Touma and Orsola escape from the ice fleet with some help.
Touma gets a taste of his own medicine.
Note to all girls with magical garments: never shake hands with Touma
Summary:
Inside the ice ship, Agnese's first reaction upon seeing Touma is to punch in the face and gut for some payback. Agnese then states that she is supposed to be looking for intruders, but she is forced to work for the fleet due to her earlier failures. Agnese then proceed to explain that the fleet of ice ships is used by the Roman Catholics to perform/guard a powerful magical ritual known as the Queen of the Adriatic Sea. In exchange for helping Touma and Orsola escape, Agnese wants the two to rescue Lucia and Angelene who have escaped before but were recaptured and awaiting punishment. Agnese herself will head to the flagship to draw away attention. Touma and Agnese decide to shake on the agreement, but Touma's right hand causes Agnese's magical robe to disintegrate.
Orsola demonstrates the art of bluffing.
Touma and Orsola follow Agnese's direction to the room where Lucia and Angelene are being held. Touma and Orsola are confronted by a large ice armor but Touma easily destroys it with his right hand. Orsola then uses a piece of the ice armor to bluff the three human guards so they can free Lucia and Angelene without a fight. Lucia and Angelene can use a spell to make holes in the ice ship, but the two are hindered by restraining spells in their robes, but Touma can't dispel the restraints without shredding their robes. After learning that Agnese is staying behind, Lucia and Angelene become worried as Agnese is needed to perform the ritual and the ritual will damage Agnese's mind. Suddenly, the ship is attacked by the other ships in the fleet. The commander of the fleet, Bishop Biagio Busoni, had learned of the intruders and ordered the other ships to attack, and the target ship is sunk taking Touma and company along with it.
Interesting design, but the leaving the top completely flat seems like a waste of space.
If Itsuwa had wanted closer contact with Touma, this could be interpreted as success.
Touma wakes up and finds himself inside the submersible ship of the Amakusa. Index had called for the Amakusa's help and the Amakusa managed to rescue Touma, Orsola, Lucia, Angelene and the three guards from a watery grave. The group return to the city for some food, and during that time Touma, Lucia and Angelene declare that they are going to rescue Agnese no matter what. Saiji (the Amakusa leader) had prepared for this and the group head out against the ice ship fleet. Using small exploding boats as distraction, Touma and company board one of the ice ships and head for the flagship. On the way, the group is confronted by some battle nuns formerly under Agnese's command while other ice ships fire upon the ship that they are on, and in the heat of the battle Angelene is knocked unconscious by falling debris.
Apparently this is a common way to get attention among battle nuns. Can't argue with its effectiveness though.
Our first "good" casualty......She's probably fine since she wouldn't look like this if the ice block had crushed her.
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I was expecting the expositions to storm back with a vengeance after the lack of it in the previous episode, but this episode wasn't too bad in that regard. I don't think I understood everything, but the point is some kooky Catholic bishop is trying to do something crazy and needs Agnese for the ritual, and thus Touma and company have the stop the ritual and save Agnese. Those crazy Catholics, they just don't know when to stop. They are the villains for most of episodes so far this season.
The episode was a bit of action, a bit of chatter, and a bit of comedy mixed in together and the result wasn't bad. I liked how Orsola handled things this episode, bluffing out the three guards and then stopping Touma from shredding Lucia and Angelene's robes (after which Lucia would probably have murdered Touma). Orsola is definitely a worthy candidate for Touma's harem lol. Meanwhile, Itsuwa continues the moist towel battle plan but to little effect, unless of course you count getting bowled over by Touma and Index a result. She needs to step up her game and do it fast, although I suppose Itsuwa is just following the Amakusa mantra of being subtle and sneaky.
So as expected, Agnese is not the villain but rather more like the damsel in distress this time, and Touma will finally get to punch a male main villain in the face again after punching three female main villains out in a row.
From the feed of A Product of Wasted Time
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Episode: To Aru Majutsu no Index Episode 15