Category 7: The End of the World

Kazane goes over the plan to stop Leopard, assigning Akiha and Honoka to the job of attacking the brain, with the help of the Existence. Kagura asks to be allowed to deal with Nami, because she sees much of herself in Nami. Kagura confronts Nami, and tries to talk Nami out of fighting, but fails and is forced to defeat Nami. As everyone helps with the attack on Leopard, Akiha, Honoka, and the Existence break into Leopard itself as Sakura and the Shishido elders prepare to disable Leopard's power supply and QT-Roses, but Leopard moves and prepares to fire the cannon. He also creates a hyperspace rupture that prevents Akiha from reaching his core.

Xanthippe reveals that Nerval was the one who actually destroyed the missile that everyone thought Imo-chan had rammed, and that he transported Imo-chan to him. Akiha is determined to rescue Imo-chan, but Kazane stops her. Leopard exults over his competition, and begins a conversion with Dark Leopard, his alter ego.

Akiha is rescued by Itsuki, but the student council ship is pursued by Nervalists and forced to take shelter in Kirkwood. The UURE, which has taken over the moon, is planning another attack. However, their plan is interrupted by Nerval, who appears and freezes the whole moon. On Earth, Honoka gets Fon to come with her by hitting him with a bowling pin and kidnapping him. Akiha can't come to grips with Imo-chan being gone, but she, Itsuki and the student council find a box human factory and meet up with one of the Shishido elders.

Aboard Xanthippe, Akiha wakes up inside her box, with Imo-chan still trying to get her out and Leopard still searching for her. After Akiha's friends return from an unsuccessful search, they decide that Akiha must be in Kirkwood. However, Honoka collapses soon after, and reveals that her lifespan is nearly over. In the meantime, Kazane talks with Leopard, discussing how they can find Leopard's last three parts. When Benkei shows up to challenge Leopard again, Kazane successfully negotiates with Tsutsuji for the pair to retrieve the Proxima Crown for Leopard.

Seeing Leopard, Nami is stunned, and when Akiha races towards her, Nami commands the Nervalist forces to retreat. Seeing his chance, Benkei separates from Leopard, and steals two of Leopard's mirrors before escaping. Akiha, Honoka, and Itsuki meet with Elle and Emilio, who decide to transfer as many people as possible to Leopard's colony. Due to the Existence attack, Leopard is still unable to connect to his colony, so Akiha tries to cheer him up, but fails. With pressure from Elle and advice from Itsuki, they hold a party to cheer Leopard up. After the party, Leopard and Akiha share a private moment looking up at the Earth and the Moon, and have a heart-to-heart talk. Akiha shows Leopard that everyone is encouraging him, and Leopard is able to connect to his colony again just as Xanthippe attacks. He successfully fights her off with the Leopard cannon, but in the aftermath, Akiha is kidnapped by Aleida.

As the Nervalist siege on Kirkwood continues, the Surre Academy students do what they can to cope. Emilio leads the Student Council through smuggling themselves out of the school -- and right into a confrontation with a Nervalist automaton that promptly gives chase with several of its brethern. The ICP facilitating the evacuation only to find themselves the vendetta of the Remote Attackers obfuscates Nerval having a housekeeping conference with his subordinates while in an anthropoid form prior to Xanthippe's arrival with Nami and Aleida. While the missing-in-action Kazane is shown safe and sound on the Moon with Morihime listening in on the aftermath of Nerval's political maneuvering, Nami meeting Nerval for the first time turns out to be quite an adventure. While Nami and Nerval reconcile their expectations of each other to reality, Akiha recovers herself and is shocked to find that her reckless attempt to chase Nami has gotten her thrown into orbit around Jupiter much to her shock. UL's tabulation of an estimated travel time back to Kirkwood of five years and the oxygen supply lasting ten years gives way to a triangular argument that is only disrupted by Tsutsuji and Benkei's hijacking attempt along with Sakura discovering both the Leopard and Benkei Colonies intact. After Leopard is installed back in his colony body, Honoka and Itsuki seclude themselves to sort out their feelings while Leopard angers Akiha with the misogynist accusation of inevitable treachery »inherent« to the Shishido family -- right until the advent of a mysterious electrical storm within the colony . . .

