Discussion History Manga / Bokurano

Spoiler-font after all, since this isn\\\'t \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' part of my argument against those fake \\\"translations\\\"...

[[spoiler:The chapter begins in a Matsushiro-based underground shelter, with a reunion of what\\\'s left of the Japanese government. We learn that the virus brought by Maria\\\'s enemy a couple of chapters before has already decimated North America, South America and Europe, and is thought to be quickly spreading in the Middle-East and Africa. Japan is still relatively \\\"lucky\\\" for now... despite having had its major cities nuked to oblivion (like the rest of the world) and being home to less than 10 million survivors. News come of Kanji\\\'s victory. It looks like nobody really cares anymore (after all, they were having that reunion \\\'\\\'during the fight\\\'\\\'). Tanaka is supposed to be the next pilot (they were a few pilots short, so Seki and she volunteered, like in the manga), but there\\\'s some talk of abandoning the Tumi-kor-ot fights (after all, they\\\'re destroying other worlds for the sake of their doomed one). Sasami thinks they shouldn\\\'t give up, if only for the sake of the kids who\\\'ve given their lives already.. but doesn\\\'t say anything. He\\\'s told Tanaka wishes to talk to him about an urgent matter.]]

[[spoiler:Maya and Koyemshi discuss the recent events in Zearth\\\'s cockpit. They\\\'re still one pilot short, and Maya thinks she will go with Ushiro (who, like in the manga, didn\\\'t touch the plate to begin with). She needs a \\\"broken\\\" pilot (after all, the last pilot will have to fight for a dead world). Her first choice was Moji, but it looks like she overdid it with him (ever since he killed Nagi, Moji has been wishing for Zearth to lose, so the universe would disappear along with all traces of his sin). We get first (tiny) signs of rebellion from Koyemshi, who was apparently following orders from Maya out of loyalty for \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' version of Maya she had under her care on her homeworld. Maya feels this, gets a bit irritated, and takes Koyemshi\\\'s ribbon (which Koyemshi apparently treasured). She can\\\'t wait for Tanaka to fight and die, \\\'\\\'like always\\\'\\\'.]]

[[spoiler:Tanaka reveals to Sasami the existence of a supplementary volume to the Hino Report: the D2 documents (her father died during the battle for the Naha base, and she found them among his personal effects). They were a plan to evacuate the whole of Japan in case the execution of the Hino Report went really, \\\'\\\'really\\\'\\\' wrong. She proposes to follow their instructions, but evacuate the whole world instead, using Zearth to send their survivors to the world where the next series of fights would take place. She explains how Maya is actually Tanaka Miku, another version of her own daughter. She may have lived for hundreds of years by acting as a Koyemshi most of the time, but right now, she\\\'s a regular human being, and she\\\'s here because the current Koyemshi brought her with \\\"him\\\" (the characters refer to Koyemshi as \\\"him\\\"... but the Koyemshi of the novels is actually a woman, as is revealed in the epilogue). So if they can get Koyemshi to agree with their plan, it should be feasible.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wakes up in his room inside Zearth (that\\\'s where Maya keeps him, just in case she has some use for him). Koyemshi is there, and Moji explains that he\\\'s been having the same dream as Kanji (the previous fight, see my summary above), a dream where he never killed Nagi, and everything was going well. He wonders why Maya helped Kanji win that fight and destroy that \\\"perfect world\\\". It all seems contradictory to him: do Maya and Koyemshi want their world to win the fights, or lose them, in the end? Koyemshi confirms his suspicions: they want their world to win the game, but also for every single of its inhabitants to die in the process. Koyemshi has already helped Maya do that six times. And she knows Maya has been going at it for far, \\\'\\\'far\\\'\\\' longer than that. But what is there for Maya to gain by doing that? Koyemshi explains that Maya thinks the game is designed with human beings in mind (it would be a bit long to explain, and I personally think Maya fails a bit at logic anyway... but I guess the 48-hour time-limit is a bit fishy indeed: \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' two Earth days? coincidence?). By winning while eliminating all of mankind, she\\\'s ruining the game. She hopes that \\\"God\\\" will take notice and eventually show itself to get rid of her. Moji thinks it\\\'s ludicrous: how does she even know \\\"God\\\" would care? Or exists in the first place, for that matter? He learns that Maya managed to manipulate him so well because she\\\'s dealt with other versions of him before... and that there are other worlds where he killed Nagi, so there never was any point in trying to erase his sin. As they talk, Moji begins to notice that even though Koyemshi is trying to defend Maya\\\'s plans, it looks like she doesn\\\'t quite believe in them herself...]]

[[spoiler:Maya is contemplating becoming a Koyemshi again for the next series of fights: the current one won\\\'t be reliable for much longer. Oh, she ponders all that while having sex with Ushiro, by the way. Is there a trope for interdimensional incest? It would seem it\\\'s not the first time a grief-striken Ushiro assaults her like that (meaning, it happened in other worlds). \\\"It was surprising the first time\\\", but by now, she\\\'s realized it\\\'s just as good a way as any to control him. This time, however, when she pretends to strangle him, he protests that Kanji made him promise to live. That\\\'s different. And Maya isn\\\'t pleased at all. But that\\\'s when Koyemshi appears and tells her Moji decided to become a pilot. Funny how things work out.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wanted to see Tsubasa and Nagi one last time before becoming a pilot, so he, Maya and Koyemshi stand in one of those rooms inside Zearth where dead bodies are preserved. After a few moments with his friends, he touches the plate. Maya then shakes his hand: \\\"we\\\'re officially partners in crime, now!\\\" ... No transparent glove, no coating or anything. We\\\'re good: Moji \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' a pilot, now. He notices an object in the room. Maya recognizes it as all that\\\'s left of her mother\\\'s plane (from her homeworld) and angrily stops him from touching it. Moji apologizes. As they leave, Maya briefly wonders: were those corpses really \\\'\\\'this\\\'\\\' Earth\\\'s Tsubasa and Nagi? It\\\'s hard to tell, after all, and she doesn\\\'t quite remember what they did with their bodies this time around... Ah, well: if Moji said they were \\\'\\\'there\\\'\\\', in Zearth, it must be true! Right? ... Right?]]

