Xebek\’s Blog

Haseo questions and then kills PKer after PKer in search of information as to where Tri Edge has gone; meanwhile Pai and Yata seem to want to test Haseo to awaken him.

Summary:

• We see Haseo in his new form approach a group of PKers asking where Tri Edge is. They say they hadn’t know what he is talking about and say how no one could go into a comma from the game. Haseo just mindlessly kills them.
• Touta is talking with Phyllo when Tabby comes up saying how she heard rumors Tri Edge went missing. She asks if his account was suspended and Phyllo just wonders out loud if he ever had an account to begin with.
• Pai and Yata are watching Haseo form their monitors saying how he defiantly hast he factor. He wonders what a person becomes after their dormant factor awakens. Pai says that they should test him. When she awakened she was faced with something she couldn’t imagine, something came over her and she felt like she in real life and she in the game were one. Haseo is already in an unstable state so they should test him. Yata just says it’s up to her.
• Pai approaches Saburou and says how she needs the PC body back to test Haseo. She says she can’t return it to her, basically not wanting to and wonders what she means by testing Haseo. She says she will give her one week, and heads off, Saburou saying how she wonders what this test is about. She thinks about it and when some random person comes through the dungeon she is in she kills him, saying she is sure the test is something like that.
• Saburou contacts Haseo and the two of them meet. Haseo just asks Saburou where Tri Edge is. Saburou tries to talk, saying how he is clinging to straws but Haseo just gets more upset, asking the same question over again. When Saburou won’t answer him, he yells he doesn’t have time to play games. Saburou just says how this is just a game. Memories of Shino disappearing flash through Haseo and he yells this isn’t JUST a game. Haseo makes his scythe appear and Saburou says how Haseo has changed. She pulls out her weapon saying how she doesn’t want anyone else to be the one to test him. Pai and Yata are watching this, baiting Saburou into testing him was Pai’s plan all along. Haseo and Saburou fight, eventually Haseo killing Saburou easily. Pai and Yata say he needs a stronger tester, a normal player won’t do.
• Touta and Phyllo are talking, Phyllo saying how he is thinking of Haseo. Haseo then appears before them in his new armor, shocking Touta and Phyllo. He angrily asks them where TriEdge is and Phyllo just says he isn’t here anymore. He tries tot ell him to forget about it but Haseo blows him off. Haseo runs off and Touta follows him.
• After they have left, Taihaku comes up to Phyllo saying how Haseo looks different, and asks why. He says how perhaps that is the reward for clearing the forest, that what he didn’t’ really pass it because of the method he thought was needed.
• Touta finds Haseo in the cathedral. He says so this is where it all happened and Haseo asks him where TriEdge is. Touta just says some things about information and how he will get the information he needs. After saying stuff like how he is buying information from him, Haseo guesses he is Tawaraya since Tawaraya sold information.

Impressions:

Saburou was interesting in this episode. I have a new prominent guess as to who Saburou is now that he is known not to be Tawaraya. I think he is Sakisaka. Now, Saburou got the current PC body from Pai and Yata, which means hat he used to be someone else. When Saburou was up against Haseo he said how he used to be more straightforward, implying how he used to know Haseo a while ago in his old self. Sakisaka had a few ties with TaN as he was involved with them so they could have contacted him again after he supposedly quit.

In Saburou’s confrontation with Haseo he said a quote which I think really sums up what Haseo has become. He said he has made a 360 degree turn. Now, a lot of people probably think they screwed up, how he probably meant 180 and so on, but he meant what he said. Basically, what he meant is that Haseo is still going towards the same goal, he is still heading in the same direction but he has become twisted. He is a different person and using different methods and has a different attitude then he did before, but is still going after the same thing.

I thought near the end, Taihaku’s talk with Phyllo was very interesting. How he said that obtaining strength quickly through a lawful mean was what he thought the Painful Forest was. Then basically he said that Haseo may have been the only one who cleared it, that he himself failed the test or purpose of the Painful Forest. It’s an interesting idea that is likely true, which brings for the question what exactly the Painful Forest even did, if it was to determine who would get the epitaph and become a factor possessor? That’s a possibility but there seemed to be a lot of interest in Haseo before this so it is likely he was already a candidate for whatever before this event.

As for the other characters, Touta is in this a lot more then I thought he would be. I thought he would just be in last episode and maybe a couple more to establish and close the open end to Tawaraya but Touta seems like he will be important in Haseo’s quest to find information about Tri edge. Tabby again is still in this, but she doesn’t seem to be doing anything. However I think they have her appearing for a reason, showing that she is still there and there are people who are trying to get through to him. I think because she is still being featured it is leading up to a big part with her near the very end. As for Ovan, I’m a bit disappointed they haven’t shown him at all. I mean, he is back, he isn’t dead, but we don’t see him doing anything. With all that’s going on he has to be doing something, he can’t just be not logged in the whole time so it’s a bit odd they aren’t showing him because we know he is no where near out of the story because of his part in GU

The next episode seems to be interesting. Haseo fights with the new person we haven’t been introduced to yet, likely a test for his powers. However I know that Haseo’s powers don’t awaken until the beginning of GU when he is fighting with Endrance. That means that he doesn’t awaken in Roots. Therefore, I’m not exactly sure what the title defeat means, the titles have a trend of meaning something besides the obvious. It’s a possibility that Haseo could be defeated, but then why didn’t his epitaph awaken then? He was near defeat and striving to save Shino when it awoke when he was p against Endrance, so either he wasn’t in the right mindset when he is defeated next episode, or he isn’t at all and the title is misleading.