The Moon Demon's Orders (Episode)

"The Moon Demon's Orders" is the title of the fourth episode of Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya, sixteenth episode of the first season, and sixteenth episode overall in the Seraph of the End anime series.

Synopsis
Shinoa Squad travels to the Ebina rest stop, dodging Horsemen as they drive. Shinoa and Mitsuba ditch Yu, and their squad arrives late. Yu takes the blame for making them be tardy.

As punishment, Guren, Mito, and Shinya fight against Shinoa Squad and handidly defeat them. When Makoto Narumi says he cannot trust his lives to those kids, Guren assigns them to be part of Narumi's squad for their mission.

Elsewhere, Mika and Lacus collect stray human children as a gift for vampires in Nagoya. Krul's blood is ineffective at sating Mika's thirst, and he attacks a human child. However, he soon releases her, and Lacus comments about how weird Mika is.

Summary
Kimizuki is driving squad Shinoa squad though the ruined cityscape on a main road to their mission destination. As Yu notes it has begun to get colder, Shinoa jokes about going to Hakone to enjoy hot springs, but Mitsuba says the true destination is Ebina rest stop to prepare for the multiple ambushes on vampire nobles in Nagoya. Yu wonders out loud to himself whether Mika will be there. The car suddenly jerks as they themselves are intercepted by the sudden appearance of a Four Horseman of John. They swerve to avoid it but multiple ones of various types appear. Mitsuba summons Tenjiryū from her cursed gear battle axe in an attempt to fend them off. Her attack connects slicing one down the middle. Yoichi also makes proficient use of his archery cursed gear, using Gekkōin's power to dispatch the enemies whilst the vehicle continues forward. Calling on Asuramaru gives Yu the strength to bound forward and deal with the foes in their path.

After the ambush has been repelled and further engagements have been avoided, under the pretext of dodging an enemy, Shinoa gets Kimizuki to swerve to the right so that Yu lands in the middle of the road rather than the vehicle he was aiming to land in. The car promptly drives off without him, with the team jokingly waving their regards.

Guren has finished scouting the rest stop with Shigure and Sayuri behind him. Goshi emerges, having discovered a magazine with bikini models within. He seems disappointed that the ladies in their team don’t wear bikinis though Sayuri, blushing says she will if Colonel Guren wants her to. Goshi tells him that Mito is surveying the area for vampires, and she arrives with confirmation that there are none present. Ignoring the bikini related talk, Guren moves to address the Moon Demon Company members gathered before him. He then notices the arrival of a red sports car that Shinya has commandeered and is now using. Shinya is present after hearing that they are essentially meant to be sacrificial pawns with one hundred men pitted against vampire nobles.

Though they went back to regain him, leaving Yu behind as a joke has meant that Shinoa squad are late for the meeting, of which Kimizuki says he will say it was Shinoa and Mitsuba’s fault. They arrive as Guren is issuing the missive, they are all to depart at 0700 and arrive in Nagoya by 1300. The army have been issued a directive with strategic details concerning the mission. He pauses mid explanation after he spots Shinoa trying to sneak in without him noticing. Shinoa’s attempt to laugh it off are rejected by a stern Guren telling her to leave if she can’t follow the armies rules, emphasising the serious situation at hand. Makoto Narumi is but one of the people present who do not appreciate the younger members attitude. Stepping forward, Yu accepts the blame for being late; using the semi truth that he took it upon himself to fight the Four Horseman of John. Guren orders him to line up, but punishment will be given for him later. The next mission, Guren considers will be the most dangerous one of all for everyone. He acknowledges that many of them may die, but attempts to rally the crowd by saying that the completion of the mission is worth it. The mission is not to come back alive, but to come back with victory.

After Shinoa taps Yu and says sorry, that is was her fault, Shigure arrives calling for Yu. Both Shinoa and Mitsuba offer to go as well, and then Kimizuki and Yoichi. Yu waves them off and goes by himself, entering the ruined rest stop, a Christmas tree still standing, and he walks up the non moving escalator to find Guren and the rest of his squad. Guren is impressed with Yu taking the heat for his comrades, aware that it wasn’t his fault. Yu manages to express that he remembers Shinya and vice versa. Guren initiates the punishment by calling on Goshi who uses his cursed gear Kakuze to issue forth a blanket of white smoke. Upon hearing Yu yell the rest of the squad enter to find a tied Yu dangling over a burning pyre. The illusion mist Goshi had created does not fool Shinoa and using her scythe, she slices through it dispelling the enchantment. Guren announces that this is in fact Shinoa’s punishment, he points out Shinoa let Yu come here alone and that a lesson that one slip up can result in a comrade being killed is in order. Guren explains that Shinoa she has never had the fear of losing someone and so does not understand the lesson. Shinoa insists she understands that her fooling around can get comrades killed to which Guren retorts she does not. Dealing with the reality of a great threat, Guren arranges himself; Mito and Shinya to fight them. Shinoa orders them to gain distance between their match ups, but Yu does tell Guren not to be so hard since Shinoa is trying pretty hard herself.

