The BEST episodes directed by Rei Mano
#1 - FILE 8: The Cursed House #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 23
The remaining psychics tour around the area in order to verify Mai's dreams. A member of the family tries to commit suicide, fearing that others may be killed as a result of possession. Ayako provides each family member with protective charms, though the two children and another family member refuse to use them. Mai uses the Kuji to prevent Katsuki, one of the family members, from jumping off a cliff, but ends up affecting another family member, Wakako, and effectively wards off the spirits possessing Katsuki and Wakako.
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#2 - FILE 7: The Bloodstained Labyrinth #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 19
Members of the other teams begin disappearing. In a search of the house, John finds a secret room that enables the SPR team to add to the information they learned from Madoka of the estate's past owners. Shortly after, Mai has a dream in which she experiences first-hand the death of someone from the estate.
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#3 - FILE 7: The Bloodstained Labyrinth #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 20
The dream leaves Mai traumatised, but prompts new speculation by the team regarding the house's spirits. Lin carries out a ritual to summon the spirit of one of the missing people, who gives the SPR team a new lead. The discovery of one of the missing people's corpse induces Oliver Davis, one of the investigators on another team, to reveal himself as an impostor.
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#4 - FILE 8: The Cursed House #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 24
Nao, a member of the family involved, is confirmed dead and Masako is sent to perform a ritual. Mai has another dream and is woken by Masako when a fire spreads in the main house. Another family member meets a tragic end after being possessed. An army of zombies soon enters the SPR's base to free the spirit that has possessed Naru.
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#5 - FILE 2: The Doll House #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 5
Ayami reveals Minnie has been exerting a strict control over her, punishing her whenever she breaks a promise to Minnie. The team believes the doll is being used as a vessel by a spirit. After Ayami is involved in a near-fatal accident, Naru discovers previous residents of the house have been plagued with frightening incidents, all resulting in the death of young children.
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#6 - FILE 7: The Bloodstained Labyrinth #4
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 21
Naru reveals Madoka's true motive behind requesting they take on the case was to expose the fake Oliver Davis. Naru informs the team their job is therefore finished, despite Mai's protests. While the group prepares to leave, Masako disappears, and Mai has a dream that allows her to lead the team straight to the missing girl. A malevolent spirit attacks the girls, but Lin is able to ward it off and the team escapes unharmed. With no other way of removing the spirits, the house is later purified by fire.
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#7 - FILE 6: Forbidden Pastime #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 14
The highly publicised Ryokuryou High School is brought to the SPR's attention when students report a series of terrifying events, including a ghostly dog attacking them. The SPR gathers information with the help of the school valedictorian, Yasuhara, and learn the incidents began after Sakauchi, a first year student, committed suicide. During the installation of cameras around the school, Mai encounters Sakauchi's ghost.
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#8 - FILE 5: Silent Christmas #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 13
While Naru searches for Kenji's body, Lin is ordered to play with Kenji. Lin snaps shortly after and Kenji, still in Mai's body, races into the woods. After John and Bou-san find Kenji, Naru tells him his father is waiting for him in heaven and asks him where he is. Kenji shows him the place he'd hid and died in and releases Mai, who sees Kenji's tragic death in a dream.
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#9 - FILE 6: Forbidden Pastime #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 15
Mai dreams about the school and notes that dozens of spirits, including will-o'-the-wisp, are devouring each other. Masako and Mai later see Saukichi's ghost being similarly absorbed. The team discover a popular spirit-summoning game, 'Orikiri-sama' may have been spread by Saukichi, possibly resulting in the many spirits inhabiting the school. While retrieving a video tape, Mai finds herself locked in a room with bottles crashing down around her, releasing the smell of formalin.
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#10 - FILE 6: Forbidden Pastime #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 16
Mai wakes up in the nurse's office, after several events nearly lead her to her death again. Mai's lamentation on learning the SPR have been asked to leave after the latest disasters prompts Naru to muse over a theory. He speculates that the spirits were deliberately called and expected to devour each other until the strongest remained. This spirit would possess the school, but require human sacrifices. Lin discovers the instructions for 'Orikiri-sama' have been designed to ensure participants unknowingly contribute to a death spell, the target of which is someone at the school.
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#11 - FILE 8: The Cursed House #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 22
SPR is asked by a person who comes all the way out from the seaside to solve a dangerous case, of which three psychics have already attempted to solve and died as a result. Naru is possessed by a spirit when Ayako exorcises a strong spirit possessing a member of the family involved. Mai dreams of the history of the spirits, with her teammates assuming roles within the dream, and Naru guiding her to where the spirits have gone.
