Psychic Squad

The P.A.N.D.R.A. release of several commercials that appear to be for the purpose of membership recruitment (or for simply flexing their muscles since there is no contact information given) abruptly forces Minamoto to set aside his anguish over Ikyuugo's mortal sacrifice to protect Taizou when he is charged the apprehension of a pair of sibling espers with electromagnetic powers that wish to manufacture a false news broadcast of The Children attacking normal humans without cause. Prior to mission zero hour, the quarry sibling electromagnetic espers introducing themselves with an electrical charge that incapacitates their helicopter and an electromagnetic eidolon pre-empts Minamoto's explanation of Kyousuke's ultimate goal being an esper-led war against humans. As Taizou frenzily works the main nerve center to locate them, Kaoru is loving the attention not realizing that she is playing right into the hands of the perpetrators who decide that it is necessary to have footage of Kaoru and her teammates attacking the city and its human citizens to ruin the image of espers in general. The deus ex machina to apprehend the perpetrators comes from a mysterious esper that uses Taizou's phone to suggest blacking out the entire city. A blistering reproof at Kaoru coupled with stringent orders to restore the severed cables later, Minamoto directs Shiho and Aoi after the two fugitives only to find that they have to be apprehended simultaneously. Kaoru rejoins the battle to find that the tables have turned -- her company with P.A.N.D.R.A. for Minamoto's life. After Shiho and Aoi break the stalemate with an avenue for perverting the toxic electrical wave to their advantage, Kaoru emphatically refuses to join P.A.N.D.R.A.; a furious telekinetic pummeling later, the two sibling espers are apprehended and made to undo all the damage that they have done even as there are unresolved loose ends.

While they are undergoing a cops-and-robbers exercise at Ichirou's behest to teach them the sentiments of the criminals that they confront, Kaoru and her teammates wonder what their leader is up to that for which their presence is a hinderance -- Minamoto in convoy with Taizou and Oboro to pay a visit to Fujiko Tsubomi who has been in a decade-long estivation. After a brief history lesson, Taizou concludes that not much can be accomplished and is about to lead Oboro and Minamoto away when Aoi and her teammates phase in from a teleportation jump eager to find out what their leader is doing. A ping-pong match of insults/errant comments/seduction and Kaoru's telekinetic shoving defines the conclusion of Fujiko's estivation after Shiho's psychometry reads Fujiko's involuntary energy siphoning as voluntary seduction/copulation. After an introductory kiss to Kaoru/Shiho/Aoi (much to their watery/soapy disgust) along with the just-arrived Naomi, Fujiko sets to bringing herself up to speed at B.A.B.E.L. and yearns to spend more girl time with Double Face before approaching Minamoto to explain that his esper charges are going to turn out exactly what Kyousuke wants if they stay under his leadership in its incumbent state. As Minamoto is sent off to another location to be detained, Ichirou leads Naomi and The Children on another exercise -- this time, a tanker with a leaky fuel tank that will explode in 30 minutes. Fujiko phases in to begin appraising both The Children and Naomi before mentioning Minamoto's impending arrival. After seeing Naomi beating up on Ichirou, it becomes apparent that Fujiko wants Kaoru and her teammates to help her teach Minamoto what it takes to change fate. Unfortunately, the only change to fate that Fujiko's cruel prank successfully effects is Minamoto angrily resigning from B.A.B.E.L. in disgust of his feelings being trivialized and manipulated so friviously by his esper charges.

