And shockingly, in the midst of it all, Stelle revealed a genuine, heartfelt smile!
-------------------------------------
When Stelle's gaze gradually turned dull among the group of monkeys, Rappa appeared carrying a stereo!
The moment she showed up, the BGM began to play.
The fusion of hip-hop and classic style instantly maxed out the vibe.
Cool, trendy. Just like Rappa's very first appearance.
"Careful!"
"This is the fieldling's sorcery!"
"Please grit your teeth,, I shall aid you in escaping danger!"
"Dazzling Ninjutsu- Dazzling Palm!"
Rappa leapt down from the air, shouting a mysterious move name that sounded impressive.
At the moment she landed, her palm chopped straight onto Stelle's forehead!
"Ow!" Stelle, whose eyes had just been glazed, snapped awake instantly.
Before the audience could complain about the mismatch between the move's name and its effect, the monkeys surrounding Stelle had already started screeching loudly!
"Bana!"
"Bana Bana Bana!"
The monkeys hopped and crowded around Rappa.
But unlike the unguarded Stelle just now, Rappa stared at them with a grave expression, guarding against any hidden danger.
"They are calling for their fellow ape fiendlings!"
"Please hide behind me!"
Pulling the utterly confused Stelle behind her back, Rappa formed hand seals and summoned a giant Shuriken.
"Dazzling Ninjutsu · Brocade Ink Painting!"
The Shuriken, trailing streaks of dazzling colors, smashed right into the cluster of screeching monkeys.
With a howling sound, monkey after monkey was sliced apart by the shuriken, exploding into colorful fragments like shattered balloons.
Matched with the hip-hop BGM, it was undeniably stylish.
However, the monkeys had no power to fight back at all, it was like beating up little kids.
After throwing the first shuriken, Rappa didn't stop. One after another, shurikens appeared in her hands and were flung out.
The monkeys began to panic and retreat, scattering in all directions, their bodies gradually fading into shadows and vanishing into the air.
In just a few breaths, not a single monkey was left on the scene, silence replacing the earlier chaos.
Stelle finally came back to his senses, though his eyes remained lost.
"Singing monkeys."
"A rapping ninja…"
"Am I still dreaming?"
The audience felt the same as Stelle.
Totally confused. Although Rappa's entrance was indeed cool, after encountering wave after wave of these absurd monkeys, everyone desperately wanted to know the origin of these creatures.
At that moment, Rappa took Stelle by the hand and led her toward the edge of the rooftop.
Along the way, they saw many more monkeys.
These monkeys didn't approach them actively, but their behavior was bizarre.
Some wore glasses, as if lecturing other monkeys.
But most just stood there in a daze, unable even to utter the word "Banana."
Their pupils wandered erratically, unnaturally. Even though they had only two eyes, one eyeball looked left while the other rolled upward.
Combined with the way the whites of their eyes covered nearly ninety percent of the area, they looked extremely "unnatural."
Rappa said nothing more, but had Stelle carefully observe the monkeys' dull pupils.
Inside them, instead of reflections of sight, were distorted lips and teeth.
…
: These monkeys are seriously creepy.
: Especially those eyes, they look way too creepy.
: At first they weren't too bad, but once I saw those weird eyeballs I felt chills.
: It's like their souls have been sucked out, leaving only empty shells.
: Compared to the active monkeys, these ones are even creepier, even though they still look kind of cute.
: Each eye looking in a different direction, definitely unsettling.
: Hiss… this gives off an indescribable absurd feeling.
: They look kind of funny, but Rappa is being deadly serious.
…
Up until now, the sense of absurdity that had lingered from the beginning only grew heavier in their hearts.
And a big part of that feeling came from Rappa's attitude toward the monkeys.
She used such flashy techniques, yet her enemies were nothing more than singing monkeys.
Even if the monkeys didn't pose much sense of danger to the audience, Rappa's attitude constantly told them: to her, these things were no joke.
