Incredible.
This chapter was incredible.
I apologize for the delayed response. I actually first read the chapter some time shortly after my last story post. I then wanted to
re-read the chapter from start to finish, partly because of how good it was and partly to help me better prepare this post.
That is the can that then became kicked down the road for the past few months, as I went on various adventures. I watched a lot of cinema.
I watched twenty-five different motion pictures, a direct-to-home video movie, and a theater troupe musical production...
But with
Breath of the Wild: Tears of the Kingdom releasing in just over seven days, I need to
get my ass in GEAR! and get this book read ASAP.
So let's
do this!
While I
do think Nasu went a little too far with his game of "Will I? ;D Won't I? ;D",
holy cow at how tense this chapter was regarding Alice's fate. What an incredible back and forth this was!
Like, what even
is this? XD ^^;
(see list near the very end of the post once you naturally reach it) I think Nasu had a George Lucas moment here -- he had ideas he was much too fond of to cut and could have used an editor's firm hand to sculpt the script into something more refined. When you look at it like this, this is just
silly! ^_^;
But as you're reading it, I won't deny ...
MAN is it a non-stop page-turner!
That son of a bitch!
Man are you on tenterhooks the
entire time, wondering "Will he? :o Won't he? :o", wondering "Will she? D= Won't she? =o" ... 'S just crazy.
Well played.
But let's rewind first to the beginning of the chapter. I know, I know -- we're all excited to get to the duel. But first ... :'3
Soujuurou the Super Backyard Cleaner: Last time, Alice gave Soujuurou a mighty slap for letting his guard down and allowing Touko, an enemy magus, to have free access to Alice's workshop. Soujuurou for his part felt deep shame and regret; and Alice matches this, feeling terrible for the slap. Our next chapter begins ... with Alice spying Soujuurou cleaning the backyard. And when I say "cleaning", I can't really narrow it down to one English verb. Because this guy
cleans, clears, and de-weeds. He operates at an inhumanly fast pace, and his stamina is even
more impressive. But he go go goes and before long he's amassed a mountain of trash bags filled with dead brush, roots, and weeds. Alice peeks furtive glances at Soujuurou over the top of her book. She feigns indifference whilst unable to take her eyes off of him. In just thirty minutes, he manages to clear the entire courtyard.
But when Soujuurou says this to Aoko, after returning inside:
Soujuurou: You really have no intention of helping me, do you? I mean, I do enjoy cleaning, but...I don't know... Don't you even feel a little bit guilty using a roommate like this? Or do you just not feel guilt at all?
The mood shifts from mirthful frivolity to icy cold seriousness. Aoko replies:
Aoko: Soujuurou. Let me explain it. One. More. Time. Don't be mistaken. We're not letting you stay here out of kindness. We're putting up with you, because we have to.
And when Soujuurou continues to bemoan that he has to do "all the work" ...
...Aoko activates the enchanted dog collar, and chokes him.
Shizuki Soujuurou and Aozaki Aoko -- a clueless nice guy and a sadist.
As Soujuurou glumly returns to his work, Alice
lovingly watches from the sunroom and is reminded of her childhood home. She experiences a wave of nostalgia and questions why. (<3 Soujuurou, BE A FAMILY...!)
When Alice asks Aoko why she is so needlessly cruel to Soujuurou, Aoko reminds Alice that they're going to be erasing Soujuurou's memories. This feels like the author setting the stage for the girls' eventual change of heart.
Hair: Soujuurou makes an off-hand comparison of Aoko's hair to Touko's. This leads to a Word-of-God lore explanation about how hair works in the Nasuverse.
Apparently:
Aoko: Mages can use their hair as a weapon. For the longest time, hair and eyes have been vital to magecraft. Especially in [Touko]'s case. The more colorful the eyes, the better. The longer the hair, the higher the quality. Hair has the same qualities as the body, and when grown over many years it becomes a strong base component.
Locally, this accomplishes a few things all at once. It establishes that Aozaki Aoko in the future, with her long lustrous red hair that goes well past her waist, is a Big Deal™ in some sense. It foreshadows that Aozaki Touko in the present, with the shortest hair we've ever seen her have, must be up to something.
But more globally, it presents curiosities. There are the logically consistent ones, like "Cornelius Alba had super long hair probably because of these rules" and "Ooh, Medusa =o" with her ankle-length rich purple hair.
Beautiful long hair is beautiful serious business.
And then there are the logically inconsistent ones, like "Why would Matou Zouken allow Sakura to cut her hair?" "Why would Tohsaka Rin not have grown her hair out longer by 2004?" "Why does Medea not have hair that rivals Medusa's in length?" "Why would Circe cut her hair as a getting-over-him act when getting over Odysseus?"
Basically:
- any time a Nasuverse character who can perform magic or magecraft has long hair, we can now go "Ahhhhhh, makes sense!"
- but any time one doesn't, we have to pretend like there are valid explanations in universe that would justify parting from such an amazing resource for what can at times only best be described as an イメチェン "image change"
I dunno. It just seems silly. The Rule of Cool™ strikes once again.
Nasu invents a rule for his universe with far-reaching consequences that he didn't want to consider at the time, he only wanted to try and tie Touko's own image change (from a fan's perspective, between
Kara no Kyoukai OL tomboy Touko and
Mahoyo Victorian Librarian Touko) to the plot.
Although speaking of wanting to set things up for the plot...
Alice had never been defeated by a familiar. She sighed at Aoko's overconfidence.
Alice: Aoko, even if [Touko] uses her twenty-year stockpile, she can only use small animals as vessels.
Welp. ^^;
And while we're on the topic of "Hmmmm..."-inducing lines…
Aoko: If [Touko]'s used all her hair before coming here, then yes. Long hair can be used in tons of ways. I can only use it to temporarily reinforce magecraft, but my sister can use it to complement longer-lasting spells. With all those thoughts and memories in that hair, it's like having a mage clone. You can even use it on a dead dog or cat, reviving them and making them the mage's familiar.
...
...
Are you
kidding me. I told Yuki, this is such a
BokuMachi situation. lol
Aoko: Familiars with no previous magical energy, like said dog or cat, can acquire Magic Circuits. All thanks to the hair. The reanimated creature becomes something entirely different. They can even speak and take human form.
COME ON!
Soujuurou felt that a familiar was little different than himself.
Nasu is just toying with us at this point.
^^;
"My sister has always been a rune user": In the previous chapter, if I recall correctly, we see Touko using rune magic at the coffee table with Soujuurou. We haven't really seen Aozaki Touko using runes before this (i.e. in
Kara no Kyoukai and in
Fate/stay night), but with scenes like that and lines like this one, it seems that my prediction -- that Touko might be the key to erasing Soujuurou's memories -- might be correct. The girls are after a rune that will erase Soujuurou's memory. Touko is the rune expert. Seems simple enough.
