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Update XLIII: The Right to Remain Adorable Noooo! I ran toward him, and dropped to my knees— Move it! Wh-What! Before waiting for me to comply, Shirabe shoved me aside and tore off Subaru’s gloves.I think we can all anticipate where this is going. Hey! Take his clothes off! O-Okay! I had no idea what was going on, but Shirabe seemed to have a plan.Plan is a stretch. “Hoping for a miracle” is more appropriate.  Trust me, Saki.That was meant to be flashback Subaru, by the way. Present Subaru is absolutely in no condition to respond, I assure you. I heard his words echo in my head over and over. (I… I do trust him!) Congratulations, you’ve won! Next is the final… huh? We’d just finished removing Subaru’s shirt when Hogstein finally noticed we were up to something. Right! He yanked the electrode from one of the gloves he’d pulled off, and placed it against Subaru’s chest.  Wh-What?! He looked up at Shirabe, confused. We’re going to save him! What the heck are you trying to do…? Ready? On three! One… two… three! …! Just as ordered, he punched the air. Subaru’s body twitched. Shirabe pressed his ear to the unconscious man’s chest. One more time! One, two, three! Are… are you trying to resuscitate him?! That’s ridiculous! He’s dead dead dead! You killed him! Again! (Please, Subaru! Some [sic] back!) I squeezed my eyes shut, but… Damnit, it’s not working!That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. AED’s are not meant to restart a heart that’s flatlined. They are meant to correct arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythm) by interrupting the heart’s electrical pulses in the hope that it will reset itself to a stable pattern. That said, we obviously have no idea whether Subaru flatlined or if the shock simply messed up his heart’s rhythm. Chances are that he’s still going through arrythmia, so this is really their best chance to save him under conditions like these. Like my CPR instructor said, “If there’s no activity, then it probably won’t work, but hey, might as well try it anyway. Not like the situation could get any worse, right?” (No…!) (You… you said you wouldn’t die…) I opened my eyes and looked at him. Clearly we need a different type of movie miracle cure.  (The chances of his plan actually working out are almost zero, but he still did it, to save the rest of us!)Actually, early defib results in a pretty decent survival rate. Assuming he hasn’t flatlined, of course. In that case he’s probably hosed. (He just… threw his life away for us…) What’s wrong with you?! I appreciate this shot. Makes me think that’s Saki’s “What’s wrong with you?!” called down a bolt of lightning to revive Subaru. It took me a moment to realize the screaming voice I heard was my own. I… I apologize… Subaru! His eyes fluttered open. Are you okay?! I grabbed his hand and he gave me a weak smile.  I won’t… go down that easy. I… made a promise to you. That’s right. You can’t die. Relieved cheers filled the air from both sides of the screen. (Oh man… thank goodness…) When it had looked like he was really going to die, my heart had felt like it was about to crack in half. Everyone except you noticed that a while ago. I squeezed his hand tighter. There was nothing I could think of to say. Hey, Hogstein. I seem to recall you saying that the team that survived got to keep going, right? Wh-What?!To be fair to Hogstein, he also used the singular “team”, not “teams”.   I wonder how you say that aloud? Obviously it’s like a beep or something in audio, but I want to know how you would pronounce that random collection of symbols. With a click his incoherent angry ranting disappeared. drat… That was a real high-stakes bet there Detective, but I guess you weren’t bluffing. Sorry if I… made you worry… You’re alive now, that’s all I care about. God drat, man. Think maybe you took it a little too far there? Of all the… I don’t think I could handle such an ordeal a second time… Thank god… Subaru started to stand up, and I rushed to help him. All right… Final round, here we come! So that’s Excalibur? Seems like it. At that moment, Meoshi and his group came in through another door. Hey! That was a hell of a show, man. Are you feeling recovered? That’s probably the adrenaline from a near-death experience. You’ll want to be careful when that wears off. Are you serious?! We all laughed and grinned, happy to be together. This must be the last room. Take the sword, huh? Guess we better have a look at it, then. We headed up to the stone and the sword. Up close it was… big. Really big. Um… can we really get that thing out of there? Hmmm… I imagine there’s some sort of puzzle or mechanism in the stone, but…Yeah, you just need to turn it—  Hey, hold up. As we’d been examine, Mitarashi had just gone ahead and grabbed the sword. Did you find something? I thought this sword’d be way too heavy to move, but… I don’t think it is. …Yeah, you’re right. It did look heavy, but when Mitarashi put all his weight against the hilt, it moved a tiny bit. Maybe it we all pull at the same time it’ll come out.Well, yeah, but that would be brute forcing it. You all want to beat this thing by Hogstein’s rules just to stick it to him, right?  No way it’s that easy. Well, we won’t know if we don’t try. Oh, gently caress all of you. Over in Kimimaro’s route you were all gung ho about the drat spirit of competition or whatever the hell. We all arranged ourselves around the stone, grabbed the sword, and pulled. Whoa, it’s heavy…! Yeah, but… I think it’s moving! [Announcer]: Glorious Throne Room completed. What?! Seriously!? What could the puzzle have been here…? Nope. Definitely not that. We know for sure that there is a legit puzzle behind this. He probably never guessed that all seven of us would make it here somehow. Ha! Seriously? Oh man… He really should’ve planned it out better.If he did that then you’d all be dead. You realize that, right? Ha… Well drat. That was a little anticlimactic. Fine with me. I’ll take it. Dang… I feel kinda cheated. We were all grinning. And just like that, we were done with seven days of deadly games. Good work, team. Now we just have to corner the final boss. Let’s go! We made our way toward the door that shone with brilliant light. As soon as we found ourselves outside of the attraction, Hogstein began to speak. I could hear restrained anger in his voice. You have earned an audience with the magnificent Count Hogstein! Please make your way to Castle Hogstein. Then he hung up. Finally! I’ve been waiting for this fight all week! Yeah. Mitarashi’s excitement was infectious, and our steps sped up as we headed toward the entrance. The door swung open with a heavy creak. Keep your guard up. We don’t know what might be waiting for us in there. Right! Slowly, carefully, we stepped inside. (The cage… It’s gone!) All the hostages, including my uncle, had been in a huge cage in the middle of the room… Where had it gone?! You’ve defeated me totally and completely. I was enjoying being evil, but I guess it’s finally time to pay the piper. *Sniff* He looked dejected. Where are the hostages?! Oh, I let them go already. You beat the game. I didn’t have a choice. What?! Wait, really…? Sure enough, in the distance I could hear the faint sound of police sirens. Had they already heard the hostages had been released? That’s it, then. You’re free now. What’re you going to do? He charged toward Hogstein and we followed. But— Wh-What the hell?! A wall?!Of course. We’d slammed into a wall of glass that surrounded the pig’s throne. Damnit! Get out here and fight like a man! He slammed his fist into the glass, but it didn’t even shake. W-Wait! It’s been fun, but now I must bid you adieu! He leapt up from his throne, spun in place, and then disappeared through the curtains behind it. Ryusei, move! Yo, that’s an incredibly bad idea my man. Did you not receive any training on ricochet? Three shots rang out, and cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. My turn! Yaaaaaah! He slammed bodily into the glass and it shattered, dropping Mitarashi to the floor. Are you okay?! I’m fine! Just go get him! Roger. Come on, team! We leapt over the glass, and took off after Hogstein. Whipping through the curtains, we found ourselves in front of an elevator.I wonder what his exit strategy was? He’s at the top of a tower, so where is he going to go to slip away from the police? Is he planning on parachuting to safety? It only opened on this floor, and the very top of the castle. Currently it was on the top floor. We hit the call button. Hurry up, damnit! That’s what I’m saying! Really weird choice of emergency escape route. Hey, what’s the hold up?! Did you get hurt? Nah. Tweaked my old wound a bit, but if I don’t put my foot up that bastard’s rear end I’ll have nightmares about him! The elevator finally arrived, and we all piled into it.  He spun around, panicked. In his hand was a gun. Drop the weapon and put your hands behind your head! Hogstein’s only response was to point the gun at me. What? …! Noooo! As he cried out, I heard a gunshot. …?! With nowhere to run, I just stood there, frozen. It felt like time slowed down. A whole different sort of fear washed over me. (Huh… I thought it would hurt.) Was I in shock…? I opened my eyes. … Shidou’s gun was pointed at Hogstein, and as I watched the wind tugged a wisp of smoke from the end of it.Oh, poo poo! Good job, Subaru. Way to be quick on the trigger.  