Shaddiq unrequited love; Witch From Mercury episode 9 impression

Synopsis

The episode started with the flashback of the time when Guel was still the reigning holder. The Grassley girls squads were watching Guel latest win against the challenger and they did wonder why Shaddiq decided to let him be the current holder. The next scene showed Miorine who was taking care of her tomatoes while Shaddiq was standing outside the plantation room. She was in the in angry mood after her second escape plan failed. knowing that she was being bethroted to the holder against her will; she promised herself that whatever happened she had to escape that place before she turned 17. Miorine hate the fact that her life was considered as a living Thropy for whoever became the reigning holder. Shaddiq told her that he was different and being a reigning holder was a bore. While her tone showed a bit of disappointment, Miorine ,being a big tsundere, said that she was glad that at least Shaddiq didn't try to compete for her.

Miorine: Because I said so! (Like father like daughter)

Back to the present, Miorine and Suletta as Earth house representatives talked with Shaddiq and his mobile suit team vice leaders; Sabina Fardin, regarding the new regulation that halt the company start. Shaddiq once again made an offer for them if they allowed it, they could merge with his company as he would still let Miorine as the company president. Therefore, he guaranteed that every person in the Earth house would still continue their job like usual. Miorine asked him one crucial question if he had deliberately tempered the school's regulation. Shaddiq could not deny it and this made Miorine decided to solve the problem with the academy's best method (yeah you guessed it right) with a duel between her and Shaddiq.

Nika been playing "among us"for a while

During the Dueling comitte ceremony Lauda explained that the next duel would be in a team battle format between Earth house against Shaddiq's team. Shaddiq team consisted of him and the five girls squads that appeared on the last episode. One of the Girls; a twin tailed; brown haired girl named Rene Costa, walked closer to Lilique Kadoka Lipati (who also happen to attend the Dueling ceremony) and showed how much she hate her. She insisted Lipati to join the next match so she could deal with her personally. Lipati was wondering about her challenge as she didn't wrong her before. The Earth house attend a meeting and discussed about the next battle. Nuno mentioned that the Grassley house never lost a match and he said that in normal occasion, he would bet all his money to them. With only Chuchu and Suletta who had experience in piloting the mobile suit, they had no choice but sending Martin Upton (who actually didn't want to join) and Lilique Kadoka Lipati (whose instead of afraid for being challenged by Rene; happily accepted it) along. Miorine's adjourned the meeting telling them that she would think of a winning strategy. In addition, she asked them to find another pilot who could support them in the incoming team battle. In other places, Nika Nanaura told Shaddiq that she was disappointed with his decision to make that regulation yet he just bluntly told her that a go-between should mind their own business (he meant Nika) and he would try for the last time to change Miorine's decision. 

Summary after the episode is over...he is still pretty much homeless 

Suletta was searching for another support for the team and as she walked, she met with Guel who was currently staying in the park. At first she was quite terrified to met with him but after remembering that she need to find a support, she asked Guel's assistance to support their team. Unfortunately, Guel could not help her for the moment because his father forbade him to duel. Meanwhile, In Peil technology; Miorine asked Bel to give her some support unit for the upcoming team battle and Belmeria replied that currently Pharact was under maintenance. Therefore, she would lend Miorine four Zoworts units as Peil technology support to her. 

Its like I heard my chemical romance song in background..title: "I don't love you"

Shaddiq once more tried to reason with Miorine to transfer the company's right to his company. This time, Miorine had a different tone than usual. She said that his words didn't sit well with her. The fact that Miorine would remain as president only meant that she only stayed in the company as a symbol; the same thing that she hated the most from what the other man in the academy think about her. As Shaddiq tried to enter the room and give out his reasoning; Miorine shouted and  forbade him to get any closer. Miorine said right in front of him that she didn't trust him at all. Shaddiq left the place with a broken heart and as he walked away from the plantation, he met with Suletta who was about to go to there. He said to Suletta to talk with Miorine to change her mind as she was about to enter a losing battle. Instead of accepting his request, Suletta replied with a strong conviction that she believed one hundred percent on her bride's decision and prepared to do her best. Shaddiq could not take her reply well and he remarked that he would snatch both of the Aerial and Miorine away from her.

Suletta finally called Miorine as her bride xD

The duel days had finally come. Both team prepared for the team battle. In Earth house the representatives consisted of Suletta, Chuchu, Martin, Till, Lipati, Martin, and Ojelo. Meanwhile Shaddiq squad consisted of the five Grassley girls squad consisted of Sabina, Ireshaa, Renee, Maisie May, Henao Jazz, and the squad leader Shaddiq. The battle commencing and Miorine instantly asked Suletta to lead the charge as The Gundam was the main defensive as well as the offensive unit. Miorine even mentioned that if Suletta need to, she could use the other Mobile suits as sacrificial lion. 

