The music is life itself!
Moved this here, as GJ crashed so completely, and I'm afraid if it goes the rest of the way I'll lose the transcript.
For reference and icons and stuff. All scans in reading order. Right-to-left manga style. Jing belongs to Kumakura. Scripted the unscanned pages for the sake of plot.
The Merry Widow Banquet
This place was able to revitalize itself through music and the instruments that create it.
And up there... is the man who's conducted the city thus far--
Nourishing parched bodies with melody, lifting tired souls with rhythm...
This whole street is actually one giant brass instrument!!
See, not a bad ensemble, right?
How can an instrument exist that can be heard but not seen?
And that's what we're here to steal.
Screw the Ultimate Instrument! Bring me a finely tuned...
...GIRL!!
Kir, what did you just--?
It's because I tried to kill Eyguebelle.
Alize: [turns, standing in front of a giant poster of Eyguebelle] ...HE MASSACRED ALL OF MY FRIENDS!
[scene change to what looks like a cafe, with a bunch of faceless guys with swirled skin singing from the middle of a circular piano]
Singers: giggle,rage,weeeep!!!!!! You can get angry on the west side and happy on the east... But no tears in city limits!
These are my friends-- the children of the Passion Flower Choir.
Alize: [panels of a singing choir of children, Alize among them with short hair] We didn't know a thing about or even care about the Ultimate Instrument. We just enjoyed singing the mysterious songs that Gramps would create...
[a building at the edge of a forest with a twisting, pointed roof. Not unlike soft-serve ice cream]
...living peacefully in a small music academy in the countryside.
[image of black piano keys]
But Eyguebelle just had to control everything!
[panel of a smiling young Alize]
Because of that, he massacred everyone who he could establish had any connection with the Invisible's creation. As if those kids were any threat to him.
[ominous-looking, helmeted Eyguebelle transposed over an image of the academy]
But one day, when I returned from running some errands... everyone had been wiped out!
[young Alize, standing in the doorway of the academy. Jagged staff lines are raked heavily into the floor and walls. Her foot hits what looks like a mouthpiece. Panel of a hand, hollow and comprised entirely of loosely interconnected, white musical notes, broken off before the elbow and lying on the floor]
I'd never seen such a horrible way to die.
[a view of the body the hand belongs to, sprawled on the floor in the same broken-down state. The clothes it's wearing indicates that it was once Gramps]
No... That was more than just death...
[panel of a horrified-looking Alize] It was as if they were literally erased from this world.
It's like they were painted over with a dizzying, roaring sound!
What I just told you reveals the true hidden identity... of the widow who only seems merry.
Jing: [stands, a donut in his mouth] How about I lend you a hand?
Kir: [aerial shot of him pushing a surprised Alize away from the table] Yeah! We're after the Invisible, too! Whether we can see it or not. (Let's go!)
Alize: Huh? Oh, but...
[black chapter divide with white text and a negative image of a medical diagram of the inside of an ear]
Text: They say music is the tremble of the soul searching for words.
Whether or not a single melody can capture a person's heart
An uncountable number of words in a musical score
Try to capture all that there is.
The music that strokes the ear and instantly passes--
That in itself is already tragically fleeting.
Each of those words is correct without exaggeration
And each of those words is incorrect.
That's why
Carelessly attaching words to music
Is to carelessly bring tragedy to flesh and blood.
[flip side, another negative image of either more nerves or a flower, it's hard to tell]
Let melody be melody!
Let music be music!
(From Essays of the Taxidermy Priest IV)
Kir: [over a panel of Alize's foot stepping down a staircase] The Three Maisterzingers?
Alize: [flipping through her pocketbook with Kir smushed against her cheek in order to see] Yeah. They're this city's foremost instrument creators and performers. [pulls out a picture and holds it up for him to see] Here's the three of them.
These three are also the ones who invented the Invisible.
Didn't you know V.I.P.s always enter through a secret entrance?
This is a place where sight loses to sound.
They always play the same song...
Anger, sadness, fear... all emotions are frozen in place.
Alize: [narrating over a panel of a lightning bolt] And it controls the ears and even the eyes...
[a lightning storm over a rocky canyon, filled with rushing wind and fog]
...so that visions even appear in your mind.
[a haphazard pile of weatherbeaten tombstones towering up from the bottom of the canyon, stone and storm stretching far overhead]
....
Alize: [turning to go] All right, it's showtime!
Jing: [looks at her] So the divine melody is just beginning, eh?
Alize: [from off-panel. Jing looks kind of "wtf"] Come on! From here on we need our senses of sight, hearing, smell and taste...
Kir: [rushing after her] H-hold on!
Jing: [slowly follows after as the theatre begins to disperse] All five senses for searching, then?
Alize: [off-panel, over an image of the musicians dispersing through the back hallways] The flute! The tall guy holding the flute!
[the man in question is picked out in white] TH-THAT'S HIM!
[man opens a door. A hood is covering his face and he's carrying a watering can] Hey, he's going into the music shop! MR. BARDINET!
[Alize literally JUMPS on the guy, grabs the front of his shirt and slams him into the wall] Take me to Eyguebelle! Come on, take me right now!! OR ELSE!
Hooded Man: Uh... Aaa... Aah...
Alize: [looks at him as his hood falls off, his long hair completely covering his face]
Man: Uooo!
How about some adagio from now on?
[panel of what appears to be a humanoid potted plant situated on a chair, playing a flute]
Alize: [looks shocked, transposed over an image of the photograph of Bardinet] !!? That face--could it be...?!
Kir: [hovering in front of Jing, who's blocking the doorway with outstretched arms] Th-this is Bardinet?!
Jing: [eyes seem solemn]
Alize: [falls to her knees, letting the photograph drop out of her hands. Next panel is of a streetlight outside]
Evening streets.
[shop on a street corner with signs saying "Flower Children". The sun is setting]
Voice: A horrible attack that turned the master into that...
