Gokuto Jihen Shuibanashi -Ichibanboshi no Alma- Light Novel Summary
Below I will give a summary of the “Gleaning Topic: First Star of Alma” Gokuto Jihen 48 page Light Novel (available for 300 yen on BOOTH). Please support the official release by purchasing this light novel! The plot is Saeki centric. A synopsis is as follows:
Saeki, while supporting the Intelligence Bureau in their organization of data, gets pulled on a mission to find a missing human. Assisted by two cats, he and his partner Shikimi traverse to save this person while Saeki reminisces on the past.
Spoilers below (of course) so proceed with caution!
Saeki is helping the Intelligence Bureau with the task of digitizing all the information stored there- which is, quite literally, every piece of existing universal knowledge. His associate, Shikimi, member of the Intelligence Bureau, is exhausted, pushed to her limits by the constant adding of new documents.
By the time it's 10pm, they still haven't even gotten to the newly added documents, and Shikimi's had enough. She suggests going out to eat with Saeki, and the two welcome the break. They stop by a cat themed restaurant, served by the two gracious humanoid cats- Sabatora and Chatora.
Just as they are getting ready to eat, Shikimi gets a call. A human, it turns out, was spotted in the Underworld Capital, possibly lost and in danger. Shikimi and Saeki spring to action, but not before Sabatora and Chatora invite themselves on the quest because they really want to see a human too.
Unable to say no to these cats, the two rendezvous with another Intelligence Bureau temporary member - Kagimaru. He's temporarily transferred in from torturing souls in one of those layers of hell. See, the Underworld Capital has been short staffed for a while now, which is why humans are slipping past the boundary. Every personnel, including the ones who should be patrolling for that kind of stuff, is basically assigned to a different task.
Kagimaru, while giving an onslur of questions for Saeki and berating the cats, produces a sketch of the so called "lost one" as well as a handkerchief they were carrying. Saeki and Shikimi can't smell the human scent on the handkerchief, but Kagimaru and the cats swear they have the scent. This person, wearing a cat eared hoodie, was last spotted heading north, and the group split into three teams.
While Saeki tries to keep Sabatora in line with the investigation while also keeping it from not telling too many people about a human, they end up side tracked by ice cream. Sabatora enjoys it's delicious ice cream while Saeki, looking up at the night sky, thinks back to what it was like when he was in the human world.
Saeki, at the beginning, was simply a formless light, destined to fade away eventually. A child and his mother stopped to pray to what they thought must have been an angel. Taking on this new identity, Saeki observed many catastrophes that befell humans, eventually leaving on a journey.
Saeki met someone, a friend, who he looked up to, and decided to shape himself exactly like that person. He feels himself lacking, but, if that friend was here, he would surely say "you look fitting". Saeki hopes that he'll one day be able to protect a lot of people-
And is very rudely interrupted when Sabatora comments on Saeki's melting ice cream. The two finish up, getting a phone call just in time from Shikimi stating that she knows where the lost one is. The two meet up with the group, and they head for a shady part of town with dilapidated houses.
Shikimi muses that this place could be fixed up, why Kagimaru exclaims that this is the exact reason the underworld staff are all overworked. They catch on to some ruffians, who are swinging the lost one around like a rag doll.
Infuriated by this, Shikimi steps out and demands the release of that lost one. The ruffians only laugh, seeing her and Saeki, because if the escorts really care so much for the lost one, then they can't make a move. While true, Kagimaru doesn't operate on these rules at all, and letting out a hearty laugh, starts ripping through ruffians like they're bags of flesh.
The cats join in, and Saeki and Shikimi protect them from harm. Only one flying ruffian is left, and he flies with the lost one towards the sky, threatening to drop him. In that instant, Saeki pulls out his rifle - his rifle that was not his original weapon, but something he learned to use and had a tailored cape to store it in - and shoots, nailing the ruffian right in the head.
As the lost one falls, Kagimaru attempts to grab him, only for the lost one to very acrobatically do a cool flip in the air and land perfectly on his feet, kicking Kagimaru in the face before landing.
Turns out, it's Hachi, the bakeneko who's Suzutori's (the cat that lives in Lycoris General Hospital) grandson.
