Fool Night - Vol. 8 Ch. 66 - Central

[the_Bear_from_Bearcave]

There are 2 big points that make it so that the transfloration institute and those protecting it can't get away by using their predatory system under the excuse of it being a necessary evil, and as necessity it thus offers a good service

The first one is that it is not a necessity, the primary argument behind the anti transfloration movement was the installation and development of technology to stop being dependent on transfloration, for Hikasa this is his artificial sun, and from Kudai is the new transflorated humans like Ivi, for them both the current system is not a necessity, but their solutions differ and even oppose each other

The second one is that even within the permissible framework of it being a necessity, it developed itself by segregating people and creating a second class citizenship to be abused, but these social segregations are not a necessity for the system to work, it is an artificial construct that exist to supply comfort to the ones in a privileged position, more over Central doesn't cares about anyone outside of central, and in fact plans and hopes for everyone outside of Central to become a plant, so this part of the system is all on the Transfloration Institute that organized itself in this particular way

With these 2 things in mind, the workers become complicit in the sham because they have been made aware of both the fact that there are ways to survive without being dependent on the Transfloration Institute, and that current version of the Transfloration Institute is not even the ideal one

However they choose to protect the status quo, not because it is necessary, not because it is good, but because it is convenient, and they want to protect the commodities that they achieved within the system that they already know is both evil and is not really necessary

While it's true that abuse and segregation is not necessary, I feel that any society system that needs volunteers for basically human sacrifice would be at big risk of creating abuse, and most probably would sooner or later turned into abusive one, with privileged class and oppressed class to support it, so I can't fault them that much for not rejecting it outright and seeking better way. Their society seems to work as democracy (how free?), so its not like their morality is being forced on the majority of the society.

If they fought against other ways, it would be another thing, but of the two solutions, the "new transflorated humans" of Kudai aren't even openly supported by the opposition to transfloration, Hikasa's folks seem to treat Ivy as a monster, and he certainly is more of a victim of the research and tool turned into assassin, rather than "saved" human, even if Kudai's research may save their society in the future. And it's not like they're opposed to it, they mostly wanted to stop the murders and free themselves of the fake accusation of creating murder monsters.

I don't really remember the specifics of the artificial sun project, was it really shown as sound and possible to execute project with their technology and resources? Can you remind me in which chapters it was discussed? Besides, again, it's not like they were fighting the opposition and their projects before being targeted with responsibility for Ivy's murders, and turning boys into murder plants (that also murdered other children as a collateral damage) isn't really morally superior to the work of institute, so I don't see them fighting that as "fighting to protect convenient status quo" as rather fighting back against the terrorists who happen to have good cause against them, while also trying to deal with at least dark grey morality of their own position.

Basically, the only way they could act differently was to decide to side completely with the opposition against their own society, opposition that was shown to be using bribery and lies to get advantage, to participate in victimizing kids (Ivy) to create terrorist attacks, even if some of the victims of attacks deserved it, and trust that their plan (artificial sun?) is actually workable and can create better society, despite being enabled through forceful change, without creating similar or worse downsides. Without that, it's not unreasonable they would protect their own place, they weren't fighting to protect status quo as the system of ghetto and abuse, they just were fighting against party that wanted to change that abuse, but also eliminate them and cause various crimes and murders.

I don;t think you can put every action protecting the existing, unfair society as the same moral meaning as protecting "status quo" including the unfairness specifically. Almost all societies were and are unfair, that doesn't mean acting to protect them is necessarily trying to protect the unfairness, though of course it makes one to some degree complicit in that unfairness - but so does living in almost every society.

 

[Doomroar]

While it's true that abuse and segregation is not necessary, I feel that any society system that needs volunteers for basically human sacrifice would be at big risk of creating abuse, and most probably would sooner or later turned into abusive one, with privileged class and oppressed class to support it, so I can't fault them that much for not rejecting it outright and seeking better way. Their society seems to work as democracy (how free?), so its not like their morality is being forced on the majority of the society.

If they fought against other ways, it would be another thing, but of the two solutions, the "new transflorated humans" of Kudai aren't even openly supported by the opposition to transfloration, Hikasa's folks seem to treat Ivy as a monster, and he certainly is more of a victim of the research and tool turned into assassin, rather than "saved" human, even if Kudai's research may save their society in the future. And it's not like they're opposed to it, they mostly wanted to stop the murders and free themselves of the fake accusation of creating murder monsters.