[inside of the shop, filled with shelves and shelves of records. Jing is browsing while listening to the girl behind the desk]
Shopkeeper: It was one of the terrifying Word Weapons created during the War of Grammar. The poisonous words reach your cells even before they shake your eardrum...
[panel of what looks like the DNA double helix with really odd symbols in one twist and English letters in another] It forcibly translates even the body's language...
[shopkeeper fiddles with a turntable while Jing looks at a record. Kir is spinning around on one of the turntable's records] ...changing it into a spell nobody can understand...
[panel of Bardinet playing the flute] ...And the victims are all reshaped into another life form...
[Alize is sleeping on the shop's couch. Bardinet is playing on a table in front of her] ...if you can call it that.
Kir: [falls over with spiral eyes] What the?! Me so confused! If it's not a life form, then what? Form life?!
Jing: [places the record he was looking at back on the shelf] Nobody understands it... Probably...
[looks along the shelves] How it started... How it continues...
[catches sight of something] How it hurts... How it is hurt...
[tugs on another record and pulls it loose] It's not even possible to explain the fighting to other people...
[holds up the record--the cover is a picture of a bound book, the clasp broken open and the whole thing warped and punctured by a bullet hole] ...since the words don't even exist... anymore.
Shopkeeper: [looks sad as he hands the record to her] It's a war that started with grammatical chaos.
[places the record on the turntable] Nobody even knows how many died in the battle...
[places the needle down] ...only that many widows have been left behind.
[close-up of the record. The text on it is unreadable] But one thing all the soldiers made before they went out to battle...
[panel of all the shelves of records] ...was a recording of their own name.
[back to the record] And so the survivors cherish the recordings that they still have.
[scene of the twilit streets, doors closed against the oncoming night] Some wait patiently for their loved ones to return...
[panel of the record and needle, and then of a more industrial district] Some simply wait for the end of the war to be announced.
[panel of the edge of the record] They all enjoy the songs that were left behind as much as they can...
[and now the darkened city and sunset sky] ...calling the ruins of this town Merry Widow.
[Jing looks surprised as a voice shouts out]
Voice: But what about the children who didn't even have a song to leave behind?!
All right, time for an abduction!
Now, time for me to bind you so you can't escape.
Flowers don't speak, and speakers don't flower, eh?
Even his heart has probably been turned into a different life form!
We've been looking for you, master!
Bardinet: [smiles and says something in jibberish, comprised entirely of musical notation and notes]
Kir: [spazzing while Jing and Alize look weirded out] H-He spoke! Though I can't understand it...
Bardinet: [extends a hand, speaks more musical jibberish to the blindfolded guy]
Blindfolded Man: [musical jibberish back]
Kir: [puzzled, to an equally puzzled-looking Jing] Are they talking...or singing? Huh?
Bardinet and Blindfolded Man: [several more panels of musical jibbering]
Big Red Man: [gently takes Bardinet from Alize, who just stands there gaping up at him] [a bit more musical jibberish, the whole group is talking and apparently laughing]
Alize: [aims the gun at them] Wh-wh-wh-what're you doing?!
Jing: [grabs her arm and swings it upward just before she pulls the trigger, smiling] Starting a hundred-meter dash? [looks at the group] It doesn't look like they want to steal him. Look...
[musical jibberish, group is definitely laughing now, and the slashes in the big guy's mouth literally read "hahahaha!"]
Alize: [looks a bit chastened, toys with the gun]
Same old members, same old number, I guess.
Big Guy: [singing through the slashes in his mouth while holding Bardinet, Jing smiling as he watches. Kir has somehow joined in with tambourines, and the whole group sings to Bardinet's conducting, the notes flying into the sky and coalescing into what looks like a big black ball]
Alize: [stares at the sky as the ball explodes in what appears to be a burst of bright fireworks, showering down little shards of light in the shape of musical notes. She reaches a hand out to them]
Big Guy: [suddenly starts convulsing and spewing out steam, startling everyone] !!
Jing: [pushes Alize out of the way as they all back up, Kir carrying Bardinet]
Big Guy: [reaches out of the steam, still shouting jangled musical jibberish, then suddenly there's an explosive noise] Ahh! [dozens of tiny needles shoot into his outstretched hand, crackling with electricity]
Jing: [holds an arm out in front of Alize]
Big Guy: [looks angry and/or in pain, still screaming mixed-up jibberish]
[panel of boots]
Voice: [in oddly musically-scored font] dO>N't MoVE!!!
[two jester-like beings with harmonica mouths approach, similar to the ones that attacked Alize at the beginning of the volume. They're carrying half-circular devices in their hands; one squeezes his and it spits out more electric needles]
Jing: [substitutes a robot to take the needles for them and takes off with Alize]
Soldiers (or maybe it's the musicians?): WAIT!! WAIT!!
[page of several lined-up panels, all overlaid by a large picture of a record needle hanging from a rope, looking like it's composed of an odd assortment of musical parts and body parts, the point of the needle dragging up musical notes from a giant record]
Music: dans un / sommeil // que carmait / to image / je revais le / bonheur / ardent / mirage // tes yeux / etaient // ta voix pure / et / sonore // tu rayonnais comme un ciel / eclaire par / l'aurore
[the monster needle is hanging from a noose twined around a gnarled, dead tree over a giant platform that holds the record]
Kir: [comes running up with Bardinet while Jing looks around] H-hey! Isn't this far enough?!
[looks around himself] Alize! Where's Alize?!
[catches sight of her to one side, hands on her knees and bent over as she tries to catch her breath] Oh, so that's where you are, song princess. I thought you might have become invisible, too.
A maestro who locks up all the songs in a safe and plays up an invisible peace... that's what Eyguebelle is! A conductor of lies!
[the giant record needle suddenly comes to life and starts running heavily on the record while still tied to the tree]
Kir: [surprised] Wh-wh-wh-wh-what?! That player's snapped!
