Halloween Jiangshi Night Episode 1 Part 2

After the events from last time, we pick up with you evacuating from the gym with Li Chou and Sanat Kumara. Narration notes that the smoke being vented from the gym looks oddly colorful and fancy. You worry about the mobs but say they were done in pretty flashily.

Li Chou compliments your skills saying he’s judging from a fair and objective view. Sanat Kumara praises you as well, having had some faith in you given that you’re Hanuman’s friend. He also says that lower grade students in Umamichi don’t get discouraged that easily.

Gouryou turns up having ran from the gym, figuring that the mobs can’t chase him this far. Benten compares what happened to a mosh pit. It rocked and all, but having the whole place do so was a bit much. You can then express surprise at either of them appearing or asking if they’re Umamichi students.

In A, Gouryou laughs and greets you. He says he figured he’d see you since he heard Hanuman invites you over to their school. He does feel like it’s been a while since he’s seriously attended though. He barely knows anyone who does go here. Gouryou then jokes about waiting if you want a hello kiss since he got jostled by the mobs and Benten. Benten says it was just how crowded the place was.

In B, Benten gets huffy and asks if you saw the text and to come to her concert if you were here. She then says it hurt when she got hit by the human wave, but then takes it back since she thinks it sounds like she never rode a wave before. Gouryou says she came over since Li Chou asked him to invite some friends. He then complains about her hijacking the gym earlier.

In C, Gouryou greets you and says he heard Hanuman invited you. He then says he’s the only one who’s a student there. Benten says Gouryou invited her to put on a show so she’s a special guest. He has to repeat himself about having never invited her to perform and complains about the school fest going down the tubes.

In any case Gouryou notices you’re here with Sanat Kumara and Li Chou. Li’s one thing, but Sanat being there means that you were fine. Sanat Kumara then dramatically asks you for your name, so you introduce yourself. He says it’s a nice name, then thanks you on behalf of the school.

Anyways, Sanat Kumara says he’s been watching over the school for a long time as multigroup bancho and as such wants to have a certain level of understanding about what goes on with his kouhai. He doesn’t understand what’s going on to make the jiangshi go nuts though, so he asks if Li Chou knows.

Li Chou says he doesn’t and that all he told them to do was jump out of the smoke to scare people. Gouryou comments about all the smoke earlier and asks what Li used. Li says he used a smoke ball he got from a fireworks wholesaler in Asakusa. He got it on the cheap since they were leftover stock for summer stuff and the season’s over.

Benten asks about the smoke ball and how they sometimes can be sold in convenience stores and make smoke in different colors. Gouryou however mentally doubts that as he believes it smelled like incense. He also wonders if it has to do with a certain something that’s supposed to be strictly guarded.

Li Chou gets defensive about it before blustering that things have gone according to script and that it’s totally not a failure. Okay maybe the play has gone a little overboard but he doesn’t think too much of it, nope nope nope. Sanat Kumara seems to doubt him, so Li stammers and claims the mobs are just overexcited. They may be confused but he’ll follow up on things after.

You point out that Li’s looking away, that the mobs are clearly going on a rampage, and that he can’t really cover this up. Sanat Kumara decides to focus on the fact that there is something up with how the jiangshi are behaving. He frames it as a wall that Li has to climb over, then tells him to find out why the mobs are crazy and put a stop to it.

Li Chou in turn freaks out before trying to claim there’s no mess up again. You offer to help since this is your friends’ school, or you sigh about being involved again. In C there’s some extra lines as Benten laughs that you look ready to help anyways, then tells Li that you’ll solve things somehow if he leaves it to you. Either way Li tried to bluff that this is his Umamichi’s problem.

Gouryou tells Sanat Kumara that he feels there’s something off with the smoke earlier. Sanat is surprised the eternal slacker would be motivated to help and basically asks if hell froze over. Gouryou says he’s not actually motivated, it’s just that if he slacks off in front of Li he’ll never hear the end of it. Li brags that he won’t give him any leeway as his senpai and calls it karma.

Anyways Gouryou volunteers to look into the incense. Benten volunteers to go with him saying she’s on the same boat as him. Gouryou freaks out at this expression, saying that being on the same boat as her will turn into a disaster. Sanat just laughs the exchange off as another form of youth.

