Sunday, July 17, 2022

Chapter 13 Episode 6: Heaven Reversal 3 (Abridged)

One of the worlds connected to Tokyo is a world composed of many subrealms, the World of Oceanic Myths. All civilization is born from the sea, which go on to fall to corruption and end before returning back to the sea. Lumia Kanaloa is one of these subrealms, and its creator is Tangaroa. Tangaroa is said to originally be a great dragon carrying a giant clam on his back. He split the clam to create the heavens and earth, and his flesh and bones gave birth to plants and animals.
On the island, humans prospered happily in the beginning. The dragon who gave up everything besides his name and spirit was celebrated by the human tribes, and the strongest from all of these tribes carried on his name and bone staff. The current Tangaroa is also someone of unparalleled wisdom and courage that everyone praised. When facing off against a foreign invader, he created a link between people who came from yet another world known as Tokyo to settle the incident. He then came to Tokyo with his family to study more for the sake of his home world's future. He was filled with newfound joy...or at least, he was supposed to be.

Present
Tangaroa Inf.: Burn and pillage! HAHAHA!
Optic camo wearing camouflagers spread out through Tokyo to cause chaos.

???: Stop, evildoers!
Kalki to the rescue!

Kalki: I see through your tricks! Noble Phantasm!
Mobs defeated!
Taromaiti: Knight in shining armor coming for the save! Dahaka Stab!
More mobs defeated! Kalki and Taromaiti celebrate for a second when Temujin takes aim...

???: Get down you two!
Shinya counter shoots Temujin's arrow!

Temujin: Impressive. Are you still going to get in our way?
Shinya: Temujin...
Kalki and Taromaiti: Shinya!

More mobs cut Kalki and Taromaiti off from regrouping with Shinya.
Kalki and Taromaiti: !!
Temujin: Why aren't you doing your job, Proxy of Zeus? We have been promised the world's hegemony, so we should burn and pillage everything. Shouldn't you do your role in Zeus's place since he can't come to Tokyo?
Shinya: ...I am a native human born and raised here, so I will protect this city. I will not play along with this game.
Temujin: Ha. But you cannot escape your role it seems. Yours makes you form connections with everyone the way Zeus did. All will love you and seek you, and that's why you don't have a happy family anymore.
Shinya: ...!
Temujin: You have power, and the world permits you to trample upon the weak. You have no other way to enjoy your life!
Shinya: ...but I still can't forget my happy memories of my earlier life.
Shinya thinks about the memories of innocent times that can never come back.

Shinya: Those memories support me. I will never give up!
Temujin: Have you heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Somebody from Eden said that. You know the order is reversed, right? Everything started from the tragedies held by all the World Representatives gathered here in Tokyo.
Temujin thinks of his old friend from Xanadu and grinds his teeth about happier times.

Temujin: Yes, the summoning trigger for all us Transients was tragedy. That was why we sought our past happiness, the trophy. You should know Shinya. Things did not start with happiness in the beginning. It started from the tragedy of endings. The difference between the happiness that highlights the tragedies is necessary for this game!

Rainbow Bridge
Tangaroa is firing Main Plot Beams from his writhing tentacles!

MC: WHAT
Gogo flashback! Canaan flashback!

MC: I remember, Tangaroa!
Tangaroa Inf.: HAHAHA! That's me, creator of Lumia Kanaloa! And now I'm the World Representative of the World of Oceanic Myths! Burn and pillage!
MC: Why do you look like that!?
Tangaroa Inf.: MINIONS!
Shadows start appearing behind Tangaroa Inf.

MC: Who? ...wait!
Tangaroa Inf.: These are the Shadows of the humiliated Wakan Tanka has no reason to know! The memories of my formerly pure family who came with me to this hive of corruption!
Shadow Mobs: I wAnNa Go hOmE!!

Tangaroa Inf.: That primal desire to return is my faith and power! Return it all to the sea, Devilfish of Ancient Times!
Tangaroa Inf. parts the nearby sea and sends all the tentacles at MC!

MC: OH NO
Wakan Tanka Inf. defends MC with a gale!