Nevermind, I take it back. You went for an incredibly risky shot by aiming at quite possibly the smallest target on Hogstein. That was a stupid thing to do. You should have aimed for the body and dropped him to be absolutely sure you neutralized the threat. I mean, his shot worked, but I give no props for luck. (Did Subaru save me…?) Suddenly my legs gave out, and I collapsed. You son of a—! He roared and leapt at Hogstein, driving his fist into the pig’s stomach, and throwing him to the ground. As he spoke, Subaru slapped handcuffs around Hogstein’s wrists. Why the hell are the police allowing reporters into a (still) active threat zone? Oh, now the police show up! Hogstein finally stopped struggling and slumped down, defeated.We all know that’s a piglet. Let’s not pretend that we’re going to find out who Hogstein really is this time. (It’s over…) Saki! Subaru! Before I knew what was happening he’d thrown his arms around me. Thank God you’re all right! M-Me too… But for, um, you… Indeed. Especially considering the rest of us have no one to embrace.You shut your face about “embrace”, mister. We all remember that super creepy hug you gave Saki in your route.  Man, this is lame… That was way too close. But hey, it worked out all right, didn’t it? We’re all alive! Yeah! We all look [sic] at one another and smiled. At long last, it was all over.Nah, not yet. I still have at least one more route to drag us all through.  I blinked my eyes open and stretched my arms up as far as I could. (It’s been three months, but sometimes I still think I’m in that hotel room when I wake up.) Which made a certain sort of sense. After all, it had been an intense week. Of course it would have left a lasting impression. Still, it had been three months… (Well, they left us alone after Subaru… talked to them.) Unfortunately, my uncle and the rest of the hostages hadn’t been so lucky, and I’d heard there were still TV vans parked outside of his house. (Wakasa’s gone back to his career, and I hear Meoshi picked up a part-time job. Urabe’s turned himself in… Mitarashi’s back to work, although I heard he’s been really getting into video games lately. Shirabe’s… well, he’s still running down leads.) In the end, the whole thing had remained a mystery. We did. Unfortunately, that piglet had been as ignorant of what was really going on as we were, and the real Hogstein had escaped. (Why did he do all of that to us? Who was he…?)Hopefully we’ll find that out in Shirabe’s route. It seemed like he must have been connected to the bus crash in some way, but how we’d never been able to determine. Later, Subaru had told us that the piglets all turned out to just be normal people. They had been hypnotized or something, and didn’t remember anything about what had happened. Oh jeez, look at the time! I need to hurry! I rushed through my morning routine, and dashed out of the house. Yeah… It’s pretty amazing they got the park back up and running at all. I heard your uncle had a big part in it. He must have put his nose to the grindstone to get it open again so soon. It’s not all open, though. They don’t know when they’re going to finish rebuilding the hospital and the Ferris wheel. We held hands as we walked through the park. Three months ago I’d never have guessed I’d be back… and with him. (It wasn’t all bad, though. I got to meet Subaru…) Oh, sorry. Could you hold on a minute? Sure. …Yeah, it’s me. Even off duty his phone was always going off. Although, as a police detective, in a way he was never really off duty. (Oh, he’s using the KANE DE BOO phone strap I gave him!) (He made such a big deal when I gave it to him, about how it was silly and he didn’t want to put it on his phone, but…)You just know that he gets a bunch of poo poo for that at the precinct. It made me feel warm inside to see it with him. …Yeah, I am off duty, but I’m busy. Talk to you later. He flipped his phone shut and stuffed it into his pockets. Let’s go. Are you sure? What about that phone call? What? Really? He works at night, so he gets bored during the day and calls me. Oh… Well, if he’s not doing anything… Don’t tell me you were thinking about inviting him. Why, would that be… bad? … He frowned. Yes. What? Why?! He’s a fine guy and all that, it’s just…This is a date, Saki. Take the hint. Man, it’s usually the guy that make a stupid suggestion like that. Just what? I don’t want to share you. …! He wove his fingers through mine. I want to spend as much time with you as I can. Just you. Just the two of us. You know? Yeah… I squeezed my hand back. Saki… Yeah? I love you. Ah…! It was just a whisper in my ear, but his words made me gasp. He grinned. I love you too. Good. I think we’re gonna have a great time today. Me too! Finished! That’s another route down. I’ll post Subaru’s bad ending a little later. This update took a long time to put together, so I just don’t have the energy to hammer out that last little bit. Besides, I should let people enjoy the happy endings at least a little bit before ruining the whole mood with alternate outcomes. Anyway, next time on the Sweet Fuse LP: We start the penultimate route of the game. Deadbeat Dad is the only bachelor left. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 13:15
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Psycho Knight posted:
This doesn't seem to be the right image. Anyways, one more route down! Honestly, this route was pretty good for the standards of this game. It's the first route I've enjoyed since Ryusei, with a love interest that was actually active and enjoyable, and the last game was actually quite neat in its stakes at least. I can't say I'm too hopeful of the guy that abandoned his child and nearly hit her, but hopefully he won't be as bad as the last time the game tried to get us to care for a genuinely terrible person.
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Jun 25, 2021 14:34
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Blaze Dragon posted:This doesn't seem to be the right image. Thanks for pointing that out. I think what might have happened is that I intended to put a screenshot in there but then changed my mind after. I'll need to get Saki's dialog from my recording and fill that in. Edit: Never mind, I just completely missed screenshot 92. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Jun 25, 2021 |
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Jun 25, 2021 14:38
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Psycho Knight posted:Update XLIII: The Right to Remain Adorable  Get a room you two!
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Jun 25, 2021 15:08
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Space Kablooey posted:
That CG does look particularly suggestive given the facial expressions and positioning. Also, I had no idea that was a smilie. I need to remember that one given the games I typically LP.
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Jun 26, 2021 13:35
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Huh, I thought the route with the cop would have had more story insights but we didn't learn anything we didn't know already. A bit disappointing. Well, the precinct didn't get to see him dressed as a furry but the phone strap probably gets some teasing at least.
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Jun 28, 2021 18:48
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FalloutFan56 posted:Huh, I thought the route with the cop would have had more story insights but we didn't learn anything we didn't know already. A bit disappointing. Well, the precinct didn't get to see him dressed as a furry but the phone strap probably gets some teasing at least. I think the reason why this was recommended as second to last is because Shidou’s route references pretty much everyone else's. If Shidou’s route was our first, then we would have learned Kouta/Towa/Ryuji/Kimimaro's backstory and secrets before ever going into their respective routes. In contrast, Ryuji's route didn't reveal why Kimimaro betrayed everyone, why Kouta is a shut-in, or what Towa's connection was to this game. But I do agree. I sort of expected a little more story and less summary of everyone else's route.
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Jun 28, 2021 19:04
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The lack of information in this route is a bit odd. Otome games with more than four routes usually backload the plot into two routes instead of just the last one. Normally, this would lead me to expect that a Hogstein secret route will unlock after finishing all the "open" routes, but I think that possibility might have been nixed earlier on in the thread? 
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Jun 28, 2021 20:17
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I do hope we get to date Hogstein
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Jun 28, 2021 21:23
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maybe there is no reveal, maybe every route ends just like that, buy the sequel to find out who hogstein really was!
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Jun 28, 2021 21:47
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Caught up to the thread. I heard about this game in passing and a defunct LP of this game. A lot more mediocre overall than I expected. The Urabe route on the other hand was all sorts of  “Huh, wonder what this guy’s deal is-Oh god I’m sorry I asked!”
