Yup… tis’ my birthday today.
You know, if you don’t drink… there’s not much to birthdays after your 18th year of living in Bethlehem, PA. People wonder how I became a crazy anime fanatic… Well, live in Bethlehem and you’re sure to pick up some eccentric hobbies, not that anime is really eccentric.
Well, getting closer to being a senior citizen… (in a historian’s mind, a few decades is nothing)
Okay, so we have some random guy in the opening getting attacked by a pack of monsters. When it seems that all is lost, they are wiped out by an unseen enemy, soon to be revealed as Dias. The rescued man tells Dias with his dying breath to report to the king of Lacour about the Sorcery Globe, but is unable to finish his sentence. Meanwhile, Celine is rejoicing about the fashion options available in Lacour and ridicules Ashton for not being able to tell what’s so special about the city. Anyway, Celine goes out to max out her credit card while Precis suggests they go talk to Dr. Leon right away. Before she can drag Claude away, we see the same trio of bandits run away with a bunch of stolen weapons. The commander of the royal guard, named Bisk, comes buy and asks if they’re joining the Tournament of Arms. He explains that it is to determine the best swordsman and the best shop that makes the best sword, so that there can be a royal sword smith, etc. Ashton notices that there are famous warriors joining. Bisk also discusses how this sort of event is important because of the low morale from the current world situation.
Precis, being impatient, asks to go see Dr. Leon instead, but Bisk says that the famous scholar is unavailable because of a research project for the king. Noting that they’re in a hurry, Bisk has a suggestion: win the Tournament of Arms and they can have an audience with the king to request meeting Leon. While Claude expresses hesitation at Precis’s suggestion to enter, Ashton jumps at the opportunity, presumably to impress Precis.
In a den of thieves, the three thugs have stolen many fine weapons for a sword smith named Shiazen so that he can become the royal sword smith. A girl named Sophia runs up and says that he can’t win because their shop will win. Celine passes the shop and sees the thugs mistreating the girl (and badmouthing Celine again)… with predictable results. She rescues the girl with Shiazen cursing his luck.
Precis is still hoping to convince Claude to join the tournament… and finds Ashton in possession of a sword/barrel weapon instead. After that bizarre scene, we find Sophia in Gamgee’s (her grandfather) shop. He scolds her for talking to Shiazen and says that he needs to find a suitable swordsman to wield the Ouma blade. Unfortunately, three masked men burst in and steal the sword (guess who).
The next day, the party has still found no way to see Dr. Leon, so Ashton is their last hope… until Bisk comes along, thankfully. He says that it’s a shame Claude didn’t enter despite his skill. They see Sophia struggling with Gamgee and Celine finds out that Shaizen stole the sword. When they enter Shaizen’s shop, Sophia spots the weapon. Bisk asks if the weapon is stolen but Shaizen denies it because the crest on the weapon belongs to Shiazen. The evil swordsmith tells them to enter the contest and win, after which he’d give them the sword. Claude, his sense of justice disturbed, decides to enter the contest and win for Sophia’s sake.
In Gamgee’s shop, the old man asks Claude what sword he will use. Seeing Claude’s simple blade, he compares it to Ouma, which was a blade made to right the world. Claude takes his sword out and examines it, suddenly exciting Gamgee, who says that it was a sword he was searching for… because his son sold that sword, a blade finer than any he had ever made. It is known as “Kouma,” a sword to disperse evil. That night, Gamgee sharpens the Kouma so that Claude may practice. Rena watches her hero, during which Precis comes out and says that Claude will win. While Rena believes that Claude is strong, she isn’t entirely sure he can win, but Precis is surer because he’s the man she loves the most, shocking Rena. The next morning, at the tournament, the king is talking to Shaizen, who tells the royal leader about his new sword. Elsewhere, Claude has just entered the tournament… and sees that the wielder of the Ouma sword is none other than Dias.
DUN, DUN, DUN…
Claude lies in bed and dreams of being back on board the Calnus during the asteroid field incident. He wakes up in a pool of sweat and realizes he is neither in space nor Milocinia but on Expel in the town of Linga. Unable to contact any Federation ships, he wonders if he’s doomed to live alone on this planet. Rena comes and says that it’s been a while since they were alone together, reminiscing about all the people they’ve met on their journey. Precis is watching from afar and says that she should be the one alone with Claude.