She wanted to say "good-bye": So Aoko heads for the sigil in Toukawa, while Alice heads for the one in Yashirogi. They figure that Touko will head to one while she'll appoint her familiar to head to the other. Shortly after her arrival at Yashirogi, Alice hears howling in the distance. And then...
The phone rang.
It was perhaps the first time it had rung since Soujuurou moved into the mansion. Hesitantly, he picked up the receiver and brought it to his ear.
He heard nothing. He felt he had to say something, but could not think what. Maybe something like, "Hello? Kuonji residence!" Or maybe, "You've reached the Aozaki residence"?
While he was deep in thought, a voice as light as air came through the receiver.
Alice: Shizuki.....kun?
Soujuurou could barely hear the voice, but it was definitely Alice's.
Soujuurou: Yes. Is that you, Alice?
Alice: ...
No response. The silence was as profound as the night, but for the sound of static from the receiver.
After a long pause, Alice finally spoke.
Alice: Aoko...is she there?
Soujuurou: No, she hasn't come back yet.
Alice: I see.
With a click, the call ended.
Soujuurou wondered if she had something to say, but could not respond in time.
Slowly they advanced, carving through the fresh snow.
There were so many. Where had they all come from?
Dozens of feral dogs snarled at Alice, their eyes trained on her. The snow clung to the beasts' mangy fur. Their clenched fangs and bloodshot eyes hid a barely-reined hunger that might burst forth like lightning at any moment. They yearned to taste her warm flesh, and satiate their empty bellies.
To them, the girl in black stood like a lighthouse in a stormy sea.
T_T
Just the way he says it ... The way it's all presented ... The sound effects with the massive pack of dogs barking and snarling ... The voice acting, with Soujuurou's cruelly neutral and dispassionate tone meeting Alice's quiet, weak inquiries ... The line in particular,
"There were so many. Where had they all come from?", something and
everything about it has that feel of a person's thoughts, a person who is meeting their end as we speak and who didn't expect to and can still hardly believe it …
And
the song ... the song, man ... it's
the main theme song, but the melancholic, "This is the end of the line. I'm not going to make it
;(" version. It's
absolutely a character's death song --
Alice's death song -- as she exits the story. It's sad, man.
"Hey, Diddle Diddle": Despite the situation already looking grim, Alice finds her composure and calls out into the night. Touko presents herself, and immediately the scene just
oozes craftsmanship. How Touko speaks, the things she says, the way she holds herself ... it is all so
perfectly written. Nasu's really outdone himself here.
Simultaneously sincere and plotting, Touko entreats Alice to some light conversation. But Alice is having none of it.
Touko: So, how shall we do this, Alice? We have so much to catch up on. How have you been? There's so much I've been dying to tell you. You can spare five minutes, can't you?
Alice: I'm afraid not. If I give you even the slightest quarter, you will steal it all.
And with that,
Alice draws the Ploy Kickshaw vessel for Diddle Diddle, her crystal Egyptian kitty that has become iconic by this point. She deploys it. It gently hurtles towards the ground. And...
...shatters on impact -- not with the ground, but with dozens upon dozens of runes.
Touko: I spent the day carving characters into the park. The brick path meant it was easy work, if a little time consuming. Look at the woods around here. Roughly a twelve hundred square foot blank canvas. Impressive, isn't it? Right now, you and I are right on top of three hundred thousand characters' worth of runes.
It is at precisely this moment ... that both audience and Alice alike realize the gravity of the situation:
Touko's crazy.
Sure, it might have been "easy", she says, but ... as many as three hundred thousand characters ... There are only 3,600 seconds in one hour. To draw as many as 300,000 characters ... would take approximately
83 hours at a rate of
one rune per second.
The problem gets worse:
Alice: How in the world did you hide them all?
There were just so many. What kind of magecraft could do that?
Touko: Oh, these are special. These runes shift location -- they're doing it even now. They look like simple scratches, but they return to their original form when they touch strong magical energy. You could call them "memory runes".
As Touko continues to explain her technique, Alice can only clench her teeth and grimace.
She spoke modestly, but Alice could not imagine the amount of persistence, technique, and skill it must have taken.
And it only took a day. Even ten mages would have trouble producing so many sophisticated runes in that time.
Moreover, these runes were made using unknown techniques the Association had not approved.
Reader and Alice alike realize... that Touko's
mad. She's playing for keeps. She intends to win at all costs. Whether her opponent is a grasshopper or a demigod, it makes no difference -- she plans to crush it under foot with the full weight of her power and technique. No expense shall be spared, no technique wasted, no knowledge not put to good use. Touko is fully committed to this fight and it will take
everything Alice Kuonji can muster if she hopes to make it out of here alive. =<
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Alice Kuonji's Mystic Eyes: Playtime's over. With hundreds of dogs awaiting their master's orders and hundreds of thousands of ploy-inhibiting runes lining every inch and surface of the park, Alice is just a breath away from death. But Touko says something that triggers Alice... "There were times when I admired that body of yours. To have one like that..." And that... was a line that should not have been crossed.
Alice Kuonji launches her Mystic Eyes of Enthralling against Aozaki Touko, restricting her from any musculoskeletal movement. Nasu proceeds to explain what makes Alice's execution so impressive while Fukasawa Hideyuki strikes up
"Rinbu/Witch Tale", and it's
JUST. SO. GOOD!
Fukasawa Hideyuki: Quick tangent here, 'cause I just want to say -- Fukasawa really deserves top credit here. He is without a doubt in my mind the single greatest addition to Type-Moon since the team's founding. I've already gushed at length in previous posts about two others of his tracks he uses in tense, exciting moments. To list all three, in increasing order of finality:
Each of these tracks is for me a modern-day "EMIYA" i.e. Unlimited Blade Works. Your mileage will of course vary, but I can't tell you how many times I have already listened to
each of these songs. Dozens. Perhaps already one hundred.
Fukasawa is a
master of
tone. He understands music theory so well that instruments, chords, tempo -- all are putty in his hands, to be moulded and sculpted as he sees fit, to create the tone that the scene requires.
It still amazes me that this is the same man who fumbled
Unlimited Blade Works (2014)'s soundtrack so badly.
We were all pretty disappointed that Kajiura Yuki did not reprise her role as chief ufotable Type-Moon composer, after having so utterly knocked the ball out of the park on
Fate/Zero. We all gave Fukasawa a chance and ... hmm.
Years went by, and it wasn't until 2021 when, playing
Tsukihime: a piece of blue glass moon (the
Tsukihime remake), I discovered his name again.
TsukiRe's soundtrack, completely blows me away.
Mahoyo's soundtrack, completely blows me away. His contributions to
Fate/Grand Order, absolutely blow me away. The same way that Haga Keita achieved legend status among FSN fans with "EMIYA", Fukasawa achieved legend status among FGO fans with a song not even originally written for FGO --
"at the garden", a simple but powerful piece that
oozes the fairy tale of King Arthur, of Camelot, and was used not once but
twice in Fate/Grand Order to make readers cry.
