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daeva-agas · 2 years

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Aizen route summary

The route follows after Twilight Faction common route (Book 1), which I assume you would have already known/read. The MC will just be called MC instead of Futaba (default name) to make it simpler.

To recap, the common route ends with the Senkitai attacking some sort of government meeting, with the Onikiri and our protags fighting them off. The Senkitai knock MC unconscious, and then take off. Aizen tries to shoot them down, but they got away.

The ayakashi are concerned and immediately wants to take off after the Senkitai. Aizen tells them not to be rash, because there’s too many unknown factors. He wanted to withdraw and reorganize a new plan. Toto and Gaku especially are not having it, and says that it might be too late for MC if they have to go back and redraw the plans. So they all ignore Aizen’s words and go after the Senkitai. Ouji hangs back for a little while to use his smoke to subdue the feral ayakashi and then run after the others.

Aizen gives the order to Ichijou to take the ayakashi bundled in Ouji’s smoke to the labs. Ichijou is shocked but obey. Side note: In the Night faction common route, Aizen claims that normally the Onikiri will just release the ayakashi they find back to the wild. I’m not sure if this scene shows that this is not normal, hence why Ichijou is shocked, or if this is a retcon because of the writers being disorganized. This is never ever addressed or explained in the route, so I mention this now because it’s not like I’m spoiling anything.

Aizen sends his dove shikigami out “after them”.

The scene then cuts to Kagemaru. Aizen’s gunshots had nicked Zantetsu in the shoulder. Because it’s the anti-ayakashi ironsand bullet, his powers are drained and he can’t use his whirlwind anymore. He and Kagemaru are forced to walk.

Kagemaru seems to notice something, but doesn’t say what it was.

At the hideout, they test MC’s blood on the Stone of Destruction and it reacts. Hisui does her usual hissy fit about Keijirou and such, my apologies for not being remember details, because this is old news if you’ve read the other routes and I glossed over this a little bit.

(for those who have not seen Night faction: Keijirou is the former head of Senkitai before Kagemaru, but despite being retired he still holds enough power/control in the Senkitai, and Hisui is devoted to him)

The ayakashi arrive to rescue MC and Kagemaru comes out to meet them. Hisui notices a presence that is not the ayakashi and also comes out to check. It’s Aizen’s shikigami (and it’s what Kage noticed earlier). She destroys the shikigami.

Meanwhile, the ayakashi are blocked by the barrier. Kagemaru throws them MC’s lifeless body and tells them to bury her quick before she becomes a wraith or a ghost. The ayakashi are angry and attack Kagemaru, who just cheerfully says “y’all could just join us”.

Ouji caught Kagemaru by his fog, but Kage pulls down trees on him, and managed to escape. The ayakashi turn their attention back to the “dead” MC (I mean, it’s obvious she can’t be dead, we’re only like 4 chapters in). By all accounts it looks legit, until Ouji finds a 5-pointed star mark and dispels it. The “body” dissolves into paper dolls (Akiyasu’s doing). The bell wand the “body” had was real, though, so they take it and return.

Meanwhile, Aizen is researching the Stone. His shikigami managed to hear enough about the Stone before Hisui snuffed it, and we were given the lore about how the youko Tamamo no Mae’s body became the stone and split into three. (this is real life mythology, look it up if you like)

Aizen reports his finding and MC’s kidnapping to General Ooyama. The general commands him to capture the Senkitai. Anyone caught will be used in the youjin experiments, and those who are fighting back too hard can be killed. Aizen says “And I will bring MC back”, but the general says “only because she’s useful” and not out of concern for her as a person.

Aizen thinks "So I'm finally worthy of being entrusted with something", and we get a flashback of his past. As a child, the general had found him on the streets (he’s around 10 then). Alone, no family, no house. He had to live on the streets, and he revealed that people has always been afraid of his power and avoid him.

(Artist staff provided this picture of sad little Aizen TT__TT)

Aizen: Are you gonna kill me? General: Why do you think that? Aizen: Because soldiers kill people

The general asks Aizen some questions like about his family, or how does he even live/eat/etc. Aizen does not answer. Eventually the general offered him to come along with him and offered food, shelter, etc.

Aizen: What use do I have if I live

He does agree to follow the general home, and considers himself indebted for life to the general ever since (this is the “adoption”).

Back to the present. Aizen and the ayakashi have a meeting. They discuss the Stone of Destruction, about how it can increase ayakashi power. The Stone, however, will drain ayakashi life force if used, that’s why they need onmyouji to activate it (more details in the Night faction and IIRC Toto’s route, not sure how much of it I should re-narrate here). Nachi had a fit when Aizen mentioned he used his familiar to listen, but it doesn’t work for a second time. The barrier blocked his further attempts.

Speaking of onmyouji, the ayakashi team mention the fake MC doll and the Senkitai having an onmyouji on their side. If you remember, in Twilight faction common route, they don’t know about Aki yet. They focus more on Senkitai, and only in personal character routes do Aki actually show up.

Aizen is not surprised by this, and revealed that the onmyouji artifacts and texts in the military archives have been stolen. Toto gets prickly, and accusing Aizen of not trusting them enough. Aizen responds with “You too”, for not telling that they know where the Senkitai HQ is the whole time.

Aizen delivers the general orders, in which he requests the ayakashi cooperation to raid the Senkitai and retrieve MC, and he also wants the military to keep the stone. To which Toichirou says he’s not going to sit there being ordered around. The fox village also is taking claim of the Stone after all.

Personal aside: I would like to point out that even when we were clearly shown this was orders from General Ooyama, Aizen tells this whole thing to the ayakashi as though it’s his own demands. He never blames the higher ups for the orders, and is just unfazed even when he’s the one who gets yelled at for it.

I think this might explain the very very strange bit in Koga’s route, where Aizen is abnormally vicious even though he’s not like that in most of the other routes. I would imagine this was because the General had also gave the orders to off “our guys” if they step out of line, and Aizen is obeying that.

Meanwhile, we finally have the MC’s POV. She woke up in the Senkitai base and Oboro is there, telling her she’s been out for 3 days. He introduced himself, and MC tried to ask why she’s been taken but he says he doesn’t know. He brought her food, but it’s drugged and she got knocked out again. Side note again: when I was reading this I was so frustrated that we don’t get her POV sooner/more often, but I guess they need to provide a lot of context in case of new players who haven’t seen Night faction.

