#people should look into that more actually why did ryusui say that

[dirt-str1der]

Senku and ryusui finally get married and become dr and mr stone

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL DAY recaps [8/13]

Today’s recap: Ghostly investigations, the Ultra Evil Really Bad Guys in an awkward Mexican standoff with Slightly Less Bad Guys, and XX’s thoughts on writing.

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FORTY-FIVE

14 Jun 1997 — 20 Jun 1997

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

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The writer detective XX wrote a few stories (including the seppuku detective one) that would be put together in one book. The work would be published under the name “Seiryoin Ryusui” and—on Yasha’s request—called 19box in memory of Juku, whose DOLL nickname was Jukebox. [19box or Juke Box is an actual book by Seiryoin that indeed contains the seppuku detective story.]

On June 6th, Yuiga Dokuson fled JDC leaving a confession about being the Billion Killer. It’s now been three weeks since his escape and still no new confirmed Billion Killer cases have happened. The Crime Olympics still continue, but at least everyone knows they will be over in two months.

--

All stories influence people, for better or for worse, and the story with the biggest, sharpest impact is the news. Then again, even entertainment has a major impact on people. The pen is mightier than the sword; the story is the strongest weapon. [Insert a horrible pun about how kakuheiki, “written weapon”, is as strong as kakuheiki, “nuclear weapon”.]

--

(...when Hikimiya Yuuya had been working with the AI Desert Colosseum in February, he found an unbelievable secret file.

Below is Hikimiya Yuuya’s testimony. [Originally in first person.])

Once Hikimiya got out of shock upon seeing the different numbers of daily deaths, he instantly went to the hospital to talk with Frau D (or at least went there as fast as he could in a wheelchair). Frau D only told him to show the file to DOLL’s leader Madame Alpha to get answers.

Madame said she hadn’t seen this particular file before, but she had known all along that the UN numbers were faked. Good thing Hikimiya didn’t tell anyone else about it—if he did, he’d probably be disappeared on his way back to DOLL. He accidentally got mixed into a matter bigger than just the UN; a shadow organization was at play here, and one misspoken sentence could possibly doom the human race.

Madame then told Hikimiya what her Zero Reasoning actually was. The Japanese word for “zero”, rei, happens to sound exactly like the word for “soul”. Madame’s ability was seeing and talking to ghosts. The difficult part of her reasoning was discerning whether or not the ghosts were telling her the truth.

Other people would find it hard to believe, but Madame knew best that the souls who helped her solve cases were certainly real. She purposefully stayed away from other people, as anyone being too close to her for a long time would also start seeing ghosts, including those who had died in less than pretty manners. Several people even landed in the hospital from shock.

The ability wasn’t perfect. Madame would have a problem talking to souls who spoke different languages. The world of ghosts was also pretty complicated and consisted of more than just nice, well-behaved souls (but it’d take too long to explain everything now). Thanks to her powers, Madame knew better than anyone how drastically the known history changed throughout the ages, true events replaced with fake stories so different from what the souls told her about their times. She was also aware that knowing the truth was not always a good thing.

Using her ability as a sort of a soul information network, Madame was able to learn many things about the Crime Olympics.

They say that Christopher Columbus kept two journals out of fear of being deemed insane by his crewmates: a fake one that everyone else could read freely, and a secret one talking about his true goals. The death count data files similarly used two kinds of information. The true one (what Hikimiya found) allowed the UN to grasp the real situation, and the fake one (the official stats) were displayed to the common man.

To explain why that was necessary, Madame told Hikimiya about the Cosmic Bomb—the Moon. The Bomb was set to fall on August 10th, but it wasn’t impossible that the enemy would drop it earlier if they felt threatened. It was in the world’s best interest to not interfere too much in their plans—to make them think four million people really died each day—before a good way to counter the Cosmic Bomb was established.

As for how Frau D got his hands on secret data, Madame thought the reason was very simple: Frau D was one of RISE’s Dogs, probably responsible for leaking info from DOLL.

Right after this conversation, Hikimiya returned to the hospital for more answers. Frau D stated that Madame was smart enough to understand how to stay alive by keeping quiet. He confirmed that he was a Dog. However, the secret file was not meant for RISE at all, but for Hikimiya. That’s why the password was YUYA, and why the report was addressed to “Desert Colosseum”—once Hikimiya inherited the AI, he would become the next “Desert Colosseum”. The signature D meant Frau D and referred to his identity as a Dog (all of them are designated as D-[numbers], for example Frau is D-159837).

Hikimiya felt like there was something strange about Frau D’s demeanor during that conversation, and only realized a few days later—after the Crystal Nightmare—that the S-detective knew he would be killed soon.

But that wasn’t the last Hikimiya heard from Frau D, as Madame passed him a message from his soul. It was strange hearing Frau D so unusually serious (even if the words came from Madame’s mouth).

Frau D wanted to apologize. The whole “I love you” thing was just another one of his jokes, and he chose Hikimiya solely on the basis of his skills and ability to become the next Desert Colosseum. Thanks to Madame, he was never afraid of death. Aside from RISE, he also belonged to the suicidal sect of DICE, who were the ones to kill him in the end. “Desert Colosseum” was still indispensable to RISE—and that meant they would rely on whatever data Hikimiya would send them in the future.

After relaying the message, Madame commented that Frau D was actually a really serious man; you don’t become an S-detective by acting like a clown. She could speak with him easily so soon after his death, but making contact would get progressively harder with time, so Hikimiya should better become “Desert Colosseum” as soon as possible while he could still get ghostly tips.

It was the first time Hikimiya truly felt respect for Frau D. Though now that he thought about it, maybe even earlier he felt a sort of a strange, begrudging affinity.

On the day Frau D died, news came about Juku, Ronely Queen and Ushiwaka Gigolo. Juku’s death was especially hard on Hikimiya, considering they had worked as partners in the past. Then Firannu Meirunesia died a week later.

Hikimiya of course wanted to talk with the dead detectives, but Madame was so busy with all the cases she had no time to spare, and calling specific souls was hard—her work was mostly just waiting until someone with the right information came to her. Asked about Ryuuguu Jounosuke, she said that she’s sorry, but from what she could see he really was dead. At least she was able to assure Hikimiya that Otohime was still alive, held prisoner by RISE together with Amagi Hyouma and Tsukumo Nemu.

The day Frau D was killed, Hikimiya found a new entry in the database that belonged to a fake F-detective, “Flower Design”. [At least I think that’s the right romanization for that]. Frau must have made that fake detective so Hikimiya could hide behind the identity and obtain information safely. It was hard to work a double job as both “Hikimiya Yuuya” and “Flower Design” behind the scenes, but the exhausting training under Frau turned out to have been a blessing in disguise.