Bardinet: Pa...an'...n...
Kir: [looks up at where he's balanced Bardinet on his head] Huh?! He said something!
Bardinet: Pa...per...an'...p-p...pen! [a feather quill and a paper with staff lines on it are handed to him]
Jing: Here you go. [crouches down in front of Bardinet as he takes it] Is a musical score okay? [smiles] Hope you don't mind that it's stolen.
[panel of the paper, letters written at different heights on the lines like musical notes:]
Paper: WaNT sEE TRUTH?
Jing: [reading the paper] Do you want to... see the truth...?
Alize: [standing behind him, looking at the paper over his shoulder with her arms folded] ...... [looks away] I do. [lowers her arms] Show it to me!!
[scene change to the big guy collapsed on the ground and stuck full of needles, the slashes of his mouth reading "help!!"]
Voice: One of his children...
[panel shows Eyguebelle with a downright evil smile, holding what looks like some sort of complicated injector with a small vial attached to it]
Eyguebelle: So, there was a survivor from Passion Flower? [panel of the jester soldiers directing each other around the Big Guy with various tools] And they even took Bardinet? What can they be after? Well, that doesn't matter...
[stops what looks like a medical cart rolling towards him] At this rate...
[panel of the Big Guy foaming out of the mouth and weakly mumbling musical jibberish] ...everyone in the city will become like him!
[picks up a featureless helmet] A widow hiding the pain in her heart...
[some kind of face mask is being put on the Big Guy; it looks like a harness with three canisters on the front, over his mouth, that are attached to several tubes] ...begins singing the "Rhapsody in Blue"!!
[lifts the helmet to his face] I have to finish it... [places the helmet on and raises his arms to the sky and the full moon] FINISH EVERYTHING!!
Seems like the whole city's gone honky tonk. (note: the robot on the right hand page is a larger-sized version of the one Jing threw to stop the needles earlier.)
Alize: [grabs Kir by the feathers on the top of his head and yells, with scary domo teeth] STOP MESSING AROUND!
Kir: gWAH!
Alize: There's no guarantee... [has to jump out of the way of a rushing wave of sound] Whoa! ...that this master isn't in cahoots with Eyguebelle.
[Jing is following along behind them down a flight of stairs, and Kir gets blindsided by another wave of sound] Even if something were to happen here...
[panel of a dark and empty-looking doorway or tunnel opening, fog creeping out of it at the bottom] ...this noise would drown out any screams.
Kir: [between Alize and Jing as they enter the door] I can't see anything! My eyes really are taking a break!
Alize: You idiot! It's just dark! [is carrying Bardinet as they enter a room filled with lit glass cases]
Kir: [looking into a case while Jing and Alize wander around curiously] Right... I've got bird eyes... huh? !!? [spazzes] AHH!! It's God--no, the Devil!!
They look like... tools of war.
Jing: [standing in front of a muralled wall, and jerks his thumb towards the mural: a score of musical notes painted to look like soldiers attacking each other] In other words, weapons. Right, Mr. Bardinet?
[closeup of a knight on the mural with a range of pikemen behind it, advancing on a fallen figure. Panel of Bardinet, silent and expressionless]
[black chapter divider of white text and a negative image of what looks like pictures of a city, but it's hard to tell]
Text: At the miserable end of that war
All the verbs became bullets
All the nouns became explosives
And the crisp interjections
Became sharp sounds that resounded all over.
The conversations in the trenches
Soon became codes nobody could understand.
Emotions dispersed...and
We transformed into them.
All of those who were there
Could only worry about protecting themselves.
Punctuation was out of the question...
Nothing to do but keep spinning your tongue.
Soon the atmosphere changed shape
Arms and legs and backs and stomachs returned to
simply being it.
But many mouths in a few days
Continued working everywhere.
The War of Grammar was ended with this battle.
[flip side, negative image of a number of pictures, one of which is a woman with what looks to be a horse's bridle in her mouth and holding its reins out]
Text: And so the ceasefire
Was settled in total silence
In this ceremony where nobody
Said a word.
People would soon call it
The Wordless Signature.
(From part 15 of After the War of Words.)
Kir: [standing on one of the cases] Weapons?
Jing: [looking at the mural] It would be more accurate to say outdated... [panel of the knight figure] ...antique weapons.
Alize: [reaches out to touch the mural] Even if the war is past, and it's been painted over with peace or tragedy... [punches the wall] ...MY war isn't over!!
[panel of Bardinet, eyes shadowed by his bangs] My... war is...
Kir: [whips around as a large "WOOOOOOOOOOO!" sounds off in the background]
Jing: !
Alize: ? [looks up, then is startled as a bullet hits the wall just above her head. Dives out of the way towards Jing, narrowly missing a line of bullets where she was just standing]
Kir: [dressed comically as a medic soldier, running around behind the cases for cover from the bullets] You're right about the war not being over...
[panel of two of the henchmen crouched on the cases near the entrance of the room, holding guns. They're faceless and have normal mouths unlike the jester soldiers, and jump out yelling musical jibberish and shooting]
Kir: [flying along beside Alize, who's looking back at their attackers] Hey, Alize--watch out!
Alize: [trips over a raised bit of floor] Huh? Aahh!
Kir: [grabs her wrist before she can hit the floor] Alize, take my hand! [suddenly spazzes along with Alize as a giant hand on a mechanical spider base rears up in front of them] HAND?!
[panel of Jing's arm glowing as he calls Kir to him] Hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand!!
Jing: [fuses with Kir and fires off several Kir Royales at the hand, blowing off all the fingers except for the index and middle ones] Looks like he's not hostile! See? The peace sign!
Kir: This is no time for joking around! [the two fingers slam down and Jing jumps out of the way] That's anything but a peaceful symbol!!
Jing: [looks behind him as they run] ....... [suddenly screeches to a halt] Alize is right.
[charges up a large Kir Royale] Everything's been painted over with peace...