[[spoiler:A few days later, Sasami and Tanaka ask to speak with her. Concerned they might try to kill her, she warns them that if they take even one step toward her, Koyemshi will transport them away. We learn that Tanaka\\\'s family \\\"miraculously\\\" survived, and Maya explains that it wasn\\\'t a miracle at all, just Koyemshi acting on her orders. She asks Tanaka if she told her husband and daughter that she became a Zearth pilot. Tanaka shakes her head. Maya obviously resents her for that, and decides to give her an idea of what would become of her daughter by recounting her own past.]]

[[spoiler:This \\\"summary\\\" is long enough as is, so I\\\'ll skip some of it (there are lots of similarities with the manga anyway)... In her world, Tanaka sacrificed herself a bit like she did in the manga. She (Maya/Miku) had no idea what her mother was up to so, still in shock, she asked that world\\\'s version of Ushiro why she died. That world\\\'s Ushiro was pretty much like the Ushiro from the beginning of the manga, so, as you can imagine, his reply wasn\\\'t exactly the pinnacle of delicacy. Miku lost it and stabbed him with a pen. Ushiro died in atrocious pain moments later. For some reason that\\\'s not exactly clarified (that\\\'s a bit weak, really), after the second-to-last fight of their world, Miku left for the next world with the new Koyemshi. But when \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' new series of fight ended, she found out she had no place to come back to: her mother had been blamed for the whole thing, and her father had killed himself. So she became a Koyemshi. And she remained one instead of naming a successor once her tour of duty was over, as it\\\'s normally done. She was pretty good at her job, too: she was picking pilots her age, and that proved to be a winning strategy. She would get a bit creative, sometimes, by trying and picking her pilots so Tanaka wouldn\\\'t get involved and her double wouldn\\\'t lose her family... or by doing her best to punish her half-brother. But eventually, she came to blame whoever started that game in the first place. Hence her plan to fight \\\"God\\\" by ruining winning worlds.]]

[[spoiler:It seems Maya just can\\\'t stop talking and laughing, until Tanaka\\\'s chair appears in the cockpit. The ejection seat of a Type 88 fighter. But that only adds to her hilarity. Good old Tanaka. Always the same seat. But Tanaka takes a step toward her. And another one. And, to Maya\\\'s surprise, Koyemshi doesn\\\'t do anything. Eventually, Tanaka comes up to her, and hits her. Again. And again. Tanaka sermonizes \\\"her daughter\\\", and when Maya tries to argue back, she hears a voice in her head, calling her name. Uh-oh. That\\\'s when she realizes Moji\\\'s chair isn\\\'t appearing. What\\\'s going on? Moji and Koyemshi explain how they tricked her. The plate Moji touched? A fake. Just some plastic. In fact, Koyemshi had already used that fake plate for Seki and Tanaka (she was hoping Maya wouldn\\\'t destroy that world, if Tanaka didn\\\'t become a pilot... Maya had already spared two worlds she knows of for that reason). The real plate was hidden inside Maya\\\'s keepsake, that plane debris from her homeworld. As Maya yells at Koyemshi for taking it apart, Koyemshi tells her back (I paraphrase): \\\"Yes, I knew it was all you had left from your mother. And that ribbon you took from me and threw away? It was a gift from you, in my world. The only thing I had left from you. I bet you didn\\\'t know that.\\\" \\\'\\\'Burn\\\'\\\', Maya!]]

[[spoiler:The rest of the chapter is a lot less crucial, plot-wise, so I\\\'ll go a bit faster, if you don\\\'t mind... I mean, this \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' getting long. ^_^;]]

[[spoiler:Sasami explains Tanaka\\\'s plan to his superiors, and the fact Koyemshi agreed to help them. It\\\'s set in motion. But they still have one fight to win before anything can be done, and Maya is set to be the pilot (yes, that was \\\'\\\'her\\\'\\\' chair). When Tanaka comes to visit her, Maya expects to be killed so a proper pilot could take her place. But that\\\'s not what Tanaka had in mind. After a mother-to-daughter talk that I wouldn\\\'t dare to summarize here, Maya agrees to fight in exchange for Tanaka promising to take care of her daughter.]]

[[spoiler:With Ushiro at her side (at the time, he thinks she became a pilot because he refused), Maya prepares to engage the enemy robot... but realizes she can barely move Zearth. It would seem Zearth is only as powerful as the soul of the pilot is young. And her soul is hundreds of years old. Whoops. Even with the army\\\'s help, she merely manages to damage the enemy cockpit. The last remaining Type 88 fighter crashes into it to kill the enemy pilot. Do I need to tell you who was piloting that fighter? After all, she \\\'\\\'did\\\'\\\' promise she would protect her daughter...]]

Hopefully, I will have some scans of this chapter (text and illustrations) to show you soon enough...

