Newsletter 160, April 2

Dave's still absent with his ssickness, and I do believe Jeff is exploiting this to put in new stuff... and I thought Dave's stuff was bad

009-1
My-Otome
Ranma ½
Fate/Stay Night
Darker Than Black
Black Cat

009-1- The east and west block agents are invited to stay for a night at a castle, where a mysterious being called Phantom (who apparently is responsible for several murders) is hosting them. As the agents soon find out, the castle is filled with traps all over, as agents meet their deaths one by one. As one is irritated and blames the other side for all that has been happening, he ends up meeting with one of them in a secluded place. Meanwhile, 009-1 has been wandering with an agent called Loki, and after they narrowly escape a deadly pitfall, they realize that they may have been lead there by a wandering “specter”. As they follow it, they come across a a gruesome scene: the two from earlier have been captured by the Phantom, and are now in a guillotine. Then all is revealed: the Phantom is really a missing doctor, one who is filled only with thoughts of revenge against the east and west block due to a war some time ago in which the doctor lost everything, and the two in the guillotine are partially to blame. Loki stops 009-1 from interfering as the doctor explains, before he then drops the blade, and saying he no longer needs to live, blows up the castle (apparently also joining his dead wife), as Loki and 009-1 head back to their HQ’s.

My-Otome 6- After Arika finds a weakness on Nina, and Nina ends up exploding due to it getting exploited, both are assigned some extra duties. Of course, our pink-haired girl (Shiho) is still determined to make life miserable for Nina and Arika, and casts her Maki-Maki thing… which we find out summons something into the pool. Of course, this is just in time for the girls to have swimming class (and we learn Arika doesn’t know how to swim). Thus, the girls experience worm-like creature swimming through the water and their suits. When it’s time for the individual lessons, Shiho turns the maki-maki thing up to full power, and Nina ends up fainting in the water due to the attack… and Arika, being an idiot, dives in after her. After Nina makes a recovery, the pool undergoes an investigation, and Shiho tries to get rid of the evidence, but doesn’t have a chance… especially when someone switches the salt and sugar (salt was the weakness for the creatures), and creates the mess of causing all the things to merge together into a huge jellyfish-like creature, which immediately attacks the girls. Though they try to take it on, they must rely on the Otome Nao showing up and taking care of the monster.

Ranma ½ S3 8- After receiving yet another punishment from Happosai for interfering with his “duty”, Genma and Soun run away for a few days. Meanwhile, with the problem of Happosai raiding the girls at school, Ranma and Akane decide to do something about it on their own. At home, Genma and Soun have returned, and revealed that they were off learning “ninja tricks” to defeat Happosai. However, when they start applying said tricks, they all seem to fail, and therefore Ranma and Akane go to work. Their plan: after Ranma distracts Happosai, Akane switches the panties for jockstraps… and when Happosai learns of this, he weakens considerably, and Ranma doesn’t let him get a break. It is at this point that Genma and Soun show back up, and reveal the ultimate technique of the ninja tricks: invisibility. The only problem: they can’t attack while they’re in that mode, and Happosai soons finds them, as a battle between all of them breaks out. In the end, Genma and Soun take a beating, and learn something else: that the one who taught them the ninja tricks probably trained with Happosai. This of course causes them to kiss ass to both of them, as they’re forced to cart the two to a girl’s dorm now…

Fate/Stay Night 10- Shirou ends up managing to convince his teacher to let him skip a day; he uses that day to train with Saber. Saber demonstrates she is clearly superior to him, but Shirou refuses to give up, despite the beatings he’s taking. Even though Shirou keeps wanting to spar, Saber tells him that he’s soon going to be pushing his body too much, and after initial disagreement, Shirou finally gives in and goes on lunch break. While out in town, he comes across Illya, and instead of acting like a cold Master, she hangs with him and seems to be like a normal little girl. However, even she ends up having to return, and this reminds Shirou it’s long past time he was back. Of course, when he arrives, he goes to take a shower and bumps into a naked Saber; after that encounter, and later on, Rin starts training him in magic, working with reinforcing objects currently.

DTB 2- With the girl (Chiaki now accompanying Li, the two go back to the apartments, only for Chiaki to find hers completely trashed. Thus, she ends up staying the night with him. At morning, after the two go for a meal, Chiaki says that she’ll give him the info of Louise… and after she blanks out for a moment, she goes to the restroom as a guy talks to Li about how he’s perfect for this job, but questions why he just didn’t kill her already. Chiaki comes back, and Li notices that the Contractors are already on their tails, and thus he runs with Chiaki as they’re pursued. They manage to escape temporarily, and that’s when Chiaki gives the info; after Li gets it, he leaves her behind as the other contractors appear. It then turns out that Chiaki’s body is found floating dead in a stream. Meanwhile, Li is pursued by the others, and now wears the trenchcoat as he fights the others. However, he is chot from behind, and by Chiaki; it turns out that Chiaki is merely a Doll with her memories. Of course, problem number two is that Li’s trenchcoat is bullet proof, and the Contractors are quickly taken out by him as he turns out to be a Contractor as well. However, one who has matter transposition remains, and the Doll Chiaki sacrifices herself to save Li. That one runs; but Li soon catches up to him. Later on, the police find the body floating in the water, and it turns out the info Li had was false.

At this point, I’d like to note that Jeff decided to try an episode of Indian Summer, but it seems that most of the guys couldn’t handle it… so onto:
Black Cat 1- In a rather corrupt town, Sven is a sweeper; i.e. bounty hunter. The mayor that’s running is rather corrupt, and Sven intends to bring him in. Meanwhile, there have been other murders in the city, completed by a an assassin known as Black Cat (Train Heartnet), who has roman numeral XIII tattooed on his chest. Meanwhile, Sven takes care of some goons at the bar, he’s informed about the governor, and decides to get into his party. While in the washroom, Sven has a vision of the governor being killed in five minutes. Sven tries to stop it, but the Black Cat is just too good, especially since using his eye to see visions drains his strength. However, he does manage to get a look at the Cat’s tattoo, and outside, Trains defeat a boomerang-wielding bodyguard, pinning him against a tree. Sven wants answers, but gets none; someone else who seems to be a fanatic of Train shows up and kills the guy pinned to a tree. When Sven goes to an informant, before he’s completely kicked out, he learns that XIII is one of the deadliest assassins for the secret organization known as Chronos, and that he should stay as far away from them as possible. Menahwile, Train has visions of those he shot, mixed with his childhood, and is interrupted by a woman in a kimono singing…

Rollcall:
Jeff
Erin
Tom
Steve
Andy