See, Hachi, when he was a kitten, was picked up by a human when he got separated from his mom. This Mama of his took care of him for 6 months before his mom came to get him. Mama always knew there was something up with Hachi, and knew right away that both he and his mom weren't actually cats. Because of this, he now spends half his time in the human world with humans, and half his time with his bakeneko mom.
The smell confused the ruffians, especially with the handkerchief that belonged to Hachi's Mama, so when they caught him, they didn't know what to do. Luckily, Hachi is seen off safely to his grandmother's place.
With the case all wrapped up, Shikimi and Saeki can finally have that meal, urged on by the cats who hold their hands and lead them back to the restaurant.
"So there were no humans after all," Saeki muses.
"There really weren't," Shikimi agrees. "But at least Hachi is okay."
However, Saeki looks to the sky, remembering his past once again.
Maybe, in the future he'll be able to be that light for someone again.
Below I will give a summary of the “Gleaning Topic: Sapientrix*” Gokuto Jihen 45 page Light Novel (available for 300 yen on BOOTH). Please support the official release by purchasing this light novel! The plot is Matsumoto centric. A synopsis is as follows:
Matsumoto, while doing his duties at the Lycoris General Hospital, is suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious hooded figure, asking for the secret of Mercurius. As Matsumoto figures out how to escape, he ponders the meaning of immortality and salvation.
Spoilers below (of course) so proceed with caution!
Matsumoto, upon waking up late after a black out night of experimenting, runs to Lycoris General Hospital, making it just in time to start work. The nurses greet him, all twisting like mannequins are they do their work. Matsumoto checks in with Doctor, who also is the director of the hospital (seeing as there's only one doctor, everyone just calls him Doctor). Suigin also greets Matsumoto by picking him up off the ground and calling him by his affectionate nickname, Poison Bug.
See, Suigin likes bugs. She finds them adorable and small. So calling someone a bug is actually a term of endearment. Especially if they're poisonous, too. And speaking of names, Matsumoto's head that Suigin had her name changed to be easier to pronounced, after she came here from the west. Apparently, her old name and her new name have similar meanings, just with the endings changed.
But that's not important right now, as Matsumoto has to start his shift at the hospital, to which he can't even remember when he first started. He greets Benibara, who's talking about wolves living under beds and needing pillows, and enters the medicine storage room. Suigin hands him a checklist of medicines they'll need, and he gets right to work.
He was just getting into a steady flow of things, too, when suddenly, the door bursts open, and a man wearing a hooded cloth appears. He glances around and starts spouting something about knowing the secrets of Mercurius. Matsumoto has no idea what this means. But if he's a patient, he can't just come and take medicine as he wishes.
"Are you an alchemist?" the man asks. Matsumoto isn't, but he does kind of feel like what he does isn't that different from making an elixir. That's good enough for the man, who whisks Matsumoto away in his cloak. By the time Suigin has figured out what's going on and breaks into the storage room, Matsumoto's gone.
Matsumoto finds himself in a strange place with stone walls and lit lamps. The man, who may have seemed old but actually now without the hood looks pretty young, asks him to help him find immortality and salvation. Something, apparently, Matsumoto knows nothing about. What's salvation, anyways?
He doesn't have time to ask because the man is vomiting up a bunch of caterpillars, each with his head on it. They go for Matsumoto, who is absolutely not having this, so he makes a break for the only door he sees and starts searching rooms to try and escape. There's a room with a lab, a room with an examination table, a room with saws and other sharp objects... finally, he hides himself in a shelf in a storage room.
As he stays out of sight, Matsumoto contemplates salvation again. What's salvation after immortality? Don't humans strive for immortality and then that's it? He didn't know there was a second thing they needed. As he was deep in thought, mindlessly reaching out for things around him, the shelves collapse onto him, just barely stopping before squishing him.
For a moment, Matsumoto thinks about climbing out of the hole at the top of the pile. But a hatchet catches his eye and he lets out an "eep!" But it's too late, he was heard, and someone's grabbing him and lifting him up high.
But thank god, it's just Doctor. He's here to get Matsumoto, since Suigin said he was kidnapped. Doctor easily swings Matsumoto over the shoulder and crushes the caterpillar men with his hatchet. They meet back up with Suigin, who would love to leave, but doesn't want to leave any lose ends. She's going to deal with the man chasing them. As they walk around, Suigin and Doctor answer Matsumoto's question of salvation.
