7 : Battle With The Heroes
The Heroes of Deramis confront Kelvin's group and accuse them of being the Black Wind. Kelvin plays along with the accusation and boasts how vulnerable Gilda's group was. Unnerved by Kelvin's audacity, the Heroes of Deramis individually introduce themselves, and Toya proclaims justice will be served against them. Hearing this declaration makes Kelvin laugh and mocks them, claiming they're too weak, but proposes a game where he'll face off against them all, and the winner has their wish fulfilled. Although Toya insists on fighting him alone, Setsuna admonishes him from that, noting Kelvin is "hiding" something. So with his whole team's support, Toya agrees to Kelvin's terms.
7 : Battle with the Heroes
Afterward, they change their location to a more open area, and Efil reveals that Kelvin planned that if he won, he'd have the Heroes testify against Christoph and his gang. Sera mentions her desire to fight, but Kelvin downplays it and then has Efil serve sandwiches the group can enjoy while they watch him fight. However, Efil also notes her concern that Kelvin is taking a massive risk fighting the Heroes by himself, but he claims it's a matter of improving his weakness against fighting in groups. Furthermore, he'll try out his newest trinket, the Skill Eater. On the opposite side, Toya chastises Kelvin believing he's the Black Wind Bandit group with a string of nefarious deeds under their belt.
Wasting no time, the Heroes call upon their individual fairies' blessings, and Toya starts the attack against Toya. Complimenting Toya's deduction of how advantageous it'd be to attack him from up close, Kelvin then casts Radiant Lances against them, forcing Toya and Setsuna to block the attacks. Nana then calls out the tamed monster named Munnie from her bag to use Fire Breath against Kelvin, and he briskly dodges the attack with an agility buff. He then uses his Skill Eater on Miyabi, while Gerard comments that the trinket was created from Victor's Armor. Sera also details the Skill Eater's skill copying abilities. Kelvin then claims that he stole Miyabi's Parallel Thinking, causing Toya to attack Kelvin as Setsuna and Nana tend to the incapacitated Miyabi. The agitated Toya attacks Kelvin in close proximity to prevent him from casting any spells. However, Kelvin manages to hold Toya off with a single hand, utilizing Sera's borrowed S-Rank Martial Arts skill. Setsuna intervenes, so Kelvin casts Adamant Rampart creating a stone blockade from the ground; however, Setsuna manages to slice right through it. Appearing from behind the falling rubble, Kelvin casts a giant fireball aimed at Setsuna, but Toya blocks it with his sword. Despite Toya brushing off the attack as nothing special and reciting his determination to defeat the Demon King, Setsuna slaps him and tearfully claims to be more mindful. A brief flashback of when the Heroes of Deramis arrived in the alternate world is shown, with Setsuna giving commentary about it. Setsuna pleads with Toya to rely on them more as a team. Toya then apologizes for his past discretions to the group.
Once that was all settled, the fight continues when a Light Fairy blinds Kelvin, which he notes can't be detected through his detection skill. Nana and Miyabi both use ice and dark magic to immobilize Kelvin's movement, and Toya and Setsuna try and attack Kelvin, but he counterattacks with a Cleft Detonation spell. After curing himself of his blindness, Kelvin compliments the group for their efforts thus far. He goes on to advise the Heroes of their inadequate combat techniques. Enraged by Toya's advice, the Heroes entrap and restrain Kelvin in what appears to be a disadvantageous situation. However, Kelvin summons his Adamantine Guardians and utilizes the Parallel Thinking he stole, creating a new spell Radiant Crossfire. Using that spell frees Kelvin from his restraints and, one by one takes out the Hero party.
Afterward, Toya awakens and is fully explained the truth of who Kelvin and his group are. Toya then formally apologizes to Kelvin after he learns everything, and Kelvin promises not to hold anything against him so long as he follows up with his side of the bargain. Speaking on behalf of his team, Toya agrees, and Kelvin's team is asked to strip, much to their dismay.
After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's capacity to replace its losses in materiel (particularly aircraft carriers) and men (especially well-trained pilots and maintenance crewmen) rapidly became insufficient to cope with mounting casualties, while the United States' massive industrial and training capabilities made losses far easier to replace. The Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal campaign, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War.
After expanding the war in the Pacific to include Western outposts, the Japanese Empire had attained its initial strategic goals quickly, taking British Hong Kong, the Philippines, British Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). The Dutch East Indies, with its vital oil resources, was particularly important to Japan. Because of this, preliminary planning for the second phase of operations commenced as early as January 1942.
