Seaside Fashionista Episode 5 Part 2

Things pick up midway through the battle as narration describes it as a beautiful scene with sparks flying like a smith is forging a sword. Every time Amatsumara swings, he exerts pressure with the wind he creates. Arachne, exhausted from battling over several days running, is unable to hold her ground against it or dodge it.

Amatsumara says he can’t hold back since Arachne challenged him, though he figures she wouldn’t want him to do so anyways. Takemaru and Kurogane have withdrawn from the battle earlier and are wiping themselves off as they watch the battle continue. Kurogane wonders how far Amatsumara will take this, especially since Arachne was running ragged before this started. You say you think Arachne can’t be stopped anymore.

Kurogane tries to reassure you that it’ll be okay since Amatsumara is dealing with this. Also, apparently the Crafters include fighting him as part of their workout routines. Takemaru says Amatsumara overdoes it at times but if it comes to it then he’ll step in, so he cheers Arachne to keep it up.

Arachne declares that she won’t lose and that she won’t surrender. She never gave in Back Then either after all, and she won’t stand for losing to people who cannot appreciate the unseen. Amatsumara laughs and says that’s how she should act. In the words of the creators, she should bare her soul and scream.

Narration questions whether it’s Amatsumara or Arachne whose Shadow is being measured. Arachne resists as hard as she can, taking on Amatsumara’s power directly. This is less a exercise on arts and more a clash of wills in a way. Arachne goes on about how she can’t lose while Amatsumara is surprised about her coming at him.

Narration describes Arachne as not using the graceful movements like cloth has, the delicacy of a needle, or the sharpness of scissors. She’s more striking with the force of tempered iron. As Amatsumara’s hammer forges her, Arachne’s needles measure out his limbs.

Arachne continues her ranting about her art and creativity and how she can’t lose, especially as it is her and not someone else adding flair to the Shadows that no one looks at. As she shouts, her pride surfaces. She swears to express and beautify all Shadows, even her own. She can’t stand the idea of there being a Shadow she can’t give form to.

Arachne takes one last swing and finishes up with her measuring. She uses up the remainder of her strength and collapses with a calm smile on her face. You call out to her and catch her before she hits the ground, thankfully. She doesn’t faint outright as she talks a little about how proud and overbearing she is, then fades out in the middle of asking why you still support her.

Amatsumara calls her clumsy, but says she still pushed herself too hard and that she needs to be taken to a hospital right away. He can’t leave his post, and he can’t spare Takemaru or Kurogane either. You however say you’ll take her there yourself or say you’ll work it out somehow.

Amatsumara says it’ll be rough to look after someone by yourself, then hits on an idea so he tries calling for Hephaestus. He walks over asking what’s going on and says he just finished his own work. When he sees you he greets you and says he didn’t come over earlier when he saw you because you were with someone. At that point Hephaestus notices Arachne and recognizes her.

Amatsumara takes it as a sign to skip some explanation and orders him to help you take Arachne to a hospital since he just said he’s done with his work. Hephaestus weakly tries to protest this, but Amatsumara cuts him off and tells him to save it for later. You ask Hephaestus for help, so he gives in and orders Talos to do the transporting.

After a little bit of narration to describe you guys walking to the hospital while Talos carries Arachne, Arachne takes over narration as the music changes as she says that in the beginning, all she did was add charm to the expression of shadows.

Arachne describes Shadows as the things everyone cuts away from themselves, the individuals made unnecessary in a completed world. They are the unconscious, the inefficient, the unsightly, the things everyone pities but looks away from. And she believed that because of those things they held the truth of the world.

Arachne says she started her life as a creator back in her home world. She worked feverishly at her weaving in order to materialize shadows. The ones who first commended her were people with an eye for beauty. They never stopped complimenting her, and they told her she was a genius who knew what true beauty was. Since that day she never once doubted that she was the best weaver in the world.

Arachne goes on to boast that she wouldn’t lose against the one of the top twelve who rules over weaving, ___. They were silly words, though as a Creator she meant them. This all lead to that fated day where she had that weaving contest. Arachne threw herself into it and chose to weave out all the godly scandals the deities were keeping secret. She was convinced they would find it fascinating.

They didn’t of course, so she was absolutely shocked by their rejection of it. At the same time, and yet despite her confidence, she thought ‘of course they wouldn’t accept her.’ She rationalizes it that there was no way the top dogs resting on their laurels could understand her, understand true beauty.

Even so, she wonders why it is she felt unsatisfied. If the world were to laugh at her and not understand her anyway, why does she keep snapping at it? Eventually, she came to a standstill. Everyone’s eyes were on her, and she could see herself reflected in them. Arachne could see her shadow in their eyes, and she describes it as repulsive. She wonders if this is her thoughtlessness and shallowness coming back to haunt her. But still...

Camera tunes in to the attached hospital at Yoyogi Academy University. Mineaki says that Arachne has overworked herself and hasn’t slept enough, then adds that she seems to have a lot of mental strain in particular. He warns that he can’t overlook her going any harder with it.