In Bowman’s dining room, their host says that he’ll take them to get the translation of the book finished. Precis overhears them and knows she has to start a relationship with him before he leaves, so she drags him off somewhere to see some bizarre dog statue. The rest of the group waits for him but Celine says they should go without him, to Ashton’s horror. Rena says that it would be rude without him so she runs off with Ashton to look for him. Claude finds himself at Precis’s house to get some medicine for her upset stomach, which is filled with various mechanical items (even a television, oddly). Despite her claimed stomachache, she seems rather energetic. In a rather odd mistake, Precis gives him tea made with hot pepper jam from Salva… not raspberry (apparently she’s nervous because it’s the first time she’s invited a member of the opposite sex to her residence).
Rena is running about and is unable to find Claude, so Bowman tells her to look in Precis’s house. Meanwhile, Precis tells her of a person she looks up to, a Dr. Leon, a distinguished scholar, who Claude interprets as an old man (we’ll see). When Precis sees Rena come down the road, she drags Claude off to yet another place. Bowman enters the house and sees nobody but Rena sees two cups, meaning they would be there. A strange machine is seen behind them, but Bowman dismisses it as an illusion. At the same moment, Precis dismisses Claude’s sighting of Rena as an illusion. She decides to take Claude to Bowman’s in her new invention, which appears to be some sort of mecha. To the dismay of Rena and Bowman, the mecha begins stomping around town for a test drive. Claude, realizing that it’s a test drive, is worried… especially when a control stick breaks off the panel.
With the mecha out of control, they careen about, nearly missing Ashton, who sees Claude and Precis together, assuming they are in a romantic relationship and are showing off (when Claude’s really scared for his life). He manages to relay to Celine that the brakes were broken and they can’t stop. Thankfully, Bowman comes up with a plan to stop them. And the plan involves Rena in a race queen outfit. Good plan, Dr. Bowman!
Anyway, she directs them to turn in a certain direction towards Celine, who has a magic circle drawn on the ground, which she uses to cast a sealing spell to stop the runaway mecha. Ashton then uses Ururun to encase the mecha in ice. With the experimental vehicle stopped, our friends our safe. The commotion agitates a man named Keith, who owns the house in front of which the vehicle is stopped. Bowman says that he’d intended to bring Keith, a researcher of ancient languages, the book to translate. Inside, he says that the translations will take some time, so they should go to Lacour to meet with Dr. Leon who is doing research on the Sorcery Globe.
They bid farewell to Bowman and his wife. However, Ashton is sad about leaving Precis, but apparently she’s popped out of nowhere to join their group in order to see Dr. Leon and be with Claude, to the dismay of Rena and Ashton… though Ashton likes the idea of being with Precis a while longer. Too bad they didn’t take Bowman along instead. Precis’s voice actress is getting really annoying.
After considering all the weird stuff that’s been going on in Bethlehem these days (casinos coming, massive construction projects, the loss of a few screws…) I must say that I was excited to go all the way to New York City (Manhattan) to do some anime shopping…
… okay, I went to help my mom get her visa for a trip to China, but that only took half an hour. I suppose it wouldn’t be right for an Asian guy to visit Chinatown without partaking in some of the local cuisine. There’s this great place on Pell Street called “Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant.” Hehe, “eat at Joe’s…” That generally implies bad food. Anyway, this place is really good. I recommend the fried prawns (without shells), soup dumplings, and soft shell crab. Skip the scallion pancakes. It’s a Chinese plot to give Americans heart attacks.
What was the point of this post again? Oh right, anime…
There’s certainly a lot of shopping you can do in Manhattan. There’s this guide called Reeve’s Northeast Corridor Anime and J-Pop Shopping Guide. It’s certainly a good resource for anime shopping in Chinatown, despite lacking enough specific information besides locations (and I knew about the Elizabeth Center already, the other locations are sort of “meh”). For most people, you can accomplish most of your shopping goals by going to the Elizabeth Center minimall at 13-17 Elizabeth St. Just be careful to not arrive there before 2:00 because nothing’s really open until at least 12:00 (and usually later). Most of the stores are really small and are stuffed to the gills with merchandise. For video games, the prices are average but the DVD prices are lower than outside (though they are mostly bootlegs or in Chinese). The real good stuff is finding those little bits of merchandise that you never knew existed but you realized you needed anyway. There’s a few other good stores on Mott St. if you follow Reeve’s guide but I found them to not have the same quality and diversity in the minimall.
