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Summary:
The Shifu are down to eight now that Dismas & Gestas have been killed. One of remaining, Guy, admires the full moon, but says to himself that if he doesn’t do something, he won’t be able to see the next one. From Iceland, Van Argeno reports to Solomon that they’ve found a gene manipulation facility, sponsored by a man named Goldsmith. But after Van mentions an accident and corpses devoid of blood, Solomon tells him to stop the investigation and quickly hangs up the phone. Meanwhile, Mao and Akihiro have made their way to the French countryside, but their car has broken down. While Akihiro is getting water, Mao daydreams that Kai has found her. Solomon drives up to their stalled car, stops to talk to Mao, but then decides to zoom past using the side of the road. Mao recognizes him as the CEO of the Cinq Flèches Group. She and Akihiro eventually make their way to a farm where they inquire about the Chateau Duel. The old man tells them that all of the bad 1967 wine was bought by the Cinq Flèches Group. Mao notices that the building isn’t the same one as on the label of the wine. The old man identifies the chateau in the label as a place over the nearby hill. It was owned by a man named Joel Goldschmidt. The story is that there was a fire that killed everyone 100 years ago. However, it is said that people inside had their blood sucked dry and were dead before the fire. In addition, there was a girl with a blue rose seen there.
Also in the countryside, Hagi and Saya are nearing their destination, but Saya has grown weak from not eating. Hagi offers her his blood, but she resists and continues walking. As day turns to night, the two find themselves on a bridge surrounded by Shifu. With Saya in his arms, Hagi bounds away, but the Shifu in close pursuit. Guy, who is watching from the sidelines with Irene, talks about needing a special blood to purify his cursed body. Irene becomes alarmed that Guy’s arm has developed cracks and red markings. Hagi hides Saya in a tree trunk and then goes to single-handedly try to protect her from their opponents. He does very well in handling all of them until he realizes that Guy is going after Saya. He tries to turn around, but the Shifu work together and manage to impale him twice. With Karman’s weapon still protruding from his chest, Hagi confronts Guy. Guy feels that he doesn’t have much time left, so he quickly pins Hagi to a tree and drinks his blood. As the other Shifu arrive on the scene, they see the markings on Guy’s arm. Saya emerges from her tree trunk calling Hagi’s name, but Irene is waiting behind her. Saya narrowly avoids Irene’s sword, but the rest of the Shifu get alerted to her presence. She tries to threaten them with her blood, but they don’t fear it. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – their hopes lie in it. Because cracking has spread to Guy’s face, the urgency of the situation goes up a notch. Karman pulls Irene’s sword out of the ground and is about to stab Saya, but then dusk starts to break. With their weakness being sunlight, the Shifu have no choice but to make their escape. Hagi dislodges himself from the tree and stumbles towards Saya. He gives Saya a drink of the blood coming from his hand to wake her up. Having seen Hagi take so much damage just to protect her, Saya apologizes. On his final resting place, Guy tells the others that his death is satisfactory because he was able to verify that Chevalier blood didn’t purify his body. His last wish is to someday walk under the sunlight. As the rest of the Shifu watch, his body is bathed in the light of the sun and starts to burn a fiery green.
And then there were seven… With Guy’s death and the curse, this episode reveals a lot about who the Shifu are. The reason they were after Saya and the Chevalier was to find a way to purify their bodies. The whole sunlight thing seems a bit stupid though. If Guy was going to die anyway, why didn’t he stick around and drink some of Saya’s blood even if it meant that he was going to be exposed to sunlight? And didn’t Dismas & Gestas attack the Cinq Flèches facility during the day? They seemed ok there. At least Guy’s death wasn’t a complete waste because the Shifu learned that Chevalier blood doesn’t cut it in terms of purification.
The battle sequence this episode is pretty cool. Though he still took a beating, I’m surprised that Hagi managed to hold his own for so long. There are some lovely noises of him getting impaled over and over, and of him pulling his body through Karman’s staff after the Shifu leave. *shudders*
Mao and Akihiro finally get some screen time again, and Mao provides some funny moments. I get the feeling that we’re going to learn more about Joel Goldschmidt, the mansion, the fire, and the girl with the blue rose come next week when Saya and Hagi arrive there. Actually, I guess that means that Mao, Akihiro, Saya, and Hagi are all in roughly the same area. Maybe they’ll even encounter each other.
