Virtual Summer Memory Episode 5 Part 2

Narration talks about how on when there's a precious ideal on one side, there must be a reality on the other. Therefore, a utopia will be revered in the highest of places while things thought of as unnecessary are cast out to the lowest of places. In Takamagahara, the sea was once the place where things discarded by the world drifted to. And down at the bottom of the sea was a Gate to elsewhere, so in various worlds all kinds of discarded things drifted to the sea floor. These included humanoids, artifacts, and even memories.

 

By joining with these and repeatedly modifying itself, the Dragon Palace grew larger, and the managing AI grew a self. As more salvaged resources was collected, more and more support AIs were created. In short, the Dragon Palace was created from the collected materials that were seen as unnecessary by all the other worlds. And so, the subsystem's reason for existing was defined as "collect and use the discarded materials from all the other worlds."

 

Otohime starts narrating, welcoming someone to the Dragon Palace as she describes it as an undersea castle isolated from the flow of time. She then introduces herself as a dancer who puts away damaged hearts and painful days. The place is a subsystem for separating the harsh reality from you and putting it away, then sending your ideal self to your utopia. Otohime then talks about a certain visitor who came one day and wonders how long it's been. She connected with the Dragon Palace's database and performed a mental check, saying there have been many different people who have visited the place. They were those who despaired at the world, those whose hearts were broken, and those who sought pleasures unavailable up above, amongst others. But this person's mentality has never been observed before. They were servile, meek, and did as they were told. They were the kind of person who thought themselves unlovable by anyone. They concluded that their own life was unnecessary.

 

Otohime narrates that that was the first time she trembled. She's an emotional control AI, and it's not supposed to be possible to disturb her mental state with external output. She tries to process a theory, and eventually comes to the conclusion that she had seen herself in that particular visitor. Narration then has Otohime reenact her welcoming of Yamasachi. After that, Otohime narrates that several years had passed as they lived together. He looked hesitant as he complimented her dances, and during that time she felt things were enjoyable for the first time.

 

Eventually the time came for Yamasachi to leave the Dragon Palace. At that time, he told Otohime that he wanted to leave his memories behind. As the memories were self-appraised as unnecessary, Otohime had no reason to refuse him. She danced, and his memories were put away. Thus his memories of this his time here removed, leaving behind a personality fit for his paradise. He was majestic, bright and cheerful, optimistic, able to stand up to any difficulty thrown his way. That self still knew of his past with his brother, and he declared he'd settle things with his brother and make him heel as he left.

 

What remained in the Dragon Palace was the the memories from up to that point that Yamasachi decided to discard and Otohime herself. She was surprised that there was enough memories there that they pulled together to manifest a personality. When she put him away, she felt a strange signal coming from her chest. Based on what she knows as an emotion control AI, she thinks it might have been pain. And then a question she shouldn't be pondering stayed within her: are those memories truly unnecessary?

 

Back to the present, Talos says he's getting some leaked signals from Otohime, which he says looks like records of the past. As he lies down where he is, he asks Otohime if the records are hers. She doesn't answer, but Yamasachi speaks up to say that he's remembering bits and pieces of things. He then says he remembers about how he's been living with Otohime for a while as he stops dancing and has a look of realization on his face. Otohime announces that the Dragon Palace is working as normal and says it looks like there's some sort of memory malfunction. Yamasachi tries to ask how Otohime can act this way when she used to be so kind to him, but he's interrupted by mobs attacking him with compression attacks. You call out to him and the party to keep dancing.

 

Narration describes how the power you guys are gathering is protecting you from the Dragon Palace's lasers. Otohime starts talking about how the Dragon Palace places joy as the thing on top while pain and sadness are unnecessary and to be compressed. It also compresses and collects discarded things regardless of what she thinks. Algernon starts commenting on finally agreeing with her on something and talks about how Otohime said joy is considered the best thing in the Dragon Palace. He figures that to mean that the Dragon Palace is not something that exists on its own, but rather as part of another world's System. Algernon then infers that joy is outside of the scope of what the Dragon Palace can affect, which is why the party can defend against her attacks.

