“According to rumours told by kids, Miss Michiko’s true identity is whispered to be that of an Illegal.”
Dennou Coil Episode Nine
Miss Michiko: From the Other Side.
Fumie and Yasako are surprised when their teacher tells them that tonight’s indoor camp event will include the guys from the Hacker’s club. Yasako realizes that this was what one of the boys meant by saying they wanted to do the battle tonight, but before Fumie can blurt out the facts, they beat a hasty retreat.
Yasako then questions Fumie as to why she and Daichi aren’t on friendly terms anymore, to which Fumie simply says that it’s due to Daichi being an idiot, and demands that Yasako practice for the night by doing the Megabeam hand gesture a hundred times.
In the meantime, Haraken realizes that the metabug he found is emitting a sound. He hands it over to the resident metabug sound expert, Denpa, for closer examination. Denpa finds that he can hear music and a girl’s voice. He requests to keep the metabug for a while as he can hear the sounds better in a certain other area, to which Haraken agrees. As Denpa is about to leave, Haraken asks why Denpa stays with Daichi. Denpa explains that Daichi helped him out when he was being bullied.
In the Municipal Post Council building, Tamako argues with Yasako’s dad to allow the Satchiis to access the school areas, but he denies her for various reasons, including that the boundaries have already been set. Tamako reluctantly decides to leave the finding of the Kirabug to Isako.
Insert a humorous teacher’s homeroom conversation here.
At this point, Yasako’s forehead has gotten red after doing the Megabeam gesture for the required amount. Fumie shows her sneaky side by disabling the boy’s traps for the night, as well as planting metatags. Their conversation takes a turn as Yasako notices the area around the second floor corridor where Isako had her trial by fire still not healing, and makes a note about an urban rumour where Miss Michiko appears out of the cyberfog. Fumie declares that she hates ghost stories like that as it’s pretty much her weak point. Unbeknownst to the two, Akira’s spy cyberpet is keeping tabs on them and the Hacker’s Club is watching through it. An odd discussion on Akira’s true loyalty takes place, where he confides that his sister is a big meanie and starts crying, and the boys all sympathise with him.
Haraken gets a call from Denpa. It turns out that the message was “4-4-2-3.”
At six o’ clock, the Biology Club sleepover is officially started, with a lot of unexpected guests and the resulting chaos and slapstick causality that follows. Once the teachers put the children to bed (Or rather, to their camps) however, that’s when the main event takes place. While they’re preparing by their initial hackings, the boys suddenly decide to get the teams together to exchange ghost stories in a disguised attempt to scare Fumie out of her wits. Daichi begins by telling a story about Miss Michiko, since Fumie showed her fright over it earlier, complete with computer lightning sound effects.
This backfires horribly when Haraken on the girl’s side says that Daichi’s version of the story is the most common one and tells another version which starts to scare everyone else. Engrossed in telling the story, he only realizes how much he’s frightening everyone when he’s done. He is about to tell yet another version when everyone else decides that enough is enough and that they should move on to the main event. [The faces Fumie and Daichi make when Haraken keeps insisting on continuing are hilarious, especially the last bit.]
Throwing the monkey wrench into the works, however, is the presence of an Illegal within the school grounds. Tracking the signal being sent by the creature, Isako watches the situation unfold from a map. What it doesn’t show is a crystal formation erupting from the creature, liquefying and forming the silhouette of a decidedly creepy laughing girl sporting a wide smile…
Tamako, just arriving at the school grounds, decides to try and find a better vantage spot. She summons her two Satchii, but they obviously can’t enter the school grounds.
Back to the challenge - The two groups have a discussion before someone notices that the girl’s side is at a disadvantage due to the lack of a fifth individual… When their class teacher barges in outta nowhere, complete with flashlight to frighten the team. It turns out that she’s drunk on whiskey bonbons, and without much of a consent from the rest of the Biology Club, she muscles her way in to become the fifth member for the team.
Scene switch - Isako wonders if the Kirabug has detached itself from the Illegal, but spies on Tamako crouched outside the main entrance, and decides to hurry. Tamako seems to be able to use her new vantage point better, but it’s interrupted by the competition being held by the two rival clubs - Their megabeam blasts are destroying her carefully-placed radar-tags. This pisses her off and she creates a metatag to help one of her Satchiis get into the school compound.
During the battle runs held by the two teams, the creepy green girl runs just out of sight of both teams, her creepy laughter echoing faintly through the halls. Tamako finds the corpse of the Illegal, while Isako attempts to trap the Kirabug, her Encode landing harmlessly on the walls.
To further complicate matters, Haraken, when accompanying Yasako on their team’s last round, follows the fleeting image of the laughing girl/Kirabug, even trailing it into a room. But something isn’t right - The entire room is filled with a blinding yellowish light. Tamako notices the light from the room, but not before Haraken already disappears into the light. The Satchii she brings with her proves to bring unwarranted attention, however, as it starts randomly trailing off and zapping some of the more unfortunate participants.
In the room, Haraken comes across a strangely empty hall, and walks up to an oddly-placed phone in the middle. Almost as though he knew exactly what to do, he dials 4-4-2-3. Someone actually picks up - He quickly asks if the person on the other end is Kanna, but the responding voice doesn’t answer - Only giving him a cryptic set of instructions and locations to follow. This is still enough to cause Haraken to sweat profusely and eventually faint, however - The voice is certainly that of someone familiar.
Upon falling unconscious, the room’s light goes out, as Isako notices. She walks into the now-foggy room, before suddenly throwing her encode at something - This time, she’s trapped the Kirabug.
Yasako arrives just in time to watch Isako confer with the creature, welcoming it - And the creature dissolves, its particles flowing into a spot just below Isako’s neck, the procedure ending with a green keyhole mark which fades. Isako opens her eyes, and notices Satchii outside the window, but it’s too late - The Satchii cannot even touch Isako with her new power.
Thoughts: Wheee. We get to see why Isako hunts the Kirabugs - They up her Mad Haxx0r Rank, so she can use more of her mad skillz! And what’s up with Miss Michiko being a green laughing girl, anyway?
Note: Yes, I know I’m way behind. >_>
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