Spoiler-font after all, since this isn\\\'t \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' part of my argument against those fake \\\"translations\\\"...

[[spoiler:The chapter begins in a Matsushiro-based underground shelter, with a reunion of what\\\'s left of the Japanese government. We learn that the virus brought by Maria\\\'s enemy a couple of chapters before has already decimated North America, South America and Europe, and is thought to be quickly spreading in the Middle-East and Africa. Japan is still relatively \\\"lucky\\\" for now... despite having had its major cities nuked to oblivion (like the rest of the world) and being home to less than 10 million survivors. News come of Kanji\\\'s victory. It looks like nobody really cares anymore (after all, they were having that reunion \\\'\\\'during the fight\\\'\\\'). Tanaka is supposed to be the next pilot (they were a few pilots short, so Seki and she volunteered, like in the manga), but there\\\'s some talk of abandoning the Tumi-kor-ot fights (after all, they\\\'re destroying other worlds for the sake of their doomed one). Sasami thinks they shouldn\\\'t give up, if only for the sake of the kids who\\\'ve given their lives already.. but doesn\\\'t say anything. He\\\'s told Tanaka wishes to talk to him about an urgent matter.]]

[[spoiler:Maya and Koyemshi discuss the recent events in Zearth\\\'s cockpit. They\\\'re still one pilot short, and Maya thinks she will go with Ushiro (who, like in the manga, didn\\\'t touch the plate to begin with). She needs a \\\"broken\\\" pilot (after all, the last pilot will have to fight for a dead world). Her first choice was Moji, but it looks like she overdid it with him (ever since he killed Nagi, Moji has been wishing for Zearth to lose, so the universe would disappear along with all traces of his sin). We get first (tiny) signs of rebellion from Koyemshi, who was apparently following orders from Maya out of loyalty for \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' version of Maya she had under her care on her homeworld. Maya feels this, gets a bit irritated, and takes Koyemshi\\\'s ribbon (which Koyemshi apparently treasured). She can\\\'t wait for Tanaka to fight and die, \\\'\\\'like always\\\'\\\'.]]

[[spoiler:Tanaka reveals to Sasami the existence of a supplementary volume to the Hino Report: the D2 documents (her father died during the battle for the Naha base, and she found them among his personal effects). They were a plan to evacuate the whole of Japan in case the execution of the Hino Report went really, \\\'\\\'really\\\'\\\' wrong. She proposes to follow their instructions, but evacuate the whole world instead, using Zearth to send their survivors to the world where the next series of fights would take place. She explains how Maya is actually Tanaka Miku, another version of her own daughter. She may have lived for hundred of years by acting as a Koyemshi most of the time, but right now, she\\\'s a regular human being, and she\\\'s here because the current Koyemshi brought her with \\\"him\\\" (the characters refer to Koyemshi as \\\"him\\\"... but the Koyemshi of the novels is actually a woman, as is revealed in the epilogue). So if they can get Koyemshi to agree with their plan, it should be feasible.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wakes up in his room inside Zearth (that\\\'s where Maya keeps him, just in case she has some use for him). Koyemshi is there, and Moji explains that he\\\'s been having the same dream as Kanji (the previous fight, see my summary above), a dream where he never killed Nagi, and everything was going well. He wonders why Maya helped Kanji win that fight and destroy that \\\"perfect world\\\". It all seems contradictory to him: do Maya and Koyemshi want their world to win the fights, or lose them, in the end? Koyemshi confirms his suspicions: they want their world to win the game, but also for every single of its inhabitants to die in the process. Koyemshi has already helped Maya do that six times. And she knows Maya has been going at it for far, \\\'\\\'far\\\'\\\' longer than that. But what is there for Maya to gain by doing that? Koyemshi explains that Maya thinks the game is designed with human beings in mind (it would be a bit long to explain, and I personally think Maya fails a bit at logic anyway... but I guess the 48-hour time-limit is a bit fishy indeed: \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' two Earth days? coincidence?). By winning while eliminating all of mankind, she\\\'s ruining the game. She hopes that \\\"God\\\" will take notice and eventually show itself to get rid of her. Moji thinks it\\\'s ludicrous: how does she even know \\\"God\\\" would care? Or exists in the first place, for that matter? He learns that Maya managed to manipulate him so well because she\\\'s dealt with other versions of him before... and that there are other worlds where he killed Nagi, so there never was any point in trying to erase his sin. As they talk, Moji begins to notice that even though Koyemshi is trying to defend Maya\\\'s plans, it looks like she doesn\\\'t quite believe in them herself...]]

[[spoiler:Maya is contemplating becoming a Koyemshi again for the next series of fights: the current one won\\\'t be reliable for much longer. Oh, she ponders all that while having sex with Ushiro, by the way. Is there a trope for interdimensional incest? It would seem it\\\'s not the first time a grief-striken Ushiro assaults her like that (meaning, it happened in other worlds). \\\"It was surprising the first time\\\", but by now, she\\\'s realized it\\\'s just as good a way as any to control him. This time, however, when she pretends to strangle him, he protests that Kanji made him promise to live. That\\\'s different. And Maya isn\\\'t pleased at all. But that\\\'s when Koyemshi appears and tells her Moji decided to become a pilot. Funny how things work out.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wanted to see Tsubasa and Nagi one last time before becoming a pilot, so he, Maya and Koyemshi stand in one of those rooms inside Zearth where dead bodies are preserved. After a few moments with his friends, he touches the plate. Maya then shakes his hand: \\\"we\\\'re officially partners in crime, now!\\\" ... No transparent glove, no coating or anything. We\\\'re good: Moji \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' a pilot, now. He notices an object in the room. Maya recognizes it as all that\\\'s left of her mother\\\'s plane (from her homeworld) and angrily stops him from touching it. Moji apologizes. As they leave, Maya briefly wonders: were those corpses really \\\'\\\'this\\\'\\\' Earth\\\'s Tsubasa and Nagi? It\\\'s hard to tell, after all, and she doesn\\\'t quite remember what they did with their bodies this time around... Ah, well: if Moji said they were \\\'\\\'there\\\'\\\', in Zearth, it must be true! Right? ... Right?]]

