Whoa, that episode was full of surprises – in so many ways. Not least, how serious it was – there wasn’t anywhere close to the roughly 70-30 mix of screwball comedy to action and drama here – closer to 90-10 in the other direction.

First off, we were treated to none other than Masou Shoujo Yuu. That was unexpected, and she certainly looked a damn sight better than Ayumu in that dress, even with her gauntlets. With her dear servant in deadly jeopardy Yuu got very serious – she actually spoke, though we didn’t get to hear it. Her attack was pretty straightforward – just say “Die” over and over and Magical Kyoko would take terrible damage. But Kyoko has the distinct advantage of being insane, to she tore her own eardrums. It’s that easy to defeat Yuu’s attacks? Apparently so.

Fortunately, Ayumu stepped up to the plate once Kyoko put Yuu down. His attack was almost as simple – take whatever damage Kyoko could dish out while not dying, and steal her lives one by one. Which of course he did – stripping her down to her last life with a little speech about all those people whose lives she stole must have felt at the time. That seems to be that until Instructor Dai shows up for her tofu, and reveals that Kyoko was one of her students. She’s about to take Kyoko with her for some re-training when a black mist possesses Kyoko – and that turns out to be the King of the Night, a zombie that Yuu raised and later killed after he was consumed by hatred. KotN steals Kyoko’s body and leaves Instructor Dai rather pissed off, and the others head back home to try and brave Haruna’s cooking. There’s also a very weird sort of steampunk giant pig scene after the ED, but I have no clue what that was all about…

Good stuff, all told. Yuu is a fascinating character, though it is a little lame that all one has to do is deafen oneself to defeat her awesome power (and the nuns on “Index” already pulled that stunt this season anyway). It seems as if the arc concerned with Ayumu finding closure surrounding his death is over, at least for now. There was a real melancholy to the scene where he finally confronted Kyoko and took her down – it wasn’t triumphant but rather quite tragic. All that leads me to believe even more what I’ve already opined – this is a tragedy posing as a comedy.