Back to the other guys. From the stuff he overheard from his shikigami, Aizen knew the Senkitai is targeting the youjin labs, so he brought the Onikiri and the ayakashi to stake out.

Kagemaru shows up and the Onikiri shoots him down. This was suspiciously too easy, so Aizen checks the body. Of course this is another puppet, and the real Kagemaru show up to attack. Aizen defends himself, but Kagemaru brings out the Senkitai. They two groups start fighting.

MC’s POV again. Keijirou has brought her to a cliff, where he’s watching the goings-on in the mansion through scrying water. He asked if she knows what is in the mansion, and she says no. So he explains to her about the youjin and the experiments. She was completely bewildered, so he tells her she’d believe it when she sees it. Keijirou then brings out the Stone to ask MC to use it.

At the mansion, Aizen tells Kagemaru he’s aware that the only reason why his shikigami got in the first time was because Kagemaru let it in. So he must want the military to know this intel and demands to know what Kagemaru himself actually wants, not the youjin-stealing plot (that is Keijirou’s plan). Kagemaru doesn’t answer, casually saying “Maybe I just want to bait you all to kill you”. Aizen asks again where the MC is, and Kage says “Maybe nearby”.

The ayakashi team is fighting feral ayakashi who had shown up as well, but they notice the Stone is not with Hisui or Zantetsu. Nachi goes to look for MC in the house, but Hisui says it’s useless because “that person” has her and the stone.

Shizuki realized she means Keijirou and tells Toto. At that moment, Aizen’s shikigami appears. Realizing that it’s being sent to search for MC, Toto go after it. Not long after, Zantetsu declares their job is done, and bring Hisui away.

Nachi goes exploring inside the house. He finds the jail cells, and Oboro and Aki. They have discovered the youjin.

Keijirou is showing this scene to MC through the scrying water, and she’s shocked to see the youjin, but then Aizen appears and starts shooting. Toichirou and Shizuki also appeared and starts attacking as well. Keijirou puts up a fire barrier and holds MC hostage, demanding for the youjin. Aizen drops his gun, but point blank says “there’s no such thing”. Keijirou doesn’t believe that, since he literally just saw them earlier. Aizen says he can see for himself, and the dungeons indeed has suddenly turned empty.

When he’s distracted, MC grabs the Stone and throws it at Toto. Aizen takes his gun again and shoots Keijirou. He calls the MC, who takes the opportunity to escape from Keijirou’s hold (she jumped right into Aizen’s arms because :D).

Kagemaru waltzes in and Keijirou asked where the youjin went. Kage tells him to ask the soldier.

Keijirou: I see, you're teaming up with them to fight me Kagemaru: Nope, it's just all gone by the time I got there

Hisui appears, taking the feral ayakashi with her. Keijirou orders her to get the Stone back, but Ouji, Kuro, and Gaku appears to fend them off. Gaku gives MC her wand, and the other Onikiri members also arrive. Aizen orders his men to focus on Keijirou, and MC uses her bell wand to make barrier to protect their side. Keijirou gets gunned down and falls off the cliff.

(Interesting note: Keijirou is described as having “silver hair”. Insert silver fox jokes here)

In the distance, there was an explosion as the mansion exploded. Kagemaru tells Aizen to tell his “Higher Up” that youjin won’t make them strong. He’s oly temporarily going along with it to remove Keijirou, but of course it’s now done and they’re not going to just come along quietly.

MC gets sent to infirmary, and the military will handle the mansion explosion. MC and her friends have another meeting with Aizen the next morning.

Shizuki explains the situation with Keijirou and the Senkitai, saying that Keijirou was one of the 4 founders of the Senkitai (spoiler: I fully suspect Koga’s dad was also involved here, TBH, but I’ll explain next time it’s not relevant here).

Toto supplies that Keijirou is his uncle, and explains the situation at his village. He was too young to remember, but uncle and dad had fought for village headship, and uncle then left the village. He returned with the Senkitai to snatch the stone from their village. Keijirou’s been obsessed with the stone since forever. There was a fight, and the fox village all thought he died, but apparently not.

Shizuki briefly mentioned he was a former Senkitai member, but they don’t talk about this any further (details see in Shizuki’s route).

Gaku demands explanation from Aizen about the mansion, since they were only brought there to ambush the Senkitai, but they don’t get told what is inside that the Senkitai wanted. Nachi tells them about the youjin that he saw, but before he could figure out anything more about them, Oboro had found him and brought him to “safety” outside because there’s explosives installed.

Aizen says that the youjin are “weapons” being developed by the military, but it’s classified info he cannot share. He then tells MC that for her protection, she has to stay at military HQ until they can confirm that Keijirou is dead. This is such a rom-com plot, LOL...

And because we need more comedy, they start bickering about why this is pointless. Toto, Shizuki, and Kuro argue that the human soldiers have no chance against ayakashi and the Stone is already safe in the fox village. They start suggesting that they just let her go home and they (the ayakashi) can stand guard, while Gaku and Ouji are like “we’re too old for this” on the side.

[insert Ace Attorney “Objection” GIFs here]

Eventually Gaku asks for MC’s opinion, and she decided she is fine with Aizen’s request and so Toto grudgingly respects her wishes. The ayakashi all go home, and Aizen shows MC to her room.

(it’s a nice room BTW)

There’s a bell she can ring if she has any needs, but Aizen requests that she also hand over her bell wand. He says it’s a precaution in case she changed her mind, and he doesn’t want her recklessly escaping.

She agrees, and he remarks that he’s surprised by it. MC says that during the fight with the Senkitai, she heard him say to let the ayakashi handle the feral ayakashi. She thinks it’s a sign of him willing to trust her, so she’s doing this to show that she trust him in return. She hands over the bell wand, and the moment his hand touched it, the bell rings.

(side note again: This was the point where the preview ends, and they left us hanging for 4 BLOODY MONTHS, and I suffer, I’m sorry for my rant)

The scene cuts to Hisui, who has a piece of the Stone with her, vowing to avenge Keijirou.

