In an unexpected turn of events,

the kidnapper returned someone!

Mariko came back, the day after she was abducted, with no clear memory of what happened.

Natsumi interviewed her about it and was ambiguously hit on in the process?

Meanwhile, Aiko has gone missing.

Kazuki interrogated Rin, the last person to see her other than the team, but decided that Rin probably didn't do it.

Then, Emiko went on her date with Tsubaki, it was kind of strange and philosophical, and she had to duck out halfway through to DIVE INTO BARZAKH

Now with Kazuki's power to push back dark areas, the team investigated an area where they had previously been repelled with supernatural darkness.

Turns out it's a maze full of advanced darkness!

Next: Maze running.

FISTS OF ASPHALT: Cancelled.

Duke is back on the team!

Professor Wonton reports that the mystery towers B.E.A.T is building are his portal spawners for pushing all of mankind out of the universe!

The V Warriors split up - Bechamel and Kali head off to destroy one of the two remaining portal towers, the other three V Warriors head off to East City to stop another B.E.A.T invasion,

and the B Listers go to take on the last tower.

At East City, Mina meets D-4, discovering that he is a former Caudecus medical android, like herself!

Lots of angry shouting and dueling ensues, while Duke and Taiko beat up a million robots.

MEANWHILE, Kali and Bech meet D-3, a robot that doesn't give a shit about anything other than committing maximum death in the minimum time!

But through fighting them, D-3 learned the value of hating everybody and punching them really hard.

Then she got blown up.

Eventually.

Next: Resolving Mina VS D-4.

In OPV, Paz was a fun troll, but I'll leave that for Emily's roundup

OH, I missed people asking in the game chat:

D-3's Power Level peaked at 16,800,000.

jaysus

Bechamel, meanwhile,

set a new party record!

At 10,700,000!

Kali set a new PB at 8,660,000!

You know...

It's a shame I'm making one final stand against making Taiko Literally Goku.

Because if she DID pick up Spirit Bomb as a final ult it would be super thematically appropriate for this arc?

Somebody else somehow do it.

in a twist, Duke's love for the people is what allows him to perform the Spirit Bomb in Taiko's stead

clearly

also damn, D-3.

Castling's gonna have to really show himself as powerful next week.

Before you plan your final ults for a B.E.A.T 3.0 endboss showdown, just

do consider

that there's only two D-Machines left

and you're only level 17

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!

"Did you really think it was going to be that easy?"
"You know, for a second there..."

yeah I figure

there'll be a BEAT 4.0

that BEAT 3.0 builds

when he realizes he still has feelings for Duke

which prevent him from fulfilling his directives to their full potential

the Ultimate Grandkid

twist, after you beat D-1 through D-6

D-1 fuses with D-6, D-2 fuses with D-5, D-3 fuses with D-4

and you have to fight four D-7s

oh snap

I'm actually interested to see where the party goes

Because at this point they've faced two androids who don't necessarily entirely agree with BEAT

nice nice nice

(I hope people who weren't Kasu enjoyed my performance)

(I know Kasu enjoyed it because he will be shouting FUCK YOU at me like, hours later)