Kizaki tells his agents to take Naoki and despite Haruto’s protests, tells him, “I can’t leave him with a monster like you.”
Kizaki goes to Wajima who hasn’t made any progress with the ring because he can’t find his “muse” and he just doesn’t have that feeling to create. Kizaki yells that they need the power of magic to Phantoms now. But Wajima says the ring alone is not enough power, but it depends on the person’s heart. And frankly, only wizards can use rings.
Haruto and Rinko are outside and see Kizaki and his agents taking Naoki, or really, a hooded person into an SUV. Haruto follows while Medusa, Phoenix and Gargoyle are watching from the rooftop. She has a plan.
Kizaki takes the hooded person to a warehouse and Ghouls arrive to attack. Kizaki leaves his agents to take care of them as he takes the hooded person and runs. He tries to fight off Ghouls himself, but fails and gets thrown around until Haruto, already henshined and in Hurricane mode, arrives to take care of the situation.
Haruto gets a shock when he sees Phoenix is alive. He tells Haruto he is immortal and throws Haruto into the water again. Haruto jumps out of the water in Water mode and gets hurled toward the hooded person who turns out to be another one of Kizaki’s men.
Since it isn’t the real Gate, Phoenix decides not to waste his time and leaves.
Haruto asks Kizaki what’s with the diversion and he says it is all to protect Naoki. He’ll do anything to protect him, that was his promise. He flashes back to the day Kizaki’s father, Katayama, was killed.
They were working a case of disappearances. They found a green magic stone as evidence which eventually led them to Phantoms and finding Gargoyle as a worker in the water plant. They overhear Medusa and Phoenix tell Gargoyle to find a Gate named Naoki.
Katayama tells Kizaki to get Naoki to safety and he’ll take care of the Phantom himself. No matter what, he says, don’t come back for me and just protect Naoki. Kizaki leaves and when he returns, it’s too late.
Kizaki tells Haruto that he couldn’t tell Naoki the truth because he’d be emotionally scarred if he found out his father died because of him.
Back at the National Security Bureau, Rinko is still keeping watch and sees the real Naoki being led out of the building. Above, Medusa tells Gargoyle to have fun and he jumps down to grab the Gate.
Rinko calls Haruto to tell him what’s going on then asks Garuda-tachi to take care of Gargoyle while she takes Naoki and runs. Garuda-tachi do their best, even combining, to slow down Gargoyle, but he eventually catches up to Rinko and Naoki.
Rinko tells Naoki to run and Gargoyle takes her by the neck. Naoki tells him not to hurt anyone else and he’s here, so Gargoyle throws Rinko to the side and tells Naoki all about his father.
Naoki’s Phantom cracks start as Haruto arrives with Kizaki. He henshins as Kizaki tries to keep Naoki from giving in to despair. Haruto finishes Gargoyle off with Dragon then hurries over to place an Engage ring on Naoki to allow him to enter his Underworld.
Naoki’s magic mass is a strange one-eyed hand and Haruto and Dragon finish it off.
Naoki’s Phantom cracks are gone and Haruto exits.
Kizaki goes to the water plant to bring wine and flowers for Katayama. Naoki joins him and apologizes for misunderstanding him. He was shocked by what happened to his father, but being saved by Haruto, he says, gave him new hope. He wants to join the National Security Bureau to protect people just like his father… and Kizaki.
Rinko brings Wajima back home and the others have a Welcome Home party for him. Haruto wants to eat, but Wajima shows them the magic stone Kizaki gave him to give to Haruto.
Episode Thoughts
A good episode. It is really interesting to see how Wizard manages to balance some legitimately dark and depressing stuff (Your parents died/were attacked because of you! All your fault you horrible child!) with the lighthearted antique shop/donut cart stuff. We didn’t have much of the comedy this episode, but the episode still didn’t feel all that depressing and sad.
Of course it ended up on a high, happy note.
But it’s also interesting to see how this 2nd half of Go-Busters seems to be the Fourze to Wizard‘s 1st half of Go-Busters. If that makes any sense. Go-Busters has been considerably lighter these days, almost similarly so as Fourze was, while Wizard feels more like the beginning of Go-Busters where they balanced some heavy stuff with touches of lighthearted comedy.