At the HQ, MC has a dream of her past life brother saying “be careful”, but it’s like a broken transmission and she can’t hear him clearly. When she wakes up, she decided to write a letter to inform Nachi and the other ayakashi about this. The bell ringing is not discussed.

Ichijou brings in her breakfast and she gives him the letter to send. She’d been asked to not use familiars, so she asked if letters are okay and she even says Aizen can look at the contents just in case too.

I think I mentioned this before, but one card once mentioned that Aizen’s hair is literally blond, but nobody ever pointed it out or asked if he’s foreign. Well... Ichijou here also says Nachi’s hair is literally orange, but nobody cared either. Like, I get that the Onikiri are used to ayakashi, but Nachi wanders around town all the time and nobody seems to point out that anything is strange. It makes me wonder if Toto’s hair is literally purple, but people just don’t care somehow.

Ichijou brings the letter to Aizen, and mentions that MC is getting restless because there’s nothing to do. She’s wanting to do some cleaning around, but Aizen says “we’re not keeping here to be a maid”. Ichijou offers to bring toys.

Aizen: “Those are kids’ toys”

He says he’s got something arranged for her, though. He reads her letter, and remembers that the team had explained to him about past lives, but he thinks that was weird. He okays the letter to be sent out, though.

Ichijou comments on the bell wand that’s still sitting on Aizen’s desk, and Aizen mentions that it’s interesting that the bell still has a clear sound despite looking so busted up and rusty. Ichijou is confused, because all he hears is a broken sound, but he says it’s probably because it’s a magical property that only those with spiritual power can hear (Voltage is laying it thick here, I’d be surprised if anyone was still shocked when they reveal Aizen is the brother’s reincarnation :/)

Aizen says “maybe”, and Ichijou says he thinks it’s great to have spiritual power like that. Aizen mentally says he hates having this power.

Meanwhile, Toto is back home at the fox village. They’ve also sent out people to look for Keijirou and there’s no news. (To be fair, this is only like a day or two after they shot him off a cliff, I don’t know why they expect to be able to find him that fast, even with ayakashi powers) Keiichirou, Toto’s dad, reveals that actually Keijirou has been dabbling in dark arts. He brings out Keijirou’s old notes that he had left behind.

At the HQ, it turns out Aizen had arranged Mrs. Ooyama to come visit, and to bring MC some books to read. Among the books that she brought, there was a book of foreign poetry that caught MC’s eye. Mrs. Ooyama said that it was something that Aizen really liked too. At this MC starts asking questions about Aizen, because she's never met him out of work duties before.

(gossip time hurr hurr)

Mrs. Ooyama: I actually put that book in his room because he's always studying all day and night. He ends up liking the poetry, so it's wonderful.

She says that this is the one rare times he chooses to like something on his own, instead of just obeying everything that people tells him. She worries about him because of it. She also tells a story about a cat that used to show up at the Ooyama house, and Aizen always feeds the cat.

-------------- This cat story’s full detail was supposed to be in Aizen’s birthday event, but we’re probably not getting that in English (you can still get it in Japanese, because this story is unlockable by raising bond levels).

This comes before the route, so there’s minimal information in here to “save it for the actual route”. In short, Aizen was working hard studying so he can enter the military academy. He studies almost all day long, even forgetting to eat, and Mrs Ooyama had to remind him to not exert himself. One day he sees a cat wandering in the back garden, and Aizen starts feeding it every time it shows up.

Mrs Ooyama sees him doing that one day, and Aizen is in utter panic because he’s been doing this without asking permission, but she tells him it’s fine and he should just act like a normal kid. It’s fine to be “selfish” and want something for himself sometimes, because that’s just how kids are. He very seriously says “I’ll try”. He and baby Tatsu then play with the cat.

PS: Mrs. Ooyama considers Aizen like her real son, and the servants call him “young master” too, but the General don’t show up in this story. They’re saving it for the route.

---------------

Back to the story. While Mrs. Ooyama keeps MC company, Nachi is meeting with the others at Raccord. The warning from brother that MC shared is making everyone concerned, especially since they’re nowhere near finding Keijirou. Toto and Shizuki arrive, bringing the notes that Toto’s dad had provided.

(I’m annoyed that there’s so many random fillers, like there’s a bunch of lines that are just “...” and the ayakashi making shocked faces)

The dark ritual described in the notes say that someone on the verge of death can be saved in exchange for “blood”. Shizuki explains that blood means the other party had to die. For what it’s worth, this is actually what the Lord Taizan ritual actually is in real life onmyouji lore. It’s transferring the life force from person A to person B in order to extend person B’s life. In exchange, person A has to die. It’s just that in ARR-verse, they already used the name Lord Taizan for something that looks completely different in Dawn faction, they just called this “forbidden arts”.

Kuro says they must report this to Aizen immediately. Nachi is worried he won’t see them because it’s late at night, but Ouji says it’s probably fine.

... Ouji keeps doing this, and I thought initially that he knows something that the others don’t, but this is never explained, so I guess it’s just Ouji being positive and not because of some plot twist.

Aizen has a vision of the city in utter chaos. There's wraiths, possessed people, and wild ayakashi running around. No matter what he tried to do, things only got worse and the citizens are angry at the military for being useless. He heard MC exorcising wraiths, and followed her voice. When he approached her, she's suddenly accusing him of killing her. There's blood in his hands, and she’s dead. Then he wakes up.

He was distraught, but thinks to himself that it must have just been a nightmare.

Aizen: "I don't have that power anymore”

He has a short flashback of a woman cursing at his existence. This is something that is not explained either even to the end, quite honestly. We were never told if this is his mother, or just a terrified villager (remember, he said everyone in the village are scared of his power).

It’s already almost daybreak. He goes out of the office to freshen up before work and noticed that the lights in MC's room is still on. He was curious, but didn’t want to bother her. Eventually he decided to knock anyway.

MC: ???? You're still here? I thought you went home Aizen: I can't go home and leave you here alone

He reveals that he’s been staying in another room in the HQ. She then thanks him for the books, saying that she's so engrossed she forgot to go to bed. When he says you’re welcome, she thought there’s something about him that seems softer.