[[spoiler:A few days later, Sasami and Tanaka ask to speak with her. Concerned they might try to kill her, she warns them that if they take even one step toward her, Koyemshi will transport them away. We learn that Tanaka\\\'s family \\\"miraculously\\\" survived, and Maya explains that it wasn\\\'t a miracle at all, just Koyemshi acting on her orders. She asks Tanaka if she told her husband and daughter that she became a Zearth pilot. Tanaka shakes her head. Maya obviously resents her for that, and decides to give her an idea of what would become of her daughter by recounting her own past.]]

[[spoiler:This \\\"summary\\\" is long enough as is, so I\\\'ll skip some of it (there are lots of similarities with the manga anyway)... In her world, Tanaka sacrificed herself a bit like she did in the manga. She (Maya/Miku) had no idea what her mother was up to so, still in shock, she asked that world\\\'s version of Ushiro why she died. That world\\\'s Ushiro was pretty much like the Ushiro from the beginning of the manga, so, as you can imagine, his reply wasn\\\'t exactly the pinnacle of delicacy. Miku lost it and stabbed him with a pen. Ushiro died in atrocious pain moments later. For some reason that\\\'s not exactly clarified (that\\\'s a bit weak, really), after the second-to-last fight of their world, Miku left for the next world with the new Koyemshi. But when \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' new series of fight ended, she found out she had no place to come back to: her mother had been blamed for the whole thing, and her father had killed himself. So she became a Koyemshi. And she remained one instead of naming a successor once her tour of duty was over, as it\\\'s normally done. She was pretty good at her job, too: she was picking pilots her age, and that proved to be a winning strategy. She would get a bit creative, sometimes, by trying and picking her pilots so Tanaka wouldn\\\'t get involved and her double wouldn\\\'t lose her family... or by doing her best to punish her half-brother. But eventually, she came to blame whoever started that game in the first place. Hence her plan to fight \\\"God\\\" by ruining winning worlds.]]

[[spoiler:It seems Maya just can\\\'t stop talking and laughing, until Tanaka\\\'s chair appears in the cockpit. The ejection seat of a Type 88 fighter. But that only adds to her hilarity. Good old Tanaka. Always the same seat. But Tanaka takes a step toward her. And another one. And, to Maya\\\'s surprise, Koyemshi doesn\\\'t do anything. Eventually, Tanaka comes up to her, and hits her. Again. And again. Tanaka sermonizes \\\"her daughter\\\", and when Maya tries to argue back, she hears a voice in her head, calling her name. Uh-oh. That\\\'s when she realizes Moji\\\'s chair isn\\\'t appearing. What\\\'s going on? Moji and Koyemshi explain how they tricked her. The plate Moji touched? A fake. Just some plastic. In fact, Koyemshi had already used that fake plate for Seki and Tanaka (she was hoping Maya wouldn\\\'t destroy that world, if Tanaka didn\\\'t become a pilot... Maya had already spared two worlds she knows of for that reason). The real plate was hidden inside Maya\\\'s keepsake, that plane debris from her homeworld. As Maya yells at Koyemshi for taking it apart, Koyemshi tells her back (I paraphrase): \\\"Yes, I knew it was all you had left from your mother. And that ribbon you took from me and threw away? It was a gift from you, in my world. The only thing I had left from you. I bet you didn\\\'t know that.\\\" \\\'\\\'Burn\\\'\\\', Maya!]]

[[spoiler:The rest of the chapter is a lot less crucial, plot-wise, so I\\\'ll go a bit faster, if you don\\\'t mind... I mean, this \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' getting long. ^_^;]]

[[spoiler:Sasami explains Tanaka\\\'s plan to his superiors, and the fact Koyemshi agreed to help them. It\\\'s set in motion. But they still have one fight to win before anything can be done, and Maya is set to be the pilot (yes, that was \\\'\\\'her\\\'\\\' chair). When Tanaka comes to visit her, Maya expects to be killed so a proper pilot could take her place. But that\\\'s not what Tanaka had in mind. After a mother-to-daughter talk that I wouldn\\\'t dare to summarize here, Maya agrees to fight in exchange for Tanaka promising to take care of her daughter.]]

[[spoiler:With Ushiro at her side (at the time, he thinks she became a pilot because he refused), Maya prepares to engage the enemy robot... but realizes she can barely move Zearth. It would seem Zearth is only as powerful as the soul of the pilot is young. And her soul is hundreds of years old. Whoops. Even with the army\\\'s help, she merely manages to damage the enemy cockpit. The last remaining Type 88 fighter crashes into it to kill the enemy pilot. Do I need to tell you who was piloting that fighter? After all, she \\\'\\\'did\\\'\\\' promise she would protect her daughter...]]

Hopefully, I will have some scans of this chapter (text and illustrations) to show you soon enough...

Spoiler-font after all, since this isn\\\'t \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' part of my argument against those fake \\\"translations\\\"...

