Fictions Mentioned:
Episode 14
OP Song:
Adele - Skyfall (Lyric Video)
Insert Song: Start
Best of Umineko BGM - Liberated Liberator
Misaki Shokuhou (511) had calmed down after pouring her heart out for...she didn't know how long...
She was just content to sit down for a while, lay her head near the shoulder of Touma Kamijou, and was currently sitting on a bench from the walkways of the library's botanical garden. It was rather bittersweet because this was not her Touma Kamijou (511). Rather, it was a Touma Kamijou from another world (ACMI Universe-Prime). The strangest thing was that Shokuhou had met this version before when he was very young, a young child who was going by the name of Touya Otohime.
"...Speaking of which," she raised her head out of concern and turn towards Touma Kamijou who simply stared straight into the distance. It looked as if he was staring at an unknown distance, somewhere afar and beyond anyone's reach. "I have to ask, but how?"
"Time travel," Kamijou said.
"I know, that's rather obvious at this point, but that wasn't what I was asking. I was asking...how?" Shokuhou was asking about the type of method that lead to Touma Kamijou's eleven-year-old self suddenly ending up just in the right place at the right time.
And then, Touma Kamijou made a grimaced, hesitant expression. Shokuhou realized that this particular topic is quite important to him, one that he never wanted to bring out whenever ordinary topics are concerned, one that he keeps close to his heart and doesn't divulge randomly. This topic in other words was very sensitive and serious enough for him. Kamijou breathes in and out, saying.
"...I've...I've been through hell...Literally..."
"...Wh...What do you mean by that?" Shokuhou (511) asked. She didn't like the tone that Kamijou had used.
And so, Touma Kamijou would reveal something that would make her grow with a mixture of feelings within her maiden heart. Horror, sadness, empathy, anger, and many others.
Touma Kamijou had been through hell. That particular statement could never be more understating than this was now.
He experienced an event when he was eleven years old. It was called The Test of the Witches, or simply The Test. It was a series or collection of events that transpired that made Touma Kamijou go through tremendous challenges. From a simple village called Hinamizawa that went through hellish loops that lasted for god knows how long and it was connected to things like a virus that turns people mad and to a certain nurse with blonde hair working for an organization connected to a conspiracy and this woman had plans of her own in light of the influence that her late adoptive grandfather and his research had, to the times when he dies through many contextual situations too long to list, to fighting in various wars, to experiencing various tortures, to dealing with a vengeful ghost, to dealing with a conspiracy plot that turns actual clone soldiers into brutal and efficient killers, to dealing with a town that is as silent as the name that it was implied to be, to getting randomly ejected and transplanted from one cosmology to the next, and many countless other things.
Every single time, in many of those times, he dies. But he gets brought back every single time. He barely has any form of rest. In some circumstances, there were experiences in this hell that he could not remember, at least that specific time. One particular example would have to deal with a vengeful ghost dyed in pure red who has now been laid to rest at last. The recent one would have to be a little memory of hope which would be the young Touma Kamijou's interaction with Misaki Shokuhou (511) during a time when the latter was depressed and wanted to cry alone.
Misaki Shokuhou (511) was grateful to this young Touma Kamijou for cheering her up. He didn't judge her nor did he pry into her own personal business. All he did was simply listen as she rambled on and on. He let her embrace him like a teddy bear or a pillow, being a small comfort as she cried and cried. He listened and didn't utter a word. It lasted all the way up to the sunset. Shokuhou (511) knew that it was time to part ways. She recalled the very last time they met and it was one with a happy reassuring smile.
But the way he said it at the time...
"Where I am going, you cannot come, onee-chan. But...I wish you the best smiles possible..."
That made her heart worry for the boy because he was smiling and yet was obviously suffering from the inside. He was so much like her Prince that it hurts. Now that she knew that it was indeed her Prince, just from another universe, and the context behind why he said them...
One of those contextual lines started because he didn't think that he could see her again. And even if he did, he may or may not remember her if he does. The life of Touma Kamijou (Prime) at this point was likened to a large cornfield where you didn't know where the roads would take you. The road that he had walked was a very slippery and tumultuous one.
"...But..." Shokuhou (511) grabs the left shoulder of the spiky-haired old man with a younger body with absolute concern for his mental health. "How...? How are you...? How can you be...? How can you be this kind after all this time? Do you mean to tell me that when we first met that time, you were suffering something like this?! If that's the case, then how...? How can you be this sane...?"
"That's honestly a good question."
Shokuhou (511) turn to the other direction and sees her prime counterpart walking towards them with a couple of water bottles that she got from a refrigerator nearby. Shokuhou (Prime) was walking towards her Prince and smiled sadly, gesturing the bottle.
