STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS NUMBER 14
Various Cards

The Secrets and Decisions of the Two Girls

Secret Image

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

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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.

Do NOT Break the Golden Rule

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

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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

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

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).