Pursuit on a Hot Night, Escape, & Summer Darkness
Summary
The Balloon Dog goes pop! (boom!, really), taking Rijin with it and
leaving a crater with its’ bones – which also happen to be three-bladed
throwing-stars. That smell like fireworks. Mamoru wonders at the existence of a
creature that would evolve just to kill, and Shun says a species will do
anything it can to survive. The Rats pursue them, and Saki and Satoru are
separated from the others and captured.
Held captive in a cage of branches, Satoru telling Saki there’s a cut
on her neck almost leads to hanky-panky, until Saki remembers what the
Minoshiro said about bonobos and tells herself they’re not monkeys.* Since
these Rats aren’t locals, Satoru tries to give the guard the false Thatchnester
egg they picked up in Episode 3, which will explode if not handled gingerly, by
pretending it’s food. Saki thinks that’s a dumb plan – nobody’s stupid enough
to fall for that. One stupid guard later, they’re free and on the run again. They’re
rescued by Squealer, a Rat from the Robber Fly colony. He has a mark on his
forehead to prove it and addresses them as gods, so he’s friendly. Or at least
he should be.
He takes them to the nest’s queen, who bids them stay the night.
Squealer accidentally burns away the canvas concealing her, revealing her
massive, six-breasted form. Enraged, she starts to eat him, but Saki orders her
to stop.
Squealer explains that the Rats who attacked them are the Earth Spider
colony, which is at war with the Robber Flies. He begs them to intervene –
please, even a little smiting would
be great – but the kids refuse. Their excuse is that they need permission to
punish a Monster Rat, not wanting to reveal that they can’t.
That night, the Earth Spiders attack the lair. Saki and Satoru try to
escape but become trapped in a cave-in after being forced away from the
entrance by poison gas. Saki suddenly hallucinates visions of the Minoshiro,
and after she snaps out of it she notices that Satoru doesn’t look well. She
remembers the time they showed each other the mantras that were given at the
Temple of Purification. It was only for a second – not long enough to be
memorized – but Saki got Satoru’s afterwards by using a pencil to darken the
paper around the erasings. Then she has an idea and uses Satoru’s mantra to
recreate the ritual and give him back his Power. He now feels like a million
bucks and is ready to clear a way out of the cave-in and kick some Earth Spider
ass. In the process he destroys their poison gas canisters and kills many of
them with his Power. Saki worries that he’s enjoying it a little too much.
They run into Squealer and a squad of the queen’s soldiers. She and her
guards were the only ones to escape the attack. He tells them his scouts have
found an unguarded route to the Earth Spider colony, but when they take the
path they are continuously ambushed, the Earth Spiders revealed to be capable
of taking on different forms to attack from the trees, the water, and the
ground. Satoru is starting to sweat heavily and looks tired, and when Saki
insists they should stop she seemingly lets it slip that only he can use Power.
Fortunately, Squealer doesn’t seem to have noticed, but he insists the path was
clear when the scouts checked it.** He sends some out again and insists it really
is clear this time. The group makes its way to a clearing overlooking a valley,
where a massive Earth Spider army has assembled, about three thousand by
Squealer’s count, and too many to deal with now that Satoru admits he’s
starting to feel weak. They have catapults, and Squealer bolts after they start
launching boulders, while Satoru redirects one to let him and Saki escape as
well.
They stumble upon Squealer, who’s been captured, and he alerts his
guards to their presence, but after Satoru stops one he kills the other with a
concealed dagger. He says it’s only because he wasn’t sure if they’d help him
otherwise, freely admitting to cowardice and generally being a scumbag – but
really, it’s not like two Monster Rats should be a problem for gods, right?
Since they don’t just kill the pursuers either, he starts to wonder if perhaps
they aren’t gods anymore, but a
sudden horn blast causes the Earth Spiders to turn back, and Squealer says it’s
reinforcements. And not just any reinforcements – it’s the Giant Hornet Colony,
the largest in eastern Japan and the one most loyal to humans.
The trio meet up with the Giant Hornets and their leader, General
Kiroumaru, at the Earth Spider nest. The Earth Spider queen is to be executed
and the survivors taken away as slaves, the Robber Flies getting ten percent to
help them rebuild. Saki remembers that Squealer told them the survivors of a
losing colony will not only be slaves but treated as less than cattle.
Kiroumaru agrees to meet with the Earth Spider general, but the latter turns
out to have two Balloon Dogs hidden in his cloak. Satoru saves them by
redirecting the blast, and finally collapses. When he wakes up after dark he
tells Saki they need to escape, and yes, it’s because the Giant Hornets are so
loyal. That means they’ll follow orders from the Ethics Committee, and have
probably told them about Saki and Satoru already. And lest Saki forgets, both
of them happen to have committed a major crime recently. Remember that stuff
they were told, about problematic kids being pre-emptively eliminated?
Squealer follows them and agrees to guide them to the inlet where they
left the canoes. They reach the inlet in the morning, where the others have
waited for them. They don’t make it far before the Giant Hornets approach in ships,
but all they do is tow the kids to the mouth of the Tone River. Kiroumaru asks
them not to mention that he helped them, so Saki and Satoru realize he did get orders from the Ethics Committee.