Gouryou notices Hanuman coming back, who is running towards you full speed. When he stops he reports that the mobs are spilling out from the gym. Nezha and Tetsugyuu are working to contain them at the exit, but at the rate things are going the damage may spread out. Li Chou is horrified to hear that, and you either tell Li you guys should hurry, ask Gouryou to take care of things here, or ask Benten to not cause a problem.

In A, Li Chou complains that you shouldn’t stick your nose into this again and that his attempt to climb the school social ladder is falling to pieces. In B, Gouryou understands and asks you to take care of Li. He’ll call if he finds anything out. In C, Benten gets offended and tells you to go because she’ll be fine. In any case Hanuman leads you and Li Chou back to the gym. Sanat Kumara just stands there watching you guys silently.

Scene shifts to outside in Asakusa as Shinya shows up wondering if he’s made it in time for the night festival. He was worried about how things were going at Daikanyama for a while. Kalki says their cafe ran out of candy midway through the day and that a lot of people were disappointed. He says they’ll have to think of plans for next time in terms of sustainability and positioning.

Taromaiti says that seats for the play also turned into a lottery and that Maria and the student council were driven up the wall. Shinya says they seemed happy though. Problems come from excess, though that does apply to everything. He did want to make everyone who visited his cafe happy, but there was only so much in stock. It’s a cafe stocked with student’s handiwork too, but it’s nice if a balance could be struck.

Taromaiti says she heard from Maria regarding that, which is why they agreed to doing a collab school festival with Umamichi. If there were two events in one day they thought guests could be distributed around evenly even if they went to both. It’s just that most people went to Daikanyama.

Shinya says he heard that Umamichi’s event kicks in the most at night. He then suggests that since they cleaned up quick and came over they should enjoy the thing. When the group reaches the school, some jiangshi greet them there. They’re lost for words as it looks to them like there was a fire in the gym while a huge number of mobs are attacking people. Kalki compares this to a scene from the Kali Yuga, and the mobs laugh before apparently attacking them too.

Back inside the gym, mobs continue yelling Happy Halloween and attacking, but Nezha blows them all away. They complain about having to hold back, but remind themselves that doing so would mean losing the game he’s playing with Hanuman. Flashback shows Hanuman calling things a game about disabling the mobs without hurting them and taunts about how easy it would be for him compared to Nezha.

Nezha says they’ll play by the rules. They’re a little put off by tying things up since it brings up memories, but will do it because Hanuman made it a challenge. They then get fired up and make engine noises again.

Meanwhile Tetsugyuu is enjoying himself and says he likes comparing strength like this as opposed to costumes and cuteness. Some maid is impressed with how the two of them is holding up against the mobs. An alchemist calls their fighting style chaotic and reckless but cheers them on all the same.

The audience inside aren’t the only ones watching things unfold. Outside it turns out a bunch of younger jiangshi are trying to peek in to see the ones inside and have formed a line to do so. These were jiangshi that Li Chou didn’t call over to do his original stunt, jostling around a little window to watch.

The ones up front are amazed with how many people are around and wonder if this makes things a success. They do think it might be going overboard and wonder if Nezha and Tetsugyuu are supposed to be part of the show. One shrugs and says if they aren’t, it should be fine if things work out. The one behind pushes, so they say they’ll narrate even if they don’t do so. Then they notice something.

Elsewhere Li is surprised at how many are around before freaking out about how he doesn’t have a plan even with all his intellect. He decides to prioritize making an exit available and clearing the way. Narration says you guys are circling around to the front when Li happens to look through a window. Things haven’t changed much, but you notice in shock that there seems to be even more mobs around and tell Li so.

Li Chou stops without thinking and bounces around, telling you to shut up and that he doesn’t care. It’s after a moment that he processes what you’ve just said and wonders if it means whatever is causing them to rampage is spreading. He then stresses out about things getting complicated again,  and you wonder if anything else is getting infected.

Li yells that the questions will have to wait since he’s trying to think. After a moment he says it’s only the jiangshi going on a rampage, which means there’s no infection going on. He tells you that jiangshi are naturally easily influenced by their environment, so jiangshi rampaging here would mean their friends will start getting affected too.

Li then has a fit about how this trait makes them good at communicating but also leads to them slacking off if anyone influential does so too. He blames Hanuman as one such person whose crazy antics rub off on the mobs which then causes him problems. You either apologize for his behavior, point out that Li also acts like a delinquent, or decide to pet him as consolation.

