Inhibited and encumbered by the mass of his ill-gotten payload as well as the police, Takashi desperately tries to compute a deus ex machina while Taizou and Oboro speculate upon Keiko Kojika's success prospects. Even as she detects his decreasing proximity and rushes to intercept him, Takashi uses a decoy rabbit to distract Hatsune and scores the unexpected bonus of Keiko being a lupine lunch for having Hatsune's necklace in hand. Minamoto being none too thrilled with the prospect of Hatsune's residence with his esper charges quickly takes a back seat to Takashi synthesizing a website to auction off his ill-gotten payload. Mio having successfully evacuated Takashi, Hatsune turning her anger on Keiko illuminates the root cause for Hatsune's absconding: Keiko's clumsy leadership being exacerbated by Akira's sycophantic and uxorious affinity for her. Everything goes according to plan during the simulated polar medical rescue mission until a solar flare induces a magnetic storm that occludes communication. Unable to abort the mission and the B.A.B.E.L. rations of no utility, Hatsune first tries to make a meal out of Keiko before turning her attention to a baby narwhal she had captured without much effort only to find that the baby narwhal's parent emphatically disagrees with her menu plan through a fierce roller-coaster sequence of deep dives and breaching the ice. Keiko realizes her groove in within B.A.B.E.L. as The Hound team leader when she urges the baby narwhal back to sea with its parent and quickly extinguishes Hatsune's hysterical tirade with an abrupt and potent »Get a grip on yourself!!!« slap across the chops before wrapping herself and Hatsune with insulating blankets under the luminous reward of the aurora.

• Takashi Shiina
• Satoru Nishizono

• Rie Kugimiya
• Aya Hirano
• Ayumi Fujimura