MC: !?
Tangaroa Inf.: Stop getting in the way or I'll drag you into corruption too!
Wakan Inf.: Leave. No one may approach me.
Rain and thunder fight against whirlpools and tentacles. Nobody present is safe.

Tangaroa Inf.: I will drag everything to the bottom of the sea even if I am defeated! HAHA!
A loud scream arises as another attack is thrown at MC. Nothing will survive...unless the miracle of resurrection is there.
MC: I gotta hide! (runs behind Wakan)
Crow: (stares in bird)
BATTLE START (more happens later)

There are many worlds connected to Tokyo, like Eden, Gehenna, or their prototype Garothman. In these worlds is a System of faith and System of the end, the Last Judgment. That belief says that when the end of times arrives, angels will soak the world in tears of blood and sorrow. All sins committed in the land will then be judged, and people will be sent to either heaven or hell.
This world's end is awaiting the inescapable Last Judgment. No crime, no evil will be overlooked. And so Eden's faith decrees that all live just lives serving it. The selected ending starts the reversal of thoughts. This is the System that first has the ending be defined, then works backwards to determine the past and present.

Aoyama
Boy A: I'm scared!
Shibuya is also under attack!
Azazel: It's okay children we will protect you.
Azazel looks around. Barely any angels are left because of the true big three guild shenanigans.

Azazel: So all we have left are fallen angels like me and people with nowhere else to go...
Mobs break into the church and threaten everyone.
Mobs: Don't resist. Get outside.
Azazel: Please wait, there's an emergency evac--
A mob shoots the ceiling!
Azazel: !!
Mob: I said get out.
Azazel: ... (grasps his binding chains)
Azazel: (...I see. Their goal must be exposing everyone to that rain. Maybe I could do something if my true power weren't sealed by this chain...)
Azazel's true form has seven snake heads and fourteen wings and can totally stomp all the mobs, but it's bound by the chains on him. They are shining, which means their original owner is in Tokyo now.

Azazel: (So you are here, Israfil...)

Aoyama Cemetery
Maria: Zabaniya why
Jacob: (stands in front of Maria) Maria, you must not let what you see mislead you. The memories in my hands tell me the one in front of us is Israfil. He is the angel of Eden who comes at the end of the world, the Last Judgment!
Israfil: Yep, that's me. I am a sad, sad angel who only feels the joy of living when people die! Haha!
The Thing wearing Zabaniya's Shadow and calls himself Israfil smiles suspiciously!

Israfil: A pretender savior appears on the earth to start various wars and calamity.
Israfil is singing while making his rain fall???
Israfil: The Lord's tears of blood become rain that falls on the sins of man. Isn't is just so SAD? Hahaha!

Jacob: Israfil do you look the way you do because of this rain?
Israfil: Yes, we are fated to move towards one ending, just like how Zabaniya and I have fused. Nothing can be hidden. All sins will be brought to the light. That is the one path to the lord, and this rain of blessings will wash all sins away and connect all life into one being through Instrumentality!
The rain and wind is getting stronger!
Maria: Holy Nails of Stigmata!
Maria grows her vines with her blood to make them into a bigger shelter for her and Jacob!

Israfil: What sad resistance you put up, false messiah. You think to protect everyone in Tokyo? You don't have THAT much blood.
Maria: ...so you know how my artifact works because you have Zabaniya's memories?
Israfil: I said we fused two minutes ago. Your artifact atones for life through blood.
Maria's artifact can heal by sharing pain and spilling her own blood.
Israfil: You think your blood alone can pay for everyone's sins?
Maria: ...
Maria grabs the vine harder as she looks Israfil in the eye.

Maria: No, this isn't a waste. And I am not alone.

Maria thinks of the Missionaries, Ryouta, and MC.
Maria: Even if I don't share the pain, or understand people, or separate to my own way, we have all chosen our own paths. Maybe all I am is a girl who cries and bleeds for others.
Maria thinks of Ryouta and MC again.
Maria: But there are people who will accept the blood and tears I shed. There are people who will cut the threads of tragedy that bind me with their strength.
Everyone does their best flailing around on their chosen path.

