"Howler at the Theatre" (劇場の咆哮者, Gekijou no Houkousha) is the tenth episode of the second season of the Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon anime series. It was first broadcast on September 8, 2012.
Synopsis[]
June 5, 1648.
Toussaint makes a straight-to-the-point request to Thomas Shakespeare: to undo the curse of Macbeth. Of course, Thomas refuses, pointing out that he and the curse has already been incorporated into the play. Then, Toussaint comments about getting the star role in her play, to which Thomas expresses her irritation for his worthless babble.
Then, Toussaint shifts the topic about which of the "two" girls from ten or so years ago was Thomas. Shakespeare appears certain that she knows the answer to this, but Toussaint soon points out that there is only one girl in the story, and that is none other that Thomas "No. 14" Shakespeare. Disregarding Shakespeare's response, he tells that he has decided on fulfilling the promises he made on both, and that he will continue writing, and he is certain that both critics and the typical reader.
With Toussaint's conviction shown, Shakespeare then tells Toussaint that he should stay in England and find out more about her two sides. Then, she unleashes her Army of Birnam to confront Neshinbara once again.
Meanwhile, the two-on-two battle between Tenzou and Malga of Musashi and Robert Dudley and William Cecil of England begins at the heart of London. Tenzou and Malga experience Cecil's weight burdening them, but Malga's tolerance to high amounts of gravity allows her to shoulder some of the gravity Tenzou is experiencing. Amidst the team-up by Malga and Tenzou emerges a recurring mutual feeling of wariness towards each other which came from a long time ago, one which both threw away as they join forces to rescue Mary.
As Malga focuses the weight Tenzou experiences into her, she gives ample time for Tenzou to escape from the battle. Although a strategic win is in order, Malga is still in the middle of a battle, and is now the focus of the English tag-team's power.
Soon, Kimi Aoi steps into their battlefield, promptly protecting Malga from recieving any more injury from Cecil's ability, and Kimi's unpredictable personality manages to stall both sides enough for Malga to recover.
The confused Robert Dudley decides to continue the attack after being insulted by Kimi's carefree response to their threat, but Kimi responds by saying that in her good mood she will give both Dudley and Cecil a well-deserved beating after Toori and Horizon had finally decided on their plans for the future. After telling Malga to prepare her arsenal once more, Kimi and Malga restart their side of the battle against Musashi and England.
At the skies near England, Adele announces the conclusion of the recreation of the Battle of Portland, the second of four battles in the Armada War and tells the crew to prepare for the third, the Battle of Calais. In a safe place at the lower decks, "Musashi" explains to Suzu Mukai about the current flow of events. In the Battle of Calais, England will use fire ships to bring the Spanish Armada into chaos, and Francis Drake, aboard the Granuaile, is reminded by his colleague Charles Howard about his role in this part of the war.
However, Drake notices the indiscrepancies in the Tres Espana fleet too late.
The two fleets of ships that are in front of the Musashi soon head towards each other, with the Tres Espana fleet deliberately throwing themselves into the course of the English fleet, causing a powerful explosion that also engulfed the front section of the Musashi in flames.
And to make things worse, the entire automaton army that controls the Musashi is render incapacitated. It is later discovered that the Tres Espana ships that were destroyed also contained a massive amount of spell talismans, whose sheer number overloaded the automaton's sensory abilities.
However, Felipe Segundo is not yet finished with his onslaught. With the Musashi crippled like never before, several phoenix ships drop several artillery shells into the resource-laden ships of the city-vessel.
At that moment, Adele realizes that Tres Espana is using this chance to utterly destroy anything that comes their way.
The battle between Shakespeare and Neshinbara begins anew, with the Army of Birnam ever putting pressure on Toussaint's speed of thinking. Then, Toussaint watches as Shakespeare, amidst every single character in her works, converge them into a towering monstrosity which Shakespeare calls as her "ultimate play": King Lear. Toussaint helplessly retreats as the giant armored foe marches forward.
However, Toussaint is not alone in this fight.
Like lightning in a storm, an image of a Far Eastern warrior armed with a katana, which Toussaint calls as the heavenly deity Michizane, steps forth to confront King Lear.
