--- Section 1 ---
Now that you're unemployed, you obviously have to find a new job. Luckily, Kipposhi appears from thin air, recommending you join Honnoji Products. Didn't they betray you, though? Nah, Kipposhi is eternally loyal, they'd never do something like that, unlike a certain Takeda Shingen. Anyway, Kipposhi understood right away that something was off about both Yoshida and Takasugi (as neither came with a Master), but decided that since the situation would just resolve itself if you took them both out, Kipposhi would simply focus on taking out the obviously weaker one first.
Kipposhi also tells you that the time is approaching fast: the time to open SAITAMA, or rather this Singularity, to the Black Ships.
Meanwhile, outside of Yoshida HQ, Takasugi demands his former teacher come out to meet him, at the very least. Yoshida obliges, delivering another of his condescending remarks about Takasugi, who in turn asks him to get off his high horse. In the first place, Takasugi is practically a hero who beat the Tokugawa Shogunate and liberated Chōshū. Yoshida, on the other hand, died before realizing any of his ambitions. However, Yoshida laments having to repeat himself: Takasugi is someone who never accomplished anything. If he can't understand as much, it's time for his former teacher to give one final lesson.
The ground starts shaking; the quakes eminating from beneath the headquarters behind them. Yoshida remarks that it's not quite ready yet, but against someone of Takasugi's caliber, it won't be a problem. Now, behold, his guiding lamp which opens up the closed-off world: "Battleship Kurofune"! (TL note Kurofune means "black ship")
Building on the dream which he could not realize back then, it is a vessel of hope which sails for the sake of opening up all of the outside world. However, for all this grandeur, Takasugi simply laughs it off. Has Yoshida really been spending all this time recreating such an old ship? He's way too stuck in the past to be any match for Takasugi, or the strange god, for that matter. If that's the case, then Takasugi need only strike down his teacher.
Arahabaki lays down gunfire, seemingly obliterating everything before them. In the whipped-up dust, nothing seems to move. Takasugi must have one. He had looked forward to facing off against Yoshida, but it turned out to be really uninteresting. Well, obviously he did not win so easily, and as soon as the dust settles, Yoshida is seen standing just as tall as before.
Yoshida
From the perspective of this country, the black ships were foreign visitors; destroyers of the old ways, and enforcers of a new system.
A barrier is protecting the ship. It is the concept of a threat come from the outside world, made manifest. A god born from such a tiny country, or rather, from Takasugi himself, could never match it. Takasugi says that cannot be ascertained if he doesn't try. However, Yoshida grows all the more infuriated with his pupil. If he still doesn't understand what it is he's trying to say here, then he'll just have to show him. The Kurofune directs all its cannons at Arahabaki and fires.
The rest of you are watching from a safe distance, and Okuni gives a very brief explanation of what the black ships were, if you aren't familiar. Basically, it's the collective name for the foreign ships that arrived at the end of the bakumatsu era, heralding the end of the traditional ways. Still, Yoshida only has one ship, so Takasugi should be fine, right? Kipposhi, at least, is certain that Takasugi will lose this fight, and a booming sound seems to indicate that assumption was correct.
Takasugi doesn't understand. No matter how much he strikes, the ship receives no damage. Yoshida says it's only natural that he could not lose to the shell of a mechanical giant, and to Takasugi, lacking a dream.
Yoshida
Without a dream, there is no ideal.
Without an ideal, there is no plan.
Without a plan, there is no execution.
Without execution, there can be no success.
Therefore, those without dreams can never succeed.
These are the words which Yoshida once taught his pupils; words which Takasugi seem to have forgotten. But what then of Servants. What of these dead, what should they even dream about? Yoshida simply answers that nothing beneficial was ever born of resignation. Making excuses like that is exactly the sort of thing that got Kusaka killed. Takasugi flies into a rage. Kusaka went ahead with his plan all on his own, and got himself killed. That goes for all of them; not just Kusaka, but every single one of them went and died on thier own. Yoshida doesn't really seem to understand, so Takasugi says not to mind him.
Instead, before they say their final goodbyes, Takasugi simply asks what then, is Yoshida's dream. It should be obvious, really, it's the same as it always has been: To escape this small, enclosed world, and arrive at the outside world. Takasugi looks crestfallen, and tells his teacher to get on with it. And so, he will die here alone.
The sound of gunfire echoes through the streets, but it was not Yoshida that fired, or Takasugi who took the hit. Kipposhi had fired at Yoshida from a distance, and Emiya Alter had appeared just in time to block the bullet. Kipposhi's partnership with Yoshida is over anyway, since it was only supposed to last until they got rid of Takasugi Heavy Industries.
Takasugi is totally confused as to why you've come to rescue him. He fired you, so he's no longer your employer. In the end, not even you can save this situation, so you should just get out of here. Of course, you can't do that, so you have Hector forcibly drag him away. Meanwhile, Kojiro squares off against Emiya Alter. Kojiro knows too well how important it is to hold onto one's dreams, and in his case it's to some day square off again against a certain noble swordsman whom he fought under a distant sky.
Kipposhi asks Yoshida if the Kurofune has any traces of divinity, but even though that's not the case, Kipposhi isn't someone who will just drop everything and give up, so they begin to deploy their Noble Phantasm regardless. They shall simply destroy that thing through sheer force, instead.
[Battle against <Battleship Kurofune> | Battle ends after 2nd bar break]
--- Section 2 ---
It seems that you were forced to escape from the battle, and have retreated to your own HQ for the time being. The ship's armor was just too thick, with neither magecraft nor bullets doing much to hurt it. You've locked Takasugi up in a jail cell, and ask to speak with him alone. The others leave you be, but you just stand there quietly for a while. Eventually, Takasugi demands you say something, and you literally pull a "something" in response, which really annoys him.
Takasugi begins reminiscing about his time at Yoshida's school. It was said that he was a very bright pupil, on par with another very talented person there, Kusaka. However, whereas Takasugi was short-tempered and rash, Kusaka was an intelligent man of profound thought and quick wits. Everyone thought Takasugi would die on the battlefield first, but as we know, he betrayed their expectations, and Kusaka went and died before him. Even though some other students remained at the time, Takasugi had no regard for them, and with Kusaka's death, he felt that he had been left to accomplish the rest all on his own. And the rest is, quite literally, history.
Perhaps the only thing he really did was to get into some fights with the Shogunate. Perhaps Yoshida was right about him accomplishing nothing. Perhaps it was that Yoshida wasn't being demeaning when they met here, but reminding him of his own vanity. That they saw from the very beginning what would come of this.
But you offer some uplifting words: as much as he's a self-conscious fool who cannot do anything by himself, so are you. You couldn't have done any of what you've accomplished until now on your own. The rest of your friends arrive on the scene, saying it's time to go. Yeah, you couldn't defeat the Kurofune straight up last time, but there's something Takasugi seems to have forgotten. How did they "beat" the black ships last time? Well, Takasugi says firmly, they managed to do so because everyone were fighting for the sake of their country. That's exactly it. Everyone.
Luckily for Takasugi, Chaldea Heavy Industries is currently recruiting, so he should show them what he's got. He laughs at the prospect of being demoted from president to on-floor employee, but coincidentally, it is also more interesting than anything else that could have happened to him right now. Now then, begins your collective battle.
Originally Posted by Lobo
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