Of all the tracks of his I've so far encountered, the one for me I consider to be his
magnum opus has still got to be
"Head of Household's Elegant Moment" from
TsukiRe:
It does
everything it's supposed to do -- it's supposed to be the character song of Tohno Akiha:
- it is the very sort of Chopin-sounding piano piece for piano students that you would expect the ojou of a Japanese aristocratic family to have been taught during her piano lessons
- the performance of the piece perfectly mimics the sincerity of the student to attempt perfection but to not quite reach it, sabotaged by clumsy fingerings and lack of prodigal talent. The weight placed into certain keys, the pick-ups and slow-downs in tempo in certain places, it all feels so sincerely like something I'd expect to hear from a skilled-but-not-prodigal piano student
- all of the practice that goes into getting here... all of the sacrifices... all of the suffering...
- and above all else, it is a beautiful melody... ='>
My words fail me. I can't do the song justice. It's just so perfect.
And now that I am playing
Mahoyo, I can see for myself that Fukasawa hasn't had one or two happy accidents -- UBW 2014 is pretty much his
only misstep in an otherwise impeccable career with Type-Moon. I'm so happy for him, I'm delighted he rebounded after that, and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us with
TsukiRe Far Side.
Okay, back to Chapter 10!
Touko Enthralled: So here, when all hope seemed lost, with dozens of dogs ready to tear Alice limb from limb and hundreds of thousands of runes preventing the use of her trusty Ploy Kickshaws, Alice calls upon the power of her Mystic Eyes of Enthrallment to bind Touko.
This lasts... all of a few seconds. ^^;
Alice Mesmerized: Touko cancels the effects of Alice's Mystic Eyes ... with Mystic Eyes of her own. ^_^; Her Mystic Eyes of Mesmerize. ("Mesmer-eyes"?
) "Cancel" may not be the best word -- perhaps it's simply better to think of it as the playground hand-pile game, whoever's Mystic Eyes can wind up on top wins? And Touko now seems to be winning.
But something's not right...
Surely nobody could beat [Alice]. And yet... Her unfiltered stock of magical energy, stifled by old-fashioned values, was no match for Touko's madness.
If Alice's magical energy is so much greater than Touko's, then ... what's going on here? Alice thought that she could allow Touko's eyes to graze her and pass right through her. She did not expect to be caught in a snare, and for the snare to seemingly grow exponentially tighter with each passing second...
Mirrors pointing at mirrors:
Touko had placed opposing mirrors inside her eyes, resulting in an infinite glare. It was the act of a madwoman. Creating Mystic Eyes within Mystic Eyes... She could even control the resulting chaos caused by all the copies. Her insanity knew no bounds. No mage in their right mind would mass-produce so many Mystics -- the last escape of humankind -- so indiscriminately!
By the time
Mahoyo was released, it had already been established in other Type-Moon works that Mystic Eyes are rare -- so rare that people would
kill to have them. Years later, in the
Lord El-Melloi II Case Files spin-off series, it would be further explored that mages actually seek out Mystic Eyes plucked from the skulls of their previous owners and place them inside their own, Maximillion Pegasus-style. >_<
Touko was
born with Mystic Eyes. She had no need to steal someone else's nor to try and turn ordinary, Muggle eyes into Mystic Eyes. And even had she tried to do this, it would have likely not worked. The sale of Mystic Eyes is something of a black market affair -- being Mystics, various organizations have interests in sealing them away from use -- and if it were easy to just
give yourself Mystic Eyes then, why, anyone who wanted them would do it.
So the idea of
fucking with your natural-born Mystic Eyes is just completely insane. Why would you risk that. Why would you risk fucking up such a priceless gift?
But something else that has also been previously explored in earlier Type-Moon works ... is the fact that Aozaki Touko is no stranger to self-experimentation. Let me be clearer -- by the 1990s, she has already mastered the ability to create 1:1 replicas of her body, a feat that already places her as an Omega-class magus, to borrow from
X-Men. Here is a younger Touko, a less experienced Touko ... but she is still Touko. Here we are witnessing the origin story of the great Aozaki, terrible and powerful. One can hardly claim to make perfect replicas of oneself ... if one can't reproduce the Mystic Eyes that one was born with, can they?
Aozaki Touko didn't become able to reproduce Mystic Eyes because she wanted to artificially produce Mystic Eyes -- she became able to reproduce Mystic Eyes because she wanted to be able to reproduce
herself. And since she was born with Mystic Eyes, well... "Gotta git gud, scrub." And git gud she
got.
The concept of Touko's self-modification is simple enough. When I was a child, my aunt and uncle had two mirrors in their master bathroom, one each on opposite walls. It created the
infinity effect where, when you look at one of the two mirrors, you can see what appear to be infinite iterations of yourself and the rest of the room in line of sight. This is what Touko has done -- she's "placed opposing mirrors inside her eyes, resulting in an infinite glare."
She wielded power without limit to disable an opponent. Once one was caught in them, one was chained to the concept of infinity. Projection-type eyes had a fatal flaw: their firepower and formulae were insignificant compared to the great artillery of incanted spells. But Touko had torn down that conventional wisdom with brute strength.
If the gun was a pea-shooter, she simply needed to bring more guns. A 9-millimeter bullet could never destroy a fortress... unless one threw a fortress' mass of bullets at it. The principle was brutishly simple, but in the world of magecraft where concepts decided supremacy, Touko had created the perfect weapon.
Incredible. Elegantly simple and effective. And terrifying. Oh so terrifying.
There's no such thing as being "grazed" here -- even the smallest contact with her eyes would now mean KERBLAMMERS!
Just how is Alice going to make it out of this one!? >_<
Cock Robin: Touko asks Alice if she has any last words. Alice grimaces in pain. Touko draws runes in the air, preparing a killing strike out of wind. And...
In a spectacularly fleeting moment, Robin flies to his Angel Mum's rescue and
migawaris himself in place of her. (Or was he always there from the start?
I thought it was this one until revisiting the scene for the post and...now I'm not so sure. ^_^; It sure seems like they imply that he swooped in and saved her...but it wouldn't make much sense for him to be able to exchange places with her like this
after the fact of her capture by Touko's Mystic Eyes, would it?)
Feathers go flying everywhere. "Alice"'s dress is torn to shreds. And as the last of Touko's Mystic Eyes attack takes effect, poor Robin ... drops dead.
Touko: You used a double? I've never heard of a Ploy that can take the form of a mage.
Alice: Well, you have now. He's useless every other day of the year, but comes in handy when someone's trying to kill you.
So the seemingly useless Robin... His entire purpose was to serve as a get-out-of-jail-free card for Alice. No matter the circumstance, "If Alice were to die, then instead...Robin would die in her place." And the game then hits us with something I'm ashamed to admit I never even
considered before this moment:
Robin's nursery rhyme origin.
