Science! But does it have a dolphin inside it?! Yeah, I didn’t think so. 1-0, humanity over Gary Stus.

— Sayaka notices a suspicious-looking girl in the crowd; this girl’s obviously a spy looking to steal precious secrets! It later turns out spy girl had a wireless password breaker in her hands. Seriously, a wireless password breaker. Since it’s so goddamn wireless, I can’t help but wonder why she had to be so close to the actual demonstration itself and thus arouse suspicions. But maybe the wireless signal’s just bad.

— Turns out spy girl’s name is Chiaki, though we’ve already seen her lurking about in last week’s episode. Still, I can’t wait to see why she’s in cahoots with the evil Chinese baddies. No doubt a cute girl like herself is just misguided.

— Sayaka tries to warn Chiaki that getting involved with spies is a mistake: “I don’t know who they are, but cut ties with them immediately.” Oh c’mon, we all know who the spies are.

— Spy girl openly admits, however, that she is working with evil spies. Really? I seriously thought she’d try to proclaim her innocence, ’cause hey, they have no proof that she’s actually holding a wireless password breaker. It could’ve been a cellphone. They have no proof either that she was spying on anything. She could’ve just been texting a friend. But nope, nope, just come right out and admit you’re working with evil spies. Hilarious. And by hilariously, I mean this is some seriously pathetic storytelling.

— And as a result, spy girl gives Sayaka and Takeaki a reason to act on the girl. Luckily for her, she’s full of contraptions. Apparently, she has both a flash bang and a dart that can and will eject a ton of purple tear gas into the immediate vicinity. Yeah, that tiny, little dart held all that gas inside it. Y-you guys know gas takes up a ton of volume, right?

— Then after the gas dissipates, you expect to see that the spy girl had already made her escape. I mean, why would you use both a flash bang and tear gas if not to conceal your getaway? But no, we see the girl still standing there. Then she slowly backs away from her would-be captors while they just sit there and gawk at her. Fucking kill me, please.

— Thankfully, Leo comes out of nowhere to take the girl down. Great form. That’s how we tackle, boys! But apparently, he tackled her so hard, she has to stay in the infirmary. And hey, this gives us an excuse to introduce the hot, sexy nurse, ’cause every school needs a hot, sexy nurse.

— Good lord, take a gander at this creepy-looking dude. Apparently, he’s on the Disciplinary Committee and he’s butting heads with Erika and Leo because they’re Course Two students. Kanon tells him to back off, however, because the protection duty will be handl–… y’know, I’m putting myself to sleep. A bunch of people argue about something stupid. In the end, Erika and Leo take their leave. Who cares? It’s inconsequential.

— As Erika and Leo are taking their leave, the girl pointedly asks the guy if he’s free. He says yes. So they leave. Okay then.

— We return to spy girl just to see that the hot, sexy nurse has her pinned down. Kanon interrogates spy girl, and it turns out she was not actually trying to steal anything. Rather, she wanted to sabotage Tatsuya’s presentation…? Wait, no, even the girl admits that our Gary Stu would never allow his presentation to be sabotaged. So instead, all she wanted to do was to make him panic. Seriously? You think our Gary Stu would panic? Silly girl! Robots don’t panic!

— Still, why is she doing this? What is Chiaki after? Why does she hate the Gary Stu so much? She’s a girl in his universe, so shouldn’t she be enamored with him?! Well, it turns out she’s the younger sister of a girl who had had an accident in a Mirage Bat event. Naturally, Chiaki blames her sister’s injury all on Tatsuya! Tatsuya didn’t, of course, screw her sister over, but he could’ve prevented it! He could’ve!!! Yeah, it’s dumb. The creator of this show can’t even come up with a compelling reason, so instead, we’ll just go with the “Bitches be crazy” cliche. It’s easy enough, ’cause hey, she’s crazy! No logical explanation needed!