Salvation is a dream humans made up, since immortality is a cruel fate. People who can't understand the elixir of life all seek help from a higher being. Demonic beings. Some demons, even sharing the names of gods, sometimes give them a Devil's Hand. But it's not without consequences, as this will leave the body in pain.
Suigin walks everyone to a lab, where colorful bottles are placed on a magic circle. Just then, the man finds them too. He reveals his true form, that which was once human, now with arms coming from his abdomen and waxy skin with the ability to birth caterpillars with his face. It's time for the final showdown.
"I'm going to bestow upon you knowledge," she says to Matsumoto, putting her hands on his temples. "This would kill any human, but since you're you, you'll be fine." With that, she melts Matsumoto's brain with information of the cosmos. Within that cosmos of knowledge? The elixir of life! He understands how to make it!
Matsumoto, in an almost out of body experience, begins crafting the elixir, protected from the man and his caterpillar men by Doctor and Suigin. He managed to get done, his entire body giving up on him. Suigin kicks the elixir at the man, who's bug like traits start melting away until he returns to his human form.
"This is it... salvation..." the man sighs in relief. Only to be picked up by a dragon like being and chomped down on, completely eaten away.
"Ah, the sweet taste of human greed," Doctor says, right before Matsumoto passes out from a nosebleed he didn't even know he was having.
When Matsumoto wakes back up, he's in the storage room of Lycoris General Hospital. His head is still hazy, so Suigin and Doctor offer to walk him out and let him go home early. Of course, they run into Saitou in the lobby, who's somehow managed to drag a table with some tablecloth to a chair and has set up his own little tea cafe. Saitou and Suigin sass each other, Suigin going on about how Saitou is disturbing the patients, and Saitou going on about how no one here can tell time since they closed up shop before it was even 3pm.
Matsumoto's stomach grumbles, which stops everyone in their augment. He's starving. Did they say 3pm? He's totally missed lunch. Thank goodness Benibara is here, though, as she presents some strawberry jam cookies to everyone. She wants to have a tea party! So Saitou and Suigin put aside their differences, allowing Matsumoto to finally enjoy a break.
"Oh dear apothecary, it seems you have strawberry jam on your face," Benibara says with a smile.
"Oh no, that's a nosebleed," Matsumoto smiles back.
Below I will give a summary of the “Gleaning Topic: Lost Path” Gokuto Jihen 39 page Light Novel (available for 300 yen on BOOTH). Please support the official release by purchasing this light novel! The plot is Kinoshita centric, told by a third person. A synopsis is as follows:
A salaryman encounters something strange while taking a shortcut on his way home from work. In an attempt to flee, he finds himself lost somewhere he's never seen before. Following a kind stranger that he met along the way, he tries to find his way home.
Spoilers below (of course) so proceed with caution!
This is a story about A-san, and an encounter he had.
A-san, an overworked and underpaid salaryman working for a Black Company, finally gets to go home early one day- at around 8pm. He stops by a convenient store to get himself a riceball and some tea, meeting a tall business suit wearing man. On his way home, he takes a shortcut down a small, accident prone path, leading into a park. There, he sees a strange, black mass, wriggling about.
Out of fear, A-san runs away, passed Showa era residential houses with shadows laughing at him. During his escape, he encounters the business man from the convenience store again, and being with this stranger puts A-san at ease. They chat about their respective work, and A-san is surprised to hear that this business man is "still on the job". They decide to walk together- but it's weird, A-san should already have gotten home by now.
"Why are you here?"
Yeah, A-san wants to know that too. Something is very off about the way the road seems to stretch on forever. Just as he feels that he's made some kind of mistake, the black mass from the park returns, blocking his return path. Although the stranger told A-san to remain calm, he flees again, finally seeing a convenience store at the end of the road.
A-san's fears, however, aren't helped by the fact that when he enters the store, it's a mannequin in a mask talking to him, it's voice changing pitches all over the place. He escapes from the convenience store, not daring to look what strange creatures cross his path in the eye.
He finally understands. He's not "in his world" anymore.