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Jun 29, 2021 15:53
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Update XLIV: This is Saki Inafune, live on the scene for SFN This is it. The last of our six bachelor routes. Deadbeat Dad is the only one left, so like him or not, we’re diving in. Shirabe’s route was recommended as the last one, so at the very least here’s hoping that we get some major story revelations.  Our first unique Shirabe scene is at the end of Day 1 when everybody splits up before meeting back up at the restaurant. Instead of patching up Mitarashi or going to the arcade with Kouta, we’re going to explore the park with Shirabe. (I guess I’d get in the way if I went with Mitarashi, so maybe I should go help gather information.) Yeah, I guess. I just thought I should go find out what I can. Do you mind if I tag along? Sure. No skin off my back. We walked around the park, examining several different locations as best as we could in the dark, including the entrance and the Ferris Wheel. Hmm… All right, we’ve been to a couple different areas of the park now… He tapped his forehead with his finger.I have a feeling I should copy that line and save it somewhere, because it’s probably going to get used a lot in Ayumu’s route.  The entrance isn’t locked, so technically we could leave whenever we want. If the pig’s going to stick to his word, though, that’d kill the hostages. It looks like the whole place is being run by the piglets. No actual employees… The Ferris wheel’s been blown up. Whole thing’s a mess. Gosh… It’s really looking bad, isn’t it? Yeah. Seems like that little pork chop thought of everything. This is no crime of passion.Of course it isn’t. You don’t just spontaneously decide to dress up a bunch of people in interpretive dance costumes and rig a theme park with bombs. Unless you're the Joker, anyway. He shoved another snack into his mouth as he spoke. It didn’t look like we’d find much else, so we started back toward the restaurant. You, uh… you really know a lot of stuff, don’t you? Well, I mean, you kind of saved us a bunch of times today ‘cause you knew something. Glad to know all that junk isn’t just taking up space, I guess. (Huh? He seems kinda… depressed.) Oh, poo poo! It’s Cracky! Everyone’s favourite crack flavoured Pocky! …Want one? What? He fished the box of snacks out of his pocket and held it out toward me. Want one? Ah, um… (Should I really take one? I mean, candy from strangers and all that…)That only applies to children. Once you hit 17, strangers giving you free candy become sales reps giving you free samples. It’s totally fine to accept everything offered to you at that point. O-Okay, just one. Right. Make sure you enjoy it, all right?*Affection up* I didn’t really feel comfortable asking him what was wrong, so a snack would have to do. So you’ve just always got these ready to go? I’m pretty sure that saying generally refers to condoms, not chocolate cookie sticks. Also gun nuts love to trot it out for obvious reasons. Either way, I don’t think snack food was the intended item of critical value. Sure. We set off in the direction of the restaurant. You were pretty impressive yourself, you know. Huh? Your epiphanies— your insight. Particularly in that last room. The rest of us were all flying blind.Please tell me that this isn’t the thing about Saki that you get all weirdly obsessed with, like how Subaru had a brief stint of being entranced by the roundness of her head, or how Kimimaro got creepily attached to her… positivity, I guess? Mere existence? Anyway, my point is: watch yourself, mister.  You’re already on thin ice because of the nearly 15 year age gap. I think we’re gonna need that tomorrow. Oh! Well, I’ll be sure to try my best, then! (Man, it really feels nice to have someone tell you that you did a good job!) Before I noticed it, we were at the restaurant. And that’s all for this little segment. This line is technically new, but everything before and after it is stuff we’ve heard before. Strange. I guess it’s just there to point out how Saki was with Shirabe this time.  Shirabe! Yeah, I’m wide awake. Are you having trouble too? Hm, yeah, I guess you could say that. Came out here hoping they might have a newspaper… He held up a newspaper and shook his head. There’s nothing about what happened today, is there? No. Not a drat word. Well, it hasn’t even been a day yet…Exactly how fast do you think the news press works, Shirabe?  I wonder why…Because it only happened this morning! What, you think the news organizations got journalists down to this backwater theme park, wrote up a story, sent it to the editor, then the printers, fired off thousands of copies, and then got them distributed across the prefecture in 6 hours? Even if they did manage that, how the hell would they have gotten one of those copies here? Would Hogstein have sent one of the piglets out to the local FamilyMart? …Because I’d like to see that little excursion, actually. Probably a gag order. You saw the hostages. He frowned, and folded up the newspaper angrily. I thought maybe we’d be able to get something from the outside, but… I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There’s gotta be something in the morning paper. I hope so…Here’s a preview: “Crazy man in hog costume takes over theme park. Threatens to blow it up unless 6 random assholes play through the park’s death games. Park owner Keiji Inafune earlier quoted as saying ‘Well sure, the attractions could be fatally dangerous. But that’s why we put Do Not Touch signs on the controls!’”  … …Shirabe? He was staring straight ahead, the newspaper forgotten, as if something had suddenly occurred to him. (I know some people kind of drift off when they’re thinking hard… What should I do?) I decided it was best to just wait for him to… come back… but the longer I waited the clearer it got that he wasn’t likely to do that anytime soon. (…Uh-oh… I’m starting to get sleepy…) …Hey! Aah!  You all right? As the sleep cleared out of my head, I realized his face was very close to mine. (W-Wait, what…? What’s going on?)Have you ever had one of those moments? Where you pass out for like a minute or two and then when you wake up you think hours or even an entire day has passed? It’s a very surreal experience. I blinked, and he let out a relieved sigh. Huh…? Oh! Oh! I-I’m sorry! I scrambled back, away from him. (O-Oh man…!) Ha! Don’t sweat it. Just scoot on back to your room before you conk out again, okay?*Affection up* He gave me a pat on the head and I gave him a nervous sort of polite smile before running off, my cheeks burning.Wow, the sparks are already flying on this route. Is anybody else getting all hot and bothered by this weirdly parental attitude that Ayumu is taking towards Saki? (Oh gosh that was embarrassing…) At least it hadn’t seemed to bother him too much.Moving on to our next scene…  Oh! It’s time to go karting with Ayumu. I don’t think we’ve seen this perspective yet. Yeah! Let’s do it! (I just hope I don’t screw anything up!) That left Shidou with Meoshi, and Wakasa with Mitarashi.Shidou and Meoshi sounds like a fun combo, considering that Shidou is opposed to using any of the cool powerups and Meoshi is totally willing to use them. I climbed into my kart. *Skipping over the explanation of the kart controls and that Urabe will be driving by himself. We’ve heard that enough for one LP* All right then, let’s see what we can do! He gave me a grin and a conspiratorial wink. (He’s pretty good at looking like he doesn’t care…) I felt a little of my tension fade away. After all, if he was so relaxed, things couldn’t be that bad, right?What would ever lead you to draw that connection? Shirabe started up the engine and turned to me. Right. Got it. I’m counting on you, little lady. One of the piglets appeared at the starting platform with a flag. Then the signal turned green, and the race began. (Awesome, we’re in the lead group!) Shirabe didn’t seem much concerned about anything, humming loudly while he jerked the wheel back and forth. (Third place isn’t first, but it’s pretty good.) After a bit, he suddenly stopped humming and began to speak. Well, what do you say we try for first place?A novel idea.  S-Something’s wrong! What the hell?! Did something happen to our tires!? He was probably right: The kart had been fine a moment before, and now it was shaking like a leaf in the wind. It had to be our tires. drat… No choice, then. Let off on the gas. Right! Huh. Caltrops. What?! Shirabe grunted and got down on his knees to pull them out of the wheels. Why would there be caltrops on a racetrack…? Uh, on second thought, maybe now’s not the time. He let out a deep sigh. If we didn’t do something, we’d be lapped and all hope of winning would be lost. Fortunately, it turned out that the tires were thick, and hadn’t been punctured. It wasn’t long before we entered the second lap. What were caltrops doing on a racetrack…? Well… The only thing that makes sense is that someone put them there. Like putting a tack on your teacher’s chair, huh? He grumbled and jerked the wheel to the side. As he did, I heard a noise that could only be described as… odd. Wait… did you hear that? Hmm… I think it went off when I drove over one of those question marks. He twisted his head back to look at it. Oh, one of the buttons has a light next to it. I’d noticed the buttons at the start of the race, but I hadn’t really known what they meant. Do you think you could be a dear and press it in just— Right! Whoa! I hadn’t noticed that we were approaching the curve, and when the boost kicked in we shot forward, nearly flying off the track. Urgh—! Shirabe spun the wheel in the other direction, narrowly avoiding disaster. I-I’m sorry! I just pushed it! I didn’t think about it! No, my fault, I should have been more clear. I’m really, really sorry. I’ll pay more attention next time, I promise. Without Shirabe’s quick thinking, we would have gotten very badly hurt. I wiped cold sweat from my forehead, and turned my attention back to working the gas. So, it looks like one of these buttons here lights up when we pass one of those question marks on the track. Those caltrops must have been dropped by someone else’s kart. So these buttons are for items that mess with the other racers?Pretty sure Meoshi mentioned that, yes. So it would seem. Unfortunately, by now the lead cars were on their third and final lap, just as we were entering our own. Never give up! He jerked the wheel to the side, and our kart flew over a question mark. One of the buttons lit up! The… missile one. He thought for a moment.”How do I phrase this so that she doesn’t immediately slam the missile button before I can finish?”  