Okay, I just have to know… what the heck is this? And by “this,” I’m referring to the item in the middle of this picture. The Kimi ga Nozomu Eien picture caught my eye and I thought I’d try my luck to see if I’d get the Hayase toy. No such luck. What did I just buy (besides the Gundam chess pieces)?
Time to save Eleanor! If they don’t, she can’t fulfill her dream of playing outside with Precis. And that would be… uh, bad? With Precis off to find the Metox, the village is in a panic trying to find her. Claude and company are tasked with finding the Metox for time is of the essence. Precis is running and running, trying to find the plant. Unfortunately, she runs into a giant bunny monster. As absurd as this sounds, giant bunnies are a common occurrence in Star Ocean games (well, not all of them are evil). It’s actually rather cute, though Precis would disagree since it has her trapped on the edge of a cliff. Thankfully, Precis has a giant hammer stored in her backpack, which dispatches the cute monster.
But luck is not on her side as the cliff falls apart and she falls into a deep chasm. Elsewhere, Ashton swears he heard Precis yell, but the rest of the group dismisses it. Before he goes with the group, he yells “Precis-chaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” (it’s even cheesier than Vader’s “Noooooo!”). Claude says he heard nothing, despite Ashton’s objections. At the bottom of the cliff, Precis has landed on her hammer, which cushioned her fall. Inside the forest on thee dge of the sacred grounds, Claude mentions that it’s odd that they haven’t encountered any dangers. At that moment, they hear a girl’s cry for help. They rush to help and find Precis imprisoned in a pack of vines. As he approaches, she yells for Ashton. Suddenly, Precis’s eyes change color and the vines attack Ashton. Being Captain Obvious, Ashton yells that it’s a trap. “Precis” then reveals herself to be a female shapeshifter.
Celine says that the real Precis would have yelled for Claude, not Ashton (poor Ashton). They demand to know where she is but the villain says that Precis ran off since the rabbit was chasing her. Our green shapeshifter friend then reveals the rest of her giant rabbits, which surround the group. Apparently, she plans to eat our heroic adventurers. After a severe thrashing, the rabbits flee in terror. The shapeshifter apologizes for her actions and Claude takes the opportunity to ask her about the Metox. Celine also makes her promise not to hurt any more humans. They are told that the Metox is in a certain direction and the turn to look. While she is telling the truth, she then grabs the two ladies and feeds on (kiss?) them. Apparently, this also puts them under a form of mind control, forcing them to attack the male party members.
Outside the forest, Precis is muttering how the pain she’s enduring is nothing compared to what Eleanor is going through, so he keeps on going up the hill, via a vine. Back in Linga, Bowman says that Eleanor only has twelve hours left and that Precis is still missing. The shapeshifter then asks the guys to just attack and not dodge since they are unwilling to hurt their friends. Ashton says that Celine is the problem because of her ranged attacks so he must deal with Rena somehow. He pins Rena to the ground while Ashton freezes Celine’s extremities with Ururun and then rushes the creature. Unfortunately, he can’t bring himself to cut a woman. Luckily, his sword comes down on one of the vines, which hurts the creature.
Precis is still climbing the vine, which must have been connected to our villainess, since it begins to become unstable. As she hurries, she notices the Metox plant on the side of the hill. Apparently, the vines contained demon stones from the Sorcery Globe. When the main group tries to find the Metox, the plants are all dead (possibly caused by the monster). Outside, Precis is climbing without the vine and has acquired the plant. However, she falls again only this time to have Ashton save her. He tells her that they can now save Eleanor and holds her as she cries. I suppose this should be a tender moment but they have to rush to give Bowman the plant. With the Metox, Eleanor is saved. A grateful Precis then thanks… Claude. Poor Ashton. Precis can be so cruel…
And so our group is sailing on a ship, nearing the continent of Lacour, on their way to El, since no ship will sail to El directly. Ashton, who failed to listen, is told to go have fun with barrels. However, of more pressing concern is their arrival at the continent of Lacour. In the port town of Linga, Celine says there is a large university, at which they should have the texts translated. Out of the blue, Claude is rammed into by a young girl chasing a round robot-ish object. He asks if she’s okay, but in her eyes it’s “a prince from her picture books.” She introduces herself as Precis L. Neumann.