Taizou and Dr. Sakaki's endeavors to pacify Minamoto and dissuade him away from following through on his resignation announcement from the previous episode quickly take a back seat when Kaoru, Shiho, and Aoi's extreme anguish and anxiety at losing their leader prompts the girls to combine their energies into a frenzied and effulgent psychic tempest. After successfully pacifying the girls before they completely destroy B.A.B.E.L. Headquarters with such ease that it could be argued that the tempest was by her design, Fujiko resolves to make Minamoto recant the resignation declaration as she spirits him away into a brief history lesson and personal anecdote. While Fujiko illuminates her awareness of Ikyuugo's final prediction for Minamoto through her admonition to guard against being such a workaholic and to spend quality time with his esper charges, Kaoru and her teammates are not thrilled about Taizou and Oboro paying them a visit. Fortunately, Taizou sees the light as he explains that Fujiko is training Minamoto to increase his power. As Oboro mirrors the girls' confusion regarding Taizou's inadequate explanation, Fujiko is directing the hypnotic nurse Hanae Suetsu to take good care of Minamoto. Minamoto's disgust and Hanae's anguish give way to Fujiko again warning Minamoto that he will see his esper charges as adults unless he makes some drastic changes. Fujiko is realizing some meager success from her plan as Hanae successfully emulates both Shiho and Aoi as adults; aside from Fujiko rushing things a little, not a whole lot could go wrong . . . except the real Aoi who is not at all flattered by the emulation and Kaoru who sees Fujiko as her vendetta. After driving home his passionate displeasure of Fujiko and Hanae's conduct of him as a plaything, Minamoto apologizes about the resignation threat and realizes that the avenue to save his esper charges' future and keep them away from P.A.N.D.R.A. is to make lots and lots of euphoric memories with them in the present.

Taizou's magical anime hero emulation (and Minamoto resisting Fujiko's uxorial affection solicitation) gives way to Fujiko's maiden exhibition of unsolved probability case file #666 -- better known as »Do The Children become demons or angels in the future?« -- that depicts The Children having demonstrated a 29% probability of falling to vice (and a 26% probability of remaining in virtue). In an attempt to resolve the undecided 45%, Minamoto presents his esper charges with new portal limiters that serve as communicators/transponders like their predecessors and boast a function that enables any of the girls to rally their teammates' powers to enhance their own. Kaoru, Shiho, and Aoi playing with all the treasures in the bank vault using their psychic powers is brought to a screeching halt when Minamoto reminds them that they are charged sentry duty thereof and that there are ECM generators lining the ceiling of the vault. Muscle and Mio's arrival instigates a battle with Kaoru (a psychokinetic gold ingot barrage), Aoi (teleporting away the ECCM generator), and Shiho (a well-aimed bullet to the generator's battery) that easily stalemates the two P.A.N.D.R.A. espers but places them before The Normal People operatives' mortal designs as they close the vault and exhaust out the air. Their lives in jeopardy, an uneasy armistice is forged as Minamoto works to repair the damaged ECCM generator before directing Kaoru to psychokinetically breach the inner walls of the vault along with the electromagnetic fence once Shiho, Aoi, and Mio all rally their powers behind her. Unfortunately, a thoroughly-exhausted Kaoru and paper money/gold ingots/various treasures scattered about for the people to grab up quickly takes a back seat to Fujiko successfully cornering the evacuating Kyousuke into a one-on-one psychic duel that ends in a stalemate illuminating that P.A.N.D.R.A. does not conquer easily.

Aoi demonstrating a uxorial emphasis on properly aligning her leader's tie prior to boarding the westbound Shinkansen to her hometown Kyoto gives way to the disheartening revelation that Minamoto has been charged convergent criminal quarry navigation as the Comerican clarivoyant Ken approaches the pair having misunderstood that he is to carry his shoes (which Kaoru and Shiho encounter back in Tokyo) into the train. Upon arriving in Kyoto, the warm greeting that Aoi's junior brother Yuuki quickly turning frigid and dangerous due to Aoi's father Daisaku misunderstanding Aoi's affectionate description of Minamoto gives way to Ken and Minamoto disagreeing on whether to solicit Aoi's navigation assistance for their mission: apprehension an esper vandal called Clyde Barou that sees historical landmarks as his personal canvas. Minamoto lashing out at Ken before turning his frustration on Aoi becomes a horrible mistake when Ken detects that Clyde is on the move. Fujiko and the Comerican esper squad being of no utility, it falls upon Minamoto and Ken to take action alongside Aoi. When Clyde turns the tables on her during the first battle, Minamoto gives Aoi a quick lesson in navigating around using her esper powers and reminds her that she has done well on her own in combat. Aoi challenges and successfully defeats Clyde as he is computing his next desecration. A flashback of Aoi's workaholic father regretting his very poor government of Aoi when Kaoru barged into his office to confront him (and Shiho cooling her down thereafter) gives way to the present where Aoi comes back into the room to announce the arrival of Fujiko-tachi (Fujiko with Natsuko and Hotaru in convoy) joining the Nogami-ke banquet. As Aoi laments her plans being extinguished, Shiho is inspiring Kaoru to ignite a plan of her own upon Dr. Sakaki . .