I’ll push it this time. …Okay. Whoa! A missile flew out from under our kart, slamming into the one in front of us. Ha! Take that! The other kart suddenly slowed and careened off the track. That puts us in fourth. He grinned and punched the air. (I wonder why he pushed the button himself…)Weirdly enough, we get a choice here. We can ask Ayumu if it’s because he thought Saki would mess up again, or we can ask if he thinks Saki felt bad about messing up earlier.  No, not really. See, we didn’t know exactly what a missile might do, you know? What if turned [sic] out the things killed people? You’re too young to have that kind of mess on your conscience. Oh! I didn’t even think… Thank you! No worries little lady, but let’s save the heart-to-heart for after the race, what do you say? We’ve still got half a lap left.*Affection up* See? That’s the third-place kart in front of us. We’re coming up on the last straightaway. The race is about to get pretty intense. No sooner had Shirabe finished than the second-place kart let out an angry roar and sped up. They’d used their boost… The piglet kart kept accelerating until I thought it was going to pass Shidou and Meoshi, but— Aah! With a sudden “boom,” the piglets spun out, glancing off Shidou’s kart. Mitarashi shot by them, toward the finish line. drat! Shirabe shouted to me even as he began to turn the wheel. Stop the kart! Right! Are you guys okay? Their kart had stopped just short of the fence. Yeah… barely… I-I thought we were gonna die… Although alive and unhurt, they were both pale and shaken.[Announcer]: Victory! The announcer’s voice echoed across the track. Mitarashi and Wakasa’s victory was official. I couldn’t bring myself to feel happy about their victory. It was important for us to win, but… it didn’t seem right to hurt each other to make that happen. (But what do I know? Maybe if they hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have been able to win…)And then they all worked it out and became best friends, the end. Time to skip forward to Break Time 2.  Just as a reminder: Saki is referring to the fact that she catches him secretly meeting with someone on Night 2, while everyone else is at the restaurant. Hey Shirabe! Oh, hell there, little lady. Something the matter? No, not really. Just out enjoying the night air. A wise choice. The moon sure is beautiful tonight, isn’t she? He was right: The moon was huge and bright in the middle of the night sky.I already discussed the moon thing before. No need to repeat that. The mood in this scene is also far less romantic than in Shidou’s.  So… the moon helps you think? Indeed it does. Sometimes I’ll spend all night outside, going wherever my feet take me. Can’t do much of that on this boat, though… All night? Don’t you get cold? Well sure, but that helps too. Keeps me fresh! He grinned and fished around in his pocket for a minute before pulling out a box of snacks. …What in god’s name is that expression? I don’t remember him ever having this look before. Sure, thanks. I plucked one from the box and stuck it into my mouth, just like I’d seen him do. After a moment, I actually did feel like my head was starting to clear. (I should ask him about what I saw, but… It just doesn’t feel like the right time.) Stop giving us that look! I don’t like it! Huh? Oh, yeah, definitely! Heh. Good to know you understand.*Affection up* Shirabe laid down on the deck, and looked up at the sky. He seemed… happy. I followed suit and laid down next to him. Are those loving camo pants? Not only that, but there’s no belt or even belt loops. Are those camo sweatpants? Oh man, whatever opinion I had of you has taken a major nosedive. So yeah, Ayumu’s outfit apparently consists of some sort of camo sweatpants, a turtleneck sweater, and a peacoat. (The moon’s so bright…) We lay there for an hour or so, admiring the moon in silence. I never did manage to ask him about what he’d been doing at the statue.And that’s where the second break time event ends. Yes, that was a strange and abrupt way of ending that scene. I pulled back and grabbed Shirabe’s arm. This next scene is a very very brief one that happens right after the zombie encounter in the Bloodstained Hospital. There’s a CG involved, so we’ll stop for a look. (Oh no! My terror gauge!) I had to stop the alarm, but just thinking about it was making me even more scared. I could feel my heart hammering faster and faster at my chest. Calm down, little lady. It’s all right. He kept his voice at a whisper, and reached over to wrap his coat around my wrist. That oughta muffle the sound a bit, hm? Th-Thanks… When he’d reached around with his coat it had pressed my head up against his chest, and I could hear his heartbeat. His heartbeat was slow and calm, and his warmth was reassuring. Eventually my alarm slowed and stopped. There we go. Well done. Ah…! He tousled my hair, and I felt my heart speed up a bit. (I just can’t believe he could really be a traitor…)And that’s all.  As with everyone else’s route, Shirabe will be the one to come back for Saki during the escape from the hospital if you have been locked into his route. His helping Saki is very similar to Subaru and Ryuji, in that he will shield her from the explosions. Ayumu will make a brief mention that Mai was carried to safety by Ryuji, however. I think that’s the only time Mai’s safety is mentioned during the destruction of the hospital. (Who’d be visiting me this late?)Final break time event for the LP! Here we go! I opened the door to find… You’re up. Shirabe…? Is something wrong?! Don’t think so. Just wanted to say thanks. Thanks? For what? Oh, yeah… When we were talking about you and Hogstein. Correct. I’d gotten too wrapped up in my own head to see what was going on until you put the squeeze on me. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up right then, I was just kind of freaking out about stuff… What…? Yeah, I’m here to say thanks, but more than that I was worried. Last time I saw you, you looked like a puppy that just got kicked. Oh… The ticket to the future is always blank, but the past is… well, that ticket’s already punched. Shirabe… Anyway, the thrust of my lecture here is that we should focus what [sic] we can do, not what we didn’t or couldn’t. Don’t you think that’s what he would’ve wanted?Somebody please hold a mirror up to Ayumu’s face, because that advice is way more relevant to him than Saki right now. (He must be talking about Urabe…) Yeah, I guess you’re probably right. I mean, he saved us… Exactly! Couldn’t have said it better myself. Want one? Um… ”They” are lying assholes. It certainly isn’t doing jack for me, I tell you what. I took the snack he held out. It seems like you’re always chewing on one of these… Just how many have you got? He gave me a grin and a wink, then turned and walked off. (I’m glad he came by… I think I actually feel a little better.) And there we have it! That’s a wrap for the Common Route from the perspective of Shirabe’s route. Next time, we start finding out if his route will deliver on the promise of plot answers.
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Jun 30, 2021 14:08
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I'm actually enjoying Saki and Urabe's interactions so far, but I enjoy them from a big brother/paternal Urabe to a younger, far more naive Saki. I hate knowing this will become romantic because the sheer age difference is very off-putting.
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Jun 30, 2021 15:57
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Blaze Dragon posted:I'm actually enjoying Saki and Urabe's interactions so far, but I enjoy them from a big brother/paternal Urabe to a younger, far more naive Saki. I hate knowing this will become romantic because the sheer age difference is very off-putting. I think you mean Shirabe. Urabe is the super creepy one that hugged Saki like a serial killer. I agree, though. His interactions with Saki from a paternal/big brother perspective are sweet. He's supportive and offers praise, tries to teach her some life lessons, and is concerned for her without being as much of a White Knight as Subaru is. But he's also not going to be a brother/parental figure. Like you said, this is a romance game. The only way his route ends is with Saki becoming Mai's new mom. The fact that the age between Saki and Ayumu is likely greater than the age difference between Saki and Mai is kind of creepy. Not sure how other people feel about it, but I usually stick to the Half+7 thing when it comes to dating age range. Saki doesn't pass that in regards to Ayumu. She's very nearly half his age.
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Jul 1, 2021 14:33
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Yeah, them hanging out is sweet as long as I can hang onto my insistent internal belief that this is a friendship route, and that it's all about Shirabe becoming more comfortable with a paternal role so that he can bond better with his own daughter. Just let me pull the wool over my eyes and ignore reality. I mean, he's constantly calling her 'little lady' and pointing out how young she is...
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Jul 1, 2021 19:03
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Pretty much everyone in the thread has already said it but I like the parental figure vibe we have so far. Shame it's about to get weird once it becomes romantic.
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Jul 3, 2021 05:36
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Out of curiosity, what was the bad end to Subaru's route? Or are you saving it for the very end?
