The Nails That Scratch The World

 I wanted to blog a bit and sort out some thoughts on something that came up in the latest fiction story I read. 

I basically still adore Trash of the Count's Family, but alas I have caught up with everything that has been translated so far. So I went looking for stories that were similar...

I had heard about SSS-Class Suicide Hunter from a couple of places, but when I checked it out the main character seemed kind of meh. 

One of my friends convinced me to give it another go, and I've been enjoying it. 

As usual, here's a spoiler warning. Don't read if you don't want spoilers.

The story has some themes I'm coming to realize are fairly common for novels like this. There's almost a video game element (a dungeon or tower where people fight monsters. Some sort of system that classifies their level and gives them skills, etc). 

In this case there's a tower they're trying to climb (those attempting to do so are called Hunters) and each level of the tower has some new quest or challenge. 

Our main character is a nobody, and he idolizes the top ranked Hunter...

Until he stumbles across his idol murdering another Hunter, gets caught by his idol and murdered in turn.

Okay, if he got murdered how does he become the main character? 

That gets into some of the Tower skills and other such shenanigans. Our main character, Kim Gongja, got an ability that allowed him to copy a skill from whoever killed him. 

Which isn't very useful considering he died, except when the person who murdered you has the ability to regress 24hrs every time he dies.

In other words, the murderous Hunter who killed him had a cheat skill that acted like a save point in a video game. Every time he died, he would go back to 24 hours before his death... and now Kim Gongja had that skill as well.

Watching Kim Gongja's character grow over time is a real treat, especially seeing how he uses his abilities to clear the floors. 

Because he doesn't just do the bare minimum it takes to clear it. He finds solutions that are... so much more emotionally satisfying than they have to be, to be honest.

Anyways, for one of the stages they had to help find a satisfactory ending to a story that would have ended painfully.

That is, a martial arts world was in the middle of a war between the righteous sects and demonic sects ('demonic' doesn't have our christian connotations, and I'm still getting a sense of what that difference means) when a zombie plague appeared. Rather than any sort of satisfying conclusion to their fight, all but two of the martial artists had succumbed to the plague and were now zombies.

I suppose that's enough to get on with this? Hmmm.... no, let me add a little more background.

After starting with The Untamed, watching other shows like Word of Honor, and reading the novels these were based off (as well as others like Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know), I've learned a bit more about the tropes and expectations for stories like this.

Apparently Word of Honor is a wuxia based story... as this article explains it:

 Wuxia – translates at martial heroes. Long, long history of writing in China. Generally, martial artists with their powers boosted to supernatural realms. 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wuxia story. They can be a lot of fun, and I'm not entirely sure to what degree their skills are exaggerated. Despite their seemingly impossible feats, though, they're all supposed to come from their martial arts.

Xianxia, on the other hand, is a bit more fantastical.

Xianxia –  is a type of Chinese martial arts novel genre developed from the wuxia genre that is heavily influenced by Daoism and Buddhism (definition taken from Wikipedia). Basically, I translate it for others as Eastern Fantasy. Take wuxia martial artists and add fantasy elements. Anything with gods, spirits, demons, etc becomes xianxia.

Untamed is xianxia, as is Devil Venerable. One of the most common themes seems to be this notion of righteous sects versus demonic sects. 

While I haven't read enough of them to claim any real experties, some of the themes I've noticed tend to be:

Righteous sects claim to be good, but often are hypocritical. Too many focus on the outward appearance of righteousness and cover up the bad things they do.

Demonic sects tend to be 'might makes right' where whoever is the top badass rules, and naturally expects all their subordinates to do their best to kill him/her. On the one hand that doesn't seem like a very comfortable position to be in, and if someone truly terrible is in charge the demonic sects can be truly terrible as well. 

On the other hand there is a level of honesty to their behavior that you don't see in the righteous sects. The members of the demonic sects freely admit their intent to do whatever they want. And can it really be called betrayal if you expect your subordinates to do so any time they think they can get away with it?

