Chapter 9 Episode 9: Vessel of God 2

Story goes back to following your side of things after that battle with Musashi as you, Arc, and Xolotl are taken to the Crafters’ workshop. Amatsumara is on the phone asking whoever to hurry up. I assume it’s Kurogane. There’s senbei rice crackers right there if they want snacks with tea. He also says they should go back soon, because if they haven’t made a decision they won’t even be able to do the things they can.

After he hangs up he turns to the workshop at large and yells out, asking if anyone is back yet and to get tea for the customers. As there’s no response he sighs and says he’ll do it himself. He tells you guys to sit wherever as the guildmaster should be back soon.

Amatsumara walks off to go make the tea, and the rest of you find somewhere to sit. Xolotl is the first to speak after that, commenting on the coincidence of running into you here. He’s pretty stoked about that. You ask him why he’s here and if it’s an errand for Hakumen.

Xolotl confirms that’s the case, telling you that she ordered him to take Something to the Crafters. He gets all smiley for no apparent reason, so you ask about that next. Like, did something nice happen?

Xolotl denies that and takes a moment to figure out how to explain himself and says it’s something personal. He sniffs a bit, then sighs with relief. He says he relaxes when he talks with you since he’s almost always in some state of anxiety. Then he realizes that when he’s near you he starts getting a bit nostalgic and remembers about his past. And of the sibling he parted ways for life from.

You can either ask about the sibling part or the separation part, but either way Xolotl starts describing them as someone so amazing they made him look like a waste of space. Then he starts getting interested in what sort of expression you’re making for some reason. He says if he hadn’t literally cried his eyes out he could see you right.

Arc says she was wondering for a while, as she seems to have noticed Xolotl’s lack of eyes and comments on them. Xolotl takes his sunglasses off to show you guys. Arc says she thought they were special visors based on appearance at first, then asks if they’re really just meant to hide his eyes.

Xolotl confirms that too, saying Hakumen gave him the visor type sunglasses because he’d otherwise freak out the casino guests. Kurogane suddenly zooms in next to him thinking the glasses are custom made and asks to see them. He then says they actually cost quite a bit and are pretty nice.

Xolotl is surprised to hear that and offers thanks to Hakumen. It’s then that he processes that Kurogane is right in his space, so he jumps back in fright asking who he is. Amatsumara notices him and asks if it was someone else he was waiting for when he was talking about his rocket friend.

Kurogane says he got a call saying that they’re running late. They’ll be there soon, so he figured he’d wait in the workshop. Amatsumara then turns to you guys and informs you all Kurogane’s the guildmaster. Xolotl apologizes saying he was caught up in talking about his past.

Amatsumara complains to himself about everyone being out and wonders where Hephaestus is since he at least is supposed to be around. Kurogane adds that Hephaestus has been a bit odd lately. He wonders if he’s worried about something before admitting he’s always like that. Amatsumara thinks he’s just worrying about something that can’t be answered.

Xolotl asks what kind of guild the Crafters are. The guys puff up as the game plays their apparent theme, and Kurogane describes them as a gathering of artifact technicians and engineers. He then introduces himself as guildmaster and Kamata Vocational School third year student.

Amatsumara introduces himself as the guild’s overseer and a school instructor. Then he apologizes for their little deadbeat giving you a surprise. Musashi starts calling themselves as the guild’s bodyguard before he catches onto the deadbeat comment and complains. Amatsumara fires back that they’ve said they don’t need a bodyguard because Tokyo is supposed to be safe.

Arc says she heard about it before, then asks how he can be so sure. The app is everywhere in Tokyo, so you could be caught up in a battle at any time. Amatsumara answers that the Crafters are bar none the most knowledgeable people in Tokyo when it comes to artifacts, especially strengthening them.

Kurogane says if there’s anything wrong with an artifact you should see them first. Amatsumara says if anything happened to them it’d affect their attackers as well, so they’re pretty much sitting on unassailable neutral ground.

Musashi sighs to the side saying engineers don’t know a thing about war. If a battle escalates a neutral zone is the first to be targeted, he says as he asks his polite neutral pronoun self. He switches personas and that self agrees, adding that in the case he knows of, when guards are relaxed other places pile on their own research. The neutral zone would lose their spot as research head and simply become another crash zone.

Amatsumara laughs and says if anyone tries to catch up, they’ll put in the same amount of time to push them back. Musashi says if it is the same amount of time, then maybe. He’s about to give his opinion before deciding to refrain and switches out to the young man self, who either hasn’t been listening or wasn’t told about anything. That side asks if you guys have questions for them.

