66 pages • 2 hours read
M. L. WangA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of domestic abuse and child abuse.
The narrative shifts back in time, detailing Misaki’s school days at Daybreak Academy. During the day, the young Misaki takes courses in theonite abilities and fighting techniques. At night, she is a member of a teenage vigilante group with her friends, Elleen Elden and Robin Thundyil. Elleen is Hadean (white and blonde) and a littigi, a sub-theonite with the ability to control light and illusions. Elleen builds an illusion to conceal Misaki, who uses her skills with stealth and knives to ambush their enemies.
They fight members of a gang called Pantera, who have taken over the North End slums of Livingston. Robin, a Carythian tajakulu, fights their real target, a group of murderers and human traffickers. Misaki and Elleen move to help Robin, who is losing. They capture one target, but the other two escape. Misaki tries to shoot one in the back with an ice spear, but Robin stops her, reminding her of their promise not to kill. The murderer gets away.
Robin and Misaki argue. Robin is an idealist. As a refugee and orphan with only his younger brother for family, he has survived a brutal upbringing with a deep core of compassion and pacifism intact. Misaki admires this about him but also fears it. She knows that showing kindness to the wrong person at the wrong time will one day get him killed, and she cannot stand the thought. Among the warrior houses where she was raised, killing and death are simple facts of life. She therefore has no moral objection to killing, although Robin and Elleen do. Still, Misaki promises not to kill if Robin promises to keep himself safe, but she vows to kill if necessary in order to save him or her other loved ones.
Later, Misaki visits their friend, Koli Kuruma, a Yammanka inventor. He supports their vigilante efforts by providing weapons and equipment. Misaki asks Koli to make her a sword. He teases her because he offered before and she refused, feeling that swords were not fit for women. But now she needs a sword to protect Robin. The next day, she joins a sword-fighting course. Though she has been trained by her father, she has never joined a class before. The sword master sees her potential and offers to train her personally.
The narrative details Misaki’s contemplations of her past life after her time at Daybreak Academy. Misaki’s sword master once said that she was able to “shift to fit any mold and freeze [herself] strong” (140). She has tried to mold herself into the shape of a housewife. She married because her father ordered her to. Her parents promised her that it would be worth it when she had children of her own. She held onto this promise even when her father-in-law was abusive, and her husband treated her with indifference. Takeru was cold and unyielding. His nyama (spirit) froze her with his touch. He treated her like a doll and rarely talked to her. Soon after their marriage, Misaki gave birth to Mamoru. She waited for the moment of love and joy to come, as her parents had promised, but she felt nothing but “a frigid echo” of her husband in her son.
After Mamoru, Misaki had two miscarriages. Her father-in-law hit her, accusing her of killing his grandchildren and calling her worthless if she could not bear more children. Misaki waited for Takeru to yell or hit her as well, but he merely walked away. Misaki feared that she was subconsciously killing her own unborn children with her blood ability. Then, Setsuko joined the family and reassured Misaki that the miscarriages were not her fault, and she was not worthless. Finally, 10 years after Mamoru, Misaki had Hiroshi, then Nagasa and Izumo. All the while, she thought about the sword hidden under the floorboards of her kitchen.
The narrative returns to the present. It is nearly dawn when Misaki hears Mamoru return home. He tells her about falling and taking Chul-hee to the numu village. Then he tells her what Chul-hee told him about lies and propaganda. Misaki realizes that her son is in pain, and she is unsure how to comfort him. She admits that Chul-hee is right, but she tells him that it is dangerous to say so and urges him never to repeat this to anyone.
Mamoru is shocked and disoriented. Misaki feels a sudden surge of motherly protectiveness. She explains that he will have to face unwelcome truths about the world, but that does not necessarily mean that the world is broken. Mamoru asks her what he is supposed to do or think, and she tells him that he must listen and come to his own conclusions. For the first time, Misaki feels the joy and hope that her parents promised her when she realizes that “Mamoru might grow up to be different from her father” (164).
Over winter break, Mamoru joins Chul-hee and the Kotetsu family as they install the info-com towers under Chul-hee’s father’s direction. The news discusses the storms ravaging cities along the coast. Mamoru watches the news on the television with increasing intensity.
One day, a letter arrives for Misaki from her brother Kazu, the head of the Tsusano family. The letter explains that their hometown was hit by an enormous coastal storm. Though their home and family are safe, many others in the town died. The letter warns that the storms might reach Takayubi in the mountains; Misaki is urged to take her family inland to the capital city. Misaki and Takeru are puzzled by the letter. It is odd for Kazu to suggest a family trip in the middle of the harsh winter.
They put the letter aside, and the family watches the news, which is discussing the same storm Kazu mentioned in his letter. As the news shows images of destruction and the arrival of government aid, Mamoru realizes that the report is false, as the same images have been used multiple times in different reports. He declares that the news and the government are lying. He explains what Chul-hee has shown him and claims that the storms are really Ranganese attacks. He says that the Emperor is hiding the new military strength of the Ranganese in order to keep the people in place, giving their lives to defend the coast.
Takeru says that it is their duty to defend the coast no matter what. He states, “None of it changes the fact that we are here to lay down our lives for the Empire. We are the Sword of Kaigen” (179). Mamoru retorts that a sword is still “just a tool” (179). Takeru orders Mamoru to the family dojo, where he must defend his treasonous words in a duel.