Different stories do seem to portray each of these differently, so I'll try not to make any more sweeping generalizations. Anyways, on to SSS-Class Suicide Hunter.

This level is more like a wuxia novel. There are righteous martial artists and demonic martial artists, and they were fighting each other to determine which would control the martial arts world.

The only two fighters who have not turned into zombies are the 'Heavenly Demon' who unified and led the demonic sects, and the leader of the righteous sects.

When you first meet them, they seem... kind of pathetic, actually. The world is overrun with zombies, all their people are dead... and yet they still fight each other? Every day?

They talk about how they have 500 elite martial artists with them, and you discover they're talking about the zombies (and btw, how terrifying is it to have zombies that still can use their wuxia martial arts skills? Flying zombies... yikes.)

You later learn that both have been bitten already, and in order to slow down the spread they're using their skills to block the flow of energy... so they're not able to fight properly.

Even though they're the most skilled martial artists on their side, they're reduced to fighting with twigs and moves that look like a childish spat.

And you have to wonder - what's the point? Why keep doing this, when everyone is dead already? Especially since these two had been fighting each other like this for years, to the point where they almost seem more friends than enemies.

We see a flashback at some point, where we learn that the Heavenly Demon's subordinates urged her to give up the fight. To take their people and flee to some island.

Obviously she refused, and we can assume her opponent was offered and rejected a similar proposal.

It seems ludicrous at first. 

The two most powerful martial artists of their time, fighting each other with twigs while the world ends.

However...

The Heavenly Demon explains some of it...

That as martial artists they all know and expect to die some day.

That the issue is not dying, nor fear of dying. 

The issue is that they want a meaningful death.

Fighting to prove their martial arts are superior is meaningful. Giving your all, and losing... would still be meaningful.

Even getting poisoned is a meaningful death (I assume because it's seen as one of the weapons in the martial arts world.)

Getting bitten by a zombie and turning into one? Isn't...

I'm sure both sides supported trying to find a cure for the zombie plague. We learn about at least some of the attempts, as the story progresses. 

They clearly failed.

And as for running away to an island to preserve some form of life... these are martial artists. Not the leaders of cities or nations. I don't think they have quite the same obligation to try to save humanity.

And so they pretend the 500 zombies (each) that they gather up whenever the light stops them from moving are still part of their forces. Pretend that they're not weak from preventing the zombie plague from spreading in their own bodies. Pretend that they're really using their weapons instead of twigs...

And keep challenging each other to duel, as much as possible given their limitations, in hopes of finding a more meaningful ending. (What's that about John 12:25? 'Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.' )

Our main character does his thing, by which I mean that he goes above and beyond in order to try to find a more satisfying conclusion.

And one of the things he decides to try is to become the Heavenly Demon's disciple. 

Basically, if her teachings are passed on to him then it isn't truly the end. (Especially when one of the Hunters that came with him becomes the student of the righteous sect leader... so the teachings are passed down to both of them and they can continue the battle.)

And this gets at the heart of why I decided to blog all this out.

A completely different martial artist master was educating our main character on some of the differences between the righteous and demonic martial arts:

-In the end, it’s a matter of how you deal with the world, whether it’s with strength or strategy.

‘How I deal with the world?’

-Indeed. If you try to embrace the world with generosity, you usually end up in the Righteous Sect. If you try to ravage the world, that is the Demonic Cult. That is why the people of the Righteous Sect made their bodies into [vessels to accept the world], and the Demonic Cult’s people made their bodies with [nails that can scratch the world]…

Bae Hu-ryeong hmphed and crossed his arms.

-I’ll give you the simplest example. A sword strike that cuts straight from the head to the bottom. In some schools, they call that the Tiger Fury because it is like [a tiger rushing].

Hwik!

Bae Hu-ryeong took a stance and swung his arms down as if he was wielding a sword with both hands.