[[spoiler:The chapter begins in a Matsushiro-based underground shelter, with a reunion of what\\\'s left of the Japanese government. We learn that the virus brought by Maria\\\'s enemy a couple of chapters before has already decimated North America, South America and Europe, and is thought to be quickly spreading in the Middle-East and Africa. Japan is still relatively \\\"lucky\\\" for now... despite having had its major cities nuked to oblivion (like the rest of the world) and being home to less than 10 million survivors. News come of Kanji\\\'s victory. It looks like nobody really cares anymore (after all, they were having that reunion \\\'\\\'during the fight\\\'\\\'). Tanaka is supposed to be the next pilot (they were a few pilots short, so Seki and she volunteered, like in the manga), but there\\\'s some talk of abandoning the Tumi-kor-ot fights (after all, they\\\'re destroying other worlds for the sake of their doomed one). Sasami thinks they shouldn\\\'t give up, if only for the sake of the kids who\\\'ve given their lives already.. but doesn\\\'t say anything. He\\\'s told Tanaka wishes to talk to him about an urgent matter.]]

[[spoiler:Maya and Koyemshi discuss the recent events in Zearth\\\'s cockpit. They\\\'re still one pilot short, and Maya thinks she will go with Ushiro (who, like in the manga, didn\\\'t touch the plate to begin with). She needs a \\\"broken\\\" pilot (after all, the last pilot will have to fight for a dead world). Her first choice was Moji, but it looks like she overdid it with him (ever since he killed Nagi, Moji has been wishing for Zearth to lose, so the universe would disappear along with all traces of his sin). We get first (tiny) signs of rebellion from Koyemshi, who was apparently following orders from Maya out of loyalty for \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' version of Maya she had under her care on her homeworld. Maya feels this, gets a bit irritated, and takes Koyemshi\\\'s ribbon (which Koyemshi apparently treasured). She can\\\'t wait for Tanaka to fight and die, \\\'\\\'like always\\\'\\\'.]]

[[spoiler:Tanaka reveals to Sasami the existence of a supplementary volume to the Hino Report: the D2 documents (her father died during the battle for the Naha base, and she found them among his personal effects). They were a plan to evacuate the whole of Japan in case the execution of the Hino Report went really, \\\'\\\'really\\\'\\\' wrong. She proposes to follow their instructions, but evacuate the whole world instead, using Zearth to send their survivors to the world where the next series of fights would take place. She explains how Maya is actually Tanaka Miku, another version of her own daughter. She may have lived for hundred of years by acting as a Koyemshi most of the time, but right now, she\\\'s a regular human being, and she\\\'s here because the current Koyemshi brought her with \\\"him\\\" (the characters refer to Koyemshi as \\\"him\\\"... but the Koyemshi of the novels is actually a woman, as is revealed in the epilogue). So if they can get Koyemshi to agree with their plan, it should be feasible.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wakes up in his room inside Zearth (that\\\'s where Maya keeps him, just in case she has some use for him). Koyemshi is there, and Moji explains that he\\\'s been having the same dream as Kanji (the previous fight, see my summary above), a dream where he never killed Nagi, and everything was going well. He wonders why Maya helped Kanji win that fight and destroy that \\\"perfect world\\\". It all seems contradictory to him: do Maya and Koyemshi want their world to win the fights, or lose them, in the end? Koyemshi confirms his suspicions: they want their world to win the game, but also for every single of its inhabitants to die in the process. Koyemshi has already helped Maya do that six times. And she knows Maya has been going at it for far, \\\'\\\'far\\\'\\\' longer than that. But what is there for Maya to gain by doing that? Koyemshi explains that Maya thinks the game is designed with human beings in mind (it would be a bit long to explain, and I personally think Maya fails a bit at logic anyway... but I guess the 48-hour time-limit is a bit fishy indeed: \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' two Earth days? coincidence?). By winning while eliminating all of mankind, she\\\'s ruining the game. She hopes that \\\"God\\\" will take notice and eventually show itself to get rid of her. Moji thinks it\\\'s ludicrous: how does she even know \\\"God\\\" would care? Or exists in the first place, for that matter? He learns that Maya managed to manipulate him so well because she\\\'s dealt with other versions of him before... and that there are other worlds where he killed Nagi, so there never was any point in trying to erase his sin. As they talk, Moji begins to notice that even though Koyemshi is trying to defend Maya\\\'s plans, it looks like she doesn\\\'t quite believe in them herself...]]

[[spoiler:Maya is contemplating becoming a Koyemshi again for the next series of fights: the current one won\\\'t be reliable for much longer. Oh, she ponders all that while having sex with Ushiro, by the way. Is there a trope for interdimensional incest? It would seem it\\\'s not the first time a grief-striken Ushiro assaults her like that (meaning, it happened in other worlds). \\\"It was surprising the first time\\\", but by now, she\\\'s realized it\\\'s just as good a way as any to control him. This time, however, when she pretends to strangle him, he protests that Kanji made him promise to live. That\\\'s different. And Maya isn\\\'t pleased at all. But that\\\'s when Koyemshi appears and tells her Moji decided to become a pilot. Funny how things work out.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wanted to see Tsubasa and Nagi one last time before becoming a pilot, so he, Maya and Koyemshi stand in one of those rooms inside Zearth where dead bodies are preserved. After a few moments with his friends, he touches the plate. Maya then shakes his hand: \\\"we\\\'re officially partners in crime, now!\\\" ... No transparent glove, no coating or anything. We\\\'re good: Moji \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' a pilot, now. He notices an object in the room. Maya recognizes it as all that\\\'s left of her mother\\\'s plane (from her homeworld) and angrily stops him from touching it. Moji apologizes. As they leave, Maya briefly wonders: were those corpses really \\\'\\\'this\\\'\\\' Earth\\\'s Tsubasa and Nagi? It\\\'s hard to tell, after all, and she doesn\\\'t quite remember what they did with their bodies this time around... Ah, well: if Moji said they were \\\'\\\'there\\\'\\\', in Zearth, it must be true! Right? ... Right?]]