Shakespeare accepts the challenge and tells Toussaint to not die in the struggle. The ultimate battle between two writers begin!
In the Musashi, Masazumi's mouse Tsukinowa, who is cowering inside Musashi's agricultural facility, finds itself in the middle of a crisis, and the mouse finds out that Masazumi is in danger. However, without any information about her, Tsukinowa cannot use the earth pulses to go straight to her. Tomo, who is scouting the damaged ship, soon finds Tsukinowa being helped by the brown algae who were familiar of Masazumi's personality, and cheers on as the brown algae fills in on the information needed to track down Masazumi.
Fortunately for Masazumi, who is close to dying by being clubbed on the head by Christopher Hatton, Tsukinowa manages to make it on time, along with a truckload of offensive spells sent by Tomo as a gift. Shortly after this, Hatton disappears in a ray of light, followed by an explosion.
Elsewhere, Nate and F. Walsingham engage in another battle. However, Nate, as a werewolf, gains double the advantage by fighting under the night of two full moons. F. Walsingham struggles as Nate's improved speed and reflexes gave her the upper hand in the entirety of the battle. In the end, F. Walsingham is helplessly defeated, but Nate spares her as she holds the mouse who controls Walsingham's body, knowing that she has to report to Toori above all.
Adele begins to lose her focus as she sees the Musashi battered from all sides. However, Toori's doomsaying, followed by Toori being knocked unconscious by Horizon's heavy fist. Toori manages to come to almost immediately, and there, he assures Toori that unlike him, she and her "band of doofs" can do anything. After receiving some advice on how to tackle this issue, Adele decides to do something that she hasn't done in the battle...
...ask for help.
Soon enough, several cargo ships shield the Musashi from further damage, although it turns out that Heidi and Shirojiro are taking those cargo ships by force and is using the chance to earn more money by buying defensive abilities for those cargo ships. Meanwhile, Margot singlehandedly deals with the phoenix ships.
At the Inadequate Headquarters, "Musashi" reorganizes the automatons under her control and reconfiguring them to rely on intrinsic senses and conventional means of communication for the meantime. This allows the rest of the automatons to use their gravity manipulation abilities to the fullest. As "Musashi" deflects the incoming artillery shells, the other automatons use their abilities to redirect the trajectory of the shells into the path of the Tres Espana fishing vessels. At that moment, Adele is far from losing her cool, but still needs an assuring presence in the form of Suzu.
Soon, Margot sends out a plan to Adele, and after a moment of thinking, Adele decides to push through the plan.
With the command of each of the eight ships under the Musashi, each ship breaks away from each other and use the additional space to deploy cannons to deal with the fishing ships. Felipe is shocked at the sudden switch to a war of attrition, but he continues with the plans, lifting the spirits of the many men under his command.
At the war between the two authors and the giants in their command rage on, Toussaint receives an epiphany. As he remembers one of his moments with Shakespeare, he notices that Shakespeare uses a different form of speech, and Shakespeare tells him that this change happened when he first left.
King Lear and Michizane cross swords again and again, but ultimately, King Lear wins, albeit with sorrow.
Then, to the shock of Shakespeare, Neshinbara calls forth Macbeth to fight alongside him using an ability that allowed him to "edit" Shakespeare's play. There, Toussaint points out that stories are flexible, and one can make a brand new story out of it. Soon, Macbeth draws his sword and kills King Lear effortlessly, in the true nature of a king-killer.
As the battle ends, Shakespeare is left with the question of "Which girl is she?" Toussaint points out that she can be "the one who liked him". Shakespeare blushes as Toussaint comes closer. Soon, she hands over her copy of Toussaint's Norman Conquest and the Aspida Phylargia, and reassures Toussaint that she keeps her name regardless of losing her Mortal Sin Armament due to her literary experience.
However, Toussaint decides to "steal" the Aspida Phylargia instead, in true Macbeth fashion.
Although a bit surprised by this, Thomas is overjoyed that she is reunited by Toussaint after a long time.
With that, the play ends, and a pleased Fairy Queen applauds, marking the start of a new "game", involving the Fairy Queen herself, Mary, Tenzou and Walter Raleigh.
Characters[]
By order of appearance