[large "GAOOOM" and a white panel] ...but something isn't finished!
[panel of Jing and Alize's silhouettes in a hallway as the room erupts in a large explosion at the other end]
Text-over: Something!
[they emerge in another alleyway with a chain-link fence at one end, Jing still fused with Kir]
Bardinet: [points in a direction and mutters some musical jibberish]
Jing: [looks in said direction] There's something here...?
Kir: [as Alize walks the way Bardinet pointed] What? The master's saying something.
Alize: [stops at another chain-link fence] ................!!! [stares at the fence, but we can't see what's behind it] Invisible?!
[panel of the city with a shouting voiceover]
Voice: The Invisible is this city's foundation! Nobody here doesn't gain something from the blessed phonemes released from the Invisible!
[dozens of jester soldiers are in line with another one in front commanding them] Because every instrument created in Merry Widow...
[panel of more soldiers jumping down from a bridge, bearing spiked maces in each hand] ...starts with that foundation!
[panels of the hologram of Eygubelle conducting (literally) the troops from on high] But now, a future more miserable than the past is on its way to this city! That's why the ghosts of the past who pollute this city's future... must be destroyed and removed!
[panel of the industrial section of the city pouring smoke into the sky] They must be silenced forever!
I-it's just like... just like that one time... just like when Gramps was...
Which should we take care of first?
[basically a giant two-page spread of the Invisible, fog blowing away from the edges and revealing this giant mechanical structure, centered around a thin pillar with four cloaked human statues circling its base, hands raised in prayer]
That's because this instrument has always been visible, and I can't have you playing it...
Why did you bring that girl here, Bardinet?!
Among all the Language Weapons... the most powerful... is the Weapon of Song!!
Destroyed? After surviving the War, we'd still be destroyed? We... had no other choice.
Eyguebelle: [fires his gun] Go to your eternal rest!! In order to protect our peaceful rest! [stream of warped musical notes fires from the gun and zips past without hitting Jing]
Jing: [turns around and looks behind him, surprised] !!?
ALIIIZE!!
St-- St...op... her...
Eyguebelle: [over a panel of music-note-shaped drops of water falling from the sky] While humming the Rhapsody in Blue!!
[panels of the rain falling on a walking gramophone, on a violin-shaped citizen, on a record player inside another person's open mouth. A snake-like creature shatters the window of Flower Children, the shopkeeper has some sort of listening device attached to her ear and looks startled. Two-page spread of the city being rained on, with a veiled figure with brass musical horns for hands looking up at the sky.]
[black chapter divider with a negative image of a classical-style drawing of God]
Text: t h e I n v i s i b l e
What cannot be seen; what does not show itself.
Can also mean God.
[flip side, same image, only more blacked out and off-center]
t h e I n v i n c i b l e
What cannot be conquered;
An indestructible existence.
Sorry, but could you listen to this devilish song as well?
Jing: [as the Kir Royale hits the central pillar] ...we need a little bit of both angel and devil!
[the statues explode and then the entire pillar starts to crumble and crack]
Jing: [turns away from the pillar, smiling slightly] That's why there's guys like me who're in a sinful line of work...
Eyguebelle: [holding the stub of his arm as a piece of paper comes floating out of the dust and debris, and catches it. It's written on in musical jibberish] King...of Bandits...?!
Jing: [smiles] It was a lot of work learning the language.
Paper: [presumably translated]
THE INVINCIBLE
IS MINE.
-King of Bandits
Jing: [standing on top of a structure with Eyguebelle and an unconscious Alize slung over his shoulder and covered with his coat, as the city is consumed in a rising cloud of debris]
Eyguebelle: [holding his bandaged shoulder with his remaining hand, looks dazed] What are the widows supposed to do without that melody?! [turns to Jing] Without the melody that provided for them...
Jing: [doesn't look at him] Sometimes, rather than living surrounded by crazy angels...
[zoom panel, looks unwontedly serious] ...it's better to live with devils you can talk to. Anyway, that song is too much for humans to hear or use.
[looks at the horizon as the sun rises over it in a stunning panoramic view] It's going to go on tour. An endless tour.
[panel of Eyguebelle looking solemnly at the sunrise] Long enough for the whole world to ask for an encore!
[panel of birds flying into the sun] But the people of this city will be fine. They are merry widows, after all!
Eyguebelle: [closes his eyes] But... as long as the Invincible is here... Someday, someone will...
Listen, the Invincible has been stolen by the King of Bandits!
[wordless lyrics over blank panels]
Text: tvooz zftufsebz / nz mjgf xbt gimmfe / xhui sbjo // tvooz zpv tnjmfe bu nf / boe ujfo ju fbtfe nz qbjo
[panel of the Big Guy back together with the Blindfolded Man and the Moustached Man, all smiling and playing] Opx uif ebsl ebzt bsf hpof
[panel of them dancing in the puddles left from the rain] boe uif csjhiu / ebzt / bsf ifsf / Nz tvooz pof / tp tjodfsf...
[panel of everyone in the city, gathered in the streets and playing music] Tvooz pof tp / usvf / Jmpwf zpv....
Jing: [sitting on top of a building watching the proceedings with a happy smile, Kir flying around and tooting a little horn]
He's right-- you should be careful when shaking hands with a crazy angel.
Eyguebelle: [narrating over panels of all the people of the city walking off into the distance, still playing] Sound... ...Even tears... ...that flow... ...quietly... ...make... a sound. There is a melody... ...quieter than... ...whispering...
[panel of music notes drifting off into the fog] First we have to start from there...
[the notes drift back down again] Together with the "victims" of the King of Bandits... from there...
[a quarter note hovers over the surface of a puddle] It's just as he said...
[note disappears into the water with a ripple] Having it stolen by the King of Bandits... ...is despair.
[the sun shines through the clouds onto plains that are featureless except for two chairs and a small table with a tea set on it]
But strangely... ...that despair... ...looks like hope...