In A, Li starts saying you’re the same for hanging out with him before stopping to brag about his usage of a Chinese idiom. He then complains that people like Hanuman somehow tend to have charmed lives. In B Li brags about how he’s totally a badass. He’s taken aback when he sees your blank expression. In C, he starts blustering about you making fun of him before he finds you’re surprisingly good at it. He tells you to rub closer to his throat and purrs for a bit before he snaps back to attention and tries to act tough.

Anyways, Li Chou tries to claim it’s all still under control as it hasn’t gotten to the point of spilt milk. It’s not a failure yet you hear!? You guys then continue on to the front door where you see some mobs attacking visitors. Li says you guys have to stop any more from coming out before insisting it’s still okay.

A mob suddenly drops down in front of him and starts tickling him so hard he can’t breathe well. You try to go save him but more pop up to block the way, too many for you to quickly get past. Three to four mobs apparently constitute a crisis situation according to narration, but Shinya, Kalki, and Taroimaiti step in to help.

After Kalki blows away the mobs he asks what’s happening. Taromaiti says they’re going overboard for pranks and says it seems even worse inside the gym. Shinya asks if you two are okay. You either ask Shinya in surprise why he’s here, thank Kalki, or ask Taromaiti about what happened at Daikanyama.

In A, Shinya says he heard about the night festival and came to help whether they could. He comments on you getting caught up in an incident again. In C, Taromaiti says things went alright and that they came here after they finished up with their things.

Li Chou inwardly recognizes the three of them as the unusually popular trio in Daikanyama, pointing out that Taromaiti is famous in the theater. Shinya says they left their clean up for tomorrow since their school party goes on until the evening and came over, then asks what happened. Kalki finds it hard to imagine how this happened, saying having someone up above being destroyed leads to things like this.

Li Chou flinches at the remark, and Kalki goes on to talk about how he’s the one who destroys adharma and brings the Kali Yuga to its demise. He can’t overlook this state of affairs. According to him the Kali Yuga is an era of opposition, ignorance, and war, and he says that’s what the jiangshis actions look like.

Taromaiti tries pointing out that his phrasing is too blunt, even if he genuinely thinks so. Kalki says it doesn’t change anything and feels bending the truth is equal to lying. Taromaiti then tries to apologize to Li on Kalki’s behalf. Kalki’s not very flexible...

Li Chou takes it personally as he says he was the one who came up with the school festival. In his mind he thinks the Tiger is howling again. He wishes he could arbitrarily decide things from his low position, even if no one else was hurt. He wishes he could cruelly hurt something with whatever he can get while staying a coward. He wants someone else to be the heartless bad guy while he stays his shameful self. And he wants to stay his wretched self while denouncing the world. He thinks it would feel so great to do so, which is why he says he can’t stop the tiger.

Back to the present Li Chou continues lashing out at Taromaiti and the others, accusing her of agreeing with Kalki. Taromaiti tries to deny it, but Li continues on by essentially accusing her of looking down on him for being a delinquent while she could fit in. He’s tried his hardest to make the festival work so that people wouldn’t call him scary or say they don’t want to be near him, and he feels they came to laugh at him.

Taromaiti says nothing, and you can either try to intervene or stay quiet. Li Chou yells that he will definitely make the festival a success. You’ll see, you’ll all see! He then runs off and you chase after him, though you make a quick apology to Taromaiti before going.

Kalki has nothing to say, but Shinya expresses concern for Taromaiti. She says she’s fine and was just remembering something from her home world. She thinks she might have forgotten how people who decided things from the comfort zone felt.

Taromaiti calls herself immature despite being warned of similar things. Shinya tries saying it’s the same for everyone, and that he must have hurt someone without knowing it while living. Taromaiti laughs at that but says she likes that about him and is the same.

Shinya suggests that things might have been better if Kalki were more understandable and said that they wanted to help too. He flinches, and Taromaiti says Shinya is picking on him. She then asks if Kalki has any excuse.

Kalki says he was just stating the truth and says it’s his role to deal with incidents. Taromaiti says she understands, and Shinya suggests they do whatever they feel they should do, not what someone else thinks. They don’t wish for anyone to fail after all. Taromaiti agrees and Kalki says they should go forward then, and there ends the episode.