Previous Chapter l Next Chapter-First floor, Entrance.
The place where all the divergences begin, and even though it is the starting place, it is also an important place that heavily influences the difficulty of the next floors.
As always, the venue is like a festival.
The variety of food is crazy, the number of people is also crazy.
If we are talking about a place in the grand labyrinth of Yaso-Katsui where the difficulty level is low and has a lot of tourists, it would be this place.
It is actually to the point that any mamono that appears is pitiful.
-Second floor, Garden.
Each one of the types are not as wide as Entrance, but looking around it, it felt like a space that resembled the outside.
The mamonos that appear and the terrain have their own traits, and the width of the difficulty degrees is incredibly wide.
The number one lowest difficulty is the introductory floor, its name is also pretty easy to understand: Beginner Garden.
In our second day, we left the guiding to Hokuto and the others, and the place we ran past through was the same as the day before, Drake Garden.
Well, if I had to put it in words, it would be like a nest of dragons.
-Third floor, Path.
This place is narrow.
But this floor is practically a highway, where avoiding battle itself is difficult.
The number of encounters increase and the exhaustion grows drastic as well, so they normally have the cooperation of several parties and the sharing of exp.
The denominator gets bigger, so the amount of deaths here is obviously a lot higher than in the previous floor, and it seems to be the first wall that the beginners hit.
According to the information of Hokuto, if you enter this floor from the Beginner Garden, this third floor will be the Beginner Path and becomes a dead end.
Because of the Alt floor, this was my first time in this place, but for Tomoe and the others, this would be their second time here. We passed through the floor called Tribe Path.
It was a straight path with a number of halls; a monotonous floor. At the straight parts, it was a continuous battle with weak mobs, and at the hall parts, you would fight with a boss.
-Fourth floor, Valley.
Just as the name states, a valley. It is a floor that you have to advance through the bottom of a valley, and the field of vision is slightly dark.
The extent of actions you can take are limited like in Path, just that the enemies and traps were coming from all directions.
It was an attack from the sky.
It was mainly mamonos that have wings, and at times, there would be worm type mamonos coming for surprise attacks. It was also mainly traps falling onto us. That’s what I thought, but at the end, the valley itself was narrowing on us and that had quite the impact.
When I heard the name of the floor was Negligee Valley, I can’t deny I wasn’t interested in it.
By the way, there was no pink anywhere, and the whole floor itself had some sort of debuff effect that reduces all your abilities.
…Just what part of it is negligee.
-Fifth floor, Maze.
This was exactly a dungeon.
A maze.
It was a depressing floor, but the pathway and ceiling was pretty wide, so there wasn’t a feeling of confinement. That part alone was a saving.
Also, Hokuto properly constructed a route to the next floor, so we simply had to follow him and didn’t get lost which played a big part in making me feel better.
There were armed goblins and Orcs, Lizardmen and Beast type mamonos appearing here, and the moment they found us, they would attack us with all they had, which made this floor a pretty hostile floor.
The floor’s named Sword Maze, so there weren’t many with blunt weapons.
The Boss-like guy was also a big sword.
A sword that’s floating in the air and swinging at you as if dancing is already close to being a horror movie.
-Sixth floor, Hill.
It wasn’t a hill at all. This is already at the level of a mountain.
I felt like they should change the name to Mountain.
We endlessly climb the unpaved path that was leveled by the steps of previous visitors while surrounded by overgrown trees.
We were being constantly attacked by wriggly mamonos that hide their presence and go for surprise attacks.
Only the Forest Oni, Shii, was more elated than normal in the middle of this arbour space as she spearheads, or more like, bats her way through the mamonos, turning them into minced meat.
Hide Hide Hill.
Just like the name states, it is a floor where it is hard to grasp the presence of the enemies, and that must be why the Hide is repeated twice. It is an important part after all.
But Shii’s compatibility with it was extraordinary.
For a Forest Oni that can forcefully gather information from the trees, even when the beasts try to hide their presence, it was totally visible in her eyes, or so it seems.
And so, tragedy unfolded upon them.
Now that I think about it, what did Gonzou experience in the fifth and sixth floor that made him feel despair?
It was also the same with the other floors we passed, I didn’t really understand that feeling of his.
-Seventh Floor, Hole.
A floor where if you didn’t buy a map, gathered information beforehand, it would partially destroy your party or even wipe them out.
Well, after reaching this far, there shouldn’t be that many people who are like that.
The moment you enter, there’s a big pitfall.
Nothing to grab onto, there’s not even a portal.
You simply fall.