Hikimiya analyzed the death count reports (which by this point reached early March) and found that while in the big picture the number of deaths rose steadily, it actually came in waves. Doing some statistical magic, Hikimiya realized that the death rate usually fell a bit during weekdays, but then rose significantly on each Sunday—right after the Billion Killer cases. Step back, two steps forward… It’s like the Billion Killer served as a periodic impulse that kept the Crime Olympics going. The Crystal Nightmare caused an especially high rise in victims, too.

Hikimiya made some calculations. The numbers were at first much lower than the proclaimed “four million deaths a day”, but if the growth continued, it would lead to a bigger overall number of deaths.

Constant four million a day would give 1,4 billion total deaths in an entire year.

But if the numbers continued to rise, the final figure would instead be 3,7 billion, more than half the world’s population—assuming the Cosmic Bomb wouldn’t kill everyone else.

--

FORTY-SIX

21 Jun 1997 — 27 Jun 1997

MOHENJO-DARO

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(It was once thought that alchemy could produce homunculi in bottles.

Black Rook is a human obtained through cloning, a three years younger identical twin of Ryuuguu Jounosuke, with whom he shared this name. Yearning for an identity of his own, Black called himself Ryuuou.

RISE had the cloning technology long before his birth, but didn’t see a reason to use it, as getting normal imposters was much easier. They say that everyone has at least three perfect look-alikes in the world—RISE had no problem finding those three with their omnipresent reach.

The truth is that the original Jounosuke was supposed to become Black Rook at first, but RISE made a critical mistake while raising him. In the end, the clone achieved what the original couldn’t and became Black Rook.

Below is Black Rook’s testimony. [Originally in first person. As expected, he might be… biased.])

From what Black heard, his older brother had travelled all over the world with their parents as a young child in order to naturally pick up native accents of many languages. He was successful at this goal, but in the process he became so used to the outside world that he couldn’t stand the dim closed spaces of the Sanctuary (which was back then still under construction), even showing signs of serious childhood claustrophobia. He was constantly upset and kept crying no matter how long RISE tried getting him used to his new life. Childhood claustrophobia sometimes vanished with age, but there was no guarantee it would happen.

In the face of this, the Doctor decided to start anew and cloned the boy, and so Black was born. To avoid past mistakes, RISE made sure he got used to the Sanctuary since birth, the fortress transporting him to all those different countries and essentially becoming his home. Staying in the Sanctuary instead of with foreigners led to him not quite reaching the language mastery of his brother, but the difference was marginal and didn’t really matter.

When RS became the leader of RISE in 1987, Black formally inherited the position of the Sanctuary’s Master from his father Kintarou. Similarly, Endou Naoto became the next Doctor / White Rook after his father Naomasa.

RISE continued to fight their long battle. Black didn’t really understand if there was an objective good or wrong, but he knew for sure that the Beasts wanted to destroy the human race, and RISE’s Gods wanted it to continue in whatever shape. A battle between good and evil.

Their greatest enemy was a secret group called Akutou 666 Rengou (lit. “the 666 villains union”), known in short as Akuren. It was much older than RISE and had been threatening humanity for thousands of years.

Akuren was a worldwide information network created by the 666 most evil people of the world, all their names written down on a secret Luck Black List. Aside from the top 666, there were also two lower “replacement groups”, each also counting 666 members, so 1998 in all. Those who died or were arrested would be erased from the list, though one could always get on it again later. Note that the first group members were too skilled to be eliminated from the list unless they died.

All the historical villains one may have heard of—like Nero, Catherine de’ Medici, Ivan the Terrible, Rasputin, Aleister Crowley, even Hitler—all reached no higher than the second group of Akuren. Those in the first group are all untraceable and take care to erase their pasts, only their horrible impact on the world hinting at their existence, their true nature that of pure evil beyond imagination (Black doesn’t even want to think about the stories he heard).

Akuren categorizes all people on Earth into thirteen tiers of evil, starting from 1 (those unwittingly doing everyday evil), going through those who commit crimes as part of a company policy or “usual” criminals (4-5), through famous organized crime (6), through those with political power (7), through country elites with even more influence (8), through secret organizations ruling those elites (9), through the evil that controls the history of humanity (10), the first group of Akuren (11), the few members of Akuren that have transcended the concept of pure evil (12), and the “ultimate organization of extreme pure evil” (13).

Upstanding citizens are classified as tier 1 (it’s impossible to be lower, as every single human eventually hurts another human, if only by existing). Tier 10 would include Akuren’s first group and half of the second group, together 999 people. Tier 11 would apply only to the first group; they’re so strong that an S-detective could maybe manage one or two of them at once, but not several, and certainly not 666. Tier 12 are those from the first group that aim for even more evil and want to throw the world into darkness. Tier 13 is so secret that even RISE can’t get any information about it, more suspecting their presence than knowing for sure.

The members of every group of Akuren are numbered from 001 to 666, with those numbers moving if someone falls off the list. Number 001 is always the person who stayed in a group the longest, while those from lower groups will enter a higher group starting from 666. Groups two and three have to provide information for the network, but those who already rose to group one are privileged and can simply get data without having to give any in exchange.

Akuren attempted to wipe out the human race many times before, their crimes usually showing as wars on the surface. The Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, Alexander the Great’s conquest, the Seven Years’ War, the Hundred Years’ War, various Prussia wars, the Russo-Japanese War, both World Wars, the Cold War…

After WWII, the 12th tier of evil first showed itself, possibly with the 13th one right behind them, and the most serious plan to destroy humanity (including themselves) had been in progress ever since. Their twisted reasoning is basically, “everyone has to die one day, and when I die, the world may as well not exist for me, so why not bring everyone else down with me while we’re at it”.

The current Crime Olympics were conceived as yet another of Akuren’s plans to destroy humanity. RISE was created to gain control over this plan in order to prevent the ultimate tragedy and limit the damage as much as possible. Of course on the surface they still had to act like they’re cooperating with Akuren, and so had to put the Crime Olympics into motion like they were supposed to.

Akuren acted like they didn’t notice their true enemy, but considering the quality of their information network, they had to already know about RISE’s goals. However, RISE was too useful to get rid of it so quickly. Fifty years of preparations passed in a pretend cooperation between the two organizations. RISE has three trump cards in their deck: Alive, the Billion Killer, and the Cosmic Bomb.