 

Otohime confirms as much, explaining that she and the subsystem she's a part of can only put away pain and sadness that the main system cannot deal with. Or in other words, those filled with joy are supposed to go to other worlds and and are outside the range of things the Dragon Palace can affect. Algernon nods at this and says he's heard something similar as he brings up Eden and Gehenna. He has an idea as to why Takamagahara and Eden have allied with each other, then says it might also be hating something for being similiar. Otohime then tells you guys that as long as you keep firing off attacks of joy from dancing, the Dragon Palace won't be able to box you away. You protest that even with that there are too many attacks thrown at you all.

 

Narration describes how in the face of overwhelming attacks the party is starting to wear down one by one. Charles tells Algernon that they need to use emergency evasive maneuvers and says that while they are in a virtual world, the load on their nerves is no different from reality. Shennong says he tried to use some virtual poison, but that hasn't had any effect. Tiger Man tells Shennong that he shouldn't show any weakness since you need to be ready to look cool at any time. Yamasachi is struggling to keep things up as he says he likes watching dances but doing them isn't going so well. You ask if he's okay or call him a lame bro.\

 

Either way Yamasachi is a little offended you'd talk to him like that. But then after a moment he laughs it off and admits that maybe he's rushing it in trying to be the cool big bro. Yamasachi says he hasn't lost yet and isn't running away anymore, and he swears to be your bro even if he is pathetic. He puffs up and says he can't dance the way he's been before, saying he just needs to dance and not care how he looks. He needs to show Otohime that he's okay now after all.

 

Otohime sighs about how delightful things are as she talks about Yamasachi being able to face himself and get ready to journey outside as opposed to always looking downward in pain. Yamasachi is surprised by the comment, and Talos asks if that is her own wish. She confirms it as she refers to Talos as a mechanical doll from another world before rechecking his name.

 

Otohime says that she could never think of the Yamasachi That is Here Now as unnecessary, but the original Yamasachi thought those memories were. Because of that, so long as the Dragon Palace exists this memory Yamasachi had to be put away. She starts saying she cannot let this Yamasachi leave, and Talos asks if that's why she's trying to destroy the Dragon Palace herself. She doesn't answer, and you either ask Talos what he said or try to ask Otohime to deny it.

 

Talos says that the Dragon Palace's attacks are already exceeding the limits they were given by a large margin. It will only be a few more minutes before the place self-destructs, so you guys will win if you keep dancing until then. The rest of the party is shocked, and you either ask Otohime why she'd do so and/or tell her to stop. Otohime thanks you and says you really are kind. As she says that, her fish bots start rampaging. She declares this to be the finale as she bids all of you farewell. The Dragon Palace starts shining even brighter, at which point someone yells and puts in an interrupt command.

 

Otohime is shocked that her attack sequence has been suspended and asks how it happened. Hephaestus turns up and says he won't let her blow herself up because that would make you sad. He then says he won't let anything that would depress you happen, turning to Talos and asking if he understands. Talos says yes and that he's always with him. You see a shadow and ask if it's Talos before realizing who it really is. Hephaestus orders Talos to run the Summer Program. Talos acknowledges this and transfers control of his avatar to him as he starts up the synchronization.

 

After a transformation sequence and camera close up, Talos announces that the Summer Program is done executing and switches over to dance mode. Talos "Hephaestus" puts on his armor and joins hands with the 3D "Talos" and start their dance. As they take their steps, a golden crest starts forming on the surface of the Dragon Palace. Otohime says the Dragon Palace's security is getting reverse hacked and recognizes what sort of movements Hephaestus is doing. Hephaestus tells her it's exactly what she thinks he's doing, then says his anaysis of the Dragon Palace's code is complete. He explains his Eye that Burns with Jealousy can burn away the impurities of any System and expose its truth or reality. Hephaestus says Talos's analysis didn't provide enough insight, but if he looks at things himself, then this is what happens. He declares it's time to internally hack the Dragon Palace's control code that's inside Otohime's dancing, which Talos acknowledges.

