After last week’s cliffhanger, things have certainly taken a turn for the worst.  Not only is Keido alive and kicking, but he’s taken over the Japanese government and his first move as President is to lock Loop 7 up!  This not only includes the school were Shu, Inori, and all of their friends are staying, but also hundreds – if not thousands – of innocent civilians.  After the school finds out about what’s going on outside, everyone starts to panic.  Arisa calls an emergency meeting to discuss their options and pleads for her fellow classmates to be patient and wait for help from her grandfather’s company.  As expected, this causes an uproar – mostly from the same group of guys that harassed Ayase – which caused everyone else to panic and start rebelling against Arisa’s authority.  The group of instigators start saying things about how they’re going to die in the school and never be able to see their families again, which causes one girl to actually go on stage and beg Arisa to figure out a way for them to get home so she can see her parents again.  While all of this is going on, Shu and his friends are watching the chaos from the student council room.  Yahiro isn’t surprised by the rebellion, though I think everyone else is at least somewhat surprised by what’s happening.  Inori asks Shu if he’s alright and he says yes, though you can tell he’s worried about something far more important than what’s going on at the school.  The following day, Tsumugi and Ayase help out by giving the students who are supposed to get their weekly immunization for the virus their medication and the following stock count.  While they’re conducting the count on how much stock of the medication they have left, Souta finds out that the school’s jam on all signals to the internet has been lifted.  He’s surprised to see that the students are lashing out at Arisa and demanding that someone do something to appeal to the soldiers that are now occupying the border of Loop 7.  This angers Souta, but there isn’t much he can do at this point without inciting more rioting.  Tsumugi storms off after something Souta says and Inori joins her on a small bench.  The two chat for a bit and we learn that Tsumugi has always been alone and tries not to depend on anyone, but it’s clear that she depends on Ayase almost as much as Ayase depends on her.  Shu eavesdrops on them, but is found out easily.

After the three of them chat for awhile, they rejoin with the rest of their friends and Tsumugi hands Shu a strange device.  It apparently was dropped during the fight with the rebels and it allows you to read the power levels of someone’s Void.  Tsumugi has a rather high reading, but everyone realizes that no one knows what her Void actually is.  After being caught and held in place, Shu pulls out her Void, much to her protests.  Meanwhile, we see Keido speaking with a few of his co-workers and ordering for the first phase of his master plan to be carried out.  Apparently this plan involves shrinking the area of Loop 7 until no one remains.  Essentially, he wants to wipe that area of the city completely from the map!  To do this, he’s deployed a series of Endlaves to occupy the borders of Loop 7 and has a set of lasers creating a red barrier between the Endlaves and the rest of the city.  As we see demonstrated, anyone who is in that red area or tries to go past it is riddled with bullets on the spot.  Makoto’s second-hand enforces this, though you can tell he’s not too happy about it.  We see Daryl with him and he comments on how these killings are pointless because there’s no love behind them.  It’s a twisted way to look at it, but he has a point; they’re heartlessly slaughtering people who don’t necessarily deserve it.  Daryl also makes a point to mention that none of the Endlave pilots are being housed where they normally are in GHQ’s headquarters, which means that Keido has put them somewhere else.  We get a brief look at Haruka typing something into a hand-held pad, though we’re not sure what her role is anymore or why she’s even working with GHQ.  Back at the school, Arisa calls for another meeting of the school but things don’t seem to go as planned there either.  Several people demand that she do something while others insult her and say that waiting for her grandfather’s help isn’t exactly the mark of the next great leader.  Finally, someone calls for someone to take her place as Student Council president since Arisa isn’t doing a good job and that seems to be the unanimous vote amongst the students.  Of course, Arisa is dejected, though I kind of can’t blame the students for wanting someone who will actually take action instead of sitting idly by.

The next day, the same group of troublemakers have joined in secret and are perusing the school’s message boards.  It appears that someone (we later find out that it’s Makoto) has spread a rumor saying that if someone were to bring the members of the Undertakers to the border, they’d be allowed to leave Loop 7 and return home.  Of course, this seems like too good of a chance to pass up and they start terrorizing several of the students.  As the rumor goes, all members of the Undertakers have a tattoo on their backs to show their loyalty, though I think several of the boys are taking it a bit too far.  Shu and Tsumugi stop a boy from forcibly stripping a girl on the basis that she’s a member of Undertaker before realizing that both Ayase and Inori are nowhere to be found.  Worried, they agree to split up and find their comrades.  Inori is cornered by four or five boys on the staircase, but by the time Shu finds her she’s completely unscathed.  When Shu asks if she had been approached by anyone, she says no, but we see that she beat the shit out of the boys trying to strip her.  Unfortunately, Tsumugi isn’t so lucky.  She manages to find Ayase, but the same group of boys from before (they seem to be causing all sorts of problems lately!) find them.  Tsumugi and Ayase try to make a run for it after Tsumugi kicks one of them down, but one of them grabs Ayase’s wheelchair, causing her to topple over.  Tsumugi runs to her side and Ayase yells at her to run, but before they know it, they boys already have them captured.  While all of this is going on, Shu and the others have gathered for yet another school meeting and Hare encourages him to run for Student Council president.  Shu says that he wouldn’t know what to do, but Hare tells him that he’s a born leader.

Before anything else can happen, the boys who captured Ayase and Tsumugi appear and wheel them in.  The two girls are bound and gagged while the boys announce to the school that they’re traitors and work for Undertaker.  Though they have no proof, they “suddenly” remember that all members of the Undertakers should have a tattoo on their back.  Before they can strip the poor girls, Shu steps forward and tells them to let them go because he’s a member of the Undertakers as well.  This surprises everyone except for his inner circle, but he agrees to go with the trio of boys trying to escape if that will solve anything.  We see the four of them head towards the blockade sometime later and as soon as Shu, Ayase and Tsumugi step over that red line, they’re gunned down without hesitation.  However, Daryl is working at the blockade and is surprised to see Tsumugi there; he had no idea that she was a member of the Undertakers!  As everyone falls to the ground, the other boy steps forward to plead with the soldiers, but he’s gunned down as well.  Back at the school, we find out that the people gunned down where actually clones made by Tsumugi’s Void!  Shu had the brilliant idea to use the clones to show that even if they were handed over, no one would get out of the Loop alive.  This causes  some unrest and one of the boys (the one with the glasses) pulls out a small handgun and is about to fire at Shu when he whips out one of the boy’s Voids and knocks the gun out of his hand in an instant.  He tells him not to make him angry and the whole school falls silent.  Suddenly, Yahiro approaches the stage and announces that he votes for Shu to be the new president.  The rest of the school quickly follows suite and although Shu is surprised, he accepts his new title.  Yahiro promises to help him where he can, but says that Shu is really the best person for this job.  Later, Shu and Yahiro are in the student council room and Yahiro tells Shu that they need to rank the students by the usefulness of their Voids.  Shu is shocked by this, but Yahiro tells him that it’s the only way for them to survive.

Opinions:  This was a pretty decent episode, I have to admit.  There was quite a bit of plot involved, which helped to move along the story, but also a good helping of action.  Seeing Shu whip out those Voids like it was nothing was pretty awesome and he’s really turning into quite the BAMF.  It’s not surprising that after his display on stage he was voted to be the new Student Council president.  I also wasn’t entirely surprised by Yahiro’s strategy to separate people by the usefulness of their Voids.  It’s a typical military-esque decision, and although Shu might not like it, it’s the best they can do until someone else is able to come assist them.  It’ll definitely be interesting to see where this arc is headed!

Score: A/A+