RISE’s true goal was purging evil at the root for the sake of humanity’s survival. If they left Akuren alive, it would just lead to another attempt at total destruction in the future. RISE had already succeeded at using the Crime Olympics to kill the lesser ranks of evil in droves, even though it cost a lot of other lives and the true malicious elites were still staying safely hidden. If RISE didn’t kill off those elites before August 10th, the Cosmic Bomb would fall.

Those “worst of the worst” were called Pure Ultimate Beasts. The purest evil often wore the masks of saints; they truly were beasts disguised as humans, creatures that would kill with a smile. The first group of Akuren was too careful to be easily led into a trap, so RISE had to start with eliminating the lower groups and make their way up.

All the above was a very rushed explanation, but the gist of it is that humanity is in a horrible spot. If they don’t do anything, the Cosmic Bomb will fall; if they try to fight openly, perhaps the Bomb will just fall faster. The fate of humanity is in the hands of RISE—of Black Rook.

...but Black feels a bit weird those days, like something is very wrong with him. Perhaps it’s just a lingering symptom of Alive... or perhaps he’d been caught into Akuren’s trap? Something feels wrong. With the Sanctuary, with RISE and with himself. Something is strange. He’s supposed to stop the Cosmic Bomb, and has been for sure making preparations, but now he can’t remember how to do it, as if he simply forgot something so important. He can’t remember… What the hell happened to him? What the hell is going on? It’s like he’s not himself.

Has he also been brainwashed…?

[End of testimony.]

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Writer detective XX continues to write. He feels a strange compulsion to do it, a sense of mission, almost like someone is forcing him to write. Sometimes he wonders if he hasn’t been brainwashed.

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FORTY-SEVEN

28 Jun 1997 — 04 Jul 1997

HONG KONG

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Writing as “Seiryoin Ryusui” is weird to XX, like wearing someone else’s clothes. He’s been feeling like he isn’t truly himself. But if it’s so weird to him, why does he simultaneously have the compulsion to not just continue writing, but to write as “Seiryoin Ryusui” specifically? Nothing else changed. It’s just that whenever he works as “Seiryoin”, he ceases to be himself. Almost like someone else is guiding his hands, like he’s only the first reader instead of the writer.

Inugami Yasha wants XX to write a book about the Crime Olympic as soon as possible. Yasha’s plan is to use the power of stories positively, to light up at least some of the darkness surrounding them.

No one is faster to rise to fame in mass media than the worst criminals caught red-handed. “Seiryoin Ryusui” wasn’t that popular, but his name is still spread around because of the Cosmic Jokers case, so releasing a book under the same name will gather the world’s attention. This will possibly allow them to lure out the actual mysterious “Seiryoin Ryusui”. The book will be technically fiction, just like Cosmic and Joker, but will give readers enough clues that maybe someone solves the still unfinished mysteries, or gets to the actual truth behind something that has been considered solved.

To be honest, XX hates the writing style in Cosmic and Joker. It just seems bad and unbalanced to him. Strong J Outa the editor thinks it’s because XX has a similar writing style, so reading “Seiryoin” feels to him like reading his own old works, which is rarely a good experience for a writer. The important thing is keeping that unbalanced style while writing about the Crime Olympics.

Languages, just like anything else created by people, aren’t perfect. No matter how much one tries, a recording of events will never be perfect specifically because of the nature of words. Even non-fiction is fiction in the end. Words on their own aren’t the truth, but the moment someone encounters someone else’s words, they may read out the truth between the lines—which is what Yasha hopes for by releasing the Crime Olympics book.

(By the way, it’s been a month since Dokuson disappeared, and not a single Billion Killer case has happened in the meanwhile. There were giant cases happening at 1 PM local time on Saturdays, true, but no symbolic skull has been found.)

XX still can’t get rid of his strange feelings. It’s almost like there’s someone else within him, “the true writer”, perhaps even “the true culprit”. Strong J Outa dismisses these worries and says that in a sense, the mystery writer is always the real culprit manipulating the characters. A mystery novel is not as much a showdown between a detective and a murderer, as a showdown between the writer and the reader. The challenge is not just solving a mystery, but also solving the writer’s intent put in his work.

The idea of the writer as the culprit is sort of a taboo that everyone knows about, but that isn’t really relevant inside mystery novels by design. All fiction is real as far as the world within that fiction is concerned. There’s no reason to escape into delusions about a writer making all this happen; instead XX should focus on writing and fighting crime this way.

19box is set to be finally released on July 5th.

--

(And in the latest news...)

On June 14th, the entire island of Tasmania suddenly moves towards mainland Australia and smashes into it, resulting in 100,000 dead or injured and several small islands sinking. Right afterwards Tasmania returns to its proper place. How all this happened is a mystery.

On June 21st, about a hundred tourists visiting Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan are found naked and dead. The cause of death is unknown, but the incident is thought to have been influenced by the Carnival Dice cult.

On June 28th, all the power lines of Hong Kong are suddenly cut, leading to a complete power outage. Massive fires start in the aftermath. Giant playing cards are found around the place, so the group F4C is suspected. The situation becomes so bad it leads to political shifts and Hong Kong being completely returned to China.

--

On July 5th, a mysterious continent surfaces from the depths of the Pacific, so unimaginably huge that it takes half the ocean’s area. The continent’s sudden movement causes kilometer-tall tsunamis to rush towards other lands. It’s only a matter of time until the record waves reach the shores and destroy anything in their path.

Japan has twelve hours to prepare for the wave.

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[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL recaps [6/13]

Today’s recap: A visit in Ryuuguujou, pen name switcharoo, and Juku the accidental sniper.

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TWELVE

09 Nov 1996 — 15 Nov 1996

ARC DE TRIOMPHE

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Juku and Nemu ride to Ryuuguujou, the splendid residence of the Ryuuguu family. On the way they talk about how Juku has yet to make any meaningful progress in investigating “Tsukumo Jaki”. They only have one small clue: witnesses say the person who sent the threatening fax looked androgynous and wore double denim. It might be the same person as the one described in Cosmic, so the one who sent Dakushoin’s manuscript to JDC. The scary implication is that whoever is behind the Crime Olympics could also be the true mastermind behind the Locked Room Lord case.

The detectives were recently given advance copies of Joker, which has some interesting and suspicious parts as well. Juku is quite surprised that this “Seiryoin” would know about his secret conversation with Yaiba [the one at the very end of Joker].

