For the event, see Hell's Chicken.
Overview |
Hell's Chicken is the first side chapter in Limbus Company, taking place between Canto III: The Unconfronting and Canto IV: The Unchanging.
This Intervallo chapter was released alongside the Hell's Chicken event on the April 20th, 2023.
Summary[]
The LCB continue their activities in District 11 after the adventures in Calw to perform a request from the manager of a fried chicken establishment called Bodhisattva Chicken. The restaurant is currently suffering from trouble caused by the Distorted owner of a restaurant from across the street.
The LCB takes on the request, mostly due to the request as a valuable chance to study the Distortion Phenomenon. After a cooking competition to open up the heart of the Distorted restauranteur, the Sinners successfully enter the heart and mind of the owner and reverts his Distortion, resolving the case.
Synopsis[]
3.5-1: Chicken Attack[]
Pre-Battle[]
After the events of Canto III: The Unconfronting, the LCB continues to perform their activities within Nest K, arriving at a downtown portion of the Nest to perform a mission involving a request from a certain client.
As the Sinners get off the bus, they note the long lines in front of a fried chicken establishment. They are then approached by a strange person, who starts to chatter about the fame of said restaurant, which is called Bodhisattva Chicken. He then draws the attention of the Sinners to certain Chicken-headed individuals around the restaurant who are displaying strange behavior and causing a general havoc.
The person then throws a rock at one of the Chicken-headed individuals, which prompts them to begin moving in the direction the Sinners. Left with no choice, the Sinners prepare for combat with the chickens.
Post-Battle[]
After the battle, the strange person reveals his identity to be Samjo, a K Corp. "Affiliate of the Department of Food Resource Development’s Research Center". Samjo then introduces the manager of Bodhisattva Chicken, who described how the chicken problem has arisen out of the owner of a rival fried chicken restaurant across the street, Eunbong's Bar & Fryers, has gone mad and is now commanding an army of raw chickens to wreak havoc around Bodhisattva Chicken.
Samjo then promises a lifetime voucher for Bodhisattva Chicken for the Sinners if they are take care of the request, much to the Bodhisattva Chicken's manager's surprise and dismay, and even prepared free samples for the Sinners to try out. Faust then agrees to take care of the request, due to it being an example of the Distortion Phenomenon.
3.5-3: Hell's Chicken[]
Pre-Battle[]
As the Sinners approach Eunbong's Bar & Fryers, they note chickens similar to the ones previously seen on the heads of the chicken-heads strutting about. Despite Dante's warnings, Heathcliff and Ryōshū approaches the chickens, which resulted in a chicken latching itself onto Heathcliff's head. After some attempts to call to Heathcliff from beyond the poultry, chicken-headed Heathcliff began conversing with other chicken-headed individuals in the area, which prompted the Sinners to carry Heathcliff into the restaurant.
Once inside the restaurant, Outis managed to unlatch the chicken from atop Heathcliff's head. The revived Heathcliff then provided the object of conversation between him and the other chicken-heads previously to be that about a lost recipe. This led Dante to propose that recreating the lost recipe may be a method to solve the Distortion problem at hand. This plan was approved by Faust, who stated that the Distortion Phenomenon is experienced by people having major breakdowns, and therefore must be unravelled via methods that the Distorted approves of——in this case, via chicken-based cooking.
Gregor and Ryōshū then gets into an argument about cooking methodologies, which quickly escalated into a full-on cooking competition. The Sinners proceed to take sides in the competition, with Heathcliff, Don Quixote, Hong Lu, Yi Sang, and Meursault siding with Gregor, and Rodion, Outis, Ishmael, Faust, and Sinclair siding with Ryōshū.
Post-Battle[]
The cooking competition is in full swing. The kitchen of Eunbong's Bar & Fryers are filled with sounds associated with various food preparation processes...and the sound of cigarettes sizzling. Dante comments on this, and is replied with an awkward silence on the part of both smokers. The sound of a cigarette being snuffed out came only from Gregor's side of the kitchen.
3.5-5: A Chicken In Hand[]
Pre-Battle[]
The cooking of both parties are complete, though Dante expresses concern over the dishes' actual palatability. The Distorted owner of the establishment was caught by Meursault and Heathcliff in the meantime and is currently in a seat in the kitchen.
Ryōshū's cooking was presented to the owner first, but his judgment of the dish was obscured by the Distorted's inhuman speech. The impediment was quickly overcome by Dante's ability to comprehend their speech, however (theorized by Faust to be a side effect of the Golden Boughs they have been gathering), and it was revealed that the owner was wondering whether Ryōshū's dish was themed "poultry apocalypse", as it felt like a funeral procession as it went inside his mouth.
Gregor's cooking also elicited a negative response from the owner, as his dish reminded him of food waste from the dumpster outside. Angered, the chickens and thier master came at the Sinners.
Post-Battle[]
After the owner's anger had been fully vented, he showed a number beside him which read 3/5, meaning that the Sinners had used up 2 out of 5 chances for opening up his heart with good cooking. The Sinners then began to prepare for another round of cooking, with Don Quixote on Gregor's team trying to get the mantle of head chef (and failing to get attention), while Sinclair on Ryōshū's team took up the knife (while getting commented on by everyone else for ideas to improve the dish).
