By: Daiyu Tang
The Letter
I received a letter signed by Caisen Mizuki. This is the Caisen that you know in Hathian; the one with the record shop that burned down. The one who maybe took a woman from a carnival. The one with the costume contest, the one that some of you think operates a sex cult and for whom this article, might just reframe him and his as one of the more dangerous and more strategic groups within Hathian. We’ve seen them steal a car and been arrested; par for the course, but this? An event of this magnitude? Tsk.
This letter… It did not ask for forgiveness. It did not deny involvement. It described for my attention, a Valentine’s event designed to “wake Hathian up”… And what better way to start something designed to wake us up than with a party. A blackout party to be precise, providing the cover of darkness, culminating in the sedation, abduction, and dispersal of captives across the city.
Without seemingly acknowledging the horror of it all, Caisen wrote that just one was “promised” as a sacrifice to Amatsu-Mikaboshi. “Chaos was the beginning,” the letter whispered in neat handwriting, “and it will be the end.” it shouted in conclusion. Strong words and strong statements to claim, knowing that I was duty-bound to investigate and report.
He wrote of anaesthesia released through vents into the party, he told me of those who cleared the building in time, and those who did not and how those that didn’t became captives taken without preference. Seven captives from the parishes of Hathian. Caged. Transported… Assigned purpose.
The letter explained that they had hidden keys around the city for people to find and rescue others. So this was, in reality, a scavenger hunt with human prizes. Oh Hathian.
Letters are easy to write, I’ve lost count of the claims from factions, groups and individuals that land on my desk. Claims are even easier to make, evidence is malleable in this city. Confessions, aren’t that unusual either. People do things that don’t make sense to most of us; but they do it for that very reason – sense has often fled Hathian leaving Gods, Blood and Sin in its’ wake and perhaps Caisen is channelling all of them.
“Only one was to be a sacrifice to Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the deity of Chaos. She was strapped to a bomb, and nothing could save her. We thank her for her tribute to our God and know she will be rewarded in the afterlife.”
Caisen
Ironic Protectors – The Hopper Police Department
Eyewitness accounts and eventual confirmation with the Hopper Police Department (‘HopPD’, ‘HpD’, no idea really…) who had claimed to be first on the scene confirm that a captive woman was restrained inside a truck in a strip mall and that her cries for help could be heard leading to multiple 911 calls. The first we understand was from the HopPD, and was from the recording introduced by Karigan as “…Colonel Captain Sensai Sargeat Hopper PD…” That’s an uncomfortable detail right? That for once, something that was covered as satire did what good citizens do; try and deal with a problem and then, when needed, call in the competition.
Then the truck exploded.
Karigan was not far enough away. The blast threw her into the street, taking injuries for Hathian. Sadly they simply reached it first, heard it arm, and suffered the same conclusion as everyone else: too late, too close. Isn’t this what the message from the Ten No Tage wanted?
“It can be said one of the definitions of insanity is doing something over and over expecting different results… Do not simply fight the corrupt, BREAK THEM… You cannot save her, she is already promised, you need only watch.”
Recorded truck message prior to explosion
Misjudgement
I once wrote about Caisen in lighter tones. Afterall, the guy hosted a costume contest where I won. He presided over rituals that felt religious, sort of indulgent and if I might say, considering my experience in Hathian, almost adolescent in their theatricality. There was a temptation to file him under ‘eccentric’, and perhaps ‘dangerous-(sometimes adjacent),’ but not really in the same scale as some of those we’ve covered before. How wrong I was. An error of scale eclipsed by the event that the group organised and perpetrated on Hathian.
When a group organizes gas, sedation, coordinated transport, explosives, trucks broadcasting messaging, and framing (from his perspective) around human sacrifice, we are no longer discussing theatre or ‘danger-adjacent’ or ‘eccentric’. We’re discussing another Hathian nexus of bad; one steeped in religious iconolatry and a belief system that isn’t as shallow ‘as games’, nor as transaction as ‘drug deals and money’. Does that make it better? Worse? Scarier? More time is needed and I worry dear Hathian that means more scary outcomes.
The Lie of Chaos
If I was making an argument to you Hathian that ‘chaos is good’ you might think I’ve lost my mind. It is not; there are systems and checks and balances that must work to ensure that we operate together with gears turning not grinding. Clearly in Hathian this happens less smoothly than we would like, but it’s still frustrating to see that the letter argues that Hathian is weak and divided. That ‘law and order’ is corrupt. That the city must ‘rise up and break the system’.
My dears, it’s never difficult difficult to find examples of institutional failure here. It can be anywhere and effect so many. I have written about poor cops, sabotaged firefighters, mayoral budget madness, diverted city funds and more. The list goes on and on. So if that’s the truth, then surely the Ten No Kage are aligned to it? No. There is a lie embedded in Ten No Kage’s framing and their positioning to Hathian’s citizens. It is the lie that terror creates unity. That rising against ‘law and order’ somehow positions us together. The fact that the HPD can’t save a woman in a truck is no surprise. There are many who go unsaved. The fact that they resist attempts to reform them, also no surprise. What would be surprising is if we found a better way than violence to bring about change.
Terror does not create unity. It does not. It creates trauma. If people bond together over traumatic events than one hardly has to see the fallacy in the logic here; the police can’t save a woman, so disband the police and let chaos reign? Or what? Replace ‘law and order’ with what? The letter doesn’t answer. Our strength and unity cannot come about because of a common enemy because in reality we don’t acknowledge that the enemy is not per se, the HPD. It is the violence and mindset that begets violence that many are guilty of. No matter how good looking or convinced of your own religious righteousness you are Caisen. Citizens cannot be swayed by brutality of their own. I hope.
Let’s be clear; when you strap a woman to a bomb and tell the city “you cannot save her,” you are not creating unity. You are demonstrating control and the weakness of the city to do good things. You are not dismantling power. You are taking it, with our old friend violence and cloaking yourself in it. This might make you more deadly, or scarier or have been under-estimated, but it does not make you right.
