Saturday, November 27, 2021

Halloween Police Episode 4 Part 1

In the world there are many walls, many boundaries that separate things from one another. For example, the border between sages and fools, justice and evil, life and death, and sanity and insanity. These borders change with the eras and with the thoughts of the people living in the world. Nothing stays the same forever after all. Even the definition of life and death changes over time. But if these boundaries are created by the people's will, then these boundaries getting destroyed would also be by the people's will. Halloween is the day where many people believe the border between this world and the realm beyond weaken. Their faith becomes power, common knowledge takes form, and the border disappears in practice. As a result, things not of this world come back from the dead. Someone pretending to be human awakens as Something Not Human. Someone pretending to be alive awakens as Something Not Alive. And someone pretending to be mad awakens as Something Else.

Things then tune in at Kioh Police Academy as Tajikarao is working the phone lines answering calls as part of the police's temporary Halloween department. Someone is complaining about whatever, so Tajikarao politely tells them an officer on patrol will be by to see the person shortly. Magami is also on the phones, and he gets a call about a lost child's lost kitten with at least one of the two crying. He's not sure if and how this is a prank, but he says he'll send an officer their way quickly. Daikoku is off to the side sighing about all the calls and comments how they the police can't relax with all the commotion. Hougen is surprised Daikoku is around since he's supposed to be at a meeting, so Daikoku admits he left early. He then says he has something he wants to talk to Hougen about alone and asks for his time.

Daikoku and Hougen move to another room, and Daikoku starts talking about how he's heard things have blown up further than expected. Hougen confirms as such, saying there's been more reports of pranks coming in since yesterday. The phone lines inside the police station are flooded, and other businesses being obstructed has been verified as well. Because of all that, it seems Hougen is the one to decide to make a new department to deal with it all. Daikoku approves of how the officers are working so hard despite also being students for his the public's sake, but he also brings up that Hougen also did something else he hasn't mentioned yet. Hougen compliments Daikoku for being well-informed and quick to hear, and Daikoku jokes he's still not as fast as him.

Hougen tries to move the conversation along instead of bantering, which disappoints Daikoku. Hougen then talks about putting together a Halloween training meeting the other day as part of the counter-Halloween prank strategy for interested parties, through which he's established a special volunteer precautionary team. He's also used his permissions to put one of the students onto the team as a supervisor of sorts. Daikoku notes that the Halloween Police have done a good job of solving a few pranking incidents, but the greater incident is still ongoing with no clear idea of how to stop it. Hougen says he's right, then asks if he knows anything if he's asked to talk to him about it.

Daikoku says he doesn't, but since the skilled Hougen is commanding this group he doesn't see a need to butt in. Having said that, he still feels the need to talk to him about what comes after all this. Daikoku mentions how Halloween is the day where people here pretend to be things not of this world, which he uses to argue that Halloween is a day where it's easy for the people here and those from beyond to intermingle. Daikoku then brings up Touji in an aside, the student who transferred in a month ago. He mentions his oni lineage and how he's using old barrier techniques to seal his blood rage. Hougen cuts in at that point to insist that Touji will be fine and not go on some rampage. He sees through Daikoku's schemes and says Touji won't go crazy so long as he isn't deliberately provoked that way.

Daikoku says of course and reiterates that he's not worried about what you guys are doing. As police superintendent he's looking at things a bit further up than everyone else. While you guys are maintaining order and should be doing so, Daikoku is plotting out what would happen in case that all fails. If the Halloween Police is unable to prevent the public order from turning upside down then he has to prepare for what would come next, and he says Hougen ought to know since he's dallied in tengu sorcery to trick people too.

Scene shifts over to Asakusa in Daito Ward, and this is now Day 3 of the Halloween Police being a thing. Yoyogi was Day 1. Daikanyama and Ueno was Day 2. Today's agenda will be Umamichi Academy in Daito Ward and Toyosu Marine Academy over at Minato. Now a flashback kicks in to the day before to show more of the conversation you guys had with Harlot over at Ueno. She compares the Halloween Police thing you guys are doing to a game, and she says she and the others are doing something interesting too since they want to make Halloween exciting. Harlot laughs about funny tricks and hopes you'll like them too. Aren't the Bad Brats Brigade so cute? They just love her so. Harlot also mentions she and her comrades have scattered around and are helping out. She then flat out tells you they're going to Asakusa next, and she asks you to tell them what you think when things happen there.

The flashback abruptly ends and you wonder aloud about whether Harlot's the mastermind of the incident given what she's saying, but you have your doubts about that. Hotei comes over in his vending machine guise to greet you good morning in robospeak, so you either casually greet Hotei or yell about him doing it again. A has Hotei say it was probably coming, but he's still disappointed by your reaction. B has Hotei happy you're going along with his comedy routine and giving the proper reaction. 

