Episode 4


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 * A synopsis of Episode 4, titled "The Cracked Portrait" ("Hibiwareta shouzou" (ヒビ割れた肖像).

Synopsis

 * In a darkened room, Dr. Muzé Kauplan examines a series of X-rays in a darkened room. Her assistant walks in and questions her reasoning for doing so. She then sees an envelope near Dr. Kauplan, which from the markings came from Army Headquarters and asks her. However, Dr. Kauplan ignores her and continues to study the files - which belongs to Oland.


 * Oland dreams of a world of red and with a message “Töten Sie” flying through his head. Also in this dream are other soldiers like him along with a tank. Oland raises his gun, but a hand appears in front of it – Alice’s. She urges him to go help the war damage recovery, and then Oland wakes up. He’s still sleeping under the bridge and has amassed a group of cats that he is feeding with food he's taken from Army Intelligence. Normally, Oland has bad dreams, and is asked about it from some homeless veterans who heard him sleep, but this time he considers it to have been a good one.


 * At the office, the Pumpkin Scissors group is informed by 1st Lieutenant Webner that the tank from the Wolkins incident has an automatic bullet loading system that is still in the research stage in this empire. They need to find out where he got this tank from. Oreldo suggests that it’d be faster just to ask Wolkins, but Captain Hunks informs them that they can't - because the noble is currently being treated in a military hospital for apparent insanity.


 * Alice, Oland, Oreldo, and Martis first go to see a Professor Kortu to find out more. Alice notices Martis adjusting the side view mirror of the car, but he claims it’s nothing. Martis actually focuses it on Oland’s face because of the conversation he had with Webner before they left. She had asked him about Oland, and then had gone on to explain how fearsome tanks were, yet she pointed out that Oland had been able to handle one alone. But as he looks at Oland’s smiling face now, Martis can’t help but smile back.


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 * The four arrive at a rundown building and make their way to Kortu’s door, but he appears not to be in. Right as Oreldo is calling him an obstinate old man, the professor appears. Looking at a picture of the tank system, Kortu admits that this isn’t a design he saw back when he was in the war plant, and there haven’t been any announcements from the technology exchange association. In short, this system exceeds the technological level of each nation.


 * When Kortu asks about the analysis of the tank, Alice tells him that they’ll be entering it after this. Alice suddenly gets a feeling on the back of her neck and decides to leave, taking the others with her. Martis, however, notices a large gun mounted on the wall that resembles Oland’s, so he asks the professor about it. Kortu calls it the Door Knocker, a 13mm anti-tank gun, and explains that there was the foolish plan to fight tanks by strengthening infantry thermal power. Even with these guns, the only way an infantry could stand up to a tank was at an absolute zero shooting distance – in other words, point blank range. However, the plan came to a standstill and there was no manufacturing of the gun. Kortu wonders if there’s even such a person who’d stand in front of a steel behemoth of a tank. As Martis returns to the car where the others are waiting, he starts putting the pieces together about Oland’s 901st Anti-Tank Trooper designation.


 * Once they leave, however, they are followed by a mysterious black car. Kortu gets on the phone and confirms to someone about the model tank. That black car follows the Pumpkin Scissors group to the hanger, where the tank is being kept.


 * After hearing their report, Webner orders the dismantling of the tank, much to the joy of her men. When Oreldo inquires about the other machine in the hanger, Webner tells him that it’s the new armored vehicle being deployed for the first section. None of them know that there are actually three masked men already inside of it until its turret turns and fires on the tank. Webner gives out orders to sound the alarm and contact headquarters, but the armored vehicle then fires its Smoke Dischargers and covers the room in smoke, as well as tear gas. It also fires several more rounds at the tank, causing Alice to realize that the enemy's goal is to destroy it. What's more, the armored vehicle then starts moving and sticks out its hedgerow cutter.


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 * Alice notices too late that Martis is lying directly between the oncoming vehicle and the tank carcass. Martis stares into the headlights with fear as death approaches, but it never gets there. He’s lifted up by Oland, with blue lantern active, who takes one of the hedgerow cutter's spikes straight through his left leg.


 * Oland pulls out his Door Knocker just as the armored vehicle lowers its main cannon right into his face. With no fear in his eyes, Oland fires and kills one of the masked men, right as the tank fires and grazes Oland’s face. As the Anti-Tank-Trooper frees himself from the hedgerow cutter spike and climbs onto the tank, Martis realizes that this is the point-blank range that Kortu told him about. With the words “Töten Sie” being chanted in his mind, Oland fires another shot, which kills the other occupant in the armored vehicle.


 * It is sometime after the battle that Martis reports to Hunks that the three culprits are dead. However, they accomplished their goal of preserving the tank’s secrets because it’s now impossible to restore it. As for Oland, the damage had fortunately missed the bone, so he’ll be able to leave the hospital in a month. Hunks starts wrapping things up, but Martis demands to know what the 901st Anti-Tank Trooper is. He remembers that September 9th is when the first emperor died in battle, and so the military has a rule not to use 9 in its designations. In addition, there are no records of the group in the military’s complete book, leading Martis to conclude that there does not exist a 901st A.T.T. unit in their military. With his back turned, Hunks reveals that that’s why they are called 'the Invisible 9'.


 * Before Martis gets much of a chance to take in this information, he and Hunks get interrupted by Stecchin, bursting in to inform them that Wolkins has committed suicide in the military hospital. With all information about the tank silenced, Hunks thinks that they don’t know much about the organization they are facing, but it’s certainly thorough in what it does. He feels that a person’s life is targeted just for knowing and thinks that the Invisible 9 is probably that kind of group too. When Hunks asks if Martis is still going to throw himself into it, Martis turns around and confirms yes.


 * Meanwhile, Alice wakes up in Oland’s hospital room and finds him gone. Oland has actually made his way to under the bridge where he normally sleeps so that he can feed the cats. However, those cats fearfully keep their distance, and Oland realizes it’s because he smells of blood.


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