Halloween Jiangshi Night Episode 3 Part 5

We pick back up from last time a few lines back where Krampus thinks to himself that the jiangshi aren’t bad kids and repeats the thoughts at the end, and it continues on with him falling to his knees to your shock. Tetsugyuu laughs and tells the mobs to show him the pain of hell, and they do so by tickling him as hard as they can.

Krampus does his best to not laugh, and Yule reminds him that he can’t or else he’ll ruin the mood of the scene. Krampus says that he knows already, which makes this tactic even worse. 

Guy A: he’s in such pain I can’t look away

Girl B: oh no this is so awful even for a big man like him

Girl C: no please stop oh no mister hero...!

Touji starts talking to Ryouta wanting to ask him something, which Ryouta is surprised about. Touji says he doesn’t understand something about the audience and asks why they seem so expectant about something. Kengo answers instead and tells Touji he ought to have some idea from when he was a kid. After a pan through the audience, Kengo says they’re waiting for the hero’s big comeback.

Silence falls onto the market street, almost like a miracle. Then, voices call out. The children sitting on Behemoth start cheering for Krampus to win and save the jiangshi, and Ziz starts adding her cheers as well slightly past her cue. She calls for all the audience members to cheer loudly for Krampus, and they do so. It starts off quietly, but as it goes on everyone is shouting.

At this time though, Li Chou happens to notice the voices of discontent also getting louder as the complainers berate the neighborhood council president. The stall owners say nothing like this was brought up in the meetings and demand compensation for their damaged goods. They also take this as a sign that the Umamichi students are horrible people after all.

Li Chou takes this badly, and his inner voices start speaking to him. One tells him to give up and accept that the festival has failed. He can’t help it though, because no one helped. He was attacked on all sides, left to fend for himself.

Another of Li Chou’s inner voices says he did all he could on his own. There are things that just can’t be changed no matter what you do. Sticking your nose into things and doing badly will only make it worse. The voice suggests just leaving it all up to the people who started this themselves.

The first voice, his cowardly self-importance, says that even if Li Chou is talented, he can’t help it if it turned out this way. It’s just wasted on the uneducated masses. His haughty shame says he doesn’t care about what happens anymore because he never gave it his all.

Back outside of Li Chou’s head the crowd continues cheering, which makes him tune back into things. His eyes settle on Krampus, who hasn’t moved. Everyone’s cheers is filled with the belief that he’ll win and the expectation that he’ll do his best. But still Krampus doesn’t move, and it reminds Li of himself the way he never followed through to the end and could do nothing. How bitterly regrettable. It was wasting his efforts in trying to fight wholeheartedly.

But then, Li Chou shouts out his own cheers. The words stun everyone as it strikes their hearts, and they all turn to look at him. He seems to realize something as he repeats the cheers like a mad chant. Li then says that he sees him and is cheering for him, and that he’ll keep doing it no matter what he fails at.

In Li Chou’s heart he thinks of that night with the moon over the mountain, that time he ran away from the words of the friend he trusted. He shouts with everything he has, tears streaming from his eyes. Li speaks partly to himself as he continues, and he talks about how he still had a kind friend back then even when all he did was run and fail.

Li Chou swears that he’ll become someone who will be able to answer his friend next time. So he’ll be cheering for Krampus, telling him to win or else Halloween will turn into a disaster. You call out Li’s name and cheer both him and Krampus on.

Ryouta cheers, asking Krampus to take back that manju stand. Shirou gets into cheering too as the Evils join along. Kengo takes a moment to smirk at Shirou over this. When asked why he’s doing so, he just says he’s enjoying how the straight laced class rep is cheering for a hero.

Shirou is kinda embarrassed but says he can’t let that stop him from cheering, then suggests Kengo do it like he did way back as a kid. Kengo comments that being childhood friends can make things so difficult but cheers on. Even Touji joins in, if quietly embarrassed.

