After last week’s cliffhanger, I was itching to find out what would happen to Shu now that he’s joined the Undertakers. Will he actually join them and forget about Makoto asked him to do? Or will he join with the pretenses to betray them all? Either way, things are about to get interesting! The episode starts off with Shu, Gai and Inori all returning to their headquarters, though Shu looks less than pleased about the whole idea. Once there, Gai asks about Kenji and his second-in-command says that he shows no signs of waking up, though they’re unsure of whether or not it’s because of the stress of having his Void used. Gai looks quite tired and irritated by this, but continues by introducing Shu to everyone again. He informs them all that since Shu has the Void Genome, all of their missions will be orchestrated around Shu’s abilities. Someone then asks him what their next step is and Gai tells them that they will be infiltrating the Leucocyte.  He then brings up several hundred strategies based on patterns of what could or could not happen before instructing everyone to memorize all of them if they plan on joining them in the battle.  One member pipes up and asks what happens if they don’t memorize everything and Gai simply states that they won’t have a place in the operation if they won’t take the time to seriously dedicate themselves to the plan.  His second-in-command then addresses the worry of fatigue for the troops, but Gai rounds on him and is quite angry.  He shouts at him, saying that he’d rather they be tired in the field than be fighting with their eyes blurry and glazed over from sleep.  His second hand then backs off and leaves Gai to his business.

Meanwhile, Shu is scanning the room and notices a young girl in the balcony, happily chatting with another member.  He seems surprised (as was I) to see someone so young as a member of the Undertakers.  Shu’s attention is quickly drawn back to the matters at hand by Gai, who summons Ayase over to them.  At first, Ayase is nervous but quickly becomes flabbergasted and possibly insulted when Gai asks her to train Shu for a mock battle.  She finally relents when Gai tells her that she’s the only one he trusts to train Shu.  Gai then tells Shu that he needs to pass the mock battle in order to become an official member of Undertaker, so he shouldn’t take the task lightly.  Then, as quick as he was to give out orders, Gai leaves for his room to come up with a plan.  Ayase then approaches Shu and tells him to get ready, but Shu tells her that he doesn’t want to make her feel obligated to train him since she’s in a wheel chair.  She smiles and tells him that he’s sweet, but she can handle herself.  When she holds out her hand, Shu grasps it, but is shocked when Ayase uses her wheelchair to knock his knees out from under him and slam him to the ground.  She then angrily tells him that just because she’s in a wheelchair doesn’t mean that she can’t fight on her own.  Shu apologizes and is ushered away to get changed, but as he leaves, we see the receiver that Makoto had given him lying on the ground.  Uh oh!  Some time later, we see Shu all dressed in the Undertakers’ uniform – and looking quite dashing, if I may say so – and meets Ayase in the hallway.  He’s shocked to see her writing things in a notebook with the receiver he was given (apparently it also functions as a pen) and he tried to get it back from her.  Instead of just giving it to him, Ayase makes a deal with Shu.  If he can pass the mock battle in three days, he’ll get his pen back.  If he doesn’t pass it, she gets to keep it.  Unfortunately, Shu has no other option but to agree to her terms.

Su is then summoned to a small room where he meets Arugo Tsukishima, a second-year at a local high school.  Apparently the boy is incredibly skilled at hand-to-hand combat and tosses a knife at Shu.  Shu hesitantly asks if the blade is real and Arugo laughs, saying there would be no point in training with one that wasn’t real.  He then tells Shu to come at him like he’s going in for the kill, but Shu promptly faints when Arugo charges at him.  We then see a montage of Shu’s training, all of which highly amused me.  When he’s running, Tsumugi scolds him for being so out of shape and Shu counters with the excuse that he’s into more cultural things than sports.  He eventually becomes more accustomed to fighting, which is a good thing, since by the time the montage is done, all three days have passed and his mock battle is in the morning!  As Shu wanders around the halls, he spots Inori sitting in a room overlooking the city, quietly singing to herself.  He approaches her and comments on how it’s similar to how they first met.  Inori doesn’t say anything, but Shu continues on about how he’s glad that he met her and that they’ll make a good team.  As he reaches for her hand, she pulls her hand away and puts some distance between them.  Shu is confused when Inori tells him that she’s not his friend and he shouldn’t get close to her.  He asks her what she meant when she said that she was his and that they’ll be together forever.  You can see his heart break when Inori says that Gai was the one who told her to say those things and she only did because she’s loyal to Gai.  Shu tries to ask what she means by that and tells her that they can run away together, but Inori says that she can’t ever leave Gai’s side because he’s the one who gave her her name when she lost her memories.  She then stands up and leaves, telling Shu not to get close to her.  Shu sadly leaves the room and sees Inori entering Gai’s room.  Upset, he runs down the hall towards his room but accidentally bumps into Ayase, knocking her out of her wheelchair.  She shouts at him for not looking where he’s going, but quickly calms down when she notices how upset he is.

She asks him if he saw Inori and Gai and when Shu says yes, she tells him that everyone’s noticed them spending the night together like that two or three times a month, but no one wants to say anything.  Shu asks her how she can stand it when she likes Gai, but she quickly denies any feelings for Gai other than respect.  After a quick encouraging conversation, Ayase tells Shu that she doesn’t need help climbing into her wheelchair, but she’d like him to leave her alone since she doesn’t look very graceful doing it.  Shu agrees and tells her good night before heading down the hallway.  While Shu heads to his room, we see Gai and Inori together, but they’re not doing what everyone probably thinks they are.  Gai looks like he’s getting a blood transfusion – for what reason, we don’t know yet – and he says that Inori looks just like “her”.  Inori asks him if that bothers him and he says no.  The next day, Gai and the young girl Shu saw when he first entered the Funeral Parlor head out to scout out an area to launch their attack and Shu gets ready for his mock battle.  He’s facing Ayase, who is piloting her Endlave, and the whole goal of the mock battle is for Shu to get past her Endlave and safely into the building behind her without taking any hits.  She warns him that even though they’re just using paintballs, they’re still hard enough to stun someone if hit.  The battle begins and though Shu runs away at first, he spots Arugo and remembers that Arugo still has the ability to produce a Void.  Ditching his paintball gun, he summons Arugo’s Void, which is a rod that surrounds the enemy in darknes.  Using this, Shu is able to get to the car safely and wins the mock battle.  Shu apologizes for cheating, but Ayase says that it’s alright because he just used what skills he has that makes him unique.  After that, everyone congratulates him and welcomes him into the Undertakers; Ayase makes sure to hold up her end of the deal and gives Shu back his pen as well.  The celebration is short lived as Tsumugi rushes in and informs everyone that the area Gai was scouting out was hit by a missile!

Opinions:  As always, there was a good balance of plot, action and something to intrigue the viewer.  I’m really curious about why Gai appears to need blood transfusions and how he’s able to tell what sort of Void people will be able to produce.  Of course, there’s the ever-lasting mystery of Inori and her origin, though now I want to know who she looks like.  Seeing Shu finally become part of the Undertakers was incredibly gratifying, but I wonder if he’ll turn on them and give Makoto the information he asked for or if he’ll betray Makoto.  And of course, why does Gai want to take over that building so badly?  Is there some sort of importance to it?  Either way, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out what happens to Gai!

Score: A/A+