[[spoiler:A few days later, Sasami and Tanaka ask to speak with her. Concerned they might try to kill her, she warns them that if they take even one step toward her, Koyemshi will transport them away. We learn that Tanaka\\\'s family \\\"miraculously\\\" survived, and Maya explains that it wasn\\\'t a miracle at all, just Koyemshi acting on her orders. She asks Tanaka if she told her husband and daughter that she became a Zearth pilot. Tanaka shakes her head. Maya obviously resents her for that, and decides to give her an idea of what would become of her daughter by recounting her own past.]]

[[spoiler:This \\\"summary\\\" is long enough as is, so I\\\'ll skip some of it (there are lots of similarities with the manga anyway)... In her world, Tanaka sacrificed herself a bit like she did in the manga. She (Maya/Miku) had no idea what her mother was up to so, still in shock, she asked that world\\\'s version of Ushiro why she died. That world\\\'s Ushiro was pretty much like the Ushiro from the beginning of the manga, so, as you can imagine, his reply wasn\\\'t exactly the pinnacle of delicacy. Miku lost it and stabbed him with a pen. Ushiro died in atrocious pain moments later. For some reason that\\\'s not exactly clarified (that\\\'s a bit weak, really), after the second-to-last fight of their world, Miku left for the next world with the new Koyemshi. But when \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' new series of fight ended, she found out she had no place to come back to: her mother had been blamed for the whole thing, and her father had killed himself. So she became a Koyemshi. And she remained one instead of naming a successor once her tour of duty was over, as it\\\'s normally done. She was pretty good at her job, too: she was picking pilots her age, and that proved to be a winning strategy. She would get a bit creative, sometimes, by trying and picking her pilots so Tanaka wouldn\\\'t get involved and her double wouldn\\\'t lose her family... or by doing her best to punish her half-brother. But eventually, she came to blame whoever started that game in the first place. Hence her plan to fight \\\"God\\\" by ruining winning worlds.]]

[[spoiler:It seems Maya just can\\\'t stop talking and laughing, until Tanaka\\\'s chair appears in the cockpit. The ejection seat of a Type 88 fighter. But that only adds to her hilarity. Good old Tanaka. Always the same seat. But Tanaka takes a step toward her. And another one. And, to Maya\\\'s surprise, Koyemshi doesn\\\'t do anything. Eventually, Tanaka comes up to her, and hits her. Again. And again. Tanaka sermonizes \\\"her daughter\\\", and when Maya tries to argue back, she hears a voice in her head, calling her name. Uh-oh. That\\\'s when she realizes Moji\\\'s chair isn\\\'t appearing. What\\\'s going on? Moji and Koyemshi explain how they tricked her. The plate Moji touched? A fake. Just some plastic. In fact, Koyemshi had already used that fake plate for Seki and Tanaka (she was hoping Maya wouldn\\\'t destroy that world, if Tanaka didn\\\'t become a pilot... Maya had already spared two worlds she knows of for that reason). The real plate was hidden inside Maya\\\'s keepsake, that plane debris from her homeworld. As Maya yells at Koyemshi for taking it apart, Koyemshi tells her back (I paraphrase): \\\"Yes, I knew it was all you had left from your mother. And that ribbon you took from me and threw away? It was a gift from you, in my world. The only thing I had left from you. I bet you didn\\\'t know that.\\\" \\\'\\\'Burn\\\'\\\', Maya!]]

[[spoiler:The rest of the chapter is a lot less crucial, plot-wise, so I\\\'ll go a bit faster, if you don\\\'t mind... I mean, this \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' getting long. ^_^;]]

[[spoiler:Sasami explains Tanaka\\\'s plan to his superiors, and the fact Koyemshi agreed to help them. It\\\'s set in motion. But they still have one fight to win before anything can be done, and Maya is set to be the pilot (yes, that was \\\'\\\'her\\\'\\\' chair). When Tanaka comes to visit her, Maya expects to be killed so a proper pilot could take her place. But that\\\'s not what Tanaka had in mind. After a mother-to-daughter talk that I wouldn\\\'t dare to summarize here, Maya agrees to fight in exchange for Tanaka promising to take care of her daughter.]]

[[spoiler:With Ushiro at her side (at the time, he thinks she became a pilot because he refused), Maya prepares to engage the enemy robot... but realizes she can barely move Zearth. It would seem Zearth is only as powerful as the soul of the pilot is young. And her soul is hundreds of years old. Whoops. Even with the army\\\'s help, she merely manages to damage the enemy cockpit. The last remaining Type 88 fighter crashes into it to kill the enemy pilot. Do I need to tell you who was piloting that fighter? After all, she \\\'\\\'did\\\'\\\' promise she would protect her daughter...]]

Hopefully, I will have have some scans of this chapter (text and illustration) to show you soon enough...

Spoiler-font after all, since this isn\\\'t \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' part of my argument against those fake \\\"translations\\\"...