Musashi then remembers that last thing he was talking about during the battle about shouting about believing in battle not being enough. He explains that there are things to do before believing. That’s it. Know the other side and know yourself. That’s the very least you can do before a battle.

If you don’t know the other side, it wouldn’t be any different from charging in with a blindfold on. And what if the one you’re to believe in is truly deceiving you? Even if they aren’t there are plenty of cases of people not telling the truth even if they don’t lie, or where people are mistaken about the truth.

Musashi says that a tool is the same as your arms and legs. Keep on understanding it until you can think of it like it’s a part of yourself. Then he says he’s kidding. This is normally the polite self’s field so it’s kind of embarrassing for the young man self to be spouting all this. Then he says he’ll see you on the battlefield again as he walks off.

Amatsumara tries to stop him but doesn’t make it, then grumbles about him not listening to people. Kurogane tries to calm him saying Musashi probably is concerned for them, maybe. He then turns back to you guys and welcomes you guys to the Crafters, saying they’ll take care of artifact strengthening, remodeling, restoration, anything.

He holds his hand out to you and Arc, and she says you’ll be counting them. You can either treat this as a first time meeting and introduce yourself or be confused and say it’s been a while. Going with the latter, Kurogane tries to remember if you two have met before and sticks his face close to yours. Then he pulls back and apologizes, saying he ended up following Amatsumara’s lead out of habit. He says he feels like you’ve met but can’t remember.

Either way he asks for a handshake. When you do you feel like something is off. Kurogane notices and realizes it must be about his fake arm since it’s a bit cooler than body temperature. He says he just modified it, so it looks like it has temp regulation issues at the moment. You either ask about his arm being artificial or be impressed he made it himself.

Going A, Kurogane says he used an artifact as a base and remodeled it into a prosthetic. Arc is amazed, and you can either ask in big surprise about making an artifact into a fake limb or ask if it’s possible to remodel an artifact like that.

Kurogane answers that in short, an artifact is a part of a person’s body. Arc parrots this questioningly, so he explains that artifacts can adapt to biological tissue. They both are and aren’t living things. With muscles, they become the next output device. With the five main senses and the sixth sense, they become the seventh input mechanism. In other words, a part that has perfectly adapted to their owner’s body.

Kurogane then mutters to himself wondering if it’s more correct to say living things are similar to artifact traits. Arc is speechless, and Xolotl asks if there are ways of using them besides as a prosthetic hand. Kurogane answers that everyone in the Crafters is like that and turns to Amatsumara.

Amatsumara tells you guys that he lost one of his eyes when he was younger from staring at a furnace too much. Xolotl is surprised by this, and Amatsumara continues saying that he fiddled with the eye of a one-eyed dragon, another of his artifacts, then plunked it into his socket. He uses that as a selling point to trust him with anything you ask of him. Xolotl agrees in confusion and wonders what Hakumen has requested.

You can either ask if artifacts can only be used in App Battles or realize a body counts as an enclosed space. Going with the latter, Kurogane is surprised you know and approves. Either way he explains that artifacts are usable because the app creates invisible walls to function as the enclosed area, but that isn’t all there is to it.

If certain conditions are met in an enclosed area, then an artifact can be used. An owner’s body fits that description when you look at it a certain way, so if you put one inside a body you can use its power. Arc comments on him knowing a lot about artifacts and asks if she can question him some more about them. You ask too.

Amatsumara is touched you guys are interested and invites you to ask anything at all. Kurogane is excited and says he will answer anything too. You either thank them or call them engineering nuts.

Kurogane prompts you guys for your questions, so Arc summons the Genociders’ artifacts and asks him to look at them. Kurogane asks what they are, so Arc explains that the Transients she contracted with have been reduced to their artifacts. She doesn’t know why that happened and asks them to explain whatever they can.

Amatsumara speaks slowly as he chooses his words. He can’t be sure but he guesses they’ve finished their roles. Arc says Surtr mentioned the same thing once. Amatsumara then asks what sort of relationship they had as he can tell it wasn’t a just a master-servant thing. He then says that for a contract to be established it would naturally be with someone with the same soul. Arc tells him the Genociders became her family.

Amatsumara and Kurogane exchange a glance before facing Arc again. Amatsumara then tries to gently break things to her by prefacing it with the hope they won’t be cruel to her. He then starts talking about the origins of artifacts as told and passed down in Takamagahara.