"
"Who killed Cock Robin?" is an English nursery rhyme in which a variety of forest animals discuss the death and funeral arrangements of one eponymous Cock Robin. I've never heard this nursery rhyme in all my life, but still. "Man... :'D" I said. The Chekhov's gun of Alice's Ploy Kickshaws. Robin was sitting there the entire time, just
begging to be researched and for us to come up with a hypothesis as to what purpose he played in the story besides comically intense admirer of the Kuonji women. And I just never did. ^_^; I just assumed he was an amusing familiar and I left it at that. Whoops. ^^; orz
...But wait a minute. Did you just say... Robin
died? Oh no... This is so sad... =(
...No
wonder we needed to do
The Wonderful World of Ploys Parts 1 and 2 first!
I'll bet Robin's
dead by the time we get to 3! ^_^; lol
...But wait a minute times two.
Touko states that Alice can only use Robin once like this. Now that he's dead... What's to stop Touko from firing up her Mystic Eyes again and pointing them this time at the
real Alice?
Goodness gracious, Alice Kuonji!
Now what will you do!?
The Thames Troll: As Touko readies to ensnare Alice within her Mystic Eyes of Mesmerize once more, Alice starts to sing a familiar nursery rhyme. It's "London Bridge". All of a sudden, giant fingers belonging to the massive bridge troll start to rise from out of the ground in between Touko and Alice, bricks tumbling into one another with their characteristic ceramic tink sound. (Song:
"Kengen/Great Three")
Touko is confused. And
PISSED. "What the hell is this!? What is
this guy doing here!?" As Nasu tells us,
"Touko was so angry and confused she could barely gather her thoughts."
That's because the Meinsters' ultimate bodyguard, the Thames Troll, requires a river to be nearby in order to be summoned. And Yashirogi Park ... is nowhere
near a river. So why, then...
HOW...
The five kitty kats. The five priceless heirlooms that Alice threw onto the ground and discarded, allowing to be destroyed by Touko's sun runes. She did it on purpose. As the sun runes activate, they melt the new-fallen snow. And melted snow ... forms a small puddle of water. Arrange five puddles in a row, and ... you get a thin trickle. A "brooklet". A "stream", if we're being generous.
And that is all Alice needs to summon the troll. In the most forced of arguments
, the conditions for the summons are satisfied that Alice Kuonji has called upon the Thames Troll near a "river". And out of the ground the Thames Troll rises. "The monster's torso alone surpassed eighty feet," we're told -- the troll towers above Touko at
least a hundred twenty feet in height. He brings his great big powerful arms down to the ground with mighty slams and rubs them along the bricks, destroying Touko's pain-stakingly crafted runework before absorbing their ceramic heft into his body, growing and gaining more power with each brick he takes.
Touko: "HALT!!!!" She unleashed her stacked Mystic Eyes. They were meaningless at this stage; they had no effect on the giant.
As said, Mystic Eyes can be countered in two ways. The first is to hide oneself from view of the mage. That was the standard response. The other way, however, was devilishly simple yet one-hundred percent effective. In fact, it's less of a way and more of a fact. Mystic Eyes curse a target by focusing on them. However, what if the target was too large to focus on entirely?
The answer was... One could barely stop a single arm.
Nasu gives us
this cheeky little Word of God lore declaration here.
Apparently it's always been a thing that Mystic Eyes...can only work on a target so long as the
entire target is in focus. Huh.
Whatever. ^_^; We'll roll with it. ='> So while Touko's eyes are powerful enough to lock a witch down ... they're simply incapable of restraining a being as large and as close-range as the Thames Troll is to Touko in that moment.
And before a second cour of
the Thames Troll's theme song can get underway, the fight is over.
Alice Kuonji ... has won.
Beo: Sensing their master's defeat, the pack of dogs starts to bay once more. Touko admits defeat to Alice and says they'll have to pick this up some other time. Acting like she never had any doubts about her victory, Alice asks Touko, "Do you really think you can escape?" To which Touko replies -- not only is she confident in her planned escape, but:
Touko: I should mention -- I don't think I'm the one who needs to escape.
o_o !?
There was no hint of bravado in Touko's tone. Even in the face of a titan she had no means of harming, her confidence was unshakable. The reason being...
"The opening act's over. Come out, Beo."
...This was no longer a battle of skill. A fight for survival had begun.
Touko snaps her fingers. Something howls to the Moon, then appears before Alice, its massive paws gently crunching the snow underfoot as it makes its way to its master's side.
Nasu confirms that Beo is a Divine Beast. "A recreation of a miracle that once freely walked the earth -- the
natural enemy of magecraft, able to crush it with ease."
Now we know what Aozaki Touko did with all that hair.
Just as the girls suspected, she acquired a powerful familiar. But what exactly
is Beo? And how is he going to help Touko defeat the Thames Troll?
Quiet resignation settled over Alice's face. The golden beast charged.
This time, she didn't even have a chance to admit defeat.
Farewell, Little Red Riding Hood: HE STARTS TO EAT HER. What a fucking way to go.
=(
The battle between Alice and the wolf was over before it had begun. After destroying the troll, it baptized Alice with its wicked claws, giving her no chance to escape. Its side-swipe had torn into her abdomen like a sword, carving through her clothes and flesh, all the way to her heart.
We lost Flat Snark ... we lost Diddle Diddle ... we lost Cock Robin ... and now, it seems, we've even lost the mighty Thames Troll.
Worse still ... we've lost our precious Angel Mum.
;(
What a way to go. I don't think we've ever seen anything quite like this before in a Fate work. I mean, sure, we've seen gruesome deaths and terrible ways to go
also, but being eaten alive?
(Technically
Alice isn't being eaten alive -- Beo swiped her abdomen open with his claws and, before he can attempt any actual eating, Touko stops him. So technically
this is no more gruesome than any other disembowelments we might have seen caused by weapons in battle. Still, though! The intention to eat is definitely implied imo with the visual and with the textual descriptions of his mouth, teeth, saliva, etc.)
Shortly after Alice regains consciousness, Beo goes for a killing blow -- he opens his maw, places Alice's neck in between his jaws, and... Touko sternly forbids him from killing Alice. Beo is disappointed but obedient -- the extent of any defiance he might have shown Touko is a mere "Tcheh =\", expressing that killing the prey is the best part.
Over the course of the scene, we discover that Beo:
- is a sentient, intelligent, talking wolf
- more accurately, he's a werewolf -- the last of his kind
- Touko met Beo in Scandinavia ("the northern European tundra")
- Beo does not defy Touko
And...
Touko: Incidentally, Beo called these other mutts in. Naturally, I didn't think they'd have any effect on a Meinster's daughter. For now, at least.
Touko's mouth twisted like a grin. Not the warm one Soujuurou saw, but the merciless smile a victor displays to a loser. The disdain in Alice's eyes turned to anger.