At that point, Yu embraces the challenge; Shinoa’s plan involves pitting the long-range fighters against one other, Yoichi versus Major General Shinya, her scythe and Mitsuba’s demon war axe to hold of Colonel Jūjō, and close combat fighters Yu and Kimizuki for the Lieutenant Colonel Guren. Guren initiates the showdown by getting Shinya to summon and fire Byakkomaru, a rifle styled sniper weapon. The fiery spectral tiger projectile makes it’s own way actively seeking out the target. Yoichi see’s it and returns fire with a three arrowed Gekkōin attack, but Byakkomaru is capable of instantly dodging this, and reappearing to crash into both Shinoa and Mitsuba. To compound the situation further, Byakkomaru continues onward to Yu and Kimizuki. Noting that they are already breaking formation after one (albeit very diverse) attack, Guren himself begins combat accompanied by his selected back up. Shinoa orders everyone to fall back, and Mitsuba creates a diversion that Guren cuts through, Shinya fires again but this time Yoichi’s return fire connects and the green spectral bird projectiles destroys the white tigers. Guren bounds through the smoking aftermath of the attack and as planned both Yu and Kimizuki intercept him. Capable of fighting both sword users at the same time, Guren engages the both of them. Shinoa and Mitsuba spar with Mito who is also capable of blocking, and evading their joint attacks. Guren then sends forth a red vortex of energy that blows a hole through the side of the building itself, scattering them all.

Yu manages to land on the car Shinya acquired before an aerial attack from Guren cleaves it clean in half. With Yu resuming the sword fight with Guren, Shinoa orders everyone to get into formation with Yu in the centre. Members of the army comment on the fight, with Aiko Aihara remarking that this must be the punishment for the new members, whilst Tarō Kagiyama points out that Yu is responding to all of the Lieutenant Colonels attacks, though Shūsaku Iwasaki thinks that power alone is not enough to defeat him. Guren adopts a new tactic by placing an explosive spell tag on Yu’s forehead. Shinoa is prevented from disenchanting it by Mito pinning her scythe firmly on the ground with her foot. Not willing to give up against Guren, but unable to pull of the tag, Yu chooses to charge at Guren to take him down as well if Guren opted to detonate the tag. Guren feigns surprise at this development before moving to reveal Shinya covering him, who reluctantly fires at Yu. He manages to deflect the projectiles with his sword but at that point Guren has managed to get through the formation where he declares his victory. Yu turns and a minor explosion from the tag prevents him from interfering. Guren knocks Mitsuba over, disarms Shinoa when she breaks free from Mito, and declares an attacking Kimizuki and Yoichi that they are too late when they intervene.

When the smoke clears, everyone is down save Shinoa who Guren is scolding on account that she has three Black Demon holders but could not do well against them, let alone far the upcoming stronger nobles. Guren is encouraging to Yu, rubbing his head and saying he can become stronger with teamwork. Narumi requests to speak, and shares that he is against bringing them to the battlefield since they cannot follow rules and don’t have teamwork. Guren says he has a point then says that Narumi’s squad can take care of them. He asks Shigure to rearrange the squad to pair Shinoa’s squad with Narumi, Rika Inoue, Taro Kagiyama, Yayoi Endo and Shūsaku Iwasaki who are also formerly introduced to them. Shinoa says sorry to the team, feeling that they lost as a result of her incompetence.

In a ruined neighbourhood Mika comes across children running from vampires, Lacus feeds from a girl and Mika longingly contemplates the blood. The captured children are loaded into helicopters as a tribute for the noble vampires in Nagoya. Mika tells Lacus that he is not interested in human blood, instead sustaining himself on vials of Krul’s blood. However he does recalls what she said about her blood not able to sustain him forever. The cravings taking an increasingly extreme toll on him, exemplified when Mika lunges and pins a girl to the ground preparing to drink her blood. He manages to contain the urges when Lacus comments and they depart via the aircraft.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

Gallery
Anime images provide a visual overview of the events of Episode 16 with depictions of the characters, Seraph of the End world, scenarios, artistic style among other areas.