And you get attacked by flying mamonos.
If you don’t control your fall in some sort of way, you can have luck in passing the mamonos and then go *splat* at the end of the fall.
There’s no device floating around or placed at the walls that can assist you with that either.
Going by the information of the map, there’s practically no Holes where you can find gimmicks that can make you float or scaffolds you can hold onto.
This Great Hole is a place where you totally have to manage on your own.
In my opinion, I feel like it would be a lot scarier to make someone jump on their own will by baiting them with fake scaffolds, compared to having them fall no questions asked.
At any rate, there’s not much problems on our side.
And so, aside from falling into a big hole, there’s nothing special to mention, and we all safely landed.
This time around, it did feel like a big wall you would hit -in a psychological sense.
-Eighth floor, Lake.
Location, a lake.
In other words, the romance of explorers.
I accept all objections you may have towards this statement.
This is a place that made me understand once again that we are deep underground. Ground and rocks in their natural splendor, and the bedrock ceiling that gave out a complete feeling of enclosed.
In that kind of space, the inside of the lake was releasing a gentle light like that of fireflies.
If we look at the whole space itself, it is on the level of being dim, and definitely not a light that you can define as dazzling.
But what was spreading from the lake was giving off a strong sense of presence.
There were a good amount of rocks, big enough for a person to jump on, floating on the lake.
Those were not the top parts of stone pillars, they were floating rocks.
If we take into account all the equipment, Shii, who is the heaviest in the party with weapon and all, would not sink. That’s how much buoyancy it had.
The runner-ups Beren and Hokuto are obviously fine as well.
Just that, because of the size, it is hard to have two people jump on the same rock.
The portal is as always in a place close to the starting location, and at the center of the lake, there’s a teleport formation leading to the next floor.
In these points, this is a simple floor.
It is easy to understand what you need to do.
Must mean that you need to trail the floating rocks and arrive at the center to continue on.
The mamonos were all aquatic type that live in the lake.
There were no attacks at land.
Leaving aside their presence, the mamonos that were jumping to the water surface as if aiming for flying bugs, their bodies were practically transparent.
Is it some sort of camouflage?
With that bad footing, and our actions limited a bit, handling the mamonos was quite the work. Moreover, at the middle of the stage, there were floating rocks that actually sunk the moment you jump on them, and you can’t tell them apart from the others.
Tomoe wanted to go a lot deeper in one fell swoop, so she made a big jump, but the foothold couldn’t stand it and Tomoe ended up dripping wet.
That probably pissed off Tomoe, she dove inside the lake and…after that, the underwater attacks had stopped completely.
Well, I can sympathize with that sentiment of hers, this is a floor that really stresses you out.
Clay Doll Lake.
If there’s a next time, let’s jump towards a correct foothold and finish it at once.
-Ninth floor, Gate.
In other words, a warping floor.
In this one as well, if you know the correct answer, the pathing is manageable.
Really have to be grateful towards the pioneers that cleared this place.
…Like, seriously.
This continuous warping that would make anyone go crazy, I don’t have the intentions of testing every single one of them.
For some reason, Hokuto looked disappointed, but I completely ignore that.
The rooms aren’t big by any means, and there’s 4 teleport formations at the rooms, and each room isn’t much different between each other.
It seems like a switch is what opens the door to the next area.
Name’s Cube Gate, it is a simple floor, but that’s exactly what makes it easy to get lost at and a troublesome place. Moreover, there’s quite a lot of rooms where mamonos lie in wait, and after teleporting, it normally ends up in an instant fight.
It seems like Mio didn’t find this place amusing. The mamonos that were waiting in ambush were mostly used to vent her stress.
After several tens of times, we found a corridor we haven’t seen before, and when I saw that, I sighed in relief.
-Tenth floor, Palace.
This place’s portal was filled with a number of teleport formations incomparable to the floors before.
It was an impressive sight.
It is not on the level of Entrance, but there were a number of groups divided and doing talks and discussions at the portal.
What is going on?
As we got closer, all the people gathered there turned towards our direction at once, and I felt somewhat uncomfortable by it.
This is…it felt like the eyes of someone that was looking at something weird.
The image of the floor is also not like a dungeon at all.
No well, there have been floors like that before, but this place feels somewhat different.
That’s right, we are indoors, and it is pretty luxurious.
If it is to take it relax, then this place is certainly good enough for people to gather.
Since these people were able to come all the way from the 10th floor, that must mean they have a decent amount of experience, so…they may have more useful information than in Entrance.
We register at the Portal as per usual.