Alice is less angry to have been defeated, and more angry that Touko brought a golden Mystic into the world of Men.
Touko: Come now, it's just supply and demand. Depopulation is not just a human problem. Their old ways were unsustainable, and so I bought him for a high price. Well, more like I had to pay for the right to bring him out of his cave. As you might've guessed, I used my hair for the contract with Beo. I like to think of it as creating an alliance with a beast instead of creating a famili[ar].
Hmm. But before Touko can continue, Alice's body does something miraculous:
it starts to heal itself. Squelching noises can be heard as her abdominal viscera start to reassemble. We learn from Touko that Alice is essentially the Nasuverse version of Wolverine, the mutant powers of James Howlett and the terrible suffering he underwent in the Weapon X project rolled into one. Alice's mother engraved Alice's bones, veins, and internal organs with Magic Crests. Touko explains that when it comes to spellcasting, having the Magic Crest reduces the necessary time to incant the spell. Pretty convenient for the magi of Nasu's Nasuverse, always finding themselves in do-or-die duels. But there's a trade-off, Touko tells us -- Magic Crests tend to cause pain where they are located. If the heir to the family bears his or her Magic Crest in their right arm, say -- as the Aozakis we're told do -- then their right arm is always going to hurt. Well that sucks. =\ Yeah... So in
Alice's case... her entire
body is engraved with these things. Soooo...
Touko has a really great quote here that also gives us a bit of a lore tease with her background:
Touko: Still, when you've come this far, pain becomes trivial. It makes it difficult to know if you're really alive. Do you still believe you're human? Honestly, I sympathize. We've both had a hard time with such extraordinary teachers, haven't we, Alice?
Hmm...
Cemented by the "Honestly, I sympathize" bit, I would say that everything before the word "honestly" feels like Touko is talking about
herself, reflecting about her own life circumstances and situations and relating to Alice through them. It makes me want to know more about what Touko has been through. I also wonder who she's referring to when she speaks of her own "extraordinary teacher". Is it her grandfather? Is it someone she met on her travels after she ran away from home?
Another interesting line Touko provides us with is...
Touko: I'm indebted to your Meinster mother. And my true opponent has only ever been Aoko.
First off: Touko seems
awfully fond of the word "Meinster"!
If you were to scrape the script for
Mahoutsukai no Yoru for all instances of the word "Meinster", you would probably find that
90% of them come from Aozaki Touko.
Second, yeah, I
am interested to know Touko's relationship with Alice's mother. In a lot of ways, Touko often acts like she is one of those "auntie sisters", someone who is technically/biologically Aoko's "sister" but who is
so much older -- at least a decade -- that she's more of an
aunt than a sister. In other ways, the opposite is true, and Touko
absolutely fits her role as Aoko's older-but-only-slightly-older sister. Whenever Alice's mother comes up, Touko definitely feels more "auntie sister"y to me than she does "sister sister"y. You have an adult woman, and your have her child daughter: what sort of person has a closer relationship with the
mother than with the
daughter whom she is only four years older than? The closest thing I can come up with is a babysitter.
Was ... was Touko Alice's babysitter? O.o
Do they even
have babysitters in magi households!?
Third, the fact that Touko establishes Aoko has her
only "true opponent" is an interesting statement. Everyone else either isn't an opponent or else isn't a "true" opponent.
Well, since you're indebted to Alice's mother, Touko, what are you going to do? You just sicked a werewolf on Alice who tore her abdomen wide open. Thankfully she's Logan and is healing bit by bit, but... How do you plan to fix this?
The rape scene:
Alice's lungs pined for oxygen; Touko pressed her lips to hers. The young girl wriggled, trying to escape, but Touko held her firmly.
Beneath the blue moon, the two remained frozen. Then, the sound of swallowing. Something solid slid down Alice's throat. With that, she went limp and her arm fell.
TOUKO. This is now the SECOND time you've gone and done something rapey this game! And this time ... it's pretty much rape!
Touko tells Alice that what she slid down her throat was a lozenge with a "special blend of rowan" of Touko's own making. Touko explains that if Alice uses magical energy, the rowan will explode, "so do be careful." Sooo ... your way of repaying your debt to Alice's mother ... is to French kiss Alice against her will, to have her swallow a lozenge in a state where she can't fight back, and said lozenge is a
bomb!? You're going to blow up her daughter as.....TOUKO! THAT'S NOT THE SORT OF "REPAYING A DEBT" I...!
THAT'S "PAYBACK"! I thought you were Aozaki Touko, not Touko
Lannister! I'm starting to wonder if Touko really is so fond of Mrs. Kuonji after all ...
Touko: Oh, and... don't read too much into it. Passing things with my mouth is just something I like to do.
WHAT!? Who says something like this!? Who
does something like this!? "Passing things with my mouth is JUST SOMETHING I LIKE TO DO"!?
As she desperately clung to consciousness, Alice looked up at Touko from the ground. The disgrace from the kiss was greater than the pain she felt in her body.
That second line's a really great one. Simple and solid. Perhaps someone would say it's cliché, but for me it pretty much perfectly establishes the nature and severity of what has transpired.
Something I don't understand, though: how come Alice's auto-heal doesn't detonate the bomb? Why doesn't Touko's lozenge activate in the presence of Alice's incredibly active Magic Crests? We're told that the lozenge activates if Alice "uses" magic. What does it mean to "use" magic, exactly? Does Nasu mean to say "
actively use magic"? Does passive use not apply? It's all make-believe anyway
so I'm not
too fussed! I just want a little consistency is all! ^_^; If I'm told a bomb activates in the presence of used magic, then I want to know why Magic Crests carved over every square inch of a girl's internals, firing like crazy in the wake of an evisceration, do not count as "used magic".
*shrug*
A Lannister sending her regards: Touko turns to Alice and says:
Touko: Ah! I almost forgot. Remember those mutts Beo called? There's a ton of them around the park, and unfortunately they're still hungry.
WHAT.
Touko: In a roundabout way, Touko had read Alice her last rites.
YEAH!?
In Nature, it was common for the weak that could no longer move to offer their bodies up to feed the strong.
Touko: Well, Alice, I think that's everything. It's a long walk back, but hopefully you make it safely.
...Hoooold on a second.
What's going on here?
She's lost, then she's won. She says she owes Alice's mother a debt, then she forces a grenade down Alice's throat and offers her up to a pack of ravenous dogs. Then she says, "I think that's everything" and "hopefully you make it safely"? Something's not right...
As Alice lies there in the snow, consciousness fading, the dogs growing ever louder, her eyes land on the phone booth.
A call is placed home. Soujuurou picks up.
...It's TOUKO! That son of a bitch Nasu got us!
