Truly a man with a plan.
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Well I just feel it would be too early to bring the gang back together in book 4 so the ronin should be alone during that book while looking for Junko and the Jigoku. Maybe do a chapter or two in Masami’s perspective so we’ll know what’s going on with the others after the ronin left them behind. Then book 5, have Masami lose her shit on the ronin for abandoning her and have some tension between the group because the group straight up lied to the ronin about Junko and the ronin going off on their own. Book 6 can be up for speculation, however I will still hold firm to the theory of combining the spirit animal and the Jigoku during the final battle unless Devon writes it differently that kills the theory.
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Yeah I’m hoping to call them out on lying about Junko as well.
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Dunno if this was said above (bec my internet is terrible and I can’t read thriugh everything properly)
but could Junko take on the power of some of demons we’re supposed to hunt to become the biggest big bad at the end?
Toshie’s romance felt a bit off, but I’m still super excited for it. Felt a bit awkward with Masami having a crush on us since aren’t we way too old for her? Hope she doesn’t become a RO.
And let me just say. This book made me love Hatch even more. He’s my bro, and he deserves happiness.
Well, this was a tear-filled game and I’m really looking forward to the next installment. Kinda glad we’ll have to wait a bit bec my kokoro needs some time to recover. 
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SoH 3 was an emotional roller coaster so I am looking forward to SoH 4.
As for Jun/ko, Devon said that we will see more them on Book 4 so I am very much looking forward to it and we might get more info about the nature of those demons.
As for Tosh’s, Iike I said before, it felt natural for me and I dunno, well placed in my opinion. XD
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Honestly it’s possible. In the first book, it was said that Shiroyama was just a normal human that had alot of ambition so she ended up hiring the ronin to kill her husband so she could take over the Yakuza. And in SoH3 when you kill the Baron and devoured the black essence from him, he reverted back to a very old man before dying.
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Junko is attempting to become a demon it seems. Among other hints it could go in that direction, so yeah the forshadowing is there.
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Great story! Some observations …
- Some seem confused by Hatch’s choice at the end, but General Shotao told us precisely why it was done and why it was necessary.
“You have made thousands of Ronin!”
Samurai in the era we’re modeling didn’t just go back to the fields and make an honest living; the rules of the time forbade them to do so. So what they’d do is turn bandit. However many thousands of men General Shotao had led in his bid, those thousands of samurai just became thousands of bandits to descend on the local countryside.
Like a plague of two-legged locusts, except locusts don’t have katanas and don’t rape everything remotely attractive from small children to old grandmothers … then kill afterwards.
Freckle-woman’s fate repeated thousands of time over.
Which is why MC asked “I’ve damned them all, haven’t I?” . MC may have slain the demon and fulfilled the prophecy, but at a cost of thousands of deaths, rapings, thefts, and all the rest of it.
Which is one reason he was able to kill the hostage. Compared to the bloodletting that was about to follow a single innocent child’s is as a toddler’s scraped knee.
All of this would have happened … IF Shatao died.
So Hatch brought him back to life.
So long as Shatao is alive the samurai have a master to hold them in check. With Hatch in his armor and Kohaku to advise him, Shatao can live as long as he needs to. Long enough to turn this army around and put it to productive use.
Long enough to save all the villages of the region from a fate worse than death.
It’s pretty obvious that the ending was what was meant to happen.
The last words of Toshie to MC were not to “cut to strings that bind us” – and the title of the next chapter is “Cutting strings”.
I get the impression that MC is suffering from depression, believing that ze causes nothing but harm to those around him. To the villagers, by almost unleashing ronin upon them. To Masami, by putting her in the way of Junko’s blade. To Ige by getting him killed, and so on.
And so ze walks away to separate from zir friends … because ze cares too much about them to let them be hurt by being around zir any more.
It’s quite sad … and a good ending to act three.
I don’t see why anyone’s interested in Masami as a RO. She’s definitely the smartest person on the team but the book one introduction make it clear she hasn’t yet entered puberty. Possibly if our author would add an illustration of her in the next book showing just what a child she is, that would end that sort of talk.
Even if Masami were of age I still see a major obstacle in the way of any romance: She’s a Hashimoto, one of the first families of the land. As such, if she marries at all, they’ll probably to want to marry someone rich and powerful and politically connected.