Being annoyed, Celine tells her to chase after the rapidly disappearing object. Ashton comments on her cuteness while the others run off to take care of more important things, leaving him alone. He happens to catch a ribbon out of the air, which apparently came out of a girl’s window above him. He returns the ribbon to this girl, who is named Eleanor. She is sitting in her bed, apparently suffering from some sort of illness and is bedridden. Having never been outside, she pesters Ashton with all sorts of questions about the outside world. Feeling sadness about her situation, he entertains her with many stories of his travels… starting off with barrels (this is actually probably the funniest scene in the series so far). Saving her from the barrel-lovin’, Precis enters the room. Ashton recognizes her, but Precis does not (to his embarrassment). She runs to tell Eleanor about how she met Claude (embellishments included… like a marriage proposal). Outside, she tells Ashton about how she always visits Eleanor.
While leaving, Eleanor is seen letting the ribbon fly out the window. Precis runs off to find it with Ashton in pursuit. They find the ribbon caught on a roof’s window. Ashton remarks that it’d be hard to find, but Precis reveals that she’s one of the best inventors in Linga. She brings out her giant mechanical arms and does some rather humorous, but ultimately futile attempts to reach the ribbon (culminating in damaging the house’s roof… and Ashton’s head). Elsewhere, Claude and Rena are seeking lodging with no luck. They see Ashton and Precis chasing the ribbon, which has blown off across the river. With some intelligent thinking, Ashton uses his dragon’s ice breath to freeze a path across the river. Precis, thinking that it’s some sort of invention, “wrangles” with the dragons in an attempt to decipher their inner workings (now that I think about it… dual dragons, dual arms… perfect couple?). Amid the confusion, they lose sight of the ribbon.
At the market, Eleanor’s mother is trying to find apples for her daughter. It’s her luck that Rena comes and shares some of her apples. Claude wishes that her daughter will get better soon, and they go their separate ways. On top of a (bell?) tower, Precis is using her binoculars to search for the ribbon. Ashton suggests they buy her a better one, but she is determined to find that particular ribbon for some reason. The ribbon is spotted caught on a moving stagecoach. She runs across her robot-thingie and with a cry of joy, modifies it into some sort of hover scooter. They pursue the stagecoach and catch the ribbon, but end driving off the side of a cliff. After a rather painful landing, Ashton stares at Precis’s beauty…
Anyway, they go to return the ribbon to Eleanor. Precis asks her why she let the ribbon go. She replies that because she probably can never be cured, she wanted the ribbon to explore the world for her. Precis gets mad at her for thinking that she’ll never get better and says that she should not give up because she sure isn’t giving up on Eleanor. She says that her goal should be to bring the ribbon outside when she gets better. Outside, Precis thanks Ashton for his help. She suddenly cries that she has found her ideal man and rushes forward… only to run into Claude’s arms, disappointing Ashton. Celine then says that none of the university professors could do the translation, so Claude asks Precis if she knows anyone who can. She takes the group to see Dr. Bowman, a local pharmacist.
He too is unable to do the translation, so he wants to take them to see a colleague of his, but Eleanor’s mom bursts in with bad news about Eleanor. They rush off to help their young friend and find her in bad condition. Dr. Bowman says that there isn’t much hope for her. He says if he only had the rare plant Metox, he could do something about it. Unfortunately, it’s only found in Linga’s sacred grounds, where monsters now live because of the Sorcery Globe. Ashton says he’ll go to find the Metox because he wants to show Eleanor a larger world than that outside her window (it’s bigger than a barrel, eh?). With time against them, they must hurry, but Precis has run on ahead of the group…
The new forums for the anime blogging community are now up at this link: http://forums.animeblogger.net Many thanks to Maestro and others for setting up this new message board.
Come on down!
ANN posted an article regarding this Xinhua News article.
According to the article, Fu Tiezhen, head of the China Cartoon Arts Committee said that “‘From the mid-80s, a lot of cartoons from America (the United States) and Japan were imported into China for free or at very little cost. It’s a kind of dumping,’ Fu said.”
The article continues:
“The popularity of foreign cartoons, widely available both on television and on disk, has long troubled bureaucrats hoping to nurture the domestic animation industry.
Yet foreign cartoons dubbed into Chinese remain a staple on late afternoon and weekend television.
Fu said he believed that the cartoon industry would best develop through the ‘market system,’ but in the meantime some administrative measures might help.”
I seriously doubt that the Communist Chinese government’s only goal is to help the local industry. I find it more likely that this is just a cover for shutting out foreign competition and typical Chinese xenophobia against Japan. For years, Chinese people have railed against anime as a creation of the “Japanese devils” (yes, they still call them that). Apparently, in Chinese culture, the sins of the father become the sins of the children, for the wounds of World War II haven’t completely healed yet.
