Chapter 10 Episode 13: Rules of War 1

Before picking back up with things, the story decides to turn back the clock a bit to show something that happened before you were imprisoned. Over in the central most solitary confinement block in the prison school, Tezcatlipoca is talking with Mononobe. He refers to him as Sensei and seems surprised about the reason Mononobe has to hide himself there, but then corrects this to the reason he is forced to hide himself.

 

Mononobe only nods, and Tezcatlipoca says he was correct to go to him out of all the World Representatives. While their motives and goals are different, they do share in wanting a certain result to happen. Tezcatlipoca then talks about how his Role makes him the exiler and the exile at the same time. Given that, this is how he and Mononobe can find some common ground given that Mononobe is exiled too.

 

Tezcatlipoca agrees that their interests align, so he agrees to hold Mononobe inside the prison school/himself here in the special solitary confinement ward. Mononobe says nothing.

 

Things then move back to the present as Tezcatlipoca cackles, and Jacob asks what’s happening as all of you are restrained by the threads shooting out of Tezcatlipoca’s shadow. Legs seem to sprout from his back, and with the threads coming out, Tezcatlipoca’s silhouette resembles a spider’s.

 

You note this and ask if Tezcatlipoca is really a giant black spider. Tezcatlipoca denies that as he says he doesn’t have a true form or a body anymore, and that his jaguar and spider forms are just phantoms sculpted out of his smoke. He repeats that he’s given up everything about his body, so you have nothing you can cut of his.

 

Narration says this is the reason Tezcatlipoca cannot take a step outside the prison school. This is also the reason he attacked the Crafters despite it being against the rules. Unless he makes them create an artificial body for him to possess, he cannot do anything outside of the school.

 

Anyways you struggle to process this fact he just told you, and Jacob repeats that none of Tezcatlipoca’s body is real. Tezcatlipoca laughs about it saying it’s only natural. If he didn’t make this sacrifice then as the ruler of the prison he wouldn’t be setting the right example for the soldiers there.

 

As Tezcatlipoca proudly talks about how he basically killed himself, Shennong looks at him with disgust that he can’t hide. Tezcatlipoca notices and laughs about this being hatred over commonalities since in the end, Shennong lives on the battlefield too. Shennong is shocked by this statement, and Tezcatlipoca talks about how Shennong has tired of war and is trying to save individuals through agriculture and medicine. Despite that, he’s trapped on the war zone in spirit and acts in self-sacrifice.

 

Tezcatlipoca talks about how anyone who acts in self-sacrifice in any way is like him. He declares that such people can never escape from his faith and from System El Dorado. He laughs again, saying that those like Shennong dance on his palms. Shennong doesn’t have a response as his face darkens, casting his head down as he grinds his teeth.

 

Tezcatlipoca turns back to you and asks if you understand that you can’t end things by cutting at what he doesn’t have. If there is anything that he would call his true form now, it’s the System of the prison school itself as the mirrors pop up to illustrate the point.

 

You parrot this back and ask what he means, so R-19 speaks up to say that he’s done with his analysis of the situation. He’s finished detecting the presence of a comm network through his protocol Plan B, then tells you the mirrors are a kind of info terminal. They have the same kind of practical technology made in Utopia, and he says he’ll project an image from his analysis.

 

R-19 projects a hologram of Tezcatlipoca that looks like a textbook diagram of the nerves and circulatory system. He then voices his conjecture that Tezcatlipoca is a type of information lifeform. You parrot this back in confusion or shock, and A has him give an explanation about how such beings don’t need physical bodies to think. He also says that the mirrors are acting as a logic operation similar to nerves.

 

Either way Tezcatlipoca confirms that, and he mentions that so long as the prison school’s network exists and the soldiers keep viewing each other with fear, he can keep living despite not having a body and being dead. Tezcatlipoca then says that having many people mired in the horrors of wars is how the System supports him. That is the kind of war he wants, one that involves everything.

