Spy Kyoushitsu Vol 14 - Thea! So that was the plan all along!

Volume 14 of Spy Kyoushitsu completely changes the picture we had painted in the previous volume by showing the motivations behind why the girls decided not to side with Klaus in the Nostalgia Project and what exactly they are planning to do in this grand finale of the series.

The volume is framed from the point of view of Ran, "Floating Cloud," a former member of the Ootori team that was annihilated long ago. She's currently part of another team working as a sort of internal police force for spies, and she's investigating the Tomoshibi members to see if there's a chance they might betray the Din Republic.

She goes through each group of heroines and gets their thoughts on Klaus defecting and the whole situation that has been building around it. This is presented as a sort of investigation journal where Ran determines, in her opinion, the chances of each member defecting and becoming an enemy. She is accompanied by "Jewel" Viniberga, an aggressive fan of Tomoshibi who dreams of becoming one of them.

The big reveal is that Tomoshibi is not going to side with Klaus, but they aren't going to side with the Din Republic either. They're going to act as a third party and reach the ending they see as best after defeating their former teacher. There are no details about what that envisions, but I'm guessing that's the "happy ending" for the series.

I suspected their departure from his side was an elaborate ruse because I couldn't see them becoming complete enemies of Klaus or accepting the cost in human lives of using the Nostalgia Project, regardless of what the government wants. They've grown a lot over the course of these many missions and are now real spies, not dropouts anymore.

Thea also used this opportunity to temporarily charm Viniberga to get information about the mysterious biological weapon called Naraku Ningyou, which puts them on the same level as Klaus when it comes to knowledge of what's going on. Of course, as usual, the reader is left without vital details to keep the suspense up.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, the next volume will start to delve into the secrets that the Din Republic is holding. There's no turning back because Tomoshibi is now marked as an enemy of the country. I'm still wondering if Veronika is actually alive or if her powers are being used in the Naraku Ningyou project. She had the ability to charm and control thousands of people, and if that's expanded into a weapon on a global scale, it could be unstoppable.