Tegami Bachi REVERSE – 21

Sylvette’s soup might just be the secret weapon for taking Cabernet down. It looks like a pipe bomb.

「ロレンスの野望」 (Rorensu no Yabou)
“Lawrence’s Ambition”

I’ve been hoping there’d be something about Reverse’s radical means of revenge that would make Noir think twice about cooperating with them, and this recent revelation on did just that and more. It’s probably safe to assume that Roda is one of the motivating factors for him to stop the government’s human experimentation, so I have no idea what Lawrence was thinking when he was going to sacrifice her along with all the other people who couldn’t become a spirit. I mean, if he wanted to piss Noir off, mission accomplished. Even if he still didn’t trust Noir after he regained his memories and was planning to get rid of him at some point, did he really think he’d obediently obey his orders once he found out he fed Roda to Cabernet? I would’ve figured it’d be smarter to keep Noir in the dark for as long as possible and use him to the full extent, but I’m no leader of some anti-government organization so maybe this wasn’t such a stupid move and I’m overlooking something. Just maybe.

It’s time to bring out the Tegami Bachi cavalry. Wait a second… this is it?

Like I’ve been suspecting, Roda wonders if Noir would’ve been better off returning to his former life.

Signal and Signaless reveal the dark truth to Noir and he’s not the least bit happy about it.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say that Lawrence knew Noir wouldn’t be okay with sacrificing the very victims he thought they were fighting for, hence why he hasn’t told Noir any specifics about his plan. Much like Noir, I was already uneasy with the idea that Signal and Signaless would readily sacrifice themselves to try and take out the artificial sun, so good to see him draw the line on tricking unsuspecting victims into taking part in his cause. That level of deceit and self-sacrifice more or least changed my image of Reverse as a resistance group to a terrorist group too. It was a pretty eye-opening turn of events, considering that Reverse has been looking more like a righteous organization as of late while the government’s been shaping out to be the real antagonists. Now I know otherwise, in that both sides are corrupt and up to no good. The only ones in the right are the Bees earnestly delivering people’s letters and the government’s victims who haven’t done anything wrong.

Lawrence is turning out to be the ultimate antagonist of this sequel.

Noir at odds with Lawrence? Could this be the return of Gauche?

Caught in between it all is of course Noir. It doesn’t look like he’s going to be returning to Reverse anymore after Lawrence tried to kill him, though I doubt he’ll return to his life as Gauche either. After all he’s been through, I can’t imagine him simply settling for the lesser of two evils. The only thing I can picture him doing is stopping Lawrence’s plan and saving Roda. Before that happens, the preview seems to suggest that Noir will be doing some soul searching by talking to Sylvette. Let’s just hope he doesn’t give up on the world completely, especially when people like Sylvette want to see him return him.

Preview

Sylvette gets a chance to speak to Noir but is left in tears. I get the feeling he’s going to help stop Cabernet from feasting on Roda and the others though.