Talking in the doorway is awkward so she invites him in for tea. I’m surprised that at no point does either of them notice this is somewhat inappropriate (he’s in her bedroom, in the dead of the night), but oh well, we need to move the romance onward.

MC asked if there’s news about Keijirou, and unfortunately nothing yet. She then starts asking questions about spiritual powers because there’s nobody else she could talk to. She confides her frustration of having powers but unable to use them to do much, and Aizen asked her if she ever regrets having her powers because it only seems to bring her trouble.

She says no, because it’s what led her to meet all her ayakashi friends. She then asked Aizen when he found out about his powers, and he says it’s as long as he could remember. He’s always had been able to see wraiths too, and she thought it must have been scary seeing those things.

He then asked if she dreams things that become reality. She says not really. Only the dream about the ayakashi that she had, right before her powers manifested, and dreams about the past life.

Suddenly the lights go out and the windows frost over. Realizing that they’re under attack, Aizen summons youjin to protect MC, and goes outside to fight. As it turns out, it’s just Hisui alone with the feral ayakashi.

The Onikiri also comes running, but Hisui puts up ice walls and barricades herself and Aizen so that the Onikiri’s anti-ayakashi bullets can’t reach them. Suddenly lots of smoke comes out and Hisui becomes distracted. Aizen took a swipe at her, but she dodged and takes out the stone to look at it. At that point Aizen feels pain in his chest and falls over.

Hisui grabs Aizen and looked into his eyes. She starts laughing like crazy and taunts him about it, saying she’d explain what it was if he’d hand over the MC. He says no.

Just then the ayakashi team appear. Toichirou starts addressing Keijirou, and it turns out... that is not Hisui. That’s Keijirou using Hisui’s body.

I would like to point out that “Hisui” does talk differently than normal. For example, her normal self-pronoun is warawa (an archaic feminine “I”), while Keijirou-Hisui uses watashi, but I had assumed the Stone made her go insane and changed her personality. KeijiHisui says Hisui’s soul still technically lives in the body, he’s just the one predominantly in control of the body. KeijiHisui is outnumbered now that the ayakashi are here, and escapes. Aizen however looks like he’s got a heart attack, and passed out.

MC in her room is really worried. Then there’s a knock on her door, and she opens it to find Kuro and Ichijou. Kuro catches her up on what happened, while Ichijou is just there to guard. According to Kuro, Toto thinks that the piece of stone KeijiHisui had is not the missing third piece. It’s just a smaller fragment cut out of the one they retrieved previously.

There was another Aizen flashback. In the Ooyama household, a teen Aizen is studying, excited about joining the military academy. He recalls that he’s not been seeing the “creepy black things” lately and he’s feeling much better. There’s a dove taking flight outside the window, which momentarily caught his attention.

The general comes in, tells him his tutor said that he's doing very well. Aizen says he hasn't been seeing the creepy things anymore, so he was able to study better. Then the general starts mumbling about how it's pointless if he has no powers. When the general leaves, Aizen panics, and starts trying to find ways to bring his powers back.

(this will not be explained... again... Whether he actually did something to himself to manage to restore at least his Wraith vision, we don’t know. Maybe they’re still saving it for even later events or sequel)

Aizen wakes up in a room in the HQ. General Ooyama comes by and discusses the KeijiHisui attack. The general shows mild interest in the "body transfer magic" that Keijirou did, but didn’t pursue it. He instead talks about future plans to handle both the Senkitai and Keijirou. The general brings out Aizen’s notes. There were plans about preparing for the possibility of rioting citizens, and Aizen starts becoming nervous when the general asked why.

Aizen tries to answer by saying that it’s logical that when there’s danger, panicking citizens might become emotional and start to riot instead of cooperating with authorities. However, the general brings out the morning paper where it shows that some citizens have been seen trying to form vigilante bands becaus they’re dissatisfied by the police and military. Since this is news that only come out while Aizen is knocked out, the general asked if Aizen had saw a prophecy again because his plans seemed too oddly specific.

Aizen doesn’t answer, but visibly panics, so the General understood it as a yes. The general then tells Aizen to drop Keijirou for the time being and focus on the Senkitai. There aren't enough soldiers to take care of both at once. Aizen wants to at least assign soldiers to guard MC, but the general says no need. There's not enough manpower. Besides, if Aizen's power is restored, she's not necessary anymore.

General: if she's liability, then just get rid of her. It's too bad, but if one sacrifice can save the entire city, well, it's what must be done.

Aizen is mortified, but the general just says “You know what to do”, and then leaves.

Meanwhile, at the Senkitai base. Kagemaru has found out about the vigilante groups and how they’re even trying to arm themselves. He plans to incite them to riot, and fight each other so that it will be chaos in the streets. The mess will allow them to pursue the real target.

This proves that Aizen’s vision is indeed a vision.

In the morning, Aizen meets the MC and tells her he wants her to participate in the hunt for Keijirou. He shows her into his office (this is the Beside You card CG), and at that point the screen starts literally glitching. I actually thought my phone had an error here, but no, the glitch is part of the scene (which is really cool, WTF).

The scene becomes distorted, and past brother appears. He urgently tells MC "tell him to not get caught up in dreams, we all can change our destinies".

She wakes up. Before she could process that, Aizen knocked on her door for real. He gives her back the bell and asked her for help catching Keijirou. She thought that this is oddly similar to how it is in the dreams, but things soon start getting weird. He brings her outside, alone. There’s no Onikiri, none of her ayakashi friends. She tried to ask him, but he says they’re already waiting at a meeting spot.

They reach a forest and Aizen suddenly pulls a gun on her.

(I know this is meaningless to say this now that the full route dropped, but last month, the route just ended here with a message saying “the next part comes in September”. I don’t know why they do this)

Just as MC is about to ask why, a possessed random person wanders by. MC asked if Aizen would allow her to exorcize the man, but Aizen just casted the Kyuu Kyuu Nyo Ritsu Ryou spell, and it works.

(he doesn’t use the wand, MC has the wand, he just did that with his hand)

He looks very very conflicted for a second, but then goes back to villain mode and tells MC “If you want to be angry, hate your powers, and the past life that gave you that”. Then he actually pulled the trigger.

