We are brothers.
I didn’t really want to tell you this, because the closer you are to the truth, the nearer you will be to insanity.
J turns away from Fujimaru and continues bitterly,
You must feel terrible, losing your closest friend. There are just too many things we want to protect.
Letting out a mocking chuckle, J gets up to leave.
“Wait!” Fujimaru tries to stop J and successfully pins him to the wall. “Oh, forgot to tell you, I just gave your sister a shot,” taking out a tube and waving it in front of Fujimaru, J announces calmly. But there is no look of triumph on his face, only that of pain. Fujimaru is stunned by the sudden news, then anger and fear quickly filled him. He lets go of J at once and runs out to check on Hakura.
Hakura is fine. But when Fujimaru returns to the living room, J is long gone. (Slick!)
THIRD-i’s success at stopping a bloody Monday massacre from taking place received the government official’s appraisal. Agent Goro is put back in charge. 😀 Before further arrangement can be established, the meeting is interrupted by a nervous agent. (The shocked looks at this inappropriate intrusion are priceless!)
What kind of commotion could motivate an agent to interrupt a highly secretive meeting held in the most secure THIRD-i conference room? Turns out, Maya had walked herself in the THIRD-i front door, completely unarmed and bearing gifts.
She claims to have come to THIRD-i’s aid by bringing with her both the Bloody-X virus and the antidote.
But, there is a catch.
Maya wants Falcon present before she reveals any information. She trades in Kamishima Shimon’s cold, bloody, dead body as a token of good will, then sits back and waits for her request to be granted. So Fujimaru, who’s been thinking long and hard about Otoya being J’s brother, comes to the investigation room to face another onslaught of gruesome truths.
Maya claims to be hired to do a job, but things went south. So she came to THIRD-i to negotiate protection. Her bargaining chip is the fact that the terrorists in captivity are held by faith and will not yield to anything. She, however, responds only to money and is therefore free to spill everything she knows about the terrorist organization. The very first thing she’s ready to disclose is this: Fujimaru’s father had just kidnapped Fujimaru’s friend Anzai Mako.
Why her? Because Mako accidentally found out about the terrorist group’s biggest secret — a person, far more dangerous, far more foxy than J. (How can she accidentally find out about something so big.) Now, her life is on the line. When asked about the identity of the secret person, Maya replies,
His name is K, the 11th letter in the alphabet. J’s kinsman.
While J appears to be the leader of the cult, K is the real mastermind. Takagi-kun, don’t you want to know who K is? K is one of your classmates.
With Maya’s information and J’s revelation, a seemingly coherent picture is puzzled together.
Kujo Otoya’s mother was in the same cult that belonged to the now deceased Kamishima Shimon 20 years ago; then, after the cult disintegrated, she committed suicide. The record connects Otoya to the terrorist group and makes him the primary suspect, much to Fujimaru’s exasperation.
Mako, on the other hand, is still in Takagi Ryonosuke’s hands.
An interrogation on Otoya takes place immediately. At the same time, Otoya’s grandfather, the Minister of Justice, is confronted regarding his daughter’s involvement in Kamishima’s cult. (How did that creepy cult leader seduce a supposedly well-educated, Minister of Justice’s daughter?)
(And Maya is getting her laugh of the day for spreading the seeds of mischief. Naughty, naughty!)
The results came back consistent. Both the grandson and grandfather acknowledge the mother’s involvement with the cult and accept the possibility that Otoya and J might be brothers begotten by Kamishima. But that is all. (In passing: Kami-shima(神島) , I never realized how much I liked saying his name. It’s got a ring to it, Kami(god/神)-Shima(island/島) — God Island! Ha! Ok, getting back to the recap. 😛 )
To ascertain Otoya’s innocence, he is left alone in the interrogation room with Fujimaru. After a pause, Fujimaru starts, “It definitely has nothing to do with you.” Perhaps a little too loudly, perhaps a little too certain, the voice sounds strange even to Fujimaru’s ears. “Do you really believe what you said?” Otoya asks quietly. Fujimaru fidgets. “Yes.” comes the curt reply almost immediately. “Then, why is our conversation being bugged?” Fujimaru clenches his jaw, takes a moment to concoct a response, then smiles broadly at Otoya, “What are you talking about?” Only, his smile freezes at the half way point. “Hah”, Otoya laughs bitterly, “maybe there is a recording device after all. I was just testing when I suggested it.” Moving away from the device, Fujimaru bends down to address Otoya fully, “I don’t want to do this. But at this point, I have to.” Otoya looks up. Fujimaru continues, “My father, he kidnapped Mako… I can’t lose another friend… If you know anything about that, please tell me.” Otoya’s initial surprise is soon tinted by a look of loss, maybe even disappointment. He says sadly, “You don’t believe me, do you? Regarding Mako, I know nothing. Satisfied?” At that moment, two agents walk in to lead Otoya away, leaving Fujimaru to ponder over his choices.