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#12 - FILE 8: The Cursed House #4
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 25
Bou-san manages to banish the drowned corpses attacking the base, allowing the team some respite. When the sun rises, Ayako volunteers to purify the spirits and performs a successful exorcism, surprising Bou-san and the other members of the team, but notes another force is still at work. Naru wakes up and the team moves to finish off the unseen force causing the disasters. After the team struggles to exorcise with the spirits involved, Naru uses his own psychokinetic powers and finishes the job, only to collapse afterward. He reawakens in the hospital with the rest of the team, cheerfully visiting him in his room.
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#13 - FILE 2: The Doll House #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 6
After a failed attempt to exorcise the spirits of the dead children, a well appears in the middle of the living room. Mai is pulled into the well by a malevolent spirit during a second exorcism. While unconscious, she sees the abduction of a little girl and the subsequent suicide of the child's distraught mother. With this new knowledge, the team is able to cleanse the spirits of the woman and children, restoring peace to the old house.
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#14 - FILE 3: The After School Hexer #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 9
Evidence against the psychokinetic girl, Kasai, begins to pile up. Mai refuses to believe Kasai is responsible, despite Bou-san and Ayako's beliefs to the contrary, saying she has a feeling within her that Kasai is innocent. While searching for more dolls, Mai is lured to an open manhole by the ghost of a crying child. Naru fails to save her from falling in and instead, they both find themselves inside the hole.
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#15 - FILE 7: The Bloodstained Labyrinth #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 18
Madoka, an associate of Naru's, requests the SPR take on a case for the former Prime Minister and investigate the mysterious disappearances of young people at one of his properties. Before the case, Naru asks Yasuhara to pretend to be SPR's director in his stead. The SPR team join two other teams of investigators, one of which requests they all participate in a séance which has an unexpected result.
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#16 - FILE 3: The After School Hexer #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 8
The team arrive at the conclusion that the sheer number of occurrences at the school would require a psychic power far greater than anyone could possibly possess. Coupled with Masako's insistence the school houses no spirits, Naru begins to believe someone is using a form of voodoo, calling on gods to carry out their desires. The discovery of human-like dolls under the desk and in the clubroom seem to confirm this.
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#17 - FILE 5: Silent Christmas #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 12
John brings the SPR their next case on Christmas Eve. Children at a local church are being possessed by the ghost of a mute boy who vanished one day during a game of Hide and Seek. The boy, Kenji, hides in the woods once he claims a body. While in control of a child, he mistakes Lin for his dead father and clings to him. John exorcises Kenji from the child he resides in, but Kenji then promptly possesses Mai.
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#18 - FILE 4: Ghost Story in the Park!
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 11
Masako requests Naru investigate a park where over six months, couples have had water dumped over them from thin air. The team, excluding Lin, split up at Masako's suggestion into pairs and they soon attract the spirit of a woman. Taking possession of Masako's body, the woman explains she died soon after being cheated on by her boyfriend. Mai convinces her to let go and move on to heaven, but not until they have forced the cheating partner to acknowledge the hurt he caused.
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#19 - FILE 3: The After School Hexer #4
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 10
Bou-san, Ayako, and Mai destroy the dolls, effectively removing the 'curse' on the school. Naru is sent to the hospital as a result of the manhole accident, where he makes a startling revelation regarding the past of someone at the school. He clears Kasai's name, but is forced to accuse someone close to her in the process. After the case, the team return to the SPR, where Naru successfully tests Mai for psychic abilities.
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#20 - FILE 6: Forbidden Pastime #4
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 17
Naru and Lin begin a ritual to return the curse to its casters, thereby leaving leaving the curse's target unharmed. Mai learns that this ritual will affect most of the school's student population, as they, while unknowingly, contributed to the curse. Her attempt to stop it fails, but Naru and Lin are able to lift the curse with little harm to the students.
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#21 - FILE 3: The After School Hexer #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 7
The SPR are asked to handle a case at the Yuasa High School, where a series of unusual events are seemingly related to a cursed desk and a haunted clubroom. Rumours circulating the school population implicate a girl with psychokinesis, who had previously vowed to 'curse to death' all the doubters of her gifts.
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#22 - FILE 2: The Doll House #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 4
The SPR team, joined by the exorcists and mediums from the previous case, are requested at a house where poltergeist-like activity has been taking place. Soon after their arrival, the ghostly occurrences escalate, leading Bou-san to conclude the house is haunted by something more than a mere poltergeist. A young girl in the family, Ayami, exhibits strange behavior, claiming her doll Minnie has been speaking to her. The SPR team observe Minnie closely, with disturbing results.