The main reason why Chinese animation is making much progress into the market is because the majority of it sucks. Even a lot of the animation in Taiwan is pretty lousy. Even if this censorship does “succeed,” I seriously doubt it’ll improve their sales significantly.
I must do more research on this topic. For now, this “foreign devil” (technically, that’s what I’m called) shall do some reading. And for those of you buying anime bootlegs from China… *shrugs*
In the desert, we see Dias standing over a fallen elderly man. He takes the man to an oasis where the rescued man tries to tell Dias to return an item to a person. The item is like a large red marble. Its use is unspecified. Elsewhere, on the ocean, an eerie-looking ship is sailing with an ominous attitude. In a town, we see some rather lame-looking beasts rob a town of its valuables. One monster trips and falls, as he stands, Claude challenges it to reveal its identity. After dispatching it, he is “shocked” to realize that it is a man under the mask. A ghostly apparition of a woman passes by him as he searches for the rest of the party. Too shocked to move, Claude struggles to breathe. The beasts return to their ship, where a stereotypical pirate captain awaits them.
Being the adventurous type, Claude has followed the apparition into a cave, where he sees the ship sail by, with the apparition on its mast. On the side of the vessel is a creat of sorts. Suddenly, the pirate vessel vanishes to his surprise. Back with the group, Claude is doing research about ghost vessels. He learns from a book that the ship is the C. Barelisu, Celine explains that the crest is for safe travel, so the captain must have been a Crest magician. Ashton notes that the ship was lost 70 years ago. Oddly, Claude notices that the figurehead in the picture of the ship is similar to the apparition. While interrogating the captured pirate, they find no information. If they do not solve the mystery of the ghost pirates, no ships will sail to other continents, making it impossible to complete their mission.
After finally acquiring the location of the pirate base, the group boards a rickety old boat in search of this hidden base. While sailing, Claude notes that the female apparition looked sad, as if in search of something. Suddenly, the wind stops, slowing down the boat, soon after which a monster with tentacles attacks their boat (but no bird-stabbing). Claude and Rena find themselves washed up on the side of the beach, with Celine and Ashton nowhere in sight. Hoping that Ashton and Celine can take care of themselves, they go in search of the pirates. A beam of light shoots out of a mountain on the island. This leads them to believe that it may have something to do with the pirates. After climbing the ridge, they see the pirate ship and Celine, who has been captured.
Inside the base, we see Celine’s wannabe bodyguards working as cooks for the pirates. With that bit of pathetic comic relief over, the scene then changes to further inside the pirates’ cavern, where a pirate dumps a load of cargo into a pit, causing the mountain to emanate more light. Our dynamic duo then finds Celine gagged and suspended from the ceiling. A pirate then pops out and grabs Rena. The pirate captain appears and demands Claude drop his weapon. Claude begins to throw aside his weapon but Dias appears, promising explanations later. Rena runs to free Celine, dropping her from the ceiling like a sack of potatoes. Dias notes that the pirates’ eyes are odd, so they must be controlled by something. At that moment, the mountain begins emanating more light. You may have seen this coming, for a giant monster pops out of the mountain (tentacles included), which Rena recognizes as the same one that attacked them earlier. Inside the monster’s mouth is a pile of treasure. Claude says that the pirates must have been controlled by the monster, which needed treasure to eat.
The pirate captain appears and says they cannot escape. Celine wants to blast him, but Claude says that he’s only possessed, not necessarily evil. Claude, thinking intelligently for once, notes the jewel on the monster’s forehead, so he tells Dias to attack in that area. Once Dias destroys the jewel, the monster is hurt and the pirate captain is returned to normal. The two swordsmen then use their “Kuuhazan” moves to finish off the monster. After some cheesy explosions, the monster slides into the ocean and disappears. Dias assumes, probably correctly, that the monster was under the influence of the Sorcery Globe. The wannabe bodyguards attempt to escape, but are “punished” by Celine via Thunderbolt.