[[spoiler:The chapter begins in a Matsushiro-based underground shelter, with a reunion of what\\\'s left of the Japanese government. We learn that the virus brought by Maria\\\'s enemy a couple of chapters before has already decimated North America, South America and Europe, and is thought to be quickly spreading in the Middle-East and Africa. Japan is still relatively \\\"lucky\\\" for now... despite having had its major cities nuked to oblivion (like the rest of the world) and being home to less than 10 million survivors. News come of Kanji\\\'s victory. It looks like nobody really cares anymore (after all, they were having that reunion \\\'\\\'during the fight\\\'\\\'). Tanaka is supposed to be the next pilot (they were a few pilots short, so Seki and she volunteered, like in the manga), but there\\\'s some talk of abandoning the Tumi-kor-ot fights (after all, they\\\'re destroying other worlds for the sake of their doomed one). Sasami thinks they shouldn\\\'t give up, if only for the sake of the kids who\\\'ve given their lives already.. but doesn\\\'t say anything. He\\\'s told Tanaka wishes to talk to him about an urgent matter.]]

[[spoiler:Maya and Koyemshi discuss the recent events in Zearth\\\'s cockpit. They\\\'re still one pilot short, and Maya thinks she will go with Ushiro (who, like in the manga, didn\\\'t touch the plate to begin with). She needs a \\\"broken\\\" pilot (after all, the last pilot will have to fight for a dead world). Her first choice was Moji, but it looks like she overdid it with him (ever since he killed Nagi, Moji has been wishing for Zearth to lose, so the universe would disappear along with all traces of his sin). We get first (tiny) signs of rebellion from Koyemshi, who was apparently following orders from Maya out of loyalty for \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' version of Maya she had under her care on her homeworld. Maya feels this, gets a bit irritated, and takes Koyemshi\\\'s ribbon (which Koyemshi apparently treasured). She can\\\'t wait for Tanaka to fight and die, \\\'\\\'like always\\\'\\\'.]]

[[spoiler:Tanaka reveals to Sasami the existence of a supplementary volume to the Hino Report: the D2 documents (her father died during the battle for the Naha base, and she found them among his personal effects). They were a plan to evacuate the whole of Japan in case the execution of the Hino Report went really, \\\'\\\'really\\\'\\\' wrong. She proposes to follow their instructions, but evacuate the whole world instead, using Zearth to send their survivors to the world where the next series of fights would take place. She explains how Maya is actually Tanaka Miku, another version of her own daughter. She may have lived for hundred of years by acting as a Koyemshi most of the time, but right now, she\\\'s a regular human being, and she\\\'s here because the current Koyemshi brought her with \\\"him\\\" (the characters refer to Koyemshi as \\\"him\\\"... but the Koyemshi of the novels is actually a woman, as is revealed in the epilogue). So if they can get Koyemshi to agree with their plan, it should be feasible.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wakes up in his room inside Zearth (that\\\'s where Maya keeps him, just in case she has some use for him). Koyemshi is there, and Moji explains that he\\\'s been having the same dream as Kanji (the previous fight, see my summary above), a dream where he never killed Nagi, and everything was going well. He wonders why Maya helped Kanji win that fight and destroy that \\\"perfect world\\\". It all seems contradictory to him: do Maya and Koyemshi want their world to win the fights, or lose them, in the end? Koyemshi confirms his suspicions: they want their world to win the game, but also for every single of its inhabitants to die in the process. Koyemshi has already helped Maya do that six times. And she knows Maya has been going at it for far, \\\'\\\'far\\\'\\\' longer than that. But what is there for Maya to gain by doing that? Koyemshi explains that Maya thinks the game is designed with human beings in mind (it would be a bit long to explain, and I personally think Maya fails a bit at logic anyway... but I guess the 48-hour time-limit is a bit fishy indeed: \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' two Earth days? coincidence?). By winning while eliminating all of mankind, she\\\'s ruining the game. She hopes that \\\"God\\\" will take notice and eventually show itself to get rid of her. Moji thinks it\\\'s ludicrous: how does she even know \\\"God\\\" would care? Or exists in the first place, for that matter? He learns that Maya managed to manipulate him so well because she\\\'s dealt with other versions of him before... and that there are other worlds where he killed Nagi, so there never was any point in trying to erase his sin. As they talk, Moji begins to notice that even though Koyemshi is trying to defend Maya\\\'s plans, it looks like she doesn\\\'t quite believe in them herself...]]

[[spoiler:Maya is contemplating becoming a Koyemshi again for the next series of fights: the current one won\\\'t be reliable for much longer. Oh, she ponders all that while having sex with Ushiro, by the way. Is there a trope for interdimensional incest? It would seem it\\\'s not the first time a grief-striken Ushiro assaults her like that (meaning, it happened in other worlds). \\\"It was surprising the first time\\\", but by now, she\\\'s realized it\\\'s just as good a way as any to control him. This time, however, when she pretends to strangle him, he protests that Kanji made him promise to live. That\\\'s different. And Maya isn\\\'t pleased at all. But that\\\'s when Koyemshi appears and tells her Moji decided to become a pilot. Funny how things work out.]]