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#23 - FILE 1: Evil Spirits All Over! #2
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 2
Each member of the team proposes a different theory as to what is responsible for the odd occurrences. After collecting data overnight, Naru begins to doubt the presence of any spirits and instead theorises that land subsidence is the cause of all the ghostly activity. Mai's classmate, Kuroda, fiercely insists that a poltergeist is at work, and evidence appearing to support her idea soon arises.
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#24 - FILE 1: Evil Spirits All Over! #3
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 3
After disappearing for a night, Naru conducts an experiment involving all those associated with the case. He implants a hypnotic suggestion in their minds regarding a chair in a sealed room moving overnight. His experiment proving successful, Naru reveals his explanation for the latest developments, correctly accusing one of the group of mimicking a poltergeist's acts. After the conclusion of the case, Naru offers Mai a part-time job at the SPR, which she accepts.
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#25 - FILE 1: Evil Spirits All Over! #1
Ghost Hunt - Season 1 - Episode 1
Mai meets Naru while exchanging ghost stories with her friends, and learns her school principal has hired him to investigate an allegedly haunted school building. Mai later causes the injury of Naru's assistant and is forced to stand in as a temporary replacement. The principal also brings in several exorcists and mediums, and more help arrives in the form of a classmate of Mai's, who claims to have the ability to sense spirits.
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#26 - Christmas in the Holy Land
Kiss Him, Not Me - Season 1 - Episode 4
With Christmas around the corner, Nanashima suggests everyone have a party. However, Kae says she can't possibly make it because she's going to Comiket. In the end, everyone decides to go to Comiket together, then have a Christmas party afterwards. The boys are bewildered at their first visit to Comiket, and feel as though everyone is looking at them askance. Meanwhile, Kae is busy bustling about the entire venue, until she runs into some trouble at the cosplay plaza. And then, a handsome cosplayer saves her.
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#27 - And So Pinocchio Becomes Human
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 13
The "Pinocchio Arc" comes to a conclusion. Franco and Franca decide to come to the aid of Cristiano and Pinocchio. Triela and Pinocchio battle it out with guns and knives while Hillshire looks for Cristiano. Pinocchio shoots Triela with her own pistol and Cristiano is shot and then captured by Jean and Rico. Franco and Franca arrive to rescue Cristiano and make their escape by car. They reach the roadblock and Angelica shoots Franca. They fail to negotiate a bend in the road and crash into the Mediterranean. Triela finds Pinocchio and her training allows her to finally defeat him. In the aftermath of the battle, they dredge the car from the sea, but no bodies are found. All of the cyborgs are congratulated by their handlers for jobs well-done. Back at the compound, the girls settle back into their daily routine.
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#28 - The Fighting Puppet
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 12
Back at the bridge, the fratelli are searching for Franco, Franca and Pinocchio. Henrietta discovers the three setting charges in the main support. She opens fire and a fire-fight ensues. They escape in a boat and Franco sets off the charges, though it is insufficient to drop the bridge. They return to the farm in Frascati and Triela returns to the house in Naples where she had her first fight with Pinocchio. Pinocchio goes to Cristiano’s house in Milan just prior to Section 2 launching their assault. They take out a gas station where some of Cristiano’s men are using as a guard house and then set up a road block to prevent anyone from escaping. In his house, Cristiano is planning his escape, but Section 2 arrives and launches their assault. Triela and Pinocchio face each other for the second time.
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#29 - Brother Invasion
Kiss Him, Not Me - Season 1 - Episode 10
Mutsumi finds a hidden treasure map in the History Club room and invites everyone to go treasure hunting. Igarashi, Nanashima, Shinomiya and Nishina are less than thrilled about the idea, but after finding out Kae would be going alone with Mutsumi, they decide to go too. The four of them are confused by Mutsumi, because he treats Kae now the same way he always had. And so, they decide to ask him how he really feels.