Having catalyzed a drama between two best friends, Maya gets back on track and explains her intention. She came to earn THIRD-i’s trust, once she has their trust, she plans to return to the terrorist group and spy for THIRD-i. (If not double spying.) She reveals that there is a certain box, containing an unnamed entity far worse than Bloody-X. Only J and K knows the content of that box. If she were to go back, she will cooperate with THIRD-i and prevent a disaster from happening.
Meanwhile, Fujimaru receives a call from Aoi.
She tells him that Mako’s cell phone was turned off, but in the last few hours, the phone has been turned back on, except no one picks up the phone. The information gives Fujimaru hope to save his friend. He pulls out his computer and sits down to trace Mako’s whereabouts through the weak signal emitted from her cell phone.
Maya returns to the printing factory where the terrorists reside and is immediately surrounded with guns pointing to her head. Unafraid, she justifies her absence with two pieces of news 1) K has been captured and 2) Kamishima is dead.
That, perks J’s attention. He orders Bluebird to hack into the THIRD-i’s secure database to confirm Kamishima’s death. When pictures of the thought-to-be crime scene are pulled up on the monitor, exclamations of shock and grief filter the room. A glimpse of sadness glides across J’s eyes like a passing meteor. He chuckles sardonically and turns to Maya, “Is this your doing?” “J, it is you.” Maya speaks coldly, “J killed him. I came to tell you, you’ve all been fooled.” J smiles sadly and asks, “You have any proof?”
“Wait, there’s something below the report…” Bluebird interjects and all attention return to the projector. Below Kamishima’s death report is a short paragraph describing an eye witness account of seeing someone resembling J appearing at the crime scene.
“I see. You’ve been working with THIRD-i. No, K has.” J announces. Then turning away from Maya, he says, “It’s up to you guys to believe me or not. There’s no time to waver, we’ve still got K. If this is what K wants, I will submit to the wish.” Pausing slightly, J continues, “Open the box. It is K’s command.”
After ample time for contemplation, the Minister of Justice decides to cooperate. The first question he answers to is: Is your grandchild the leader of the terrorist group? And the answer is, yes.
Mako’s cell phone signal leads Falcon and Aoi to a deserted church…
The second question: Is Kujo Otoya Kamishima’s son? The answer is, no. Otoya is the illegitimate son his daughter had with his secretary.
Standing at the altar, Takagi Ryonosuke points the gun at Anzai Mako’s head.
Back in THIRD-i, the corrupted film of the massacre in the Russia church has been fully recovered. Inside it, holds the truth to everything.
As Fujimaru approaches his father to prevent another death, a third person fires and knocks the gun out of Ryonosuke’s hand. Fujimaru and his father look up at the same time and see Maya, leaning against a pole on the second floor, smiling down at them.
Temporarily putting Maya out of mind, Fujimaru shakes his father by the shoulders and begs, “Father, stop. Turn yourself in, please!” “You got it all wrong. I… Just go!” But it’s too late. A little distance away, a tender little hand is pointing the fallen gun at Fujimaru’s head.
“Thank you Takagi-kun, for saving me again. But, bye-bye.” Without a change of expression, without a moment of hesistation, Anzai Mako pulls the trigger.
In that instant, Ryonosuke jumps in Fujimaru’s direction, knocks him over and takes the bullet for his son. Collapsing before his wounded father, Fujimaru screams at Mako, “WHY?!”
Upstairs, Maya watches the entire exchange with amusement, “Your classmate is asking you a question, K.”
—
I obviously enjoyed the previous episode enough to want to watch and recap this one so quickly.
Even though the highlight of this episode is the issue of trust and betrayal, what I liked most about it is J’s emotional display. J has established his imagine as a happy-go-lucky, nonchalant but extremely calculating and dangerous person. (Which leaves me to wonder exactly how capable is K to be able to govern over J. As far as I know, she is definitely cruel enough to kill her father, however little attachment existed between them.) This episode really delved into his characterization and brought forth a more humane side of J.
What’s most appealing about this new angle is J’s vulnerability. It made him appear to be more than just a misguided mathmetician and it certainly built up for a final (and hopefully convincing) revelation. (See, I told you, J grows on me!)
brickwall 
wooow so coool