A-san isn't really sure where to go from here- he has no idea how to go back, he doesn't know what's ahead of him, and he dropped all his things somewhere. There are two moons in the sky that seemed to stare back at him. Just as he was feeling lost, a door opens up. "Come in." A voice asks three times- but A-san can see that it's just coming from a floating face. He thinks to run, but it's too late. He's grabbed and pulled into the home.
A-san's natural salaryman instincts kicks in as he pretends to be polite to what is basically a disembodied face. It pours him tea and offers to get him snacks. A-san, at this moment, is thinking of just accepting his fate and partaking the food. But luckily, before he does, someone calls out to him.
It's the man he met earlier, calling for him to enter the garden. Together, the two escape the strange house by hopping the fence. They finally take a break at the park, where A-san is offered some candy by the man.
"I've been interested in you ever since I met you at the convenience store."
A-san isn't really sure what to make of this. The man continues speaking. In his eyes, A-san looked like he was going to die, and maybe because he was on the brink of exhaustion, he found himself in this strange place. The man, not wanting to pry into A-san's life, offers him a word of advice. Don't push yourself too hard.
With these words, the man leads A-san to a narrow gap between two walls. He's told to continue down this path, and not look back. A-san wants the man to go first, but apparently, this is as far as the man will guide A-san.
"I've still got a job to do."
Even though A-san wants to ask, he is interrupted by the black mass appearing again, and he makes a run for it down the narrow pathway. When he finally emerges from the end, he finds himself back on his usual path, the narrow gap no longer existing behind him.
After that, A-san quits his Black Company and starts a new job. Compared to the experience of that frightful night, getting a new job is nothing.
He retells this story to his coworker, who believes that he simply was too tired and blended his dreams with reality.
At least, that's what his coworker thought. Until his coworker finds themself on the same strange residential road under two bright moons. Before him stands a man with green eyes, in a military outfit.
"Why are you here?"
"I died."
That's when the coworker realizes. This is the man A-san had met back then. And the coworker is sure of it. This man isn't human.
As I promised, below I will give a summary of the "Gleaning Topic: Bizzare Eats" Gokuto Jihen 45 page Light Novel (available for 300 yen on BOOTH). Please support the official release by purchasing this light novel! It's displayed like a yotsume toji book. The plot is Hirahara centric! A synopsis is as follows:
Hirahara is assigned to investigate a culprit who stole the arm of another Escort from the Intelligence Bureau under the Court of Enma. He heads to an abandoned hotel in the mountains and starts his investigations, navigating it's many rooms and floors while avoiding humans and fighting on an empty stomach.
Spoilers below (of course) so proceed with caution!
The story starts with a deceased one crashing through the window of an abandoned hotel, into the empty parking lot where the moon shines bright. Beyond, in the building of the hotel, a pair of yellow eyes stare forward.
Cut back to half a day earlier.
Hirahara, in his usual spacey way, is getting assigned a job from Rokkaku - a member of the Intelligence Bureau had his arm stolen from him during an investigation and Hirahara has to get it back. Hirahara's lax attitude towards the whole situation an inability to read complicated kanji (he's me for real) causes Rokkaku to simply summarize everything for him, sending him off with an origami bird that acts as a guide through the mountains.
Upon arrival at the hotel, Hirahara notices that it's covered in dust, yet there's still a set of footprints that don't belong to him. He explores all the first floor to no avail, and continues to the second floor. Rather than finding any culprits, though, he realizes that some humans have pulled up in a car.
"Are you scared?" they ask each other giggling. Must be a test of courage. Hirahara really finds humans a nuisance - well, he doesn't hate them because their manga and games are interesting - they're just going to get in his way. He does his best to navigate away from those people, because with how fragile they are, if they run into each other, he might accidentally kill them.
Hirahara, sadly, hasn't eaten anything since dinner, which was already some time ago because the sun's long set when he arrived. He contemplates eating a bug, but lets it go by mistake. Next time, he'll just grab what he can to eat rather than abandon his mission for getting a snack. His hunger starts to mess with his intuition.
He follows sounds into a room with a giant hole in the ceiling, but doesn't see anyone there. He nearly misses an encounter with the humans by climbing into the upstairs room just before the humans enter the empty room, looking for ghosts. They leave just as quickly, though. Hirahara's really doing his best here!