 

Tezcatlipoca also says that you need to remember what war is like. He then starts commanding his mirror to activate, and he chants about how he represents or shows the endless war of sacrifice. As that is who he is, everyone else is a slave to his System. He casts his NP and commands it to show the layers of history.

 

Tezcatlipoca’s mirror fires off a dark pillar of light, and the smoke filling the room acts as a projector screen. The command room starts becoming an Enclosed Space as everything gets covered in darkness. The memories being played out is compared to a swamp that drags everyone in, and the forgotten memories of war are reawakened.

 

You cough and yell about the smoke and the visions, and narration says this is what Taurus Mask and countless other prisoners have went through. You are unable to move, and you call out to R-19 and Jacob as they apparently disappear. Tezcatlipoca tells you to go see the war memories, and the smoke enters the party.

 

Tezcatlipoca decides to tell you one more thing to get you willing to fight, which is the fact that the teacher that you are looking for is being held in the center of the prison school. You react with shock, and Tezcatlipoca asks if you’re getting motivated before sending you off. He laughs about waiting for your return as the mirror pulls you into itself.

 

Tezcatlipoca then turns to Shennong and says he’ll send him into the war memories too. He asks him to work with you guys and to look after your conditions since it should be easy with his artifact.

 

Shennong is covered by the smoke again, and he addresses Tezcatlipoca by his school title before dropping it for his name as he demands to know what he’s thinking. Tezcatlipoca seems mildly surprised and says this is just acting according to military regulations like Shennong talked about. It’s Shennong’s job as medic to take care of the health of soldiers. He doesn’t respond as he just glares unshakingly before being sent off himself.

 

Scene shifts over to Shirou and Moritaka as Shirou shouts your name in alarm. He watched you get swallowed up by the smoke in real time, so Moritaka asks him what happened. Shirou says he saw the visions within memories and that he’s experienced something like that before. He thinks about things as he remembers what he heard Tezcatlipoca through R-19.

 

Narration (or Shirou I guess) flashes back to the old schoolhouse at the back of Shinjuku Chuo Park Mononobe was in charge of supposedly. With Furufumi’s guidance you guys made frequent investigations of the place. There you found the memories of past loop battles. Tokyo was destroyed repeatedly, whether it be through war, invasions, or political tyranny.

 

You guys only found fragments, but Yog-Sothoth opened the gates of memories to show you the past war zones Tokyo became. Yog-Sothoth told you himself that he was sealed, and nothing you found would be decisive. Despite that, they were genuine memories with pain and death, proof of another time that you’ve forgotten. They were also a warning of what would happen if nothing changed.

 

Moritaka is quiet, and Shirou talks about how in normal app battles, when finished the walls would be taken down and things revert to how they were before. He phrases this as battles with safety features added in. In battles where those aren’t a thing, he says that things inside the zone probably won’t revert even if someone dies so long as the enclosed area isn’t undone.

 

Shirou then makes the point that you threw yourself into danger despite knowing this. You said you wouldn’t let another loop happen, and that you swore that the terrible circumstances would never occur again. Shirou then says he’s resolved himself, believing that you’ll come back safe and sound.

 

Moritaka agrees as he holds up his orb of filial piety. He remembers the day Yatsufusa said that the peace in Tokyo was precious before he died. It was the day he also swore to not let Tokyo be destroyed again. Shirou tells Moritaka they should go do what they can, find the prison school, and help you.

 

As he says that he holds up his phone to look at the message he got from the Outlaws. It says that what remains of the police is cooperating and has told them of another part of Tokyo’s dark side that relates to the prison school. Moritaka agrees, and the two run to Kabukicho. Narration says that Moritaka still hasn’t noticed that his orb is glowing in his chest, as if resonating with something like it.

 

Back to your side, you fall into some monochrome version of Ruined Tokyo. You look around, and you wonder if this is a past loop, though something bothers you. Narration notes that it’s different from what Azathoth has shown you and different from what you saw in the old schoolhouse. It has much more of a sense to realness to it that makes it mistakable for actual reality as soldiers mill around, a power of the network that the traditional World Pillar Tezcatlipoca has. And that’s where the episode ends.