‘······!’

It was only for an instant, but I flinched. I really felt the spirit of a wild beast charging at me.

It was strong.

...

-Well, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s a tiger or a bull. The specifics can vary depending on how the founder or the creator of the move gained enlightenment. Anyway, it’s important to [imitate] a tiger or bull.

Emulate it. Copy it.

Thus, you make something of the world into your own.

That’s what Bae Hu-ryeong meant by vessels to [accept the world.]

-But the demonic arts are different.

Bae Hu-ryeong took a stance again.

It was the same posture as when he previously swung his arms.

-In the Demonic Sect, they say something like this when teaching initiates.

Bae Hu-ryeong breathed in forcefully and stomped his foot.

-Recall your rage, the soreness in your stomach, at the moment a thief stole one of yours.

The empty air in the void split open.

I unintentionally stepped back.

The face.

It was because of Bae Hu-ryeong’s countenance.

His face was blank, but it still emanated an infinitely cold anger.

It was as if he became a completely different person.

-Recall the moment your younger sister was dragged away by the governor. Remember your weakness, your inability to do anything. You waited in front of the governor’s house for the night to pass, but at dawn, your sister returned to you as a cold carcass. Remember her face, and paint it into your heart.

Bae Hu-ryeong began to perform a sword dance.

Even though his hands were empty, somehow I felt as if I could still see a sword. That sword was as black as the space in which we stood.

-Recall when you buried your sister’s body, alone. Was it winter? The ground was frozen and it was hard to dig. Did you dig at the stubborn soil with your fingertips? Did your fingernails crack? Did blood flow from your broken nails?

‘······.’

-In the end, you couldn’t even dig down to a foot. Did you put your sister’s corpse into a pit? Did you bury her feet first? Did you put a pile of cold dirt over your younger sister’s body? You couldn’t bury her in the ground. In the end, did you sprinkle the dirt on her face, one handful at a time?

I couldn’t breathe.

As Bae Hu-ryeong’s sword dance continued, the endless space which we were in seemed to narrow. It was enough to make my head spin a little. It was only the movement of his hands and arms, but Bae Hu-ryeong’s grudge resonated deeply.

-Recall the texture of that grain of soil. Hold your sword with the hand that dug the earth. Swing your sword as you scattered the dirt over your younger sister. Lament your helplessness and blame the cruelty of the world.

I muttered, though it was more like a moan.

‘The nails that scratch the world…’

 

Turn all the pain and misery in the world into a martial art that can change the world. Nails that can scratch, a scream that can pierce...

Take all that suffering and use it to grow stronger. To make sure that the rich and powerful, the righteous sects... nobody can ignore those who suffer.  

On the one hand, if I were to study a martial art I think I'm more inclined to the righteous sect.

On the other hand, I have seen how frustrating it is when the people in charge seem immune to the suffering of others.

They don't want to hear it, don't want to see it... they will use the police to push out homeless people rather than address the root causes of homelessness, and thus people suffer even more.

They will complain when someone interrupts their dinner, talk about 'bad form' or how impolite it is to take a knee at a football game, or yell at a politician right after some butthurt killer murders a bunch of children...

And yet if you stay 'polite', if you just vote and maybe do a protest march or two... they will just ignore everything. Ignore the suffering their decisions enable. 

Oh yes... I see the appeal of being the nails that scratch the world.

And yet, that doesn't seem quite the right answer either.

Aren't the murderers shooting up schools also being 'nails that scratch the world'? Letting out their rage and hatred (I personally think it's unjustified, ofc, but I recognize it's rage and hatred nonetheless) on the world?

Is that not, ultimately, what quite a few terrorists are trying to be?

Perhaps, maybe, it can make some of these insulated and smug fools suffer. 

I want to ponder this a bit more, but I've been typing for a while and this seems like a good stopping point.

I'll continue it later.