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#30 - Simulacra
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 3
Hilshire and Triela are ordered on a mission to relocate a member of the Public Safety Division who has gone missing in his search for a Padanian assassin named Pinocchio. While investigating at a hotel in Montalcino, Triela stumbles upon a book titled "Pinocchio" and begins reading it, later throwing it onto the ground for a lack of a better story. The next day, Triela ends up finding a girl named Aurora who happens to know Pinocchio. Unbeknown to Aurora, Triela slips a mic into her lunch basket. A moment later, Aurora sneaks into Pinocchio's house and is captured by him, Franco and Franca, who then hold her hostage. Triela and Hilshire break in and Triela fights Pinocchio but is outwitted and defeated by him. Although Aurora is saved thanks to Hilshire's effort to release her from Franca's grip, the terrorists are able to escape. Triela becomes humiliated after being beaten.
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#31 - Flowers of Goodwill
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 10
Triela is still upset at her failure to defeat Pinocchio. Mario Bossi is testifying against the Mafia and Hillshire and Triela are sent to Naples to guard his teenage daughter, Maria Machiavelli. Maria chafes at the restrictions and tries to escape, being captured by Mafioso sent to capture her as leverage to prevent her father from testifying. Henrietta and Giuseppe rescue her, however. Triela undergoes Close Quarters Combat training at a Carabineri base. And a series of flashbacks also tells the story of how Hillshire and Rachelle Belleut met at Europol and while investigating a child torture/murder ring, rescued Triela at the cost of Rachelle’s life. It ends with Triela having one of her legs replaced and when she awakes, she notes that she dreamed of someone who was maybe her mother.
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#32 - Budding Feelings
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 11
An assassin walks through a house, killing everyone he encounters. He calls Cristiano to report the successful completion of the job and he arrives to confirm it. As he leaves, Cristiano detects a false floor and in a room below they find a young boy - a boy who will become Pinocchio. Back in Frascati, Franco, Franca and Pinocchio rest and recuperate. Franca’s uncle calls, informing them that the police almost arrested him and will soon make a move to arrest Cristiano. They discuss plans to bomb the Strait of Messina Bridge. Section 2 is expecting them, however, and multiple fratelli are in position to guard the structure along with Army and Naval forces.
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#33 - Transience and Reminiscence
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 5
A month after Angelica's successful return, she seems to be doing well-- Marco, however, still has doubts, and is upset by the fact she is becoming more and more different from the old Angelica; Triela, on the other hand, remains deeply depressed after her failure in the fight against Pinocchio. Priscilla, feeling sorry for Angelica, offers her a ride back from the firing range on her Vespa, and the two become much closer, despite Angelica's continued memory loss. Meanwhile, Marco's ex-girlfriend, Patricia, is approached by a reporter named Leonardo Conti, who claims to know a shadowy truth about the Social Welfare Agency, and wants Patricia to help him investigate it. Driven by concern for Marco and a growing distrust for the Italian government, Patricia agrees, but Leonardo turns out to be a PRF undercover agent and takes Patricia hostage. After Angelica kills Leonardo, Patricia demands to know why he's aiding the government in its "crimes", to which Marco responds that he didn't end up that way because he wanted to-- suggesting that he's still driven by his love for Angelica.
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#34 - Retirement of the Tibetan Terrier
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 6
Section Two is asked to watch over an important politician, Chairwoman Isabella d'Angelo, whose agency is in charge of the Strait of Messina Bridge project; meanwhile, the PRF send Nino, the "Tibetan Terrier", one of their best kidnappers, to seize her. Henrietta and Rico quarrel after the latter breaks Henrietta's kaleidoscope, and Giuseppe must take it to be repaired, which he does at the very antiques shop in which Nino works as cover. Henrietta and Giuseppe are then assigned to guard Chairwoman d'Angelo, who debates the morality of using children as soldiers with Lorenzo. Giuseppe discovers a PRF agent on the Chairwoman's staff, and uses his information to set a trap for Nino's men-- meanwhile, said PRF agents decide to charge in despite the advice of Nino, who is making up his mind to retire-- he does so at the end, bidding a fond farewell to Franca. Henrietta, Giuseppe, and Rico easily foil the PRF's kidnapping attempt, and the Chairwoman is saved.
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#35 - Caterina and the Circle of Revenge
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 7
Flashbacks reveal that Franca (whose given name was Caterina) was the person who introduced Priscilla to Marco when they were both going to the University of Rome. She, Franco and Pinocchio are hiding out and recovering at her farm in Frascati after the escape from Section 2. Additional flashbacks reveal how, after her father dies in prison, Franca seeks out the bomber Franco to get revenge on the national government. Driving back from a meeting with her uncle, Franca stops to assist some stranded motorists, who instead turn out to be Section 1 agents. Franco and Pinocchio rescue her, killing all the agents in the process, and take her to a nearby hotel to recuperate. Section 2 arrives and sets off an anti-personnel mine left under one of the agent’s bodies, but Henrietta’s quick actions save everyone from fatal injury.
