Chapter 31 - The Trap
Kenmochi reports the destruction of the escort vehicles to Kaieda, suggesting to him that it was a set-up. Kaieda orders him to find and stay with Mai, then heads to the hotel himself.
Mineo and Ron are waiting for Mai in the car, while she has gone up to the hotel room with Madarao. Ron growls as she knocks on the door. The servant from the Ambassador's residence answers her, leading her inside to Garten. Mai and Madarao are unpleasantly surprised. Garten was the one who had arranged the meeting. The voice on the phone had been a computer-synthesized.
Kaieda is on his way to the hotel, with Tsukiro driving.
Chapter 32 - The Hotel Okurei
Mai and Madarao want to know where Kuju is. Garten tells them that if Mai goes to Switzerland the Wisdom Alliance will search for him. Mai refuses, trusting in Kaieda's words that the Wisdom Alliance is evil, and bot wanting to leave her friends.
Kenmochi comes across Mineo and Ron in the car. Ron runs off, and Kenmochi and the driver follow him to the room where Mai is. Kenmochi punches the servant; Ron runs to Mai; Garten blasts a hole through the driver's head. Madarao tells Mai to run away, and shoots an arrow at Garten; she bends it back. Garten telepathically threatens to kill Mai if she leaves the room. Mai informs her that she doesn't have the power to do so. Garten proposes to find out! She blasts Madarao and Kenmochi.
Kaieda arrives at the hotel in an armoured truck, just in time to see Madarao blasted out of the window. (The room is on the seventh floor!) He sends Tsukiro up to the room.
Mai and Ron are running down the stairs, pursued by a determined Garten.
Chapter 33 - Escape
Mai and Garten are still running down the stairs. Tsukiro is running through the hotel lobby - and scaring the hell out of all the patrons. He runs past Mai, confronting Garten at the bottom of the stairs. Garten tries to blast him, but he blocks her with his artificial arm, revealing the machinery beneath the layer of false skin. He punches at her, just missing as she throws herself to the side, escaping past him
Mai and Ron escape through the basement, Garten still in pursuit.
Garten complains telepathically that Mai has never used her powers in front
of her and she wants to know why, declaring that they have the power of
gods - that they are gods! She decides to force Mai to use her powers,
but loses track of her when she squirms through a hedge. Mai has
ended up next to a stranger's house, and goes to apologize for the intrusion
- and discovers her father there, in a wheelchair.
Chapter 34 - And the Father Is...
Mai rushes to greet her father, but he doesn't react to her at all. Miyuki Ise comes down the stairs (making Mai think of her mother) and informs her that he doesn't understand her - he's suffering from amnesia. She invites Mai to stay.
Kaieda and Mineo find Madarao in the branches of a tall tree. Kaieda tells Madarao not to worry, but then Tsukiro comes out of the hotel with an injured Kenmochi draped over his shoulder.
Miyuki tells Mai that her father was found wandering around the Togakushi mountains. He will be fully recovered from his injuries in a month's time.
Otto Garten chastises Garten for returning home late from the Tokyo
Symphony concert the night before, and makes her apologize to her mother.
He then reminds her about the part being held by the minister of foreign
affairs that night. They arrive at the New Koei Hotel later that
evening, with Garten wearing ballroom-gown-like pants. The photographers
take lots of pictures.
Chapter 35 - The Garten Sanction
Garten poses for all the photographers, then blows up their van leaving only a single polaroid of herself undestroyed. One of Kaieda's men picks it up off the floor. Kenmochi (his head is wrapped in bandages) delivers it to Kaieda. Garten Garten is to be eliminated within the next twenty-four hours.
Mai wants to take her father home, but Miyuki advises against it, warning of the dangers
Garten is shopping in a department store. She's being watched.
Kenmochi orders her termination upon confirmation of her identity.
The sniper has her in his sights.
Chapter 36 - The Bent Trajectory
Mai warns Garten of the assassin. Garten bends the path of the bullet; it lodges in the wall behind her. Garten tells the assassin telepathically that if her mother hadn't been there she would have blown him up with the entire building he was on - and if he tries it again, he's dead. He's rather surprised, and reports his failure to Kenmochi, who isn't happy.
Kaieda wants Mai found. Mineo asks to join the search as she knows
Ron - and Ron could find Mai. Kaieda agrees. Kenmochi wants
to use Mai to lure Garten into a trap. Mineo finds Ron, and two of
Kaieda's men chase him around the block, only to find him in Mineo's arms.
They follow him back through the hedge to Miyuki's house, and Mai and her
father.
Chapter 37 - Target: Shuichi
Mineo asks Mai to come back to see Kaieda. Mai doesn't want to leave her father, but Miyuki promises to look after him while she's gone.
Kenmochi wants to assassinate Garten at Miyuki's mansion.
The Ambassador's servant is talking with a member of the Wisdom Alliance. The orders have been changed: Garten is to terminate Mai and her father. Garten agrees to do so within twenty-four hours. Ryu however believes that if Mai is truly Maki's daughter, Garten won't stand a chance!
Kaieda warns Mai that her father could be Garten's next target as he
knows some secret about the Wisdom Alliance Mai is returned to Miyuki's
home, but sneaks out to go to Ambassador Garten's residence. Kenmochi's
ambush has lost its lure. She wants to ask Garten a question.
Garten wants to know where Kuju is. She challenges Mai to try to
stop her from seeing him.
Chapter 38 - To the Skies
Garten's parents are still awake, so she has to sneak out the window. She asks Mai why she saved her in the department store. Mai tells her that she's hurt people and animals with her power in the past; now she has vowed to use it to make people happy. Garten floats out of her window. She informs Mai that one of her ancestors was a god, and most likely one of Mai's was, too. Gods have powers that mere humans cannot imitate. She flies off into the darkness. Mai follows along, below her, but Garten tries to blast her. Garten declares that the power exists to make people obey the will of the gods. Mai just wants to be human.
Kenmochi advises Kaieda of the situation. Kaieda realizes that Mai is trying to protect her father, and warns Kenmochi to be on alert. Kaieda heads towards the girls in his armoured truck.
Garten warns that if Mai doesn't obey her, the war of the gods will
start again. Mai just wants to protect her father. Garten almost
flies into Kaieda's truck. She gets annoyed, and flings it up into
the air. Mai catches it with her power before it lands.
Chapter 39 - Two Aloft
Garten is getting closer to Kuju. She hides in a tree, but Ron barks at her, warning Mai before Garten can do anything. Garten blasts Ron. Mai pick him up, cradling him in her arms
Kaieda is injured and cannot move. He tells Tsukiro not to worry about him, but to follow the girls. Kaieda reminisces.
Miyuki is concerned about Mai's lateness. Kenmochi has Garten in sight, and his troops fire projectiles at her. She kills them.
Mai is flying with Ron in her arms. She asks her mother to protect
her father until she gets there.
Chapter 40 - Garten's Fierce Attack
Garten locates Kuju and tries to blast him, but misses. Miyuki is amazed that Kuju could sense the direction the danger was coming from. Garten tries again, but Miyuki moves his wheelchair out of the way. Garten kills more snipers. Kenmochi reports to Kaieda who orders him to protect Kuju at any cost.
Mai is nearly there. Ron has stopped bleeding.
Garten keeps blasting at Kuju; Miyuki keeps pushing him out of
danger until they end up outside. Kenmochi shoots a hole in Garten's
handbag. She retaliates by blasting a hole through his chest.
Garten tells Miyuki to give up, that there's nowhere left to hide.
Mai arrives and pleads with Garten to let her die instead of her father.
Garten declares that she has won the duel, and that Mai must watch her
kill him!