What a bizarre but highly effective time for a fake-out! ^_^;
While they discuss other things first, I'm gonna jump straight ahead to this part:
Touko: I met Miss Kuonji a short while ago. She called you earlier, didn't she? Well, right now, she's in bad shape. She can barely walk, in fact. And if she uses any crests, they'll tear her to pieces. Oh, and those broken bones... ouch. At any rate, she could lose consciousness any time. Not great news with all those scary stray dogs around her.
--If you ask me, she has about ten minutes before she's nothing but a pile of bones.
Soujuurou clenches the receiver in his hand and winces. Why had he not realized it sooner!?, he berates himself.
Alice had been calling for help. Even when backed into a corner, she had not wanted to involve Soujuurou. Still... she needed help. The way she said his name so lightly...
Soujuurou demands to know where she is.
The choice that wasn't: Touko then provides Soujuurou with an ultimatum. "I can tell you, but just know that the moment I do, you become my enemy. Do we have a deal?"
Soujuurou realized what was happening. He was being tested. By ignoring Alice, he would be confirming that he did not want to get involved.
It was at exactly this moment that I realized --
holy shit, this is the game's one choice. =O Either you choose to go and rescue Alice despite the impossible odds -- the ten minutes on the clock, the half-eaten abdomen, the pack of ravenous dogs -- or else you choose to go to Aoko -- to at least offer
some reinforcement to the one who
isn't forgone at this time. Had this been a traditional Type-Moon VN and this choice come earlier, this would have been a strong contender for the fork in the road between two paths -- "the Aoko path" and "the Alice path". Coming as late as it does, it has to be a choice between two different endings.
The choice was easy. With all due respect to Aoko,
of course I was going to pick Alice! How could you not?
After all we'd just witnessed. Plus... Alice x Soujuurou is so much more wholesome than Aoko x Soujuurou anyway. ^_^;
...I
say the choice was easy, but... it was even easier than I had thought. ^^; It was
impossibly easy, you might say.
Infinitely easy. Because ... in the end ...
it was literally no choice at all. Type-Moon didn't place a choice here. There's no flag. There's no split in the path. There is the one,
only outcome, the one that
all players of the game experience.
And what, pray tell, was that choice? What was his decision?
Soujuurou: Tell me, where is she?
Soujuurou ignored Touko's question. Of course he was not prepared to become her enemy, but he was even less prepared to let Alice die. He had lost his ability to think sensibly, not that he was particularly good about that to begin with. Still, he would not waste any time in deliberation. He would simply go with his instincts.
It was one of the few times he had felt pride since coming down from the mountains.
Touko responds with a sincerely heavy, sad sigh. She tells Soujuurou she's disappointed by his decision, as she didn't want to have to kill him. But then her voice turns to steel as she tells Soujuurou, "Yashirogi Nature Park. Check the map under the phone. I bookmarked the page the last time I was there." (
Dayum, girl!
) And then...
Touko: I'll say it again: you'll be lucky if you have ten minutes. It'll be a miracle if she lasts a minute longer.
Soujuurou considers that it normally takes twelve minutes to get from the mansion to the train station in Misaki. That by the time he'd disembark at Yashirogi's train station, it'd be half an hour at least. Touko tells Soujuurou he may as well cut his losses -- but that either way, he's made his choice and is now her enemy. "Just don't regret your choice."
The line went dead. Soujuurou, not Touko, had hung up the phone. He memorized the map and then made for the door. With no time to grab his coat, he ran out into the snowy winter night with the clothes he had on. All that remained in the hall was the discarded map. It showed Misaki City. It was about ten miles from the mansion to the nature park; five if you went in a straight line, but the streets were not that forgiving.
Soujuurou has to cover five miles whilst scaling unfavorable terrain (fences, buildings, thick brush, etc) or else ten miles whilst racing along city streets ... in one minute. Say he can do the five. Five miles in one minute ... speed-wise, is the equivalent of course of
300 miles per hour.
O_o
How...!? As if the chapter had not already been exciting enough, this I think is where we
finally start to see the veil slipping off of Soujuurou, as Nasu readies to reveal to us who or what Soujuurou truly is. Is he the cat!?
Is he a robo?
Is he something else? Who can say. Regardless ... 300 mph,
*whistles*. That is
fast.
One last wish: The scene returns to Yashirogi Nature Park, where the pack of dogs is barking and baying at Alice without pause. Dinner is so close they can taste it. All they need her to do is close her eyes...
Alice drags herself to the telephone booth. And Nasu informs us...
Alice's injuries were not limited to her abdomen. The wolf had punched a hole straight through to her back, crushing her lower vertebrae and leaving both of her legs paralyzed. Though her Magic Crests were repairing the damage, it would likely take another hour before recovery. At the very least, her heart and slender arms still worked. Although, after crawling along the ground to the phone booth, those too were failing her.
. The image of Alice Kuonji grabbing clumps of grass and mud as she drags her mangled body towards the telephone booth... ;(
Alice wrestled with the discomfort from her abdomen and her Magic Crests, and with her consciousness holding on by a thread, she took the phone in her hand. It was unlikely Aoko would be there to pick up. Even so, with the stray dogs gathering around the booth, she had to try.
It was Soujuurou who picked up. Alice knew she was better off just hanging up, but his name slipped out of her mouth. After pausing and fighting with herself for some time, an image of the innocent boy came to mind, and she hung up. Her instincts had won out. She could not let him get involved.
Stop. =o What is going on here? Did Alice place two phone calls home tonight, or just one? The phone call we witnessed earlier, where she inquired about Aoko... Here, in
this scene, is she merely recollecting that? Or is it actually transpiring here, now, in this place at this time? How can this be...?
Surely it wouldn't be Alice placing a calm phone call home with her entrails hanging out and while Touko politely waits her turn ... followed by Touko calling Soujuurou after a few-minutes pause.
Surely not. Surely the order was Alice called originally when the pack of dogs arrived, then her duel with Touko took place, then Touko called and spoke with Soujuurou while Alice lay dying on the ground.
But if that is the case, then... what is happening here? Is she hallucinating?
Is she
imagining Soujuurou picking up the phone on the other end and answering?
I'm not entirely sure. But one thing is abundantly clear -- in her dying moments, with her last breath, Alice places one final phone call home ... to hear Shizuki Soujuurou's voice one last time. ;( T_T
At least, that's my take and I'm sticking to it!
Important Mystery Place: As Alice starts to lose consciousness, what comes into vision is a field of brilliant white and blue. Flowers as far as the eye can see. The location seems to bear a great resemblance to a certain
lunar garden, and the implication is that this may be some of afterlife. Hmm...
We don't stay here long, however. Alice starts to regain consciousness. And...
The Power of Love: ...what comes into vision is not a field of flowers...but rather, the familiar scene of the street winding up along the hill to the Kuonji estate.
Alice: Shizuki......kun?
She could barely comprehend that she was being carried slowly up Shiroinuzuka.