While Aoi is helping Minamoto and Ken to wrap things up in Kyoto, Dr. Sakaki is arriving at Minamoto's Tokyo apartment expecting to impress Oboro into a dinner-and-movie date but finds that Oboro is rushing back to B.A.B.E.L. Headquarters citing the drama in Kyoto from the previous episode. After she gets over the euphoria of winning the race (and conking Dr. Sakaki on the head with a game controller), Kaoru's full-blown temper tantrum and accusation of Shiho of losing the race on purpose prompts Sakaki to advise Shiho to hold back a bit from commenting on what comes to mind. Shiho is about to riposite her perspective on Sakaki's advice when Kaoru suggests that Sakaki and Shiho race against each other, the duration thereof defined by lots of psychometric trash-talking -- and Sakaki losing to Shiho's concentration and his overconfidence. Shiho psychometrically teaching herself how to use the fishing pole to catch the quarry fish on the first try (to the astonishment of Sakaki who is a veteran angler) gives way to an encounter with Dr. Sakaki's old instructor from Touto University that teaches Shiho to turn her back on ignorance and morally be the bigger woman as Sakaki tends to the seasick Kaoru before seeing to the Professor who is bleeding internally from a ruptured spleen. As he operates on the Professor, Sakaki explains to Shiho (who is grossed out by all the blood/gore) that psychometric inspection is not the same as actual viewing before confessing that he is envious of Shiho's fortune. Sakaki tells Shiho that Minamoto is the one normal that could understand/celebrate him for the person he is and that she is lucky that she can be a kid thanks to having Minamoto to intercede for her when/how appropriate. Professor Saisen's ruptured spleen being successfully repaired (along with the misunderstanding between the two) gives way to Dr. Sakaki and Shiho preparing the fish that they caught as a welcome-home dinner for Aoi and Minamoto.

This episode is more of a comical retrospective analysis of a camping/hiking school field trip conducted as a hybrid between a police interrogation and the Christian sacrament of confession as is demonstrated with Chisato who begins by explaining that Kaoru (and to a lesser extent) along with Shiho and Aoi were all excited about the field trip during the bus ride there. During the actual hiking trip, Kaoru and her teammates painting their leader Minamoto as a common relative of theirs prompts Chisato to recount that she has had euphoric company with Minamoto. Chisato's euphoric daydream example is quickly extinguished when a small pebble hits Kaoru who immediately accuses Touno of the offense in spite of the evidence indicating the inverse. Kaoru bragging about her homemade lunch ignites Touno's jealousy and a keep-away game whose aftermath is a scavenger hunt that nobody was prepared for. During a layover to wait out the rainstorm, Shiho and Aoi debate how to locate Kaoru (who is out of communication range) while Chisato jumps to conclusions from the limited data provided by her Level 2 telepathy. Kaoru and Touno's heart-to-heart to understand each other better quickly yields to the below-ground facility being elevated at-ground at Taizou's behest. Kaoru reunited with her teammates/classmates and her lost lunch has all the makings of a happy ending -- and would have been if Mio had not seized Kaoru's lunch away. P.A.N.D.R.A. seems to have learned of the below-ground facility that Taizou had built and has charged Mio, Muscle, and Momotarou the exploration and appraisal thereof. The resolution of some enigmas gives way to a comical keep-away game with Kaoru's lunch that ends in a B.A.B.E.L. victory due to Momotarou's inability to stay aloft with the mass of Kaoru's lunch.

While the P.A.N.D.R.A. subordinates and administrators ponder and speculate what rationale Kyousuke is utilizing to put his faith in »the Queens« (a.k.a. Kaoru and her teammates who know to steer clear), B.A.B.E.L. is predicting a large-scale biological disaster and mobilizing to pre-empt it. Once inside the building, the B.A.B.E.L. crew finds several unconscious workers with swelled bumps on their heads. As he watches a mosquito fly around to land on Kaoru and then on Aoi, Minamoto realizes that the contamination is not why the workers are unconscious while he recovers himself from crashing into the wall. Shiho psychometrically confirming what Minamoto already knows and explaining the whole situation at hand quickly yields to Minamoto having been taken over by thousands of mosquitoes much to the delight of Kyousuke and Momotarou. Frightened for his gonads, Kyousuke advises that incapacitating the mosquito psychometer and exterminating the mosquitoes should resolve the situation -- a task Kaoru finds easier said than done since her telekinesis repels them right against the glass windows containing the whole pestilence. The deux es machina comes when Kaoru is advised to subjugate the mosquitoes by telekinetically moving the air around and instigating the fire extinguishers. The mosquitoes drowning in the water from the fire extinguishers (and Shiho adding washing detergent to accelerate their demise), the mosquito psychometer trapped in a vice, the emergency responders doing their thing down below, and Minamoto's factual *destination perdition* counterargument . . . none of that convinces Kyousuke to soften his heart toward human-esper peaceful coexistence.