Jing: King of Bandits - Twilight Tales 6 - END
fin.
For reference and icons and stuff. All scans in reading order. Right-to-left manga style. Jing belongs to Kumakura. Scripted the unscanned pages for the sake of plot.
The Merry Widow Banquet
This place was able to revitalize itself through music and the instruments that create it.
And up there... is the man who's conducted the city thus far--
Nourishing parched bodies with melody, lifting tired souls with rhythm...
This whole street is actually one giant brass instrument!!
See, not a bad ensemble, right?
How can an instrument exist that can be heard but not seen?
And that's what we're here to steal.
Screw the Ultimate Instrument! Bring me a finely tuned...
...GIRL!!
Kir, what did you just--?
It's because I tried to kill Eyguebelle.
Alize: [turns, standing in front of a giant poster of Eyguebelle] ...HE MASSACRED ALL OF MY FRIENDS!
[scene change to what looks like a cafe, with a bunch of faceless guys with swirled skin singing from the middle of a circular piano]
Singers: giggle,rage,weeeep!!!!!! You can get angry on the west side and happy on the east... But no tears in city limits!
These are my friends-- the children of the Passion Flower Choir.
Alize: [panels of a singing choir of children, Alize among them with short hair] We didn't know a thing about or even care about the Ultimate Instrument. We just enjoyed singing the mysterious songs that Gramps would create...
[a building at the edge of a forest with a twisting, pointed roof. Not unlike soft-serve ice cream]
...living peacefully in a small music academy in the countryside.
[image of black piano keys]
But Eyguebelle just had to control everything!
[panel of a smiling young Alize]
Because of that, he massacred everyone who he could establish had any connection with the Invisible's creation. As if those kids were any threat to him.
[ominous-looking, helmeted Eyguebelle transposed over an image of the academy]
But one day, when I returned from running some errands... everyone had been wiped out!
[young Alize, standing in the doorway of the academy. Jagged staff lines are raked heavily into the floor and walls. Her foot hits what looks like a mouthpiece. Panel of a hand, hollow and comprised entirely of loosely interconnected, white musical notes, broken off before the elbow and lying on the floor]
I'd never seen such a horrible way to die.
[a view of the body the hand belongs to, sprawled on the floor in the same broken-down state. The clothes it's wearing indicates that it was once Gramps]
No... That was more than just death...
[panel of a horrified-looking Alize] It was as if they were literally erased from this world.
It's like they were painted over with a dizzying, roaring sound!
What I just told you reveals the true hidden identity... of the widow who only seems merry.
Jing: [stands, a donut in his mouth] How about I lend you a hand?
Kir: [aerial shot of him pushing a surprised Alize away from the table] Yeah! We're after the Invisible, too! Whether we can see it or not. (Let's go!)
Alize: Huh? Oh, but...
[black chapter divide with white text and a negative image of a medical diagram of the inside of an ear]
Text: They say music is the tremble of the soul searching for words.
Whether or not a single melody can capture a person's heart
An uncountable number of words in a musical score
Try to capture all that there is.
The music that strokes the ear and instantly passes--
That in itself is already tragically fleeting.
Each of those words is correct without exaggeration
And each of those words is incorrect.
That's why
Carelessly attaching words to music
Is to carelessly bring tragedy to flesh and blood.
[flip side, another negative image of either more nerves or a flower, it's hard to tell]
Let melody be melody!
Let music be music!
(From Essays of the Taxidermy Priest IV)
Kir: [over a panel of Alize's foot stepping down a staircase] The Three Maisterzingers?
Alize: [flipping through her pocketbook with Kir smushed against her cheek in order to see] Yeah. They're this city's foremost instrument creators and performers. [pulls out a picture and holds it up for him to see] Here's the three of them.
These three are also the ones who invented the Invisible.
Didn't you know V.I.P.s always enter through a secret entrance?
This is a place where sight loses to sound.
They always play the same song...
Anger, sadness, fear... all emotions are frozen in place.
Alize: [narrating over a panel of a lightning bolt] And it controls the ears and even the eyes...
[a lightning storm over a rocky canyon, filled with rushing wind and fog]
...so that visions even appear in your mind.
[a haphazard pile of weatherbeaten tombstones towering up from the bottom of the canyon, stone and storm stretching far overhead]
....
Alize: [turning to go] All right, it's showtime!
Jing: [looks at her] So the divine melody is just beginning, eh?
Alize: [from off-panel. Jing looks kind of "wtf"] Come on! From here on we need our senses of sight, hearing, smell and taste...
Kir: [rushing after her] H-hold on!
Jing: [slowly follows after as the theatre begins to disperse] All five senses for searching, then?
Alize: [off-panel, over an image of the musicians dispersing through the back hallways] The flute! The tall guy holding the flute!
[the man in question is picked out in white] TH-THAT'S HIM!
[man opens a door. A hood is covering his face and he's carrying a watering can] Hey, he's going into the music shop! MR. BARDINET!
[Alize literally JUMPS on the guy, grabs the front of his shirt and slams him into the wall] Take me to Eyguebelle! Come on, take me right now!! OR ELSE!
Hooded Man: Uh... Aaa... Aah...
Alize: [looks at him as his hood falls off, his long hair completely covering his face]
Man: Uooo!
How about some adagio from now on?
[panel of what appears to be a humanoid potted plant situated on a chair, playing a flute]
Alize: [looks shocked, transposed over an image of the photograph of Bardinet] !!? That face--could it be...?!
Kir: [hovering in front of Jing, who's blocking the doorway with outstretched arms] Th-this is Bardinet?!
Jing: [eyes seem solemn]
Alize: [falls to her knees, letting the photograph drop out of her hands. Next panel is of a streetlight outside]
Evening streets.
[shop on a street corner with signs saying "Flower Children". The sun is setting]
Voice: A horrible attack that turned the master into that...
