Allison & Lillia – 24

「列車大作戦」 (Ressha Daisakusen)
“The Great Train Operation”

Episode at a Glance:
Overhearing the commotion that Lillia is causing because of Treize, Matilda comes by and notices that she has the same eyes as Travas. Matilda then invites Lillia to have tea with her and quickly realizes that she doesn’t know Treize’s real identity, so she introduces herself as Hilda, a trader who stopped by Ikstova to purchase gold and whose father hired Travas and the others as her bodyguards. As for Treize, she explains that he was hired as a guide since he’s familiar with Ikstova, being an heir to an inn there. Hearing this, Lillia tells Treize that he should’ve told her this to begin with, but he simply tries to avoid eye contact during this cover up.

Off in the dining car, Allison talks to Travas about how strange things have turned out, questioning if this is alright with him. Naturally, Travas claims that it isn’t, but he’s happy that Lillia’s around to accompany Matilda, who’s lonely having been raised in isolation. Listening to this prompts Allison to call Travas a softy, but adds that she likes that part of him. With Travas figuring that it’s alright for Lillia to stay with Matilda for now, Treize comes by to get more tea and informs Allison and Travas that the two girls are getting along. Back in Matilda’s train compartment, Lillia explains that Travas is an acquantince of her mother and that she hopes they’ll get married one day so that her mother will be happy. In light of this, Matilda suspects that Lillia doesn’t know that Travas is her father, which she confirms after finding out that Lillia believes her father died in an accident before she was born. Unsettled at the fact that Travas left his family to serve her country, Matilda hugs Lillia, thanks her on behalf of Sou Beil, and prays that she’ll be blessed with happiness. While confused, Lillia doesn’t get a chance to ask what Matilda meant because Treize returns, so Matilda decides to ask Treize to take a picture of her and Lillia.

Off in another car, a male passenger comes running by asking for help because the student passenger appears to have been food poisoned. Due to the commotion caused, Allison questions the man what happened and learns that there were no screams for help. The man then suspects that it was Travas’ group that poisoned them with the lunch boxes they were served, causing everyone to assemble in the dining car. Word of this is passed onto Matilda, so one of Travas’ men escorts Lillia back to her seat. Before leaving though, Lillia and Maltida express how fun it’s been and promise to meet again somewhere. Treize then leaves as well, after Matilda asks him to go with Lillia. In the dining car, Travas is trying to calm the accusations, stating that there’s no reason for them to poison someone. He then receives a report from one of his men that someone’s on the roof of the train, so he sends Izumo out to bring the person back. Having knocked out the person on the roof, Izumo brings the suspect back to the dining room, where everyone discovers that it’s the wife of the man who’s been accusing Travas and his group for poisoning them. Travas then asks to speak to him in the other room, but the man panics and claims that he’s been set up, so he knocks Treize aside and grabs Lillia as a hostage.

With the man demanding that the train be stopped so he can get off, Allison speaks up saying that she’s Lillia’s mother and offers herself as a substitute hostage. The man questions what’ll happen if he refuses though, so Allison fires a gun inches from his head. She then makes a proposal, saying they’ll turn him and his wife over to the police without reporting this hostage incident if he drops the knife. With Allison threatening to end things in ten seconds if he doesn’t agree, the man quickly complies. With Lillia free, Allison insinuates that the man poisoned the student, but he denies having any part in it. However, Allison deduces that he walked through two cars from where the student was poisoned before asking for help, in an attempt to cause as much of a disturbance as possible. She also deduces that the man caused the first train they were on to break down so he could transfer to this one and poisoned the student to cause this commotion so he could get into the cars beyond the dining room. Having been figured out, the man claims that he was lured into doing this after being told that this train is secretly exporting a large quantity of jewels from Ikstova to Sou Beil. He adds that the woman isn’t actually his wife, but someone who was most-likely inticed the same way. As for their current actions on board the train, he reveals that he was following the instructions of another man he’s never met, who called him offering money for the job. He still insists that he didn’t poison the student though, after which both him and the woman suffer from the some convulsions the student did.

With the two of them taken off to another room to be inspected by the supposed doctor on board, Travas figures that they were poisoned via capsules that they were told were medicine. In response to this turn of events, Travas decides to stop at the next available stop and separate the cars so that they’re no longer traveling with the passengers they picked up. Travas then reports this change of plans to Matilda, who wishes she could’ve traveled with Lillia till the last stop. She then asks Travas if she can meet Lillia again sometime, to which he says he’ll make an effort to see it happen. Having separated the trains, Travas informs his men that their cover is probably blown and suspects that the information was leaked out from within Sou Beil. Hearing this, Travas’ men figure that continuing to follow their original plan would only be detrimental at this point. As for the man and woman earlier, Travas concludes that they were simply used for that task, but that they should consider the rest of the occurances as part of someone’s plan. Given how the perpetrator was able to anticipate their decision to restrict access beyond the dining car and use the lunch delivery to his/her advantage, Travas’ men then suspect that it’s one of them, but Travas firmly believes that the real culprit is left behind in the other car. While everyone’s shocked to hear this, Travas goes on to explain that they need to prioritize Matilda’s safety first, so he tells them that they’ll stop at the next station and transfer to a car in order to conceal themselves from the culprit. Axe however senses that something’s still bugging Travas about this decision, so he reveals that he feels he’s still overlooking something.