And as per usual, the Obelisk emits a red light in return.
It is the sign that the registration was completed.
Okay, with this, we will be able to come to the tenth floor whenever we want.
We have also safely finished the task of Rokuya-san.
Everyone is…it doesn’t seem like they are that tired, but with information gathering in mind as well, it should be okay to take a rest here.
It is already noon after all.
It should be a good time to have lunch.
“Welcome to the communal 10th floor, Palace. It is been awhile since I have seen new faces here. Nice to meet you.”
From within the crowd of people that were looking at us, one of them welcomes us and extends his right hand for a handshake.
Ah I see, it was because it’s been awhile since new faces showed up huh.
I can understand that.
Since they know everyone’s faces here, it is as expected, not a place that prospers much in change.
Leaving aside when someone dies, it is rarer to have people increase huh.
Also, the word communal 10th floor and this many people at the vicinities of the portal, could it be…
I respond to the extended hand of the man and exchange a handshake with him.
At the same time, I send a gaze at Hokuto and he nodded.
In other words, this Palace is a place where no matter what route you take in the previous floor, you will always end up here.
That’s why this is a floor where people gather from every route.
“Nice to meet you. I am the representative of the Kuzunoha Company, name’s Raidou. My companions are all employees, and they are: Tomoe, Mio, Beren, Hokuto, and Shii. It took us time, but we were somehow able to arrive here. Nice to meet you as well.” (Makoto)
“Company? No, that doesn’t matter, you made it all the way here, so you must have actual skills. If you came all the way here in order to do business…”
“No, they don’t have those intentions. Right, Raidou-kun?”
Right after I began the conversation with the man that seemed to have the strongest standing within these adventurers, a person that came from the crowd of people who opened the way for that person to pass, cut into the conversation.
It is a voice I am familiar with.
It is him.
“That’s right. Today I didn’t come here to do business. I didn’t expect you to be waiting for me here, Rokuya-san.” (Makoto)
“…Rokuya?! The one from Apple? You must be kidding, right? He looks exactly the same as the picture I saw when I was a kid. Is he the real deal?”
From what I see, the man that was looking at Rokuya-san with wide open eyes is at least 40 years old.
Rokuya-san’s outward appearance seriously hasn’t changed at all.
Because of Rokuya-san’s arrival, the surroundings get even more rowdy.
“Nah, I arrived just now. I was thinking about coming here early and notify the people here of you guys. It was completely out of my expectations that you would be able to clear all in half a day. Truly abnormal beings, monsters.” (Rokuya)
Rokuya-san seemed like he didn’t care about anyone aside from us as he continues our conversation.
“Haha…” (Makoto)
“It is certainly true that with that level, not only would it be hard for normal adventurers, even the seasoned adventurers that challenge the World’s Border would find it hard to learn from you guys. Even if you were to slowly guide them, instead of them having a strong spirit to learn and reach the level, it would most likely damage them. I see, I see. Now I understand.” (Rokuya)
“…”
For a second there, a light of pity showed in the eyes of Rokuya-san. And on top of that…a small dose of sympathy?
As expected, it is hard to read the emotions of the mild smile of Rokuya-san.
“Now then, you being here is proof enough that you have passed the task, but can you tell me about the floors you passed to reach here? Just as reference.” (Rokuya)
“Understood. Drake Garden, Tribe Path, Negligee Valley, Sword Maze, Hide Hide Hill, Great Hole, Clay Doll Lake, and Cube Gate.” (Makoto)
The surrounding noise gets lower and lower as I tell Rokuya-san the floor names.
“…Was the one who set up this route you, Raidou?” (Rokuya)
“No, it was Hokuto.” (Makoto)
“I see. Was there some sort of *meaning* when he set it up? Ah, I am not talking about *thread*, okay?” (Rokuya) <The two words are said as Ito, but are written differently.>
Hokuto looks at me to confirm if it is okay for him to talk.
I silently nod.
We have already finished our task and can obtain his cooperation.
I don’t think there’s any problem.
But, that Rokuya-san…was he indirectly telling us that he knows Hokuto is an Arke?
How scary.
Even at his first meeting with Tomoe, it seemed like he already knew her identity.
“…I noticed that, in this dungeon, the higher the floor’s difficulty, the higher the possibility of that floor leading to lower ones. Of course, we could have moved through the floors that are not as dangerous, but it is more certain it connects to the next one the higher the danger; in that case, if it’s Waka-sama and us, going through those would be the shortest and best option, that’s all.” (Hokuto)
“So that’s why huh. There were also routes where the main theme is solving riddles and avoiding traps though. Is that a weak point of your group? More than half of the people here arrived here through those kind of routes, you know?” (Rokuya)
Rokuya-san continues on the answer of Hokuto as if he was having fun.