Focus shifts back to the disgruntled stall keeps as they ask the president to stop the show, but Motosumi interrupts as he runs in from having looked for them all over only to find them at where he started. Malcontent A turns to him and complains about how the show is getting in the way of things. Motosumi ignores her to prostrate himself to the president, then begs to everyone to let the show finish.

Motosumi says his friend is doing all he can, and all he himself can do is ask for their patience. He begs for them to let it go on just a bit longer and promises to pay back any damages. Everyone there is lost for words, and when the president is about to answer someone else speaks up.

Maria comes over and apologizes for interrupting, then introduces herself and explains she’s Daikanyama’s Halloween event executive. Motosumi is surprised to see her, and Maria continues on to make the same request Motosumi did. She bows deeply to them, and a fuss picks up.

Maria talks about how much determination she’s heard Li Chou pour into the festival, and how forcefully he was trying to change people’s impressions of Umamichi and helping Asakusa. Then she repeats the request to let the play finish.

Out of Towner Stall Keeper complains some more about the inconveniences he’s suffered and says the president is responsible too. The president agrees with this point and tells him to bring up his issues at the next Asakusa neighborhood meeting. The stall keep is shocked by this, so the president tells him to look at how hard the Umamichi students are working to look respectable. Then he calls him a rude boor for trying to use his own circumstances to make them stop.

Focus switches back to Li Chou, and his cheers are interrupted by his artifact glowing as if calling out to him. He hesitates in picking in up, but after a moment to steel himself he opens up the scroll. Li then starts reading off the poem from his originating story. If you’ll excuse me going the CHN > Old JP > Modern JP > EN route...

“A sudden illness of the heart has turned me into a monster and I could not escape from the resulting misfortunes.”

Narration steps in for a moment to say that this is the poem Li Chou composed about his regrets and how they’re now the words that represent him. It also notes that past the end of the poem is empty space.

“As I face the moon that shines upon this mountain, I cannot recite poems but only howl.”

Li Chou laughs to himself about how the poem is dripping with his genius but talks about how he tried to keep up appearances. He reminisces about the day he was summoned again and the regrets he had before he came over. He should have come out from the grass and faced his friend. He should have shown himself and howled that “this is who I am.”

Li Chou then narrates about how he tried to walk the path of humanity. Li says he won’t deny it anymore and decides that he won’t pretend his failures never happened anymore. Things then turn back to the present as he seems to understand something. Narration says he’s taken one step onto an unmapped road. It might not be one that the masses will recognize as great, but an awkward animal trail is still a path.

Li Chou talks about how it’s a path only he can make, a path that lies nowhere else. He swears to continue on with it starting now, then roars up into the sky. What he looks at isn’t the moon, but Sanat Kumara who is surprised by this turn of events.

Li Chou thanks Sanat Kumara for having watched over him all this time. He talks about how Sanat always showed him the praiseworthy path of humanity, but apologizes that he can’t cut the gallant figure Sanat can. Because of that, Li intends to start accepting himself as his shameful self. And then, he’ll go on with the path that lies just for him.

Sanat Kumara is surprised but accepts this. He tells Li Chou that maybe one day their paths will cross, and he’ll possibly stand in his way. Li freaks out at this but resolved himself to look back at him. Sanat doesn’t say anything more but smiles, and you run up to talk to Li.

Li Chou notes your presence, then says he’ll use his artifact on you. He says he wants you to be his audience for the progression that will be starting from that point on. He asks if you’re ready to take his best poem. You’re confused by this and ask him why he’s going to use his artifact in you.

Li Chou says he knows far more shame than Krampus does, so if it isn’t for someone like a random passerby then he won’t recite his new poems to them. The Umamichi students won’t work because they know a lot about him already, but he can do it with you. Because of and in spite of that, he’s too scared to show his poems to someone who might laugh at him.

You say you understand or you just nod silently. Moonlight shines down on him, and Li Chou starts remembering when someone happened to pass by him that night. He briefly wonders if his friend would ever have laughed at him. Li says that if he ever sees him again, he wants to become someone who can be called a friend directly. And just maybe, if he’s there with you he says as he glances at you from the side...