Soujuurou had Alice on his back, and was silently ascending the slope. His calm eyes seemed to be suffering from the bitter cold. He did not seem to be dressed for the time of year. Not even a coat. His exposed neck and hands were ice-cold.
Alice: Wh-What...are you...doing here?
Alice asked, still slumped over his frame. She tried to move, but to no avail. The last thing she wanted was to rest her entire weight on someone else.
Soujuurou: Touko-san called me. She said you were in trouble. You're more stubborn than Aozaki, you know. Why didn't you ask me for help? Not that I could be much help, but still.
Soujuurou spoke with a scolding tone, his eyes kept firmly ahead. His words were directed at himself rather than the girl on his back.
Alice: This... doesn't concern you...
Soujuurou: Maybe you're right. But now it does. We'll talk more back at the house.
Soujuurou explains to Alice that he didn't need to hurry in the end -- the dogs ran for the hills the moment he got there. He surmises that Touko
knew that that would happen, and that she didn't seriously intend for Alice to die. That's certainly possible
... but in that case, doesn't that mean that
Touko's real target was Soujuurou all along? Like, I'm not trying to be
too conspiracy theorist-y here, but like ... if she didn't really intend to kill Alice, but she had to make it seem to both Alice
and Soujuurou like Alice was really gonna die ... then doesn't that mean that she was most interested in
Soujuurou's response?
...Nasu then shoots this down
, stating that Soujuurou was wrong and that "while Touko did not want to kill Alice per se, she would not have cared if she had died."
...Nasu then says, "At least that was the way Alice saw it." Oh come on!
Sneaky bastard! Which one is it!?
Nasu:
Alice firmly believes that if Soujuurou had not made it there in time, the dogs would have collapsed the telephone booth -- I didn't mention it earlier, but they were hurling themselves at the booth with the full force of their bodies and
*THUNK!*ing it, trying to break through the glass and get to the girl inside. I'm in agreement with Alice. If it was all just an act on Touko's part and the dogs' part, and Touko really didn't mean for Alice to die, boy... she sure expertly walked the razor's edge!
As they continue their walk up the hill, Alice realizes something.
Alice: ...So you carried me all the way from the park?
Soujuurou: Had to. The trains stopped running. I should've gotten a taxi, but didn't bring my wallet.
Soujuurou may be strong... but we're asked to believe that he carried a girl on his back for
five miles of rough terrain or else ten miles of smooth terrain and that he's not the least bit tired?
Dude. This guy has
divine stamina. Something's up.
They continue to talk. Soujuurou says he's never realized how limiting money is until today. Alice is puzzled.
Alice: ...Don't you mean how important money is?
Soujuurou: What I mean is, if there's something you can use only if you have money, isn't that incredibly limiting?
Alice: ...
The innocence of his question made Alice briefly forget her pain. She, too, felt distant from the real world, but compared to the boy carrying her, she felt like a regular citizen.
Alice: That's just like you to say.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the exact moment at which Alice Kuonji becomes hopelessly, permanently in love with Shizuki Soujuurou. ='> =p =')
Alice smiled to herself. As Alice rested her head, something soft touched her cheek. The collar Aoko had given him.
Oh
no. Alice and Aoko... Two girls, in love with the same boy...
When Alice and Soujuurou arrive home:
Looking up at [the front gate], the girl felt a little disappointed. A natural reaction, yet... She could not place where her sadness was coming from.
As if we needed further Word-of-God confirmation.
ALICE. LOVES. SOUJUUROU. ='>
Waiting for Word: Alice explains to Soujuurou how rowan works:
Alice: It's a kind of medicinal herb. It gets its name from what's left in the cinders after it's burned seven times in a stove, and it's used as a ward against spirits. It's not good for regular people, but for me and Aoko it's worse. Once it's in our bodies, it reacts badly to the production of magical energy, and there's nothing we can do but wait it out.
Soujuurou: So... it's a poison?
Alice: No, like I said, it was originally used in medicine. I'm using magical energy to heal right now, so I'm having to fight it. But once I'm fully healed, I'll be fine, as long as I don't use magecraft. Basically, I won't be of any use until I fully digest it.
I don't understand.
She as much as states that she's "using magical energy to heal right now," yet this
doesn't activate the rowan bomb? I understand well the second half of what's going on here -- this is Touko's way of taking Alice out of the fight. Unless Alice has a death wish, she can't use any magic until the rowan is cleared from her system. That much I get. ...But why is she even able to wait for the rowan to clear? Why isn't it violently reacting
right now as her Magic Crests vigorously try to piece her back together, one bloody sinew at a time?
Switching gears to the narrative function this rowan serves, as far as I can tell there exist only two possibilities now with Alice. Either:
- this is her exit, we'll see more of her next time in Mahoyo 2, ETA 2032
- she's yet to die O_o =< and is going to die by actively using magic ("No! ") to save Soujuurou's life in the upcoming final confrontation
I'm assuming it's 1. But it ain't over 'til it's over. The fact that Alice Kuonji has not been much talked about nor much hyped up these past eleven years could simply be due to the comparatively low penetration of
Mahoutsukai no Yoru in the Western market ... but it could also be a sign that this game serves as both entrance and exit for the nursery rhyme witch. I... really think it's likeliest to be 1 at this point. I'm placing my bets there! =p
I think this is Nasu's way of retiring Alice from the fight for the rest of the game, to justify why it's going to go something like this:
- first, Touko vs. Aoko for the second time. Aoko goes in expecting different results, but it's looking like Touko's going to win again... ^_^;
- then, it's Soujuurou doing something. Could be Soujuurou vs. Touko. Could be Soujuurou giving a rousing speech to Aoko. Something. Soujuurou contributes in some way.
- finally, Aoko awakens from this and supercharges up into her "final form", with her iconic long red hair
If Alice were still available for the final fight, readers would understandably want to know why the trio (Aoko, Alice, and Soujuurou) are not simply dog-piling poor Touko. ^_^; By reducing the friend group in the fight from three to two, readers can more readily believe a scenario that plays out similar to the one I've listed above, and it's one which fits a traditional dramatic finale's formula.
Back to the story: Soujuurou offers to take Alice to her bedroom (in the West Wing that he's never been to), but she tells him she's fine staying here in the foyer, she wants to be here when Aoko gets back. Alice gazes up at the moonlight filtering through the foyer ceiling skylight and Soujuurou gazes at Alice, marveling at her inner strength. Soon, the phone rings, and before Soujuurou can answer it, Alice swoops over and picks up the receiver. "... Sorry. They got me," Aoko reports. She sounds glum, defeated, and half-dead.
And before we can even begin to
process this ... the chapter ends. =o =')
Thoughts: WHOO! This post is
big! ^^; Sorry it took so long. Took so long for you to read ='3 ... took even longer for me to write and submit. orz I first started taking notes for this chapter the night I read the chapter for the first time -- Thursday, March 16, 2023. It took me nearly
two months to then get this post out. And I won't lie -- most of that effort, easily 80% of it or greater, came in the last four days. Until then, it was mostly time spent doing other things.