Heathcliff, trying to prove to Gregor that he can cook, accidentally burns his hand on a hot frying-pan and throws said pan onto the wall, shattering it, which leads to the chickens being angered by the property damage.
3.5-7: Iron Chicken Chef[]
Pre-Battle[]
Dante reckons Team Gregor's second attempt at an edible dish, this one being made primarily under Don Quixote's command. Unfortunately, Don Quixote's rather childish view of cuisine turned the dish into an utter disaster, the resulting substance containing such materials as chocolate, oranges, and even a lump of coal, with the chicken itself being "brutally" torn to bits (a suggestion of Yi Sang's, after a delicacy of his hometown).
As expected, the owner counts the dish as a failure before even attempting to try it.
Post-Battle[]
After the owner had calmed down, he stated that the dish's description was all it took to take his appetite away. At Don Quixote's complaint, Dante asked the ultimate question: none of the cooks have yet to try their cooking.
The question silenced all of the primary creators of the previous dish. Just as Don Quixote prepares to sacrifice herself by trying her own cooking, Heathcliff jumped up and stuffed a portion into the nearest person's mouth——who happened to be Meursault. Meursualt proceeded to give a lengthy rhyming commentary upon all the failures of the dish. Then, at the request of the other team members, took up the mantle as head chef and began ruthlessly commanding the other Sinners to prepare food up to his standards.
Meanwhile, Sinclair quitted the position of head chef due to unhelpful blabbering on the part of the other Sinners, and Outis proceeded to take up the position. The cooking competition is finally looking as if there is something to it.
3.5-9: A Restaurateur's Mild Fathoms[]
Upon Entry[]
Both Meursault and Outis's dishes are complete, and Dante remarks on how there seems at last to be some actually edible food made. Meursault's dish was presented first, prompting a lengthy savour and judgment from the owner. The dish was passed, however, in favor to Outis's dish because it was "missing something [the owner] couldn’t quite describe with words".
Outis's dish, however, was successful in evoking a response in the owner's distortion. A flashback was invoked, suggesting some aspect about the owner's mother as the main reason he chose to start his establishment, and a portal appeared next to the owner which allowed access to his heart and mind.
Within Story Dungeon[]
As the Sinners approach the core of the owner's mind, more flashbacks involving memories that the owner apparently lost in the shock of losing his recipe appeared. Primarily, the flashback involved the memory of the owner losing his recipe——the manager of the Bodhisattva Chicken from across the street sent a spy to steal his recipe and tossed it into the concept incinerator, which erased all physical and mental traces of the recipe's contents.
Post-Battle[]
After the Sinners unravelled the last of the owner's Distortion, he began reminiscing again. It is first revealed that the owner's mother was especially picky about chicken, which is the reason that he took to studying fried chicken recipes in an attempt to produce fried chicken that even his mother would enjoy. It is then revealed that the reason the owner's mother wouldn't eat chicken due to their poverty, and she would collect coupons to exchange for free chickens, which she would give to her son.
Finally, in a great twist, it was revealed that the coupons the owner's mother collected was in fact pizza coupons, and the owner's mother didn't like chicken at all——she liked pizza better. This turn in mind totally resolved the owner's Distortion as he got over his obsession for chicken recipes. The owner then gave a wrapped-up box containing an "invaluable gift" to the Sinners for their help in getting him over his distortion.
Back on the bus, the Sinners eagerly open up the box to see what goodies are inside, but is quite disappointed in finding that the only thing inside is a chicken plushie, which was supposed to be the mascot for Eunbong's Bar & Fryers before the owner lost his recipe. Heathcliff proposed throwing it in the concept incinerator, but Charon took it, stating that she liked the plushie because "It’s got eyes and nothing else".
Meanwhile, Samjo was speaking on the phone with a man called Dongrang, and confirms the resolving of the Distortion to him. This seems to have conveyed the LCB's "worthiness" to Dongrang, as he then commands Samjo to bring them over for some request. Samjo then chastens the manager of Bodhisattva Chicken about stealing the Eunbong's Bar & Fryers owner's secret recipe and tossing it in the concept incinerator. It is implied that the manager will shortly lose his job.Enemies[]
Trivia[]
- The name of the Intervallo could be a reference to a reality show Hell's Kitchen hosted by Gordon Ramsay
Story Chapters
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Inferno (Main Chapter) |
Prologue - Canto I - Canto II - Canto III - Canto IV - Canto V - Canto VI - Canto VII | ||
| Deviazione (Detour Tales) |
Intervallos | Intervallo I - Intervallo II - Intervallo III - 1 - Intervallo III - 2 - Intervallo IV - 1 - Intervallo IV - 2 | |
| Mini Episodes | Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3 - Season 4 | ||
| Story Dungeon | Inferno | D-02 (Canto I) - J-03 (Canto II) - K-02 (Canto III) - Reminisced League of Line (Canto IV) - Into the Dark (Canto V) | |
| Deviazione | A Restauranteur's Fathoms (Intervallo I) - A Blade Fiend's Fathoms (Intervallo III) - Time Ripper's Fathoms (Intervallo IV) | ||