[inside of the shop, filled with shelves and shelves of records. Jing is browsing while listening to the girl behind the desk]
Shopkeeper: It was one of the terrifying Word Weapons created during the War of Grammar. The poisonous words reach your cells even before they shake your eardrum...
[panel of what looks like the DNA double helix with really odd symbols in one twist and English letters in another] It forcibly translates even the body's language...
[shopkeeper fiddles with a turntable while Jing looks at a record. Kir is spinning around on one of the turntable's records] ...changing it into a spell nobody can understand...
[panel of Bardinet playing the flute] ...And the victims are all reshaped into another life form...
[Alize is sleeping on the shop's couch. Bardinet is playing on a table in front of her] ...if you can call it that.
Kir: [falls over with spiral eyes] What the?! Me so confused! If it's not a life form, then what? Form life?!
Jing: [places the record he was looking at back on the shelf] Nobody understands it... Probably...
[looks along the shelves] How it started... How it continues...
[catches sight of something] How it hurts... How it is hurt...
[tugs on another record and pulls it loose] It's not even possible to explain the fighting to other people...
[holds up the record--the cover is a picture of a bound book, the clasp broken open and the whole thing warped and punctured by a bullet hole] ...since the words don't even exist... anymore.
Shopkeeper: [looks sad as he hands the record to her] It's a war that started with grammatical chaos.
[places the record on the turntable] Nobody even knows how many died in the battle...
[places the needle down] ...only that many widows have been left behind.
[close-up of the record. The text on it is unreadable] But one thing all the soldiers made before they went out to battle...
[panel of all the shelves of records] ...was a recording of their own name.
[back to the record] And so the survivors cherish the recordings that they still have.
[scene of the twilit streets, doors closed against the oncoming night] Some wait patiently for their loved ones to return...
[panel of the record and needle, and then of a more industrial district] Some simply wait for the end of the war to be announced.
[panel of the edge of the record] They all enjoy the songs that were left behind as much as they can...
[and now the darkened city and sunset sky] ...calling the ruins of this town Merry Widow.
[Jing looks surprised as a voice shouts out]
Voice: But what about the children who didn't even have a song to leave behind?!
All right, time for an abduction!
Now, time for me to bind you so you can't escape.
Flowers don't speak, and speakers don't flower, eh?
Even his heart has probably been turned into a different life form!
We've been looking for you, master!
Bardinet: [smiles and says something in jibberish, comprised entirely of musical notation and notes]
Kir: [spazzing while Jing and Alize look weirded out] H-He spoke! Though I can't understand it...
Bardinet: [extends a hand, speaks more musical jibberish to the blindfolded guy]
Blindfolded Man: [musical jibberish back]
Kir: [puzzled, to an equally puzzled-looking Jing] Are they talking...or singing? Huh?
Bardinet and Blindfolded Man: [several more panels of musical jibbering]
Big Red Man: [gently takes Bardinet from Alize, who just stands there gaping up at him] [a bit more musical jibberish, the whole group is talking and apparently laughing]
Alize: [aims the gun at them] Wh-wh-wh-what're you doing?!
Jing: [grabs her arm and swings it upward just before she pulls the trigger, smiling] Starting a hundred-meter dash? [looks at the group] It doesn't look like they want to steal him. Look...
[musical jibberish, group is definitely laughing now, and the slashes in the big guy's mouth literally read "hahahaha!"]
Alize: [looks a bit chastened, toys with the gun]
Same old members, same old number, I guess.
Big Guy: [singing through the slashes in his mouth while holding Bardinet, Jing smiling as he watches. Kir has somehow joined in with tambourines, and the whole group sings to Bardinet's conducting, the notes flying into the sky and coalescing into what looks like a big black ball]
Alize: [stares at the sky as the ball explodes in what appears to be a burst of bright fireworks, showering down little shards of light in the shape of musical notes. She reaches a hand out to them]
Big Guy: [suddenly starts convulsing and spewing out steam, startling everyone] !!
Jing: [pushes Alize out of the way as they all back up, Kir carrying Bardinet]
Big Guy: [reaches out of the steam, still shouting jangled musical jibberish, then suddenly there's an explosive noise] Ahh! [dozens of tiny needles shoot into his outstretched hand, crackling with electricity]
Jing: [holds an arm out in front of Alize]
Big Guy: [looks angry and/or in pain, still screaming mixed-up jibberish]
[panel of boots]
Voice: [in oddly musically-scored font] dO>N't MoVE!!!
[two jester-like beings with harmonica mouths approach, similar to the ones that attacked Alize at the beginning of the volume. They're carrying half-circular devices in their hands; one squeezes his and it spits out more electric needles]
Jing: [substitutes a robot to take the needles for them and takes off with Alize]
Soldiers (or maybe it's the musicians?): WAIT!! WAIT!!
[page of several lined-up panels, all overlaid by a large picture of a record needle hanging from a rope, looking like it's composed of an odd assortment of musical parts and body parts, the point of the needle dragging up musical notes from a giant record]
Music: dans un / sommeil // que carmait / to image / je revais le / bonheur / ardent / mirage // tes yeux / etaient // ta voix pure / et / sonore // tu rayonnais comme un ciel / eclaire par / l'aurore
[the monster needle is hanging from a noose twined around a gnarled, dead tree over a giant platform that holds the record]
Kir: [comes running up with Bardinet while Jing looks around] H-hey! Isn't this far enough?!
[looks around himself] Alize! Where's Alize?!
[catches sight of her to one side, hands on her knees and bent over as she tries to catch her breath] Oh, so that's where you are, song princess. I thought you might have become invisible, too.
A maestro who locks up all the songs in a safe and plays up an invisible peace... that's what Eyguebelle is! A conductor of lies!
[the giant record needle suddenly comes to life and starts running heavily on the record while still tied to the tree]
Kir: [surprised] Wh-wh-wh-wh-what?! That player's snapped!
Bardinet: Pa...an'...n...
