Recap: Hakaze confronts Yoshino on the emotionless nature that he handled Aika’s death. As Hanamura explains his reasoning for Yoshino being the mysterious boyfriend, Mahiro simply refuses to believe it. In the end, Yoshino’s suffering causes Hakaze to do something drastic.

Finally, we have the mage fight the OP had been teasing us with all this time. Leave it to Tempest to then make the first half of the episode so visceral that the fight becomes merely ancillary to the events as a whole. Even with the later events in the episode, what stuck out to me most was the slow revelation of Yoshino’s psyche. I can understand where he comes from on the concept of loss, how it can feel easier to try and forget. Sadness isn’t going to bring the dead back to life. Yet behind that we find a man deeply broken by what happened, simply suffering quietly by himself so that no one else has to suffer for him. His face upon confronting his true feelings about the death of his love is truly a haunting image.

Still, not to get too depressed, the fight was pretty awesome. There was some pretty great choreography that shows this is the BONES we know and love. Once and for all I can finally squash the weird idea Life had in his head that the Mage of Exodus had been held up by wires like in a stage show. While I still think my theory as to why he can fly in the first place makes sense, I’m not sure how Hakaze comes across the same powers. I suppose she could use defensive spells to repel herself from the ground, but it seems strange that she’d have such great control over it. This new Hakaze is almost scary to watch as she is finally completely devoted to Yoshino in spite of the Genesis.

With Yoshino by himself, I could easily see him going back to Mahiro and confronting his long-hidden feelings. It’s been too long since those characters have been able to interact so it would be interesting to see how the dynamic flows now. As is to be expected, this was another fantastic episode, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.