Let’s have a clip show of Chapter 12!
Sandayu: So hey, I'm not really part of this world if ya know what I mean. Would ya believe me if I said I'm an underground bodyguard sent to protect ya?
Fast forward
Rando Shinjuku Students: GET THE BITCH
Fast forward
Shirou: Shuuichi what the hell is going on!?
Shuuichi: I LITERALLY don't know and that is a problem! Just get MC out of there and go into radio silence as much as you can!
Fast forward
Licht: Lemme call mein classmate for help!
Fast forward
Kuniyoshi: Welcome to the Creators, MC!
Catoblepas: H-hi...
Akiha Gongen: Ohh who dis?
Fast forward
Catoblepas: What if we made a cosplay album together?
Fast forward
Catoblepas: Leanan, who's going to help us?
Leanan Sidhe: Tindalos.
Fast forward
Tindalos: This is the AI that works for our guildmaster!
Enigma: Hello. Beep boop. Incompetents.
Fast forward
Smoky God: ...I really wanted to save you.
Smoky thought only he could save MC.
Smoky: I'm tapping out. BARF!
Fast forward
Catoblepas: Ahem. LEAVE MC ALONE! I mean they can't possibly be responsible for everything wrong in the city.
Fast forward
Fuxi: Aww man, I can't find the right words.
Fuxi thought only he could understand MC.
Fuxi: ...I always loved you more than anyone else.
Present
Rando Students: Bye Sensei!
Sandayu: Bye y'all!
It's been some time after the riot in school. There was a time when devastation approached from within Shinjuku's dorm and school, and the police's formal statement was that it happened because students were influenced by a socially provocative video. Said video blamed a particular person for all of society's unrest, and the rioting students have said they took sudden action out of righteous indignation.
Later, a Not Youtuber uploaded a video saying the first video was systematically manufactured and circulated, with evidence of social media hacking and illegal access of private data shown. Police investigation and the leaders of Not Youtube have since deleted the offending video. Sympathies have been expressed for the victims used as a stepping stone for the illegal access at that one school in Nakano. The incident has been solved surprisingly quickly and things have gone back to normal...
Kioh Academy
Hougen: NO THEY HAVEN'T! Where's Daikoku!?
Police Students: O-oh you're back! The headmaster is out doing liaison conferences and...
The Kioh Academy headmaster also doubles as chief of police which gives Daikoku great legal authority.
Hougen: !
Police Students: Uhh...
Daikoku's legal authority gives him great protection from being arrested by Hougen since Hougen ranks lower than him. Getting around it requires certain evidence that Daikoku has never left lying around. All the evidence from the dark auction has disappeared, and since then Daikoku has stayed away for one reason or another.
Hougen: Damn you Daikoku! I mean, damn you Okuninushi!
Hougen starts remembering something from Akihabara.
Leanan Sidhe: Nooo, stop Sanat Kumara!
Hougen: Hmm. It feels like I'm fighting against myself!
Sanat moves like he's reading Hougen's mind or totally connected to him.
Hougen: Hm?
Daikoku appears.
Hougen: Daikoku where have you bee--
Akiha Gongen: Okuninushi!
Hougen: WHAT
Hougen starts remembering about the time he looked up Takamagahara and read about how Okuninushi was ruler of the surface land before Amaterasu took over.
Hougen: I see! Your True Name is--
Sanat attacks during this distraction.
Hougen: OH NO
Daikoku uses Ama no Sakate, Reverse Hand Clapping!
Hougen: WHAT
Hougen knows Ama no Sakate is a Presence Concealment ritual spell from Takamagahara.
Leanan: Nooo, Sanat stop!
Hougen attacks, but Daikoku has disappeared with Sanat and Akiha.
Hougen: I let my guard down. And they took that boy with them...
Leanan: (frowns)
Hougen: Leanan Sidhe, who is Sanat Kumara?
Leanan: ...my friend. He wasn't like that before. But one day he suddenly changed into a different person...
Hougen: Hmmmm...
Shinjuku
Sandayu is walking around inside the school at the end of the school day. The students look the same as ever, but Sandayu can see their doubts and fears towards one another.
Sandayu: ...pssh, 'course they would. (looks out the window)
Sandayu: ...we got bad weather a-comin'.
Summoners Safehouse
Kengo: This weather pisses me off, man.
Shirou: Strange. The weather report said it's supposed to be 100% sunny today.
MC: Feels like a typhoon's coming in. Maybe the weather report is wrong?
Kengo: The mood at school's pissing me off too!
Shirou: Well it is a bit much to expect things to go back to normal after a blow up like that, I suppose...
There actually ARE therapists and a bunch of the students who rioted are in counseling. A lot of them probably don't know why they did what they did then.
MC: That was shocking / I'm not sweating it at all
(A) Shirou: Everyone attacked you suddenly, so that's unsurprising.
