Smile PART 2 "Coburn" National Elementary School
Smile shows you the extent of the U.N party's infiltration into American politics/government (spies) and is also an origins story for the killer 7. This also serves as the finale. Most of the plot in this part of smile in Coburn elementary is related to the events in sunset, here we find tapes left behind from a CIA investigator named Hulbert, his tapes walk us through his investigation on Coburn elementary and gives us hints to the major puzzles in this stage.
U.N party Espionage within the USAFacts don't tell the whole story, or the truth. (Laughs) It's so cliché, but it's the truth about the state this country is in. This school is controlled by the government of another nation. Students here are trained to become elite agents who work for the government. Graduates are assigned to leading positions in the government and promised their life. Some are recruited as Yakumo party members. Those selected become key players in the intelligence war. In other words, they have the capability to spark some fires in the United States. That's the job of a Yakumo
party member.
Remember the role of Fukushima in smile? it was his job to work as a middle man between the spies working inside the U.S government and the party leaders of the U.N party (aka: Yakumo party) they've allready been working on an espionage network for some time before the events of killer 7. Coburn elementary was a beachhead of sorts, training/brainwashing young minds to work for the Yakumo party/U.N party (this was either a consistency error missed by the producer or they might have changed the name of the party somewhere down the line, it wouldn't make sense for it to be anyone other than the U.N party)
"Quiet! If you're overheard,. you'll be in deep trouble.
Lemme tell you straight up, just between you and me. This is the spot where the homeland's elections originate. The spot for the primaries for the first presidential election. The first president of the US was the principal of this school. Win over your neighbors, and win over the world. That's the way politics works."
ConspiracyBefore we step foot onto colburn elementary Travis hints at the true state of American politics within the world of killer 7,
telling us that american democracy was a fraud from the very begining. but why is this particular school important? why Wahington Seattle and not Washington D.C?
Don't raise your voice, man! Nobody knows who could be listening. Twenty-four people. That's how many electors have been assigned to this state. Ten percent of the total vote. Hey, that makes it the key state! Now, wouldn't that be a nice place to control? The lord of this state is the lord of the land. But who must you sweeten to gain this fair prize? It'll take a mountain of money. But for whom to write the check? You must know by now, right, so just tell me straight up?"
for non-politics geeks, Travis is refering to the
United states electoral college. In the fictional world of killer 7 seattle has 24 electors and is likely a
swing state in the world of Killer 7. This gives the state of Seattle hieghtend importance in dermining the next US president (The numbers among other things don't match real life but i'll give it a pass since a lot of stuff in killer 7 don't match up in real life anyways haha). So who is this person that we need to write check to in order to influence the election? I'm going to jump ahead a bit and let Mill's ghost answer that question for me:
...Most ballot booths are at schools. The Education Ministry is in charge of the schools. The results of the election are rigged from the start. Voting is just for show. Before votes are counted, the Education Ministry does a switcheroo. The biggest magic trick on Earth. In other words...
The most powerful man in the country is the Education Secretary...
Here Mills spells it out for you when you meet him again at the union Hotel. (as a side note it's obvious here that the localizers of killer 7 translated some of this literally, The united states does not describe it's departments as ministries and was probably a mistake from the original japanese script) Mills tells you in Smile part 1 that he was killed because he got too close to the state's secrets.
Politics of Killer 7
Sunset + Smile= the big picturenow it's time to start piecing together the puzzle. imediately after the end of world war 2 there were two prevailing schools of political thought duking it out in Japan: the new liberalism introduced by the American ocupation of Japan/ political philosophers in hiding and the old conservative political philosphy established at the start of the
Meiji period (the begining of the Japanese Empire). In the world of killer 7 this is the Liberal party of Japan and the U.N/Yakumo party.