I’m not sure exactly what they’d do if they found that the goods had been … spoiled … by a half-starved nameless ronin, but I suspect the response would be protracted , painful, loss of generative organ, and death. Possibly over as long a period as their torturers allow.
The MC I read in the story is a survivor; the male version would not be so stupid as to allow himself to get involved with a Hashimoto even if she was of age.
The Masami I see in story is what you would expect from a young tween or teen who was raised rich and reading books – the books make her intellectually sharper than you would expect, but she still doesn’t have either the emotional maturity or the experience that would make for a real romantic partner. She’s ready for infatuation, ready for puppy love, ready for first date with someone her age, but male MC really would be better for her as an older brother or surrogate father than as any kind of RO.
As towards Junko – if they’re trying to make her a romantic interest then having her almost kill Masami and cut out a woman’s tongue is not any way to endear her to me as the reader. I don’t see her as romantic – I see her as a mad dog to be put down.
If I were writing the next book, I would want Junko and Toshi to be sort of a fork in the path for a male MC as he chooses whether he wants to pursue victory either through the Jiggoku (the sword style , however it’s spelled) or through spiritual enlightenment. Choose Junko, get the Jigoku back and your spirit is closed to you, so you have to make increasingly brutal choices to fit Junko’s character. Choose Toshi, and you lose the Jigoku permanently and are forced to rely more and more on your spirit.
That’s the way I’d want it. They are two opposites – choosing one or the other should make a permanent change in MC’s outlook.
That brings up two questions:
-
About Junko Did she deliberately spare Masami and only pretend to kill her, or did she really try to kill Masami ?
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It’s not a spoiler because it’s at the beginning of book 3, but who actually killed the cook? We’ve eliminated almost all the likely suspects, but I still don’t know who really did it, and why. Since it wasn’t Borgia, or MC, or Hatch, or Toshie, or Sadao, that leaves us with the Baron himself. But what motive would the baron have to kill his own cook? The closest I can think is over the woman they both loved, but she’s been gone from here for a long time, surely?
This makes no sense. We’ve been able to clear various individuals of the crime but I still don’t know who actually did it, and why.
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For the first question, it confused me as well why Jun/ko let them live. 
For the second one, I assume Baron kill him in order to manipulate our group further and then eventually turn us against each other.
I think I can answer your questions.
For the first one, if I remember correctly, it’s said that the necklace that the Emporer gave Masi in the first book is what saved them. Jun couldn’t cut Masi’s throat deep enough because the necklace was in the way.
As for the second question I think it was just to frame someone else to manipulate the group, being the demon of manipulation and all. A lot of people did have plausible reasons to kill the chef (Toshi, Hatch, even the Ronin) so that’s why he killed him.
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I really need to re-read the series. Is the first answer on Book 2 or Book 3?
It was said in Book 3, after the group got off the island. I don’t remember exactly what was said but I’m pretty sure thats what happened.
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I better check it again. XD
Thank you for the info.
If I remember correctly, to get that answer you need to try and leave the group. Then when you are asking Masa what has any of them, or the emperor, done for them so they would risk their lives for him, Masa gets upset and shows you the necklace, and the ronin apologies, realising the emperor saved Masa’s life with the necklace, and that he probably knew it.
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Satsuma definitely knew the ronin would had failed to get Masami away from Junko. That’s the feeling that I got and we are talking about a guy that can get prophecies through sleeping or day dreaming.
My mc doesn’t mind having a fling with Toshie and Momoko, but no romance. I’d rather save that for Junko. My mc’s response to Momoko’s tongue to Junko would be "oh sh!t you did that? That’s crazy… and hot 
!.. But that’s just me 
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Anyone figure out the guess word for Mind at the end?
I think someone asked this over his website. According to him,
In the last battle against the samurai, for the last text-input option, there is no correct answer. This helps drive home the point that you can’t “think” your way out of this one!
This is taken from his reply in one of the comment on his website.
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Thanks I was about to check there.
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I really do love this game, like it’s my favorite series. But god damn I am a perfectionist. The first two games weren’t as bad, because they were kinda short. This game is literally a book and I wish it had checkpoints because I NEED 100% attunement and I get to the like last couple of scenes and I’m like “ooops wrong option 90% attunement” and I’m just like “…ASDFGHJKLQWRTYUIOPZXCVBNMAFKFJEOXNSKOWCNODAHHHHRRRRRRGGGGG…phone soars across room” Other than that, I adore it.
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