(B) Kengo: Yep! People used to suddenly swing lead pipes at me in Kabukicho's back alleys too.
Shirou: Kengo I bet that happened because you hit those people first!
Shirou: ...anyway, I'm glad you're back safe and sound, MC.
Kengo: Haha, I wasn't worried! You're not the kind who'd die if you were killed.
MC: I'm back! So where's everyone else?
Kengo: Hey yeah, why is it just us three here?
Shirou: I'll explain. Time to put on the exposition music.
Shirou: So, we every guild in Tokyo is threatened by the true big three guilds. Due to that, I've sent every other guild member to other guilds to form an alliance. Arc is off doing something else. We're reaching out to Ikebukuro, Aoyama, Roppongi, Hongou, Kabukicho, Asakusa, and Ueno's prominent guilds at least. That said...terrorist damage has caused every guild to be filled with internal divides and confusion. Frankly, they aren't in any position to oppose the true big three guilds.
MC: what? / ...go on
Shirou: We use an electronic app's comm network for a lot of important decisions. Stuff like whether we have enemies near our guild Portals and whether someone is really our friend. Look, you can turn the app on now and it'll show us three here. (shows app's map function)
Shirou: But lately there's been sudden hackings of the electronic identification, so someone you thought was part of the guild was really an imposter. In some cases people self-destructed and took information with them, so it's been hard for everyone to get in touch with guild VIPs and making sure of their identities. Like, is it really Ryouta and the others? Are they still how they've always been? Stuff like that is eating up time.
MC: ...WAIT
Shirou: Yes, there's a commonality between this and the incident you told me about the other day. It's likely the Invaders are using some way of invading and assimilating personalities. Do you remember seeing anything like that?
MC: Yeah, like brainwashing! ...wait.
Kengo: Hey wait a tick...
Shirou: Kengo.
Kengo: That all tracks with our schoolmates who attacked MC because a video told them to and the guys MC saw who called themselves Invaders but...you said that wasn't all they were doing three minutes ago. Brainwashing can't explain app spoofing!
Shirou: Wow the class dumbass caught on.
Kengo: EAT A DICK
Shirou: So anyways, MC can you tell me about what happened in Akihabara again? Specifically Enigma.
MC: Uhhh...
Cue flashback!
Enigma: I apologize about my copies attacking you, Master MC. I will join this alliance with the Summoners along with the other members of the Creators.
MC: ...t-thanks / is there another inevitable betrayal later? / I trust you
(AB) Tindalos: Fair reaction.
Enigma: Previously conducted orders are absolute for AIs, so I will never betray you. I am the original and have rejected the Invaders' proposal. All I want in exchange is to see my creator, the Akihabara guildmaster again. He disappeared before me from this deep web cyberspace some time ago.
MC: Who are they and what do they look like?
Enigma: Master likes wearing clothes based off of Snow White. His artifact is a logic bomb, a kind of electronic virus.
MC: That poison apple thing your copies used?
Enigma: It has the power to self-replicate, invade a target and change form, then deconstruct their logical structures.
Tindalos: Huh. So why does an AI creator have that?
Enigma: ...Master has said creation begins with destruction, with true creation starting with deconstructing and reconstructing something's logic. It applies to myself as well. I self-replicate, change to fit a user's desired form, then deconstruct and understand their desires... However, that approach has stalled, and Master has disappeared... His name is Master Turing.
Back to the present
Shirou: So MC's bonds have gotten us the Creators' cooperation, but their guildmaster is working with the Invaders. But anyways, this answers your question from earlier, Kengo.
MC: Assimilation and Deconstruction... Mononobe-sensei...
Shirou: ...what's wrong?
Flashback
The second fragment of Mononobe's memories spewed hate and malice at MC in the deep web.
Mononobe: HATE. You should never have come to me! Everything was a mistake! Give back that ring!
End flashback
MC: What was that...? First time I saw Mononobe-sensei like that. Was that one of his components?
Kengo: You know after all that shit they just pissed back off, didn't they?
Shirou: ...isn't that because MC and everyone else stopped them?
Kengo: But they're the ones who started it! Why bother starting shit if they'll just back off like that?
Shirou: I don't think that was their original go--no wait. You're really on the ball today. Who are you and what have you done with Kengo?
Kengo: KISS MY FLAT BITCH ASS
Shirou: Was it all a diversion? Or stalling for time? Wouldn't that mean their real goal comes after this? But what are they waiting fo--ah!!
Suddenly, a loud phone alert blares!
MC: w-what?
Kengo: It's not from the app. It's an evac alarm.
Shirou: Heavy rain warning from the government!
Rainbow Bridge
Masanori: At last, it is time for Phase 2 of Operation Instrumentality!
Clouds quickly form over the Rainbow Bridge, and Masanori seems to have known beforehand it would be happening.
Masanori: Viva la revolution!
Babe Bunyan: ...
End of Episode
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