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Jul 3, 2021 13:57
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FalloutFan56 posted:Pretty much everyone in the thread has already said it but I like the parental figure vibe we have so far. Shame it's about to get weird once it becomes romantic. Yeah. Every time I do one of these dating sims, there's always 1 character out of the batch where the people in the thread go "This route would have been so much better if it was a friend/brother/parental figure dynamic." Torri in Conception II and Tarua in Conception PLUS were like that. Mecca-Benghazi posted:Out of curiosity, what was the bad end to Subaru's route? Or are you saving it for the very end? Oh, sorry. I completely forgot about that. I'll do up a formal thing for it when I get the chance, but the gist of it is: Subaru hesitates when Hogstein aims at Saki, but Kouta manages to come out of nowhere and push her aside before she gets shot. Mitarashi then gets in there and tackles Hogstein. When Saki checks in on Subaru, he is having a slight mental breakdown and is muttering about freezing again (implied to be how his partner ended up getting killed that one time). He then wanders off somewhere on his own. In the "Where are they now?" portion, Saki goes over all the same stuff from the good ending, except that she mentions she hasn't heard from Subaru since that day. There's a flashback where Saki tries to reassure him about him freezing up by saying that it can happen to anyone. Subaru replies that it didn't happen to Kouta, however. He then says that he doesn't deserve to be with her. Saki is a little sad about remembering that, and she figures that Subaru feels as though he failed her and him being around her just reminds him of that failure. She says that she still cares for him, but that she also respects how he feels and doesn't want to hurt him more than he already is. Saki then admits that even if she knew what to do about the situation, actually doing it would be difficult. She then turns her attention to trying to cheer up and mentions how she plans to go back to the theme park with Mitarashi, Wakasa, and Meoshi because they are worried about her. So it's pretty much what you would expect from a cop character. When it came down to life or death, Subaru couldn't get himself to act, and that makes him feel like a failure. His thought process is likely that if something dangerous happened to Saki as a result of his line of work, he wouldn't be able to protect her. So rather than risk putting her in danger, he decides to distance himself from her. gegi posted:Yeah, them hanging out is sweet as long as I can hang onto my insistent internal belief that this is a friendship route, and that it's all about Shirabe becoming more comfortable with a paternal role so that he can bond better with his own daughter. Just let me pull the wool over my eyes and ignore reality. If you want to keep the wool over your eyes, then I'd recommend being mindful once we get to Stage 6 or 7. That's usually when the kissing stuff happens. The 'little lady' thing doesn't bother me too much by itself, but what I take issue with is how often he says it. It feels like he is saying it every paragraph or two when he's talking to her. I just wish that he would give it a bit of a rest. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Jul 3, 2021 |
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Jul 3, 2021 15:46
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Update XLV: Kick! Punch! It’s all in the mind So close. So very close.  Not that I’m anxiously awaiting the end of this or anything. [???]: …Hey… (…?)[???]: …Hey, Saki. (Who is that…?) I wanted to wake up, but my eyes refused to open. I was starting to get frustrated when suddenly I noticed the smell. (That’s nice… Sort of like… lemons…?) I couldn’t quite place it, and then it was gone, as I drifted deeper into sleep. I blinked as I realized the sun was already up. Was that a dream…? (Oh jeez, I’m so out of it I can’t tell dreams from reality. I need to pull myself together! All right… Yesterday, the Bloodstained Hospital blew up.) Shirabe had protected me from the explosion. (I think he twisted his ankle, though…) I hope he’s okay… Mitarashi had gotten injured too, trying to save Wakasa.Yeah, but Mitarashi is always getting injured. It’s not really something worth noting anymore. You kind of just assume he’s always hurt. (And now Urabe’s missing…) I shuddered as I thought about what had happened. Strap in for this route, by the way. I think we’re about to hear Mai’s name mentioned more times in this update than in all other updates so far combined. She’d come to sleep with me, in fact, but… Wait… Mai? She’d been there when I went to sleep, but now she was gone. Maybe she’s in the bathroom… When she didn’t come out, I started to get a little more worried. I looked everywhere in the room, but she was nowhere to be found. Huh. Maybe she went to Shirabe’s room? (You know, I should go check on him. I’m worried about his ankle…) I quickly washed my face and was about to leave when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Coming! (Huh, I wonder who that is?) Please reduce the number of times you call her that by like 50%, at least. It’s a teensy bit grating. Oh, good morning! How are you feeling? Does it hurt? Sure. (Where’s Mai, though?) I’d thought she must have gone back to Shirabe, but here he was, and she was nowhere to be seen. Is Mai still sleeping? Huh? W-Well, I only just woke up, and she isn’t in my room. I thought she’d gone over to yours, but… No, she didn’t… Then where is she?! Wait, are you saying she’s missing?! We stared at one another for a long moment. I couldn’t think of any reason why Mai would have disappeared.She’s a child. Children don’t need reasons to disappear. They just do it sometimes. Let’s go to Mitarashi’s first. The others are probably there already. R-Right. (Gosh darn it, Mai! Where are you?!) You guys worried about me too? Y-Yeah… How are you feeling? Fine. This is nothing. Good, good.Yup. Cool, cool. Sooo…. anyone here happen to see Mai anywhere? Just curious. He seemed much better than I’d thought, so I started to look around the room for Mai. …But she wasn’t there. (Where is she…?)Ask someone! Jesus, neither of you seem especially concerned by her disappearance. The first thing out of your mouths when you entered the room should have been “Has anyone seen Mai!” Hey, did Mai come by here? What? No, she hasn’t. What about the rest of you? Have you seen Mai anywhere? Me either. Did something happen? Well… it looks like she’s disappeared. What…? When I woke up she was just gone. I thought she might be with Shirabe, but… Shirabe’s face twitched. I’m going to the lobby. I’ll come with you! Shirabe was already out the door when I spoke, but I chased after him. Um, we wanted to ask you guys something… …? Have you seen my daughter?! Mai! Have you seen her?! The piglets waved their hands around. What? … …! Arg… I don’t understand what you’re saying! You keep talking to them. I’m going to go check out the rest of the ship. He stormed out of the lobby. (I can’t really blame him, I’d be worried too…) We’re looking for Mai, the girl who came here with us yesterday. She’s gone missing. Have you seen her? … …! Uh, are you saying she hasn’t been in the lobby? …! I see. Nothing, huh…? With a little patience, I realized, it wasn’t that hard to interpret their seemingly random gestures. (Unfortunately, they don’t seem to know anything.) Not really. They haven’t seen her. Huh. I looked everywhere I could think of, but… nothing. Oh no… Where could she be? Hey, did you find Mai? Oh! They must have been worried too, although Mitarashi’s injuries appeared to have kept him confined to his room. No, she’s not around here, and the piglets don’t seem to know anything. Right, good idea. Sorry for the trouble. With that, we split up and started to look. Hm… I guess I might as well search my room again. (Maybe I missed something…) It’s a hotel room, not an entire house. Yeah, okay. Good point. Ready? As I’ll ever be. Are you here, Mai? Say something if you can hear us. But there was no response, and when we searched the room we found nothing. I guess I was right the first time… We even looked in the closet and underneath the bed. Mai was nowhere to be found. I checked the bathroom, nothing there. Hm… (Jeez, where did she go?)I dunno, but I hope we figure it out soon. I don’t want 50% of this update to be “Where’s Mai?” said in every possible way imaginable. Any chance you remember anything strange or something? Hm… I thought back. Okay… Then I went back to sleep… Oh, well, I did have a weird dream this morning where someone was calling my name, and something smelled like… lemons… Lemons? Yeah. Well, I think so. I was half asleep. It could have just been a dream…Oh, right. We don’t yet know who that was that was calling to Saki, by the way. Your first assumption would be Mai, but Saki identifies the voice as male. (I should have tried harder to wake up! Then maybe Mai would still be here…) Shirabe shook his head. Not your fault. But… Don’t sweat it, little lady. Let’s get back to the lobby. We aren’t the only people looking for Mai right now. Maybe the others turned something up. Okay! How did it go? I checked the other rooms, but didn’t find any sign of her. Nothing out on the deck either. drat… Shirabe frowned. (Poor guy, he’s gotta be worried sick.) The only one left is Meoshi. Almost as if on cue, Meoshi appeared. Any luck? …I found this near the ramp. Huh…? What is this? I think it’s a candy wrapper. What? I looked at it closer. Oh! It is! I saw Mai eating this yesterday. Are you sure?! Yeah, she gave me one. I totally remember it. You found this near the ramp, huh? But what would she be doing there? That doesn’t make any sense… Yeah, we only use that when we