Jovia confesses to everyone that her identity was discovered in her hometown. An exasperated Seina calls Seto to apologize. Later, Seina, Tsukiko, and Jovia are ordered to get Tabletop Island ready for its use. The first thing they need to do is travel to the edge of the solar system to retrieve the ship that will serve as its base. Kuis Panta meets them and they are immediately attacked by a pirate fleet. After dealing with them, Jovia is alone and sulking and seems to attract a ghost?
Full Recap
Jovia Jovis is in a room with Tsukiko Masaki, and current crew of the Kamidake. She reluctantly starts recounting the events that led to her cover being blown (being recognized as the reincarnation of her previous self). She leaves nothing out. She had left Masaki Village, made a crown out of picked flowers for herself, went to the station and experienced the rush hour, and switched to another station with a bullet train, but she first found a bookstore in the station and (not having seen anything like it since being reincarnated) teared up upon seeing the shelves of manga on display. After buying a heap of manga (stored in a magic space), she hopped on the bullet train and headed to her hometown. She was glad everything was just like it used to be, but she obviously couldn't go to her old house since she looked nothing like she used to. Instead, Jovia went to the shopping district and started to binge eat at every restaurant she used to love.
Naturally, people were staring at this strange foreigner who was doing whatever she wanted. As Jovia sat in a park, she felt like she recognized some of the people looking at her. A passing car abruptly reversed upon seeing Jovia and out came a woman dressed in a yukata that Jovia realized was her old friend Mirei, who had come out upon hearing that there was a suspicious person around. Jovia pretended to be a foreigner who couldn't speak Japanese well, but Mirei wasn't fooled and punched Jovia in the stomach, then dragged her into her car. To Mirei, everything the people in town told her (who Jovia realized were her old schoolmates) pointed to the impossible truth, this strange person was her old friend, returned in a new body.
At Mirei's home, Jovia still pretended to be a foreigner, but Mirei had someone bring them a luxurious dessert Jovia recognized the "Divine Beauty of the Four Seasons", which is an exclusive item of Merei's family restaurant that only Jovia would've known about, and Mirei was able to make Jovia confess about being her reincarnated friend by allowing her to eat it, as well as get a second one. Tsukiko is mad that Jovia was seemingly fooled so easily into blowing her cover, but Jovia defends herself by saying that to her, the Divine Beauty of the Four Seasons is equivalent to Tenchi's carrots which Ryo-Ohki loves to eat.
Back to the story, Jovia demonstrated her ability with what's called "Spirit Thread Storage" by repeatedly taking her dessert in and out of storage. Mirei then took Jovia to where they could be their old selves: Room 102 in building C, the apartment home where they stored all of their otaku belongings. After they arrived and Mirei showed Jovia what's changed since the old days, she directed Jovia to the room where all the old books were. But a woman, who turned out to be Jovia's mother, was lying in ambush and punched her in the same way Mirei did.
Her mother confessed that she felt incredible embarrassment when Jovia died. Jovia was travelling back from Tokyo, transporting a load of pornographic yaoi manga, most purchased at Mirei's request, but instead of using a delivery service she was carrying them herself (she wanted to get back and read them herself). In some way, she was hit and killed by a train, causing the manga to scatter all around body in a rather shameful fashion. For her part, Jovia was upset that her mother was more concerned with the way in which her daughter died than the actual fact that her daughter died. After that, Jovia chatted with her and Mirei about what'd happened after she died and learned that her mother had become, a full on hard-core "fujoshi" (a fan of Yaoi) in her absence. They also explained that the apartment was going to be demolished, meaning she had to save all of their, largely pornographic, belongings by placing it in spirit thread storage.
Some details about Jovia's current life were also uncovered by Mirei and her mother, namely that Jovia has been previously divorced and has a pre-teen daughter (explained a little more in an audio-drama that came as an extra with the first Blu-ray release of the episode). Details that Jovia felt she had to share with her mother.