I don't really remember the specifics of the artificial sun project, was it really shown as sound and possible to execute project with their technology and resources? Can you remind me in which chapters it was discussed? Besides, again, it's not like they were fighting the opposition and their projects before being targeted with responsibility for Ivy's murders, and turning boys into murder plants (that also murdered other children as a collateral damage) isn't really morally superior to the work of institute, so I don't see them fighting that as "fighting to protect convenient status quo" as rather fighting back against the terrorists who happen to have good cause against them, while also trying to deal with at least dark grey morality of their own position.

Basically, the only way they could act differently was to decide to side completely with the opposition against their own society, opposition that was shown to be using bribery and lies to get advantage, to participate in victimizing kids (Ivy) to create terrorist attacks, even if some of the victims of attacks deserved it, and trust that their plan (artificial sun?) is actually workable and can create better society, despite being enabled through forceful change, without creating similar or worse downsides. Without that, it's not unreasonable they would protect their own place, they weren't fighting to protect status quo as the system of ghetto and abuse, they just were fighting against party that wanted to change that abuse, but also eliminate them and cause various crimes and murders.

I don;t think you can put every action protecting the existing, unfair society as the same moral meaning as protecting "status quo" including the unfairness specifically. Almost all societies were and are unfair, that doesn't mean acting to protect them is necessarily trying to protect the unfairness, though of course it makes one to some degree complicit in that unfairness - but so does living in almost every society.

The problem here is that they have come face to face with the crossroads of having to make a choice and pick a side, they are not passive agents living within an abusive society and supporting it by playing along

They are actively defending it by acting as armed enforcers without any real argument when directly questioned about their motives other than their self interests something both protagonists made clear in chapter 39 when they compared themselves to bystanders in a tragedy, ignoring the fact that they stopped being bystanders long ago and became direct participants after being granted the power to enact violence in the name of the state

Unfortunately the author never goes in detail about Hikasas plan, and neither protagonist ever really bothered to get more information out him, the closest thing we got was from chapter 40, and every other chapter ie concerned with showing that he truly believed in his cause and was not in it just for personal gain

While Hikasa himself is a terrorist and a serial killer, just like Dr Kudai, ironically only those 2 and their groups are worried with the task of trying to make a better future, a concept in which the group of the protagonist gave up in, and will be dragged into helping to develop against their wills after Dr Kudai has to use coercive tactics to force Yumiko to cooperate with his projects, because the revelation that Central wants to transform everyone else into plants was still not enough of a motivation for an alliance

 

[CommonTruth]

This'll be the last update!

Thanks for all your work for the Fool Night fans!

 

[Sugarixe]

Ah, shame. the official release in my country is still far behind (Volume 1 releases in July and then every 3 months afterwards for now it seems).
Well, still thank you for your work up to this point, I'm excited to see what's gonna happen next, even if I will only see it in 2 years or so.

You can read chapters 67-76 on mangasee, and Viz is simulpublishing all new chapters

 

[xwenqix]

Thank you for the TL throughout!

 

[hung2]

Thank you very much for the TL! Your TL helps to persuade me to collect the physical copies where I'm from because I really enjoy the series so far. Really appreciate your TL work!

 

[Sinussi]

You can read chapters 67-76 on mangasee, and Viz is simulpublishing all new chapters

Ah right, other aggregators exist.
Hmm...still, I don't really like using sites other than Mangadex tbh and while this is a pretty hefty cliffhanger, it'll at least actually make me buy the volumes lol.

Similar to how it went with Blue Period, Wind Breaker or the Etranger series.
Loss of easy and convenient access to brand new chapters sucks, but it's not the end of the world ^^

 

[NickieTheFool]

This'll be the last update!

Thanks for all the work you've done. Good luck with translating your next project!

 

[Akikako]

I repeat again: all this transfloration thing is a huge bullshit, there are a bunch of easer and more practical way to produce oxygen instead to create an entire sick society around that (hydrolysis maybe?).

 

[hisacro]

I repeat again: all this transfloration thing is a huge bullshit, there are a bunch of easer and more practical way to produce oxygen instead to create an entire sick society around that (hydrolysis maybe?).

hydrolysis requires energy! I cannot think of a 'practical' way to produce without energy(electricity) consumption in some form, Mind enlightening if you can or will.

 

[sotokouya]

i heard plankton also produce oxygen but i'm sure the thing with plant is the focus regardless

 

[JakBlue092]

THANK YOU! For the scans & translations! I was also one of the people who came over from VIZ manga. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated you filling in the gap.

I’m so thankful, I had to create & register an account just to say thank you! You did a great job!

 

[Akikako]

hydrolysis requires energy! I cannot think of a 'practical' way to produce without energy(electricity) consumption in some form, Mind enlightening if you can or will.

nuclear, plus the hydrogen made can be used as fuel too.