“It is not like it is a weak point of us. But if we were to choose those routes, the amount of times we have to go back and forth is too much; a waste of time. For example, passing four types of second floors and gathering slates in order to challenge a special third floor, and after that, you would have to clear four types of seventh floors as well. In that fashion, we would have to do things like that more than 10 times before arriving here. The amount of floors we would have to pass would be too much. If it’s the route I set on, we would only need to advance and pass the floor once. If we were to choose the route you talk about, it would have been practically impossible to arrive here in 1 day time.” (Hokuto)
“…Well, I am speechless. It was a perfect answer. That is one of the ways to completely clear this labyrinth of Yaso-Maga—I mean, Yaso-Katsui. It seems like you guys will be able to safely arrive at the 20th floor without the need of our advice.” (Rokuya)
Hokuto answered discouraged knowing that he was being tested by Rokuya.
There’s no real problem in that, so I didn’t say anything.
“Well then, Rokuya-san, Just as you promised last night, you will be our ally at the time of the negotiations, right?” (Makoto)
I confirm just in case.
“Of course, I’m okay with that. I will keep my promise. But you see, after our last meeting, I learned about the details of the problem, and I gotta say…this will be tough. Of course, at the negotiation, I will be taking your side. I will, but…I don’t think I will be able to help you in creating the opportunity for that said negotiation.” (Rokuya)
“What do you mean by that?” (Makoto)
A bitter smile comes up from Rokuya-san as if he was troubled, he is stuck in what to reply.
We can only wait for his answer.
Beginning with Tomoe and Mio, I could tell that my companions were slowly getting pissed.
Maybe his side has fallen into some sort of irregular situation.
“Hah… this is no good. No matter how I look at it, this will be difficult. The time is right, so how about lending me some of your time while we have a meal?” (Rokuya)
“…Understood. It is already time for lunch anyways, so okay.” (Makoto)
One person outside our plans has joined the group.
We moved to a corner at the vicinities of the portal and began our preparations for lunch while being poured the fiery gazes of interest from the other parties.
We decided to take a rest as we have lunch.
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
The flames Izumo unleashed spread across the world, which had become overgrown with magical plants,…
The national army is formidable. The national army that guards Eldarge 15 and its surrounding…
Just as Lanpeach was about to use a teleportation portal to head to the spaceship…
When Lanpeach arrived at the Lanpeach Complex, he quickly headed to his room. "Welcome back?…
Toko, who had slipped into the bridge with poor security, spoke with a slight smirk…
Reigokai: Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It is very late, but I really…
View Comments
Makoto should probably say "those assassins were brainwashed especially the friend of Pione by Trashmoki so I have no choice but to eliminate them quickly before it gets out of hand".
I think his eliminating the assassins was right and I bet even BUG would do that.
Did you just use BUG as a metric for good behavior?
@Psychronia Yup. I am glad you got it.
No. I didn't say that. If anything I bet almost everyone would do the same
I think Bug was just used as a metric of basic rock bottom behavior.
Thank U very much for translation this masterpieces so far.
Thanks for the chapter. This adventure reminds of things when I played Mario and Legend of Zelda games. Great Hole reminds of a Batman game in which you have Batman free fall to catch a falling person. At end of the game the final boss is Joker and you free fall and try to catch him while he is shooting and thrown stuff. The Cube Gate reminds of the N64 "Superman" game near the end you have to go through teleport gates to try to escape from there but I just kept on dying and eventually gave on the game entirely. Later learn that game was one of the worst games ever that year. It is even Watchmojo as one the worst Superhero games of all time.
Thanks for the chapter... BTW I found that they will release a game of tsuki ga with a different story... Is it true..? Is it available in sea server...? This is a site...
https://www.gaming-city.com/games/1266
Thanks
Thanks for the chapter !!
that was more or less already show many time before
(not trying to "justify himself to the reader")
his dreams (parallel selves) shown him as a ruthless guy without morality. he doesn't care about killing even innocent and allies.
his talk with hibiki showed that he didn't care about the lives of 'fighters' because they should be prepared to die, without accounting that maybe they didn't have the choice. proven in the extreme in his dream with tomoki where he killed his allied and justified it by "they should be prepared to die if they go at war".
hibiki saw that makoto didn't feel any guilt about killing, he mostly hide it by saying it wrong to kill and he felt bad the first time he killed somebody.
