Star Driver Ep. 24: Eastern Shrine Maiden

Takuto and Sugata walk into the classroom and Wako asks them if they trained that morning. Sugata and Keito briefly look at each other. Takuto tells Keito she looks happy and asks if something happened to her. Ruri talks to Wako about Takuto and Keito appearing closer these days and Takuto working at the karaoke place. At lunch, the Headmaster asks Takuto, Sugata and a boy named Matsuyama if he can join them for lunch. Also with him is Miss Ishino, one of the teachers. His knowledge of them impresses them. He asks them to remove the posters for the Drama Club play which is still up. Ishino asks about Sarina and the Headmaster says there are parts of her vision he is unable to understand, but her plays are quite extraordinary. Matsuyama asks Sugata about the kissing scene and he says he wasn’t bothered since it was just acting. Sugata saying he will be able to do what he chooses, reminding Takuto of his friend Natsuo. Elsewhere, Wako eats one of Ruri’s croquettes and briefly discuss Ruri’s boyfriend. Wako says she is lucky when she talks about them kissing. She says he is going to college in Tokyo and wonders if she’ll leave the island and see him there when she graduates. She asks Wako what she is going to do, and if she is going to choose between Takuto and Sugata. Later, Wako encounters Keito in the bathroom and mentions her being tight with Takuto these days. Keito says Takuto is a hard worker and liked by her aunt. She references her preference to go on loving one man in particular and says she is different than Wako and her aunt. Keito encounters Kanako and Simone in the hall. Kanako asks her how she recruited Sugata and the three recognize each other as members of Glittering Crux. Keito won’t say why Sugata joined and to ask him herself. Simone comments on Keito giving off a frightening aura. Meanwhile Reiji waits over Shingo’s bed as Shingo opens his eyes. He says he had a long dream and Reiji asks him about the promise he made to him. Shingo says in his dream he was able to prevent himself from growing up but felt left behind. Shingo tells Reiji he can have his emblem and transfers it to Reiji. Reiji says it is his time to dream. Sarina and Wako’s grandmother notice a sudden change in the wind. Meanwhile Kanako’s husband comments on the downward trend in the financial marked. Ishino comments to the Headmaster about Takuto and Sugata having some turmoil. He thinks they will be fine and that they have the strength to find the resolution to their problem. Sugata, Wako and Takuto look at the sunset and comment on its beauty. The three chuckle over Wako’s stomach growling. Outside, Keito departs from the school. She flashes back to rushing through a storm when she was a kid, and Sugata and Wako failing to hold up a totem pole. Seeing Sugata in danger, the emblem on Wako’s chest glows and raises his protected body from the ground. Back in the present Reiji congratulates Keito and says that Samekh’s driver will now be in attendance at the final festival. The two make the Glittering Crux sign to each other.

Keito stands by the shore, commenting on the autumn wind coming again. Sugata walks up to her as Tiger and Jaguar watch from the woods. Keito tells Sugata this is the ruins of the Eastern Shrine and it was a proper shrine until her great grandmother’s age. She comments on her great grandmother being honored and briefly joking on if they had instead been betrothed. She thinks Sugata would still go on loving Wako even if she disappeared from the world. She says that she was terrified when ‘that man’ found out she was the eastern shrine maiden since he implied he could kills Sugata at any time. Then she realized she could pretend to follow his orders and have her seal nullified so. Sugata says it will be up to the next generation if her seal isn’t nullified. Sugata forms a large ball of energy in his hand but then lets it go away. He turns around to leave and she runs up to him saying she wants him to give her eternity then kisses him. She says the most brilliant star is now shining in her galaxy as the emblem glows on her chest, which she says enables her to cause someone to pledge to her for eternity. As she walks off Sugata tells her to make sure she survives. She says she’ll be fine regardless of what occurs to her from now on. Tiger and Jaguar approach from behind Sugata and he asks if they are going to kill him as they have been given the power to assassinate Samekh’s driver. Tiger starts crying over him mentioning it. Jaguar asks if he answered Keito’s feelings. Meanwhile Takashi gives Kanako a massage on her yacht while Simone brings her something to drink. She calls a captain saying it may be tonight and to proceed as planned if anything happens, including contacting someone at the airport. She says the Zero-Time seal may be nullified tonight and with this island being at zero-point it could undergo drastic physical changes. The volcano nearby could erupt. She says they may need to bring their fellow islanders on this ship in order to evacuate them. She asks for their help in such an emergency. In the Glittering Crux headquarters, Reiji looks at the stone doll representing his cybody and chuckles. Takuto and Wako walk down the beach. Takuto comments on what a relief it is not having to pay Sugata rent and that he’ll return to the dorm soon. He wonders if he will visit Sugata and Wako someday after they are married. Wako says Sugata said the same thing as him. Suddenly they are brought into Zero-Time. The symbol in the sky moves. The Cybody Sinpathy, piloted by Reiji appears before Takuto. Keito removes her mask before Wako and the others, surprising everyone. Kanako realizes Keito is the Eastern Shrine Maiden. Keito looks at Sugata and remembers that it was her who apprivoised to protect Sugata that day in the rain. That day, she rushed up to Sugata and held him up to her, her emblem glowing. When Sugata had awoken, Keito was standing afar. Back in the present, Wako ask Keito what she is doing as a fellow Shrine Maiden. Keito says she isn’t like her and she’s going to give herself entirely to Sugata. Sugata removes his mask. Wako and Sugata are shocked. Keito apprivoises into her Cybody, Hethna. Reiji calls for the Star Sword Turquoise and uses it to attack the Hethna, shattering Keito’s seal. Samekh rises from the ground and Reiji says it shall be resurrected. Takuto shouts out “apprivoiser.”