Kir: [looks up at where he's balanced Bardinet on his head] Huh?! He said something!
Bardinet: Pa...per...an'...p-p...pen! [a feather quill and a paper with staff lines on it are handed to him]
Jing: Here you go. [crouches down in front of Bardinet as he takes it] Is a musical score okay? [smiles] Hope you don't mind that it's stolen.
[panel of the paper, letters written at different heights on the lines like musical notes:]
Paper: WaNT sEE TRUTH?
Jing: [reading the paper] Do you want to... see the truth...?
Alize: [standing behind him, looking at the paper over his shoulder with her arms folded] ...... [looks away] I do. [lowers her arms] Show it to me!!
[scene change to the big guy collapsed on the ground and stuck full of needles, the slashes of his mouth reading "help!!"]
Voice: One of his children...
[panel shows Eyguebelle with a downright evil smile, holding what looks like some sort of complicated injector with a small vial attached to it]
Eyguebelle: So, there was a survivor from Passion Flower? [panel of the jester soldiers directing each other around the Big Guy with various tools] And they even took Bardinet? What can they be after? Well, that doesn't matter...
[stops what looks like a medical cart rolling towards him] At this rate...
[panel of the Big Guy foaming out of the mouth and weakly mumbling musical jibberish] ...everyone in the city will become like him!
[picks up a featureless helmet] A widow hiding the pain in her heart...
[some kind of face mask is being put on the Big Guy; it looks like a harness with three canisters on the front, over his mouth, that are attached to several tubes] ...begins singing the "Rhapsody in Blue"!!
[lifts the helmet to his face] I have to finish it... [places the helmet on and raises his arms to the sky and the full moon] FINISH EVERYTHING!!
Seems like the whole city's gone honky tonk. (note: the robot on the right hand page is a larger-sized version of the one Jing threw to stop the needles earlier.)
Alize: [grabs Kir by the feathers on the top of his head and yells, with scary domo teeth] STOP MESSING AROUND!
Kir: gWAH!
Alize: There's no guarantee... [has to jump out of the way of a rushing wave of sound] Whoa! ...that this master isn't in cahoots with Eyguebelle.
[Jing is following along behind them down a flight of stairs, and Kir gets blindsided by another wave of sound] Even if something were to happen here...
[panel of a dark and empty-looking doorway or tunnel opening, fog creeping out of it at the bottom] ...this noise would drown out any screams.
Kir: [between Alize and Jing as they enter the door] I can't see anything! My eyes really are taking a break!
Alize: You idiot! It's just dark! [is carrying Bardinet as they enter a room filled with lit glass cases]
Kir: [looking into a case while Jing and Alize wander around curiously] Right... I've got bird eyes... huh? !!? [spazzes] AHH!! It's God--no, the Devil!!
They look like... tools of war.
Jing: [standing in front of a muralled wall, and jerks his thumb towards the mural: a score of musical notes painted to look like soldiers attacking each other] In other words, weapons. Right, Mr. Bardinet?
[closeup of a knight on the mural with a range of pikemen behind it, advancing on a fallen figure. Panel of Bardinet, silent and expressionless]
[black chapter divider of white text and a negative image of what looks like pictures of a city, but it's hard to tell]
Text: At the miserable end of that war
All the verbs became bullets
All the nouns became explosives
And the crisp interjections
Became sharp sounds that resounded all over.
The conversations in the trenches
Soon became codes nobody could understand.
Emotions dispersed...and
We transformed into them.
All of those who were there
Could only worry about protecting themselves.
Punctuation was out of the question...
Nothing to do but keep spinning your tongue.
Soon the atmosphere changed shape
Arms and legs and backs and stomachs returned to
simply being it.
But many mouths in a few days
Continued working everywhere.
The War of Grammar was ended with this battle.
[flip side, negative image of a number of pictures, one of which is a woman with what looks to be a horse's bridle in her mouth and holding its reins out]
Text: And so the ceasefire
Was settled in total silence
In this ceremony where nobody
Said a word.
People would soon call it
The Wordless Signature.
(From part 15 of After the War of Words.)
Kir: [standing on one of the cases] Weapons?
Jing: [looking at the mural] It would be more accurate to say outdated... [panel of the knight figure] ...antique weapons.
Alize: [reaches out to touch the mural] Even if the war is past, and it's been painted over with peace or tragedy... [punches the wall] ...MY war isn't over!!
[panel of Bardinet, eyes shadowed by his bangs] My... war is...
Kir: [whips around as a large "WOOOOOOOOOOO!" sounds off in the background]
Jing: !
Alize: ? [looks up, then is startled as a bullet hits the wall just above her head. Dives out of the way towards Jing, narrowly missing a line of bullets where she was just standing]
Kir: [dressed comically as a medic soldier, running around behind the cases for cover from the bullets] You're right about the war not being over...
[panel of two of the henchmen crouched on the cases near the entrance of the room, holding guns. They're faceless and have normal mouths unlike the jester soldiers, and jump out yelling musical jibberish and shooting]
Kir: [flying along beside Alize, who's looking back at their attackers] Hey, Alize--watch out!
Alize: [trips over a raised bit of floor] Huh? Aahh!
Kir: [grabs her wrist before she can hit the floor] Alize, take my hand! [suddenly spazzes along with Alize as a giant hand on a mechanical spider base rears up in front of them] HAND?!
[panel of Jing's arm glowing as he calls Kir to him] Hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand hand!!
Jing: [fuses with Kir and fires off several Kir Royales at the hand, blowing off all the fingers except for the index and middle ones] Looks like he's not hostile! See? The peace sign!
Kir: This is no time for joking around! [the two fingers slam down and Jing jumps out of the way] That's anything but a peaceful symbol!!
Jing: [looks behind him as they run] ....... [suddenly screeches to a halt] Alize is right.
[charges up a large Kir Royale] Everything's been painted over with peace...
[large "GAOOOM" and a white panel] ...but something isn't finished!