Makoto said he was heavily shaken after his first kill: the adventurer, but the first kill he did was the demon scoots that he killed by accident and it never bothered him, he consider the first person he killed the women adventurer and deny the death of the demon because it was an accident.
he didn't care about the fact that he killed around 20 000 persons the first time he stood on the battlefield
the way he beat own samal show that cruel part of him.
he doesn't plan very much on what he is doing, like how he killed the valkyries, they attacked him he assumed tomoki send them and didn't try to get more intel even though he has a mind-reader. he wondered what tomoki was doing in lorel but killed of the potential intel source.
same as for the variant-attack, he decide to take it easy for 3 days and come save the day when people are despaired, thought about protecting his students and put them in forced sleep, but forget about the one who had a wife a child in the whole mess, he isn't thinking deeply to the extend of his action and only see the close situation.
by what shiva said makoto has a disgusting 'talent' that he turned up to by developing his archery and from what chiya saw (a terrifying and disgusting black thing behind a white shell), I think that deep down makoto is a ruthless trash without morality (black thing), but disgusted by itself as a kid, he enclosed himself behind the ethics he learnt (white shell), that's why he is more attached to Japanese custom than the 2 other hero. that how I understand how makoto is, he is greatly attached to ethics and the concept of family to 'restrain' himself, and the reason why shiva want makoto to not take the "military path" is to keep him from becoming the same asshole as in the dreams.
Well if the theory that the one inside of makoto is his true self and he is building shells to cover it then at least let us acknowledge that makoto dont want "it" to come out. I mean all of us has a bad side or crazy side (just not that crazy compared to makoto) although for makoto added with massive amount of power makes him very dangerous. Let us not become like hibiki or the others that only thinks of his true self or bad side let us instead see how hes trying to become normal even though he isnt because that kind of thinking will only bring disaster for sure its like accidentally waking up a sleeping dragon even though it just want to sleep (kudos to tomoe XD).
Yes he is careless yes he doesnt care for human lives and yes thats not the thinking of a normal teenager but again makoto is still a mystery to us like is the theory about dying and being alive again in his bow training proven? Who was that said healer who healed makoto when he was still a child? and just like the gods says all has a given talent but how can makoto achieve god level arching if he doesnt have the path to take in the first place.
And lastly one thing Ive been wanting to ask and hope will makotos student becomes like a full fledged super sentai where all has different color costume that is crazy strong?
Anywho have you chosen what to translate already reigokai? Cause if you havent then please choose Sayonara Ryuusei Konnichiwa Jinsei good novel.
hahaha Awesome arguments. Well there will be always that guy that believes that "with great power comes great responsibilities" while others are "Are they even worth the power? or worth to save?" Then again power comes in many different forms.
Well one thing having a huge power imbalance does on a fundamental level is remove the risk to the powerful. When you aren't actually threatened there's no real pressure to eliminate someone as a threat. As far as deciding if they were worth saving. . . it seems Makoto didn't have enough information to be making that call, no?
@Shad - Makoto could easily eliminate risk by having a Gorgon greeting party turn detainees into lawn ornaments. The adventurer that killed Komoe 1.0 was unguarded and acting of their own messed up volition. He just didn't spare it any thought.
@redcolonel Mate I believe you are missing some of context in some situations. The time he killed the demons they were exploiting the orc populace at the time, yes he knew he fucked up when he accidentally killed them but when they revealed the whole entire plan I don't think he had much to be guilty about. Next the women adventurer he first killed was probably the first time started for Makoto to largely mistrust the Hyuman populace in general and that is understandable given circumstances at the time he killed her as he read her mind and her actions with furthermore the current Hyuman kingdoms that revere the bug. Quite hard to empathize with those who revere an incredible asshole that threw you into a wasteland to slowly die off.
Also first time he stepped onto a battle field? I don't know if you are either talking about the first or second time he was abducted to fight in a battle he did not want. In the first time it was at random and was trying to defend his life and largely didn't know what he was doing thus leading to the death lake and the second time he was hired to save Hibiki's ass. Both times in a war zone in which he holds the ideology that if you step onto the battlefield then you should be prepared to lose your life and I don't see what is to be bothered by said ideology in which it is quite damn true. This time's version has not gone full eldritch being mode yet so he isn't shooting his own allies.
