CHAPTER 14 . DAWN OF THE CHRYSALIS
| CHAPTER 14 . DAWN OF THE CHRYSALIS MOUNTAIN COMPOUND | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other chapters | ||||||
| 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 |
| 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
Summary
Konoko reaches the mountain compound of Muro's group in the Syndicate, STURMANDERUNG. Surging with Daodan power and anger, she cleans out floor after floor of Syndicate troops, discovering the progressive phases of STURMANDERUNG's plans from consoles along the way.
She realizes that Muro is planning to reroute the Atmospheric Conversion Centers to pollute the air instead of cleansing it; a disaster from which only the Chrysalis can save humankind. Konoko theorizes, "He's planning to kill everyone who doesn't sell his soul to him for a Chrysalis." Konoko sees no other option than triggering Muro's plan prematurely, causing only some ACCs to fail and giving humanity longer to survive. She sabotages the dish that is supposed to broadcast the signal to scramble to ACCs.
Then, she heads to the rooftop to face Muro.
A: Muro faces her one-on-one, but transforms to his Imago state, the manifestation of the Chrysalis inside him. He proves to be monstrously powerful.
B: Muro chastises her for coming alone, when suddenly Griffin (in Black Ops armor such as he once wore regularly) and two Black Ops soldiers disembark from a helicopter. Konoko, Griffin and his men face off against Muro and many of his best subordinates.
Added Value
It's surprising just how difficult the killed-Griffin scenario is. Singlehandedly facing un-transformed Muro and all the henchmen he summons in scenario B would be easier than the fight is with just Imago Muro. This could be seen as karmic retribution for Mai's actions (or a statement of morality by the game designers); she kills Griffin, and now she has no one to help her. But it's difficult to explain within the story why Muro transforms in ending A and not in ending B. How does Griffin being dead make a difference in whether Muro can/wants to transform? If anything, one would expect he would be more likely to try to reason with her in his normal form if she killed Griffin, since she might have a better chance of joining him. His Imago state would be more logically be used against a Mai who stood totally opposed to Muro's wanton killing, and thus would be used in scenario B against Mai, Griffin, and his Black Ops team.
Also, here is where we see what a person looks like if they have Muro's nature, since Kerr told Mai that one's nature determines the outcome of the transformation. It's not pretty. It does, however, resemble Barabas, albeit to a more extreme degree. There is also a possible tie-in, however unlikely, to the notion covered here, that a person taken with rage can become an oni, or demon (monster). This is Muro's true nature.
For more discussion of Muro's ultimate motives, see his page and this one.
Finally, we never see Mai's Imago state. Why not? She's had her Chrysalis about as long as Muro's had his, as far as we know. We can only speculate as to whether her transformation would be so monstrous, or so dramatic, or whether it would resemble the original Mai more closely, since she was not nearly as savage as Muro. Still, she wasn't a saint, so if one expects the Imago state to reflect how "pure" one is, she might well turn out to have a somewhat frightening appearance, if not so drastically as Muro did. It's possible that morality in any absolute sense is not a factor in the Imago state's appearance, but even if it is simply a matter of how much killing a Daodan host does, and the Chrysalis adapting to that life to make the host a more efficient killer, you could still expect Muro's nature as a wanton killer to make him more monstrous than Mai, even if she herself changed in a similar way.
Outro
Some time later, Konoko is shown roaming the ruins of a city, and monologuing to herself that many have died from the sabotage of the ACCs. The Chrysalis may yet save the survivors, but the ultimate effect that its introduction will have on humankind is unclear. "Let's hope it's for the better."
Added Value
There is already a fair amount written here about the questionable wisdom of Mai's rash actions in 'blowing the processors'. Was the "horrible cost" of so many dying avoidable? Should she have tried to defeat Muro first and then taken the time to carefully reverse his scheme before it was implemented? How could she know she would survive a fight with Muro? Perhaps the only course she could take (acting alone, after all, with no one to sound her ideas against) was to take immediate action while she was there and could still do something, rather than retreat and come back later. With the TCTF as her enemy, she would not be able to assemble any support for a raid, and thus may have figured that this might be her only chance.
In the epilogue, Mai notes two large changes in society that are taking place: dealing with the situation of the poisoned planet openly, and, most intriguingly, the Chrysalis 'changing us all'. Apparently it may be necessary for everyone to have a Chrysalis to adapt to the pollution, with the ACCs unable to keep up the holding action against the outside world. How can this be done? Is there time and money for every man, woman and child to get their own Chrysalis? Can they be cloned generically from a host like Mai? Will the privileged and wealthy get them first? What sort of upheavals might this bring about? Will everyone be subject to Daodan spikes, and even Imago transformations, in time? Where will this lead civilization? Those are the sorts of unsettling issues that Oni leaves us to ponder, with no easy answers.