Kamijou smiled, saying as he takes the bottle from Shokuhou (Prime). "Thank you, Misaki."
Shokuhou (Prime) simply smiled in turn as she seated on the other side of the bench and was placing the water bottles to her right. She didn't offer a water bottle to her 511 counterpart because she knew intimately that she wasn't in the mood for drinking and she can tell from that very look that was showing very mixed feelings on the issue.
"My Prince here has suffered...more than most men could ever say or boast about. It had happened long before we even met. When we first met in fact, he didn't recognize me in a sense and only in a sort of déjà vu kind of way, meaning that it was further proof that he had forgotten his encounter with you in part. It was only now that he remembered, and believe me, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened," Shokuhou (Prime) explained, sporting a grim and empathetic expression.
"Hold on?! Not the first time?!" Shokuhou (511) said, showing signs of trepidation and worry.
"The Test, in a way, has come back to haunt me, with one of those recent ones being a multiversal problem involving a vengeful ghost and people from other worlds getting dragged into the damn mess. We took care of that one so there's no need for you to worry about that now," Kamijou said with a reassuring smile.
"This...This damn Test, what or who made you undergo such a Test?!" Shokuhou (511) wanted to know. She wanted to know because her righteous anger was slowly making its way to her face. She wasn't pleased about this. Despite this man not being her Touma Kamijou, despite this man not being her Prince, he was still her Prince, even in another world.
To imagine her Prince in a very twisted scenario like this, to have to be separated from everyone that he knew, to have to go on and on saving anyone that came along his way. She didn't want to even think of the kind of horrors and madness that this man had borne witness to. She was starting to regret the times when she was laughing at him because he was suffering far worse than even her.
Kamijou sighed heavily at such a question. "...It...It doesn't matter..."
That response made Shokuhou (Prime) saddened and Shokuhou (511) look angry born out of concern.
"Doesn't matter?!" Shokuhou (511) said.
"The person who did that to me...had a very good reason for doing it. The Test was for my sake after all, in spite of the cruelty that I was subjected too. And even then," Kamijou turned serious as he looked at Shokuhou (511), stopping her from speaking further and was intimidated by the look that he was giving her. "I wouldn't recommend fighting this person. Ever. And don't even try to look into this person's mind because it would have absolutely no effect on this person. This person...she's someone that you do not want as an enemy..."
"...She?" Shokuhou (511) felt trepid because of the way that Kamijou spoke of this person who was responsible for what had happened to him.
"It's true," Shokuhou (Prime) confirmed what Kamijou was saying, showing a grim expression. "The person that made my—our Prince to be in this Test is someone of great power...in every single sense of the word. To describe such a person...take for example an author. An author can do what he or she likes with her characters, writing them and the plot that they are to undergo. Now, take this plot to mean the Test and this person to be the author herself."
"...An author?" Shokuhou (511) said.
"Put it like this in another way. Imagine a battle scene playing out for you to see and you see the main protagonist trying to hit the final boss with everything he's got. Do you know what happened next?" Shokuhou (Prime) explained. "The final boss simply stopped the battle scene altogether. The final boss stopped everything as if it was hitting the pause button of the video game and the player who is playing the main protagonist has no control whatsoever. He cannot press any of the controls nor can he pause the game as the final boss just does whatever it truly sees fit and writes an entirely different sequence of events. Like for example, insert a scene here and leave the explanations for later. And the next moment, the final boss plays the game by just uttering a word. And the main protagonist...just dies...And that's not the worst part. The final boss can simply replay the game back to the very starting point and effectively bring back the main protagonist with no memory of when he died. It was almost as if the final events of the game was erased from existence, as if they never came to be..."
Shokuhou (511), after trying to contemplate the information, would slowly understand...and grew absolutely horrified... "...What...?"
The only thing that she can truly say to this would be one single word.
Monster!
And this person would take this as a compliment. Shokuhou (511) was looking at Kamijou who was confirming every single word with a nod.
"That's right...She's this final boss that instantly kills the main protagonist, she's the author, and she can do however she wants and almost no one can truly stop her. No one in my world nor yours can truly stop her. No esper, no magician, no god can fight her. You cannot fight her. Many have tried, and many have seen their very last," Kamijou spoke as if trying to relay an ominous warning.
"...Just...Just what kind of person is she?" Shokuhou (511) was trembling, worried for Touma Kamijou, both the young boy that she first met and the young man that saved her from the Emotionless monsters, and terrified of what this person can accomplish if what was said was true indeed.
In fact, there was no absolute room for doubt as Touma Kamijou (Prime) and Misaki Shokuhou (Prime) confirmed it to her with their own words.
