Halloween Jiangshi Night Prologue Part 2

Things pick back up over at Daikanyama, no time skip involved. As a reminder the place is packed, and somehow two people have managed to find each other. This turns out to be Ryouta and Behemoth. Ryouta takes a moment to catch his breath from getting through the impromptu mosh pit and asks if Behemoth managed to call Ziz.

Behemoth says he managed to get through a moment ago. Whenever Ziz looks after any lost children she also ends up getting lost herself. Since she doesn’t think she’ll manage to find anyone here, she’s asked Behemoth to tell everyone else she’s heading for Umamichi ahead of them. Ryouta says that sounds like her but feels the two of them don’t have room to talk about others. After all, they’ve gotten separated from the rest of the gang.

Ryouta says he thought it would be easy to find Behemoth with how big he is, but it turns out the crowds are big enough that he can still blend in. To keep from getting separated, Ryouta’s taken to clinging to Behemoth for now. Behemoth then checks the time, then mentions with some distress that line tickets for the special pumpkin pies will be handed out soon.

Ryouta panics a little since the pies are apparently that good. Also the things are first come first serve even with the reserve tickets. He suggests they head over right away, or else they got up early for nothing. As the two of them run, Ryouta apologizes to you and Hanuman for being late and promises to bring presents.

Scene shifts over to Umamichi, specifically to their gym where a stage has been set up. The place is dead empty, aside from one high school girl trying to liven things up by herself. Benten launches into a spiel thanking the (nonexistent) audience for coming to the Viral Dreamers’ concert, wondering which song to go with next and telling people to not rush things since there’s time.

Benten’s says she’ll sing for everyone and starts a cheer before she finally gets fed up with the charade and angrily asks why there’s no one around for a school festival. In her mind, festival equals concert and that is a fact of life. In which case, where the hell is everyone? She then rounds on her manager to demand an explanation since she came at their request.

Gouryou denies being her manager and points out that for all of Benten’s complaints, she still went through three full songs before she started whining. On a different note, Gouryou says he invited her over as a guest, not a guest performer and has never said anything about a festival concert. Then he finally gets around to saying there’s no one around for the festival as it should be abundantly apparent. They’ve went out for places more interesting.

Gouryou makes one last point of saying that Benten’s concert really came out of nowhere. It’s just not normal behavior for a guest to hijack a stage and start singing without communicating with anyone. Benten says she’s lost for words but cops to her concert being impulsive. Then she asks if he managed to call over Typhon, Fenrir, Ifrit, and you. If it’s just her she figured she’d try playing solo.

Gouryou protests that even if she had sent out a group text telling everyone to meet up it’s probably never happen. Plus Daikanyama should be having a idol concert going on at the moment, so everyone went over there. Quick cut to said concert shows Managarm geeking out over Gabriel as per usual.

Benten sighs over the state of affairs but says she might like the Halloween event here if things work out. A huge mess of foreign cultures sounds like a rocking good time. Gouryou says that since the festival exec came from the same world he does, he went and gave them some advice. Benten’s surprised he lifted a finger for this, so Gouryou passes it off as a whim and his dignity as a senpai.

Gouryou looks off into the distance as he starts explaining some things. There’s a certain custom from a certain region in Hourai that comes out as Kizuki in Japanese, which the Halloween festival has been themed after. Benten asks if it means something like month of oni and whether it’s anything like Setsubun.

Gouryou explains that in this case the 鬼 (oni/ki) in 鬼月 (kizuki) takes after the Chinese reading of ghost or spirit. I’m inclined to believe Gouryou’s talking about the Ghost Festival but I’m not actually sure. But anyways he says it’s when the underworld gates open up and the spirits of the dead come back to the world of the living.

Benten makes the comparison to the Obon festival. Gouryou says the custom is more of a summer thing. Also, good spirits aren’t the only ones to come back since spirits of the vengeful or lonely can come back too supposedly. So the custom goes about by preventing the evil deeds by welcoming them and giving them offerings so they’ll go back.

Benten thinks it all sounds fun and seems to understand the idea. Gouryou points out that the idea still didn’t bring anyone over, but maybe spirits would prefer the place to be empty. At that point the PA system turns on as Li Chou picks up, using a lit expression to give thanks before changing it to a more standard one.

Li then says he has a huge announcement to make regarding the opening ceremony for the night festival happening in the gym later. It’s going to be so big you guys you don’t know what you’re missing out on if you don’t make it, thanks edgelord style for the people who do and don’t come. Li then repeats himself and drops the flowery speech patterns for a sec to say bring all your friends dammit.