People who inherit artifacts are bound by roles and concepts. It’s the fate of how they live and die. If one is sacrificed to that, their heart and personality becomes unneeded by the world. A Transient who completes their role will have their memories worth leaving in the world recorded into their artifact.

You try to ask about all this, but Amatsumara goes on and says if someone inherited an artifact they might be able to draw out the memories within. There is however the risk that they’ll be taken over by those memories. You think it sounds familiar before remembering the Shirou possession incident.

Amatsumara is a little surprised you have seen it happen, then says he’s heard it tends to be worse with artifacts with different thinking patterns. Still, in the end they aren’t that actual person as what’s in the artifact is only memories. He then apologizes if this is something you didn’t want to hear.

Arc says it’s fine and thanks him. Amatsumara suggests that maybe they’ve fulfilled their wishes from when they were summoned to Tokyo, though he doesn’t know if it’s any comfort. Arc admits it isn’t.

You express some concern for Arc, though she tells you it’s okay. She smiles as she holds the artifacts to her, saying her family is in them and that’s enough for her. She says she was entrusted with the wish that she continue on. With just that thought she says she can keep on going by herself.

You tell Arc that she isn’t alone. She has you, and she has all of the Summoners. She’s surprised, then touched as she thanks you. She says you’re strong to be able to say that to anyone, even though you were tossed out alone into this world. Kurogane reacts to that statement to the side. You say that might be why you can sympathize. You also started out alone, and you know how hard it is to lose someone.

Arc says it must be the strange points in common you both have as guildmasters. After a moment of silence she thanks you again. Off to the side Kurogane and Amatsumara have turned on the waterworks sobbing over your conversation as they remember things. You either are surprised by this reaction or just offer them a handkerchief.

Some time later Amatsumara composes himself and ends the topic of discussion. Arc says it’s okay and thanks them for telling you guys everything so far. Kurogane still is a bit sad and apologizes, saying he also lost his parents when he was young. He met the Crafters after, who then doted on him and raised him. He says that’s why he couldn’t see things as other people’s problems.

Amatsumara laughs and says that’s also why the guild still treats him as the baby of the bunch. Kurogane then mentions it seems like lots of guildmasters have some sort of parental issues. That reminds him of something as he suddenly calls to you and puts his hands on your shoulders. You either act surprised or act like he’s about to proposition you.

Going with the former he says you don’t seem like a stranger, like there’s some sort of affinity. He offers to talk with you if you ever need advice for anything. If you want to know anything or have something about artifacts, he’ll do it. You can either thank him and call him senpai, say you’ll count on him and call him big brother, or say you want him to teach you about a lot of things.

In A he’s happy you called him senpai and says he’ll take care of anything. In B he’s surprised but really excited you called him brother. In any case he offers to take you with him to space one day. Arc asks about this, so he says that’s what he’s researching. He then asks if you like outer space and mentions his friend coming over also wants to go to space together with him one day.

At that point the intercom rings from the gate, so Kurogane excuses himself to go over there and open the door. Oz comes in apologizing for being late and apparently interrupting something. Kurogane says it’s fine and asks him to wait a sec.

Kurogane turns to you guys and apologizes, saying he has an earlier appointment. There’s still more to talk about, but he asks to stop for now. You agree and thank him, saying you’ll see him later. Or you say you were intruding or tell him not to worry. Oz apologizes and says he’ll be borrowing Kurogane, and Kurogane says he’ll see you guys later. Then he talks to Oz and heads to the rocket with him.

Xolotl comments on feeling a sense of maturity from Oz alongside a sense of cowardliness and affinity. Then he thanks Amatsumara for the tea and rice crackers. Amatsumara suggests they get started on their own stuff and asks him to come along. There’s some work involving nerves or sensitivity. He also tells you two to be careful.

Xolotl starts shaking in his boots over this and asks what’s going to happen. Amatsumara doesn’t really answer and says there’s nothing to fear and that it’ll be quick as he drags Xolotl crying by the scruff of his neck to a nearby room.

Amatsumara also tells you guys to wait here as the other members should be back soon. You can also ask them about artifacts too. You tell him not to mind since you guys were uninvited. He suggests talking to Hephaestus when he gets back, describing him as a dark and solid redhead. Kind of servile, but a good engineer.

Amatsumara then turns back to Xolotl and continues to the room with whatever. Xolotl says he’ll do his best and asks not to be hurt. Since you guys have to wait anyways, Arc says she wants to take a walk nearby to calm down. She says she’ll be back soon. You tell her to enjoy it, and she thanks you as the episode ends.