Everybody watches spellbound with her own perspective as Benkei brags about his current corporeal form and greets Leopard whose inability to recall their collaborative history prompts Benkei to ram Leopard. While Akiha and Imoko recover themselves, Takane and Honoka rush out to infiltrate Benkei whose argument with Leopard is an equal mix of Benkei's mirror theft attempts being repelled and rapier ripostes between both brain colonies. Tsutsuji's declaration of war against fate (aka Akiha herself) gives way to Itsuki joining the battle with Kazane's approval. Benkei encasing Leopard in an airtight matrix escalates matters to require the Leopard Cannon as well as the Absolute Break Through Control, both of which Benkei perverts to his advantage and Kirkwood's detriment. It seems that Tsutsuji initiating an energy signal that overrides autonomous human volition is part of Nerval's revenge from the St. Artemis battle, stalemating/subjugating Leopard, conquering the Shishido family, and arrogating Kirkwood. Furious at being wielded in Nerval's plans, Leopard recovers himself to push Benkei into a decaying orbit above Earth before ejecting himself. Takane, now a Nervalist vassal, wields her QT-ARMS to inhibit Akiha's collaborative efforts with Honoka and Itsuki to arrest Leopard's kamikaze plummet with Benkei.
In the year 311 of the Orbital Calendar, humanity has migrated to countless colony clusters in space. A space colony girl named Akiha Shishidou encounters a malevolent artificial intelligence named Leopard that has been installed on a colony.
