Wrapping itself around the Golden Orb, the Nervalist annelid wastes no time initiating its "This stays right here, interlopers!" attack. Honoka capitalizes upon Itsuki's decoy act and successfully wounds the annelid before helping Akiha transport the Golden Orb to Leopard in spite of Itsuki's injunction. Seeing the Nervalist annelid refuse to accept defeat as it orders the whole facility to give chase, Honoka stays behind and directs Akiha on ahead whose computations on interpreting the circumstances quickly takes a back seat to the converging ICP. The Golden Orb now in place, Leopard prepares to discharge his Golden Soul Shout; an effulgent explosion later, Leopard celebrating his victory with a haiku prompts Imoko to savagely remonstrate the AI entity and Akiha to repudiate Leopard much to Honoka's anguish. Meanwhile, Itsuki's decision to take matters into her own hands in spite of being read the riot act inspires the ICP powers-that-be to charge Bougainvillea and Mintao Itsuki's capture, the first attempt thereof blowing up in their face thanks to Itsuki's supervisor Nina. Even with her undercover alias Mutsumi Shimoyama, Itsuki demonstrates several times that she needs to be polished in several areas. Unfortunately, Honoka still sees the entire ICP as her enemy and decides to confront Itsuki by first luring her to the roof for a one-on-one duel. Shocked at the temerity behind Honoka's absolute neutrality injunction considering the damage caused thus far, Akiha intercedes with a "Stop this at once!" smack to both Honoka and Itsuki.
