Narration starts up with some exposition, starting by defining the word "subsystem." In case you don't know, it refers to a smaller system that makes up a part of a bigger system. If you call a world a system, then you could call a subrealm that exists to help achieve the whole world's goal a subsystem. The Dragon Palace is a subsystem of the world of Takamagahara, a paradise surrounded and isolated by the ocean. And in actuality, it is a subrealm created within the world of Takamagahara meant to isolate and store unbearable memories of shame.
Takamagahara is a world where everyone can be seen by the sun (not mentioned here but in Tajikarao's CQ to mean Amaterasu), meaning everyone knows shame and keeps the proper attitude so as to not commit any mistakes. But people are human, and they'll make mistakes regardless. For example, they could lose something they borrowed. When the grief, suffering, and pain of such mistakes become too much to handle, there is a system that will cut off the memory that is the source of these emotions and seal them away. Indeed, Subsystem Dragon Palace is one of the experiments meant to provide relief for intolerable memories. In other words, its existence is meant to fill up one of the many System gaps in Takamagahara, and prolong the System itself. Otohime is described as an artificial celestial maiden made to control and operate the Subsystem, and the center of Dragon Palace as it became known as became enshrined as her palace artifact.
Some of Otohime's servants turn up to report their findings to her as they refer to her as the memory control program. So, a part of the control section of Protocol Tamatebako: External Memory Storage Protocol has been damaged. The surrounding timespace has been confirmed to be thrown into disorder, which they believe may possibly be due an overworld shift as mentioned by the visitors. There is also the possibility that several sealed memories have been released, including the search target Yamasachi. At the moment, the patrol bots are still searching the surrounding area, and the servants say a report will be coming in at any moment.
Otohime starts exclaiming that Yamasachi is...she doesn't finish that sentence but is something what she thought and laments what has happened. The entire palace rumbles as if responding to her emotions, and currently the palace artifact can also be thought of as Otohime's body. Even if a memory's owner had cut it off feeling it was unneeded, there are cases where it may be useful information to someone else. Otohime, and by extension the Dragon Palace continued to expand in an effort to save even more people. And now, the automodding technology of the Dragon Palace has surpassed being merely a part of the main system. Otohime talks about needing to seal the memories away again, just as That Person Wished For. Doing so is her role, the raison d'etre of Otohime of the Dragon Palace.
Title card pops up, and this chapter is called Under Sea, Mountain High.
Camera then tunes back in on your side of things as the party continues on the search for other bug affected areas. Hephaestus phones in to tell you that he's found out that part of the Dragon Palace is copying the information technology from Utopia. The rest of the patterns resemble what's found in Takamagahara. Be that as it may, Hephaestus says there's not much reference material on situations where several Systems get intertwined.
Yamasachi starts talking about how he doesn't know much about Utopia, but he does remember that Takamagahara is the world he was born from. He also mentions feeling like he remembers about hearing of the Dragon Palace before. Hephaestus looks surprised before getting angry for some reason, unnerving Yamasachi for a bit as Hephaestus demands he talk in detail about himself. Hephaestus catches himself at that point and apologizes, but repeats his request in a less harsh manner for any details he can remember about the Dragon Palace. He even begs a little since he needs to keep you safe. You also ask Yamasachi to talk more about himself, ask about him having a brother, and/or ask why he's looking for a fish hook.
Yamasachi says it's not a particularly fun or happy story he'd be telling and all about his embarrassments, but he'll tell you if you're okay with that. He owes you guys after all. Yamasachi then starts talking about how in his homeworld he's a hunter while his brother is a fisherman. He has some confidence in his skills at that, and Yamasachihiko became something of a nickname for him.
Yamasachi specialized in the mountain while his brother specialized in the sea, which people said made for a nice balance. Yamasachi however felt that his brother was far better at fishing than he was. There he'd be running around chasing fish in the river while Umisachi would stick a line out in the ocean and pull up fish after fish. There was a time where he tried to imitate him and used a fishing rod at a spring, but Yamasachi comments that sitting there and waiting didn't suit him.