MC used the bell to create a barrier, and tried to ask why is he doing this. He tells her that she’s becoming a liability because Keijirou is targeting her. The army lacks manpower to keep her safe and fight off the Senkitai and Keijirou all at once. Since he now can also banish wraiths, they don’t really need her anymore.

She asked him how he did that, and he said he had the power all along. It disappeared temporarily, but now it’s “back”.

There was another flashback of little Aizen being chased by wraiths and possessed people. Since he didn’t know the Kyuu Kyuu spell before, the power always only manifested at the last minute, before the wraith kills him. So he had to constantly run around in fear from the wraiths, and it’s part of why he’s so indebted to General Ooyama for taking him in.

MC told him she understood the logic, but she tried to appeal to him, like “Do you really believe so as a person, not as the military”. She thought that he must’ve given her back the wand out of his conscience, so that she could protect herself. Otherwise she’d be dead already.

Aizen: "There is no such thing as "me" who isn't a soldier"

He also reveals his prophetic visions and tells her since he saw that he’d killed her in that vision, it means that this is the right decision (that’s why he’s not questioning the order, unlike how he stood up for Aki in Aki’s route). His visions has never been wrong before.

MC remembers how the brother had a message about how people can change their destiny/future, and not to be fixated on dreams. She realized this message is meant for Aizen and tries to tell him that. Unfortunately he’s not convinced enough by this.

The ayakashi team rush into the scene, also having been warned by brother, and protect her.

Aizen’s still doing the whole villain act. And this is why I mention Koga route, because he’s acting exactly the same as he did back then. I guess this is the staff trying to explain why he’s like that way back then, since I do think this is a question that everyone is wondering about.

Toto makes a flame barrier, but Aizen dispels it, shocking everyone. But they transform and tell him they’d fight him if he wants to harm MC. At that moment, the bell wand starts ringing persistently. Past brother appears.

(and if this is not obvious enough that this is Aizen, I don’t know what to say)

The vision/spirit says something to Aizen, and then goes inside him.

Aizen then sees a scene from the Heian era. He sees the past brother and his ayakashi friends, and he doesn’t get it until Gaku shows up. Then he realized that this is “the past life”.

Past!Brother's name is Harutoki.

They were talking how Harutoki’s sister is coming, but he had a vision of something really bad happening, and he wants his team to be around just in case. This is referring to the utter chaos of the curse that we see in the common route.

The scene shifts to the day where the bad thing is happening and everyone’s running amok killing each other. (for explanation why this is going in, read Aki’s route) Harutoki has found the source of the curse, which is a cursed gem. He’s nto able to dispel the curse. Past Toto offers to call their ayakashi group together to do it, but Harutoki says there’s no time and swallows the stone.

At this point Aizen is also experiencing pain in his chest, at the same time as Harutoki. He hears the enchantment of the curse, someone saying “Kill your family”. Harutoki then hands over the sword to Past Toto, asking to be killed before the curse also consumes him.

When the vision ends, Harutoki was saying to Aizen “Finally we meet, my other self”. He then wakes up to the MC looking at him in concern.

Gaku has a weird expression, and Aizen asks him if it’s because his powers are similar to Harutoki’s. Gaku says yes, and Aizen verbally confirms that Harutoki is his past life.

The reason why Gaku didn’t realize this whole time is because Aizen’s spiritual powers were weakened before. Gaku only finally noticed how the powers “felt” after it restored to full strength.

(I’m grumpy when there’s filler scenes of the ayakashi just standing around making shocked faces)

Shizuki asked Aizen how he knew that, and Aizen says Harutoki said so himself. At any rate, Aizen is still weak from whatever happened earlier, and so the ayakashi take MC and leave.

They discuss needing a new hiding place, since the army will be on their tail too. Toto says they should go to Koga’s. Because the army knows of their involvement, they can’t put her in places related to them (like Raccord or the twins’ shrine). The army won’t know Koga is involved since outwardly he’s just some guy, so they won’t immediately try to look there.

MC says she’s a bit concerned because Aizen looks like he was in terrible pain, but Toto is not having it. Past life or no, he doubts that Aizen will not still try to shoot her again or whatever. Kuro sympathizes with MC's feeling, but agrees with Toto because the situation is really shady. They don't know if there's more soldiers waiting for them. Ouji reassures her, "I'm sure you'll have a chance to talk again someday".

Meanwhile, even when the curse is reacting again and he can't even move, Aizen is still thinking "I'm failing my mission, I should chase them". He reflects on how Harutoki is determined to protect his sister at the cost of his own life. As a soldier what he wants to protect is this vague concept of "the nation" and "the people”. But as a person he doesn't have anything he holds dear that badly (or so he thinks, we can see that he cares for Tatsu and Mrs Ooyama).

He remembered Keijirou telling him that he’s going to die, thinks "If the general hadn't taken me in, I would've died without anyone knowing anyway... I just happen to die a bit later". So he decided to at least go after Keijirou if he’s dying anyway.

When they fought at the HQ, KeijiHisui had told of a meeting place to Aizen, so he goes there. KeijiHisui appears, and asks where is MC. Aizen says she’s not there. Seeing that Aizen is barely able to even stand, Keijirou taunts Aizen again, but tells him anyway that it’s a potent curse that’s been stewing for centuries. If the host body dies, the curse will release to the air infecting everyone nearby like a virus.

(I mean, it’s pretty obvious to us the viewer that it’s the cursed stone Harutoki swallowed, I wonder why Aizen didn’t immediately realize unless he was too much in pain to see what’s going on in the vision)

Keijirou says he knows how to undo the curse and wants MC in exchange, but Aizen doesn’t take the deal and starts attacking. However, there’s suddenly mysterious black smoke that came out and swallowed them both.

In the HQ, Ichijou reports to General Ooyama that Aizen is missing. The general puts Ichijou in charge for the time being, and ordered the Onikiri to prepare in acordance to Aizen’s notes. Then another soldier brings in Tatsu.

Tatsu is being assigned to go look for MC, precisely because they’re friends. I don’t know if the implication is that the General wants Tatsu to dupe MC into feeling safe and then nab her.