As they get close to Ryuuguujou, Juku takes off his sunglasses to look at the scenery through the car window, while Nemu gets lost in thought. Not only does Cosmic contain information about Maimu’s child and other predictions, but it reveals Nemu’s own secret—she’s colorblind. She, Juku and Ajiro should be the only ones who know about it, and yet. With Cosmic in circulation, other JDC detectives are now pestering her with uncomfortable questions, and she resorted to claiming that the mysterious author had just made that up. [Here the narration hints ominously: however, the fact that she is colorblind will be very important in a few years… but that’s another case, for another time.]

Nemu thinks about how Ryuuguujou looks as wondrous as the actual palace from the tale about Urashima Tarou, and how Jounosuke himself has this unreal fairytale atmosphere of sorts. Then again, so does indescribably beautiful Juku and a bunch of other people in JDC. [The narration pipes in again to state that Jounosuke’s quirky personality will be of importance in the Crime Olympics. The author is really trying to make sure we remember things for the future.]

The Tsukumo siblings are sad that not everyone could gather in Ryuuguujou. Ajiro is missing, Kirika is hospitalized, Amagoi is busy with a case in Italy, and Hikimiya and Christmas couldn’t return on time because of getting involved in the latest Billion Killer case in France. It’s sad, but the reason why the Tsukumos came to visit Jounosuke in the first place is depressing in itself.

Noticing Nemu’s sadness, Juku asks her if she still has the omamori from him—an invisible talisman embodying his will to always protect her, which he gave her at the very beginning of her path to becoming a detective. She answers that of course she still carries it, as a part of her. Juku says that he prays there won’t come a day when she would truly need it—hopefully never. [This is incredibly heartwarming, but also sounds like he gave her a gun.]

--

Let’s go back in time a bit to explain why Hikimiya and Christmas couldn’t make it on time.

The fourteenth Billion Killer case involved a jet plane teleporting from the sky to just above a Parisian street, decimating everything in its path, and exploding when it reached Arc de Triomphe. Hikimiya and Christmas were on that plane, but luckily managed to get away with only some injuries; Hikimiya broke his left arm and his beloved laptop.

Frau D happened to have been in Arc de Triomphe at the time and sustained serious injuries, so he would have to be hospitalized for months. He seemed to be pretty cheerful when Hikimiya visited him, though, and said (who knows whether seriously or in jest) that he wasn’t going to die until he won Hikimiya’s heart. Frau would be incapacitated for the foreseeable future, so he asked Hikimiya to take over his responsibilities working with the Egg Mac and the Desert Colosseum AI. Hikimiya was pissed off at the prospect, since he really wanted a break; the crashed plane was supposed to bring him back to Japan, but now he had to stay in Paris for who knows how long. Before exiting the room in a huff, Hikimiya asked why exactly Frau had been in Arc de Triomphe, to which he got a grin and the answer “to look after your plane leaving—because I love you, boy.” (Hikimiya was really, really not sure if this was a joke or not.)

Later Hikimiya met up with Christmas, who informed him that Jounosuke was going to Peru for an investigation in a few days. That seemed just preposterous—Jounosuke was seriously ill and should stay in bed—but you can’t really get through that guy’s stubbornness sometimes.

Then again, Jounosuke didn’t even know yet that he had Alive. Nobody wanted to tell him. Did the plane not crash, Hikimiya and Christmas would go to Ryuuguujou with everyone to spend time with him before the disease progressed further.

--

Back to the present day in Ryuuguujou…

Otohime, Jouka, Juku and Nemu all gather in Jounosuke’s bedroom to his delight. Juku says that Inugami Yasha wanted to visit too, but is busy with something in his hometown right now.

Jounosuke is in high spirits, claims that he’s just fine and will sooner die from boredom lying in bed all day, and this sort of giant mysteries like the Crime Olympics just waiting to be solved don’t happen every day, you know! He states that in a few days he’s going to Peru, as the local president asked him for help. They banter a bit with Otohime in a true sibling style, “please rest for the love of god” versus “but I’m fine, and listen, THE MYSTERY!”, culminating with Otohime asking Jouka to please look after this petulant child.

The conversation moves to Somedaring Amagoi, the teenage JDC detective dressed like a miko priestess and seeming like a copy of Jounosuke in terms of making horrible worldplays.

Amagoi gave a few detectives omamori, but seemed to mix them up by accident; Jounosuke inexplicably got anzan (supposed to help with pregnancy and delivery), and Juku got gakugyo-joju (mostly for students dealing with exams, but also for gaining knowledge in general). Both men laugh about it, but still appreciate the thought and carry these talismans close to their hearts (Jounosuke can complain about Amagoi being an annoyance all he wants, but he wears that omamori even when he’s lying in bed in pajamas all day).

Jouka tells the others what she investigated about the mysterious “Seiryoin Ryusui”. They thought at first that it could be Dakushoin’s sister Minase Nagisa, but Nagisa denies it and claims that judging by the writing style, Cosmic and Joker could both have been written by her brother—but he died in 1993, so how would he know about current things like Maimu’s ability?

Otohime, who is an avid reader, is able to distinguish between the writing style of Dakushoin and Nagisa enough to realize that Cosmic and Joker are actually more similar to Nagisa’s own books. However, this doesn’t have to mean that Nagisa is lying.

Jounosuke realizes what Otohime means: they had the pen names of the twins mixed up all along! Perhaps it was the brother Tamei Hidetaka who published under the name “Minase Nagisa”, while his sister Tamei Madoka used the handle “Dakushoin Ryuusui”, and they’ve been keeping this switch secret from everyone.

This sounds probable, but Juku and Nemu think the truth may be even more complicated: this switch may involve a mysterious third writer. Tamei Hidetaka would receive manuscripts from that someone and act like they were his own. That third writer might be that “Seiryoin” they’re searching for.

---

Otohime and Juku excuse themselves outside, leaving the other three to talk about Cosmic. Nemu is concerned about a brief passage claiming that Jounosuke’s parents subjected him to some sort of brainwashing. It must be a lie—Mr. and Mrs. Ryuuguu are nice people—but Nemu’s fuzzy reasoning tells her vaguely that there might be more to it. Jounosuke’s tendency to always wear black, call himself “Ryuuguu” in third person, make machines malfunction with one touch, be fascinated with words, present almost too happy of a demeanor sometimes… is there more to all of it?

Jounosuke jokes that this Seiryoin guy should hurry up and write a book about the current events so they could get even more clues, maybe called Carnival or something.

As Nemu leaves the room, she thinks briefly about love. Jounosuke and Jouka are very good friends with similar atmosphere, but obviously don’t have any romantic feelings towards each other (especially since, as Jounosuke himself stated many times, he’s just not attracted to anyone no matter their gender). The same can be said about Juku and Otohime.