Mineaki figures that the cause is not just the measuring battles, but using the app during her work as well. He comments on her method of supplementing her superhuman talent with the app’s redo function, then compares it to how a swan swimming on a lake is kicking its feet really hard under the water’s surface. A lot of effort to support her abilities.

You comment on her talent and ability to make an effort and say she’s amazing. You also ask if she’s okay. Mineaki says he’s fine if she decides to leave when she wakes up. Arachne should recover in a few days if she gets enough food and rest. She just can’t keep doing this or else she’ll really hurt herself.

You either lament that she’s done so much already, ask if Mineaki can do anything since there isn’t time for that, or just nod silently. Mineaki talks about how everyone tries so hard and puts effort into reaching their dreams. The students there work as hard as she does, but there’s still times when someone has their dreams fall apart. He asks what you think is needed when that happens.

You say resting up and getting up again to look for the next opportunity. He says that’s correct, so for now Arachne should rest herself. You should too for that matter, since you must be tired from helping her. You say you understand and thank him. He approves but still somehow makes it creepy as he calls you a cute, honest kid.

Mineaki then says he’ll give you a piece of advice about resting and getting up again. He says that to make sure you don’t fail again, you should change the way you look at yourself at least once. Was the opponent you fought so hard to the point of collapsing right? Were they ever ‘someone you should be fighting against?’ Did you even want to fight, or did you really want to do something else?

Mineaki stops there and says to call him if anything comes up again. Hephaestus stands there quietly, so you thank him and Talos for helping. Talos waves it off as following orders while Hephaestus asks you to stop making that face since he says you have no reason to sadden yourself over Arachne.

You either ask Hephaestus if he knows her or ask if they come from the same world. He doesn’t answer right away, then decides to start talking about his time back in Olympus.

Hephaestus says Arachne was known as a genius back there and says she brought down the imperial wrath of the rulers. He doesn’t know the details since he was removed from them. If you want to know you’ll have to ask her, but he does know she was transformed into a spider as a mark of shame for her crime. Then he laughs about there being other ugly trashy geniuses like him too.

You comment on Arachne being a genius too and ask if she and Hephaestus ever had times when they connected. He smiles cynically as he answers by asking if you know there are two kinds of geniuses. The first kind is the trash kind, like him. Those kinds are repelled from the world because they are twisted, distorted, and ugly.

He doesn’t just mean outer appearance wise either, as the way they think is Different from other people. That’s what gets rejected as twisted and ugly, but Hephaestus says that’s all they can be. They just have their deformed talent that outstrips most anyone, so they make others accept them by putting that talent out there for others. They put out their trifling selves, as if to say “I’ll help, so let me stay in the corner.”

Hephaestus explains that those kinds of geniuses never cared about other people to begin with. So long as they can do their own work, the world can burn for all it matters to them.

You ask Hephaestus what the other kind of genius is that he’s talking about. He answers that the other kind is the idiot kind, like Arachne. Those types don’t grasp that they are ‘different’ from other people and are caught up in the belief that their distortion and character is the most beautiful thing in the world. They believe that it’s the world that’s twisted.

Hephaestus feels that what makes the idiot genius a hopeless case is their belief that the world will one day accept them. They feel that they are correct, proper, beautiful, and sensible. It’s everyone else who is wrong they’d say, even if no one ever asked for what they made.

That behavior would of course lead to their rejection by the world, and yet they still hold up their expectations for it. And that’s why she’s an idiot genius (title drop), because she’s hopeless. You either reprimand him for phrasing things that way, deny that she is hopeless, or ask if he’s jealous of her.

Going B, he laughs about how kind you are but says you’re wrong. He says you can say that because of who you are. By which he means that you’ve been freed from the world’s hierarchy. It’s not about whether they’re correct or not, because the world is wrong either way. It’s because that’s not the majority. Geniuses will always be in the minority.

Arachne has woken up around this point, which Hephaestus notices and calls her a terrible person with awful hobbies for eavesdropping. Arachne says she was awake for a little while and asks where she is. You ask about her waking up, tell her it’s a hospital, and ask if she remembers fainting.

Arachne says she saw a dream about the time she was exiled. Hephaestus feels it’s time he leaves then, though he says he’s reluctant to do so. Arachne comments on him being there too, but he snaps at her and tells her not to talk to him. He is after all part of the side that turned her into what she is now.

Arachne concedes the point, but she still thanks him for carrying her over. He awkwardly brushes it off and says he’s leaving. You gently brush his face and thank him for being nice, then say you’ll see him again. He gets upset and asks you to stop, saying it was you who carried her here. He just carried your things before correcting to say it was Talos. He didn’t even do anything. If anything it’s you who’s kind. He still feels like smiling though.

Hephaestus leaves, and the room quiets down. Arachne gets up to check herself and sighs. She apologizes for troubling you and says she feels fine. She then asks if she can go home now since she can’t stay for long. You say you’ll see her back since she might push herself too hard again and ask her to wait until the processing is done. She agrees and thanks you for that, and the episode part ends.