Li Chou then asks if you know of a particular Chinese idiom that describes trusted friends who have never disagreed or best friends. You either don’t know the answer or do actually know which one he’s talking about. Best friends is the meaning of it at the end of it all, for the record. Anyways going with C the knowing option, Li approves and says you ought to know that much if you’re going to be his best friend.

Li Chou pulls out a brush and starts writing more lines onto his poem. He talks about how he howls with his cowardice and arrogance, then says he’s writing a free form ad lib. It’s not him fearing failure and it’s not him finishing it with a tiny add-on, but him putting all his efforts into it. Then he casts his NP saying he’ll face his friend.

Harlot notices the light Li Chou is giving off and asks what it is. Li joins the stage saying he’ll change things around, then introduces himself as the lone poet Tiger Bard. You either roll with it into your acting or you stop to ask if he’s a tiger or a *bird.* Harlot and Tetsugyuu step back while Krampus gets up from his restraints.

Li Chou snorts and says you’ll have to fight on through when things are chaotic, then asks if it’s the same for the villains. He says forcing your own wishes through won’t get anywhere and cause your other paths to disappear. Li also declares that hurting and threatening people are things to be done on Halloween either.

Li Chou tells them to keep their tricks in check or else he’ll have to show his own tricks. And by that he means he’ll listen to them, promising to accept them without laughing. Tetsugyuu thinks of him as being mouthy but says nothing Li can say could heal his mental scars.

Harlot agrees saying she wants to laugh with the children, but her hands are already dyed in blood. She says that so long as there are people who will fear her upon seeing them, she’ll never be able to embrace children with those hands.

Krampus sympathizes but says no night never ends and that there’s no sense in wrapping yourself in the darkness. Even if the world fears and judges them, he says only they can decide their inner characters. Krampus then says he’s going to render judgment on their self-contempt.

You say you’ll help take back Halloween so that anyone can be happy. You quickly look at everyone’s eyes, and they give a little nod. Then you, Li Chou, and Krampus start the episode battle. More story comes afterward.

For the first time in a long while the story picks up after the battle is over as Tetsugyuu and Harlot are defeated along with the mobs. The game makes a point of saying that the attacks were strong enough to shred clothes. Tetsugyuu apologizes to Harlot before directing it to his mother for being unable to protect her. Harlot says this is fine. If evil spirits like them are gone, Halloween and the smiles of children should return.

Both of them look up into the starry sky until their eyelids shut. Krampus says he’s reached his judgment and says everyone has heard their pain and suffering. The villains had said that Halloween would be happier without them, but Krampus says what ought to be judged is their fear of showing their pain and sadness to others and their unconscious self-contempt. That is their mistake and crime.

Li Chou sympathizes, saying they suffered but never believed they could get through to anyone, so they howled with their pain. He was much the same. Li tells them that it *will* reach someone if they can properly express themselves. He declares that he himself will charge on ahead with the tiger within, continuing to howl and meeting people with his words.

A few people in the audience call out and ask Krampus to save Halloween, sobbing that the jiangshi aren’t bad kids. You turn to Li Chou and ask if this is an effect of his artifact, but he says he only used it on you three. He figures that means something managed to reach to everyone watching.

Krampus notes that as the will of the jury but brings up that the villains did cause unrest and chaos. He makes his decision and charges them as guilty, but the sentence will be suspended for the night. Everyone looks at Krampus, dumbstruck.

Krampus says that tonight is the fifteenth night of the lunar calendar and the night of the Ghost Festival. And as the Emperor of Absolution he is to absolve the crimes of all spirits. He then changes characters to say that if they cause trouble again he’ll be punishing them as Yama and Black Santa.

You rest with shock at all those traits getting mixed up and/or the Ghost Festival getting mixed in with Halloween. Krampus just goes on to tell all the spirit friends that they should enjoy Halloween night with the living, then adjourns the court with a shout. Light fills the market street, and in the midst of the dazzling shine, people can faintly hear the laughs of those who shouldn’t be visible. To be confined in the epilogue!