Steeplechase IV is the eighth episode of the third season of the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei anime and the final episode for the Steeplechase Arc of the Anime.
Summary[]
The women's Steeple Chase Cross Country division has finally begun. Tatsuya instructs Pixie to detect the location of all the Parasite Dolls, and intends to neutralize them all before they come into contact with the players. However, the activation speed of Parasite Doll's magic is at a speed that exceeds Tatsuya's imagination. Although it was difficult, he managed to seal the first Parasite Doll and Tatsuya seals away the remaining dolls one after another, but he is now facing the most powerful of the dolls, the Prime Four.[2]
Plot[]
August 15, 2096. Day 11 of the Competition. The Women's Steeplechase Event is about to begin where First High School is represented by Shiba Miyuki, Chiyoda Kanon, Satomi Subaru and Chikura Tomoko. Meanwhile at the van prepared by Fujibayashi Kyouko, Tatsuya is preparing for battle while Pixie assisting him in putting on the MOVAL Suit.
The Steeplechase Event begins and Pixie provides the location of the Parasite Dolls that Tatsuya estimates that the dolls will come into contact with participants in 10 minutes and he needs to eliminate the rest of them in 20 minutes.
At the National Defense Force Headquarters Branch Building, Sakai is notified that an unknown magician has infiltrated the premises and upon seeing the MOVAL Suit, he deduces that it is developed by Saeki Hiromi's team and orders to send word to Kudou Makoto's technicians to target intruder but not to kill him.
Tatsuya reaches the location of the first doll and tries to ambush her but the doll immediately reacts with a high speed Telekinesis that Tatsuya identifies due to its primitive Magic Sequence and adjusts his Trident-Silver Horn to use Gram Dispersion then uses it to nullify the Self-Acceleration sequence forming on the dolls' legs which falters the doll uncharacteristically. Seeing this opening, Tatsuya lands his first on the doll's chest and neutralizes the dolls Psion Armor protecting the Paranormal Parasite inside and uses Regrowth to replicate the Loyalty Programming Spell now exposed with out the Psion Armor and causing the doll to jump back and attacks once again. After parrying the dolls attack with his arm, Tatsuya uses Far Strike at the doll's electronic brain to sever the connection of the parasite from the doll but will allow the parasite to escape the doll. To prevent the parasite from being freed, Tatsuya once again used Regrowth to reapply the Loyalty Programming and causing the parasite to go into hibernation inside the doll while the doll without the parasite to control it now lies motionless. Seeing that his method has worked based from he overheard from what Kokonoe Yakumo said last night, Tatsuya asks Pixie the location of the next nearest doll and Pixie tells him that 3 dolls are approaching.
Seeing how the first doll is defeated, Sakai and everyone monitoring it are in disbelief as they watch Tatsuya battle another set of dolls who Tatsuya neutralizes with the same method he devised but is struck by another from behind. Tatsuya quickly recovers and attacks the assailant from behind, causing the Sakai's men to be shocked and questions if Tatsuya is really a human. One of the onlookers utters "Mahesvara" after Sakai looks his way, causing him to explain that Mahesvara is the name given to Tatsuya by the Great Asian Union soldiers during the Okinawa Defense Naval Battle and the Scorched Halloween that is most likely having close ties with Major Kazama Harunobu that causes Sakai to question why he showed up in this high school competition.
Meanwhile, the First High School team are progressing through the course while dodging traps until they see an incapacitated doll. Miyuki is aware that this is his brother's doing while Subaru speculates that the dolls were not retrieved from a previous test while Chiyoda believes its a distraction to slow them down and urges everyone to keep moving.
Tatsuya realizes he is already pass the 10 minute limit he calculated but continues battling the 4 dolls that he systematically attacks them and using Regrowth to recover and making the number of dolls he defeated to 12. Pixie then informs Tatsuya that the remaining four are on the way.
Although four of the dolls remain, Sakai has recovered from the shock but is confident that the last four are the maximum spec units that are referred to as the "Prime Four".
After neutralizing the ambush from a dirt cannonball and Pressure Slash, the Prime Four engages where Tatsuya mentions that the dual knife wielding doll's speed is on par with Chiba Erika's Self-Acceleration. Tatsuya neutralized the Self-Acceleration knife wielding doll and tries to finish her off but another doll used a repulsion barrier to protect her while the other 2 dolls repositions to attack from Tatsuya's left and right flanks and the knife wielding doll attacks at the front of Tatsuya.
Tatsuya attacks the doll that launched Pressure Slash by slashing her knife but the knife wielding doll blocks the way and the barrier making doll follows up to protect her. Noting the superior team work of the Prime Four, Tatsuya parries the attack from the knife wielding doll until Pixie alerts him of an incoming dirt cannonball aimed at his head from his right and he dodges. Pixie tells him of a Pressure Slash from his left which dodges and parries a frontal attack from the knife wielding doll. Pixie then confirms to Tatsuya that she can her the conversations of the Primal Four and they are constantly exchanging thoughts while on the move. Thus, Tatsuya tells Pixie to relay their conversations and Tatsuya is now able to dodge accordingly while Sakai and his men watches the Prime Four missing their marks.
Tatsuya dodges another set of attacks from the knife wielding doll and Pressure Slash doll then charges directly at the dirt cannonball shooting doll who is about to fire and nullifies 2 layers of Repulsion Barrier and neutralizes the dirt cannonball then finally lands his palm at the back of the dirt cannonball doll, causing the parasite to be sealed and Sakai to be in disbelief of what happened.