Hirahara finds himself in a restaurant, and gets excited at the thought that he can get something to eat. Unfortunately, all he finds is wrappers and expired bentos, which puts him into tantrum mode as he stomps around. This attracts the attention of a high school aged girl named Aina. She's got a bag full of food, so Hirahara, ever the gentleman, just takes it from her and eats her food.
Aina's curious about Hirahara and asks him a lot of questions. What's his name? What's he doing here? What's his job? Hirahara answers with one or two words. He's Hirahara, he's here on a job, he's looking for a thief.
The two are interrupted when they hear a scream, followed by the sound of doors slamming shut and the car driving off. Hirahara notes this is because the humans left in terror. He wanted to ask Aina about it, but she ran off already. Again, being a gentleman and all, Hirahara gives chase down a long hallway into a storage room.
There, he's confronted by Aina again, but this time she's swinging a hatchet at him. Hirahara doesn't get it at all. "Hey I didn't do anything to those humans!" He says, thinking they were together and those guys just left Aina behind. But that's not why Aina's mad.
"Those two things aren't related at all!" Well, Hirahara has to really wrack his brain as to what's going on. Finally, it clicks. His hunger had gotten in the way of his thinking, but that's right. he's here on a job.
"You're the culprit."
That's when the fight begins. Aina and Hirahara really go at each other, Aina slamming Hirahara into the wall with a mighty swing of her hatchet. Blood drips down Hirahara's face, blinding him. He strikes back with his shovel, so hard and quickly that he's just hitting things. When he regains his sight, he can clearly see that Aina has lost her weapon. She bolts for the door, Hirahara hot on her tail. She just about makes it to the door when Hirahara takes another swing at her. She incapacitates him and takes his shovel. It's her turn to hit him now.
Just as she gains the upper hand, though, Hirahara strikes with his fist and punches her so hard, Aina flies out the window. She lands in the parking lot, unable to stand. Hirahara's about to deliver the finishing blow when - out of the corner of his eye, he sees something still moving around in the hotel. It's gone in an instant, and that distraction is just what Aina needs to close the gap and get Hirahara good with a kick to his face. It breaks his nose and shatters his teeth. He stands back up. The fight continues.
Tagami, meanwhile, has been assigned to assist Hirahara by Rokkaku. He really doesn't want to do it, but knowing he can't exactly say no, he heads to the hotel. When he arrives, he sees Hirahara and Aina fighting each other, their bodies basically falling apart, and still they're trying to strike each other.
"And what are you idiots doing?" Tagami has no time for this shit. Hirahara's convinced Aina's the culprit, he's sure of it. She ran away after all. But Aina continues to deny it. After all, she was just running away because Hirahara chased her. Finally, Tagami's had enough. He pulls out the paper that Hirahara didn't read carefully enough. Turns out, Aina's not the culprit after all. A picture of the guy is included in the description. Hirahara just jumped to conclusions, what a shame!
Just as Hirahara is rolling around, wallowing at his mistake, he sees something climbing the hotel wall. It's got a human like upper body with no skin and just flesh and a mouth, and it's lower body has bug like legs gripping the wall. As soon as the trio make eye contact, he spits at them with a gross smelling liquid and jumps at them - the actual culprit.
The monster goes for Aina - she's fresh meat and he's hungry. She goes for the punch but gets caught instead. The monster goes for the bite and rips her arm off with it's mouth, but suddenly Aina's dragged away to the hotel again.
It's Tagami, thankfully, as he did his best to save her from getting swallowed by throwing a chain at her to drag her back to safety. Unfortunately, Aina's arm can't exactly be recovered so easily. They can see it sticking out of the monster, along with other body parts that clearly don't belong to him.
Aina and Tagami have some quick banter with one another because Tagami explains the situation: Basically, a long time ago, there was a famine that drove people mad with starvation. This monster, previously human, ate everything - from insects to animals to humans. It changed his figure so much that other humans hunted him down, chopped him up, and sealed him away in the mountains. Overtime, he was forgotten about, so the Intelligence Bureau were in charge to watch over him. However, he was finally able to resurrect, attacked the Escort on duty, and escaped.
Tagami and Aina come up with a plan - they can see a special mark left by the previous Escort marking the monster's weak spot. Aina runs to grab her discarded hatchet while Tagami goes in to fight.