At some point, Yamasachi started thinking about his brother no matter
what he was doing. He had thoughts like, Umisachi could do it so much
better, so much smarter. He was stuck in his brother's shadow despite
him not being around, feeling the weight oppressive. He tried
desperately to do his best, but it didn't work out. Shennong comments to
himself about the being stuck in someone's shadow bit, and Yamasachi
talks about how it started to hurt to think about his brother as time
passed. Just once, he wanted to see him ashamed. Just once, he wanted to
see the great and mighty Umisachi fail. You ask if he hid his brother's
fishing hook, or you ask if he was jealous and say it's not like you
don't understand that feeling. In A, Yamasachi denies doing that and
says it's not in his nature. In B and C, Yamasachi asks if you also know
the misery in being compared to someone near you. People have told him
that it's an unproductive use of time to think about it, but it's not
something he can just accept like it's nothing.
Tiger Man asks Yamasachi how he went around trying to shame his brother. Yamasachi talks about what he remembers, which was a bet to see who could get more food when they switched their usual tools. Yamasachi challenging his brother was a regular occurence, but this time Umisachi was visibly surprised at this. Still he said yes, took Yamasachi's hunting weapon, and headed up the mountains. Yamasachi thought he'd win so long as Umisachi failed to catch anything. This way he'd show his brother that he was the better one on the mountains.
Before long, Yamasachi started to worry that Umisachi did manage to get something. He worried about it being made explicit that he sucked compared to his brother in both land and sea. So he set off in a boat desperate to catch even one fish, fearing the loss of his niche and worth to his brother. In the end, Umisachi came back empty handed, laughing as he said he couldn't beat Yamasachi in the mountains. Yamasachi didn't come up with anything either, but more importantly...
Algernon speaks up and asks if that was when Yamasachi lost the fishing hook and has been looking for it ever since. Yamasachi said Umisachi told him to look for it, so he stubbornly went on his search for the thing. He had to search the ocean though, so as nonsensical as it was he went off in a ship with no idea where the fish hook fell or drifted away to. Yamasachi gave up partway through, so he went to a blacksmith and asked him to melt down his sword and make a thousand fish hooks out of it. He tried to make it up to his brother that way, but Umisachi didn't accept the replacement. You wonder aloud if the fish hook was irreplaceable, call his brother stubborn, or wonder if it's possible to find the thing.
Shennong comments that he thought Yamasachi was obsessed, but he's rethinking that now that he's heard the story. Shennong then asks if Umisachi was being serious when he told Yamasachi to find the fishing hook because he doesn't think it's easy to find something lost at sea. He starts to bring up how Umisachi had refused to take the replacement hooks Yamasachi had made, but Yamasachi gets offended and asks if Shennong is suggesting Umisachi hated him.
Shennong says he can't say for sure since he never met the guy, but he empathizes with having painful memories of chasing after someone at great effort that went unrewarded. He does say it looks like Yamasachi was trying to prove himself to be better than his brother though, and he asks if following the order of his brother in this circumstance is putting on tons of pressure on him. Yamasachi admits to that, given that Umisachi could see things better than him and did everything better than him. He starts talking about how he thinks his brother would be mad if he lost his fishing hook before seeming to confuse himself. You comment that Yamasachi seems to love or fear his brother.
Yamasachi goes quiet at your remark. Shennong says he really hopes Yamasachi's feelings don't turn into hate. Yamasachi seems confused as he asks what he was just talking about, and Talos steps in at this point apologizing for interrupting the conversation, but he says he's found the next lockdown area. You'll find the way in if you guys keep going the way you're headed, and he asks everyone to get ready. Then he pushes forward into the domain.
