“Now that I’ve taken your Abnormality, memory and sense of purpose, what do you have left, Kurokami Medaka?”
Summary
With her naivety taken advantage of, Medaka injects herself with multiple syringes without hesitation, the first containing a Normalize Liquid, and the second being a memory eraser. Without her personality, Medaka easily loses to Koga and Naze decides to experiment even further, heading down to B13 to ask Oudo to insert a new personality into the blank slate that is currently Kurokami Medaka.
Impression
Sorry the post is later than usual this week, the version [Zero-Raws] distributes never showed up on Wednesday and I’m already far too occupied on Thursdays both anime-wise and IRL. Anyway, Medaka’s naivety has really dug itself a deep hole for her – despite knowing full well that her opponent is Naze Youka and not her sister, Medaka still sees her as Kujira and will act without hesitating if it’s for her, even though Naze denies her own role and has every reason not to be trusted. This simple straightforwardness is very like the Medaka we’ve seen throughout the whole show, and this is not the first time that blatant, carefree trust has led to even bigger issues emerging for her.
Naze’s various syringes and medical creations are pretty unique and interesting – the Normalize Liquid is actually something conjured up by Maguro, and would actually be the opposite of what the Flask Plan is trying to achieve, creating Normals who are average and have no special powers. It’s a vaccine that sees Abnormalities as a threat (somehow I can actually imagine that working), but is incomplete, due to the side-effect of pain as well as its merely temporary effects. It does make sense in terms of Naze’s principles that the “greatest things come only from hell” and that “misfortune drives people to overachieve” – no pain, no gain. Her memory loss syringe ended up being a lot more potent towards Medaka – you know that something is horribly wrong when she suddenly asks why she was born, after spending the entirety of the first season helping others in need. It’s this personality that is sustaining her entire being, and it’s what’s more Abnormal about Medaka than her Abnormality itself. Oudo inserting a new personality into this empty shell will be really interesting to see – maybe something like the “new” Medaka that featured in the OP?
We also get introduced to the Plus Six of the Thirteen Party, who I’ve genuinely forgotten about because of their lack of significance throughout the story later on, despite being completely different from the Front Six, and supposedly much more dangerous. The Loser Team, who’s been reformed (even if Unzen isn’t acting like it) is fighting against these six without any knowledge of their Abnormalities, and I’m actually doubting their ability to make it out of there in one piece – only Unzen, Takachiho and Munakata are Thirteen Party members (who are tired out from losing to Medaka) and no matter how threatening Onigase might be, I’m a bit sceptical of her combat ability. As for Nekomi…she’ll make it out of there somehow.
It won’t be easy for the Student Council + Maguro to make it all the way to B13, and that’s mainly because of Yukuhashi Mizou, the ever-mysterious sidekick of Oudo who he’s only sticking around with because of his interest. With that sleeping gas having been filtered in ever since they arrived at B12, everyone apparently caught on too late that Yukuhashi’s mask was a gas mask – apart from Kikaijima, whose turn it is to fight. Maybe she’s not as physically strong as Zenkichi or Akune, but what’s for sure is that she isn’t a Special for nothing.