Because of strategic disagreements between the Imperial Army (IJA) and Imperial Navy (IJN), and infighting between the Navy's GHQ and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's Combined Fleet, a follow-up strategy was not formed until April 1942.[12] Admiral Yamamoto finally won the bureaucratic struggle with a thinly veiled threat to resign, after which his plan for the Central Pacific was adopted.[13]
This, and other successful hit-and-run raids by American carriers in the South Pacific, showed that they were still a threat, although seemingly reluctant to be drawn into an all-out battle.[15] Yamamoto reasoned that another air attack on the main U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor would induce all of the American fleet to sail out to fight, including the carriers. However, considering the increased strength of American land-based airpower on the Hawaiian Islands since the 7 December attack the previous year, he judged that it was now too risky to attack Pearl Harbor directly.[16]
Instead, Yamamoto selected Midway, a tiny atoll at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain, approximately 1,300 mi (1,100 nmi; 2,100 km) from Oahu. This meant that Midway was outside the effective range of almost all of the American aircraft stationed on the main Hawaiian islands. Midway was not especially important in the larger scheme of Japan's intentions, but the Japanese felt the Americans would consider Midway a vital outpost of Pearl Harbor and would therefore be compelled to defend it vigorously.[17] The U.S. did consider Midway vital: after the battle, the establishment of a U.S. submarine base on Naval Air Facility Midway Island allowed submarines operating from Pearl Harbor to refuel and re-provision, extending their radius of operations by 1,200 mi (1,900 km). In addition to serving as a seaplane base, Midway's airstrips also served as a forward staging point for bomber attacks on Wake Island.[18]
Typical of Japanese naval planning during World War II, Yamamoto's battle plan for taking Midway (named Operation MI) was exceedingly complex.[19] It required the careful and timely coordination of multiple battle groups over hundreds of miles of open sea. His design was also predicated on optimistic intelligence suggesting that USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, forming Task Force 16, were the only carriers available to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, USS Lexington had been sunk and USS Yorktown suffered so much damage that the Japanese believed she too had been lost.[20] However, following hasty repairs at Pearl Harbor, Yorktown sortied and ultimately played a critical role in the discovery and eventual destruction of the Japanese fleet carriers at Midway. Finally, much of Yamamoto's planning, coinciding with the general feeling among the Japanese leadership at the time, was based on a gross misjudgment of American morale, which was believed to be debilitated from the string of Japanese victories in the preceding months.[21]
Yamamoto felt deception would be required to lure the U.S. fleet into a fatally compromised situation.[22] To this end, he dispersed his forces so that their full extent (particularly his battleships) would be concealed from the Americans prior to battle. Critically, Yamamoto's supporting battleships and cruisers trailed Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's carrier force by several hundred miles. They were intended to come up and destroy whatever elements of the U.S. fleet might come to Midway's defense once Nagumo's carriers had weakened them sufficiently for a daylight gun battle.[23] This tactic was doctrine in most major navies of the time.[24]
What Yamamoto did not know was that the U.S. had broken parts of the main Japanese naval code (dubbed JN-25 by the Americans), divulging many details of his plan to the enemy. His emphasis on dispersal also meant none of his formations were in a position to support the others.[25] For instance, despite the fact that Nagumo's carriers were expected to carry out strikes against Midway and bear the brunt of American counterattacks, the only warships in his fleet larger than the screening force of twelve destroyers were two Kongō-class fast battleships, two heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser. By contrast, Yamamoto and Kondo had between them two light carriers, five battleships, four heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers, none of which saw action at Midway.[23] The light carriers of the trailing forces and Yamamoto's three battleships were unable to keep pace with the carriers of the Kidō Butai and so could not have sailed in company with them. The Kidō Butai would sail into range at best speed so as to increase the chance of surprise, and would not have ships spread out across the ocean guiding the enemy toward it. If the other parts of the invasion force needed more defense, the Kidō Butai would make best speed to defend them. Hence the slower ships could not be with the Kidō Butai. The distance between Yamamoto and Kondo's forces and Nagumo's carriers had grave implications during the battle. The invaluable reconnaissance capability of the scout planes carried by the cruisers and carriers, as well as the additional antiaircraft capability of the cruisers and the other two battleships of the Kongō-class in the trailing forces, was unavailable to Nagumo.[26] 041b061a72