The girl Emi bumped into says, in German (sparking a reaction from Emi), that she thought they would meet, but didn't think it would happen so soon. The girl, whose name is Sheska, is cut off as Erika pinches her cheek, and tells her not to start trouble. It seems that even Erika has limits on how much she's willing to antagonize her opponents.
Maho then arrives, and Emi, after a moment, recognizes her. and apologizes to her, saying that she now realizes that Maho is "a lonely but kind person." Maho simply smiles and says "that's all in the past now." Erika asks if Miho's an acquaintance, but Maho corrects her and says Erika's the captain now, evidently implying that Maho ceded the position to Erika despite still being at the school.
Maho then turns back to Emi, having heard that she returned from Germany, and asks if she's here for the tournament. Emi says yes, so that she can fulfill the promise she made to Miho and do tankery with her. Maho smiles approvingly, but warns Emi that Miho, or rather, Oarai as a whole, is strong, a touching show of respect for her sister and her school.
Sheska, however, points out that Bellwall has more immediate concerns, since they face Oarai in the third round, and Black Forest in the second, and Emi immediately understands the implications; not unlike the Achiga team in Saki Achiga-hen, they must face the national champions before their old friends. Erika pinches Sheska for her arrogance, but smugly says Black Forest will be the school that will fight Oarai.
It's interesting seeing that Erika is leader of Black Forest this time. I wonder if it's to continue the trend of the leaders of the enemy teams being jerks, whether it's meant to change Black Forest's tactics, or whether replacing Maho with the arrogant but decidedly less competent Erika is meant to reduce how much of a threat Black Forest poses to Bellwall.
Emi gives a brief speech to her team the night before the first match, starting off with a modest "Let's do our best" speech, and then saying that it's not what she intends to say, and that they'll definitely win.
A panel later, that confidence is proven well-founded when they beat Gilbert in the next panel, and Anzio's leadership, watching the battle, feels as though it's quite familiar. Meanwhile, Gilbert's commander is furious, having been confident that she'd shaken up her enemies, but the two rivals for her successor note that they're used to her tactics.
The reference to the Anzio match was amusing, but at the same time, skipping over the match with Gilbert the same way felt like a wasted opportunity, especially as far as Gilbert's commander went. Providing her backstory would have been an interesting look at Bellwall's backstory, and a possible chance to reveal actual reasons for her transfer apart from mere opportunism and disgust for her schoolmates, so it's unfortunate that she remained a one-note antagonistic rival to Bellwall.
- Next Installment: Emi's past catches up with her, and she's confronted with consequences of her actions that she never even imagined.