After Akiha and Itsuki pull her away from him, Friedrich refutes Honoka's imputes of cowardice before offering his hospitality but not the sought-after technique for returning to space Leopard and the girls are searching for. Tsutsuji's conclusion that Nerval is not coming to the rescue along with her subsequent decision to wield the indigenous tribe in a raid to capture Sakura's ship obfuscates the difficult time Kirkwood is having while Aleida continues her efforts to pollute Nami's computations so that she becomes the Nervalist "girl who leaps through space" of her own volition. Nina approaching Bougainvillea and Mintao who are moved to tears that she actually treats them like human beings while inviting them to join the Mysteries Division obfuscates Itsuki (who suspects that Friedrich knows more than he says) having it explained that the Pied Piper (the mysterious structure that appears to hypnotize people) is actually an orbital elevator for gathering people to become Nerval's colonists and have it demonstrated that the QT rose's primary purpose is as a defensive counter-measure. The Pied Piper successfully repulsed, Friedrich explains that he unplugged several components from Leopard for fear that he would betray humanity, the same components that Akiha and Honoka have been out and about retrieving. Akiha barely has a chance to ask the significance of the "girl who leaps through spacee" before Tsutsuji and Benkei make their move to hijack Sakura's ship only to learn that the Pied Piper orbital elevator more than meets their needs in this regard right as Nami is flown off to be empowered as a "girl who leaps through space".

Everybody watches spellbound with her own perspective as Benkei brags about his current corporeal form and greets Leopard whose inability to recall their collaborative history prompts Benkei to ram Leopard. While Akiha and Imoko recover themselves, Takane and Honoka rush out to infiltrate Benkei whose argument with Leopard is an equal mix of Benkei's mirror theft attempts being repelled and rapier ripostes between both brain colonies. Tsutsuji's declaration of war against fate (aka Akiha herself) gives way to Itsuki joining the battle with Kazane's approval. Benkei encasing Leopard in an airtight matrix escalates matters to require the Leopard Cannon as well as the Absolute Break Through Control, both of which Benkei perverts to his advantage and Kirkwood's detriment. It seems that Tsutsuji initiating an energy signal that overrides autonomous human volition is part of Nerval's revenge from the St. Artemis battle, stalemating/subjugating Leopard, conquering the Shishido family, and arrogating Kirkwood. Furious at being wielded in Nerval's plans, Leopard recovers himself to push Benkei into a decaying orbit above Earth before ejecting himself. Takane, now a Nervalist vassal, wields her QT-ARMS to inhibit Akiha's collaborative efforts with Honoka and Itsuki to arrest Leopard's kamikaze plummet with Benkei.

The revelation that Nina is reinstating Itsuki back to active ICP duty gives way to the discovery of a box with a girl inside that later shows up at Akiha's school that offers data about Enigma for asylum. Akiha computing her next move obfuscates Leopard's bewildered disdain at an upgrade Sakura built that earns him a stern reprimand from Kazane who adds her displeasure at Akiha being wielded as his servant along with Honoka who apparently has a profound prologue with the Shishido family Senate. Akiha is conscripted into an exciting adventure at school when the box is mistaken for trash that ends with a timely gunshot from Itsuki and Emilio's intercession. Honoka explains that the box houses a renegade Nervalist that has had her human individuality sealed away as the group returns to Akiha's house for a sleepover as they await Kazane's return. Unfortunately, Aleida attacks the Shishido family in a bid to retrieve the box and succeeds with her retrieval mission in spite of Kazane and Takane's combined intercession.

As Akiha scrambles to interpret the colossal and momentous stewardship she has been charged, Honoka declares her visceral objection but relents after she realizes that the Shishido family is not the adversary Nerval is before leading everybody to Leopard. As Sakura has demonstrated for her, Leopard is not thrilled with having company disrupt his computation of Nerval and Xanthippe's next move and the necessary countermeasures thereof -- especially if that company wishes to add a woman's touch like Kazane and Takane. While bathing in the hot spring, Kazane explaining the prologue of the Shishido family and the brain colonies like Leopard gives way to a Crocodilas leaping onto the scene to steal the Golden Orb's cooling system and the research adventure in the library defined by a knight that is none too thrilled to have visitors. Itsuki inhibits the knight long enough to discern its volition and define the group as its allies; after a protracted messy search, the requisite map is in hand and the chase continues. It seems that the Crocodilas took the cooling system to avail as a plaything for its child relatives; while a gentle explanation is enough to retrieve the stolen cooling system, it does not keep Bougainvillea and Mintao from getting read the riot act for their damaged QT-Arms and their unsuccessful capture of Itsuki.