Furthermore during the time when the school was attacked by the demons he was largely advised by his followers to stay neutral and it is understandable for several reasons. First he was already being harassed by the Hyuman organizations at the time(The Merchants guild, the church and even a noble family) and wished to take advantage of the situation(Simply nuking the city of every enemy just to be a hero doesn't get you anywhere at certain times), second he was trying to establish contact with the demons and interfering with their operations too largely would probably impact a negotiation with them later(This decision was later changed by his second time getting abducted to save Hibiki), third he has no obligation to the Hyuman kingdoms to save or protect their people but he provided services when asked or offered them to gain some influence to get former said pain in the asses to back off and the best time to do that is when you take said people out of a deeply dug pit of despair. Was it heartless and cold to a degree to leave the Hyumans to the slaughter? Yeah but again not his problem or responsibility and the Hyuman's outside of the ones he knew largely did nothing for him before when he playing the nice merchant. Sucks for the lives that were lost but you got to sometimes try to use the situation to your side. That is politics at work people. Granted Makoto sucks at them due to his policy of nuke first ask questions later.
Now for the alternate timeline Makotos that went full bat shit insane and tried to kill everyone. To a degree it is understandable why the Makotos came to such a state. All of the ones seen were thrown into a shit situation in the first chapter and went on to different paths. One was left in the wasteland with no one and slowly degenerated and went full mad man fully pissed at the bug and its people and another ended up in the company of Trashmoki. I can hardly blame them for going quite eldritch being on everyone given circumstances.
For the most part Makoto is under no obligation to the Hyumans nor does he see the Hyumans as an effort to worth save unless he truly knows the certain few of them in which it is a good argument and he has a policy of trying to minimize risk to his followers as best as possible since the adventurer incident which results in taking no prisoners back to base. A good criticism of Makoto I mostly agree with is that Makoto way too apathetic towards those outside his own and he is quite damn simple and does not attempt larger scale planning ATM which is understandable given he is just a teenager with no training in it but he is growing little by little(Hopefully not turning into eldritch being this time). Although I have also a theory to the Makoto has a hidden side to him is that the crack in his shell broke when he first killed the female adventurer as that event did have a serious impact on him and when that happened it probably allowed a previous Makoto that went psycho inside. As we all know all the previous Makotos seen in the other time lines were psychotic beings that had powers surpassing the gods in certain ways. It is quite possible one or a few Makotos escaped from their realms and into our current Makoto in some form just biding their time.
@Psychronia @redcolonel very good arguments and thanks for pointing out I was missing a few things. Yeah I do agree with the statement that Makoto has seemingly just accepted killing enemy combatants all too easy and kept it simple even before the he first killed the women adventurer that essentially set towards his ideology. Though to a degree I feel he is justified in some respects over some however I do believe like you guys said Makoto needs to work on himself and he is growing.
Now to the theory that all the alter Makotos are super dead is that are they all really dead? Sure the destruction gods implied so but you have got to admit that seems really odd for Makoto to develop such a apathetic attitude within such a short time towards killing people. The alter Makotos were said to be quite damn powerful and yes our current Makoto probably surpasses them but who knows if another alter Makoto got away and who knows if they truly did destroy them all? Chiya said Makoto shell was cracked and this just leads me to wonder what this "shell" is and why is it cracked? Granted your theory sounds quite good too but Makoto was oddly off from the start of his adventure and something tells me it was maybe developed on that side.
@catdatbarks I don't believe it comes down to Makoto with the "great power comes great responsibilities" or "Should I waste power to save them and are they even worth it". Makoto doesn't really like the Hyuman populace at large and for good reason due to their large scale worship of the bug and now granted he understands to a degree not all hyumans are trash but since that incident with the female adventurer Makoto seems adverse towards sparing any hyumans who attack him and bringing them back to base to be taken prisoner to be cured even if they are under effects like the mutants were or the charm trash uses. He probably doesn't want a repeat of what happened the first time. Also if we are saying he has great responsibilities, technically he is already charge of Asora and by extension Kalaneon and its residents.
I don't think the first time you kill someone you just think "it's okay, they were bad guys" without any feeling of guilt.
"if you step onto the battlefield then you should be prepared to lose your life" isn't wrong, but the way makoto see it is weird, he see soldier's life as worthless, they are people that "it's okay to kill because they should be prepared to die", a twisted way that is more or less thinking it's okay to kill a soldier for the sole reason of them having weapon.
I think shiva implied that every makoto ended up going on killing spree to fight the goddess
the reason why I think that is because of hos much emphasis the author put on how he can kill without blood lust, how he is feeling nothing when killing.
especially with hibiki's pov: she said anyone would 'feel' something when killing, even tomoki whose an asshole and 'acted tough', but the way makoto said he was feeling bad was a lie and just he doesn't 'feel' any value in life.
same about how tomoe and shiki was scared of his reaction against samal, and Mio said someone who has no value in live wouldn't take pleasure in killing
If makoto think 'it's okay to kill him' he will not feel anything about killing, I think that what the author want to show is how makoto is 'rational' and completely lack empathy, that makoto's wish to help people isn't something he is born with, but more an ethical code he learned and is following.