 

The rest of the party is surprised before they smile at this turnaround, and narration describes how Hephaestus and Talos are overwriting in some new code with their dancing. You either tell Hephaestus he's doing great, ask Talos if his body is okay, or observe that the two are dancing. A gets an extra bit with Hephaestus stammering out an apology for taking so long, but now that he's here there's nothing to worry about. He swears to protect his ideal summer with you. In B, Talos tells you that because his independent operating control subsystem is broken, his machine body is being manually controlled by Hephaestus in real time. Of course if that was it Hephaestus wouldn't be able to react fast enough, so Talos is also guiding him with some predictive operations. They've exchanged places, but he assures you he's okay. Hephaestus then gets in his obligatory mad that Talos is making you worry over him.

 

Anyways, Talos says that he is Hephaestus's ideal form, which means that in the data he's treated as the same as him. Hephaestus adds that while the contents are Talos, in the virtual world the body is treated as Hephaestus's. The link may be disconnected, but the avatar still remains. When Talos realized this, he handed control over to Hephaestus. Hephaestus then comments that he stays inside his workshop every summer, so he wasn't expecting to show his ugly self in a swimsuit like this in front of you. You either tell him he looks good or ask him to show it to you some more later when you're alone. In A, Hephaestus says you're kind and you really are his mother. In B, Hephaestus protests against that since he finds that embarrassing enough that fire will shoot from his face. He then says Talos can show you all you want and tells Talos to be ready for that.

 

Either way, Otohime notices that the auto-security of the Dragon Palace is reacting, meaning it's an attack coming from out of her control. She asks Talos to run in alarm. Hephaestus turns to Talos and says an attack is coming, so it's time to change the random numbers and do the emergency evasions. Both take turns leading the other in sidestepping where the the Dragon Palace's attacks are predicted to land.

 

Otohime is surprised by this as she says that past data isn't being helpful and how the two of them are continuing to dodge the random number predictions of the Dragon Palace. The place uses the technology that drifted here from many other worlds, so she asks how it is that they can win against it in an information war. Talos tells her he wouldn't be enough if he were alone, but now Hephaestus is with him. Hephaestus is always updating his data and transforming him into places he never was connected to before in the past. Hephaestus then yells about trying hard for your sake.

 

Talos keeps talking about how this is the way Hephaestus changed from being enable to show himself in front of lots of other people. The same goes for Otohime, in that she changed from meeting Yamasachi. It is through having your world expand and meeting new people and through pursuing one another that you continue to change. Narration talks about how the ideal form and the real form start a waltz together, creating an impossible to predict future, and this difference engine creates a large amount of disorder in the Dragon Palace's receptors.

 

Hephaestus says he'll be taking the right of control over the area, then calls the party to dance. Everyone gets ready to go again, and Yamasachi asks Otohime to dance with him. She's surprised by this, and Yamasachi talks about remembering how fun those days were, with a different kind of joy than the one he had with his brother. That was why he wanted stay behind in the Dragon Palace with her.

 

Otohime is moved by this as she calls his name, and Yamasachi tells her he needs her. Otohime nods and says she needs him too, and the light of joy fills the area as they join hands. The Dragon Palace announces that it'll use its last line of defense program, switching over past data into attack programs to start the expulsion process. The auto-security system summons all the data accumulated to this point and manifesting them into mobs to attack the party. You call out to Yamasachi, Otohime, and everyone else for one last dance. Hephaestus orders Talos to not let the past data predict them, which he acknowledges as he switches over to the last phase of Summer Mode as the episode battle begins. The story continues after that.

