| A slum inhabitant is running for his life from some scary dude with a flipped-up haircut and shiny reflective glasses. The slum inhabitant says he doesn't know anything about the Piece of Wisdom, and the scary dude says he knows that, but he made the mistake of discovering what Scary Man was looking for. The scary dude, evidently a Witch, levitates some projectiles and turns the man into a pincushion. Robin sits and broods upon her complete inability to babysit and meeting her STN-J friends again. She mutters that she can't go back. Nagira knocks on the door and tells her that she has a job to do. Nagira sends her to deliver an urgent package, and when she leaves, he opens his drawer to reveal something that's either a gun or an Orbo gun. He slips it into his pocket and leaves. Nagira buys some information from a little gnome-like man in the Walled City. He hears a lot of boring stuff about Methuselah that he already knows, and then the gnome says that she left a "Piece of Wisdom" behind that SOLOMON is trying to get ahold of. Nagira knows that this is significant, and tells his gnome to find out what exactly the "Piece of Wisdom" is. On her route, Robin passes an combini (convenience store) that was close to Touko's house. She remembers Touko getting shot, and bikes on as fast as she can. Doujima comes into STN-J and sees Haruto and Michael crowded around a computer. Probably suspecting them of some on-the-job pr0n surfing (hey, they're 16 and 17!), she asks them what they're doing, and they're looking into a bunch of recent murders in a certain location in Walled City. All of the murdered people were Witches, which brings up the possibility of inter-Witch warfare. Robin, for her part, is now sitting outside of the combini eating a sandwich and brooding on how she came here right before her apartment was raided, and how she'd gotten an airmail letter that she'd never gotten to read. She remembers where in her apartment she had left the mail, so she decides to sneak into her apartment and see if she can get it. She bikes over, lets herself in, and looks around at her bullet-ridden, empty apartment. She looks in the pile of mail she'd dropped, but the airmail letter is completely gone. She has more flashbacks to being shot at and panics, leaving the apartment as soon as possible. Nagira is talking to his pet gnome again, and apparently other people are looking for this "Piece of Wisdom" - someone called the Professor has been looking for it, and people have been dying. Now Nagira's intrigued - SOLOMON isn't the only one who's looking for this thing. He tells his gnome to find out more. Miho reads the report about the dead Witches, and decides to investigate it. Michael thinks that it's dangerous to do it alone, but they really don't have much choice. Nagira manages to catch a glimpse of some of the goings-on and deduces that the rumors of the murders were true. That night, Nagira has a little talk with Robin. He asks her about Methuselah, and the "Piece of Wisdom" she supposedly left behind. Robin hasn't heard anything about it - or so she claims. Nagira doesn't believe a word of it, and decides to keep looking into it. Robin asks why Nagira cares, and Nagira says that he doesn't want more people to get killed just because SOLOMON wants this thing, whatever it is. He leaves, and Robin thinks of the fragment of Methuselah's cane that she still has. Nagira, for his part, knows the tricksy Witches still has his Precious. When Robin wakes up, Nagira's gone, and Miho is at Walled City investigating the Witch murders by herself. Nagira finds out from his gnome (who'd gotten beaten up somehow) that there was a man who knew where the Piece of Wisdom was, so Nagira goes to meet him. Hanamura can't reach Nagira's cellphone, which worries both her and Robin. Robin goes to look for him. Nagira is taken to a dark room in the slums, where he meets the man named Professor. He's the scary guy from earlier. The Professor and Nagira exchange words, and the Professor, who's holding a pencil-like piece of wood in his hand, uses his powers to send the pencil flying at Nagira like an arrow. Michael is eating some junk food while sitting on the edge of the old well in the basement of STN-J (the one Robin escaped through in episode 15). He hears Robin's voice and freaks, but Robin tells him to sit down and act like nothing's happening - there are security cameras. Michael does some dumb stretches to cover his lapse and sits down again. They chat for a bit, and Michael fills her in on the Witch fight going on in the Walled City. Michael pulls out his laptop and starts looking for clues as to Nagira's location. Since Miho is already in Walled City, they can use her terminal in there to locate Nagira. Apparently everyone has some kind of ID by which they can be located - a cross between tagging, GPS, and an SSN? A slightly scary thought... Nagira is bound but alive in the room, and he continues to taunt the Professor. Robin manages to find them, and the Professor attacks her, only to be blocked by her fire. The Professor opens his briefcase, which is full of those little pencil/stake projectiles, and sends them flying at her. Robin, of course, has no problem with this - throwing wood at a fire Witch? That's one of the more brilliant ideas in the history of Evil Villains...anyways, so the Professor can't get at her, so he looks at Nagira and starts towards him. Robin panics and burns the Professor completely to ashes - nothing's left. Robin clumsily burns the chains off Nagira's hands, and he comments that the Professor was the strongest Witch in the area, but Robin killed him so easily. Robin says that the power wasn't all hers, and she didn't intend to use so much power on him. She pulls the remnant of Methuselah's staff out of her pocket and says it's probably the Piece of Wisdom. Nagira swears, and Robin apologizes for being a dumbass. Then Nagira wonders if Robin was attacked earlier because she had the Piece of Wisdom. "Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the coven sank in the dark. Forbidden knowledge. Endless remorse. One ideal. Those without future aren't even allowed to think now." [previous] [next] |