She truly treated them as fiendlings to be slain.
On screen, Rappa led Stelle past the "harmless" monkeys.
They reached the end of the rooftop.
Here, some pure blue memory-bubbles floated in midair.
Staring at the dream-bubbles, Rappa said: "As long as we touch these, we can return to the normal dream realm of Penacony."
"Wait…" Stelle felt like her brain was burning. "Uh, those monkeys… no, Penacony… no, who even are you really?"
Her words jumbled together in chaos, asking countless questions in one breath.
Rappa finally reacted: "Good question, Baseball Bat Ninja!"
"The appearance of these fiendlings are a sign of impending disaster. It is proof that the Ninja Hero's archenemy has their eyes set on the land."
"The emotionless, soulless, and merciless Evil Ninja Osaru.'"
Rappa declared solemnly.
The screen instantly filled with question marks.
Huh?
The audience, like Stelle on screen, all cried out in confusion.
…
: Hahaha, this is way too chuuni!
: I swear, she just said nothing of value.
: What the hell is the Evil Ninja Osaru supposed to be?
: As expected of ninjas, they really know how to throw out grandiose phrases.
: I was just thinking, the move she used to wake Stelle up didn't match its name at all!
: This is peak chuuni flavor.
: But that "ninja" title pretty much confirms it's a Galaxy Rangers reference, the meaning is almost identical.
: I wonder how Boothill usually puts up with Rappa.
: If these Evil Ninja Osarus become targets for the Galaxy Rangers to hunt, I wouldn't be surprised.
…
The audience guessed at the meaning of these names.
Meanwhile, on screen, Stelle and Rappa pressed their hands onto the floating memory bubble.
The world spun around them.
Before Stelle could even react, she was swallowed by darkness once again.
Just then, Rappa's narration suddenly began.
"A long, long time ago in a world far away, there was a city that flourished under the rule of a Ninja Hero for many generations. It was known as the Ninja Capital."
"Under the protection of the Ninja Hero, the people of the city thrived. They lived and worked in peace and happiness could be felt even in the sewers of the Ninja Capital."
"Until an evildoer known as Evil Ninja Osaru murdered the Ninja Hero and laid claim to the city. The happiness of days past disappeared in an instant."
[56th Year of Ninja Era, the Ninja Capital]
As the narration and black text faded, a still image, like a poster, appeared on the screen.
The world shown in the picture was a city symbolizing a cyber metropolis.
It was filled with all kinds of neon lights and signs. Towering skyscrapers rose into the sky. It looked just like a well-developed, futuristic cyberpunk-style modern city.
Rappa's back took up half the screen. She stood on the railing, gazing at the scene before her. A giant ape was clutching a skyscraper's lightning rod opposite her.
The funny part was, behind the ape, the moon that should have added a sense of destiny to the scene turned out to be a two-dimensional cartoon moon, complete with its own eyes and nose.
At this moment, the moon hung in the sky, wearing a mischievous smile.
How bizarre! The audience couldn't hold it in!
It was so absurd!
…
: What the hell is this! Did the director eat too many mushrooms again?!
: Damn, at first glance I thought the city looked so cool, the shot had such tension, and then that moon appeared and I burst out laughing.
: Is this Rappa's hometown? A new planet?
: The post-modern urban vibe was so stylish! And then the moon turned out so abstract!
: Great, this episode is getting crazier and crazier.
: A mix of seriousness with absurdity, absurdity with seriousness, the art style feels completely inconsistent, man!
: And even weirder, in previous flashbacks the animations were all moving, but Rappa's is suddenly a still frame.
: A bunch of monkeys, ninjas spitting rap, and now an abstract moon, compared to that, a still-frame flashback feels downright normal.
: I swear, it feels like the director has completely lost his minds, tossing aside all sense of aesthetic just to mess with us.
…
The comments scrolled wildly across the screen.
