Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 4, Part 3

[Oldmansour]

>"....Doubles? I... don't suppose you're referring to an oni by the name of Francis O'Donnell, by any chance?"

>That brings a more genuine smile to Kanako's face. "You know the old bastard? He's still around?"

[DracoOmega]

>"He is indeed! We fought a youma together just a couple days ago, actually. ...he did get knocked around a bit, I'm afraid, but I think he's fine."

[Oldmansour]

>"He is indeed! We fought a youma together just a couple days ago, actually. ...he did get knocked around a bit, I'm afraid, but I think he's fine."

>"Hah! I might have known I'd find him here." she says in a tone halfway between rueful and happy. "Just my luck, isn't it, that I should find out my old friend's here in town the day one of my old ghosts comes back to kill me." She sighs and takes another drink. "If you see him again, spare him the details about how I died. He probably still thinks I should die of old age, optimistic fool."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't intend to let Sanae kill you, if that's what you mean."

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't intend to let Sanae kill you, if that's what you mean."

>"Hah, I'll bet you don't. But it's fine." she says quietly as she turns back to look at the setting sun. "I've been thinking over this ever since I heard her call me 'Kanako-sama', when I knew it was her. The old Sanae. And the simple truth is, Suwako and I are responsible for her death. I sent her into a hopeless fight, and Suwako had a death mark on her, a price on her head. Rewarded more if she suffered first, since she was such a traitor to her. And she did suffer, they burned her. Burned her alive." Kanako takes a long, slow drink of her powerful sake, then smiles a quiet, dignified smile. "That woman... deserves her revenge. And... we deserve to die."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't believe that is true. You may have both done terrible things in the past, but a great many years have passed. You're not the same people you once were. Is the world truly better off with you gone from it?"

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't believe that is true. You may have both done terrible things in the past, but a great many years have passed. You're not the same people you once were. Is the world truly better off with you gone from it?"

>"I think the world will get by just fine without another chain of host clubs." Kanako remarks dryly before taking another drink. "Assuming Suwako hasn't gone and willed Iron Rings to someone else. Doubt that, though, she's thought of nothing but work since we came back here. That's the difference between her and me, I'm trying to conjure up whatever dignity I have before Sanae inevitably faces me. Suwako's not ready to face her yet. Maybe never will be. Hope she will be." she mutters as she refills her cup. "I hope she doesn't die whimpering."

[DracoOmega]

>"That's not the question I asked. The world will get by without you, but is the world better for it? Are you an irrepressible danger to others? Is your death the only means to keep others from dying? There are few justifications grave enough to sanction killing another, even one who has themselves killed others."

[Oldmansour]

>"That's not the question I asked. The world will get by without you, but is the world better for it? Are you an irrepressible danger to others? Is your death the only means to keep others from dying? There are few justifications grave enough to sanction killing another, even one who has themselves killed others."

>"The world doesn't hinge on Sanae's revenge. She deserves it. I accept it. If you want to go and put yourself between her and us, that's your business, but don't do it on my account. This is an old scale that needs to be balanced. If you believe in karma, then I am long overdue for some comeuppance."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't believe in revenge. Violence done out of anger only breeds further violence, whatever the crime, whatever the pain one has suffered. No one can erase a wound by inflicting one upon another. It is this path that keeps the fires of war burning."

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't believe in revenge. Violence done out of anger only breeds further violence, whatever the crime, whatever the pain one has suffered. No one can erase a wound by inflicting one upon another. It is this path that keeps the fires of war burning."

>Kanako laughs again. "Life keeps the fires of war burning, my young friend. You can't have life without war, certainly not in a world like ours. So many species, so much magic, so much greed and ambition and anger.... Ahh. Anyway." she pauses in mid-rant, taking another drink. "You're free to believe what you want. Unless Sanae beats you, too, then that might change. You're better off avoiding her, you know. It's me and Suwako she wants dead, not you two."

[DracoOmega]

>"As I said earlier, there's more at stake here than just your lives. The winged woman who awakened Sanae's past memories is a Champion of Makai, here to destroy the barrier that separates their world from ours, and allow the rest of their kind to subjugate it. She was personally responsible for multiple attacks on civilians here within the past week - including the one Doubles was involved in. As Sanae is now bonded with her, and claimed shared cause with her, I have to consider her a danger to far more people than just you."

[Oldmansour]

>"As I said earlier, there's more at stake here than just your lives. The winged woman who awakened Sanae's past memories is a Champion of Makai, here to destroy the barrier that separates their world from ours, and allow the rest of their kind to subjugate it. She was personally responsible for multiple attacks on civilians here within the past week - including the one Doubles was involved in. As Sanae is now bonded with her, and claimed shared cause with her, I have to consider her a danger to far more people than just you."