[[spoiler:Moji wanted to see Tsubasa and Nagi one last time before becoming a pilot, so he, Maya and Koyemshi stand in one of those rooms inside Zearth where dead bodies are preserved. After a few moments with his friends, he touches the plate. Maya then shakes his hand: \\\"we\\\'re officially partners in crime, now!\\\" ... No transparent glove, no coating or anything. We\\\'re good: Moji \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' a pilot, now. He notices an object in the room. Maya recognizes it as all that\\\'s left of her mother\\\'s plane (from her homeworld) and angrily stops him from touching it. Moji apologizes. As they leave, Maya briefly wonders: were those corpses really \\\'\\\'this\\\'\\\' Earth\\\'s Tsubasa and Nagi? It\\\'s hard to tell, after all, and she doesn\\\'t quite remember what they did with their bodies this time around... Ah, well: if Moji said they were \\\'\\\'there\\\'\\\', in Zearth, it must be true! Right? ... Right?]]

[[spoiler:A few days later, Sasami and Tanaka ask to speak with her. Concerned they might try to kill her, she warns them that if they take even one step toward her, Koyemshi will transport them away. We learn that Tanaka\\\'s family \\\"miraculously\\\" survived, and Maya explains that it wasn\\\'t a miracle at all, just Koyemshi acting on her orders. She asks Tanaka if she told her husband and daughter that she became a Zearth pilot. Tanaka shakes her head. Maya obviously resents her for that, and decides to give her an idea of what would become of her daughter by recounting her own past.]]

[[spoiler:This \\\"summary\\\" is long enough as is, so I\\\'ll skip some of it (there are lots of similarities with the manga anyway)... In her world, Tanaka sacrificed herself a bit like she did in the manga. She (Maya/Miku) had no idea what her mother was up to so, still in shock, she asked that world\\\'s version of Ushiro why she died. That world\\\'s Ushiro was pretty much like the Ushiro from the beginning of the manga, so, as you can imagine, his reply wasn\\\'t exactly the pinnacle of delicacy. Miku lost it and stabbed him with a pen. Ushiro died in atrocious pain moments later. For some reason that\\\'s not exactly clarified (that\\\'s a bit weak, really), after the second-to-last fight of their world, Miku left for the next world with the new Koyemshi. But when \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' new series of fight ended, she found out she had no place to come back to: her mother had been blamed for the whole thing, and her father had killed himself. So she became a Koyemshi. And she remained one instead of naming a successor once her tour of duty was over, as it\\\'s normally done. She was pretty good at her job, too: she was picking pilots her age, and that proved to be a winning strategy. She would get a bit creative, sometimes, by trying and picking her pilots so Tanaka wouldn\\\'t get involved and her double wouldn\\\'t lose her family... or by doing her best to punish her half-brother. But eventually, she came to blame whoever started that game in the first place. Hence her plan to fight \\\"God\\\" by ruining winning worlds.]]

[[spoiler:It seems Maya just can\\\'t stop talking and laughing, until Tanaka\\\'s chair appears in the cockpit. The ejection seat of a type 99 fighter. But that only adds to her hilarity. Good old Tanaka. Always the same seat. But Tanaka takes a step toward her. And another one. And, to Maya\\\'s surprise, Koyemshi doesn\\\'t do anything. Eventually, Tanaka comes up to her, and hits her. Again. And again. Tanaka sermonizes \\\"her daughter\\\", and when Maya tries to argue back, she hears a voice in her head, calling her name. Uh-oh. That\\\'s when she realizes Moji\\\'s chair isn\\\'t appearing. What\\\'s going on? Moji and Koyemshi explain how they tricked her. The plate Moji touched? A fake. Just some plastic. In fact, Koyemshi had already used that fake plate for Seki and Tanaka (she was hoping Maya wouldn\\\'t destroy that world, if Tanaka didn\\\'t become a pilot... Maya had already spared two worlds she knows of for that reason). The real plate was hidden inside Maya\\\'s keepsake, that plane debris from her homeworld. As Maya yells at Koyemshi for taking it apart, Koyemshi tells her back (I paraphrase): \\\"Yes, I knew it was all you had left from your mother. And that ribbon you took from me and threw away? It was a gift from you, in my world. The only thing I had left from you. I bet you didn\\\'t know that.\\\" \\\'\\\'Burn\\\'\\\', Maya!]]

[[spoiler:The rest of the chapter is a lot less crucial, plot-wise, so I\\\'ll go a bit faster, if you don\\\'t mind... I mean, this \\\'\\\'is\\\'\\\' getting long. ^_^;]]

[[spoiler:Sasami explains Tanaka\\\'s plan to his superiors, and the fact Koyemshi agreed to help them. It\\\'s set in motion. But they still have one fight to win before anything can be done, and Maya is set to be the pilot (yes, that was \\\'\\\'her\\\'\\\' chair). When Tanaka comes to visit her, Maya expects to be killed so a proper pilot could take her place. But that\\\'s not what Tanaka had in mind. After a mother-to-daughter talk that I wouldn\\\'t dare to summarize here, Maya agrees to fight in exchange for Tanaka promising to take care of her daughter.]]

[[spoiler:With Ushiro at her side (at the time, he thinks she became a pilot because he refused), Maya prepares to engage the enemy robot... but realizes she can barely move Zearth. It would seem Zearth is only as powerful as the soul of the pilot is young. And her soul is hundreds of years old. Whoops. Even with the army\\\'s help, she merely manages to damage the enemy cockpit. The last remaining Type 88 fighter crashes into it to kill the enemy pilot. Do I need to tell you who was piloting that fighter? After all, she \\\'\\\'did\\\'\\\' promise she would protect her daughter...]]

Hopefully, I will have have some scans of this chapter (text and illustration) to show you soon enough...

Spoiler-font after all, since this isn\\\'t \\\'\\\'exactly\\\'\\\' part of my argument against those fake \\\"translations\\\"...