Since the others either remember their mantras or have them written down at
home, the kids return to the village and regain their Powers, successfully
fooling the adults. Or so they think…
Thoughts
And that’s what Monster Rat
society is like, and it’s not a pleasant place, full of conflict and slavery
and living in the dirt. Sure, real-life rats don’t always live in the most
sanitary places either, but these ones are beneficial to humans, yet when they
aren’t being used for something the latter seem to just leave them to their own
devices. Rijin didn’t even know who the Earth Spiders were, or seemingly that
there were any Monster Rats in the area, let alone that they were fighting a
war. Squealer’s appeal to Satoru and Saki also comes across as desperate and opportunistic
– happened just because they’re there – rather than an appeal to the gods for
assistance; if the Robber Flies could do that, why ask it of two kids who just
happened to be nearby instead of going to the Ethics Committee? I’m also
thinking he may have seen Rijin kill the large group of Earth Spiders – now that was smiting, with a shape like an
angel of death appearing in the cyclone and everything – and that’s why he
decided to try and appeal for aid. On the other hand, the Temple of
Purification is explicitly said to be outside the Sacred Barrier, and one would
think those who’re there regularly would need and want to have some idea what
the local primitives are up to. Granted, it’s not like the Temple of
Purification would be in any danger if there’s multiple people like Rijin
there, so maybe they don’t even care what the local Rats get up to as long as
it doesn’t threaten the settlement, which doesn’t speak well to how much
concern humans have, or rather, don’t have, for the Monster Rats.
And speaking of Squealer, I
smell a rat. Calling himself a coward may have been an act, because he was
taking a hell of a risk by getting himself captured, knowing what awaited him
if his gamble didn’t pay off, but that stuff about being a scumbag certainly
isn’t a lie, even if him saying so was only meant as part of his general
‘forgive this lesser life form, oh great gods!’ charade. Either way, he’s not a
coward, but he’s definitely shady, and not stupid. Since Saki and Satoru didn’t
readily agree to help at first, only to turn around and do so later, and then
Saki almost let it slip that only Satoru has his Power, it’s pretty clear that
he was already starting to suspect they didn’t both have their Power, or at
least that something was up, so he deliberately got himself captured to try and
find out. The implications of this, and the war itself, aren’t clear yet, but I
seriously doubt we’ve seen the last of him, and so far he’s firmly in the ‘not
to be trusted’ category. Kiroumaru, on the other hand, is at least honorable –
it’s obvious he helped the kids because Satoru saved his life – but as Satoru
pointed out, that’s as much of a curse as a blessing, because it also means
he’ll follow orders from his superiors, who as far as we know happen to be (or
at least include) the Ethics Committee, who happen to have it in for the kids
right now (because Obvious Fact – there’s no
way they’ve actually fooled the adults. They obviously decided not to do
anything yet. Reasons why are heretofore unclear). He went against the latter
because he owed the kids, but now that he doesn’t anymore, he just as likely –
or maybe even more likely – to be an
enemy next time. I guess we’ll see.
There is one thing I’m wondering about, though. The first Monster Rats
we see have markings on their forehead that identify their colony. Squealer has
one too the first time we see him, but it looks like it’s been drawn on, and he
doesn’t have it later, nor do any other Monster Rats. But at the same time,
Rijin could tell the Earth Spiders were hostile precisely because they didn’t have a mark, implying that colonies loyal to
humans all do. Yet, Saki and Satoru never questioned the absence of marks for
either of the two colonies that supposedly are loyal and theoretically should
have one. I suppose it’s not as unusual as the Earth Spiders seemingly having
the ability to shapeshift, because that’s definitely weirder, but it still
seems like an odd thing to not notice, or not say anything about. Saki and
Satoru assume that Kiroumaru doesn’t want them saying anything because he’s going
against orders from the Ethics Committee, but given the lack of marks I’m
starting to wonder if Squealer has been lying to them. He’s the only one who
tells Saki and Satoru anything about the situation, and as I said, there’s
reason to doubt his trustworthiness, so it’s possible none of these rats have
anything to do with humans, and Kiroumaru asked them not to say anything not because
he was defying orders but because it would let the adults know there’s a bunch
of non-aligned Monster Rats in the area. That or the marks aren’t meant to be
all that large and prominent and not showing them is just an animation
shortcut.
And while we’re speculating, I’m no longer so sure of my earlier theory
that the Monster Rats might have originally been humans. The kids thought Rijin
was experiencing the Death of Shame after he killed a large group, but Satoru
tears into them almost as much and he’s fine; the effects of doing so come off
as fatigue rather than some genetic reaction to attacking humans. Probably
Rijin was just experiencing major fatigue after using his Power in such a
destructive fashion, and the kids assumed, wrongly, that it was the Death of
Shame. It’d be interesting if it’s true, but it’s stretching things a bit.
*Well, she’s never heard of bonobos, so I suppose it’s an easy mistake
to assume they’re monkey when they’re actually apes
**It’s almost like they wanted them to think the path was safe so they’d use it and walk right into the
ambush! Nah…
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