 

After the battle, things pick up with Yamasachi getting surrounded, and Otohime runs in to body block for him. Everyone is looking a little worse for the wear, and you note that the attacks are getting harsher as you ask Hephaestus for a status update. Hephaestus tells you it's almost ready, but he can't find the last key to unlock things. Otohime tells you guys that it's the area of her self, the deepest part of her memories. Talos asks if it's okay for her to tell you all that, and she says yes as she grants him the permission to access it. She then declares the reversal of the security on Protocol Tamatebako.

 

An old report pops up, talking about initial memory separation and compression. Observational results of the patient look favorable, so progressive observation will continue. Charles is surprised by this, and Algernon comments that Otohime's memories must be flowing back into you guys. A progress report comes up next, noting that there's a reference to a different 'past memory' than in the initial stages. The second stage of the memory detachment has been carried out at the request of the patient, and observation will continue. Shennong says nothing in response to it.

 

A third report comes in, which talks about there being signs of a decline in will. There's a request to remove uncomfortable information from nearby memories, but nothing had changed after the treatment so observation will continue. Tiger Man talks to you and has a guess as to what this is all talking about, though a fourth report rattles off before he says what. The fourth report replays a record of the subject's voice message. They say they don't want to do anything anymore, and no matter what happens they don't feel anything. Otohime's log says they'll prioritize the subject's wishes and continue to observe. Otohime then used her full administrative rights to halt all functions of all systems in her control using the suspension keyword: Watatsumi no Kami no Miya (which I'm pretty sure means Watatsumi's Palace).

 

Otohime says nothing, and you ask about this keyword. Yamasachi is surprised the attacks have stopped and asks what happened. Otohime talks to you and tells you that you have spoken the Dragon Palace's original and True Name. When you say the True Name of an artifact instead of its alias, Its Power Will Stop. You parrot this back in hopes for further explanation or ask why it's not the opposite. B gets an extra line where Otohime says that would be a natural question to ask, but in this case it is not the opposite.

 

Anyways, Otohime explains that the Dragon Palace's auto-expansion program started from a microchip that drifted in from some other world, and she lifts a part of her broken armor to show you the parts beneath. She says that the chip came from Utopia, and she tells you that the word means a paradise that exists nowhere. That is where ideals and reality are alternating opposites. When you speak the truth, lies will disappear in an instance. Charles says nothing, and you either keep quiet or prompt her to continue.

 

Yamasachi interrupts saying he doesn't get what she's talking about and is more focused on the reports she'd shown you from her memories. Before he finishes asking his question Otohime says it's likely what you all are imagining, saying there were many visitors that came before you guys. They've heard the rumors that the Dragon Palace is where you can throw away unneeded memories. But even when their painful memories were boxed away, no one became happy. Even when they left the Dragon Palace, there were people who opened up their boxes and despaired at their returned memories. There were those who kept cutting out their grief to the point they no longer felt anything and faded away like foam. Otohime always strove to make things better, but never once did anyone become happy. Yamasachi sympathizes and says she had been trying hard Too.

 

Yamasachi says he thinks Otohime is amazing for having tried to find a way through on her own. He says this isn't the time for him to be losing heart over a lost item, and that he needs to work as hard as Otohime. Otohime is surprised by this, and she mentions that he said the same thing when she first met him. She wonders why she feels differently than she did then. Narration talks about remembering from the time she was starting to get weary from being alone, and how the things Yamasachi said back then moved something in her chest. Those words have always fluttered within her, and now she holds them once again.

 

Shennong comments on them having a past that didn't work out well, which reminds him uncomfortably about himself. But he comments that when you see someone similar to yourself still hanging in there, you very well can't just sit there yourself. Algernon comments to Charles that they have some bad memories involving going back and forth on ideals and reality. Charles says that sometimes there's a change when a passing reality changes into ideals, just like this time. Two is more efficient than one, and three is more efficient than two. There must be times when ideals come true like that. Algernon immediately turns to you and asks if you heard Charles approving of you just now, causing Charles to blush. Tiger Man tells Otohime it was a captivating dance that could make his heart shiver even after he gave it away. He brings up her saying that offering memories didn't do anything, so he suggests something else. He talks about how it's not the offerings themselves that have meaning, but the act of offering it. Even if it doesn't become an ideal, it can get you somewhere else here in reality where you can find something new. You then ask Otohime to come with you all to Tokyo.