Nemu kinda only now realizes that she herself never really was in love—or perhaps was too immature to realize what her feelings were...?—and while thinking about this, she reminisces about her old friend Ajiro Souya.

---

Shortly before the Tsukumo siblings arrived at Ryuuguujou, one of Otohime’s bodyguards, Matsuo “Macho” Mentei, suddenly fainted while looking at the scenery. It turned out that he had somehow, in some way, made eye contact with Juku, who was at the time staring at Ryuuguujou through the car window. Even though the two couldn’t actually see each other from that distance, Macho still fainted. Juku apologizes to him profusely, and later he and Otohime talk in the hallway.

The narration informs us that the friendship between the Ryuuguus and the Tsukumo siblings goes back sixteen years to the Saimon Family Murder Case, during which little Juku stayed at Ryuuguujou for some time. Due to their deep connection Jounosuke treats Juku a bit like a younger brother, while Otohime has the kind of deep understanding with him where they can spend time together in comfortable silence.

Juku and Otohime talk about the Crime Olympics and what the “ultimate trick” used in it could be. Otohime states that there’s no such thing as something “ultimate” or “the best of the best”—the concept of something “ultimate” only makes sense if nothing can actually reach that level, because then the definition of “ultimate” would just shift to mean something even better.

Juku thinks that whoever’s behind the Crime Olympics might be using a new technology of some kind, something that just like radio waves can’t exactly be spotted if you don’t know they exist. He compares it to how Matsuo Mentei has fainted due to “something unseeable”. Otohime responds that this today was just an accident, so it’s strange to compare it to something like the Crime Olympics.

Juku says that who knows, perhaps the “trick” behind the incident with Matsuo Mentei and the trick of the Crime Olympics will turn out to have the same origin.

--

THIRTEEN

16 Nov 1996 — 22 Nov 1996

GREENWICH

--

On the second day of his trip to Peru, Jounosuke falls into a deep feverish sleep due to Alive, and when he finally wakes up, he seems like a different person. Innocent charm all but disappears from his face and something dark creeps into his usually cheerful atmosphere. He wants only Jouka to stay by his side and proposes to her. Christmas is delegated to investigate the Easter Island in case a Billion Killer case happens there.

Christmas feels like the world is going insane.

Counting the newest Billion Killer case—the Royal Observatory in Greenwich being destroyed—over four hundred million people have died so far.

--

[END OF PART 1 — CARNIVAL ACT]

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[sparklyjojos]

Let’s Read & Suffer: Tsukumojuku by Maijō Ōtarō [part 19]

Today`s recap: In which Tsukumojuku finally enters the Illusionary Castle, reunites with a character that I honestly forgot existed, discovers a very convoluted serial killer puzzle, and then things once more get pretty damn meta. [tw: gore]

STORY 4 PART 3

After Tsukumojuku discovered her crime, Serika and Seshiru had to escape once more. They both looked very hurt, with Serika crying and saying that she didn’t want to get separated from Tsukumojuku again, even if she understood that he had his own life now, what with his marriage and kids. [No, I don’t know how he can get married at like 16 either.]

(Love was a memory kept by the whole body. Made in the brain, spread with the blood throughout one’s entire being, and would never cease. ...and the love he once held for Serika was nothing more but a distant memory, he realized.)

When the twins fled Chofu, they left two disembodied hands of a man in the hidden room. According to Serika, that man’s name was Okubo Kengo. Well, that's proof enough. Tsukumojuku returned Ryouko's hollowed-out body to the police, and said that the criminal was Seshiru, leaving out the truth about Serika. A lot of bodies were later pulled out of the river, among them Okubo Kengo.

Tsukumojuku got the 10 million yen prize, transferred half of it to the twins' bank account, bought the magazines for his mother-in-law, and returned home in time. Whew! The mother-in-law questioned why he only got half the money, and he couldn't thought of a reason other than “er, must have dropped it on the way here?”, but it seemed they believed him.

He then learned that since Yanbe Tetsuo, the Illusionary Castle's owner, was quite rich, a prize for solving the Castle case had been funded: 30 million yen, which was something they could definitely use.

–

That night Tsukumojuku read the Third Story. Apparently Okubo Kengo was a serial killer there. In reality... well, you could say a lot of killing was done by his hands. [*rimshot*] In the Third Story, Seiryoin Ryusui was trapped in the Castle... maybe that meant they’d meet tomorrow, once Tsukumojuku got through the underground waterway. (The Castle’s underground... wasn’t that where the monster Gajobun was supposed to live?...) Maybe him thinking about the flag of Gibraltar, showing a key under a castle, really did make sense after all. Did the cross and the crown mean something too?

When he went to the park next morning, there was still a lot of policemen in there, investigating the terrain around the hidden room. A journalist came up to him like “Oh, so you're that Great Detective Tsukumojuku”. Since Tsukumojuku was afraid Ms Suzuki or Tsutomu would learn from the media where he is, he made the journalist faint before he could get any material. The police warned him against more noisy reporters, and didn’t say anything as he entered a manhole, although they looked a bit confused as to why he was doing that. Tsukumojuku went some distance underground, turned on the flashlight he'd brought with him, and looked around.

The waterway was full of ghosts.

STORY 4 PART 4

Of course the waterway was full of ghosts, their faces twisted in sadness or anger; lots of people had died in the Castle. Maybe they were trying to look for their way back? As he walked forward, their numbers increased, until he had to practically squeeze between them to proceed. Finally, he found the place where all the souls were looking up at the same spot. A hole in the ceiling. It seemed no soul could pass through it: a lot of them were frozen in mid-air reaching for it, and Tsukumojuku used that fact to climb them like a makeshift ladder. [Sure.]

Once he climbed out, he noticed a rope ladder, that this “Seiryoin” had probably been using to exit the Castle. If he really was the culprit of the Geneijo case, and these souls were the victims, then it’s kinda weird they didn’t do anything to him.

Tsukumojuku wandered the Castle’s cramped passages for some time before hearing upset voices:

“...I don't knoooow! This makes no sense! Enough! Enough!” “Calm down, Abe.” “I'm serious! I want out of here, right now!” “Stop crying, it's annoying! There's no reason for it! We're fine! Your assistant should be able to do something...” “He’s not my assistant, he’s more like a little brother to me...”

