Iron-Blooded Orphans Ep. 39: Counsel

Orga, Dante and Ride say goodbye to Azee and Eco, who are returning to the Turbines. Dante vows that he’ll finally be able to defeat Azee when they next meet, but Eco jokes that it’ll take him years to get to Azee’s level. Elsewhere, Lafter says goodbye to Akihiro and tells him not to be so reckless. He tells her that the only people he trusted to have his back were her and Mikazuki, so he’ll have to think more carefully before acting now that she’s leaving. Lafter is happy to hear that and shakes hands with Akihiro. Iok is angry that Jasley doesn’t want to help him fight Tekkadan, but Jasley explains that he has a more effective strategy in mind. His idea is to attack the power behind Tekkadan: the Turbines. By taking out the Turbines, Tekkadan’s position inside Teiwaz will be weakened. Later, Iok has banned weapons pulled out of storage and won’t explain to his subordinates what they’re for. Julieta asks Iok to let her come along so she can test her new suit, which he agrees to. Iok vows to take responsibility for everything as long as his men blindly follow his orders. Rustal tells Vidar that he doesn’t know what to do with Iok because he doesn’t want strength from him. He says that Iok’s words inspire passion in people, but none of this would be necessary if Vidar would take off his mask. Vidar answers that he’s indebted to Rustal for saving his life, but he can’t take off his mask until he understand McGillis’ intentions. Isurugi reports to McGillis that Iok has been harassing the Turbines and shutting down all their secret routes. He also mentions that Iok took something from Warehouse 4 before leaving, which McGillis says is a Dainsleif. He explains that it’s a powerful railgun banned by Gjallarhorn, and the Gundam Flauros has that type of railgun but used a conventional warhead when fighting the Hashmal. McGillis sees that ancient banned weapons are coming back and tells Isurugi to call their comrades because the time has come to rise up. He tells himself that if Vidar is who he thinks, then Rustal already has him by the neck. As the Isaribi heads toward Saisei, Mikazuki is able to float in zero gravity with full use of his limbs thanks to a cable connecting him to the Alaya-Vijnana System in the Barbatos Lupus. Atra brings him some food and talks about the Turbines and their babies. She recalls her earlier conversation with Kudelia and explains that the shop manager she worked for had a baby to force her husband to settle down. That’s why she wanted Kudelia to have a baby with Mikazuki. Kudelia asked why Atra doesn’t have a child with him herself, but she answered that she wasn’t good enough. Kudelia told Atra that she was amazing, so Atra decided they should both work hard to tie Mikazuki down. Atra nervously talks to Mikazuki about how cute babies are, and he comments that their lumpy wrists look like ham. Atra is upset by that and puts the food beyond his reach because his cable to the Gundam is stretched to the limit.

On the Hammerhead, Eco is happy that she’s finally found the right settings for Lafter’s new Hekija mobile suit. Amida thanks them for the hard work and says they should’ve gotten rest first, and Lafter answers that moving around stops her from fretting. Amida comments that a lot must have happened while they lived with Tekkadan, but Azee is nervous and doesn’t know what to say. Amida relays the news to Naze, and he sees that the time has come for Lafter to be taken by another man. He says that Lafter and the others aren’t just wives to him, but also like daughters. So if one of them picks someone from Tekkadan, it means they grew up knowing what to look for in a man. Amida notes that Naze is still drinking the same cheap liquor from when they first met, but he tells her that he likes it. She recalls their first meeting at a bar in a Martian spaceport, when he hired her for a job as a mercenary mobile suit pilot. Amida defended his ship and the goods he was trafficking, and soon their relationship become more than professional. Amida also worked with women on the run who found jobs doing dangerous, low pay work in long-distance freight hauling. Naze wanted to help, so he started the Turbines and took those women in as nominal wives, but he also gave them jobs. To protect the women, he joined Teiwaz so that he’d have a strong backer at his side. Over time, Naze brought in the women from all those freight companies and increased the Turbines’ ranks to 50,000 employees along their transportation network. Naze recalls telling Orga once that what he had in Tekkadan weren’t comrades, but family. Tekkadan reminds Naze of younger versions of themselves, and he thinks he got as far as he did because the Turbines taught him what family means. An emergency announcement comes in that their ships and transportation offices are being investigated by Gjallarhorn. Mikazuki meets with McMurdo in his office and eats cannolis while McMurdo lavishes him with praise for beating the Hashmal. McMurdo is informed that Naze has gone missing after a banned Dainsleif was found on one of his ships. Orga speaks to McGillis and asks for help, but McGillis explains that there isn’t much he can do because it’s out of his jurisdiction. Jasley gloats at the impending fall of the Turbines. Amida tells Naze that someone betrayed him and wonders if it’s Jasley, but he considers the possibility that it’s also McMurdo. Naze receives a frantic call from Orga and tells him to stay out of it. The Turbines are an illegal organization now, so associating with them would hurt Tekkadan. Orga thinks it’s Tekkadan’s fault because of the Gundam Flauros’ railguns, but Naze explains that that’s simply the means chosen to frame the Turbines. Whoever set this trap wants Tekkadan to step in, so Naze wants Orga to stay out of it. He states that though they exchanged cups during the Sakazuki blood oath, they’re not family, and the family Orga has to protect is Tekkadan.