Just Shadiq's team decapitating the enemies head

Chuchu positioned herself in the rear as her unit was a long range support; a marksman unit. To her surprise, Shaddiq already targeted her first to cripple the Earth house's support. In the lower area, the grassley team had managed to broke through Aerial defense line and went to the other support unit. They instantly decapitated Martin and Ojelo unit in one succession move. As Rene targeted Lipati, she said that the reason why she hate Lipati was because her 12th backup boyfriend had asked Lipati for a date and she rejected his offer. Till tried to help Lipati using his mobile suit but one of the other girl squad just pushed his mobile suit away and stabbed it head. Not long after, Renee also finished of Lipati's unit head. All of the pilots were not injured yet the four Zoworts mobile suits were all taken down leaving only Chu-chu and Suletta as the last two duelists from the Earth house.

"Everything according to Keikaku" smile.

Grassley squad barrage attack finally destroyed Chuchu's demi trainer legs and arms leaving only Suletta fighting for the Earth house. Shadiq and the other Grassley pilots were confident as Suletta could not fight much in a battle of Six against one. To add the trouble, the grassley pilots unleashed "antidote" a special shockwave (anti Gund Arm format) from each anti Gundam mobile suit that render the Gundam Aerial's bits stunned and dropped. As Aerial down to it's knee a beam rifle broke it's left arm and Suletta could only moved back and fought defensively trying to shot back with the remaining arm.

Aerial down to it knees

Suletta said sorry for Aerial for always making it's fight for her. For Aerial was not a machine but her family and she cared about it as her own sister. Suddenly as if the machine was alive, the operating system boot up. Suletta,who had a deep connection with the Gundam, knew that "she" understand about her feeling and "she would help her again. The red frame from Aerial turned blue and it was at that moment that Aerial was unleashing a blue stratosphere like barrier rendering the antidote useless.

Plot armor Phase 3 activated!

As if she was blessed with Aerial's spirit, Suletta talked with the machine that this time around they would fight for Miorine and Earth house together. The movement of Aerial changed a lot as it was now more agile than ever. As if possessed by demon, the Aerial could dodge many incoming beams and showed how scary it was when the pilot had operated the unit manually. Rene who was trying to attack it became the very first victim as the now fully functioned Gund arm bits blasted all of her mobile suit parts from many direction. Not enough with Renee, Aerial also shot Henao Jazz suits and pierced every parts (expect of the cockpit) using the Gund Arms bits. Even Sabina's ( the Grassley vice leader) mobile suit was broken completely after it tried to attack Aerial..leaving only three contenders from the Grassley house. After few tries, finally Shaddiq's managed to shot and broke Aerial's legs. As it dropped to the ground and could no longer moved, Shaddiq decided to finished the unit himself. Just as he was about to execute Aerial, Till signaled Chuchu to shot the riffle. It pierced through the left side of Shaddiq's Michaelis head and broke the antenna too. Unknown to him, the other Earth house mobile suits (technically Till and Lipati's suits) were holding Chuchu's demi trainer in a shooting position and wait for Till's signal to shoot.

The end game was quite unexpected

The Earth house won the battle. Unknown to Shaddiq, Miorine already made a strategy to turn Aerial into a bait. Shadiq big mistake was never making sure that each mobile suit's head was destroyed and Chuchu's demi trainer head was still intact. Should he had more confidence to let the other squad finish the job, he may had really won the duel. The Earth house celebrated the opening of the Gund Arms.inc and it made a big impact for the company as the Gundam name arose thank to it's being able to win against the three house's representative. The last scene showed Shaddiq said to Miorine that he would no longer disrupt the company. He said that the only regret he had was not competing for the holder title(when Guel was still the reigning holder) so he could be at the Miorine's side. As Shaddiq left the place; Miorine sighed and said that it was just a bit too late

Review

This was a very moving and worth watching episode. I was thinking that it would not enough for one episode to solve the duel between Earth house against Grassley squad yet they did it so gracefully. While the pacing was faster due to time limitation, the battle really worth every single minutes. In fact, i was in awe that they made it possible to make a battle this good with only a ten minutes time slot available.  The duel was better than even the other battles we've seen so far. After two long episodes without mobile suit action, the current episode really didn't disappoint the wait.

Suletta doesn't forget to mock the loser after battle

Shaddiq had known Miorine for quite some time and he did has a feeling for her. The problem is he didn't know Miorine enough about her being a big tsundere and when she said that she did not want to marry anyone from the company, he failed to see the disappointment in her tone. Instead of being straight forward, he tried to use the school regulations to "politely" got her in his arm (cue from the last episode when he offered her to merge their company). Miorine in reality hate that kind of manipulation and that was the time when she could no longer trust him anymore. 

Hero Yui: family? How cute:( here's a self destruct unit for ya xD

I was moved with this episode..the time when Aerial turned blue and the orchestral music played looks very beautiful and it raised my spirit watching it. The tense atmosphere could be felt as Aerial was being cornered and by the time it fought back, only excitement filled me. I thought before Suletta lost, Guel might save her or maybe even another "miracle" started within the Aerial.. And I was wrong as suddenly a beam from a far away finished Shaddiq's Michaelis head. I was shedding a tear seeing Suletta dancing in front of Shaddiq who still couldn't believe he had lost in his own game. I was taking quite some times writing for this episode because there was so much important things that happened in this one single episode and with great episode like this, I had even bigger expectations for the next episode.