get off the boat. And the boat only docks at specific times, or so I thought. Unless… do you think Hogstein docked the boat while we were asleep? *The screen shakes slowly* Whoa… looks like it’s that time of the day again. I ran to the window and looked out. Wakasa was right. …! …! I think he’s telling us to get off. …Today’s game is starting. No…! What are we going to do? …Yes, you’re right. We have to go… Um… what about Mitarashi? He’s not in any condition to be out running through a theme park. I told him to take the day off. Unfortunately he wasn’t very happy about it, but he saw reason eventually. Oh… Then we’d be short two members, Urabe and Mitarashi, and Mai was who-knew-where… (I don’t like it, but I guess we have to get off the boat.) All right, let’s go. On our way to the plaza, we passed the Bloodstained Hospital— or at least what was left of it. Instead of a building, now there was just a blackened crater. Every one of us stopped involuntarily. This is awful… Now that we were looking at it in the daylight, we could see the real extent of the devastation. Whoa… That was a serious bomb, huh? If Urabe hadn’t saved us… We wouldn’t be standing here, that’s for sure.Just imagine where you’d be if he didn’t put you in danger in the first place! I hadn’t realized until that moment just how close we’d come to dying, and suddenly it felt hard to swallow. Uh, guys, I think hanging around here is just gonna be depressing and stuff. Can we go? You’re right. Come on. …Okay. But just as we were about to leave, Shirabe stopped us. What’s wrong? Sorry, but I think I need to split off. I have to go look for Mai. Shirabe… He must be really worried about her… …All by yourself? Yeah. I’ll be fine. Just go beat that game and don’t worry about me. … No. We should let him look for his daughter. You… really? Yesterday she managed to wander into the hospital. If something like that happens again, she could… Well, it would be bad. Wakasa’s eyes widened. Oh! Oh yeah, oh man, I hadn’t even thought of that… He can go. That’s fine with me. Sorry, guys. He turned away to leave, but as he did I saw him wobble. I watched him more closely, and realized he was favoring his left leg. (His ankle must still be bothering him…) Did he really intend to search the entire park like that…? (Shirabe’s not the only one worried about Mai…) Obvious choice. Shirabe, let me come with you. What for? Something wrong? Um, well, you’re kind of limping. I’m just worried about you. He shook his head.*Affection up* Appreciate the sentiment, but if we both drop out that only leaves three people to beat today’s game.And since today’s game is Moonlight OX, that would practically be a death sentence. But… Heading into this that shorthanded would be suicide. You go with them. But… Oh, don’t give me that look. You really think this’ll slow me down? I’ll find Mai before you get back. Okay, okay… I know this isn’t ideal, but I appreciate all of you being so understanding. Go kick some rear end, okay? Don’t worry about the game. Thanks. I’ll meet up with you once I find her. With a last nod, he turned and walked off. The game would be starting soon. Even so, I couldn’t help but worry about Shirabe and Mai. (I wonder if he’s okay… It looked like his ankle still really hurt.) His voice echoed across the plaza, scattering my thoughts. You’re going to have to make do with just us. I want you to approve the temporary withdrawal of the missing parties. Oh ho… Very well. I approve! Oink! What? That seemed too easy…  Guh…! Wha… How did you know all that? Oh please. I know everything that goes on in my park. What… Just the thought of it sent shivers down my spine. (I want to go help look for her, but I can’t just abandon everyone else…) I frowned. (What should I do…?)[???]: Hey! Better late than never, right?! What…? You! Mitarashi! Yo. Apparently he was not resting back at the hotel. What are you doing here?! He was obviously nowhere near healthy— The whole front of his shirt was soaked with sweat. A-Are you okay?! You’re sweating like crazy! We couldn’t find her in the hotel. Shirabe is out looking for her right now. Looks like I made the right decision then. Time to man up and power through! Pain is weakness leaving the body, right?!Sure. You could put it that way. You could also say it’s the body’s way of trying to escape from an insane person that is clearly going to kill themselves. Shidou sighed and clapped Mitarashi on the shoulder, but didn’t notice when the other man winced. Normally right now I’d be calling you an idiot and demanding you go back to the hotel. You are an idiot, but… Honestly, we could really use your help. No sweat, man. Leave it to me. They nodded to one another, then turned to me. Inafune. Y-Yes? Go help Shirabe. What? Really? Are you sure? …Right. Thank you! I turned and took off. There was no time to waste. (But… where’s Shirabe? I need to find him first!) Hey. What’s going on? Why are you calling me? Mitarashi showed up, so they sent me off to help you looked [sic] for Mai. What…? God, that idiot. He’s going to get himself killed… Where are you? I can come to you. Thanks. I’m over at Bazaar Planet. I’ll wait for you at the entrance. Um… where’s that? It’s the shopping area near the main gate. Got it. Be there in a few minutes! Thanks. All right… I gotta hurry! …And he was waiting near the entrance. Shirabe! Hey there, little lady. How’s your ankle? I can walk well enough. Don’t worry about me. Okay. So… why are we starting here? Yeah, but… the lights are off in most of them. True, but look at all of ‘em. There’s a chance one or two are open, right?Uh, no? Why the gently caress would any of them be open unless there was a game taking place there? Do you think Hogstein is staffing them in the off chance that one of you wants to do some gift shopping in the middle of his revenge death game? He looked over toward the shops and rubbed his chin. Oh… Hogstein knew about Mai disappearing. What?! Then we need to hurry. She might be in real danger. Right. We started to look for a store that a little girl would like. What about that one over there? Let’s have a look. Unfortunately its lights weren’t on, although they were pretty cute. Hm… There were plenty of stores, but none of them seemed to be open. Maaaaaaaai! If you’re here, say something! We called out to her as we walked, but didn’t get any response. Wait, is this… What’s wrong? This is from the candy that Mai had. Then… do you think she might have come this way? I’d say it’s a good bet! And look— the lights are on in this one! Inside I could see a piglet standing behind the counter. Oh dear lord, he actually is staffing the stores in the off chance that one of these people he is trying to kill wants to buy something. I stood back up, and we headed inside. … The piglet shook its head. Shirabe had been examining the candy in the store, but now he stomped up to the piglet. It seems we have forgotten about one of Hogstein’s main rules: Do not harm the piglets. Honestly, though, who cares? We could probably murder one of them at this point and get off the hook scot-free by having Saki shout at Hogstein a little bit. …! …! But all the piglet did was shake its head. (They’re usually so cooperative… Why is this one acting like this?) Shirabe… Yeah, I know. Something’s up. We left the piglet alone, and started looking around the inside of the store. Mai! Are you here?! Where are you, Mai?! We looked everywhere, but she was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, Shirabe turned on the piglet again. …! It only shook its head vigorously. Damnit… Hogstein’s keeping them quiet, isn’t he? Quieter than usual, I mean. Maybe… It doesn’t look like we’re going to get anything out of him, though. With nothing else left to try, we headed out of the store.*Fade-to-black wipe transition*  Does she like games? Ah, well… honestly, I don’t know. What? But, I mean, don’t all kids like that stuff? Oh, uh, well, I guess so, but… (You know, we didn’t come here because he said Mai liked shopping or something, he just said he figured a kid might like it. Does he really know so little about his own daughter…?)Pretty sure that’s been established. You… don’t really know her that well, do you? He gave me a sad nod. Oh… (Well, that’s his business, not mine. I shouldn’t be so nosy.) But then he smiled.*Affection up*  Well, I’m glad I can help! We’ll find her in no time. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure we will.*Another transition* Huh…? As we neared the path to the next attraction, though, I noticed a whiff of a familiar smell. Something wrong? I… think I recognize this smell… It was faint, but it was definitely lemony. (Yeah… I remember it from my dream!) Smell…? Yeah, like lemons? I got a whiff of it this morning when I kind of half woke up. I looked down the path we were next to, and Shirabe followed my gaze. Yep. Let’s follow the scent! We headed out of Bazaar Planet toward the path, but… As soon as we left the shops, the smell disappeared. Huh? It’s gone… Hm. Well, all the shops kept it kind of closed in. Maybe that was why it didn’t dissipate? Maybe… You’re pretty sure it came from down here, right? Let’s just keep going. Okay. (I wonder what that smell was…) Whatever it was, it seemed like it was important.