Pumpkin Scissors – 15

Summary:

Machs drives the car out of the way so that they don’t get caught in Hans’ flame, but they are soon surrounded by a wall a fire. With nowhere to run, Alice is ready to try to defeat their enemy, but the arrival of Mione’s other men interrupts her. They think Hans is working on their side, but then realize that this isn’t true when he starts to incinerate them. In fact, he’s working under orders to kill everyone. Alice and the others try to save some of Mione’s men, but it’s Oland who takes on Hans. Recognizing Oland’s lantern and the 901 designation, Hans calls Oland his comrade. But before anything else can happen between them, a large wave of water comes crashing through the sewers and sweeps both men away.

Oland wakes up sometime later in the hospital under the watch of Alice. Everyone made it out ok, but Oland is now feeling down because of Hans and his past. Even though Alice asks, he doesn’t tell her about the brief verbal exchange between him and Hans. Oland is then paid a visit by Muse Kauplan, but he initially recognizes her as assistant of Kauplan. She remembers the 908 because she developed the protection liquid for the soldiers’ suits that solved the initial problem of them being burned by their own flame. However, it was all a lie so that the 908 would wear the suits. The liquid was really an anesthetic used to dull senses so that the 908 couldn’t feel the burns. Oland gets angry at the thought that Hans doesn’t know what’s he’s doing to his own body, but Kauplan calls him the Alt Schmied Jäger – the one-eyed cremator.

Even without Oland, the Pumpkin Scissors group returns to the job of arresting Mione’s men for selling drugs, starting the cycle all over again with Mione bailing his men out. During this, Hunks meets with the commander of the first section and presents the rank insignias of the two soldiers that Hans burned. Suspecting that something is being hidden from him, Hunks reads the lips of the soldier who reports privately to the commander that certain documents weren’t found. Meanwhile, realizing that the arresting cycle won’t end, Machs and Oreld decide to try something. Along the way, Oreld sees the girl Marielle who was being harassed by Mione’s men when the Pumpkin Scissors first went to the sewers. She starts crying after he compliments her haircut, so Oreld comforts the fragile girl.

Returning to the sewers, Oreld throws down a wallet of money towards the drug-addicted father of Marielle in exchange for his daughter. When the father protests, Oreld points out that she already sold her hair for money. Although he’s angry, the father does nothing as Oreld starts stripping her down until Machs lays down his wallet too so that he can also have a piece of the action. With Machs getting everyone riled up and Oreld forcing himself on Marielle, the father finally punches Oreld. All of this has re-motivated the crowd into thinking that they’re not losers and that they can work even without the drug. The leader of Mione’s men, Metz, sees everything that happened here in the sewers and then returns to Mione’s mansion to find no one there. He heads downstairs through an open passageway and stumbles upon Hans’ room.

Back at headquarters, Oreld and Machs pretend that their injuries are from fighting each other. To everyone’s surprise, Metz shows up to testify for them. He reveals that Mione has a scheduled day on which he gets new shipments of the drug, and the next transaction should be tonight. Metz goes on to talk about his own tough life on the streets before Mione took him in and how he knew that Mione was just using them. Nevertheless, he feels guilty and is in tears over how he’s just a rat betraying his comrades. Alice, however, calls him a pair of scissors and compares Albert Mione to a pumpkin in the way that he protects himself with money, violence, and political power. The Pumpkin Scissors purpose is to cut through those layers of protection, though Alice feels that Metz was the one who got through the outer skin.

Alice then prepares the group to set out, telling Metz that he can go turn himself in to the police. He realizes that she didn’t consider him running away, but he feels that he can’t run away. Oreld ends up not going with the group because Hunks has a special duty for him. As they’re getting into the car, Oland asks Alice to let him take care of Hans, but Alice refuses because she thinks he’s hiding something. Later that night, Albert Mione and Hans meet with a masked man, and Mione proclaims that he’s in service under the Silver Wheel.

Preview

As expected, Hans connects with Oland, calling them comrades since they’re both part of the Invisible Nine. Muse Kauplan seems to be the key to the entire group, but for now she’s only revealing things to Oland, and not much information at that. I did enjoy the speech Alice gave about the pumpkin and the scissors because I thought it gave a clearer explanation for the name compared to the previous episode when she initially proposed it. I really can’t say much else for this week, but I’m looking forward to next time with the masked guy and the “Silver Wheel” that Mione mentions.