"...She is the Majestic Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating. She has tired of life after a thousand years and constantly repeats a cycle of life and death. In the past, she served as the Master for several games as a legendary witch, but her legend, glory, and memory have already disappeared into the past and have been forgotten. Only the solemn medal she wears on her chest contains those memories. The horseshoe-shaped object floating around her head Is a memory aid device. It records her name, appearance, and other aspects of her personality. She is so old that she would not be able to preserve her own individuality without this. This is the person who sent me to Hell in order to endure the future trials that I may be subjected to...to prepare me for the DARKNESS that awaits us...that DARKNESS you would already know since my Misaki had already shown it to you," Kamijou explained with a solemn and serious expression.
And then, Shokuhou (511) would slowly pick up the pieces together as her face showed an expression of shock and horror. As much as she hated to admit it from the very fiber of her being, this Test was considered a cruel necessity in preparation for a threat that could spell the very end of everything that she and everyone else knew.
And then suddenly...
"I'm sorry."
There was a voice that uttered from afar. A very familiar voice. As the voice echoed, Touma Kamijou's heartbeat stopped and dropped, widening his eyes as a mixture of shock and horror was subtly seen in his facial expression. He can see everything stop.
But...
"But I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cut this scene short. I hope you understand."
It wasn't just the fact that everything stopped. Everything just stopped as if nothing was moving. Not a sound. Not a word. Nothing. Kamijou was slightly shaking as he instantly as he stood up from his seat and sees both versions of Misaki Shokuhou frozen. He feels a quick familiar shiver run down his spine. Then, he felt getting transported immediately to another place.
It was so sudden. You know the feeling that time never seemed to have passed by. Well, this was a literal case as it didn't even last a second before suddenly getting transported from one location to another.
As to where he suddenly ended up...
In a giant library. Again? But wait, this was no ordinary library. This was very unlike the library that Othinus had. This was much different and Touma Kamijou recognized it for what it is.
To describe this place...?
Well, numbers are no longer a matter of principle as they are just utterly useless.
This place was called the City of Books.
The bookshelves on either side of this canyon are skyscrapers. If one thinks of those emerald green lights flowing beneath us as headlights of a highway, then this does really seem like a city of books.
But the books on the shelves aren't just mere books. That's right. Each volume is packed with an ensemble play. From a simple perspective, they look like books, but if you open one up, you'll find a whole world inside. A whole world that is a multiverse of infinite possibilities. Each world is but one tale among a transfinite set, the boundaries of the concepts that were pierced by divine inspiration by the famous mathematician Georg Cantor provide for such a unique take and spin on everything we tend to know about the nature and process of reality.
In fact, the word "city" was no mere exaggeration. Trying to count them would be almost as crazy as counting all the fish in the ocean.
And Touma Kamijou knew intimately of the very owner of this place. The person who sent him to Hell and made him undergo the Test. He cannot fight this person. In fact, this person could not be considered with the labels of "hero" or "villain". You can only call this person an author for that is what she is. And like any author, she has the power to do whatever she deems fit for her story.
The sound of metal rings was heard.
Touma Kamijou...slowly turns around...
His face...was shown to carry a sense of dread and concern...as he faces the person that made him undergo his childhood nightmare...his hell that he never truly forgot...
"It has been far too long since our last meeting..."
He sees a very tall majestic woman that pretty much towers over him as her cat-like purple eyes were looking at him with a sense of playful amusement...just as he remembered her. Long dark purple hair stylized in a hime cut, and a metallic silver horseshoe-shaped object that seemingly levitates around her head. A shrine maiden outfit with a green sash adorned with a medal and white socks with wooden sandals. And there was the shakujou that she was holding with her left hand whose metal rings were slightly moving as if being blown by the wind.
She was...She was someone who is greater than his entire universe combined...greater than both sides of the world...no esper, no magician, no god of any sort, for they are mere specks of dust to someone like her...
No...not even his Imagine Breaker...Not even the Dragons...Not even IT...Not even whatever lay dormant...
"...my miko's understander."
Toum Kamijou could only utter one single word out of fear and respect as he gulped hard at the presence of this great figure. He dares not take a step back and hold his ground. He tries to hold his breath and release it calmly. But it was getting more difficult the more he looks at her, the source behind his entire Hell, the good and the bad.
"...Lady...Featherine...Augustus...Aurora..."
Insert Song: End
ED Song:
【Featherine Augustus Aurora image song】 Gloria in excelsis Dea 【Lyrics + English Sub】
Main Companion Protagonists:
Touma Kamijou - VA: Atsushi Abe
