Image 12: The reason why Kamui goes to Card Capital instead of a cardshop in his neighborhood is revealed. The shop he originally went with got invaded by a group of Foo Fighters led under Kyou who forced him and his friends Eiji and Reiji to play "serious fights" which include wearing gloves that electrify them whenever they take damage. This causes them to lose the fun they had in the game and made Eiji and Reiji quit playing Vanguard. This even caused the owner to close the shop down since he also doesn't enjoy having a shop without children playing Vanguard happily.
Image 13: Kamui fights against Kyou to avenge the shop he used to go to and defend Voyage, but still loses in the end.
High School Arc
Image 42:
Aichi fights against PSYqualia zombie Naoki and despite putting up a good fight still loses against him and becomes a Psyqualia zombie himself.
The recapping in this episode plus his earlier one combined was rather anguishing, especially for Naoki. We all knew when childhood, he never do anything to help Aichi when he was bullied. Then, when someone does something wrong like destroying Aichi's flyer for club recruitment, everyone immediately pinned the blame that he was responsible for it out of stereotype.
His classmates are one thing, but his family members, especially his big brother, are no different. All Masaki does is underestimating his little brother Naoki when he wasn't interested in joining a club or do something meaningful like studying to enter college. When Naoki does become passionate, and gets to enjoy Vanguard, instead of supporting him, Masaki ended up urging his little brother to quit ahead of time to avoid wasting money and time.
These plus the brainwashed Kourin and Takuto persuading him to defeat Aichi makes it all more painful.
High School Arc Continued
Dimension 1: It's rather sad to see everyone not being able to remember Kourin and feeling that something is missing especially considering the bond they all shared with her.
Shinemon Arc
Remind 1:
It's just heartbreaking to see Misaki in the hospital traumatized from the car accident that caused her Parents' death along with her telling Shinemon that he doesn't need to protect Card Capital. She just sounds so empty and devoid from emotion.
Shinemon does not only sleep at Card Capital to protect it, but he also takes with him a framed photo of his deceased aunt and uncle. When Tatsuya tries to ask him about the photo, he tries to right it off as something unimportant, but it's clear he has a rather solemn look about it along with Mark and Mikuru (who both clearly know the circumstances).
Remind 9: Shinemon loses to Esuka and thus his right to Card Capital to her, but the worst part is were she speaks up his failures as a manager which were all true. To top it off his friends try to remember him that luck is on their side since they managed to pay for the Valkerion costume that way, but Esuka then reveals that she paid for it since the man was her butler in disguise which means they don't even have luck on their side.
Remind 28:
Tatsuya is willing to injure or even kill himself just to bring his parents back to live.
Shinemon screaming "Master!" when Rive goes into the portal to save his son and then seeing that Valkerion's arm only holds Chrono, but not Rive. He was so shaken by it that he was just silent when he arrived at the Asia Circuit. To make it even harder, the reason he went to Ryuzu Lab was to get Rive to that tournament. To top it off Mikuru also wonders why her brother is not with him and then the episode just ends...
Remind 29: It's shown Shinemon ended up so shaken by Rive's disappearance that he didn't even had the will to fight and ended up losing against Kanzaki. To make it sadder, this more or less made Mark's struggle in the tournament All for Nothing.
Extra Story -IF-
if 7: Emi and Ibuki talking about Aichi cuts very deeply. On the one side, Emi pours her heart out to Ibuki about the brother she knows while not even being able to really imagine the Aichi he's familiar with and how evidently lonely she is without him. On the other, Ibuki can' really understand things from Emi's perspective — his history with Aichi likely plays a part; the fight between them was pretty vicious and they were never in a position to understand one another. What makes things worse is Emi confirms that Aichi doesn't play Vanguard in this world, and while Ibuki has seen a glimpse of how empty he is without it, putting it into words drives it home that this isn't anything so brief — for anyone who has seen how integral Vanguard is to Aichi and his fear of losing it in the V series or followed the franchise even further back, it's utterly heartbreaking to imagine this version of him; stripped of everything and everyone that Vanguard led him to.
if 14: In the IF World's timeline, Kai's parents didn't abandon him and as a result he grew up as a cheerful teenager who plays rugby instead of Vanguard. This also means that when the timeline's returned to normal. His history will return to his normal miserable childhood.
if 18: After seeing Shingo and his younger brother reunited, playing Vanguard happily, Emi struggles to hold herself together as Aichi's request for her to forget him echoes in her head. For all her hard work trying to get back her big brother, seeing another pair of siblings together again and happy while she's still chasing her own is heartbreaking.
if 21: Kourin's motivation for so vehemently following Aichi's will is a desperate grasp at holding onto the memories she had forgotten at the end of the High School Arc.
if 22: Aichi's final words to Emi were that he'd be back soon and to wait for him; he didn't have any intention to run away from home but things spiraled so rapidly that he couldn't make good on his word.
if 23: Shuka sacrificing herself in an attempt to stop Aichi and while it did manage to make him lose his Majesty Lord Blaster form, sadly it doesn't stop the erasure of Vanguard throughout history.
What's made worse is, though Emi just got back someone important to her , or not, she's still only 13 and can do nothing but cry and express her fond feelings for Shuka and the time they spent together. She's been through the wringer across the season and this is her reward for all that anguish: losing her friend.