And beneath the frozen still-frame image,
An old man's voice slowly sounded:
"O child new to the way of the ninja, I recognize your determination. Henceforth, you shall be the successor to my Dazzling Ninjutsu."
Rappa's voice immediately followed: "Thank you, Master Kucha. This is my greatest honor."
Their dialogue sounded normal.
But strangely, something was different in the subtitles.
Above the old man's lines, the subtitle labeled him as Master Kucha.
Yet for Rappa's lines, the subtitles only showed three question marks.
Before the audience could think further, Master Kucha spoke again:
"Behold the city of shadow! A sinful land of suffering, hatred, and sorrow. Bloody tears soon to devour all hope for the morrow."
"Soulless Evil Ninja Osaru, agent of the vile, cast the masses into sin by foul arts and guile. Fiendlings indulgent in evil gone wild, enraged the hearts of all - man, woman, and child."
"Inherit the legacy of the Ninja Hero and wipe clean the sins of Osaru. End the suffering wrought upon the Ninja Capital and bring peace back to its people."
Every sentence was delivered with intense rhyme.
But the question marks for Rappa were still there: "An astounding recitation of the ninja mantra, Master Kucha! I swear I will train hard until I become the Dazzling Ninja!"
Master Kucha, pleased with her resolve, exclaimed: "An admirable resolution! To contend with the Evil Ninja, you will also need a new name - a name befitting a ninja."
Rappa asked: "What should I be called?"
"I don't know, my disciple. Your name will carry your ideals, your convictions, and your destiny. Your ninja name belongs to you alone."
"So, the decision is yours to make."
The memory ended here.
And the audience, unable to suppress themselves any longer, let loose their flood of commentary like a dam bursting.
…
: So it was you, Master Kucha, the real culprit forcing us to endure riddle-raps!
: Damn! This old man never teaches his disciple proper lessons, but when it comes to rap he's got a whole playbook ready!
: Case closed, the teacher is just as unhinged as the student.
: I couldn't hold it in, especially with Master Kucha's deep, weathered voice rhyming nonstop, I really burst out laughing.
: Master Kucha feels like one of those "not-so-serious elders," kind of fun actually.
: Everyone in this episode has such distinct personalities. Compared to them, even characters like Pom-Pom feel like normal people.
: But hey, there's a detail, Rappa's voice plays, but the subtitles label it with question marks.
: Interesting, maybe hinting that Rappa's current name is something she took later? Some hidden meaning?
: Though honestly, we probably shouldn't expect too much symbolism from this wacky master-disciple pair.
: Yeah, better not get our hopes up about some deep name reveal, next thing you know, they'll drop another ridiculous flashback and ruin the moment.
: Hahaha, honestly I'm looking forward to it. At least for once the direction is giving us some lighthearted, fun characters and storylines.
: For real!
…
The viewers happily filled the screen with banter, many of them laughing so hard their chests hurt.
Because this pair really was entertaining.
Rappa's overly serious chuunibyou demeanor was hilarious.
And Master Kucha, though supposedly a dignified mentor, was clearly similar to Rappa.
At this moment, these two left a strong impression in the minds of the audience.
As for the story, even with the occasional weird monkey, it didn't feel stressful.
Compared to the earlier plot, this part was downright lighthearted and fun.
The delighted audience continued watching.
After Rappa's flashback, the perspective shifted back to Stelle's side.
Coming into of the Dream, Stelle found herself on a bustling street.
Crowds of people and the atmosphere of indulgence and luxury filled the scene, overflowing with a carnival-like charm.
And there, at the street corner, Dan Heng and March 7th were already waiting for Stelle.
After reuniting with her companions, Stelle scratched her head and recounted everything that had just happened.
Dan Heng thought it was probably just a dream.
But March 7th suddenly jumped up in excitement.
"That sounded so familiar! I knew it, it really was that sleepy little monkey, huh!"