>"Then it sounds like you should find this Champion and kill her."
>"We can't do that." White Rose says as Kanako pours another drink. She's gone through over half that bottle of sake in very, very quick order. Must still have at least some divinity in her, or some Oni at any rate, she's not even slurring her words slightly.
>"Why? Doesn't this Champion have a weakness to exploit? Everything does, you know. You just have to find it."

[DracoOmega]

>"That may be so, and I would certainly welcome any tactical edge over her - the battle we fought against her this morning did not go terribly well - but there are at least two separate issues with killing her."
>"Though before that, have you heard of Makai before?"

[Oldmansour]

>"That may be so, and I would certainly welcome any tactical edge over her - the battle we fought against her this morning did not go terribly well - but there are at least two separate issues with killing her."
>"Though before that, have you heard of Makai before?"

>"I have. It's a realm separate from ours. It has no divinities, at least none that interact with the divinities of Earth. We used to think of it as a blot on the horizon." Kanako says as she drinks again. "Well, some of us did. I rememember a few of us used to think of it as a Black Hole." She pauses and frowns. "Did I say rememember?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Yes?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Yes?"

>"My word." she mutters, picking up her sake bottle and staring at it. "No wonder Suwako doesn't sell this stuff at the bar. Uh, if you see her when you're leaving, tell her she was right about it."

[DracoOmega]

>"And in your time, did you ever witness another invasion of this world from there?"

[Oldmansour]

>"And in your time, did you ever witness another invasion of this world from there?"

>"Not me, no. But I didn't pay any attention to Makai, either. It was irrelevant." Kanako shakes her head. "It seems I was wrong about that."

[DracoOmega]

>"And I suppose you have no idea how, 1600 years ago, Sanae could have ended up in Makai herself?"

[Oldmansour]

>"And I suppose you have no idea how, 1600 years ago, Sanae could have ended up in Makai herself?"

>"I can't see how it's possible." Kanako says as she refills her cup. "It's a separate world. It doesn't factor into the cycle of reincarnation of this one. She would have been reborn in this world. Unless some magician of Suwako's had access to banishment spells."

[DracoOmega]

>"She herself said this morning that she'd been cast into Makai. When you said that Suwako's people burned her alive, was she presumed dead afterward?"

[Oldmansour]

>"She herself said this morning that she'd been cast into Makai. When you said that Suwako's people burned her alive, was she presumed dead afterward?"

>"There was no presuming. I saw the body. What was left of her."
>Uh, gotta ask. Rin says privately. 'Banishment', that means, like, throwing someone out of a country, right?

[DracoOmega]

>Or out of a world, in this case.
>"Then I wonder how we can explain this? That Sanae could be cast into Makai, the same Sanae that was burned alive, and her reincarnation somehow tied to a being from another world from the moment of her birth."

[Oldmansour]

>Or out of a world, in this case.
>"Then I wonder how we can explain this? That Sanae could be cast into Makai, the same Sanae that was burned alive, and her reincarnation somehow tied to a being from another world from the moment of her birth."

>Kanako drinks deeply from her cup. "I was a war God, not a puzzle God."

[DracoOmega]

>"This is a puzzle on which the fate of a war may rest."
>"When I said this morning that I remembered seeing Sanae, with her body covered in terrible burns, that was not a fabrication. I had no idea how such a thing could be a memory, how Sanae could look no younger in something that felt very old indeed. But if that is something that happened to her in another life... perhaps it is another life I too am remembering - one in which I also knew her."

[Oldmansour]

>"This is a puzzle on which the fate of a war may rest."
>"When I said this morning that I remembered seeing Sanae, with her body covered in terrible burns, that was not a fabrication. I had no idea how such a thing could be a memory, how Sanae could look no younger in something that felt very old indeed. But if that is something that happened to her in another life... perhaps it is another life I too am remembering - one in which I also knew her."

>"Or you have some connection to Makai, too." Kanako speculates. "Do you have a Champion of your own?"

[DracoOmega]

>"If I do, it's none of the ones that have crossed into our world yet. I could sense the flow of power between Sanae and Air, Patchouli and Water. I feel nothing of the sort from myself."
>That, uh... that's still true, right?

[Oldmansour]

>"If I do, it's none of the ones that have crossed into our world yet. I could sense the flow of power between Sanae and Air, Patchouli and Water. I feel nothing of the sort from myself."
>That, uh... that's still true, right?

>"You're expectingng more?" she asks.
>Yes, that is still true.

[DracoOmega]

>"Yes. At least two more, and there are four already here. I do not know how long we have."