Following the voices, Tsukumojuku opened the door to what looked like a giant chapel, with stone pillars and stained-glass windows. Above the altar, maybe 15m above the ground, a giant crucifix with a figure of Christ was suspended. There were about 20 men and women in the chapel, and one of them was someone very familiar to Tsukumojuku: Abe Atsushi, or Daibakusho Happy. (安倍敦, or 大爆笑ハッピ)

[If just like me you have already forgotten who the hell was that -- it’s that private tutor from the First Story who couldn’t teach for shit, constantly repeated the rakugo “Dowry”, and hanged out with little Tsutomu a lot.]

Tsukumojuku followed Abe’s horrified sight to see what this was all about. On the altar, there was a box with a woman's head inside. Her pale face had a red circle painted on the right cheek, and a blue circle on the left cheek. Her eyes were open, dark eyeliner and fake eyelashes applied. On the box’s inner side was written the name “Geneijo” in red, and the number “5” in blue. On the head's right side somebody had put a clown doll dressed in black.

Oh, and there were 42 other boxes.

Small or large, all rectangular, sometimes containing a head and sometimes half a body. All were decorated with colors, had some kind of toys inside, and were numbered.

Three boxes didn't have bodies: one was numbered “7″ (seventh column from the left) that happened to be next to another “7″. “5″ (tenth column) was empty too, and also had another “5″ as a neighbour. A “1″ (2nd column) also had another “1″ next to it, but instead of being empty, it contained a hand made of clay. So, a double box number would distinguish the empty ones?

The 43 boxes all symbolized individual covers of the 1975-1999 issues of Geneijo, a detective novel magazine. The empty boxes corresponded to '75 July Extra Issue (with Edogawa Ranpo on the cover), and '76 May Special Issue (with Yokomizo Seishi). The box with black clay hands was the '78 New Year Special Issue.

[The next four pages are Tsukumojuku’s drawings of the boxes -- don’t worry, you don’t actually have to pay any attention to these for the plot, but I’m putting them here just because. 

Columns 1-2:

Columns 3-5:

Columns 6-8:

Columns 9-11:

–

Among them Tsukumojuku found Ryouko’s head, wrapped in pink scarf, with lips painted pink. (He hoped the white rose in the box would be, as stupid as it sounded, a bit of a comfort to her lost soul... though her soul was still stuck behind that bookshelf.) 

He quickly understood the reason why the criminal had used 12 bodies from outside the Castle. During its first year being in circulation, the Geneijo magazine was published by a company called Geneisha, which eventually bankrupted. The magazine was from then on published by a new company called just Geneijo. So the first year issues, from February '75 to January '76, were “from outside Geneijo” -- from outside the Castle. And so were the victims.

- - -

Tsukumojuku approached the group of people, and told Abe that he was Tsutomu's older brother. Abe recognized him (“Oh, it’s you! You alright? How did you get here? Does Tsutomu know you’re here?”) Tsukumojuku told them about the waterway entrance, and everyone cheered, for some reason shouting “Kick-kick-kick, four-dimensional kick” in happiness. A tall man thanked Tsukumojuku for coming, said that everyone in the chapel was an entertainment group [as in actors] called the Angel Bunnies, and asked for his name.

“I’m the Great Detective Tsukumojuku.”

The cheering stopped abruptly.

"What the fuck?!” Abe yelled in tears. “That's already the third Great Detective Tsukumojuku! I don't understand anything! Is the world made out of Tsukumojukus?!”

The tall man tried to console Abe saying that it was all fine, they could leave now -- but Tsukumojuku quickly said that actually, they couldn't leave yet, since the criminal may be among them.

“But,” he said, “I can guarantee that the case will be solved in the next 30 minutes!” Just in time to get back home for lunch. “So please be patient and--”

“But that's exactly what the other Tsukumojuku sa-a-aid...!” Abe was completely hysterical, so Tsukumojuku asked everyone else to look away and took off the sunglasses. Now that the nuisance was temporarily gone (along with two other people too curious for their own good who also had looked his way), he put the glasses back on.

The tall man was like “oh shit, that really is the Great Detective Tsukumojuku, what's with the unnatural beauty and all”. Huh? So that other “Tsukumojuku” was just as beautiful as him?

- - -

The Angel Bunnies introduced themselves to Tsukumojuku. [You don’t have to remember these names at all, don’t worry.]

The name of the tall man was Fukushima Manabu (福島学). People who had fainted alongside Abe were Kawabe Keisuke (河辺恵介) and Nakai Sayaka (中井紗也香).

Other members, men: Kawai Kazuhiro (河合一洋), Hongou Takeshi (本郷雄士), Tanaka Masatsugu (田中正嗣), Kumono Takuya (雲野巧也), Hoshino Masato (星野真人), Aoyama Gen (青山元), Furutaka Masayuki (古高雅之).

Other members, women: Mizoroki Fumie (溝呂木文枝), Kajiwara Ayako (梶原亜矢子), Nomura Rie (野村りえ), Obata Aki (尾畑亜紀), Nonaka Mami (野中麻美), Yoshida Yukino (吉田由貴乃), Iwai Yumi (岩井ゆみ).

A total of 19 people. There were 20 of them once, but unfortunately Higashimoto Mika (東元美佳) was currently stuffed in the box symbolizing the November '76 issue of Geneijo.

As for what they were doing there: apparently Tsutomu (now Great Detective Daibakusho Curry) had been invited to the Castle party. He and Abe were a part of the Angel Bunnies, so when he got the invitation to the Castle, everyone went together with him to have some fun.

Needless to say, it wasn’t fun. Among other casualties, Seiryoin Ryusui vanished without a trace the very first day. Other weird shit was going on too. Apparently some actual JDC members had appeared out of nowhere: Ajiro Souji, Hikimiya Yuuya (氷姫宮幽弥), and the Detective God Tsukumo Juku himself. The rumor was that they had come to protest the publishing of Seiryoin's JDC books, and that Tsutomu / Daibakusho Curry was secretly cooperating with them.

Three JDC detectives... each with his own method of reasoning. Ajiro Souji would ponder the topic endlessly, Detective God would wait patiently and gather evidence that showed up with time, and Hikimiya was mostly there to write the data down. Apparently this now meant that Ajiro was worrying himself with Geneijo on a break from his usual telephone detective stuff. Detective God mostly closed himself in his room and napped [probably because why bother when the evidence hadn’t showed up yet?]. Hikimiya was running around and calculate many weird things like how many chairs and bed there was on the first floor (the same that the number of pages in Seiryoin’s Cosmic, apparently), the number of windows (99, like the number of chapters in Joker), and how much space the carpet took (the same as all the illustrations, table of contents etc. in Carnival.)