At the time when Sunset begins the U.N party held the reigns of government with the liberals as the opposition majority in
the diet (Akiba and Kurahashi are probably the prime minister and the Upper house council leader) in the insuing intrigue of Japanese politics the liberal party of Japan placed a hit on Toru Fukushima, as I stated eariler was the middle man/cordinator of the U.N party spies in the United states, thinking that he was in posesion of the Yakumo unbeknowest to them ICBMs were on their way to Japan, with Fukushima gone there was no one to cordinate the U.N party agents in the U.S to intercept the missiles. When i first wrote sunset part 1 i said that Fukushima would use the Yakumo as a bargaining chip. This is the first time i've actually decided to sit down and interpret the plot (although with previous playthorughs i at least had a superficial idea of what was going on)
so I my idea of what the Yakumo is was cloudy (no pun intended lol) at the time.
The YakumoIn the Hulbert tapes we see him refer to the japanese conservatives at the Yakumo party, here's my interpretation of what the Yakumo is: The Yakumo was created by the Union 7 aka, the first 7 leaders of the 7 departments of the
Daijo-Kan (the department of state/foreign afairs ministry) in the Meiji period after the fall of the Shogunate. The Yakumo, in the world of Killer 7 was a policy drafted by the Daijo-kan and approved by the cabinet of the first Meiji goverment and is to be used as a blueprint for colltrolling foreign powers in their attempt to build an empire.
Today (in the killer 7 timeline) the Yakumo is known as the implementation of the espionage network. In cloudman Ulmeyda uses his First life company as a front for implementation of the teachings of theYakumo to controll/found the city of ULmeyda, the U.N party uses it's espionage network to implement the Yakumo. So now lets get back to Toru Fukushima, given my newfound interpretation of what the Yakumo is Fukushima was going to get the spies within the U.S to intercept the missiles, Fukushima dies and in Sunset part 2 Kenjiro Matsuoka takes the reigns and is able to intercept the missiles.
Kenjiro Matsuoka's revenge"Laugh, killer.
The actor pulls the curtain himself. You never know what fate might bring. You can't become the President without getting a little crazy.
Hear me out, killer.
You're standing on the wrong stage. Sometimes it's harder to let people live.
Listen up, killer.
This country is pumped. A monopoly on money, power, and interests. The reward?
Heaven Smile.
Foresee, killer.
See into the future. This nation will be the focus of concentrated fire. But it
still won't die.
Figure it out, killer.
I'm not dead. Blood flows through Japan again. The UN Party and the Opposition
Party are holding secret meetings.
Kill, killer.
Don't expose the nation's shame. Topple the young members of the UN Party.
Go, killer.
Open the forbidden door. Your mission is to bury the dark pages of history. If
you do, paradise awaits you."
Now that we know about the election conspiracy of the USA it appears that Matsuoka and the U.N party figured this out as well (with the hep of the Yakumo i presume) and as revenge for leaving Japan out to dry during Sunset part 2 (at the KAKU talks) he plans to "expose the nation's shame" as Keane puts it. Now it's time to read the 2nd half of Mill's quote i posted before:
...The most powerful man in the country is the Education Secretary
But a Japanese put him out. The dog bit back at his owner. Revenge for being left for dead. This is big trouble. Corrupt officials are at a loss. The country has been revealed for what it is - a monster.
But will anything change? You expect some revolution? Well, a dog can't do ****.Has a dying country ever created anything worth its salt?
Greg Nightmare (the last boss who has silly name lol) was the Education secretary, the Japanese man that Mills talks about is Kejiro Matsuoka (
remember him from the cutscene?In the last fight of Smile, the black smiles are the new model of Smiles that travis refers to before, they are impervious to even the killer 7, only the golden gun can bring them down.
there seems to be 3 parts of the killer 7 plot:1) the political (which i just wrote about)
2) Dieties/gods (kun-lan/Harman)
3) Individual (the killer 7)
I dont really understand #2 to be honest and only have a part understanding of #3 but im pretty burnt out so I wont write about it since i have to go to work soon haha