At Koga’s place, the guys discuss their next plan. Koga is fine with housing MC, but knows that he can only stall the military for so long. Toto is convinced they can grab Keijirou in the meantime. MC offers to be the bait to lure out Keijirou, and for plot purposes some reason everyone is fine with this despite objecting to MC wanting to check on the very-obviously-incapacitated Aizen earlier.

Like, sorry for rambling, but the ayakashi themselves are the ones who said human soldiers are no match for ayakashi, it would’ve been no issue even if Aizen had military backup. Not unless the General sent all the soldiers in the imperial army after them.

Kuya suggests that they bring in “the other bell’s contract” (the Dawn faction) just in case. Kuro will invite Gin, Gaku will invite Yura, and Ouji will go talk to Aoi.

The next morning, when MC wakes up she remembers Aizen and then wonders if Keijirou had done something to him to cause that reaction. She remembered he collapsed when Keijirou attacked the HQ. However, she thought that surely the army had picked him up. She briefly wondered if he’d be less sad if he had been the one to recover the wand’s contracts himself (as he is the reincarnation of their original master).

The ayakashi had decided to settle the score that same night, and the Dawn people had showed up. The Twilight faction ayakashi is avoiding making an appearance, but will come for the showdown later. However, while they were talking, Tatsu suddenly came knocking at the door. Koga is trying to make him go away, but he’s just shouting “MC I know you’re there”.

MC decided to trust Tatsu and let him in. Tatsu asked point blank if his dad is trying to have her killed. MC doesn’t answer, but Tatsu knew it’s a yes. He was being told to take her back for “protection”, but he thought that this is really shady, and doesn’t believe it.

He asked about Aizen, and MC is surprised he’s still gone. She doesn’t know either, and it’s all weird. Nobody in the military seemed to know where he went or what his last orders was. They could only assume it’s related to her since she also disappeared.

She shared what happpened, and Tatsu then says he’ll try to go look for Aizen instead. He reassured MC that Aizen likely didn’t do what he did out of evil intentions, and MC says she is also convinced he isn’t a bad person.

As he was leaving, MC tells Tatsu to tell Aizen she’d like for them to get to know each other more personally. Like talking about likes and dislikes, hobbies, that kind of thing, maybe over tea. It’s the Ho Ho Ho moment I was ragging on about before.

Tatsu noticed that MC likes Aizen but since she herself doesn’t seem to notice yet, he was just making :D faces about it.

He then says he knew his dad doesn’t trust him to follow orders properly, so he was being followed. However, since he knew that, he already got it covered by asking Toto to put fox magic on him so that the spies won’t see him go to Koga’s place.

MC asked if Toto told him about her being there. He says no. He’d gone to Toto’s place because the military had intel on the Twilight people (so they were right to not put her in an obvious place), but he knows about Koga from that one time.

After MC exorcized the wraith from dad in the game Prologue, in the Twilight continuity Toto and Koga carried him home. Tatsu saw them, and their excuse was that they were MC’s dad’s business partners, and dad got drunk during a dinner meeting. They had given him their real names then, and Tatsu just still remembered Koga. His address is not a secret place, so he just asked around for it.

Finally Tatsu leaves for real, and MC prepares to do their thing with the ayakashi. With all 10 guys of both contracts together, Yura says it’s just like 1000 years ago (minus “brother”, I guess). Still, when MC tried to call for Keijirou with her shikigami, it burst into flames and disappeared instead.

Everyone is confused. Shizuki suggested that maybe he's somewhere that cannot be reached by the shikigami. Kuro thought he might be near death again, but Toto says no, the forbidden arts should be able to heal him again. Since there’s nothing to be done, Koga suggest they go back and figure things out. At that moment, suddenly Nachi comes screaming about trouble in the city.

I wasn’t surprised when the next scene is Aizen in the Cursed Realm place (similar to that one you see when rescuing Yura and Gaku). Aizen wonders if he’s dead. He spotted the bell wand on the ground, and wonders about MC’s fate as well. He knew that the General would just send other people after her even if he’s not there.

The bell rings, and Harutoki appears again. He then explains about the curse properly. The curse really was the same one from 1000 years ago, and even after all this time it hasn’t been purified. The reason why his powers seems to have disappeared is because his spritual powers are concentrated to contain the curse (like an immune system), and so leaving him with none to freely use.

They don’t explain why he seemingly have managed to “recover” them enough to function. The bell wand increased his powers further so he can have visions and exrocize again, but the Stone of Destruction amplified the curse to the point of it hurting him. (if Aizen is already really powerful even when half of it is still fighting the curse, then how powerful is he if the curse is gone and he has full access of his powers? D:)

Harutoki reveals his visions of a bad future is also about the “present timeline” (so our current MC, not her past life), and he request Aizen to help him change it. Aizen is still insisting the future cannot change, but Harutoki points out that the future where he killed her was averted. He apologized for taking in the curse, because he wanted to save his sister, but ended up burdening his reincarnation. He reminds Aizen that “Your life is yours alone” and if Aizen doesn’t want to do what he requested, it’s alright with him. Harutoki adds that there is a way to break the curse, and after telling the method, he sends Aizen out of the Cursed World (we don’t see what the method is yet).

He was dropped in the middle of town where chaos is breaking loose, just like he had seen in his vision. Ichijou is handling the situation as written in the notes, and Aizen tells him it’s the right move and to keep going. MC and all the ayakashi show up, wanting to help. Aizen says this is just a distraction and the main aim is probably the HQ. The Onikiri and the other soldiers will handle downtown, and MC and the ayakashi agree to go with Aizen.

In HQ, Tatsu reports that he doesn’t find MC and the general doesn’t believe it. Tatsu is not having it, and then demands to know why it’s so necessary to kill her. The general says because it’s the best way to ensure that Keijirou don’t take her and use her powers.

(Aside: I really don’t understand why the General is so scared of Keijirou, despite knowing full well they have at least the Twilight faction ayakashi on their side. Keijirou is just one. Does he think that Keijirou is more powerful than all 5 of them? The general considered Keijirou separate threat from the Senkitai, so he doesn’t seem to think that Kagemaru and Keijirou might team up again to snatch MC. This makes no sense)

Tatsu is not having any of this, and says he will go find Aizen and ask him what he really thinks. The General says Aizen knows the importance of the greater good and would not let his personal feelings get in the way. Suddenly the lights go out and Kagemaru appears.