Hikimiya was now busy reading through the entirety of the library, counting how many times individual characters show up, or some weird specific shit like that. (...Tsutomu’s cooperation probably meant he was taking care of poor Hikimiya while he was working. Tsutomu was just the kind of person who’d want to take care of others.)

- - -

Since the Angel Bunnies had no idea what the hell the Geneijo magazine even was, Tsukumojuku explained.

Geneijo was called that after Edogawa Ranpo's famous essay. The same essay’s name was also given to the mysterious castle showing up in Seiryoin's book -- in these books, the Castle’s owner was even called Hirai Tarou, which happens to be Edogawa Ranpo's true name. In Joker, a serial killer called the Artist killed a whole lot of people in Geneijo, and the JDC detectives had to stop him... but of course, that was just a story. To make things even more meta, in the JDC books there actually appeared a character called “Seiryoin Ryusui” who was simultaneously writing the JDC books.

Just a story... But the JDC detectives had appeared in reality now, as the Angel Bunnies pointed out. But maybe they were just cosplayers, who would made up things using words and numbers -- anagrams, math puzzles, word plays and so on. If you kept doing this long enough, one thing would always lead to another. For example,let’s say we want to connect “words” and “numbers”. If you moved the voiced consonant in “kotoba” (word) from end to beginning you'd get “gotoha” which you can write down as “五とは” which has the number 5 in it, isn’t it just amazing?

Or that the word “suuji” (numbers, 数字) would also be read “suuji” when written as 崇辞, and if you now swapped the second kanji in that for same-reading 詞, you'd get 崇高な詞 (a sublime word?) which are 本物の言葉 (real words). Words within words. Words without unnecessary decorations. (余計な装飾のない言葉). Words by themselves, to sum it up.

[I’m equally confused by the word play onslaught, don’t worry.]

There were a whole lot of these word games, and obviously some common theme would always crop up if you banged one concept into the other hard enough. These puns and anagrams were the essence of the JDC series, so naturally, it wouldn’t be strange that these “hardcore JDC cosplayers” would also love them.

- - -

In an attempt to solve the mystery, Tsukumojuku then took Ryouko’s head out of her box and using a knife carefully cut off her face to make a mask, which caused the horrified Angel Bunnies to run away to the other side of the chapel because what the actual fuck, dude. Tsukumojuku put the makeshift mask on, and just like when putting on her skin, Ryouko’s memories instantly attacked his brain. They were so strong he fell on the floor in convulsions, and actually broke three ribs in the proccess. Too many memories, way too much information, too great of an impact, and then suddenly – the memory from just before death.

Chofu, near the river, late at night. Somebody trying to catch Ryouko – it's Serika, wearing Okubo's hands like gloves. Ryouko ran, but was caught and tackled to the ground. Serika sat on her chest, and yelled for someone to keep her legs down!”. A man with long black hair and glasses -- Seiryoin.

Mystery solved. In Geneijo, Seiryoin was God.

And as he took the mask off, that God’s “Angels” -- Ajiro, Hikimiya and JDC’s own Tsukumo Juku -- entered the chapel along with Tsutomu.

- - -

IMPRESSIONS:

*Maijo voice* how many layers of meta are you on? you’re like a little baby, watch this

Jesus, just how many tiny kanji can you fit on all these diagrams, Tsukumojuku? Good thing the details don’t really seem to matter in the grand scheme of things, at least as far as I’ve read, so I don’t have to translate this mess.

I love the scene with the ghosts. The soul ladder reminded me of the Kars ladder from Jorge Joestar, for some reason.

I don’t know if this is the intentional reading here, but I love the idea that the Detective God would just chill out in his room while shit is going on because he knows how mystery novels work and that the case’s not gonna get solved before the writer wills it. “Gonna take a nap, wake me up once the scared witness gets shot just before revealing the killer’s name.”

In the JDC series, Hikimiya Yuuya specializes in crime statistics and such, which requires him to always carry a laptop he can calculate data with. He loves quoting mystery novels whenever he can. While working as an assisstant to such great detectives like the Detective God or Ryuuguu Jounosuke, he has some complexes about his own power of reasoning. Not a very remarkable guy, at least on first sight.

>>>>NEXT PART>>>>

[sparklyjojos]

Let’s Read & Suffer: Tsukumojuku by Maijō Ōtarō [part 12]

Today`s recap: This. This is why this recap is called “Let`s read & SUFFER.” (tw: csa, gore, torture, eye horror, all of the above rolled into one)

(this part is infamous for a reason, please heed the warnings)

STORY 3 PART 6

As promised, Tsukumojuku went to Okubo's house. The garden in the back seemed to be where the corpses of his victims were hidden, no doubt a lot of headless women. Probably lots of boys, too.

Looking through the basement window, he saw a bed and various tools that must have been used on the victims. A military uniform from the Vietnam War was hanging on the wall. Okubo probably wore it for the power fantasy while torturing his victims. There was also a flag and decorative sabres of the Korean People's Army, and similar kinds of incredibly fucked up memorabilia.

When Tsukumojuku rang the doorbell, Okubo opened him wearing an apron, acting friendly led him to the kitchen and offered him croquettes. Tsukumojuku said he wasn't hungry (he wanted to go home, fast) and sat on the table.

Which was a pretext Okubo was waiting for to hit him for ‘misbehavior’, then drag him into the next room, kick him repeatedly in the face, and completely unleash his sadism. (Desperate to destroy beauty because of his own ugliness, Tsukumojuku thought.)

Okubo then took Tsukumojuku’s eyes out and put them on the.dresser.

Tsukumojuku still clearly saw everyhing that happened to him next.

(But it wouldn't be long, right? Okubo surely would be spent and done soon. It'd surely end soon. ...But it didn't.)

[Again, I really don’t want to describe all the horrors that Okubo unleashed on him: let’s just say it got to the point where skullfucking was involved, and Tsukumojuku detachedly noted that it didn't hurt that much, since the brain doesn't feel pain. JESUS CHRIST, WHAT AM I READING. The fact that Tsukumojuku survived this makes me sure he really does have some sort of insta-regen powers.]

---

After this horrifying part, Tsukumojuku was allowed a break to go to the bathroom, clean himself up, and put his eyes back in.

What he had intended to happen was that Serika and Seshiru would surely come to kill him, having had enough of hiding and escaping (he wasn’t naive enough to think they felt anything but hate for him, even after he’d helped them). They would definitely come here... And then he'd trick Okubo into killing them before making him faint and thus getting rid of two birds with one stone. This was why even through all the terror he couldn’t afford to just make Okubo faint -- if the twins happened to show up when Okubo was out cold, they’d kill Tsukumojuku easily.