Dias finally reveals why he came to the island. He was in search of the owner of the red pearl, which is related to the C. Barelisu. Apparently, 70 years ago there was a mutiny on the ship, after which the ship was set ablaze. The man who stole the pearl could not get rid of it, so he was plagued by guilt, then pledging to return it. They go in their boat to the area where Claude saw the ghost ship. Dias drops the pearl off the side into the water, where it disappears into a trench. The female apparition appears again, to which Claude responds by saying that it must have been searching for the pearl. She flies past Claude and onto the ghost ship (which appeared out of nowhere). On the ship’s figurehead, there are two red pearls that act as earrings. With the pair of pearls complete, the ghost ship vanishes. However, Ashton is still nowhere to be found. Ironically, he is floating in a barrel…
Okay, so this episode doesn’t tell any story that was part of the original game. But was this for better or for worse? Well, it’s good to tell an original side story to the game but I must say that the episode felt more like filler than a serious attempt to expand on the world of Star Ocean 2. Had we substituted the cast of Scooby Doo for our intrepid heroes… it would have been another typical Hanna-Barbara story.
This episode starts off with a brief recap of the past eight episodes. Claude, Rena, Celine, Dias, and Ashton are reintroduced, in case you missed the first third of the series… Anyway, they’ve arrived at the port of Herlie, in search of a ship to take them to El. Celine does her usual prissy act and demands to rest at an inn. Oddly, Ashton has disappeared. In one of the funnier scenes, the group finds Ashton obsessing over a barrel. After an old brandy barrel has “entranced him,” one can only wonder what a “wooden barrel fetish” can mean. He then runs off and chases after a cartload of barrels. The group wisely decides to leave him alone, though Rena worries about the dragons. Perhaps they should have worried more, for Ashton has wandered out of town and gotten lost.
At the inn, Claude examines the passport and Rena advises that they rest. Celine complains about swollen legs and Rena decides to bring some hot water. Meanwhile, Ashton is having a miserable time trying to hitch a ride. Back at the inn, Celine complains of itchy eyes and Claude attempts to take a look. Of course, when Rena gets back, she sees this scene from a perspective that makes Celine and Claude look rather naughty. Upon seeing this “kiss,” Rena verbalizes her shock at this and runs off while Celine is confused about “the kiss.” And back with Ashton, he’s managed to hitch a ride in a cart full of pigs. How unlucky.
Claude is shocked to realize that Celine thinks Rena thought she saw the two of them kissing. While Rena is off moping by herself, a rather minor character from the game makes an appearance. Yes, it’s time for Yuki the Jam Girl! And more minor characters reappear when Celine’s bodyguard applicants show up to rob the inn, more on this later. Back in the market, Yuki is running a jam stand while Rena is feeding her face with octopus buns (assuming they’re similar to the Chinese type….. mmmmmm, tasty). Despite Yuki’s admonitions, Rena tries to eat them all, stopping only when she chokes. She also yells about Claude and Celine with Yuki as her audience, also trying to eat more buns, causing Yuki to restrain them. While Yuki says Claude isn’t that type of person, Rena insists he is. Yuki then asks if she’ll return to Arlia after the incident since she has no desire to travel with the two “lovers,” Rena is stunned into silence.
While Rena is feeding her face, the thugs are robbing the inn. On their way out, they bump into Rena and Yuki, and while Rena attempts pursuit of her bag (with passport inside), Yuki attempts to stop her because of the potential danger involved. Claude comes by and sees Yuki, who tells him to go help Rena. Elsewhere, Ashton has finally made it back to the town. Dirty and bruised, he sees Celine, who tells him of their problem.
Rena has finally caught up to the thieves, only to be pushed into the ocean, where she is attacked by a hentai tentacle monster (well, it does have tentacles… I couldn’t resist the joke). And it’s a rather fearsome one, though it’s more of a bird-stabbing tentacle monster (yes, we do see a bird get stabbed). The thieves run away while Claude runs in to help Rena. He rescues Rena from the monster, only to find himself struggling. Claude tells Rena to run while he holds off the monster. He is knocked away and Rena runs to help him, where he tries to apologize for what he did earlier, but she stops him so she can apologize for losing the passport. She continues by saying that it’s okay with her about Celine, which Claude immediately clarifies as a misunderstanding. They both blush and feel awkward… for a short time as the gelatinous tentacle monster comes back. Thankfully, “Ashton” (possessed) comes to their rescue. Claude, with an opening in sight, finishes off the monster. Back at the inn, Celine has dealt with the thieves and retrieved the passport.
On the docks, Yuki is telling Rena how she would like to work in a store that would let her sing while selling jam because of her feelings and how she must follow them, which Rena must also do (to Rena’s embarrassment, for she knows what Yuki is implying about Claude). After this cute scene, we find the party in a state of distress distress, no ship will leave the port for the seas are dark and foreboding due to the Sorcery Globe…
