The second
mysterious ship, captained by the masked Ironbeard, identifies itself as the
Parabellum, a pirate ship registered with the Galactic Empire. It fires on the
pirate hunting ship, called the Grand Cross, which flees despite its shields
absorbing the bombardment. The Parabellum vanishes back into hyperspace as
quickly as it appeared and the Bentenmaru goes to save the crew of the Big
Catch. Everyone is rescued but the ship is destroyed when the fires reach the
ammo stores.
Marika asks
Gruier to see if her own connections can unearth anything about the Grand
Cross, and she manages to find out that it’s an experimental ship being
developed by the Galactic Empire. It’s attacking pirate ships because, those
that are still active being military-class, it’ll yield better trial results,
and attacking pirate ships in a backwater sector isn’t going to draw much
attention.
Chiaki
transfers to Hakuoh again, but despite Marika’s insistence that she stay so
they can graduate together she insists it’s just so she can deliver a message
from her father. In light of the current situation, Kenjo believes a Pirates’
Council should be called. To do this, however, they’ll need to find the
legendary chef, who first brought the pirates together during the war of
independence. There’s a reason pirate ships are so full of outdated equipment.
Yes, it’s because the economy sucks right now, but also because they actually
need their old radios, so that the legendary chef can reach them when he
broadcasts the secret message that’ll summon them to council.
Finding him?
Easy – Marika already knows where he is. He’s the chef at the seedy restaurant where
she goes to discuss missions with the bridge crew. She figured it out because
Ririka always took her there as a reward whenever she learned to do something
new as a kid. Ririka clearly relied on the guy, and she’s
super-special-awesome, so that must mean he’s even more super-special-awesome and therefore the legendary chef.
Solid reasoning, but she’s wrong. The legendary chef was his dad. However, that
still means he’s heir to the mantle, and he broadcasts the signal, which also tells
every pirate ship the location of the meeting place. Right as the Bentenmaru’s
about to head there, the Grand Cross appears.
Thoughts
Yeah, yeah,
we get it, Ririka’s a badass, it’s been
sufficiently established – let her show
it. Damnit, I wanna see Ririka do
something awesome!
Anyways, I like where this is going. Not
that the other parts of the series weren’t fun in their own way, but nothing’s
ever really been about the pirates themselves, so the upcoming delving into the
wider pirate society is much appreciated. Plus, they’re actually in real danger
for once! For all that I’ve tried to rationalize my enjoyment of the preceding
episodes, much of it was an attempt to mask my disappointment that things were
never the former two. Not that I didn’t enjoy
any of it, but it still would’ve been nice if more of the show was actually
about them.
Also, I’m no
longer sure there’s some grand secret the bridge crew is in on anymore.
Possibly Kane and Misa are – they both showed signs in this episode that they
at least suspect something, but no one else did, so clearly if Ironbeard has
some big reveal in store it’s not something everyone was in on.
On another
note, it’s nice to see Chiaki back to her old grumpy ‘I’m not enjoying this, seriously you guys’ self. Not that she
ever stopped being like that, but it really comes out when she’s interacting
with Marika, and there wasn’t enough of that last time she was around a lot, during
the Yacht Club arc, which was a shame because it’s what makes her a fun
character, and it’s good to have her back. Not that she hasn’t changed (she’s
long since given up on objecting whenever someone calls her ‘Chiaki-chan’; I’ll
bet she actually likes it), but it’s just not the same when she’s not insisting
on taking things seriously or pretending she didn’t do things for more
sentimental reasons – no really, she couldn’t just visit to give Marika the
message, transferring back to Hakuoh was crucial
to ensuring it got delivered.
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