But it was getting late, and the twins still hadn’t appeared.

---

Tsukumojuku was then taken to the basement, handcuffed to the bed, and tortured even worse.

(At one point he looked at the nearest mirror-like surface, and realized that somehow, beaten up and mutilated, he was still too beautiful. Even he himself felt dizzy just glancing in the mirror.)

Finally Okubo implied that he was going to kill him, and Tsukumojuku decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore to wait for the twins to show up. He attempted to trick Okubo into looking into his eyes, but as the man had already fainted once because of him, he wouldn’t fall for it again.

Okubo went out of the basement for a second, and Tsukumojuku thought: Alright. Now or never. Once the man got back, he'd have to at least glance at his face when trying to cut his throat. There was a chance.

But Okubo really had learned his lesson. He returned with a circular saw rather than a knife, and was closing in not looking at Tsukumojuku at all. He crept closer and closer, Tsukumojuku trying to do something, anything to get free, the saw buzzing right next to his neck--

The door flew wide open. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY LITTLE BROTHER, YOU BASTARD?!”

It was Seshiru.

Seshiru and Serika, dear Seshiru and Serika. The army knife that had allowed them to escape was now pointed at Okubo.

Okubo instantly charged at them, and chaotic battle ensued. Seshiru plunged the knife into Okubo's side and held onto it even after having his stomach slashed horribly, tried to stab Okubo’s head but his side got caught by the saw’s blade, and he only didn’t get cut in half because Serika smacked Okubo on the head with an electric baton she’d probably stolen from the police. Finally the knife was plunged into Okubo’s throat, and once he fell to the ground, Seshiru kicked the abandoned saw towards him, killing him for good.

“What the fuck did you do to my baby brother?!” Seshiru yelled again, ignoring the blood pouring from his no doubt mortally wounded stomach, and plunged the knife into Okubo, again, again, again, not stopping for even a moment.

With tearful eyes, Serika released Tsukumojuku from the handcuffs, and he asked her if she’d heard of Seiryoin Ryusui. She didn't. Good. Tsukumojuku hit her with her own electric baton, and she fell on the ground unconscious.

Seshiru finally stopped and looked at him. “What are you... doing?”

Tsukumojuku approached him without a word.

“Even when... I helped you with all my heart...” Seshiru managed through the blood bubbling in his throat.

“I was going to kill you from the very beginning, Seshiru. I had promised it back then. But still... I’m happy that you called me your brother. Even if not a single one of us is a Kato anymore. ...Seshiru, do you know the author Seiryoin Ryusui?”

“...no... I don't...”

“I see.” Tsukumojuku took one of the sabres decorating the wall and stabbed it into the X mark on Seshiru’s chest, staying calm on the outside but with internal turmoil.

(”I loved you Seshiru I loved you Seshiru I wanted to become your brother”)

After a long quiet moment, Tsukumojuku swapped his clothes and wallet with Seshiru's. Using the sabre he cut off Seshiru's head, and put it in a bag he’d found in the basement. He slung the bag over his shoulder, picked up still unconscious Serika, and left.

---

Using a public phone at the Nagoya station, Tsukumojuku called the police. “This is Kato Seshiru speaking,” he said. [Note: he’s using Seshiru’s proper name kanji here -- 聖思流 -- rather than katakana like he always did.]

He said he wasn't going to surrender, but explain what was happening. The investigator, Okubo Kengo, was the real murderer in the throat-cutter case, and the police would find a lot of evidence if they checked his house. He, “Seshiru”, had witnessed Okubo killing the great detective Ryuuguu Jounosuke, and after that him, “Seshiru”, killed Okubo in return.

Yes. Him, “Seshiru”, killed Okubo. The murdered boy called Ryuuguu Jounosuke was actually his dear little brother, Kato Tsukumojuku. (He felt safe making this claim: since the police would have a lot to do once they found out about all of Okubo’s crimes, nobody would think to check the identity of that one corpse too carefully. Kato Tsukumojuku would be declared dead).

After hanging up, he got a taxi. Holding still deeply sleeping Serika close, he looked at the passing scenery lost in thought.

“My name is Kato Seshiru, Inugami Yasha, a great detective, and I’m the brother of Serika, Kirika Mai, a great detective.

We are going to the Illusionary Castle to meet Seiryoin Ryusui.”

STORY 3 PART 7

In the middle of the night, a phone rang.

Emiko stirred awake and picked it up. It was Tsukumojuku. “Where are you now?” she asked. Far away, he said. “Wha? Where?” On the way to Seiryoin Ryusui, to settle things. “No, it's fine... just come back home...” Had she been sleeping? “Yes, sleeping a lot. What time is it? Why are you out at this hour?” He was already far away, seeking Seiryoin out, and he wasn't coming back. “That's stupid.” It was. “You should be more selfish sometimes.” I love you, Emiko, he said right before she hang up.

She must have drifted back into sleep, just like the children beside her; a deep, deep sleep.

He then went into Emiko's dream and wanted to continue the conversation, but she was angry with him and they fought. Even in a dream she somehow managed to hang up on him. “Be more selfish,” she repeated.

You are cursed. Crops don't grow from your soil. You will wander around the earth. But those who kill you will suffer vengeance seven times over.

END OF THE THIRD STORY

---

IMPRESSIONS:

Hey uh, so this was. Fucked up as hell. Believe me, this recap skips --a lot-- of pages full of graphic csa and gore. Was all of that really necessary, Maijo? Was it really? You could convey the same thing using just a small percentage of these descriptions.

All you need to know about this part is that it’s quite infamous in the fanbase. Now I truly understand some tweets I saw, back from around the time when Jorge Joestar was released, that were made by people unsettled after learning Tsukumojuku showed up in it. (”Wait, you mean that Tsukumojuku is in it? From the incestual gorefest book? Are the Jojo novels rated R now?!”). Although, for a lot of people Tsukumojuku being there was actually the reason to buy the book in the first place because they liked him so much, so... go figure.

Guess who will never be able to reread that one part of Jorge Joestar where Kars explains how “brains feel no pain” without immediately getting reminded of this chapter which used the exact same style of explanation, urgh urgh urgh nope

You know things got bad when you’re actively cheering for Seshiru. For fucking Seshiru. How did you manage to make me feel bad for Seshiru after all that he did in the First Story, Maijo Otaro. How.

Just like the Second Story ended with Adam and Eve, this one ends with Cain and Abel (Genesis 4):

11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

>>>>NEXT PART>>>>