— The anime returns to Erika and Leo, and they are headed somewhere. Erika thinks Chiaki is nothing more than a decoy, so Leo goes, “You want me to play detective…?” Erika replies, “As if. We can just leave all the thinking to Tatsuya.” Even the characters have finally realized what show they’re in.

— Where is this episode goinnnnnnng? This feels so aimless. Erika is now talking about how Leo needs a trump card, i.e. something that can “kill your opponent for sure.” Blah. It’s funny, actually. I think Tatsuya has had only a single line or two in this entire episode. You’d think that would be a net positive for the show. Like addition by subtraction. But the side characters are just shitting the bed.

— I mean, think about it… evil Chinese spies have infiltrated the country, and yet this arc has been boring as all hell. I dare say it’s even more boring than the previous two arcs. Somehow. Don’t ask me how, but it is. It feels like nothing is happening whatsoever. Nothing happened in the first two arcs either, but nothing is happening here to an even greater extent. It’s inexplicable! There’s no drama, tension or anything. Usually with these stories — or any story for that matter — both sides are in a race to get something done. Both sides are in a race to achieve their goals. There’s no such race here. There’s no sense of urgency. There’s no “We gotta do this or we’re screwed.” Tatsuya’s just doing his own thing, and the evil Chinese spies are doing their own thing. We’re not waiting for the climax to happen. We’re waiting for the fucking story to happen.

— And because there’s no sense of urgency, we can sit around and listen to Erika and Leo discuss how he lacks “a technique designed to kill.” Guess what, dude? I don’t care. You were practically invisible for 90% of the story. Why the fuck would I care about you now?

— Blah blah blah, Erika will teach Leo all about the Secret Sword, Usuba Kagerou.

— We then cut to Tatsuya and his cronies walking down the street, talking about Chiaki. Fuck me, man. Fuck me. This is exactly what I’m talking about. These assholes have all the time in the world to just screw around, ’cause there’s nothing to worry about. There’s no race to the finish. There’s no “We gotta stop the bad guys now or more people will get hurt.” So as a result, scenes after scenes of people talking. It’s the 21st fucking episode. We are a month away from the finale. A month away, and the story is worse than it has ever been.

— The anime cuts to the evil Chinese baddies, and they, too, are sitting around, talking about Chiaki failing. TALKING ABOUT CHIAKI FAILING. YOU’RE FUCKING CHINESE SPIES, DO SOMETHING. DO. SOMETHING.

— Sitting around and talking all day makes me a dull anime. Sitting around and talking all day makes me a dull anime. Sitting around and talking all day makes me a dull anime. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

— I’m watching the rest of the anime on x4 speed. I don’t care anymore.

— Tatsuya and his friends have lunch in the cafeteria next day. Yep, it’s more talking. So glad I have this on x4 speed.

— Erika’s naked and showering.

— Oh, Tatsuya and friends are talking about Erika and Leo. I see glasses girl is blushing, too. Everyone’s probably sex-shaming those two.

— Leo walked in on Erika. She slaps him. That’s as much conflict as you’ll get in this episode. Still, my decision to watch this on x4 has paid off tremendously. I’ve saved so much time.

— We catch Leo as he takes a break from training to… SIT DOWN AND TALK. I see flashbacks to the Monolith Code event so even though I can’t hear what they’re saying, I’m more than certain they’re not even discussing anything new.

— Leo suddenly stands up and turns this piece of cloth into a weapon. No, really. Erika is happy to see him working so hard, though. See, you don’t even need to hear the dialogue to understand this shitty fucking show.

— Afterwards, we get shots of Jumanji and Mikihiko briefly training. Then Mizuki gives Mikihiko some onigiri. They then blush because their hands briefly touched. She gets so embarrassed, she tries to run away. She trips, however, so he catches her… BY THE BOOBS. And that’s how the episode ends. That’s how the 21st episode ends. Chinese badmen in the country? Fuck that, gimme a handful of tits instead!