Hirahara, on the other hand, is having the time of his life. He loves that he can keep punching this thing to no end - especially because it just won't go down. He's a battle junkie through and through. The monster, however, is not having fun getting pulverized by Hirahara so he decides.
"I'll eat you."
Of course, the monster never gets a chance because Aina, now hatchet in hand, comes down on him and severs the arms on it's back. Tagami goes at him with the pickaxe, he strikes that spot on it's back marked by the other Escort when the monster swings the two of them off him. But instead of getting finished off, Tagami realizes that it's the monster who screams out in pain. The mark was actually magic that turned into ropes and recaptured the monster, letting Hirahara deliver the final blow. But uh...
Hirahara is literally starting to eat the monster. He bites into the neck, hating the taste of sweet and rotting flesh, but he can't help but go in for another bite. He's still hungry. Plus, the monster was the one who said "I'll eat you" first, so, it was fair game.
Aina, on the other hand, has never seen this feral man going to town before so, she drops this great line of "I think it's gonna give you diarrhea" as she stares on. As Hirahara enjoys his meal, Tagami notices that Aina's arm is growing back, which means the Escort who lost his arm is surely growing it back too.
When Hirahara finishes everything but the head, Tagami uses his great rope skills to wrap the head in cloth and bind it with rope, some kind of Escort magic seal to keep the monster from regenerating (at least not for 1000 years). Everyone has a moment to take a break, but Tagami's still a bit on edge.
If Aina isn't the culprit, then why did Hirahara call her a thief? Turns out it's because she took the food the humans left behind. I mean, Aina just felt like it was fair game because they came packed for a picnic. And besides, she doesn't think humans taste very good at all. Tagami, somewhat concerned, asks for clarification. Aina has, actually, tasted human before. She bit a stalker a long time ago, so it was just in self defense. If she had to pick between eating people and convenience store food, she'd rather eat the convenience store food.
Hirahara, for a moment, considers what it's like to taste humans, but Tagami and Aina both shut him down. That's too bad though, because Hirahara is always hungry.
Three years later (I am so sorry for the delay), I have the subtitle file for the Angeki Gokuto Jihen Stageplay. This is compatible with the timing of the official DVD release. If you play the DVD in VLC player, you should be able to pull up the subs by adding them to the subtitle track. This is my first time subbing and setting a video file, so apologies in advanced if some things look strange.
Please be warned, the stageplay has flashing lights!
DO NOT REUPLOAD THE SUBS OR THIS LINK ANYWHERE ELSE!
Angeki Gokuto Jihen [English Subtitles].ass
Some translation notes in the section below:
At the beginning, when people discuss the ghost in the old building, there is singing in the background. The lyrics are along the lines of "come listen, there's a ghost story to tell", but due to my not so great lyric comprehension skills, that isn't subbed at all.
Likewise, the musical parts are difficult for me to understand, so my apologies if those parts of the stageplay are translated strangely compared to the spoken dialogue.
あの世 (Ano yo) and この世 (Kono yo) are how they refer to "the underworld" and "the living world". It literally means "That world" and "this world". For ease of understanding, every time they talk about "the underworld", no matter if it's Ano yo or Kono yo, I've translated it as "the underworld". The same applies to "the living world." Likewise, if the escorts are talking about "the underworld", they refer to it as "our world".
獄卒 (Gokusotsu) are low ranking prison guards. They get called a lot of stuff. Jailers, guards, underworld escorts... it's easier to just call them "Escorts" since that's what they were first translated as. Also, Saitou and Rokkaku, as well as the school apparitions, all seem to call the Escorts something different - those guys, those kids, those men, those escorts... but they're all talking about Kirishima and his friends.
At one point, Rokkaku says the Underworld is home to 魑魅魍魎 (Chimimouryou), which literally means "the monsters who dwell in the mountains and rivers". 魑魅 (Chimi) refers to the mountain monsters and 魍魎 (Mouryou) refer to the river monsters. It's an umbrella term that's used to refer to all monsters. Rokkaku means to say that the Underworld is home to "all monsters".
