Chapter 10 Episode 7: The Flag Waving on the Battlefield 1

Shennong starts narrating. When numbers increase, so does damage. When quantities increase, so does poison. When it keeps on building and building, eventually it’ll destroy itself. That’s why wars break out, and Shennong states that no world can escape war. This is a fact he knows painfully well, as it is the System of this world.

 

Shennong then starts narrating about Hourai, his home world. A long time ago it was destroyed by a great flood, but it was then created again by two sibling creators who survived. The great mother from that pair created Shennong and everyone else, which then led to lives living in the world to spread.

 

Life grew and grew, and it continued to do so even after the mother had left the world. Shennong and the other successors to the world simply enjoyed it in peace, at least at first. Eventually famine and illness arose. Resources became scarce, and war broke out.

 

Shennong says he still remember the pain of the first time he was starving. He decided that if not for his sake, but for the sake of those important near to him to not endure that suffering, he could do any and all sorts of cruel acts. He thinks anyone else would do the same. It’s why the world was overtaken by war, where things split and the majority destroys the minority. This goes on until life is hopelessly lost, and such is the history of Hourai.

 

Somewhere over there, the sky is breaking again today. The heavenly firey aurora flutters among the clouds, an evil omen of battle breaking out somewhere out there. When that happens Shennong runs to that battlefield, but in the end is unable to save anyone.

 

He clung to the belief in justice that perhaps maybe he could save even one person with his development of medicine and farm techniques. This did nothing to stop the loss of life to illness, hunger, and war. Shennong kept at it using his own body to determine what was poison and medicine, pushing himself to teach people how to better raise crops. And then... Shennong eventually fell, wracked with stomach pain.

 

Scene tunes back to the present with you clutching your own stomach after getting beat on by the giants in the prison squad. They called you over to the back yard under to pretense of combat training to do this to you. Everyone keeps punching you in the gut, and with you outnumbered you fall to the ground. The giants demand that you leave, proclaiming that since you don’t remember anything of the war, none of them will treat you as a friend.

 

Solomon pops up to ask if you’re okay, and you can either call out to him or be silent. In A there’s an extra line with one of the giants wondering why you’re looking into space talking at nothing and thinking you went crazy. Anyways Solomon says you can’t let the giants do this to you, so he suggests using your new power to kick all their asses. He specifically refers to something you learned from Musashi, and your ring glows upon him mentioning this.

 

You start up a flashback about this meeting you had with Musashi, which happened the day after you reunited with Solomon in the old schoolhouse with Furufumi. You took Solomon with you to go back to the Crafters to talk to Musashi, and Musashi comments on you guys looking different now. You just say things happened and turn to Solomon, who agrees.

 

Musashi approves of you two making up, then asks why you guys came to see him. You tell him you were thinking of something he said before. It takes him a moment to realize you mean something he said during your fight with him, and you repeat the bit he said about how “that wasn’t enough.” It was the first time you figured out how to use two Severance powers at once and Musashi still crushed you.

 

Musashi laughs and agrees to tell you what he meant, partly thanks to Shuuichi making a referral. His young man self that he calls a sword devil is also willing to teach you if you pay him a ton of money. Anyways he prompts you to summon two swords like back then. You agree and take a moment to remember you did so by calling out Solomon’s name.

 

Like before, you summon the powers of anti-distance and anti-gravity as your sword and its shadow appear in your hands. Musashi says that what you’re doing now is simply dual wielding, so now he’s going to show you his dual wield style esoterica. He then tells you to keep your eyes peeled, pay attention to how he moves, and keep up with him. If you don’t take it seriously he warns you he can’t guarantee your safety.

 

You copy what Musashi is doing, which starts with you pressing your hands together. You move as if to overlap your ring with its shadow, and then Musashi apparently shows you the actual attack as you are shocked by what happens and say you can’t move. Musashi laughs about your skills being pretty good because you’d be in pieces if you let go too late.

