Guilty Crown - 05, 06

I stopped caring about Inori... Ayase's the best female character in the series.  Being voiced by Hanazawa Kana is just an extra plus.

TV Tropes would call this "Handicapped Badass"

Following Undertaker's rescue of Shu and Kido from the GHQ facility, everyone returnes to HQ and Gai announces that he will be put at the core of their plans for the future.  He then announces a plan to capture the GHQ's Leukocyte satelite, displays the 145 plans that he has in place for the operation, and hands Shu over to Ayase for training.  After Shu apologizes for troubling a handicapped girl, she proceeds to kick his ass, knocking him out and causing the transmitter/pen to fall out of his pocket.

Say that again, and I'll really get pissed.

The next morning, Shu wakes up naked (plus towel) and missing the transmitter, just before Ayase wheels herself into the room.  After getting dressed, they start his training, though Ayase voices her misgivings over both his presence and his ability.  She's also the one who took the transmitter, and is using it as a mundane pen, telling him that he can have it back as a "prize" if he passes Undertaker's admittance test the following week.

You gotta earn it back

Training begins with Shu being handed a long knife and told to attack Undertaker member Tsukishima Argo.  He's nervous about it being a real blade, and passes out after Argo pulls a knife of his own and attacks him.  It then moves to physical training with him chasing after a Fyu-Neru-like unit, though his mediocre physical condition causes Tsugumi a certain level of grief.

Gai... where'd you get this idiot?

Shu's awesome streak continues unabated, being knocked flat after being handed a gun bigger then he is, and handgun training with Inori, both of which end badly and only serve to worsen Ayase's feelings about him.

Do I really need to put up with him?

A few nights later, Shu hears Inori singing while walking around.  He greets her and they talk a little, but after he asks her to consider leaving Undertaker with him, she says that she owes everything to Gai, and says that everything she's done with him so far has been solely on Gai's orders.  She then walks off, but Shu follows her and sees her entering Gai's room for the night.  His pure innocent heart shattered, he takes of running down the corridors, and plows headlong into Ayase, knocking out of her wheelchair.  She gently pokes fun at him, asking if he likes Inori and if he saw her going to his room.  After listening to Shu voice his worries, both about seeing Gai only as a shallow, arrogant person, and realizing that there's more to it that he can't see, she encourages him to try to win his test the next day, and sends him on his way.

I'll get back to my chair myself, but it's not elegant, so leave.

 Back in Gai's room, he is hooked up to a blood pack and medical equipment, with Inori taking care of him. 

Probably nothing like what the rest of Undertaker thinks is happening.

The next morning, Gai arrives at an airport far from the base to greet a squadron of planes with extra Endlaves and soldiers for use in the upcoming battles.

Lots of shiny toys

At Undertaker HQ, the trial begins.  Ayase will be piloting the new Endlave that they stole from GHQ, while Shu, armed with only an MP-5 and paint bullets, needs to get past her and into a trailer the Endlave is defending.  The start of the battle is about as pathetic as expected, but it turns around when he draws Argo's void, a device which traps Ayase's Endlave in a jamming bubble, freezing it in place so he can easily run to the trailer and win.

HAX!

The celebrations are cut short, however, as Kido finally wakes up from his coma, and Tsugumi runs out and announces that the Leukocyte attack satellite had been fired at the airfield Gai was at.

Boom.

Episode 6:
As the Undertaker members gather in the communications room, Gai contacts them, and announces the total destruction of their reinforcements and supplies, and the start of the operation, even without the extra firepower.

And he makes it through almost uninjured

The Leukocyte's control room is located in the bottom levels of a dam, and the mission is to capture the facility to shut down or capture the system.  Undertaker will attack the facility, but Shu and Kido will enter the facility and, using his void, manipulate the cores without tripping the sensors that would put it into safe mode.  Shu is initially unable to take that pressure, or the 35% projected casualties, and voices an objection to the plan and says he wants out.  The rest of Undertaker has no such feelings, and Gai says the mission will continue as planned.  After he runs out of the meeting, Inori goes after him, and using her own access, allows Shu access to an area that only she should have been able to enter, Gai's room/trailer, where he is once again getting medical treatment.  Gai, unable to see who entered, voices his inner doubts to "Inori", and is surprised when he sees Shu.  The two exchange a few blows, but Shu finally develops some resolve and decides to go through with the operation.

The reverse Bright slap.  Punching the badass will purge your fail.

In the dam, Segai warns the people in charge that Undertaker will be attacking, based off of nothing more than a gut feeling. Daryl, the GHQ Endlave pilot from a few episodes back (who really should have been offed when Undertaker had the chance), is ecstatic at the thought of being able to take revenge on Undertaker for taking the Steiner from him.

Crazy eye go! He probably has a void genome ability as well.

At sundown, the attack begins.  Ground troops rush a guard station, mowing down the soldiers stationed there, while armored trucks charge the actual dam.  The GHQ responds by sending out their Endlaves, while Ayase sorties the Steiner, and quickly gets in trouble when Daryl attacks her.

What idiot thought an Eva-style feedback system was a good idea?

While all of Undertaker's forces provide a distraction, Kido, Gai, Inori and Shu enter the facility and head for the control room.  The guards, fulfilling their duties as mooks, fail to use their weapons, instead, choosing to shoot at the floor (as is normal in anime) and running straight at armed people without shooting.  To buy time, Inori stays back to handle the guards and sends the other three ahead.

And for just a second makes me reconsider Ayase's #1 spot.

When he hears that the core room has been infiltrated, Segai orders Daryl's control be switched to a reserve Endlave that had been kept in the base.  He then shows up to attack them while Shu is stuck trying to use the gravity control to freeze the cores.  Gai manages to shoot him down using just a handgun by shooting it in the back of the neck and forcing the feedback system to do actual damage.  Before his Endlave is shut down, however, Daryl sprays the room with bullets, several of which strike the cores, causing a malfunction in Leukocyte 1, which makes it fall out of orbit heading straight for Tokyo.

That's all it takes? Really?

While escaping the facility, Gai tells Shu to give him the transmitter, but Segai himself shows up in front of them, laughing about how it never got used.  Gai reveals that activating it triggers an orbital strike by one of the Leukocyte satellites, and offers Segai a trade.  He will use the transmitter to make the second satellite shoot down the falling first one, and in exchange, Segai deletes all his data on Shu.  New orders are issued to Undertaker to cover Gai while he waits for the satellites to align. However, while stuck watching, Inori asks Shu if he wants to save everyone, and uses Shu's ability to combine her void with Kido's, creating a massive beam cannon like device, which he uses to shoot down two of the three Leukocyte satellites.

Why not just use it to shoot the satellites down from the start?

In the aftermath, Shu finally decides to join Undertaker for real, and elsewhere in the GHQ base, a new character says that "She" will soon awaken.

Standing on the ceiling.  That's how you know he's plot-relevant.

Most of my objections have been stated further up.  The only other things I can think of right now is that Shu seemed to turn around a little too quickly, void fusion was never even hinted at before, and Inori is still a very boring character.  Ayase is way better.