Reason to Fight (戦う理由 Tatakau Riyū?) is the twelfth episode of Season 2 and the thirty-seventh of overall episode The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.
Synopsis[]
The Wave appears before its scheduled time. Kizuna’s group is teleported to it while Naofumi and his party head for Kyo’s lab on Ethnobalt’s ship. There, they see the true depths of Kyo’s wickedness...[1]
Plot[]
Naofumi and Kyo narrate flashbacks of their respective normal lives in our human world, feeling how boring and tedious they were, before they both were summoned/reincarnated into their current and respective worlds. Time cuts back to present, in Kyo's laboratory, the malevolent Book Hero creating a Catastrophe Wave by himself, which starts instantly and causes Glass' party to teleport to the site of the battle.
Ethnobalt appears in his Vassal Boat to take Naofumi's party to the battle site. Yomogi explains that Kyo used the Spirit Tortoise's stolen power to generate the Wave. Naofumi almost punches her out of fury but is stopped by Raphtalia, and Yomogi explains that she genuinely thought Kyo was trying to stop the waves, but now she knows the truth and pledges her allegiance to Naofumi on Kizuna's behalf. Ethnobalt takes them to Kyo's hideout. Kizuna, Glass, Therese and L'Arc are already occupied facing countless hordes of Hindi mythology monsters. Naofumi's party reaches Kyo's fortress, and Ethnobalt departs to help Kizuna's party. Once inside the enemy laboratory, they are faced with Kazuki's trio of bodyguard girls, all of them mutated into bizarre half-chimeras resembling a mixture of human and Guardian Beast and wielding weapons similar to the parasitic sword which Yomogi used before. Yomogi tries to dissuade them, but Raphtalia's jewel, which was given to her by Therese, rapidly neutralizes them. Naofumi realizes that the parasitic sword is about to self-destruct, and summons several of his Shields to encase and protect his party against the massive explosion.
Kyo himself appears to mock Naofumi, and aside him is Kazuki - or at least what seems to be him - holding a mirror. Yomogi explains that Kazuki is actually dead, his body being just a reanimated homunculus containing the soul of Albert, the Mirror Hero. Kyo leaves letting the reanimated Kazuki attempt to kill them all, but Raphtalia hears Albert begging to be freed (which indicates the Vassal Weapons are somehow resonating with each other). Raphtalia, Filo, Raph-chan, and Yomogi stay behind to take Kazuki on while Naofumi and Rishia go after Kyo. The duo soon reach Kyo in another room which houses all the power stolen from the Spirit Tortoise, but since the Guardian Beast has died along with Ost Horai, he intends to return to Raphtalia's world to collect more power from "some giant bird", which deeply enrages Naofumi.
Naofumi's ire activates the dangerous Wrath Shield, much to Kyo's insane delight. The Book Hero revels on the grief caused on Naofumi due to separating him from Raphtalia and Filo, as well as Ost's death. As he prepares to launch his Blood Sacrifice against Kyo, the Shield's dark influence on Naofumi awakens the Dragon Emperor, who completely takes Naofumi over, while Kyo keeps mocking him for treating his friends as slaves. Rishia tries to calm him down, but Naofumi strangles her, claiming she's just as useless and weak as Raphtalia and Filo were before and shall be killed first. Rishia, however, feels comfortable with Naofumi's coarse words, managing to bring him back to sanity and reassuring that his "slaves" are indeed his treasured friends, Raphtalia, in the meantime, manages to destroy the Kazuki homunculus and free Albert's soul, while Rishia manages to temporarily subdue the Dragon's dark influence on Naofumi.
This pisses Kyo off, who then goes to fight personally. Rishia rapidly reaches and neutralizes Kyo at sword-point, who then launches the Spirit Tortoise's gravity power against her. Rishia once again calls Kyo weak for relying on powers from others. The Dragon tries to influence Naofumi again, but Ost's spirit reminds him of his real task and his friends, repelling the Dragon Emperor completely. The spirit tortoise heart shield reappears along with the equipment and wings, Raphtalia and Filo are shown next to Naofumi, giving him power. Kyo then fires a dark energy beam, which Naofumi counterattacks with a light energy beam. Kyo sees Naofumi wielding the Vassal Mirror, which combines with the Legendary Shield, and fires one last energy beam against him. Naofumi, with all his friends at his side, tells that he does fight for himself in his own free will. Kyo is destroyed, and the Calamity Wave is effectively terminated. Ost's spirit bids them farewell, and Ethnobalt appears.
Kyo is dead, and Yomogi grabs his masterless Book Vassal Weapon. Now the world is at peace for the time being, for there's one month until the next Wave. The Shield's interface shows that the Spirit Tortoise's power has been fully retrieved and within one minute they'll all teleport back to Raphtalia's world, much to Kizuna's sadness. Back home, Naofumi is commended with the title of Viscount by Queen Mirellia herself, and he learned that while the Wave struck Glass's world, another one simultaneously befell Melromarc, but the other three Heroes managed to fight and defeat it. Naofumi's voiceover shows Princess Melty, Beloukas, Granny, Eclair, Ake, Sadeena, Erhard and even Keel, all training hard for the incoming Wave against the Phoenix, the next Guardian Beast to be faced. Naofumi reassures his vow to fight along side his friends... as the Shield Hero!
Characters[]
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Light Novel & Manga Differences[]
- Tsugumi and the rest of the Trash II (Kazuki) group attacked and were captured after attempting to take over the dragon hourglass at L'Arc's castle in the light novel and manga. Here, Kizuna was able to extract the guardian-beast parts. In the anime, they were defeated defending Kyo's lab.
- Kyo now in his soul heads back down the shaft to acquired a new body, but Naofumi destroyed it leaving Kyo as a monstrous spirit for the Hunting Hero to finish him off, but in the anime he's already dead in the explosion.
- In the manga, while Naofumi did use the wrath shield when he fought Kyo, he did not go berserk and did not strangle Rishia either.
- In the manga, before Naofumi and the others went back to their world, he was given some items and souvenirs by Kizuna.
Gallery[]
Trailer[]
Trivia[]
- Bring Back and Gemini from Twilight were used as insert songs in this episode.
- Naofumi’s wrath shield was upgraded even further in this episode, as his rage towards Kyo caused it to evolve.
References[]
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| Season 1 | Episode 1 • Episode 2 • Episode 3 • Episode 4 • Episode 5 • Episode 6 • Episode 7 • Episode 8 Episode 9 • Episode 10 • Episode 11 • Episode 12 • Episode 13 • Episode 14 • Episode 15 • Episode 16 Episode 17 • Episode 18 • Episode 19 • Episode 20 • Episode 21 • Episode 22 • Episode 23 Episode 24 • Episode 25 | |
|---|---|---|
| Season 2 | Episode 26 • Episode 27 • Episode 28 • Episode 29 • Episode 30 • Episode 31 • Episode 32 Episode 33 • Episode 34 • Episode 35 • Episode 36 • Episode 37 • Episode 38 | |
| Season 3 | Episode 39 • Episode 40 • Episode 41 • Episode 42 • Episode 43 • Episode 44 • Episode 45 Episode 46 • Episode 47 • Episode 48 • Episode 49 • Episode 50 | |
| Season 4 | Episode 51 • Episode 52 • Episode 53 • Episode 54 • Episode 55 • Episode 56 • Episode 57 Episode 58 • Episode 59 • Episode 60 • Episode 61 • Episode 62 | |