Maria: People can choose their own paths no matter how foolish or dangerous they may be, just like the man who carried the cross on his back up the hill of Golgotha.
Maria thinks about how that man she has no relation to passed down her name and choices to her. She was supposed to die a nobody, but he gave her another path. What is that if not love? So she chose to pick up after him and spill her blood after him. It hurts, but it was her choice.
Maria: Israfil, you say? Maybe things will go the way you said they will in the end. Maybe it all ends the same way. But what meaning is there in a path forced on us?
Maria believes the ability to choose is the meaning of life, and the ability to choose is love. She will never stray from this path because doing so would deny the things that one man left her.

Maria: ...I will not repeat myself on this. Please give back Zabaniya's body this instant. We will all choose our own paths!
Jacob: Well said, Maria! Blind Man's Punch!
Israfil: !!

Aoyama
The mobs are taken down!

Azazel: Who...?
Motosumi: You kids alright? We're from the Asakusa guild, and the guildmaster sent us to help! We'll pay you guys back for the help you gave us on the Asakusa-Katsushika Shibamata problem!
Hanuman: Hi I'm back! Did we just make it!?
Aoyama Cemetery
Jacob: Maria, a message from the Portal. Hanuman has brought reinforcements from Asakusa!
Maria: Hanuman! Ryouta!

Rainbow Bridge
MC is getting blown around by the storm!

Tangaroa Inf.: FUCK YOU ALL
Tangaroa Inf. manages to break Wakan Tanka Inf.'s guard for a moment!

MC: OH NO (blown into the sky)
Tangaroa Inf.: This water is the blood of my family! You start remembering! YOU start remembering! EVERYBODY START REMEMBERING!
MC: OH NO!
Ryouta: I am here to help! Blessings of the Grail!

Ryouta sucks all the memories into his Grail!
MC: Ryouta! Oh my god, thanks!
Ryouta: Hehe, leave it to me!
MC: How'd you know I was here? The phones were down.
Ryouta: Yeah that was a huge surprise when I found out! But I figured you were in trouble, so I asked the thunder of Taishakuten where you were! Neat, huh? He said something about some sort of mixed human was walking around at Rainbow Bridge, I don't get what he meant by that. Also the Asakusa guild is helping us! Conditionally, but still! ...where's Shirou and Kengo?
MC: Well...

One explanation later
Ryouta: Oh...sorry I wasn't there for you earlier. But I'm here now so you won't have to suffer alone! They're totally gonna be okay!
MC: ...thanks. (hug)
Ryouta: Tee hee.
Ryouta: Oh yeah, Taishakuten's Thunder from Katsushika told me something.
A message from the Transient said to be the bearer of the same power of thunderstorms in another world.
Ryouta: This rain isn't natural. Every drop has someone's memories in it. And if that's true, there's someone's power to assimilate these memories with whoever they hit added to it too.
MC: Interesting, even though I should have figured this part out already!
Flashback
Kengo: I SAID SOMETHING WAS CREEPING INTO ME DAMMIT
Present
MC: So are they stuck now!? / No wait it's too early to give up!
(AB) Ryouta: Wait wait, there's still more!
(C) Ryouta: ...yeah, but there's still more. 

Ryouta: The thunder god said that there has to be an opposing power to that fusion power.
MC: What?
Taishakuten's Thunder God said that no power in Tokyo is invincible. If someone has the spear that pierces any shield, there will be a shield that will block all spears. In one world, the thunder god Indra is seen as invincible, but the wind god Vayu exists to check him. In present laws, there are rights meant to prevent the abuse of other rights. Here in Tokyo, nothing is ever invincible. Every power holds a contradiction with the world. If this rain has the power to force a fusion of memories, then there must be a power to force a separation of memories somewhere too. The App does not subject memories to a reversion, but if there is a way to attach them, there must be its opposite as well.
MC: So, we can fix Shirou and Kengo and everyone else if we find it?
Ryouta: I-I guess? I dunno how much of it to believe. The guy kept jumping around on topics, stuff like "why am I alone" and "what the hell is Shibamata Taishakuten" and "bring that opposite to me!" I don't get him. But I did talk him into agreeing to help!
MC: Great!
Ryouta: ...oh no, look!
MC: WHAT
Wakan Tanka Inf. and Tangaroa Inf. are clashing!