Benten says the desperation in his voice kind of stung her, though she has no idea what he said. She then processes the gym bit and asks what’s going to happen with her concert. Gouryou then remembers something that he forgot to tell her: the prep for the night festival isn’t done yet, now get out. Benten yells at him to bring that up earlier.

Scene shifts back to your side as Nezha notices something. Hanuman asks if they got some sort of response on their radar, but Nezha says they noticed someone annoying in the same grade around and felt like stamping them out. Or maybe going to see them, they aren’t sure.

Hanuman tells Nezha to stop as an order from senpai, as a festival is supposed to be a time for fun. He then promises that if Nezha doesn’t cause an issue he’ll play any game they want with them for a whole day. Nezha is excited by the idea and says they can probably do that, swearing to win this time.

You comment on the lack of people around. Hanuman is sad about it but says nothing can be done about that, figuring the way Nezha has been greeting people turned them all away. Nezha protests that this is how things usually are anyways, so they’re bored every day with everyone else skipping out. They also point out that Hanuman does so too, which makes him freak out for a sec.

Hanuman tries changing the subject by saying he’ll show you to the gym. It should be about time for people to come over from Daikanyama, so there’s probably going to be a lot of people at the gym. Li Chou should be there too, so he’ll introduce you to him.

As the party walks over, you run into someone you recognize. Tetsugyuu complains about That Tiger Ass and how he doesn’t care about kulchur fests or the stewdint cownsell. Li Chou talked him into sticking around by offering to negotiate with a teacher over Tetsugyuu’s attendance record. Tetsugyuu whines that no one is around anyways and considers sneaking off to Kabukicho when he notices you.

You make a comment about recognizing him and Tetsugyuu happily yells about you as he runs on over. When he reaches you he asks if you came to raid the place. You either express surprise that he’s a student there, deny raiding the place, or say he looks dazzling in his uniform.

Going A, he laughs and says it probably is a surprise since he’s always around Kabukicho. He admits to being dumb so he hates studying, so rather than rot in place he’d rather go outside and knock things over.

Hanuman asks Tetsugyuu about being invited over by Li Chou too and wonders if it has to do with that one thing he doesn’t want to say out loud. Tetsugyuu doesn’t pick up on that and blurts out about the attendance fiddling deal, saying everyone there today is probably there for that. Hanuman yells trying to shut him up and wonders why everyone is such a blabbermouth, then asks if you can pretend you didn’t hear that.

You either comment on how he’s always hanging around Shinjuku, say Shirou would have a conniption if he heard about this, or order him to study hard. Hanuman panics and begs you to not tell Shirou. Nezha is surprised about Hanuman’s reaction as they call him a “nuclear warhead with broken brakes,” then interprets this to mean you’re also a candidate for being the strongest so they ask for a fight.

Anyways Tetsugyuu grumbles about being bored and how no one has the balls to attack the school. Nezha says that probably is because they greeted literally everyone that came by with an ambush since they were told to greet everyone right. Tetsugyuu whines about killstealing and demands that Nezha call him senpai while he’s at it.

Nezha says they do see Tetsugyuu as strong but says they stomped him soundly when they dragged him into a water fight. Tetsugyuu argues he was knocked into the pool and thought he’d actually die. He doesn’t want to go out like that. He then asks what’s up with the cloth wrapped around Nezha, mentioning that when the tip hit the water it shocked him all over his body.

Nezha taunts Tetsugyuu about having a rematch, but Hanuman slips in to put a stop to it. Then he invites Tetsugyuu along to join the fun since you’re here. Since Li Chou said the night festival will be the most amazing thing, Hanuman suggests having a Halloween party in an empty classroom in the meantime. You agree with the idea.

Tetsugyuu shrugs and is willing to go along with it, then asks what this new fangled harouween patty thing is and what goes on at one. Hanuman says the real fun is in dressing up and says he’ll make him change. Tetsugyuu objects, saying it’s a big deal to dress up for another country’s kizuki/Halloween. You however think it’s a great idea and tell Tetsugyuu to take his clothes off, to his shock.

Hanuman says that since they’re at it he’d like for everyone to dress up because that ought to be more fun. Nezha likes the idea and considers dressing up as a tank. Hanuman overrules them feeling they have the wrong idea and that Nezha might actually pull out some firearms. Nezha is mildly disappointed that he won’t let them dress up, but figures it’s okay because the uniform is the cutest.

Tetsugyuu sighs saying he doesn’t care about cuteness and invites you to go bust heads somewhere outside. Hanuman attempts to taunt him about running away from a cuteness contest. Tetsugyuu is baffled about this attempt to pick a fight, but it still drops his guard long enough for Hanuman to strip away all his clothes and run off with them, forcing Tetsugyuu to chase him. You and Nezha follow after them, which leads to what narration calls a violent hide and seek.