Pixie continues relaying the attack of the Pressure Slash that Tatsuya neutralizes then goes straight for the knife wielding doll and immediately nullifies the Repulsion Barrier blocking his way and using Mist Dispersion on the knife wielding doll's weapons. Tatsuya immediately switches target to the Repulsion Barrier doll and after nullifying the barrier, Tatsuya lands his palm on the Repulsion Barrier doll's chest and incapacitating her.
Pixie relays the 3 attacks from the Pressure Slash doll from behind that Tatsuya neutralizes then uses Flying Magic to dodge a chop from the back by the now disarmed knife wielding doll lands his palm on the Pressure Slash doll from above. The remaining doll attacks Tatsuya upon landing but Tatsuya dodges and counterattacks with a punch to the doll's chest and defeats the last of the Prime Four. Pixie congratulates Tatsuya's victory who responds he owes Pixie and mentions that the clean up will be done by someone else.
The First High School Team sees the finish line which causes Kanon, Subaru and Tomoko to sprint ahead while Miyuki follows suit. However, Kanon triggers a laser trip wire causing her to be hit with paint pellets from automatic turrets. Then Subaru who used Leap was hit in mid air by a canister that contains a net that snares her and is suspended overhead. While Tomoko falls to a pit trap but is not injured. Seeing this happen, Miyuki apologizes and rans ahead causing the rest to respond she is heartless. A short run later, Miyuki crosses the finish line and is declared first place winner of the Women's Steeplechase Event.
Sakai and his men are leaving the building and plans to retrieve the dolls that was defeated. But before they can enter their vehicle, they are struck by a magic and Kuroba Mitsugu shows himself and bows with a smile and invites Sakai and his men into the world of dreams. As Mitsugu finishes his speech, Sakai and his men's consciousness slips into darkness.
At the Kudou Main House, Kudou Retsu is having a private dinner with the former heads of the Kuki, Kuzumi and the rest of the rest of his followers in the Magicians of the "9" in celebration despite the Parasite Dolls experiment disappointing outcome but it made Mahesvara struggle in battle against them and it should be enough for them to consider using the dolls for the military which is given a round of applause. But Kazama and Saeki barges in on the party, causing Retsu to rebuke them for their uninvited visit. Kazama plays a recording of Sakai's confession on being part of the doll experiment, causing Retsu to lament that Sakai being captured. But Saeki tells him that it was the Yotsuba who captured Sakai and also provided the audio recording with the condition that it never be made public. After giving details of the arrangement she made with Yotsuba Maya, Saeki tells Retsu that the National Defense Force no longer intends to force magicians to serve as weapons, including his grandson Kudou Minoru.
At the Nine Schools Competitions Grounds, the party is held to signal the end of the Nine School Competitions the participants of First High School are seen celebrating as well as Kuroba Ayako and Kuroba Fumiya are praised by their Fourth High School peers as Tatsuya and Miyuki looks on.
August 16, 2096. At Chinatown in Yokohama, Mitsugu is on communication that their target is spotted but is attacked by a dog. One of his subordinates mentions that Tatsuya has been sent by Maya but Mitsugu intends to capture Zhou Gongjin before he arrives and heads out despite being advised to wait for Tatsuya and Fumiya.
Mitsugu corners Zhou Gongjin who feels honored that the head of the Kuroba is here to personally capture someone as lowly as him. But Mitsugu lists Zhou Gonjin's involvement with Blanche, No Head Dragon, assisting in the infiltration of Chen Xiangshan, Lu Ganghu and his operatives and smuggling the parasites to Japan. But before Mitsugu can capture Zhou Gongjin, he activates a talisman and chants "Xiao Tian Quan" (Barking Celestial Hound) and a Zhou Gongjin#Shadow Beast in the form of a dog attacks and bites off Mitsugu's right arm and makes his escape with Ghost Walker.
Fumiya and Tatsuya arrives just as Zhou Gongjin escapes and upon seeing Mitsugu in pain he calls Tatsuya's name who nods draws his Trident-Silver Horn. Mitsugu refuses to be in debt to Tatsuya but uses Regrowth to restore his right arm anyway since leaving him like this will make Fumiya and Ayako sad. Tatsuya questions what caused this severe injury to which Mitsugu repeats Zhou Gongjin's chant but does not believe that is the name. Tatsuya concludes its a compound magic and foresees that Zhou Gongjin is a troublesome opponent.
Locations[]
- Tokyo
- Nine Schools Competition Grounds
- National Defense Force Headquarters Branch Building
- Nara
- Yokohama
- Chinatown
Differences from the Light Novel[]
- The event where a Third High School is caught in a trap at the start of the Steeplechase event has been cut
- Pixie supports Tatsuya alone at the van while in the Light Novel, Sakurai Minami at the orders of Miyuki is together with Pixie.
- The event where Kudou's private militia has surrounded the van that Pixie and Minami is in has been cut
- The event where Kuroba Fumiya uses Direct Pain to incapacitate the said militia that are surrounding Pixie and Minami has been cut
- The event where Tatsuya returns to the van to return the MOVAL Suit and causing both the van and suit to self destruct has been cut
Trailer[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
TBA
References[]
- ↑ Information from the ending credits of the episode.
- ↑ https://mahouka.jp/3rd/story/?id=08