Story 14: Various Cards [VBEX4]

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Illusions, Extra Deck monsters and dubs being checked

STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS NUMBER 14
Various Cards

The Secrets and Decisions of the Two Girls

Chiyomaru chases after her mission target, Masquerena, under the orders of the commander of the “S-Force”, Justify. However, according to her Ninjitsu Art – Snooping Jutsu, her target didn’t reek of being a super-evil baddie. (Yesterday, when she tripped and failed her mission, she left a band-aid behind for her…). Chiyomaru thought this was very strange, so she used her secret technique: The “Break-Into-The-Data-Bank-And-Analyze” Jutsu, and when she checked for the approval process of the mission targets, there was a ton of mumbo jumbo: …”Multi-dimensional equilibrium”, “Causality collision”, “Permeation avoidance”, “Ultimate future”…
“???…Uuuuhmmm…..I don’t get it at all!!”


S:P Little Knight
There has to be an ulterior motive for being relentlessly pushed to chase after Masquerena…that’s what was on Chiyomaru’s mind, when she decided to turn her back on her mission. However, she still had no idea that this small future that she wants to protect with her own hands will bring about an even bigger turmoil to the world…

Secret Image

S:P Little Knight

Weaving:

Right: “Making a shinai sheath”
Left: “Just a little Hand-Weaving jutsu…”

Result:

Right: “It’s upside-down!!?”
Left: “Bi…binoshi..”

Covert ops:

Right: “She does not have her conspicuous shuriken”
Left: “This is super-stealth. No one will notice me”

TL note: The upside-down design in her sheath seems to be an inverted 忍 (shinobi) kanji. Reading each sound backwards, it becomes bi-no-shi. There may be a deeper meaning to this: The line about Chiyomaru turning her back on her mission is written as “使命の刃を翻す”. A more literal interpretation of these words is “to reverse [one’s] blade of duty”. And significantly enough, the kanji for “shinobi” (忍) is written as a combination of “blade” (刃) and “heart” (心). Therefore, inverting the “shinobi” kanji would accidentally create an inverted blade and an inverted heart.

The Embodiment of the Anger of the Gods

The diabolic nightmare with the name of a “god”: Those entities called “gods”, who feared the most terrifying “Counter-Offensive Weapon” created by the humans, copied that technology. Who should be the one that governs? In order to rectify these insolent humans once again, “anger” makes its move.

Super Starslayer TY-PHON – Sky Crisis
A “god” is that which steals: It wears the clothes of humans, it wields the weapons of humans
A “god” is that which devours: It swallows the life of humans, it slurps the death of humans
A “god” is that which grieves: It pities the sorrow of humans, it curses the love of humans
A “god” is that which dies: It destroys humans, it is destroyed by humans
A “god” is that which is born: Countless times, countless times

End of page 1

TL note: The terminology in TY-PHON’s lore references some concepts introduced in the VBEX 1 for AA-ZEUS. While the details are still scarce, this passage continues from the premise that humans built AA-ZEUS (along with 11 other previous weapons) to fight against some entities called “gods”. And now, these “gods”, threatened by AA-ZEUS, are retaliating with their own weapon.

The Heirs To The Magic Of Illusions

A master of all sorts of Illusion Magic, he is considered to be the ultimate wizard among Illusionists. It is said those that confront him are deprived of their freedom and become his puppet before the foe even notices.

An Illusionist who inherited Illusion Magic from ancient times. “Apprentice” and “Nightmare Magician” are both magicians that are two peas from the same pod that share the same master. She’s still inexperienced and unskilled with using magic, but her potential is incredible.

Do NOT Break the Golden Rule

This is my badass site, where I recreated my beloved hometown. But for some reason, the access counter never seems to increase. Maybe it was a bad idea to name the site after that weird foreign word…As her anxiety grows, the notification of the tenth visitor finally arrives! But as she checked the comments section in high spirits, there was no message to be found.
“You bastard, you think you can just hit and run on my site, huh!?”
With that thought on her mind, the anger of the girl, known as “The Ogre” back home, was on the verge of exploding.

You’re Finished
What does “kiriban” mean…?
Websites at the dawn of the Internet featured a visitor counter, and there was a popular rule that when a milestone like the 100th or 1000th visitor arrived, that visitor must leave a celebratory comment.

TL note: The Japanese name of this card is “Kiriban”. The term explained by the book is written as 切り番, but the card name replaces the first kanji for a homophone 斬. Both kanji can mean “to cut”. The original term is an abbreviation of 切りの良い番 (kiri no ii ban, nice-ending number). The original kanji is used to imply “end”, but the kanji used in the card means a “fatal slash”.
Expanding on the book’s explanation, there was a “golden rule” that became popular with personal sites, where the site owner would return some kind of favor for the milestone visitor, such as highlighting their username or drawing a piece of art they requested. Conversely, if the milestone visitor entered the site but did not leave a comment, this would infuriate some site owners that were looking forward to this kind of interaction. Entering the site and leaving without posting a comment was known as “fuminige” (踏み逃げ, step in + run away). Some site owners went so far as to create an explicit rule saying that it was forbidden to “fuminige” on their site, which in turn created pressure on casual visitors that just happened to land on their site for the first time and unexpectedly turned out to be a milestone visitor.

The Legend of the Curse of Flames

This is a legend of the curse of flames, as told in a certain land.
Is the power of the bestowed flames a curse? Is the power to bestow flames a sin?
In all of creation, it is the hand of the gods that grants life, not that of man.
The bestowed flames make life eternal, yet condemn the appearance to a grotesque wielding of flames.
Thus, people call her the condemned princess.

Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames

End of page 2

TL note: The Japanese name for Promethean Princess uses the term 咎姫, which could mean something like “[sinful/condemned] princess”. The story in this book is similar to that of Prometheus, taking fire from the gods and bestowing it to humans, for which later he was punished, which also fits the localized name.

SPYRAL ROYALE

Dandy, an agent skilled even for the “SPYRAL” intelligence agency, and whose name is widely known among villains, takes on an infiltration mission on an enemy agency, as assigned by the HQ “RESORT”, wearing the mechanical arm “Extra Arms” that he inherited from his master on his left arm. Dandy arrives right in front of the target. And as he did, a young man with silver hair and eyes, who looks great in a dark suit, appeared in front of him. He was an agent of a different force, with a mechanical arm on his right arm that had a strong vestige.

TL note: “Dandy” is the Japanese name for SPYRAL Super Agent. “Extra Arms” is the Japanese name for SPYRAL GEAR – Fully Armed.

The Girl Who Leapt Over Time

Perpetua: A genius scientist who developed technology to leap through time and space. However, an organization that wanted to monopolize time-space technology designed a plan to return to the past with a time warp and kidnap Perpetua when she was a girl. It was Redoer, a mysterious man who had time-warped, who saved Perpetua from her predicament. Perpetua, taking pride in her smarts from when she was still a child, developed all sorts of items from the information she obtained from Redoer, as she stays on the run from the evil organization.

End of chapter

TL note: The name of this chapter (時を超える少女, toki wo koeru shoujo) is similar to the name of the novel and film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女, toki wo kakeru shoujo).