Scene shifts to the backstage of the school gym as Li Chou has some jiangshi line up and skips having a roll call. They respond like obedient little kids when he asks if they’re all there, and narration mentions that the jiangshi are Umamichi students in lower grades.

Li Chou is happy about how orderly they all are and asks if they’ve read the bookmark or whatever he passed out earlier. He’s taken aback when no one raises their hand, so one of the mobs say it’s hard to read what’s written. They put it on because Sanat Kumara asked them to, but they don’t actually know what they’re supposed to do.

Li Chou sighs and uses a few expressions to comment on the intelligence gap and the problems it brings. He goes on to say he’ll explain but won’t take any complaints. So anyways he’s gathered the jiangshi to help with the event. They’re the representative living corpses from their home world, so he plans to have them make the party exciting.

One mob complains that the label is mean and calls Li a jerk face since the common term nowadays would be living dead. He’s surprised into apologizing and says he painfully knows what it’s like to be called a monster.

Back to the explanation, Li revises his description and says the jiangshi are there to add some flair to the festival. Camera tunes into the gym for illustrative purposes as Li continues by saying the mobs will hide in the stage. When the festival starts he’ll do some greetings, at which point a smokescreen will go up. That’s their signal to get out there.

Once they do get out there Li will put on a fake evacuation announcement, and the mobs are to scare everyone but not to the point that they’ll be hated. Li will make a signal at the right time for everyone to go back and he’ll then explain what’s really happening. He’s aiming to get attention by having people think the dead really have come back to life at Umamichi.

The mobs are impressed by the plan and Li Chou names it the Umamichi Halloween Jiangshi Night main event. He took the idea from some tv ad about a theme park doing a zombie night, and he’s sure it’ll scare the pants off everyone. If it goes well tons of people will come to the school, which will make it a success and he can realize his great ambition! The mobs applaud again, and Li leads up to a group cheer.

Narration picks up as time skips ahead a bit to the opening ceremony with people filling the gym. Benten expresses some surprise about this and says they should have gotten things started earlier in the day. Gouryou notes that everyone who left during the day came back since that was when the fest here was supposed to start. Plus Daikanyama’s festival ended, and it went on until sunset as a crime prevention measure. Gouryou also mentions that he heard that Li Chou has some sort of trick in mind. Benten figures she might as well see since she’s already there.

Scene shifts to the school hallway as Hanuman has dressed up and says it’s about time to head over. Tetsugyuu has dressed up too, so all the prep is ready. He comes out in a jiangshi costume and grumbles about it, asking you to say something. You either say it looks great, say it looks surprisingly good on him, or say you think he looks like a work of art.

Going A, Tetsugyuu is happy about it and says it’s not all bad then. He still feels a little stupid to dress up as something dead, so you wonder what he thinks Halloween is and start to explain. After a bit he summarizes what he thinks of it, which is a festival with dressing up in costume and hitting up townspeople for candy and stuff. He laughs and thinks it suits him, daring anyone who thinks they won’t be scared to come out.

Nezha thinks that if you want to take what you want, then all that’s left is to go to war. Hanuman knows it’s odd coming from him but asks if you think this will be okay. The PA system turns on as Li asks everyone to head to the gym. Move your asses people!

Hanuman says you guys ought to hurry but takes a moment to tell Nezha to not break any walls or windows on the way. Nezha says they understand and laughs, but zooms off. Tetsugyuu says that as dumb as he is he can tell Nezha didn’t get a thing, then yells at them to wait.

Scene shifts over to the gym as you arrive. Sanat Kumara is around standing with his arms folded watching things. Narration says that at the moment people are just coming over to the place. No one knows what fate lies in store for them, what Halloween terror will soon beset the place.

Li Chou starts addressing everyone and introduces himself. He asks if everyone is enjoying themselves before saying they probably haven’t. Things aren’t going to end like this though, and he says he’ll show everyone one of the school’s seven mysteries. He has no idea what the other six are but never mind that.

Li then pulls out some sort of incense holder that he says is connected to the underworld. He calls it a secret treasure that opens the gate to it and calls it Resurrection Incense. If you use it in front of grave...he decides to demonstrate and tells everyone to keep their eyes peeled.

Li Chou makes a show of calling it a taboo treasure straight from Hourai, then tells the dead of the netherworld to come from the smoke of the incense. A bunch of smoke fills the place which he chokes on for a bit, and he seems surprised by that. Strange smoke rises from a giant earthenware pot on the stage, and the mob silhouettes start appearing at the edge.

Narration says this is when the reckless night starts. The cool music suddenly cuts off as a girl (that looks like Scheheristine) screams for help saying that the dead, the revived dead ones are attacking her. There ends the episode.