Tsubu tsubu. Tsubu. Tsubu. Tsu. Bu. Last Order and Accelerator’s interactions saving this episode big time. I’m going to choose to focus on this adorable food onomatopoeia about lumpy pomegranate lemonade rather than the rest of this episode because, holy shit, was this week brutal. So much blood. So many people being chopped into bits. When Yomikawa was just straight up like, ‘this is hell.’ I felt that. I don’t know why they literally only sent in the basic equipment to an underground facility teeming with the combat-trained enemy who have obviously been sponsored by some very powerful person.

There’s really not much to talk about in the way of plot. This was essentially a giant, drawn out gunfight between the DA and Anti-skill. And wouldn’t ya know, both sides kind of just suck at aiming.

As far as what I found interesting this episode… Well, there’s Hirumi for one. Anytime you see a character with giant nodes and cables plugged into them, you can kind of get the idea that they’re crazy powerful or batshit crazy. Or both. Hishigata apparently wants to use the Sister to do something with her although we don’t exactly know what yet. He also specifically referred to her as a Sister so at the very least he’s on the up and up when it comes to that cloning project.

Oh, also, there’s the whole thing with Accelerator and his batteries! I wouldn’t expect anything less than him refusing to ask for help in charging / replacing them. The fact that he can barely see Last Order and, later, he says he couldn’t even form a sentence without the Misaka Network are both really indicative of where he is at with his rehabilitation. I believe even towards the end of season 3 of index he still couldn’t form sentences when he lost his battery. He was able to fight to some extent though. He gets an upgrade later so I believe he’s limited to 15 minutes of use for his ability which really doesn’t seem that long. If he were to say fight the scavengers, I’m sure it would basically reach its limit.

Speaking of, the squad has finally showed up and have been tasked to retrieve (or kill?) the Sister. The friction control power is pretty cool, I really like how unique they get sometimes. We got a preview of this… paper manipulation too but I’m sure it’s much more complex than that. I know Yomikawa always talks about going easy on kids, but I really don’t think she has the time or power to ‘hold back’ on them. It’s a shame that she’s just a regular person because I like her character, but as soon as powers get involved she always takes a back seat. Judging from their reaction to her and calling her a teacher, I’m guessing they were some very bullied outcasts who were given a chance to become ability users / have their powers boosted. Maybe by Hishigata, which would maybe mean that Hirumi is like a perfected version of them? Well, they said the kids weren’t with Hishigata and he does have that robot we saw a few episodes ago so maybe not.

And Esther and her pseudo-soul with that save! I wonder if they’ll have to trade blows with the Scavengers to stall for Accelerator. He always shows up in the nick of time. I’m curious how they’ll fare against them in the meanwhile though.

I’m pretty hyped for next episode. Accelerator has made his move and is en route! I have no doubt that his guilt towards the clones is going to make an ugly appearance somewhere in the near future, but I am also excited to see him take on the Scavengers. Judging by the preview, we’re going to be seeing a lot of them next episode.