[panel of Jing and Alize's silhouettes in a hallway as the room erupts in a large explosion at the other end]
Text-over: Something!
[they emerge in another alleyway with a chain-link fence at one end, Jing still fused with Kir]
Bardinet: [points in a direction and mutters some musical jibberish]
Jing: [looks in said direction] There's something here...?
Kir: [as Alize walks the way Bardinet pointed] What? The master's saying something.
Alize: [stops at another chain-link fence] ................!!! [stares at the fence, but we can't see what's behind it] Invisible?!
[panel of the city with a shouting voiceover]
Voice: The Invisible is this city's foundation! Nobody here doesn't gain something from the blessed phonemes released from the Invisible!
[dozens of jester soldiers are in line with another one in front commanding them] Because every instrument created in Merry Widow...
[panel of more soldiers jumping down from a bridge, bearing spiked maces in each hand] ...starts with that foundation!
[panels of the hologram of Eygubelle conducting (literally) the troops from on high] But now, a future more miserable than the past is on its way to this city! That's why the ghosts of the past who pollute this city's future... must be destroyed and removed!
[panel of the industrial section of the city pouring smoke into the sky] They must be silenced forever!
I-it's just like... just like that one time... just like when Gramps was...
Which should we take care of first?
[basically a giant two-page spread of the Invisible, fog blowing away from the edges and revealing this giant mechanical structure, centered around a thin pillar with four cloaked human statues circling its base, hands raised in prayer]
That's because this instrument has always been visible, and I can't have you playing it...
Why did you bring that girl here, Bardinet?!
Among all the Language Weapons... the most powerful... is the Weapon of Song!!
Destroyed? After surviving the War, we'd still be destroyed? We... had no other choice.
Eyguebelle: [fires his gun] Go to your eternal rest!! In order to protect our peaceful rest! [stream of warped musical notes fires from the gun and zips past without hitting Jing]
Jing: [turns around and looks behind him, surprised] !!?
ALIIIZE!!
St-- St...op... her...
Eyguebelle: [over a panel of music-note-shaped drops of water falling from the sky] While humming the Rhapsody in Blue!!
[panels of the rain falling on a walking gramophone, on a violin-shaped citizen, on a record player inside another person's open mouth. A snake-like creature shatters the window of Flower Children, the shopkeeper has some sort of listening device attached to her ear and looks startled. Two-page spread of the city being rained on, with a veiled figure with brass musical horns for hands looking up at the sky.]
[black chapter divider with a negative image of a classical-style drawing of God]
Text: t h e I n v i s i b l e
What cannot be seen; what does not show itself.
Can also mean God.
[flip side, same image, only more blacked out and off-center]
t h e I n v i n c i b l e
What cannot be conquered;
An indestructible existence.
Sorry, but could you listen to this devilish song as well?
Jing: [as the Kir Royale hits the central pillar] ...we need a little bit of both angel and devil!
[the statues explode and then the entire pillar starts to crumble and crack]
Jing: [turns away from the pillar, smiling slightly] That's why there's guys like me who're in a sinful line of work...
Eyguebelle: [holding the stub of his arm as a piece of paper comes floating out of the dust and debris, and catches it. It's written on in musical jibberish] King...of Bandits...?!
Jing: [smiles] It was a lot of work learning the language.
Paper: [presumably translated]
THE INVINCIBLE
IS MINE.
-King of Bandits
Jing: [standing on top of a structure with Eyguebelle and an unconscious Alize slung over his shoulder and covered with his coat, as the city is consumed in a rising cloud of debris]
Eyguebelle: [holding his bandaged shoulder with his remaining hand, looks dazed] What are the widows supposed to do without that melody?! [turns to Jing] Without the melody that provided for them...
Jing: [doesn't look at him] Sometimes, rather than living surrounded by crazy angels...
[zoom panel, looks unwontedly serious] ...it's better to live with devils you can talk to. Anyway, that song is too much for humans to hear or use.
[looks at the horizon as the sun rises over it in a stunning panoramic view] It's going to go on tour. An endless tour.
[panel of Eyguebelle looking solemnly at the sunrise] Long enough for the whole world to ask for an encore!
[panel of birds flying into the sun] But the people of this city will be fine. They are merry widows, after all!
Eyguebelle: [closes his eyes] But... as long as the Invincible is here... Someday, someone will...
Listen, the Invincible has been stolen by the King of Bandits!
[wordless lyrics over blank panels]
Text: tvooz zftufsebz / nz mjgf xbt gimmfe / xhui sbjo // tvooz zpv tnjmfe bu nf / boe ujfo ju fbtfe nz qbjo
[panel of the Big Guy back together with the Blindfolded Man and the Moustached Man, all smiling and playing] Opx uif ebsl ebzt bsf hpof
[panel of them dancing in the puddles left from the rain] boe uif csjhiu / ebzt / bsf ifsf / Nz tvooz pof / tp tjodfsf...
[panel of everyone in the city, gathered in the streets and playing music] Tvooz pof tp / usvf / Jmpwf zpv....
Jing: [sitting on top of a building watching the proceedings with a happy smile, Kir flying around and tooting a little horn]
He's right-- you should be careful when shaking hands with a crazy angel.
Eyguebelle: [narrating over panels of all the people of the city walking off into the distance, still playing] Sound... ...Even tears... ...that flow... ...quietly... ...make... a sound. There is a melody... ...quieter than... ...whispering...
[panel of music notes drifting off into the fog] First we have to start from there...
[the notes drift back down again] Together with the "victims" of the King of Bandits... from there...
[a quarter note hovers over the surface of a puddle] It's just as he said...
[note disappears into the water with a ripple] Having it stolen by the King of Bandits... ...is despair.
[the sun shines through the clouds onto plains that are featureless except for two chairs and a small table with a tea set on it]
But strangely... ...that despair... ...looks like hope...
Jing: King of Bandits - Twilight Tales 6 - END
fin.