Inhibited and encumbered by the mass of his ill-gotten payload as well as the police, Takashi desperately tries to compute a deus ex machina while Taizou and Oboro speculate upon Keiko Kojika's success prospects. Even as she detects his decreasing proximity and rushes to intercept him, Takashi uses a decoy rabbit to distract Hatsune and scores the unexpected bonus of Keiko being a lupine lunch for having Hatsune's necklace in hand. Minamoto being none too thrilled with the prospect of Hatsune's residence with his esper charges quickly takes a back seat to Takashi synthesizing a website to auction off his ill-gotten payload. Mio having successfully evacuated Takashi, Hatsune turning her anger on Keiko illuminates the root cause for Hatsune's absconding: Keiko's clumsy leadership being exacerbated by Akira's sycophantic and uxorious affinity for her. Everything goes according to plan during the simulated polar medical rescue mission until a solar flare induces a magnetic storm that occludes communication. Unable to abort the mission and the B.A.B.E.L. rations of no utility, Hatsune first tries to make a meal out of Keiko before turning her attention to a baby narwhal she had captured without much effort only to find that the baby narwhal's parent emphatically disagrees with her menu plan through a fierce roller-coaster sequence of deep dives and breaching the ice. Keiko realizes her groove in within B.A.B.E.L. as The Hound team leader when she urges the baby narwhal back to sea with its parent and quickly extinguishes Hatsune's hysterical tirade with an abrupt and potent »Get a grip on yourself!!!« slap across the chops before wrapping herself and Hatsune with insulating blankets under the luminous reward of the aurora.

Bored and frustrated with her homework, Kaoru longs for any kind of excitement not caring anything if it is a B.A.B.E.L. mission or playing a video game unaware that Ichirou (who has taken multiple photographs of what appears to be a lesbian affair between Naomi and her art teacher Ruriko) is the emissary of her volition when he approaches Minamoto for his help. Galvanized by lechery and libido, Kaoru cares nothing of the deja vu parallels of Ichirou's exhortation as she leads her teammates to the park where Naomi rendezvous with Ruriko to lead her on a date to an art gallery, a restaurant, and a cinema before heading to the high school art room. Once Kaoru telekinetically knocks the door down, she and her teammates find that Ruriko has painted three pictures of a man on a horse in spite of not wanting to. Suspecting that an esper is involved, Naomi had approached her art teacher with an offer of her services to resolve this imbrogilo. A telekinetic compression of disgust upon Ichirou for his lechery is the prelude for Naomi to explain what is really happening in the photos and for Kaoru to volunteer to resolve the situation. B.A.B.E.L. sets up an ambush for the perpetrator at Ruriko's apartment . . . sure enough, the perpetrator esper does his thing as soon as the art teacher begins drawing. Kaoru and her teammates give chase but are shocked to find that the horse decides an »Enough is enough!!!« forcible dismount. Once in B.A.B.E.L. custody for abusing his Level 5 exogenous metempsychosis, it is explained that Kikuchi Naoya only wanted Ruriko to acknowledge his infatuation for her but went about it the wrong way.