怪異 (kaii) means "a mystery or curiosity". It's also how people refer to ghosts and apparitions. Since this takes place in a school, I've translated them as "mysteries", for the Seven School Mysteries.
Saitou asks Kirika to prepare お摘み (otsumami) for Kinoshita. Otsumami is a side dish that goes well with wine. I confused it the first time for them saying "please prepare the side wine" so I apologize if that's how it comes off in the translation.
During the intermission, Rokkaku and Saitou have some banter that's not plot related. It's a cute way to give the other actors a chance to take a breather before the second half. Please enjoy the two talking about voice acting, drinking, and singing together!
In the mirror world, Saeki asks Hirahara a question. Which Kirishima do you like? He responds with 奥 (oku), which means "the one inside". Hirahara prefers the mirror Kirishima, who is inside the mirror. I translated it to "the one in the back" so I hope that makes sense.
During Maki's transformation, they sing かごめかごめ, 籠の中の闇は, いついつ出やる, 夜明けの晩に... 後ろの真下誰 (Kagome, Kagome, kago no naka no yami wa, itsu itsu deyaru, yoake no ban ni… Ushiro no mashita dare?). This is part of the children's game "Bird in the Cage", where children sing this song while circling someone in the middle, and that person has to guess who's behind them. In this case, instead of "bird in the cage" (籠の中の鳥は), it's "the darkness in the cage" (籠の中の闇は), and instead of "who is it behind you" (後ろの正面だあれ), it's "who's the one facing down behind you" (後ろの真下誰).
During the final battle between Kirishima and Maki, they yell at each other in turns. I did my best to figure out what they were saying but there's a high chance some of these are wrong.
In the same fight, Maki says 所以不可視の絶対領域 (Yuen fukashi no zettai rouiki) and to be honest, I was kind of stumped. 絶対領域 means "absolute territory", which describes the bit of exposed skin between the skirt and knee-high socks. So... I just translated it to be something along the lines of "the invisible boundary of a place that can't be crossed". I don't know if that makes anymore sense, I did my best there...
Below I will give a summary of the “Gleaning Topic: Today, Something Grand” Gokuto Jihen 44 page Light Novel (available for 300 yen on BOOTH). Please support the official release by purchasing this light novel! The plot is Saitou centric this time. A synopsis is as follows:
Saitou has the day off and decides to cook for the escorts. Kirika, who is dearly afraid at what Saitou might do, sends Ayako out to aid him. Saitou and Ayako plan a shopping day to get ingredients, navigating the chaotic streets of the Underworld Capital, while Kirika deals with the cooking aftermath.
Spoilers below (of course) so proceed with caution!
The story starts with Saitou, sitting in a beam of light, drinking his tea in the dining room, watching as Kirishima wolfs down some rice, Kinoshita comes in for breakfast, and Tagami and Hirahara fall asleep in their food. He's got the day off today, and no one has asked him for any assistance. As the vice captain, or the Senior Management Advisor, he doesn't really have any defined duties. Rokkaku's also not here at the moment, so he's finding himself rather bored.
As lunchtime rolls around, he has a great idea: What if he cooks lunch for the escorts? It's his duty as their senior officer to do something nice for them, after all. But Kirika is dead worried about this. Saitou's never done anything beyond boiling some water, will he be able to cook at all? She suggests they make curry, since it's easy to make. Since she can't join Saitou for the shopping, she hopes that Ayako can do her best and guide the shopaholic through the Underworld Capital safely.
Which is what Ayako did her best to do. At the vegetable shop, Saitou is charmed by a melon gourd and decides he just has to have it. Along with every vegetable in the store. They both know there's no way they'll be able to carry all that home, so Saitou just agrees to the price the shop keeper gives for delivery. Ayako hasn't even had a chance to check his math before Saitou's already gone to the butchers and bought every meat on rack. Again, Ayako doesn't have a chance to speak up before the man is shipping a mountain of meat back home.
They're just about ready to go home when Saitou stops to gaze at a beautiful plate on display at a tableware store. Ayako and Saitou follow the store owner in, who's extravagantly talking about how this beautiful plate is made of bone. Ayako's not too interested, as she isn't one for luxury goods, but Saitou's already buying it along with 12 cups and a pot (Ayako no, don't look at the price tag!).
