No Longer Relevant (
Color Spread[]
Cover[]
Three pairs of fathers and children are presented. On the right, Kyora Sazanami stands with Storehouse mask active and left hand raised, while Hakuri Sazanami crouches in a readied stance, one hand on his leg. In the centre, Kunishige Rokuhira works with tool raised in the forge, and Chihiro Rokuhira stands with a hand reaching towards one of his swords. On the left, Seiichi Samura holds Tobimune at the ready, while Iori Samura unsheathes a katana, expression pensive.
Summary[]
Within an art exhibit, a curator praises one work as he speaks to its painter, commenting on the spectacular phoenix depicted. The curator remarks the phoenix ignites upon death only to rise again from the ashes, and it has many interpretations depending on the area, with many theories about its name and abilities. The painter, Kanryu Yoshida, intervenes, stating his work is not based on a myth, but a sight he had witnessed during the Seitei War. Yoshida recalls the name he had heard was 'Suzaku'.
Within a hallway in the Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel, Samura advances forth, blazing feathers heralding his path. He states Hiruhiko is powerless from here on while Hiruhiko is shocked to see Samura is apparently immortal. Taking a moment to look back from his position locking blades with Hiruhiko, Chihiro sees Samura has used Suzaku but has chosen not to heal his eyes. Feathers appear behind Hiruhiko and he rapidly swerves aside while strengthening Banquet in the hallway, just before Samura shifts to the feather's position. Chihiro is momentarily disoriented, but as Samura swings forward he enhances his usage of Nishiki and steadies himself. The three Enchanted Blades make contact, locking together in a three-way clash, which results in a massive burst of force erupting around them, horizontally severing the entirety portion of the hotel they are in.
The three are knocked aside, Hiruhiko sent to one part of the corridor. There, he sees he has been partially ignited by Suzaku's flames and hastily puts them out, noting their offensive use in addition to their regeneration and mitigation of altered states. Knowing Banquet will be pointless against Chihiro's increased usage of Nishiki, Hiruhiko contemplates whether he should use Kumeyuri's third ability, but decides to focus on the quality of his abilities rather than quantity, electing instead to use Play and devote everything he has to its strength.
It is again stated that Play allows Kumeyuri's wielder to control and manipulate nearby objects, but it is revealed that to utilise objects skilfully, the wielder must familiarise themselves with the object by 'playing' with it repeatedly, akin to learning to use an instrument; in effect, the more the wielder can respect an object ,the more adeptly and precisely they can wield it. However, Hiruhiko, who viewed killing as having no meaning and just another action, who held zero respect for life and even less for objects, who held only contempt for anything, had little synergy with Play as a result.
Samura and Chihiro then walk out from where they were sent, readying themselves once more. Hiruhiko then begins to focus using Play. On the roof, Sumi steadies Iori as they and Ro hear rumbling. Down below, Hiruhiko plans to use his inherent incompatibility with Play to his advantage; his inherent disdain for objects transforming Play via the True Realm into a force of object destruction rather than manipulation. Chihiro also hears the rumbling and realises Hiruhiko plans to try and affect the entire building. A gigantic geisha figure wraps around the upper section of the building and causes a large gash to appear in the middle of it, further cracks turning the upper section into pieces.
Chihiro stumbles as the floor moves beneath his feet, and on the roof Sumi and an unnerved Iori move out of the way of several cracks on the roof. Samura realises the environment's shifting is not one of Banuqet's illusions, while Hiruhiko shouts out his mockery of Samura's earlier statement that he was powerless, proclaiming he had destroyed the building. Play brings corpses from below up to confront Chihiro and Samura. Chihiro realises with the amount of rubble and corpses, it would be near impossible to slash through, and wonders how Hiruhiko is accomplishing this after suffering the wounds he had.