Back on the separated train, Treize talks to Lillia about the date she believes Allison and Travas were supposed to go on, hoping she was going to say it was a date between them. Having been left behind under the guise of a tour guide, Treize strangely hears from another man how it’s unfortunate that he’s not with Travas’ group. Meanwhile, someone switches the tracks after Matilda’s train crosses a junction and radios another party about how they can’t be trailed now. On the actual train, the conductor informs Travas that he’s taking an emergency stop due to a car on the tracks, but Travas tells him to go through it. The conductor stops the train though, and radios back questioning who’s going to listen to Travas’ orders. With the train stopped, they soon find themselves surrounded by a group of armed men, so Travas tells his team to take up battle formations.

 

Next Episode:
「犯人は密かに笑う」 (Hannin wa Hisoka ni Warau)
“The Culprit Laughs Secretly”

Impressions:
I find it ironic how Matilda is able to suspect a relationship between Travas and Lillia just by looking at the clueless girl’s eyes once, but Lillia herself can’t fathom a connection for the life of her. It looks like poor Lillia didn’t inherit Wil’s smarts along with his lack of relationship sense, making me think that all she inherited was Allison’s spunk. Anyway, I was a bit surprised at how good of a person Matilda quickly turned out to be. For one, she immediately caught on to the fact that Lillia doesn’t know Treize’s true identity and helped conceal it along with her own. Secondly, she figured out that Travas gave up his family in order to serve her country and prayed for Lillia’s happiness. Because of this, I can’t help but feel bad for her because Treize will almost certainly turn her down in favor of Lillia. Matilda seems like the kind of person who would gracefully respect Treize’s decision though, so I guess things won’t be that bad for her in the end. She only met Treize for the first time last episode too, so I can’t imagine that she’s terribly attached to him already.

With that said, I’m impressed by Allison’s deductive skills nowadays, since she never had a clue as to what was going on when she was younger. Not only that, but she’s shown how much she’s matured in terms of keeping her composure and being the go-to person in a situation. I think she even surprised Travas a bit when she pulled out her gun and fired inches away from guy’s head, subsequently resolving the hostage situation peacefully. Her fast ten second countdown actually made me laugh a bit too, as he basically had the guy in the palm of her hand. Classic case of mother Allison kicking ass again!

Despite how much she’s “grown”, Allison was still unable to blow this conspiracy out in the open completely, but neither was Travas before it was too late. In fact, when Travas decided to separate the trains at the next station in order to avoid the criminal, I couldn’t help but think how ominous that decision was, seeing as nothing good came from a similar incident before. Evidently, everyone thinks that people after Matilda, but I’m still inclined to believe that Treize is the real target according to the photograph shown last time. (The snowy background makes me think it was taken in Ikstova.) Also, the long-haired guy also mentioned that it’s a shame that Treize was left behind from Matilda’s train, making it seem like he was one of the intended targets as well.

Anyway, with Travas and his group separated from Treize now and in deep water themselves, this pretty much leaves the Ikstova prince unguarded and on the same train that Weasal is on. If Weasal’s real target is indeed Treize, I still don’t quite see how he was able to bank on him being left behind after the trains were separated; therefore, I’m looking forward to the next episode to clear up my suspicions. In either case, Allison & Lillia conspiracies! You gotta love them!

Tidbit: Looks like Lillia forgot that she’s not supposed to be Japanese.

 

Cast:
– Lillia (リリア) / Mizuki Nana (水樹 奈々)
– Trieze (トレイズ) / Yoshino Hiroyuki (吉野 裕行)
– Allison (アリソン) / Kuwashima Houko (桑島 法子)
– Travas (トラヴァス) / Morikawa Toshiyuki (森川 智之)
– Benedict (ベネディクト) / Yamadera Kouichi (山寺 宏一)
– Fiona (フィオナ) / Noto Mamiko (能登 麻美子)
– Matilda (マティルダ) / Fujimura Chika (藤村 知可)
– Axe (アックス) / Toyoguchi Megumi (豊口 めぐみ)
– Ozette (オゼット) / Hoshino Mitsuaki (星野 充昭)
– Izuma (イズマ) / Nishi Rintarou (西凛 太郎)
– Uno (ウーノ) / Kobayashi Toshio (小林 俊夫)
– Ed (エド) / Konno Jun (金野 潤)
– Weasel (ウィーゼル) / Kawashima Tokuyoshi (川島 得愛)
– Man 1 (男1) / Egawa Hisao (江川 央生)
– Long-haired Man (長髪の男) / Kazama Yuuto (風間 勇刀)
– Husband (夫) / Aoki Tsuyoshi (青木 強)
– Wife (妻) / Oomura Kana (大村 歌奈)
– Coen train conductor (コーエン車掌) / Miura Hirokazu (三浦 博和)