WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 17, "The Other Five," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
The heavenly battle royale to select the next God continues, but in an entirely new way. With Metropoliman now dead, the arrow-based battles die down and the youngest known candidate, Yuito Susumu, proposes that all surviving God candidates convene to elect a new God in peace.
Though wary of this plan, Kakehashi Mirai agrees to Susumu's proposal, especially since it matches his pacifistic worldview in the pursuit of happiness. Mirai, his friend Saki and two sympathetic police officers gather the remaining God candidates, but electing a new God is easier said than done, and Mirai has more enemies than friends. This could be a trap.
Mirai and his loyal friend Saki follow every lead they have to identify and confront the few remaining God candidates, and they soon track down Metrpoliman's friend and classmate Minamikawa, who admits to not being a God candidate. All the same, Minamikawa is familiar with the battle royale and agrees to help Miraia and Saki find a peaceful resolution to the battle royale. The three of them find another God candidate, a clearly depressed boy named Nakaumi Shuji. He has red Arrows and a grim opinion on how they should be used.
The anguished Shuji wishes to take his own life and that of his equally troubled brother, and he explains that with the red Arrows, he can encourage other people to end their own lives to escape guilt, pain and other troubles. Shuji views the red Arrow as a wish-granter for the miserable, until Mirai and Minamikawa talk him out of it and remind him that a person's death is always traumatic and a "nuisance" to everyone who even slightly knows them. Not wishing to be a burden on anyone, Shuji reluctantly agrees to join Mirai's party and returns to Hoshi and Yumiki's apartment.
This shows how far Mirai has come, with his diplomatic skills and persuasion abilities reaching new heights -- with Minamikawa's aid, he can convince anyone to see things his way. It helps that after all these harrowing experiences, Mirai has become mentally stronger, and his emotional strength and empathy now become some of his best assets. At this rate, he won't even need his red Arrow except for dire circumstances.
With Hoshi and Yumiki's aid, Mirai and Saki track down yet another God candidate, a young woman named Temari Yuri, who had fled the battlefield soon after the battle royale began. She has not yet come into contact with other God candidates, but she does enter police custody in Episode 17. As Hoshi has already explained to Mirai, the Japanese police agency and government want to capture the God candidates and use them as the ultimate assassins, akin to Kira from Death Note. The police won't give up Yuri easily, but Mirai belongs to a four-member team of candidates including Susumu, and he sends their angels to persuade Yuri to join them.
Yuri approves of the plan, although she can't yet express that to Mirai or the angels just ye, since the police are watching her closely with cameras in the mansion where they keep her detained. Once Yuri joins Mirai, there will be just one God candidate left to recruit, but that may be the toughest hurdle for Mirai to clear. It's possible that the final God candidate is already a puppet of the police -- or perhaps a Kira-style assassin who won't let Mirai and the others invite them to a peaceful gathering to elect the next God. For that matter, Yuri herself might be the bait of a well-laid trap, and Mirai and the others may be in for the fight of their lives when they attempt to spring Yuri free and recruit her.
The race is on for the final two God candidates, with Mirai's squad on one side and the police on the other. Even with Hoshi and Yukimi supporting Mirai's side, Mirai and Saki may be wandering into their deadliest encounter yet, and not even they can just fight the entire police force and emerge unscathed. Mirai must proceed with extreme caution.
