History Recap / MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercuryEpisode9

Reduced to fighting six-on-one, Suletta and Aerial are backed into a corner focusing on defense, when Grassley deploys their anti-GUND-Format "Antidote" weapons, disabling her bits and most of Aerial's systems. Barely able to continue dodging, Aerial quickly begins to take heavy damage. Apologizing for relying on Aerial so much previously, Suletta resolves to fight on her own, leading to Aerial's GUND reawakening, glowing a bright blue, overriding the Antidote. With Aerial's bits functioning again, including a new interlinked barrier ability, Suletta easily eliminates three Grassley pilots. Just when it seems Shaddiq managed to isolate her despite this comeback, Chuchu shoots his antenna off from afar, her damaged Demi-Trainer supported by Till and Lilique's Zoworts, winning the duel. As Shaddiq stares stunned by his sudden defeat, Miorine contacts him, calling him out for his distrust of others. Suletta emerges from her damaged Gundam and performs the same dance she did in her company's video, with a solemnly amused Shaddiq watching on.

Reduced to fighting six-on-one, Suletta and Aerial are backed into a corner focusing on defense, when Grassley deploys their anti-GUND-Format "Antidote" weapons, disabling her bits and most of Aerial's systems. Barely able to continue dodging, Aerial quickly begins to take heavy damage. Apologizing for relying on Aerial so much previously, Suletta resolves to fight on her own, leading to Aerial's GUND reawakening, glowing a bright blue, overriding the Antidote. With Aerial's bits functioning again, including a new interlinked barrier ability, Suletta easily eliminates three Grassley pilots. Just when it seems Shaddiq managed to isolate her despite this comeback, Chuchu shoots his antenna off from afar, her damaged Demi-Trainer supported by Till and Lilique's Zoworts, winning the duel.

!!Summary
In a flashback, Guel earns his eighth victory as Holder, defending his title and engagement to Miorine. Discussing the battle, the girls of Grassley House wonder why Shaddiq hasn't challenged Guel himself, with Henao noting that he gets "timid as a hedgehog" around Miorine. At her greenhouse, Miorine vents about hating her situation after a failed escape attempt, while Shaddiq listens from outside. He tells her he's different from those fighting over her as a prize, and that he has no interest in challenging Guel for the title of Holder, which she seems thankful for, stating her intent to marry outside the Benerit Group.

In the present, Earth House commiserate over a vandalized GUND-ARM Inc. sign they made, while Miorine & Suletta meet with Shaddiq & Sabina. Shaddiq offers a deal whereby he becomes part-owner of GUND-ARM Inc., allowing Miorine and Earth House to continue operations as planned with Grassley's support to bypass the new regulations. After Miorine correctly deduces that the new rules were put in place by Shaddiq himself, she instead challenges him to a duel.

With Lauda serving as overseer, Miorine stakes having Shaddiq rescind his modified student start-up regulations, while he will have her sign his earlier offered business deal should he win. However, rather than just a one-on-one match between himself and Suletta, the duel will instead be six-versus-six, despite Earth House only having two dedicated pilots and mobile suits. Miorine agrees to the handicap on the condition that the match be livestreamed outside the school, to the entire Benerit Group, which Shaddiq agrees to; one of Shaddiq's Housemates, Renee, personally challenges Lilique, who had accompanied Miorine along with Martin.

At her greenhouse, Shaddiq tries to convince Miorine to back down and accept his deal without the duel. When she calls him out on treating her like an ornament the same as all the others, he tries to insist otherwise, only for her to snap at him to stay out. Taking his leave, he encounters Suletta, trying to get her to talk Miorine down instead. Suletta instead expresses her belief in supporting Miorine's decision, causing Shaddiq to harden, stating his intent to take both her and Aerial from her.

In the aftermath of the duel, Earth House holds a party to celebrate their victory and the incorporation of GUND-ARM, while Suletta begins cleaning and repairing Aerial, again apologizing to her. Shaddiq once more meets with Miorine outside her greenhouse, musing that perhaps things might have been different had he challenged Guel long ago, taking up the role of Holder to protect Miorine. After he leaves, Miorine simply comments that it's "too little, too late."

* WeAreTeamCannonFodder: Four of the Earthian pilots are practically non-combatants and they stand no chance of defeating the Grassley team without Suletta, with Miorine bluntly suggesting she use them as [[BulletproofHumanShield shields]]. Subverted in that despite all of their suits being disabled without defeating a single Grassley opponent, they improvise a way to land the winning shot.
* {{Woolseyism}}: An accidental one by Website/{{Crunchyroll}}. They mistakenly substituted the episode title with "More Than a Childhood Friend, But Less Than Lovers", which was actually the title for that day's episode of ''Manga/MoreThanAMarriedCoupleButNotLovers''. The title still perfectly fits the episode.

* MythologyGag: Lady Prospera sheds a SingleTear as the episode comes to an end, just like [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char mourning Lalah's death]]. However, Prospera's tear is one of joy, seeing that her masterpiece beat the "Antidote" deployed against the Gundam and it was mirrored from Char's.

* PowerNullifier: All six of the Grassley machines used in the duel possess the Antidote protocol, a system that generates a pulse which disables the Gundam's GUND-Format System. Suletta and Aerial suffer from the sudden deactivation of the machine's GUND-Format shutting down until the former resolves to fight with her own strength, causing Aerial to override the Antidote.

* MythologyGag: Lady Prospera, sheds a SingleTear as the episode comes to an end, just like [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char mourning Lalah's death]]. Prospera's tear is one of joy, seeing that her masterpiece beat the "Antidote" deployed against her.
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: After Earth House wins, Miorine tells Shaddiq that she figured that he would try to eliminate Suletta himself, calling him out on how he told her to trust him when she knows he doesn't trust anyone besides himself, which gave them their opening to defeat him and his team. The episode ends with Miorine musing any good intentions of Shaddiq's are too little, too late.

In a flashback, Guel earns his eighth victory as Holder, defending his title and engagement to Miorine. Discussing the battle, the girls of Grassley House wonder why Shaddiq hasn't challenged Guel himself, with Sabina noting that he gets "timid as a hedgehog" around Miorine. At her greenhouse, Miorine vents about hating her situation after a failed escape attempt, while Shaddiq listens from outside. He tells her he's different from those fighting over her as a prize, and that he has no interest in challenging Guel for the title of Holder, which she seems thankful for, stating her intent to marry outside the Benerit Group.

The day of the duel, Earth House launches with Till, Martin and Ojelo accompanying Suletta, Chuchu and Lilique; while unable to send them the Pharact due to it still being under maintenance, Belmeria was able to provide them with four Peil Zoworts. When the battle begins, Shaddiq immediately intercepts Chuchu to prevent her from providing long-range support, while his team quickly dispatches the non-pilots of Earth House with minimal effort.

In a flashback, Guel earns his eighth victory as Holder, defending his title and engagement to Miorine. At her greenhouse, Miorine vents about hating her situation after a failed escape attempt, while Shaddiq listens from outside. He tells her he's different from those fighting over her as a prize, and that he has no interest in challenging Guel for the title, which she seems thankful for, stating her intent to marry outside the Benerit Group.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: During Miorine and Shaddiq's scene at the greenhouse prior to the duel, there show a shot of Miorine's tomatoes with five of them lumped together while two other isolated tomatoes are at the side. Said formation matches the positioning that Suletta, the Earth House and Shaddiq were in at the end of the duel later on in the episode, with the two isolated tomatoes being Suletta and Shaddiq and the five lumped tomatoes being Chuchu with support from the other Earth House students.