Anyways, Hotei switches back out to normal as he greets you more normally and asks how you are. He jokes about how his status as a ghost is a trending topic and offers to ghostclip through the wall as his next trick, only to be put off when you decline that. You either say it's not that big a deal, point out he's taking this all rather cheerfully, or ask if he's shocked about the ghost thing. A gets an extra bit of Hotei saying he needs to change up his jokes to go with what's up in comedy if he wants to make a life of it, then jokes about how living means something different here because haha ghost.

In any case Arc is glad that Hotei is taking this all better than they thought he would. Hotei puffs his chest out about how a thing like that isn't going to stop him from doing his specialty gag. It hasn't affected his day to day life either, so he hasn't really cared about it much. Plus, no one including him had realized anything about it at first. Ebisu notes Hotei still eats like a normal person, and if he doesn't care about it then it's probably okay for everyone else to leave it be. Alp decides he won't give it another thought then, saying Hotei is who he is whether dead or alive. You are either shocked at how casual people are about this, or you decide it's not that big a deal since there are a lot of ghost Transients around anyway.

Arc says there are a lot of Transients in Tokyo who exist in the same state of being, and it's not a good thing to be overly concerned about their ghost status. Azathoth says Hotei should have gotten a clue earlier and says he totally didn't notice anything was up. You either comment on Arc being with you guys today, ask Alp if it'll be fine for him to leave Ueno alone, or complain about Touji no-showing again. A gets an extra bit of Arc saying they're coming along today and was worried about what would've happened yesterday. Azathoth asks what they're worried about, so she says it's him since she's concerned about her family. B gets a different extra bit of Alp saying he's worried about the main incident and is helping out as part of the Halloween Police. Or at least, that's what Leib advised him to do. Ueno is close by anyways if anything happens, and this is important too so he'll be around.

In any case, Arc comments on Touji being late and how weird that is for a hardass like him. Hotei notes that Touji has been late to the party every time and wonders if he's some natural trouble magnet. Touji comes in around this point in his vampire costume, which Alp immediately fawns over before realizing he's talking about Touji. Touji apologizes for being late, and Hotei, Ebisu, and Alp start stammering a bit before yelling how handsome Touji looks dressed up.

Touji is taken aback by their reaction, and Ebisu says the costume looks great on him. He figured he wouldn't be going in costume, but it's amazing how he went all out on it. Hotei says Touji's look is almost as great as his own, saying it's impressive how he pulled it off. Arc comments on it being a vampire costume in surprise, then says Touji looks good in it. Azathoth compares it to the classic fantasy vampire and says he's like the kind to hold a rose in one hand and scoff. You either compliment Touji's costume, say he looks great, or say you'd be fine with him sucking your blood.

Touji is embarrassed and interprets all the comments as jokes as he explains the thing just happened. A flashback kicks in where Touji asks if it's really okay for him to go on ahead since phone work would generally be the new guy's deal. Tajikarao assures him it's fine and says Hougen told him to go on too. Since there's so much info to deal with, even the fully fledged cops in the station have their hands full resolving things. So on that note, Tajikarao asks Touji to enjoy the festivities in his place get out there and resolve things at the scene.

Touji is touched, then passionately says he'll go sort out the Halloween chaos as he turns to leave. Tajikarao however tells him to wait a moment, asking if he's really going out in his police uniform. Touji is confused by this, so Tajikarao tells him he has to be dressed for the occasion (i.e. festival), and even the teachers have ordered him to get Touji changed. Touji is startled by this but agrees to do so, so Tajikarao signals for a bunch of mob cops to come join in and get Touji into costume. Touji protests that he can change himself, and Magami throws himself into the commotion, saying he wants attention too and is ready to be brushed.

Back to the present, Touji explains that's how he got the vampire costume. He's not really keen on the dress up thing, but he can't bring himself to say anything because of his senpai's seniority. Also they told him to bring back presents, specifically some brand name cakes sold here at Nakamise St. You either comment that the police sound like fun, ask if Touji's actually the bullied kouhai type of character, or call his senpais awful. In A, Touji says they might seem that way, but they're also respectable people he should learn from. In B, Touji gets embarrassed as he denies the idea. In C, Touji denies the accusation, saying he's thankful for them and doesn't hate them. In any case, Hotei suggests walking and talking and asks which way Umamichi is. Arc explains it's down Nakamise St. and behind Asakusa Temple, and the episode part ends as they say there's still some time to take it easy and talk.

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