Episode 9

**Cosmos: The Joys that Love Life can Bring** (コスモス, *Kosumosu*?) is the 9th episode of the anime.

## Summary

When Yuri's origins are revealed, she is classified as a Huge. Riri flees the academy with her, but orders are issued for their capture. What will the other Lilies choose when ordered to hunt one of their own?

### Plot

Chairman Takamatsu Kogetsu concedes that according to GEHENA and Grand Guignol, Yuri Hitotsuyanagi is a Huge, not a human or a Lily, and thus not under Yurigaoka Girls Academy’s protection. The student council approaches Riri Hitotsuyanagi just as she is about to trim Yuri’s bangs, but Yuyu Shirai backs them up, giving them cover to escape.

Though Yuri wants to stay the academy with her newfound friends, the government orders all available Lilies to capture Yuri and arrest Riri. Yuyu insists to Takamatsu that Yuri couldn’t possibly by a dangerous entity. The rest of Team Hitotsuyanagi make a collective effort to support Riri and Yuri, and Yuyu soon joins them to declare that as vice commander she is going against the government’s orders. They resolve to pursue Riri and Yuri and be the first to find them, and when they do, they will protect them from anyone who tries to take Yuri. Kaede Johan Nouvel tells her father she will not forgive him for siding with with GEHENA and causing the events currently in motion before joining Yuyu and the others. Meanwhile Riri and Yuri find refuge in an abandoned, Huge-ravaged town.

All over the search radius, groups of Lilies from Yurigaoka and other academies, including Herensuge and Kanbashi, begin to questions the justifications of the government’s pursuit of Yuri. Their answer determines how they should proceed, and whether they should disobey orders. The Lohengrin legion, in their own discussion, agrees that Yuri is a person.

But the government won’t take their word, nor Riri’s, nor even Chairman Takamatsu’s. Their belief must be proven. As always, Takamatsu’s position is that the young girls who must bear the burden of combat should be afforded as much free will as possible, and Yuri is no different. That assertion is proven beyond doubt by Moyu Mashima, who has come to the conclusion that Yuri is not a Huge, but human. To be precise, 99.9% human because, according to Moyu, no one is 100% human, and if that were the case everyone would be exactly the same and evolution would never occur. With the matter of Yuri's identity settled, the question becomes a matter of jurisdiction and precedent. In response, Moyu cites a treaty their nation’s government ratified last year affording “genetically human” individuals like Yuri the same human rights as naturally born ones. Takamatsu concludes that the order to arrest Riri and capture Yuri were baseless and illegitimate, and thus should be rescinded. As for Riri and Yuri, as Lilies, their punishment is his responsibility. Riri and Yuri are in the middle of a difficult conversation when Yuyu and the rest of the Legion arrives in force, and Yuyu declares the crisis resolved. Yuri has been proven to be human, and thus is now safe.

However, their reunion is interrupted by the emergence of an enormous Huge that is not only able to control Magie, but draws a continuously replenishing supply from its nest. It demonstrates its power by focusing nine energy fields into one and condensing it into a particle beam that utterly destroys everything in its path. The moment Yuri understands the situation, she’s off, on her own, at blinding speed over the water, while effortlessly using a combination of Mai Thi Yoshimura Miriam Hildegard V. Gropius's Rare Skills. One by one she takes out the nine fields while dodging the Huge’s counterattacks. When Yuri delivers the final blow, the resulting explosion is massive, and she smiles a sad but determined smile as the blast consumes her. As the remains of the Huge burn offshore, Yuri’s ruined CHARM washes ashore, and Riri takes hold of it as she grieves for her sister who sacrificed herself to save everyone who fought to save her.