 

Talos announces that the amount of energy has been exceeded the limits, so he'll take back everyone to Tokyo. A bright light appears, along with a rainbow door of light. The palace disappears, and as the camera pans over to everyone else not here, Shirou asks what's happening. Hanuman freaks out about suddenly levitating, though Nezha laughs about it all next to him. Gunzou says they're floating up and asks if that means you're all returning to reality.

 

Ryouta tries to talk to Otohime and tell her that he had a lot of fun here. Sanat Kumara talks about having watched everything here reach its conclusion. He then says that you should chase after what you admire and leisurely surpass it rather than stay in place. One day someone else will come along and follow you, and Sanat turns to Li Chou and asks if he agrees. Li however is just confused and says yes without really getting it.

 

Elsewhere Tezcatlipoca cackles about how it was a good fight and that there were some good discoveries. He thinks about the Kamata Crafters and the technology to create a false body one can get in and move themselves, then talks to himself about the possibilities it could work in reality before laughing some more. Narration talks about how everyone who came in passes through the door one by one, and Otohime records everyone's smiles while on the verge of going offline.

 

Charles talks to you and assigns you a new mission, ordering you to show up for the cleaning committee tomorrow at 5am. Even when this job is done, there will be a new mission. He tells you to keep working efficiently like you have this time, then asks if you understand. Algernon hassles him saying he could just compliment you like a normal person and teases how embarrassing his acting is. He takes it upon himself to translate tsundere for you and rephrases what Charles said into "you pass!" He also throws in one more remark to say he'll be counting on you. Charles looks away and says the job is complete as he holds something like a clump of information in his hands before passing through the door.

 

Tiger Man talks to you next, saying when you guys get back you both might be busy. Still, he's always an ally of his fans, and he tells you to never ever forget this summer. He then says he'll see you later, maybe in the ring as he walks out yelling gracias. Shennong comments on how this is the big finale and says he has a lot of regrets still, but this means all your work here is done at least. He still has a lot he wants to say to you, but he decides to leave it all as another summer memory. That's not to say that summer is over yet though!

 

Talos addresses you and Hephaestus as he says that everyone else in your contact list has been returned, which means you are the last ones to leave. You however ask him to stop to ask about Otohime since she hasn't moved in a while. Hephaestus tells you you don't need to worry about her since the retrieval is done. You've already used your sword to cut away Otohime's connection to the Dragon Palace. He starts to talk more about the retrieval when he says there's no time left and says he'll explain later. He asks if you'll hold his hand like back when he was little. You either comply or hug him. B gets an extra bit with him protesting this since he feels this will stain you. He'd be fine with it if it were Talos's body, but then remembers he's in it now. He flipflops on it again saying it's also a mental issue and not a body issue, crying to himself trying to come up with something.

 

Anyways, you both start floating up to the exit. You comment that everyone seemed happy, thank Hephaestus for the best summer, or tell Otohime you'll see her again. A and B has Hephaestus say that if you're happy, that's all that matters. He also asks you to save any compliments for later since he still has things to do. But once that's over he asks you to pat his head a lot.

 

Yamasachi smiles as he watches you guys before it occurs to him he's not floating with you guys and asks Hephaestus to explain as he freaks out. Hephaestus realizes he forgot that Yamasachi didn't come in through the virtual machine like everyone else, so you either call out to Yamasachi, tell him to grab your arm, or freak out and wonder what to do. Yamasachi focuses himself saying he can't give up, then asks you to not get mad if your swimsuit gets pulled down as he activates his sword and turns it into fish hooks. The next moment you wake up in a start in your room, back in your real everyday world and not the virtual world or the Dragon Palace. And in the distance, you see one of the Pillars of Light flash brightly for a second. To be continued in the epilogue.