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#36 - Clever Snake, Simple Pigeon
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 9
Giuseppe reunites with an old friend from the Italian military, with whom he reminisces on the past, and especially his sister Enrica, until a PRF terrorist detonates a bomb near their restaurant. After his capture by Beatrice and interrogation by Rico reveals a large supply of plastic explosive, supplied to the PRF through the military, Section Two is tasked with finding out the identity of the traitor. The trail eventually leads to Giuseppe's old acquaintance, who is killed in a raid by the Fratello, badly upsetting Giuseppe, and his superior, Colonel Garnier. Meanwhile, Henrietta is troubled both over feelings that she is being overly selfish with Giuseppe and his general depression. She and Rico assassinate the Colonel and his second-in-command at a performance of Tosca, and Giuseppe reaffirms his affection for Henrietta, gently pinching her on the cheek as he used to do with his sister.
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#37 - A Day in the Life of Claes
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 8
Claes has dreams of her time with Raballo, but can't seem to remember who he is, which distresses her. However, she keeps her emotional distress to herself, and continues to follow her daily routine of study, piano and gardening, as well as being examined by Section Two's science team. Jean, concerned about how much Claes recalls, has her watch a nature video that recalls the fishing trips she and her handler would take; this serves as something of a trigger for Claes, who goes wandering through the firing range, and seems to remember Raballo's name. At the end of the episode, she and a new cyborg, Beatrice, find a meteorite in Claes' herb garden, and the song Scarborough Fair is played as she reminisces over what she can remember of her mentor.
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#38 - Angelica's Return
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 4
Angelica is allowed to go on her first field mission since her earlier hospitalization (see Gunslinger Girl, episode 13). Together with Marco, her fratello, and Rico and Jean they head for Milan to get more information on the activities of the PRF and Pinocchio in particular. Olga and Priscilla have also headed to Milan to check up on how Angelica is doing and Marco drafts them into helping with the mission at hand. Trouble arises, when it appears that Angelica is suffering from an addiction to her conditioning pills, as she breaks Priscilla's arm due to the withdrawal symptoms she's suffering from. Priscilla manages to convince Marco not to tell Jean about what has occurred, and to let Angelica continue with the mission. Marco relents, and the team ends up capturing one of the Cleaners used by the PRF after a successful ambush by Angelica, Marco, and Rico. Angelica is initially disappointed in herself for failing to kill any of the terrorists (thanks to their bulletproof car), but Marco praises her for carrying out the mission correctly, thus making her rather giddy with joy as she and Rico talk about what just occurred.
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#39 - Pinocchio
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 2
In a flashback, Pinocchio, a young child, commits his first murder under the auspices of his foster father Cristiano. In the present, he finishes an assassination for the Padania Republic Faction (PRF). The leaders of the PRF, including Cristiano, meet to plan a bombing on the Strait of Messina Bridge, and they enlist the aid of Franco and Franca, a pair of terrorist bombers, to destroy the bridge, with Pinocchio assisting them. Franca is surprised at Pinocchio's social awkwardness, especially when he fails to identify that her car is a Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Afterwards, Pinocchio tells Aurora, a girl living near him, to stay away from him. At the Section 2 headquarters, Hilshire and Marco observe Angelica, Marco's partner, and Rico, as Hilshire prepares to leave on a mission with Triela in Montalcino.
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#40 - The Distance Between Two People - Brothers and Sisters
Gunslinger Girl - Season 2 - Episode 1
While preparing to return to Italy, Jose and Hilshire go to an antique store in France to pick gifts for their partners, Henrietta and Triela. On the train home, Jose has a flashback to when he was assigned to the Balkans and had to leave his younger sister, Enrica, with his older brother, Jean. Back in Italy, Jose and Henrietta join Jean and his partner Rico, as well as Hilshire and Triela, as they chase a group of bombers after they conduct an attack. With aid from all parties, the bombers are captured. Later at the headquarters, Henrietta goes to Jose's room, and finds inside a kaleidoscope addressed to a "Louise Antoinette Rolle," whom Henrietta suspects is Giuseppe's lover. Heartbroken, Henrietta returns to her room, and voices this suspicion to her roommates, Claes and Triela. Claes recalls that the woman in question is the mistress of a nineteenth century author who commonly used the character "Henrietta" in his novels. Pleased, Henrietta joins Jose stargazing, while Claes remarks that the kaleidoscope is likely fake.
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