One of Nezumi’s rats notifies Shion’s mother that he’s OK and in the West District. She sends a message back telling them to get in contact with an old friend of hers named Rikiga, though the meeting doesn’t end up going that well.  Later, Inukashi attacks Nezumi for having insulted her “mother” and for becoming weak since he appears to be becoming attached to Shion.

Feel the awkward yaoi waves being generated

Nothing new to report on the bees in this episode, but we get a better feeling of what it’s like living outside of No. 6. Clearly it’s a dog-eat-dog world, where people don’t allow themselves to get too close to anyone else, in fear of becoming “soft” or of being stabbed in the back later.  So while fighting against the despotism of No. 6 may be laudable, they aren’t exactly in a position to replace it with anything significantly better. But I think that’s where Shion comes in.

He’s already started to affect Nezumi, and I think it’s only a matter of time before he gets to Inukashi as well, and I think the three will only get strong from it.  I’m sure it will be bumpy road along the way, but I think they’ll ultimately see the benefit of friendship and trust.

And oh yeah, more emo Shion in this episode. And crying like he’s Lag from Letter Bee. He even has the white hair to match.

Shion hides out with Nezumi, but he soon develops the same block spotches that his co-worker developed before. While Nezumi saves him, it starts to transform Shion in some way.

No. 6 is No. 1 in emo so far

We still don’t really have any idea what the bees are, but Shion figures that there will be mass outbreak of them once Spring comes in No. 6.  Nezumi, meanwhile, seems to know more about them than he’s letting on.

If I had to take a stab at what they are, I might guess they are some sort of punishment for those who question or doubt the No. 6 system.  Think of it: everyone in No. 6 is implanted with a bees egg, but it remains dormant.  If the city finds out you’ve been saying bad things about them or doing something you shouldn’t, some stimuli, perhaps coming from the ID bracelet, activates the egg, and you die in some “accident.”

There is clearly some friction between Nezumi and Shion over No. 6.  Even if Shion doesn’t care for the city per se, he still have several people he cares about living there, but Nezumi doesn’t care about the city or the people in it, and would be happy to see the city and all of it’s inhabitants wiped out, while Shion would probably settle on perhaps supporting destroying the city’s institutions but not it’s people (I don’t think he’s quite there yet, but he probably will be eventually).

We can tell by now that there is a lot wrong with No. 6. They obviously like their citizenry ignorant of what the world is like, even if they’re very smart otherwise, as well as keeping them docile, and I’m sure we’ll learn more about the city as the series progresses.

The only other thing I really have to comment about is the fact that, this series, and this episode in particular, seems to be pretty emo.  It’s not really over the top, but there is a lot of emo yelling going on in this episode. And male bonding (not that there is anything wrong with that) and the like.  It just kinda has a weird feeling so far.  At this rate Nezumi way get Shion’s sperm before Safu does lol.