While typically Hiruhiko held contempt towards everything and an uncaring nature towards murder, Hiruhiko states to himself that Chihiro is special, and their fights gave him meaning. Hiruhiko's goal of battling between them with two Enchanted Blades gave him the determination to proceed as long as it took to achieve his desired 'ultimate' battle. Wanting to drive Samura away, Hiruhiko sends a large number of corpses towards him, internally speculating that Samura's revival technique likely had some sort of restriction, much like Cloud Gouger's charged Mei attacks, and aiming to overwhelm him during that downtime.
Slashing through several corpses, Samura arranges feathers in the form of wings and leaps out of the window, flying upwards, while the corpses form a pillar as Hiruhiko attempts to reach him. With Samura far away, Hiruhiko shouts to Chihiro that Samura was no longer a relevant factor and they could battle for real now, internally determined for Chihiro to unveil his True Realm against him. Chihiro, however, merely stares impassively in response. Hiruhiko initially stares blankly at Chihiro's lack of response before staring upwards through a gap in the roof where Samura has flown over the very top of the hotel building, corpses crawling over the beam trying to get to him.
Samura ignites his wings with Suzaku's flames
Igniting his wings with Suzaku's flames, Samura shoots downwards, fiery wings spreading in all directions and igniting the entire hotel building as he descends, the action shocking Hiruhiko. It is then noted that Suzaku is the power of the immortal bird to combust oneself and rise again. However, Samura had evolved Suzaku in previous battles through his True Realm, having the ability to turn Suzaku's normally harmful effects on others into the healing boon usually reserved for himself; as he had done for Chihiro. Within the art gallery, Yoshida remembers how his right arm was severed in the war and raises said arm in the present, which had been reattached through Samura's Suzaku flames. He proclaims they are nigh-divine flames of universal mercy.
The flames in the building reach the entire altered portion affected by Kumeyuri, beginning to reconstruct the building and repair it, as if nothing had ever happened. The first time Hiruhiko had ever sincerely cared for anyone or anything, his all-out assault with his entire devotion, has been completely nullified. Samura lands and slashes off Hiruhiko's left arm, with Hiruhiko himself sent flying to a nearby wall, left in tears as a bloody, pathetic mess weakly groaning in disbelief. Samura leans down to pick up Kumeyuri, confirming that it was not an illusion this time, before Chihiro approaches from behind him with Enten drawn and Samura turns to face him.
Quick References[]
Chapter Notes[]
- Painter Kanryu Yoshida converses with a curator regarding his recent work, which depicts an interpretation of the immortal phoenix known as 'Suzaku', based on a past event he had witnessed in the Seitei War.
- Chihiro realises Samura has deliberately avoided healing his eyes.
- Samura shifts near Chihiro and Hiruhiko and the three clash blades. The resulting shockwave horizontally slices through the entire hotel floor and knocks the three back.
- Hiruhiko realises Suzaku's flames effectively act as normal flames when not applied to Tobimune's wielder.
- It is revealed objects manipulated by Play can be more skilfully manoeuvred the more familiar an individual is and the more they respect a given object. As Hiruhiko held zero respect for life, much less objects, his synergy with Play was next to none.
- Hiruhiko weaponises this by accessing the True Realm, his disrespect resulting in his subsequent use of Play shifting from control to destruction, the entire upper section of the hotel being heavily damaged.
- Samura flies out using Tobimune's wings and activates Suzaku before flying down, igniting the entire damaged area.
- It is revealed Samura has used his True Realm to allow Suzaku to heal other people and objects in addition to himself, as he did with Yoshida's arm in the Seitei War and Chihiro after cutting him down.
- Samura reconstructs the hotel, severs Hiruhiko's left arm and moves to pick up Kumeyuri as Chihiro prepares to engage him.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Author's Comment[]
| Author Comment | |
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Takeru Hokazono |
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Featured Media[]
Trivia[]
- The Japanese title of this chapter,
蚊帳 の外 Kaya no Soto literally means 'outside the mosquito net'. Its proverbial meaning can translate to 'out of the loop', 'left out' or 'not involved', among others.