A few corrections to your statements.
Firstly, even if there were justifying reasons for Makoto to not feel bad about killing the demons in the beginning and the woman later on, it's still not a normal human reaction to feel nothing of it. It's the same with the destruction of the first(last) town, which was full of seedy characters but shouldn't be reacted to with "Ah...the rumors I spread were for nothing now." The battlefield rationalization is something that came up only after Makoto learned he caused the mass death during his first kidnapping too, and he accepted it unnaturally quickly at that point.
The point is that Makoto, from the start, has exhibited a very disturbing lack of concern for life in increasingly unsubtle ways.
And for your theory, there's mainly just one problem; Daikokuten basically stated that Makoto had surpassed all his alternate selves when he achieved creation. Among the various Makotos, he's also in a league of his own. That doesn't rule out the dreams actually being them merging their souls into his, but at the very least, I doubt it's of their own volition. The most likely case scenario for those alter-Makotos are that they're all dead from the destruction gods wiping out their Bad End timelines.
So no one believes that his apathinc beahvior towards killing is a coping mechanism that he is devolopement from being in the situation that he is, it has been shown that when he can't reverse a situation he pretty mutch ignores the issue and doesn't go proving in there in his mind. Like before having any hope of guetting back home and seein his family again he avoided the memories of them and only though of investigating his parents past as a side project, no a priority. Well people died and he can't bring them back so he will not dwell in it to mutch. Besides was really killing the girls that attacked him with out trying to take the charm of them any diferent that eliminating the variants that attacked the competition without trying to revert them to their previous state, and even using Mondo curse that so far has been irreversible???
That's a good breakdown of Makoto. What caused problems this time is that his 'superego' is suppressed when he's fighting. I think the first adventurer bothered because he engaged in it as a conscious rational decision to commit murder.
yep, that was the point that I wanted to make, what hurt him at that time wasn't really 'taking a life', but breaking the taboo of killing (+ lost trust for hyumans, +the death and wounding of his people because of his naivety that hurt his responsibilities as a leader).
I don't someone who accidentally killed a few people would just be okay by saying "it's okay, it was an accident" without feeling guilt.
but maybe I am over-analyzing.
wait that was a reply to @iQ50
i dun fucked up...
Wasn't there a Chinese saying often in Wuxia?
'Kindness to your enemies is cruelty to yourself'?
Is there any reason to extend humanitarian gestures to your enemy who would not appreciate it and might even harm you in return? It's not like Makoto goes hunting for them, in fact, it's them hunting Makoto to kill.
Well said sir :)
With that op power he choose to turn a blind eye on something important and just bulldoze his way in. A teen with so much power dont know how to handle it. Well lets just hope he reflects on his actions later. And do what is right and think what will his actions will do in the future.
well, honestly, I don't think he was wrong to kill the valkyries, but I feel like he was too hasty and there was better think to do, plus it leave a bad taste that they were brainwashed.
he always saw things in a very simplistic way, like what he said to the demon loli (forgot her name, was it "sari"?) he said good thing= ally, bad thing = enemy.
he never bothered by plan on long therm, and is rather short-sighted. IIRC he said that if he could just practice archery forever, it would be perfect.
on the other hand, he tried to change but at a very slow pace. that's mostly because tomoe 'protected' his naive side, but mio's recent action on limia changed that, so who could see him change, he is learning by meeting the world's leaders.
especialy with hibiki's talk, when he implied he wanted to kick out the goddess, hibiki pointed out what will happen. he didn't plan to what will happen to the world after that and how chaotic the world will become.
I see he recent action to recruit rose garden mercenaries as development of that, since he want to create a support for tsige to survive in case kuzunoha and himself leave it.
I think we can exxopect a few change in the future.
I think the reason Makoto's actions are so grey here has a lot to do with his unique position of power.
By normal standards of pragmatism, having high level brainwashed slaves trying to kill you means you should eliminate the threat as quickly and as efficiently as possible, which Makoto did. if it were Hibiki, Rembrandt, Tomoki, or anyone like that in that position, this is the correct answer.
...Except with Makoto, he has more than enough power to keep them alive. Either because killing them is needless death or to research the effects of the charm, it's notably more beneficial for him to merely incapacitate them.