Women are not allowed to enter the dojo, so Misaki sits at the door to watch. Takeru is angrier than she has ever seen, and Misaki is worried. She is also shocked by Mamoru’s behavior. She is proud of his insightfulness but believes that he should have known better than to say such things in front of his father. She watches them retrieve their weapons and prepare to fight. Takeru’s katana was made by Kotetsu Katashi and is named Moonspire. Mamoru helped to forge his own katana during his apprenticeship with Kotetsu. It is a large sword that has not yet earned a name.
As they fight, Mamoru, though skilled, is sloppy and slow compared to his father. He falters, and Takeru knocks the sword from his grip. Mamoru switches to ice attacks, which Takeru copies. Takeru forms his famous Whispering Blade and beats Mamoru into submission. As Mamoru cries out, Takeru plunges his ice blade into Mamoru’s mouth. Misaki screams in terror and steps into the dojo, but Takeru dissolves his Whispering Blade just before it strikes, punching Mamoru in the face instead.
Mamoru lies on the floor, bleeding and terrified. He clearly thought that his father was about to kill him. Takeru glares at Misaki and admonishes her for stepping into the dojo. Then he orders Mamoru not to leave the dojo until he has improved and is prepared to face him again. A moment later, Setsuko appears with a message from Takashi, requesting his brother’s presence for a meeting.
With Takeru gone, Misaki watches her son practice. Despite her better judgment, she offers suggestions and critiques. Mamoru is confused by her knowledge and is unsure how to implement her suggestions. Suddenly inspired by Mamoru’s disobedience, she chooses to defy tradition. She steps into the dojo, saying that she will show Mamoru what she did at her strange foreign school all those years ago. She chooses a weapon and attacks.
Though Misaki is much older than she was in her prime and has had no chance to practice in 15 years, she fights well against her son. She tells him about her schooling and explains that Takeru forbade her to talk about it. She waits for Mamoru to be ashamed of her unwomanly behavior, but he is impressed and excited to know that he is born of two skilled warriors, rather than one. He praises her skill, but she admits that she is not as good as she once was, nor was brute force ever her forte. Her skills are stealth and ambush.
She tells him that his strength should come not from force but from confidence. Mamoru says he has no confidence. He used to know what he was fighting for, but now, he knows nothing. Misaki tells him that she fought for her friends because loftier motives were beyond her. She suggests that while some people have higher ideals, the only thing a person really needs is the desire to keep his loved ones safe. However, she claims that her motive was selfish, and it is possible that Mamoru will have a nobler purpose.
Mamoru remarks that Misaki clearly loves fighting. He does not understand why she would give up something that she enjoys so much. She says that fighting itself was less important than protecting her family, and in this life, protecting her family has required her to put aside her sword and become a housewife. Mamoru tells her that she is not selfish at all.
Previously, Wang has delivered oblique references to Misaki’s past to add intrigue and spark curiosity, but in this section, she intensifies the momentum of the plot by revealing more information in a strategic flashback chapter that explains a few of Misaki’s talents and life choices. This flashback provides necessary detail to better outline Misaki’s current bitterness, and it also introduces the figure of Robin Thundyil—the absent companion of her previous life. Though Robin is a minor character in the plot, his impact on Misaki’s life and moral philosophy reverberates throughout the novel, and the narrative will eventually reveal him to be a major factor in Misaki’s quest of Seeking Redemption to Silence Regrets.
After this flashback, the present-day events in the succeeding chapters heighten the rising tension with ominous hints about the novel’s primary external conflict while simultaneously revealing the depths of Mamoru’s internal crisis. The struggle of Distinguishing True Stories from Propaganda becomes prominent as Mamoru raptly watches the news in an effort to discern the seams between objective reality and manufactured falsehoods. In the midst of his silent search for greater clarity, it is significant that Misaki fails to decipher her brother’s cryptic warnings about “storms” that might move inland, and she also fails to connect the clues when Mamoru notices that the news is lying about the storms. While the true significance of this moment has yet to be fully revealed, the details of this scene combine with Setsuko’s mother’s premonition of the Ranganese attack in Chapter 2 to indicate that a violent attack on the region may be imminent.
Moreover, these hints of external conflict trigger an outward expression of the internal conflicts of the novel, particularly Mamoru’s struggles to understand his purpose within the Kaigenese Empire. This personal crisis leads to his confrontation with his father in Chapters 8 and 9, and this experience proves crucial to Mamoru’s character development as he demonstrates his intelligence and the depths of his perception, as well as his willingness to consider new possibilities even if they are personally painful. When he holds onto the courage of his convictions and stands up to his father, this moment also exemplifies The Tension between Obedience and Purpose. Mamoru actively defies the obligation of obedience that tradition demands a son to show his father, and he also challenges the Kaigenese Empire’s demands of unquestioning loyalty.
These chapters are also vital to Misaki’s character development, for although she remains largely silent as the family’s conflicts rage around her, her inner reflections on her marriage to Takeru reveal the harsher aspects of their cold, loveless relationship, as well as her general dissatisfaction and the shame she feels over lacking a closer relationship with her children. Ironically, not long after she laments her lack of motherly warmth, her conversation with Mamoru triggers the very feelings that she has been missing, creating a revelatory moment for Misaki, who hopes for the first time that she can have a positive influence on her children’s development.
Her hope transforms into action in Chapter 10 when she defies her traditional role of obedient housewife to enter the family dojo and train Mamoru, calling on the skills from her past despite her husband’s oppressive demand that she bury her past skills. Thus, this scene invokes elements of rebirth, for even as Mamoru questions and redefines his role in society, Misaki rediscovers her purpose as an accomplished warrior and realizes that it need not be at odds with her role as a mother.
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