Kagemaru: There’s a riot in town, yanno, why are you still here bickering? Either you’ve got too much time on your hands or you’re a coward.

In front of the HQ, Aizen and MC arrive with the ayakashi in tow, and they find the Senkitai. The youjin have been deployed to fight them off. The ayakashi did this whole sequence of Super Sentai transformation, LMAO. Like, one by one they go POOF *transform to battle mode* and then say a witty one-liner. It’s really like watching the final battle of a massive Super Sentai team up.

(in my original live react, when each ayakashi show up I call them rangers, like “Red Ranger transform, Koga!", "Green Ranger transform, Yura!”, just to be funny, but I think that would clog up space here)

This is such filler because it’s 10 lines of dialogue just them saying witty things.

Shizuki freezes the Senkitai and the feral ayakashi to the ground, but Akiyasu appears to dispel the ice.

Scene cuts to “a few moments earlier”, where Yakumo is visiting the HQ to visit the General. Some Senkitai members try to attack him, but he blasted them aside (you know, reading Yakumo’s route I always thought he used super strength to punch people, but he just did Kamehameha and make them go flying). He looks out the window, and sees MC fighting the Senkitai. He says “I won’t let you hurt my doll”, and did something to one of the fallen Senkitai members.

Outside, Aki is fighting Aizen. Aki says how unforgivable it is for the army to keep onmyouji on hand, and yet they killed his father (for Aki’s dad situation, more details in Aki’s route, but yeah, the game doesn’t explain what the general wanted with Aizen’s powers). They were however interrupted by a Senkitai member saying that Kagemaru wants the MC.

Oboro is suspicious, but the other Senkitai guy insisted so Oboro just shrugs and okays it. Aizen is not letting MC leave alone and also insist on coming along. Oboro doesn’t care. Aki protested, but Oboro’s reason is that if Kagemaru says so they can’t question it.

And of course it’s obviously completely nonsense. Once they got in, the Senkitai member suddenly start screaming in pain and faints. Aizen recognized hypnotism/manipulation (we saw it’s clearly Yakumo’s doing), but he doesn’t know who did it. At any rate, as they head towards the General’s office Aizen tells MC to stay back. Exorcizing wraiths is one thing, but she doesn’t have fighting abilities to fight the Senkitai chief.

(it would be more convincing if Aizen is not himself about to fall over)

Aizen: As you can see I can't protect you if anything goes wrong MC: Why are you so considerate of me now? Aizen: I'm not, I'm telling you to stay back so you won't be a hindrance

MC is not having it and says she’s helping him, and won’t let him refuse. At that moment there’s gunshots from the general’s office, so MC helps Aizen walk there (honestly what good does he expect to do if he can’t even stand properly).

In the office, the general calls youjins to get Kagemaru, who easily subdues them in his webs. Kage reveals the youjin “secret” to Tatsu, about how they’re human-ayakashi hybrids. Tatsu in confused and horrified, but the general tells Kagemaru that killing just him won't do anything.

Kage says he knows, and he already orchestrated attacks on all military outposts all over the country. He offers to call off the attack in exchange for info about the medicine that’s vital in youjin creation. Of course the general won’t answer, saying that there’s nothing to be done even if the Senkitai knows what it is (for answer, Yakumo route).

The general tells the youjin to fight back and Tatsu also tries to fight Kagemaru, but Kage retaliates with poisonous webs. The general saved Tatsu and shoots Kage (the gunshots Aizen and MC heard).

When Aizen and MC arrived, the youjin are completely bundled in web and the general has collapsed from poison. At that moment, the windows suddenly frosted over again KeijiHisui burst in looking for Aizen. When the cursed dimension “ate them” earlier, somehow KeijiHisui also got infected by the curse.

Kagemaru tells KeijiHisui that the Stone’s power is not going to last long, and once it’s done, “Keijirou” would die. I’m not entirely sure if Kage means just Keijirou, or if Hisui’s body will die with him since Keijirou claims that Hisui actually is still in the body too. He’s just using the Stone’s power to hitch a ride on her.

Keijirou reminds Aizen that his curse will infect the whole city if he dies. Aizen says it’s fine, because he knows how to break it. Keijirou then attacks Aizen to kill him before he can dispel the curse. MC uses her bell to deflect KeijiHisui’s ice. Realizing she’s there, KeijiHisui creates smoke from the Stone to grab her, but Aizen shielded her from the smoke.

KeijiHisui calls Aizen stupid for taking the hit, because it will make his curse worse. Tatsu picked up his father’s gun and shot KeijiHisui. Kagemaru poison-webbed KeijiHisui and Aizen follows through by stabbing him (her? them?). Kagemaru’s excuse for “helping” is that Keijirou is making him look bad as the Senkitai leader.

KeijiHisui explodes and Kagemaru leaves. The whole building then starts exploding. Tatsu and MC had to help the general and Aizen move, but when they head out, rubble suddeny falls and block their way.

Yakumo returns, telling them he’d been trying to dismantle the explosives but there were too many of them to take care of. He clears out the rubble and takes over carrying Aizen, and they all run out of the building.

Outside, the Senkitai start escaping the the building exploded. The ayakashi tried to stop them, but they got away. Nachi is worried and want to look for MC, but shortly after MC comes out with the rest in tow. Yura looks at the general and says that there’s no hope in saving him, but Aizen insisted on saving him at all cost. Something about how his leadership is still needed

(... I really don’t know why the plot is insisting that the general is not that bad, and it’s not even because of history because the writers says the General Ooyama of the story is not a representative of the real life General Ooyama, but... well...)

Aizen turns to ask Yakumo for help. Yakumo says are you sure you know what you’re doing, but eventually agrees to help. Once that is settled, Aizen tells MC and the ayakashi squad to help clean up the town, and he says he is staying behind. MC is worried but Aizen insist that he's fine and he’ll be right behind.

MC is still worried even after they reach the city, and the ayakashi are noticing that she keeps looking for Aizen. Toto then tells her she can go look for him. The ayakashi can take care of the wraiths.