Ayako has never been this exhausted shopping before, yet Saitou is still in very high spirits and practically leaving her behind with his large strides. Ayako is stopped by a woman selling flowers, and while she wants to leave, she gets caught up in a fight happening in the streets. Just as she finally snaps and yells at them with her second mouth, Saitou comes back and very elegantly kicks the two brawlers into a nearby river, saving both the flower seller and Ayako.
The flower seller thanks Saitou for stopping the fight, and Saitou thanks Ayako for speaking up so he could hear. Ayako's second mouth eats the flower, and the two can finally leave the shopping district.
Before they head home, though, Saitou offers Ayako a break by stopping into a western cafe. While the two drink their tea, Ayako brings up a question to Saitou. "Aren't you from the west?" The following conversation reveals a lot about Saitou.
Saitou is indeed from the west - his name "Saitou" was even given to him when he entered the Special Affairs Bureau, similarly to how a certain nurse got her name when she joined Licorice General Hospital. So why is it that he joined the Special Affairs Bureau? As everyone (seemingly) already knew, most branches had their own way of recruitment which were decided by the heads of the department - but not the Special Affairs Bureau. Instead, Rokkaku "scouted" them and brought them to the office. Saitou, on the other hand, was recruited by the Court of Enma.
However, his answer to Ayako was so lacking in information that she ended up not bringing it up again. Finally, it's time for the duo to go home, where Kirika is staring down crate after crate of things Saitou has ordered. Surely... surely he's not planning on eating all of this for lunch, is he?
But unfortunately for Kirika, Saitou absolutely plans on putting all of this in the curry. So first, Kirika has to assess Saitou's cooking abilities. Saitou absolutely has no idea what to do when placed in front of some vegetables, so Kirika step by step guides Saitou in what to do.
First, peel the onion. Just like that. No, not like that. Saitou stop. Saitou, no, that's the edible part. Saitou stop- Saitou, there's no onion left, you peeled all of it.
But that's not too bad, Kirika and Ayako can always figure it out later. What's more depressing is watching Saitou peel the potato so much that it's tiny little chunks now. The women devise a plan to figure this out- Ayako can distract Saitou with the meat cutting process while Kirika can hurry behind the scenes and chop most of the vegetables (but not all of them, no, otherwise Saitou won't feel like he's helping).
Kirika, amidst this chaos, is reminded of a fairytale from the west. A princess wants to live like a farmer, so she starts a farm, but she only wants to harvest the plants and not tend to them. The farmers, then, help her do all the hard work so she can reap the benefits at the end.
Kirika fully understands the feelings of those farmers.
Between Saitou filling the entire stove with pots and nearly burning the kitchen down by cranking the fire to 11, Rokkaku comes home from his meeting. He sees Saitou in the kitchen and immediately asks him to stop. But, of course, Saitou is quick with the remarks.
You wouldn't be able to do all this cooking even if you tried.
You know that's not true. Remember the hamburg steak?
Apparently, yes, Saitou really remembers the hamburg steak. One day when these two adults were left alone in the manor, they played rock paper scissors to decide who gets to be the cook. Saitou, who won, requested a hamburg steak, to which Rokkaku bundled a bunch of meat together, grilled it, left it unseasoned, and gave it to Saitou. The hamburg steak broke a knife.
Rokkaku doesn't want to argue this anymore, so he entrusts the process to Kirika who promises she'll keep Saitou in line. Saitou, who's none the wiser, is super grateful to Kirika and gives her a present of cookies that he got while he was shopping.
Finally, lunch is ready. Tagami is just waking up and smelling something nice. Except the moment he finds out Saitou cooked it, he looks to the sky and accepts that he might die today.
Surprisingly, though, his fears weren't confirmed as the curry is actually delicious. Non-conventional, of course, but really good. Saitou is way too proud of himself, and declares to Rokkaku that from now on, he'll cook lunch. Rokkaku immediately dismisses this. Saitou, not one to back down, questions Rokkaku's decision. Well why not? Isn't the curry good?
Rokkaku can't seem to tell Saitou the main issue is, of course, him, so he throws Kirika under a bus and says "but if you cook lunch, Kirika will be out of a job." Saitou accepts this and happily goes back to... whatever he was doing, and Rokkaku really feels like he dodged a bullet there.