Wakan Inf.: I shall return everything to one. Wash everything away, o storms!
Tangaroa Inf.: I will drag everything from the heavens and on to the sea!
Ryouta: MC, get behind m--

Later
Ryouta: MC, wake up!
MC: ...ngh. What happened?
Ryouta: I-I dunno. We were just lying here when I woke up.
Wakan Tanka Inf. and Tangaroa Inf. are not around. Tokyo is flooded

Ryouta: Haven't we seen this before? Y'know, in Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Aoyama, and Roppongi!
Turing: Greetings, Summoners Guildmaster! Yes, this is an Exception Domain!
MC: WHOMST / uhh... / wait are you--
Turing: Oh did Enigma not tell you about me? I'm Turing, the Akihabara Creators guildmaster. You really took care of Enigma in the Deep Web, didn't you? Oh I didn't mean that in the sarcastic way! But yes, the Invaders are also trying to weaponize an Exception. This Exception Domain was just going to happen, so don't feel like it's your fault or anything. That aside, are you looking for those two chaps?
MC: Oh no, Shirou and Kengo are sinking into the water!

Turing: Don't worry fellows, they aren't going to drown. And that's not just water, it's the Reversal of Time or the information pool of Reverse Causality. Quantum entanglement! Superposition of physics! ...oh this is flying over your head, isn't it. Dumbed down version: they're getting assimilated into that thing. That doesn't sound any better, does it.
MC: Shut it limey! / Are they okay? / ...what is your deal?
(A) Turing: Now now, let's keep it light and jocular like British gentlemen! They're okay! ...for the moment...conditionally.

Turing: If you want, I can explain what's happening to them with my artifact. I'm sure it can do PowerPoint presentations! Oh wait, lemme rephrase that into something easier to understand: I can guarantee their safety. My artifact is originally meant to decode information, though people who don't understand called it a virus. Just calm down and listen. I was asked by him to guide you two.
Ryouta: Him? ...who? And why are you really here?
Turing: I'm the Invaders Guildmaster's witness. Or something. What you see right now is the missing link between the beginning and the end. Further ahead is the memories of the decisive battle in this Catastrophic Loop. There's someone waiting for you at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, along with the deepest truth no one else has seen. You want to know what happened in between the tragic future and the happy past, don't you?
MC: Hmm...
Turing: Scared of finding out the mysteries of the world? There's no shame in that! It's frightening to have an inescapable answer thrown at you...after all, you might find out that those happy past memories could be a grave sin.
Ryouta: MC...

MC: ...I'm not afraid. Okay I AM, but I'm not alone. Right Ryouta?
Turing: surprisedpikachu.jpg
Ryouta: !! R-right! It'll be fine, because I'm here too!
Panorama of all revealed Exceptions to date.

MC: It didn't matter where we were. We got through every crisis working together with everyone...
Everyone has made their way through these incidents borrowing someone's strength. It was never easy, and it'll probably be the same way this time as well.
MC: I'll do what I can this time too. Everyone is fighting, so we'll figure something out.
Turing: Wow you can say all that with a straight face? You'd deny nothing and say that with innocent eyes that would try to save everything? No I'm not sarcastically mocking you. I want to thank you, truly! It's a complicated problem even the geniuses had split their interpretations three ways and...I really do sound sarcastic here don't I. But still, I suppose you'd never have gotten this far if you weren't like that. I have no problems with complimenting your efforts so far.
The water's surface opens up like something out of myths and the restoration of a sunken supercontinent.
Turing: The deepest part of Tokyo is where the undersea cable network and the Invaders guildmaster is. It is also where the Hero Exception, the Invaders' ultimate weapon, is. No time like the present to get going!
End of Episode, to be continued in the Main Chapter sections!

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