*We fade wipe transition again for reasons only the developers know* …Hey. Yes? I was a little surprised when Shirabe pulled me out of my thoughts. ”We need to fit this in somewhere. Might as well do it here for poorly explained reasons.” (Yeah… I really don’t know anything about him, do I?) I had to admit, I was pretty curious. Sure, go ahead. Well, actually, I guess it’s not really about me, it’s about Mai… Shirabe thought for a minute, and then started to talk. Ah, yes. Classic cause of death for anime women. Having a baby despite it clearly not being safe for them to do so. There’s such a thing as birth control, people! And if you just have to have a kid, then there are hundreds of millions of orphans worldwide who would probably be overjoyed to have some parents. Oh… Hey, don’t be like that. It’s the past. It’s done. Okay… Anyway, Mai doesn’t even remember her— she was too young when she died. I wanted to raise her myself, but… The kind of reporting I do can get into some… shady parts of the world, and every so often someone gets a bug up their rear end and threatens me or my family.You know what I’m hearing? An awful lot of excuses for being a deadbeat dad. Oh jeez… really? Did that happen? Yeah. Mai was fine, but… it made me realize she wasn’t safe with me. I asked my wife’s parents to look after her. (Oh, so that’s why she wasn’t living with him…) That was quite a while ago, and I’m so busy that I don’t get to see her much… And when I do, I never know what to talk about.Okay, listen for a second here… maybe if your job is causing this much trouble for you and your family then you should consider a career change? The only livelihood Shirabe has to support is his own. It sounds like his in-laws are very supportive people considering that they were willing to take on and raise their granddaughter. I’m pretty sure they would be willing to help him out if he took some time to find a safer job. He was what, 23-26 years old when Mai was born? That is far from being too old to revaluate your direction in life. I’m Shirabe’s age now and I’m in the process of doing just that. I figured he was so attached to his journalism thing because his wife died under mysterious circumstances or something. That seemed to be what they were angling at initially. But now it just looks like he values his work more than his daughter. … It seemed like she was bigger every time I went to visit, and pretty quick she was turning into this little person that I didn’t know. And now I feel like I can’t even talk to her, and here I am not even knowing what she likes… Don’t you loving dare start with that. This is not a case of girls being “hard”, this is you being an absentee father. I would be way more sympathetic to this guy if he was like “I had to raise Mai by myself. I had to keep working in order to be able to provide for her.” But that’s not what happened. He dumped her off with the in-laws and occasionally decided to stick his head in the door to make sure she still existed. Shirabe… (He looks so sad… I feel like I should say something…)Ugh… Don’t beat yourself up so much! You’re family, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. …You really think so?Nope! That’s going to end up being Saki’s job, seeing as how we’re on your route. I nodded. Yeah, I do. Family means you’ve always got something in common. Besides, look at how worried you are about her. You really care about Mai, and she’ll be able to see that. You might feel awkward now, but that’ll go away. Man, you know, the way you say that I almost feel like I believe you.*Affection up* Just so we’re clear: The “non-affection point” option back there was along the lines of “You really need to see your daughter more often.” “You’ll figure it out” is the good choice. He gave me a shy sort of grin. Ha… Never thought a kid’d cheer me up like that. (A kid…) From his point of view I probably was just a kid, but… Please don’t draw attention to the romance subplot. This whole conversation has just made me realize that there’s only two ways this route ends (well, other than the bad ending I guess): 1. Saki takes over as Mai’s mom and Shirabe essentially gets to keep being an absent father. 2. Saki takes over as Mai’s mom and Shirabe makes more time for family… meaning that he has always had the power to do that but simply chose not to because it was hard. Something wrong, little lady? Oh, no, nothing. Just hoping we find Mai soon… You and me both. (Right. Mai is our first priority. Time to get back on track.) It looked like half of the building had collapsed, and in front was a huge stone with a sword in it. This is… Round Table Colosseum Knights IV. That was what it said on the sign, at least. Colosseum, huh? That’s a little ominous… We haven’t been to this one yet. Do you think Mai’s in here? He looked up at the attraction and tapped his forehead with one finger. King Arthur? Yeah. He’s sort of a mythic figure, a king of England who famously seated his knights at a round table to show that they were all equal. I see… They are some other theories about how he got Excalibur, though. Some legends say it was actually given to him by the lady of the lake… But whatever the case, it was said that King Arthur wore the sword from the day he got it until the day he died.Except for the time when it was broken by Pellinore. Although he got another sword also called Excalibur from the lady of the lake afterward, so I guess that’s still technically true? (Gosh, he wasn’t kidding when he said he talks when he’s stressed.) Still, there was no denying that his knowledge was impressive. How do you know so much about… everything?Internet. You’d be surprised how many useless factoids you pick up just from random browsing. The nature of my work, I guess.Bullshit. I’d love to know at what point in your work as a journalist in Japan that you spoke with a scholar of Arthurian legend, or a historian of Troy, or… well, I was going to say an avid reader of Alice in Wonderland, but Japan seems to love that so I guess it’s not that unbelievable. You need to know all that to write articles? Well, if I just write down what I get from an interview, it feels kind of shallow. You have to know something about the subject so you can add your insight. Oh, huh… Besides… Shirabe trailed off, and I looked up to see him staring off into the distance. (Is he remembering something…?) Before I could think about it too much, though, I noticed something much more immediate. Oh…! What is it? The smell! It’s back! What?! The lemons?! Yeah. I think Mai might be here! Maybe… Huh? What’s wrong? You’re right! Almost as if it was trying to lure us in… All right, let’s go!
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Jul 9, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 13:31
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 The seats were empty, but there was a large screen in the middle of a circular cage. This… It really is a colosseum… It’s Hogstein! His voice filled the chamber as he spoke. Buuuuut I’m going to assume you just got lost and somehow found yourself here, so if you leave immediately I won’t punish you for it. You bastard… what did you do with Mai?! “Do with Mai”? Whatever could you be talking about?[??? (Even though it’s clearly Mai)]: Hey, piggy, can I eat this one too? Mai?! Hey you! Be quiet![??? (Even though it’s clearly Mai)]: Huh? But why?  Shirabe was practically shaking with impotent anger. *Sigh* Well, I guess now you’ve caught me… He explained that Mai had been an unexpected guest, but that he had no intentions of being anything other than “a gentleman.” I believe this, because Hogstein has been almost totally ineffective at harming anyone for this entire playthrough even though he is supposedly trying to. Shirabe ground his teeth. Why did you kidnap Mai?! …I just wanted her to know what kind of person her father was. What? …! (What is he talking about…?) I didn’t remember hearing him say anything about interviewing grieving families… I will personally guarantee Mai Shirabe’s safety. On the seventh day she will be returned to you, unharmed. If you’ve got a problem with me, amigo, you keep it between us! Let Mai go! She doesn’t have anything to do with this! What a coincidence that the daughter of a man who used family tragedy to benefit himself would end up here… Truly, this must be a miracle straight from God!Things got suddenly more interesting in Shirabe’s route. Rrrgh! I bet the stakes are a little higher for you now, eh? Oh, this should make things exciting!” (What a jerk! There’s no way he’s actually going to give Mai back. And what’s the deal with saying that he’s going to use her to manipulate Shirabe?! That’s awful! But the worst is acting like her being here is some kind of blessing. It’s anything but that!)Getting mad because the thread demands it. What’s wrong with you?! His apology seemed almost instinctive. Don’t be such a selfish jerk! Give Mai back to her father! I-I told you I’d give her back at the end of the seven days, didn’t I? Isn’t that enough?! Shirabe spat. Whaaaat? C’mon, what’re you talking about? Stuff it, Pork Chop. I know what you’re up to. You know how many cults I’ve seen pull this same schtick? Your piglets aren’t anything new. Only takes one look to see that each one of those poor bastards has you in his head somewhere. … I bet you have some sort of directive telling them not to talk, but to help us otherwise. …Am I wrong?Nice job, Detective Conan…  I think I used that one already, now that I think about it. … There was a long moment of silence before Hogstein spoke. I really can’t let my guard down around you, can I? If I’m not careful, you just might figure out who I am. You’re dangerous. It’s looking more and more like taking your daughter was a wise decision. Goddamnit you bastard, give her back! You’re hiding in the back with her, right?! He started to walk toward the door in the back of the room. And since I’ll have to improvise, there’s a pretty good chance it might not be… up to code. Oink oink oink! …I’m saying you could die.Isn’t that the case with all of these games? Shirabe looked at me, and I nodded. (If this is what we have to do to get Mai back, then I’m going too!) Then start it up. We’re coming in. Determination! I like it! Then you can consider this extra-special bonus round started as of… now! There is no time limit. The prize for winning is Mai Shirabe herself. But if you lose… I’ll be taking your lives! And with that, he hung up. Oh jeez… We have