Paradoxically, it wasn't because I didn't enjoy the chapter.
This chapter was AMAZING. If nothing else, if I wasn't able to convince you of
that, I at least hope I was able to convince you that
I felt that way about it.
^^; I told Yuki the night I finished the chapter:
- I wanted to re-read the chapter, period
- I wanted to re-read the chapter before pressing on to the next chapter
- I wanted to re-read the chapter before submitting a post on UPN
All of that remained true this entire time. I just ... didn't do it.
^^; ;( Procrastinated, got busy with other stuff, lots of things.
As the revisit picked up in earnest several nights ago, on Sunday, April 30, I had to suppress the serious urge to
re-read the chapter without pausing for my second time...and then
re-re-read the chapter for a
THIRD time
WITH pausing!
Such was my desire to re-enjoy the chapter without forced interruptions constantly taking me out of it. -_- (You're welcome, UPN!
)
Part of what motivated the expedition of this post was
Breath of the Wild: Tears of the Kingdom's May 12 release date coming up. I intend to pop whatever game is in my Switch's game slot out on May 12 and replace it with
Tears of the Kingdom until I've completed that game's intended main story. (To use BotW 1 for comparison, I'm not saying I'd need to do all of the DLC trials or 120 the shrines, but I
am saying I'd need to visit every realm in Hyrule and do all of the intended story beats. No rushing to Hyrule Castle with only a bottle and gym shorts!
) As ... as messed up as it may be of me to say
,
"I don't want Mahoyo's plot to be interrupted by something else for several months", I want to complete it 100% before moving on to the next project!
So with only seven full days remaining -- I plan to try and get TotK the morning of the 12th and begin playing shortly after -- I've got to
go go GO if I want to get
Mahoyo done on time.
Thankfully, I think I can. The next chapter is named... "WITCH ON THE HOLY NIGHT I". ;o Sooo... I
think we can safely guess that the game only has two to three chapters left. WotHN 1, WotHN 2, and then a possible wrap-up chapter after that.
But doing that would require me to break the one rule I've stuck to this entire time since December: no reading ahead. By which I mean,
you can't begin the next chapter until you've completed your post for the previous chapter. I do this on purpose because I think it makes for a much more organic and sincere post -- future information can't inform my decisions, predictions, or opinions if I haven't reached it yet. The one or two times it's already happened in this thread, by sheer virtue of where I've sourced a lot of my images post-Chapter 05, Yuki's called me out on it
^^;; , "Hey! How come you have
that picture in
this chapter?" It's not because I've read ahead -- it's because when I go to get the images, sometimes things look similar and whoopsie-daisy. ^_^;
So yeah. I don't know. I may break that rule and try to finish reading the book before May 12 ... or I may keep it and usher in
another two-month
Mahoyo drought.
Time will tell. I'm feeling very fickle about it, so I really can't say which decision I'll make until the day comes and I have
Tears of the Kingdom in my hands.
Fake-out Deaths: Earlier in the post, I had mentioned that I was amused by what I perceive as Nasu's reticence to part with or to shelve various of his ideas for how to make this duel between Aozaki Touko and Alice Kuonji exciting. I appreciate that he wanted to keep us on the edge of our seats -- and boy, DID HE!
-- but after a certain point it got a little ridiculous ^_^; how many times he faked us out that Alice was going to die.
This is something I complained about to AK2 when watching
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5,
Golden Wind. There is a character in that story whom the author, Araki Hirohiko, has take a bullet to the head and die. A pretty final death. But then it's revealed that, psych, the bullet never actually entered his skull! Okay, whatever.
Then we advance a little in the plot and ... same character, takes
another bullet to the head --
three bullets, if I'm remembering correctly -- and you
see the bullets go in ... and you see them
exit out the other side ... and you watch the guy's blood ooze out of his skull all over the floor of the compartment he's in ... you even see his body get a sparkly gold aura around it and steam fizzle off of it, something that the author
only does for characters who have truly died, to signify that their soul is leaving their body ... only for Araki to then reveal that, SURPRISE AGAIN, the character lives.
HOW. Doesn't matter. Story progresses. Character's on a boat. Stuff happens, character should totally die. Character is shown "dying."
Doesn't die. Happens a
fourth time. By this fourth time I was just openly mocking the story. It became a running joke between me and AK2.
^^;
Eventually what happened is, a different character in the story dies and the presentation is tragic and serious. But I'm not taking it seriously. I can't, because the author has conditioned me not to. "Death is no longer permanent in this story" -- things that would normally translate to
guaranteed death in the real world mean nothing here. So when the story concluded and this second character remained dead, I was genuinely shocked. But it was too late to mourn -- the credits were already rolling, the series was wrapping up. And I didn't feel like mourning anyway.
I'm grateful that that wasn't my experience here with the duel with Alice. But I'm bringing it up because I could easily imagine it being someone else's experience. And if one of those someone's one day comes and reads this post, I want them to understand that I recognize and understand their frustration.
^^;
Below: a list of all the back-and-forths on Alice's fate in this chapter!
- Alice arrives at the park. I don't know whether she'll live or die but--
- Alice calls Soujuurou to say goodbye, hangs up, turns around, and sees a pack of wild ravenous dogs some 100+ in number. Alice is going to die. D= =o
- The dogs all scamper off, and Alice brings forth her ploy vessel for Diddle Diddle. Maybe she lives--
- Oh wow. Oh wow wow wow. The vessel just exploded into a dozen fragments. Guess she's dead.
- Surprise! Alice's Mystic Eyes! Touko's trapped! She can't move a muscle!
- So much for that -- Touko just effortlessly dispelled the effect of Alice's Mystic Eyes. Dayum. And revealed Mystic Eyes of her own. DAYUM.
- But then Alice reveals that she switched places with Robin! (So it's Robin who dies, not her!)
And then she reveals that she threw those five Ploy Kickshaw vessels down on the ground to their doom on purpose!
And that it was all to get her ... the Thames Troll! Oh no! Whatever will Touko do now!?
- Beo. Boom. Thames Troll dead. Alice (almost) dead.
- Surprise -- Alice has Wolverine healing powers!
- Surprise -- Touko French kisses Alice and shoves an explosive down her throat!
And then she tells Alice, "Boy, that pack of dogs over there sure seems awfully hungry...!"
When all hope seems lost and it seems like Alice is going to be eaten alive by dogs...
- Touko calls Soujuurou and provides him with the necessary information to come and rescue Alice.
- ...But ah shit, Soujuurou would have to traverse five miles in one minute. 'S not possible! =\ Alice, nooo...
- SOUJUUROU! =O Soujuurou to the rescue!
- But even though she's still technically alive, she also still has that incendiary of Touko's inside of her! One wrong move and BOOM!
- But yay -- Alice lives~ :3 \o/