Aizen, as it turns out, didn’t follow the team to the city. He’s gone off to a forest. He takes mental inventory of the affairs in the future. The general can have Tatsu’s support, and MC and her ayakashi friends can help the Onikiri to guard the city. He thinks of the method of dispelling the curse that Harutoki told him, and he’s still not certain about it, but he’s determined to do something before he dies from the curse and let it spread. He remembers the MC telling him that he genuinely cares for the people, and not just doing all he did out of duty, and he thinks that he’s only now realized she’s actually right. He then readies the anti-ayakashi bullets and points it at himself...

And then the MC appears and stops him. She tells him surely there’s other ways for whatever it is he’s trying to do. She’ll help him. He says this time there is no other way. Harutoki had said that to remove the curse, it needs the cost of a life and spiritual power. After thinking for a while, MC thought that the spiritual power is an equal weight of a life, so she offers her powers to fulfill the requirement of “life”.

Aizen won’t let her, because she had told him she was grateful of her powers. He doesn’t want her to do this, because she would have to give up all of it. MC realized that he knew it this whole time, but instead of asking her for that, he chose to just sacrifice his own life. She tells him that losing her powers won’t mean that she’d lose her friends, and she doesn’t want him to die, and starts crying.

He says he doesn’t want to make her cry. She responds that she’ll cry more if he dies.

Then he accepts her offer. They insert their powers together into Aizen sword, and he stabs himself with it.

There was a burst of bright light, and MC sees of a vision of their past life. Back when they were still kids living together, before her past life had to leave her family and live in a separate location.

When the vision fades, MC sees that Aizen is not moving. She’s afraid that he still ended up dead, and she desperately calls him while shaking him. After some time he responds “I can hear”, and opens his eyes. She hugged him in relief. He was surprised, but hugs her back.

(despite everything, I doubt I’m allowed to post CGs, so I did a “bootleg” redraw of the CG... TT_TT)

He reveals to her that Harutoki foresaw her death (as in, current MC, not past MC), and requested Aizen to prevent it. However, he tells her what he’s doing is because he doesn’t want to see her hurt, and it’s his own will. Not because of Harutoki’s request.

Epilogue:

Some time later, the big riot has been cleaned up and the news says the riot is caused by “anti-government group”, which is not a wrong description of the Senkitai. Just minus the supernatural stuff. Since everything is fine so far, patrolling is stopped.

MC is hanging out at Raccord with Kuro, the twins, and Ouji. Yura asked about General Ooyama, and it turns out he has somehow been “saved”, though not much detail is given. (please tell me he’s still human at least, I’m scared D:)

Kuro wonders how Aizen is doing, since they’ve not seen him for a while now that patrols have been halted. MC says she’s been invited by Mrs Ooyama for dinner, so she said she’ll ask.

Toto has gone back home to the village to report about the Keijirou matter. MC is a bit concerned that his tail still hasn’t been fixed, but Toto says they got what they need for the time being so the tail can wait.

(I’m curious what would they need to do to fix Toto’s ninth tail, though...Do they have to summon Harutoki’s ghost again to ask?)

When MC leaves Raccord, she thinks that she’d got to eventually tell the squad that she doesn’t have powers anymore. She can’t even make shikigami anymore. Just then a carriage rolls by. It’s Aizen. He offers her a ride because he’s also going to that dinner with Tatsu and mum.

He asked her about her powers, and she confirms it’s still gone, but she reassured him that she doesn’t regret it one bit. Aizen then thanks her and her friends for everything they helped with, and since the army is still focusing on repairing the damage, there will be no more patrols in the foreseeable future.

MC is a bit sad that she can’t see him, but just as she was about to respond, he tells her he’ll be missing her. MC wasn’t sure he meant anything special by it, but was still happy. He then invites her to have tea, and MC made such a shocked reaction that Aizen totally got nervous.

Aizen: “If that bothers you it’s alright.”

Tatsu had really delivered that message she told him, and Aizen thinks it’s not a bad idea so. And MC remembered what she told Tatsu, then she starts panicking too because that was embarrassing. He tells her she doesn’t have to accept, but she quickly tells him yes.

She asked if she can still meet him sometimes, and he was surprised but also says yes.

He then shows her a talisman and asked her to try making shikigami. He says even if Harutoki said her powers would disappear, they have to test it just to be sure. She gave it a try, and it worked. Aizen tells her that he still had some power remaining to make shikigami, so he wanted her to try too (the talisman is a power amplifier, I guess?). He thinks that their power were just temporarily drained, but not gone.

She thought that it makes sense, because if it’s really gone, Gaku and Yura would’ve noticed. He tells her he’s glad, because even though she was willing to give it up, it would hurt him if she truly lost something that she cherished because of him. He mentions he was also still somewhat worried that Harutoki’s prophetic vision of MC dying has not been averted yet. They now know they can change the prophecied events, but since the details is unclear it sill might be something that hasn’t happened yet.

He tells her he doesn’t want a future without her in it, so he will stop that no matter what. Not because of anyone else, but because it’s his own will. Being told this, MC couldn’t help herself and confessed her love for him.

He responds with, “You are important and dear to me, and this is my own feelings as well.”

The End

(no, there is no sonnets... yet...)

Last note: I try to make mention of issues that were not addressed by the plot, because there really is so many questions, but it’s just not explained. Hopefully I noted them all. This also feels weirdly like a product placement for other routes, but yeah, there are also issues that are explained in other routes because it’s not important here.

Feel free to ask if something’s not clear anyway.

Additional thoughts: Not sure if this is why/how this route is conceived, but there is a certain Japanese lore that says if a star-crossed couple died together, they will reincarnate as twins. And this route is, like, an oddly backwards version of it (born as twins first, reincarnates as romantic couple). Maybe that was why writing process was delayed, due to the... awkward setting of the scenario.

I have to mention again that Aizen was planned from the start. He was only revealed to be a proper suitor a bit later, but the staff created him to be a suitor from the start (he’s got live2D animation, they won’t bother with NPCs).

#Aizen Route #ayakashi koi meguri #ayakoi #ayakoi spoiler #ayakashirr #ayakashi romance reborn

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