According to Qifrey, Agott has not taken the second test. She’s not ready. How does Agott respond? She immediately slaps his hand away. She’s not quite yelling, but she’s clearly angry. Qifrey still isn’t convinced, but he hesitates. He isn’t firm. So Olruggio comes along and says that he’ll take Agott with him. And just like that, the rest of the girls want to come along as well. Bro, c’mon. This is an actual rescue mission. In other words, a life is at stake. A kid’s life! Yeah, Agott needs opportunities, but this isn’t the time for her to be testing her limits. Qifrey is not only the adult, he’s also her teacher, role model, mentor, etc. He should be putting his foot down. A person’s life is not something to trifle with, but he just lets her talk her way onto the mission? That’s baffling to me. This is the guy every other anime fan is glazing? He just looks cool, but otherwise, he’s a complete boyfailure. In desperate situations, the anime gives him every opportunity to farm aura, but he can’t even do the basic things right. He can’t control his apprentices. In fact, maybe if he had been more attentive to Agott’s needs, we wouldn’t be in this mess of a situation.

Hmm, hmm, hmm… what Qifrey’s saying makes sense. So has he invented a spell to keep an eye on his students yet? I mean, I’m just saying… after the latest incident with the Brimmed Caps, I hope everyone has learned their lesson. And of course, I don’t mean just Coco. Qifrey’s carelessness is a huge concern going forward. I feel as though I have to push back on this guy, because everyone else is just singing his praises nonstop. Y’know, this is despite the fact that, well, he’s downright irresponsible. “He is him,” “He’s so amazing,” “He’s so nice,” yadda yadda yadda. Needless to say, I wouldn’t trust the average anime fan to watch a kid if this is how they see Qifrey.

The girls keep running in circles. They come to the realization that they’re trapped in a very small, enclosed space. Maybe even a pocket dimension! Luckily, what Coco spotted in last week’s episode — y’know, before Agott had her (admittedly valid) crash-out — might just be the Casting Seal keeping them trapped here.

Coco wants to redo the seal on the shoes Agott had lent her, but she still can’t draw steady lines. As we saw last week, give her tools similar to what you would find in dressmaker’s shop and she excels. Give her standard pens and she doesn’t excel. Only now does Qifrey finally decide to take Coco shopping. He’ll finally let her pick out her own writing instrument, which feels like what he should’ve done in the first place. I dunno about this guy, man. Even if I assume his intentions are good, he seems like a sloppy instructor in general. He does not strike me as an adult who has it together. If it weren’t for his looks (I’m told he resembles a certain beloved JJK character) and his VA, would viewers be so tolerant of his foibles?

When the episode opens, Qifrey meets with a fellow witch named Alaira. They have a bit of catching up as they descend into the watery depths where an entire city lives among the whales. Qifrey tells Alaira that Coco isn’t his official apprentice yet, because you gotta pass your tests first. Unfortunately, it’s a bad time for one of them. So bad, you could even die. Welp, it’s a good thing he entrusted Coco to Agott! Surely, nothing bad can happen while he’s gone! I mean, yeah, Agott looked a little surly the last time he was there, but, um, she’s always like that! She would never, ever endanger an apprentice-to-be!