When asked by Tsukiko why she didn't immediately report back about everything that happened in one day, Jovia claims that she was trying to shake Mirei, who was tailing her, and instead took a detour to explore Tokyo and then visit the Kusatsu Onsen in nearby Gunma Prefecture. Tsukiko isn't impressed by her excuse and squeezes her skull again. After that, everyone heads to Washu's lab inside the Masaki Residence and speaks with Lady Seto to tell her about what happened to Jovia, where Seto proposes that Mirei should start collaborating with them.
A more important matter is the progress of Tabletop Island, whose foundation Washu announces is complete. Seto wants Seina to oversee the island's construction, though Washu clarifies that his role is moreso management than construction work. Seto also decides that Jovia should stay on that island for the year that it will take for it to be constructed to not attract any more attention to herself, as well as Tsukiko to facilitate her "training". Jovia is initially upset about what she thinks is her being jailed for a year, but Washu reminds her that she still has all of her otaku stuff in spirit thread storage and that she'll also be able to access the Internet and she'll even give Jovia access to some other pervy stuff to let her indulge in her hobby.
Later that day, Seina sits down with Tenchi to chat, and after giving farewells to him, Sasami, Noike, and Ryoko, he teleports back to the bridge of the Kamidake, where Tsukiko, Miki, Kirche, Nayuta, D, Jovia, and Fuku are waiting for him. They launch into space and go beyond Pluto's orbit to rendezvous with Tabletop Island's foundation, a 35.223 x 35.223 x 6.5 km spaceship. They are hailed by Kuis Panta and promptly teleport to Tabletop Island, where they learn that the vessel is actually a Third-Generation Royal Tree Ship (previously described as a Fourth Generation ship). Suddenly, an alarm rings and they are accosted by a fleet of pirate ships that jumped out of hyperspace. One of the ships deploys assault crafts in an attempt to board, but Seina uses Spirit Thread Teleportation to immediately move the entire ship of harm's way. Kuis then activates the ship's broadside weaponry and obliterates the pirate fleet in a single attack. Kuis reveals that she deliberately leaked Tabletop Island's location to thin out those pirates who aren't willing to cooperate with their plans for Proxy War to determine a leader of the remaining pirates. After that, they jump into the Moon's orbit, Kuis hands control of Tabletop Island to Seina, who orders the crew to run diagnostics checks before moving again.
Jovia, who doesn't have anything to do, is kicked out of the bridge by Tsukiko and forced into a subspace room with all of her otaku stuff. However, she gets scared by a woman's voice cackling in the background, believing it to be a prank set up by the "lady that strangely has a presence despite having a plain face and flat body", and freaks out upon getting a jump scare of this woman's face coming out of a TV screen. She runs back to the bridge to claim she saw a ghost, but Kuis is unimpressed by Jovia's description, realizing she's talking about her specifically; Jovia claims that since Kuis is so similar to the "old hag" [Seto] that surely many people hate her, but going into her room to scare her is taking it too far.
Kuis suspects that Fuku knows something regarding the anomaly Jovia saw, causing her to shriek with guilt. It turns out that she was keeping a secret at the request of ZINV (who can appear in the form of a humanoid girl), and "ZINV-chan" (as she is called in this form) appears herself to confirm that. Then, the "ghost" herself appears in front of them. Kuis, upon seeing her, realizes that she is actually Masaki Jurai, the long-lost sister of Shinou Jurai—the first Emperor of Jurai.
Characters
- Seina Yamada
- Tsukiko Masaki
- Fuku
- Miki Steinbeck
- Kirche
- D
- Nayuta
- Jovia Jovis
- Masaki Jurai
- Zinv
- Seto Kamiki Jurai
- Kuis Panta
- Washu Hakubi
- Ryoko Hakubi
- Ryo-Ohki
- Sasami
- Noike Kamiki Jurai
- Mirei
- Jovia's Earth Mother
Gallery
References and Sources
Preview images sourced from the Kinematics show page: https://kinematics.jp/tenchi-gxp/