Episode 22: Shooting Emotion (Rage)

**"Violent Feelings -rage-"** *Transcription:* "Gekijō -rage-" (Japanese: 撃情 -rage-) is the twenty-second episode of *Madlax*. It debuted on August 30, 2004 in Japan.

## Plot Summary

### Japanese

マーガレットの存在を直感したマドラックスは、ヴァネッサやエリノアを引きつれ山岳地帯に向かうが、そこでは王国軍とガルザの戦闘が繰り広げられていた。戦場の真っ只中に飛び込み、人間離れした戦闘力で両軍を圧倒するマドラックス。一方、放心状態で戦場をさまよっていたマーガレットは、ガルザの兵士に捕まってしまい…。

## Synopsis

Things aren’t going well. Carossur Don is dead, Margaret is unconscious in Friday’s fortress, and Friday Monday has all three holy books. Leticia is devastated because when Don ceased to exist, so did Poupee. Worst of all, Friday wants to open the door again—from the comfort of his castle this time. He’ll probably wish for even more war and ruin, which he says all humans desire. However, Leticia bursts Friday’s bubble by telling him he can’t open the door because the Secondary holy book is missing a page. Madlax has it, back in the village.

Friday lets Margaret get up and walk away, because he’s planning to follow her, hoping to be led to the missing page. The little Ojou-sama walks through the jungle in a daze, shocked by all she has learned. When a soldier stops her, she at first makes no attempt to fight back. But after the man pushes her down on the ground, Margaret glares at him with death in her eyes. She is not her usual self.

Madlax wakes up to see Vanessa and Eleanor leaning against each other, sleeping. There is no blood on Madlax’s bandages. Removing the bandage and looking at herself, the mercenary girl can find no wound of any kind. Shot through the lung, her body completely healed itself in only two days. Naharu and her master are here too, a little ways away. Lord Kuanjitta tells Naharu that there were no big changes to the world (which they were expecting) because Margaret herself didn’t open the Door of Truth; she only guided Carossur Don there so he could see the truth.

A bit later, Vanessa and Eleanor wake up and are told by Madlax that she can sense Margaret’s presence. She’s not far away—she’s in the woods between the village and Friday’s little fortress. They set off while, elsewhere, Limelda Jorg fixes up her wound, ready to fight again. On their way to the mountain, Madlax and company stumble upon an active battle zone. Vanessa suggests they go around, but of course Madlax insists on going nuts and killing all the men, Galza and King's Army alike.

Once that’s done, the group hears a terrible scream of a dying man. Eleanor and Vanessa run toward the noise, suspecting that Margaret is there, but Vanessa’s progress is halted by the appearance of Friday Monday. When it becomes clear that the masked man was responsible for the deaths of her parents, Vanessa puts her gun at him with murderous intent.

While the other two women ran toward Margaret, Madlax stayed behind to fight Limelda Jorg yet again. Things are a little different this time. Because she has fully embraced her existence as a nonhuman entity, Madlax is able to use her skills and abilities better than ever before. She dodges bullets even while she’s walking through fog, looking like she’s dancing. Jorg is no match for her. Soon Madlax disarms her opponent by shooting the machine gun out of her hands. Yet again, however, she leaves Jorg alive. The obsessive Limelda isn’t ready to stop, though. She keeps following Madlax, and from the vantage point of a clifftop, she prepares to shoot her rival.

Before Vanessa is able to avenge her parents, Friday uses his power and the words “Elda Taluta,” which results in Vanessa seeing visions of her parents being handcuffed and marched along by rough soldiers. She drops her gun and falls on her knees. At that moment, Madlax arrives. She tells Friday she will kill him, but before she can make good on her word, Vanessa tells her to duck. Madlax successfully dodges the shot from Jorg. Vanessa, who sees the sniper not too far away, shoots her in the shoulder, causing her to fall off the edge of the cliff. But before she fell, Limelda Jorg managed to make one more shot hit home; a flower of dark crimson appears on Vanessa’s white shirt. She’s been hit.

Madlax’s brain gives her the pleasure of a spiritual experience before the world goes to shit. In a field of multicolored helianthus flowers, Madlax talks to Vanessa’s spirit, both of them enjoying their last moments together. Vanessa tells Madlax to keep on living and not give up. Then a scream brings the mercenary girl back to reality. Vanessa lies dead on the ground, and out of the trees just behind her comes Margaret Burton. It was she who screamed. She assumes that Madlax killed Vanessa, the same way she killed her father. So Margaret draws a gun that she got from the soldier she beat up earlier. Saying, “Sarkus Sark,” the girl unblinkingly shoots Madlax. As the mercenary falls, the young Ojou-sama adds, “Ark Arukus.”

## Preview

Episode 23

*"I now understand. This is a page from Margaret's book. The truth of twelve years ago. The truth of my existence."* – Madlax