Episode 2

**Sprocket** is the second episode of the *Deca-Dence* anime series.

### **Plot**

In the aftermath of the Gadoll attack, some Gears lay dead or wounded, but Tankers are already carving up the Gadoll meat. It is then revealed that Deca-dence is run by the Solid Quake corporation as a colossal entertainment facility in the continent called Eurasia which digital beings can safely experience adventure as human avatars with no risk of real injury. However, Mikey makes the decision to break the rules and enhance his abilities by 20% to improve his performance and experience as a Gear, although he risks incurring real physical damage fighting Gadolls. It is also revealed that Kaburagi is working as a recovery agent for Solid Quake corporation by retrieving chips from humans like Mikey who perform prohibited actions. This happens to Mikey who is considered a "bug" risk and is "scrapped". After Natsume sees Kaburagi retrieving a chip, she confronts him, and he offers to train her to fight. Kaburagi then researches Natsume and discovers that she is listed as dead, indicating that she may be a bug. He then decides to observe her and takes her to visit the opulent Gears level of Deca-dence.

### **Summary**

What was the deal with that crazy Yellow Submarine-like city at the end of the last episode? Well, uh… that’s actually Kaburagi’s reality. His human form is only an avatar, and Deca-Dence is a huge and elaborate entertainment facility run by the all-powerful Solid Quake Corporation. The Gears are all like him: robot-like beings liking in the corporations “Chimney Town” when not playing Deca-Dence. Only the Tankers are all real human beings—the last of their species.

And in an extended flashback to seven years ago, we see Kaburagi and his elite ranker team. They all sport odd skin and hair color because they’re not really human, just avatars. Kaburagi is in the Top-5 Gears in all of Deca-Dence, but he can feel he’s reached his peak and bracing for the down-slope. On the other hand, his young and eager comrade Mikey is slowly rising in the ranks, with much the same stats as Kaburagi in his prime. When not playing, Kaburagi is ingesting Oxyone like all the other people in Chimney Town, or getting stimulation in the form of “beam” sessions.

While Kaburagi sees a bright future for Mikey, Mikey himself is impatient, and feels something is missing, namely the ability to release his limiter, a risky maneuver that will give him enhanced strength and speed in the game. Now that Mikey knows what it’s liked to be a ranker, he no longer wants to feel like he’s “replaceable” (even though he kinda unwittingly is replacing Kaburagi). After quite a bit of begging Kaburagi relents and shows Mikey how to do it.

However, Mikey gets caught as a cheater and labeled a “bug” by Hugin, the stoic, matter-of-fact system administrator. Mikey gets scrapped and the entire ranker team disbanded. While all of Kaburagi’s other teammates were sent into confinement for refusing their next assignment, Kaburagi decides not to go against the system today so he can live to possibly fight it another day. The nature of Kaburagi’s new job? He’s demoted to armor repairer with the Tankers, but that’s just his day job. By night he’ll be a “recovery agent”, collecting the chips from humans deemed by the Hugin to be “bugs” that could harm the system.

Now that (mostly) all has been explained, we return to Natsume incessantly begging Kaburagi to train her to fight. Having already lost a dad and an arm to combat, she isn’t fazed in the slightest by the gory aftermath of the Gadoll battle. No doubt Kaburagi compares her to Mikey, who also begged to be more significant and paid the price for it. Even when Natsume halfheartedly tries to blackmail him with a photo she took with Pipe, Kaburagi won’t budge on helping her. However, one night she spots him sneaking around in the shadows and catches him removing a chip from someone. Of course, not knowing his story, as far as she knows he’s just robbing him because he’s hard up for cash. Natsume gets Kaburagi to promise not to rob anyone else, and stop talking about it being “over” for him. Little does she know he’s telling the truth, as he’s been intentionally refraining from ingesting oxyone or rebooting, which will eventually lead to shutdown—a slow suicide, if you will.

Kaburagi always assumed that Natsume was another bug—maybe even the next on the list provided by Hugin. But when he scans her face, he finds no data among the current population of Tankers, and a deeper search reveals that she was listed as deceased way back when her dad died and she lost her arm. That means she’s not only a bug in the system, but one that’s outside it’s control due to the lack of a chip. If the system won’t recognize her, or believes she’s of no value, then he’ll recognize her. He finally ingests the oxyone, crediting her with saving him from an early demise, agrees to train her, and shows her around the swanky Gears’ base.

### **Character**

* Natsume
* Kaburagi
* Linmei
* Fei
* Kurenai
* Turkey
* Mikey
* Donatello
* Munin

### **Video**

TVアニメ『デカダンス』 第2話「sprocket」予告Episode 2 Trailer (JP)