 

Anyways Musashi warns you that this is a second order secret move that you have to save for the very last second when you try using an ultimate move. Flashback ends as Solomon suggests you use your combo move with him that you learned to beat down all the giants.

 

You however feel that it isn’t the right time to be playing that card, and the giants slam you one more time before demanding that you pack up and leave by tomorrow morning. They walk off, leaving Solomon to try to talk you into staying conscious. You try to stand through all the pain, though Solomon freaks out and yells for help. Shennong walks up at this point, and Solomon notices.

 

Scene then shifts to a base in Roppongi. Someone is sleeping, and this turns out to be Hakumen waking up from dreaming about you being in a bad spot. She asks where she is and for some reason acts like she has no idea who she is, but she remembers the latter right away.

 

Xolotl walks over to greet her good morning, commenting that she slept well and that the night before was awful. Hakumen doesn’t remember what happened and is more concerned she isn’t in her room. Then she remembers what happened, which narration says was some tax investigator forcing their way into the casino and taking the whole thing. She escaped by setting off the self-destruct system which blew her somewhere and forced her to run with just the clothes off her back.

 

Hakumen then starts ranting about being accused of tax evasion and hiding assets. She might at least have been hiding some stuff because she notes that whoever came seemed to know where to look, and she mentions that whoever it was was from the Invaders. Xolotl freaks out and tries to get Hakumen to calm down by telling her getting angry detracts from her beauty. Then he offers her some herbal tea.

 

Hakumen takes a few breaths, then says the tea is pretty good. She also mentions that she’s repeatedly dealt with crap this bad before too. She starts talking about her master dealing with this level of stuff too, and Xolotl interprets her to mean you as he says she should be optimistic like you.

 

Hakumen clarifies that she was talking about her first master actually, an evil tough lady she admired. This lady also apparently never showed what she was really like to anyone besides Hakumen. Hakumen says she was called the Great Mother, and that she was really good at hiding her tail. Hakumen always obeyed her and never would have believed she’d be sold out by her at the last second.

 

Hakumen then starts reminding herself that she learned how to live and keep the long view from her old master. She also learned how to be dauntless and to not be afraid of working alone while at her side, and that she’s the proud evilest woman of three countries who was chosen by that woman. If she were like she was then, she’d probably be working her way into the enemy camp and sabotaging the hell out of them with her charms.

 

Hakumen sighs as she wonders when she got so soft, then orders Xolotl to come back out. Xolotl comes back into the room thinking she wants breakfast, so he asks how many eggs she wants. She reflexively answers nine before taking it back and saying she’s about to head out. He’s confused by this, so Hakumen says she’s gonna march right into the Invaders’ home base. She’ll use her charms to get all those louts together, then knock them all out at once. She plans to whip them all into being her pets!

 

Xolotl freaks out at how crazy the plan is and begs her to not leave him alone. Hakumen is surprised by this and says she has a plan for him set up too. He doesn’t understand, so she says it’s at least partly why she got him new eyes.

 

Scene then shifts to your side as you wake up from having passed out and wonder where you are. Shennong notes that you woke up under your own power and mentions that he was thinking of giving you a shot otherwise. Then he laughs it off as a joke and says you don’t need to look so surprised. It takes you a moment to remember who he is, and Shennong jokes about being the army doc who loves shots and everyone. Then he comments on how badly you got beat and says your vitality resembles someone’s.

 

You either protest that you are hurting, say you’re used to things being hard, or say having terrible judgment is your specialty. Shennong clarifies that he was talking more about your mental fortitude than physical. You did just alienate everyone around you, then got ganged up on and stomped to the ground after all. He suggests you’d be cuter if you got depressed by that and understood your lack of power. He says you’re tough again, much different from a lot of people including himself.

 

You either ask Shennong if he helped you or if it was okay if him to help you. He shrugs and says he already helped you, so he suggests you guys talk for a bit since he’s a bit interested in you. In for a penny, in for a pound as they say. And that’s where the episode ends.