  Inori then pulls out a gun and is about to kill Yahiro, but Shu stops her and returns the Void to Yahiro.  The two make a deal with each other; Shu won’t tell anyone about Yahiro doing drugs and Yahiro won’t mention Shu working for Undertaker.  Unfortunately for Shu, Yahiro goes back on his word and that day on the train ride home, they’re stopped by GHQ.  When the doors slide open, Yahiro shoves Shu out and the train whooshes away, leaving Shu with a creepy looking man who tells him that he’s under arrest.

Opinions:  This was another great episode!  While it wasn’t necessarily action-packed, it did give us a little bit more information on how Voids work in general as well as pushing the plot along at a real nice pace.  Learning of what Yahiro did was shocking, but somehow I’m not surprised.  He just had that odd air about him that made him seem untrustworthy.  The ending was definitely a shock, since I thought that Yahiro would actually keep his promise to Shu.  Then again, I suppose turning in a wanted criminal would mean he’d get off the hook for doing Norma Gene, so I can understand why he did it.  Regardless of Yahiro’s reasoning, it was a shitty thing to do and I hope that Shu can get out of this situation without too much trouble.

Score: A/A+