WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Irregular at Magic High School Season 2, Episode 13, "Visitor Arc XIII," now streaming on Funimation.
With the New Breed Front terrorists taking over the Tokyo Offshore Tower and announcing it will explode in one hour, the Season 2 finale of The Irregular at Magic High School is pure chaos as everyone tries to escape in time -- forcing Tatsuya to make a critical decision.
While Honoka and Shizuku race to get out with the rest of the party attendees, Tatsuya and Miyuki head down to the underground floors to confront the terrorists and stop the Tower's imminent collapse. A sudden earthquake throws everyone's plans into overdrive when Shizuku, Honoka, and many more innocent people become trapped in an elevator -- still hundreds of floors above the ground. Tatsuya is forced to make a choice whether to save Miyuki alone and get out or attempt a level of magic that may save everyone but could potentially kill Tatsuya himself in the process.
As Tatsuya and Miyuki make their own plans to stop the New Breed Front, Hayama appears once again and asks the siblings to take young Minami Sakurai with them. His goal at the party is never made clear, but he later apologizes to Maya Yotsuba for "failing" in his mission. The siblings -- now with Minami in tow -- use Tatsuya's specialized flight magic to descend out the window of the Tower's 360th floor toward the underground floors where the terrorists are hiding. Tatsuya's primary goal is to get everyone to safety, so he attempts to negotiate. He requests five minutes in the control room to get the elevator system running again but the NBF isn't having it.
They ask him to leave the scene, but Tatsuya can't forgive that they shot at him even before he tried to speak. Minami aids Tatsuya with her defensive magic while Miyuki uses a large-scale ice attack to free all the terrorists in place. Their leader -- curiously revealed to be an extra employee at Third Research Institute -- used Resonance Destruction to ensure the Tower's four main pillars would collapse slowly but irreversibly. Tatsuya should've had time to stall the process or find and deactivate the explosives, but the earthquake has left him with dwindling time and options.
Tatsuya's primary mission in life is simple: keep Miyuki safe from harm at all costs. This goal was instilled into his brain as a child after his mother performed dangerous experimental magic on him. However, his life experiences have changed him, and he's not the soulless monster he often believes himself to be. Though he could take Miyuki and escape the Tower by themselves, ensuring her safety, Tatsuya chooses to try and save everyone by restoring the collapsing Tower in full. The Regrowth spell must be cast on such a large scale that Tatsuya believes he won't survive even if he's successful. But thanks to Miyuki's help and her unwavering faith in her brother, Tatsuya restores the Tower to its original state and deactivates the explosives in the process. He falls unconscious from the physical and mental output but survives, to Miyuki's great relief.
Although the day was saved, not everyone is celebrating. Hayama reports back to Maya with a deep apology for failing in his mission. Though his goal is never explicitly stated, the evidence may point to a dark conclusion. It's unlikely the Yotsuba were secretly in league with the New Breed Front. They do their business in secret, while the terrorists were purposely public in stating their goals and motivations as magic supremacists. The Yotsuba also employ many young children and teenagers, actions that the New Breed Front had spoken out against.
As they had advance notice of a terrorist threat at the Tower, is it possible Maya wanted to use the incident to indirectly get rid of Tatsuya? Though he has always performed his duty perfectly and kept Miyuki safe, he has now become one of the world's most powerful magicians. He is also growing more autonomous thanks to his friends and life experiences. The Yotsuba are known for disposing of their assets once they're deemed no longer useful -- or too dangerous.
Minami's sudden appearance as Miyuki's assistant also raises questions, as does Maya's letter to inform Miyuki that Minami will now be living with the Shiba siblings full time. The trio have gotten along well so far, with Minami providing crucial aid in stopping the Tower's destruction. But the Yotsuba's actions usually have more meaning than appears on the surface, and it seems Maya is intent on prying into the happy life that Tatsuya and Miyuki have established.