Algernon quips on how bizarre and incomprehensible the area inside looks, and narration describes how the view that prompted Algernon to say so certainly looks impossible for somewhere under the sea and is not the Dragon Palace. When the camera tunes in, you ask if you guys are in a forest before you realize it's something else. Yamasachi is the one to say that you guys are on a mountain, and Tiger Man it still physically feels like you guys are underwater, which makes things weird.
Algernon says that if you guys assume this is something similar to an overworld shift, he wonders if it's possible for another overlay to happen at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. He thinks aloud about how there has to be peaks if there are parts of the sea floor that are sunken in, meaning sea trenches or undersea mountains. Then the word mountain sticks out to him as he realizes something. He mentions peeking at some data in his memories about a same grade schoolmate who wouldn't joke about mountains. You say you have an idea who that is, wonder who it could be since you don't, or try to change the subject and suggest looking for people.
Yamasachi gets excited as he thinks his time has finally come and asks you to leave things to him. Shennong comments that he is a mountain specialist and agrees to rely on him. You either agree to let him lead you guys around or comment that your heart is pounding really hard. In A and B, Yamasachi laughs and says to leave it all to him. If everything goes well he says it's okay for you to call him Bro. In C, Yamasachi laughs about how much you're flattering him, then encourages you to think of him as your bro as he handles everything.
Shennong is quiet, and Hephaestus tunes in and orders Talos to be careful since he's feeling weirded out by how excited Yamasachi is being. Talos acknowledges the order and says he'll map the area out just in case. Yamasachi starts leading the way and tells you all to follow him. The rest of the party shrugs before doing so.
About what feels like almost an hour later, Yamasachi loudly yells about not getting what is up with the mountain. To him it looks as if someone had taken a bunch of normal mountains together and then jumbled them together into a Frankenstein mountain. Trying to climb it using common sense for hikers has gotten you guys lost, and Yamasachi has no idea how you guys got there anymore. You comment on the paths being weird, ask in alarm if you guys are lost, or try to calm Yamasachi down as you call him bro.
In A, Yamasachi says he got carried away since there were enough parts that seemed normal enough. He then yells wondering what he should do now and that he should have noticed earlier. In B, Yamasachi tries to say it'll be okay, then asks you to not look so down because he'll get dragged down too. In C, Yamasachi keeps freaking out as he asks you to not look so disappointed with him. He tries to keep it together by telling everyone to not worry and that he gets that the place is a mess. Maybe.
Anyways, Tiger Man suggests that you guys take a break and cool off for now. Trying to force things would just be a waste of energy. Yamasachi winces at that, and Shennong says that if this is the inside of a dream then of course it'd be a mess. A mountain being inside the ocean is that taken to the extreme, and he points out that Yamasachi is a specialist of the mountains instead of the sea. If he doesn't understand what's going on, then he can't help that. And if he did specialize in the mountains and the sea, his brother wouldn't have anything to work with.
Yamasachi asks if Shennong is trying to encourage him or trying to show sympathy. Shennong answers that it's not that; it's just that from listening to him he realizes that he Understands Those Feelings too. Yamasachi starts getting offended at this as he asks what he means, and you either try to tell Yamasachi to calm down, ask Shennong what's going on, or just keep quiet and watch.
Shennong says he also has experience with a great leader losing sight of themselves and getting stuck by their way of living, and he apologizes for the way he said things. Tiger Man expresses some sympathy for Shennong, and Yamasachi decided to apologize for yelling. Yamasachi also decides to make a point about saying he knows mountains better than anyone when a dignified voice interrupts to ask about losing one's path and being stuck by circumstances and about hearing the pained voice of a lost youth.
You ask who's there, say the voice sounds familiar, or say you see what looks like a bird or a plane coming towards you. Talos tells you to be careful since he detects a high speed object incoming as he stands in front of you, and the episode ends with the camera dramatically panning to Sanat Kumara appearing and declaring that he'll show the path to those that are lost.
Oh, that guy.
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