While Leopard amuses himself by conducting a radio show, Kazane is concerned that Takane's reports have stopped flowing and orders that things be played by ear while Honoka shows Akiha and Itsuki the St. Artemis criminal corrections facility on the Moon where a part for Leopard is kept inside a perimeter of alarms before leading the way into the facility where she promptly loses her way. UL quickly locates the group's destination but accidentally instigates a prison riot that brings Bougainvillea and Mintao into the mix. While Akiha tries to swim out of the stampeding prisoners, Itsuki and Honoka encounter Sakura's personal bodyguard that wishes to befriend the pair; a brief but fierce battle gives way to an encounter with the charming and affectionate Sakura. Akiha rejoins the group in time for a video feed depicting Takane as Aleida's prisoner and rushes off to the rescue with Honoka and Itsuki right on her heels. Aleida stalemating Honoka gives way to Leopard's sudden arrival -- and Nerval's awakening from a protracted estivation that has amplified a fierce long-standing vendetta.

Amid the effulgent camera flashbulbs galvanized by the fanatical and frenzied volition for the ideal photograph, Akiha has her reservations about the mission objective which Honoka promptly replies with a "Not another word about the ICP!" telekinetic sweep that knocks Akiha on her bottom unaware that she is what Bougainvillea and Mintao are having a briefing complete with an injunction about the Shishido family. While Itsuki is cautioned about Bougainvillea and Mintao, Leopard's web-surfing on her computer incenses Akiha enough to confront the AI and declare her autonomy only to have the mission objective reaffirmed, acquiring the Positron Matrix, before being sent on her way with Imoko. Meanwhile, Itsuki is summoned when a psychotic Nervalist iconoclast decides to wreak havoc only to find that she cannot even defend herself, never mind attacking him. Several members of the Student Council combining efforts with Honoka to stalemate and eventually neutralize the assailant sets the stage for a sequence that explains the common prologue both Honoka and Itsuki share with the Nervalists and the X-QT race, the latter having a near-complete computation crash as she tries to interpret all she has experienced while the ICP deals with the aftermath. Leopard reads Akiha finding the Positron Matrix right when Itsuki arrests her as the perfect opportunity to humble Akiha's recalcitrance by phasing away parts of her Q-TECTOR. Unfortunately, since Itsuki is in the same boat, that forces an armistice as Akiha and Itsuki collaborate to evacuate with some of their dignity and modesty unaware that Honoka has already successfully acquired the mission objective.

The hullabaloo from Leopard's antics from the previous episode obfuscates Itsuki's computations of her prologue prior to being recalled by her supervisor along with Akiha having a dream after her classmate Julio rescues her from floating in space. Nami teases Akiha before running into Kazane who (after ordering Nami to her room) offers her apologies for the adverse side effects of her actions. It seems that the Student Council president wants to confront Akiha for her earlier adventure in the escape pod, a volition with which Honoka violently disagrees as she introduces herself in earnest. While Itsuki and Nina compute their next move regarding Leopard with UL, Honoka abducts Akiha and explains that she has an important role to fulfill for Leopard before leading her through equipping and defining the Q-TECTOR as the two set off on their first mission, replacing the magnetic chamber to Leopard's antimatter cannon. While Akiha grapples with the ethics, Honoka simply orders Wygar to destroy whatever precludes their travel path not caring that she brings the ICP into the mix by doing so. Directing that Akiha proceed on ahead, Honoka challenges Itsuki who soundly defeats her before confronting Akiha who is just about to emancipate the Golden Orb for transport, that is, if a clear trajectory can first be entreated of the newly-arrived Nervalist annelid.