Ken's precautionary explanation about the extremely dangerous Black Phantom esper crime organization obfuscates the preparations through which Kyousuke is leading P.A.N.D.R.A. in order to fiercely counterattack while B.A.B.E.L. mobilizes to provide security for a foreign political leader attending a meeting in Japan that is most likely a formal party considering that Kaoru, Shiho, and Aoi are perplexed and disgruntled about their participation being precluded despite the probability of Black Phantom mortal designs on the political leader being at most 3%. Kyousuke's injunction to Minamoto of distance between his esper charges and P.A.N.D.R.A.'s vendetta with Black Phantom yields to Oboro and Taizou charging Minamoto the salvage of the aerial escort wreckage while P.A.N.D.R.A. successfully foils the Black Phantom assassination attempt. Detecting at acuity that the esper sniper is in mortal danger, Kaoru leads her teammates in a mad dash to the rescue -- and right into Magi along with Momotarou's explanation of Kyousuke's volition regarding Black Phantom. If the victim cannot be emancipated from the Black Phantom subjugation, extermination is the only recourse . . . hence this being an ethically dirty mission. Meanwhile, Kyousuke successfully holds the esper sniper Barret at a stalemate and has decided extermination when Kaoru arrives to appraise her fortunes which improve with Shiho and Aoi's arrival on the scene with last-minute insight from Minamoto about how to pervert Barret's attacks to their advantage before combining energies with Kaoru to finish off Barret using the healing spell Psychic Force of Absolution which successfully emancipates Barret from Black Phantom without killing him -- the spectacle thereof Kyousuke declaring as his rationale behind Kaoru being declared as Queen and the savior of all espers.

Following right on the heels of the battle in the previous episode, Minamoto finds that P.A.N.D.R.A. has pulled the ol' switcheroo regarding Kyousuke who has evacuated the scene while leaving behind the unconscious Barret. A chess-computation campaign regarding the next counterattack against Black Phantom commences as Kyousuke administrates over a housekeeping conference with his subordinates over the previous operation while B.A.B.E.L. medically appraises both Kaoru and Barret. While he and Dr. Sakaki are computing how to interpret Barret's esper powers and life memories being extinguished with the Black Phantom subjugation, Fujiko's admonishment about wielding at all times a powerful hand blaster developed to kill espers whose corporeal constitution defies normal weaponry prompts Minamoto to renew his resolve to extinguish Kyousuke's volition unaware that P.A.N.D.R.A. has decided upon its next move which Shiho psychometrically detects among the mail Aoi has brought in. Their leader now in a cerebral psuedo-reality developed based upon Ikyuugo's final prediction, Taizou and Oboro finding the former B.A.B.E.L. special esper Setsuko Kuromaki to be the perpetrator does little good as P.A.N.D.R.A. tries its best to interfere with her capture. B.A.B.E.L.'s desperate endeavors to emancipate Minamoto from Setsuko's cerebral pseudo-reality spanning three fruitless days inflame tensions between the normally placid Shiho and Aoi while Kyousuke approaches the anguished and frustrated Kaoru with the exhortation to join P.A.N.D.R.A. even though the subjugation is his design.

Kyousuke's coercion attempt from the previous episode prompts Taizou's intercession and ignites a brief battle. After a moment of jubilant intrigue, Kyousuke gets the best of Aoi before preparing to demonstrate his disappointment of Kaoru refusing to join P.A.N.D.R.A. but instead decides to leave behind a photograph with the proposal that Kaoru endeavor to rescue her leader. Before anybody can stop her, Kaoru finds herself in Minamoto's cerebral pseudo-reality and that Minamoto bearing the burden of Ikyuugo's final prediction by himself is the engine driving the pseudo-reality. While Kaoru conscripts Minamoto into what she thinks is the deus ex machina needed to emancipate them both, B.A.B.E.L. has successfully located Setsuko holed up by herself but finds that it will take more than a Taizou Kiritsubo bulldozer blitzkrieg to apprehend her since there is a minefield surrounding the place. Wielding the darkness and the internal design of the house to her advantage, Setsuko knocks Naomi and Aoi out of action with the click of her camera shutter along with Shiho who successfully recovers herself to fire a bullet right into her camera lens thanks to matching psychic mechanics. Desperate but undaunted, Setsuko energizes a time bomb before racing away. Unfortunately, even with Setsuko in custody, B.A.B.E.L. is no closer to locating P.A.N.D.R.A.'s headquarters or emancipating Minamoto. Polluted by the cerebral psuedo-reality, Kaoru becomes introspective and pensive as she states that she does not want to forget her newly-discovered thoughts and feelings even if that means she never returns to the real world because she has fallen in love with Minamoto. Back in the real world, Kaoru exhorting that Kyousuke explain to her what kind of dream world she was in ignites an argument between Kyousuke and Minamoto over who will successfully change the future that suggests a friendly rivalry between the two men.