Well despite the introduction of the possibility of time travels, or, at least so far, different timelines communications, I really liked this episode. the whole thing has been handled nicely as always for this series. This show is amazing. Even if I knew what each of the guys would have done or said more or less, it worked perfectly with the progression of the episode and the revelations. I got surprised when I thought that it was a strange coincidence how Aika's death had been determinant in routing Mashiro's path and Hakaze basically said the same thing. At that time I thought that Aika was a victim of the logic of the magic.
But the really interesting thing now is not that apparently the two main heroines are both dead and have been dead from the start (I was questioning myself why the writers were still keeping away Hakaze from the main cast). But, summing this up with the preview, now there is a possibility that Aika came from the future. She did know things from the future and we know she is not blood related with Mashiro. Or at least she communicated with someone from the future.
So, apparently the story seems to lead toward Aika being the pivot of everything. More, Aika being the schemer/master of puppets, who strengthened Mashiro and Yoshino friendship, but made fallen them both in love with her and killed herself just to lead them at this, and the next, point: fighting each other. As Samon and Hakaze, as the tree of genesis and the tree of hexodus. For what reason she went/will go so far is still to be seen. And this opens up even to the possibility to see her alive.
So, the question now is, who is she?
Ok, just remembered about Mashiro "accident", that could imply that Aika is not really the master of puppets, but the main actress.