He acted pretty reasonably, but "reasonableness" isn't something that should apply to him and he had more than enough leeway to take the "risky" route which brings greater benefit. The consequence is that it looks like Makoto is being thoughtless and made a wrong decision tactically.
Makoto now is just a killer. He does not hesitate to kill others because they are just enemies. Even if someone is just controlling them he just killed them without hesitation even though he got the power to just subdue them. He does'nt even categorize the people he kill even if its women. He just kill. What a shame to the author. He just lost his reasoning and became a cold bloded murderer. And justifying his action to the reader by being overly concerned to his so called family. Maybe because of the thing in the crack that the priest saw in him thats why makoto is acting that way. Ruthless without reasoning for the so called enemy. (The one being controlled by tomoki) they can be saved right?
If someone came at me with the intention to kill, I'd also blow their heads off without shedding a tear. Legally, I've the right to self/private defense and realistically someone who ignores the law just to kill you for his own reasons forfeits the right to protection of his own life.
You obviously grew up in a very safe country/neighborhood.
'If thats me i wont kill women I will just incapacitate them.'
And if I'm fighting World War 2, I'll win it singlehandedly by shooting the enemy while moving away from their bullets.
What do you think this is, the Matrix? Just because you imagine something does not mean it is easy or practical to do, incapacitating someone is 4 times harder than killing them, so you're setting a goal 4 times harder for yourself while letting the enemy have a goal 4 times easier (killing you off).
It's a miracle you're still alive if this is how you work.
If thats me i wont kill women I will just incapacitate them. If men yes will not hesitate at all. And by no means a third world country is no safe place at all.
That's a bit of an absurd distinction to make, isn't it? Just because they're women you won't kill them for an attempted assassination?
From both pragmatic and moral standpoints, that doesn't really make sense to me.
Thanks a ton for the fast chapter, Reigokai!
I don't really see a problem with him killing fighters out for his life. Why should he go easy if the fighters are women or not? In this world, female fighters can be just as capable as males. Also, since they were definitely from Tomoki's harem and still under Tomoki's influence, it stands to reason that Tomoki, at the very least, was complicit in having them come after Raidou. If he pounded them into submission, what then? The possibility is high that they'd just come after him again, and he'd have to repeat the process ad nauseum, and possibly endanger somebody else because he failed to get rid of them the previous time(s).
Makoto killed those girls because the of the adventurer that killed the orc and Komoe (beta), he already learned the lesson that even if he is as strong as a God his followers are not, so if he forgives enemies because they are weak then they might target his followers.
I replied bellow, sorry for the mess
once Tomoki's charm becomes to ingraned its to late. even if you remove the charm they will still be madly in love with him and would still do his bidding. sure its cold blooded but there was no way of saving those girls + they were assassins trying to kill him...
@ Owl - Hmm, nope, not finding it. I re-read chapter 181 and I still see nothing to suggest that the charm effect is the least bit difficult to remove, or even anything that mentions removing the charm outside commenter speculation.
Interestingly I DO find something to suggest that Tomoki's charm power in that alternate timeline is incomparably powerful -
" I don’t know why you made me increase the power of that charm and why you depended on it. ” (Makotwo)
The alter-universe Makoto said so in that chapter. While he might not care for their lives, in reverse, he does not care about them enough to make up lies. You only lie if you are concerned with what the other person can do. If he can't do nuts, then telling him the outright truth won't matter since he can't do anything and it's simpler.
" once Tomoki’s charm becomes to ingrained its to late "
Certain people keep saying this but I have not seen any conclusive evidence to support it.
Well, no. I'm pretty sure there's been a few mentions of Tomoki's Charm being irreversibly damaging to his victims.
...By Princess Lily and Rona, that is. Makoto's faction has been somewhat silent on whether or not they can treat it. Makotwo also mentioned something to that effect I think, but let's not count him since he didn't have Kuzunoha to support him either. Makoto's attitude towards it was very much a "it's too late" when he killed them, but whether or not he could actually cure them if he tried hard at it is unknown.
As it stands, the general consensus of the world is that it can't be cured-these uber secret society characters were trying to cure it with evidently little success(due to interruption mid-way). But at the same time, the rules of worldwide common sense don't really apply to Kuzunoha and if anyone could cure it, it would be them.
From the sound of it, Makoto's working out countermeasures to protect his people but doesn't really care enough to try to deal with the affliction otherwise.
Santo cielo! No puedo esperar por el siguiente!
Gracias Reigo!!!
Thanks for the chapter!