to beat the whole thing with just two of us?! I swallowed. It was… daunting. Sorry, little lady. You don’t have a dog in this fight, but I got you tied up in it anyway. No, it’s okay… Now come on, we can’t let him beat us! Let’s do this! I gave him a big smile. …Thanks. Let’s go get her back, together! Yeah, you’re right… Thanks. He smiled, and I thought maybe some of the tension had eased out of his shoulders. (Good…) The door in the back opened with a slow creak. They’re here… Are we going to have to… fight them…? … Neither piglet said anything, of course, but one climbed up on the stage, and tossed over what he’d been carrying. These are… gloves? And shin guards? They gave us two pairs. I guess we’re supposed to put them on? …! The piglet nodded. Do you know how? Stop lying, Saki. You’ve never thrown a punch in your life. You have to pull the strings pretty tight, or it’ll come off later. …All right, you’re good. Thanks. With the gloves and shin guards on, we looked like boxers. Both piglets had already put on their gear. …! The one on the stage beckoned for us to come up and join him. He sighed and climbed up onto the stage. Are you going to be okay? Yeah, don’t worry. I won’t let ‘em hurt you. Thanks… and good luck! Yeah. There was no announcement or buzzer— it just started. It looked like Hogstein really was rushing things.Or he’s just being a dick. Shirabe and the piglet settled into their fighting stances and faced one another. All right, let’s see what you got, buddy. (Does he have experience boxing…?) …! They kept their distance from one another and circled around the stage for several long moments before the piglet charged forward with a jab. Hnn… Shirabe dodged lightly out of the way, and countered with a punch of his own. The piglet was too quick to get hit with the full force of the blow, but Shirabe’s attack grazed its arm.*The screen flashes* Whoa! …! The piglet arched its back and collapsed to the floor. That sounded like electricity… Are you okay? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, but… I barely even touched him… He looked down at the gloves. There must be more to these than meets the eye. Like what? … The piglet shook its head slowly, and clambered back to its feet. It looked a little shaky, but clearly wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Shirabe carefully kept his distance and watched for an opening. Take this! His fist slammed into the piglet’s face. Its head snapped back, and it fell backward onto the stage. Yes! … What’s the matter? Had enough already? The piglet didn’t respond. Is… is it dead…? Then you won! Looks like it. Easier than I thought, actually… That was amazing! I didn’t know you knew how to box! All I really know are some basics, though. As we were talking, the second piglet had climbed up on the stage. So, you’re next, huh? Bring it on. Instead of keeping its distance, like the other piglet had done, this one rushed straight toward Shirabe. …! It dodged his attack, then kicked out at him.*The screen flashes* Gah! Oh no! Urgh… completely forgot about the shin guards. Don’t usually kick people in boxing…You do in kickboxing! Are you okay?! Yeah… yeah, I can’t afford to let this bastard put me down. He climbed a little shakily to his feet. Although now I know why the other one went down so quick… Each hit electrocutes you. Just a few and you’re burnt toast. Wh-What?! He turned to face the piglet again and dropped into a fighting stance. But his footwork wasn’t quite as impressive as before. He seemed to be favoring his left leg… (That’s where he got hurt yesterday… Did he twist it again when he fell down?) The piglet noticed it too, and began to relentlessly attack Shirabe’s bad leg. drat… Damnit…! …! Every punch Shirabe threw, the piglet easily dodged. Gah! Another kick connected, and he fell to the floor. Shirabe! Nnngh… Damnit… this isn’t… over yet…! No, stop! He’s going to kill you! Shirabe climbed to his feet again, but by now he looked like he was struggling to stay upright. (I know he wants to save Mai, but he’s going to get himself killed!) He was too slow now to even try to avoid the piglet’s attacks, and another kick slammed into his leg. Hrrgh! …! This time he didn’t get up. The piglet didn’t stand down, though. Please, you have to stop! … …! The piglet turned, and gestured for me to get up on the stage. (So, if I fight… and beat him…) But Shirabe actually had training as a boxer, and he’d been beaten. How could I possibly do anything?Luck? It’s been on your side so far. (That doesn’t matter, I have to try! If we lose here, we’ll never get Mai back!) I stood up straight and climbed onto the stage. B-Bring it on. … (Like… like this? Oh jeez…)  Sweep the leg! I’d never been in a fight before— in any kind of fight… (But if we lose here, then it’s all over. I have to protect Shirabe and get Mai back! You can do this, Saki!) The piglet seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to attack. I wasn’t sure why— I couldn’t have been more full of openings if I’d been Swiss cheese. (What should I do…?)There’s a choice here, but it doesn’t particularly matter. Not like Saki is going to suddenly become a martial arts master. (Well, if I can get around behind him…) Unfortunately he turned as I moved, and I realized I really should have thought things out a little better.That’s why you’re circling. You’re supposed to be using this time to think about an attack plan. (There has to be an opening for me somewhere…) If the piglet attacked me, it would be all over. I had to be careful, very care— Ah! (Dang it!) I’d tripped over, of all things, Shirabe’s unconscious body. …! The piglet decided that was his opening.*The screen flashes* Aaaah! Nnngh… I could barely move, and my whole body stung. Around the edge of my vision, the world was starting to darken. The piglet didn’t seem to be in the mood for mercy, though. I could see it walking toward me… (No… no! I can’t pass out now!) If that happens, it’s game over. Then Mai… (I… I have to do something…) I tried to move my arms, but they refused. …! (Is… is this it? Is this the end…?)*The screen flashes*  Then I heard the sound of arcing electricity. Huh…? The piglet that had been standing over me collapsed. What the… Shirabe! His hands were wrapped around the piglet’s ankles. That was you…? Yeah… Don’t think that’d be a… legal move… But I couldn’t let him hit you again. The piglet wasn’t moving. Looks like we did it… I… guess… Hm? Hey! You okay?! Good… Well, at least she held out. It wasn’t a pretty win, but we’ll take it. That does it for Stage 4. We got a hint as to something a little sinister in Shirabe’s past and we found out that Mai was apparently lured away to Hogstein’s Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 13:32
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Psycho Knight posted:
Good question. I think you did most things to yourself though. (this should be "do with Mai"). quote:
This one should be Shirabe, not Shidou, unless he teleported into an entirely different game. Also hoo boy all of that backstory really does not paint Shirabe in a nice light. Saki telling him he should spend some time with his daughter for a change should be the right choice, he needs to realize that he has a role as a parent but holy poo poo is he unwilling to do so. Hogstein calling him out on him not knowing his daughter at all, and apparently having some dark stuff he doesn't want to talk about, is pretty interesting though, I wonder where that's going.
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Jul 8, 2021 15:06
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Psycho Knight posted:
Missing a [sic] here? This should be Shirabe here, unless we can hear Subaru grunting from across the park. For the plot itself I didn't think Shirabe could have looked worse than he already does in the other routes, but they did it. I guess I can give him credit for not cutting and running the moment he dumped Mai on her grandparents, but he really needed to try harder, yeah. e;f;b;
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Jul 8, 2021 15:09
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Blaze Dragon posted:Good question. I think you did most things to yourself though. (this should be "do with Mai"). Space Kablooey posted:Missing a [sic] here? Fixed. Thanks for catching those. I mean, compared to the first appearance of Mai where he nearly belted her across the face/head, this segment at least shows that he cares for her. But it's still difficult to sympathize with him when his chief excuse is "My job eats up a lot of my time, so I passed my kid off on the in-laws." This route is also not doing wonders for his late wife, in my opinion. If she had always been frail or sickly, then she should have known there was a good chance she could die from giving birth. If Mai was planned, then she looks nearly as bad as Ayumu for risking her life while knowing that her husband would not be able to raise the child alone in the event that she lost her coin flip to the Reaper. If Mai was unplanned, then Ayumu looks even worse for not using protection. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 15:20
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I've never been able to figure out how to quote just a section from a long post, but there's this bit from Saki that might be a typo? "Now that we were looking at it in the daylight, we could see the real extend of the devastation." Should be "extent" or maybe a "sic" if the text is off doing its usual mistake routine. On the subject of Mai's mom, sometimes perfectly healthy people have a rough recovery from pregnancy. Or she could have been sickly, but not the kind of chronic illness that would discourage going through pregnancy. But, yanno, law of anime dictates we gotta have at least one deceased parent and all that. Like you said Psycho Knight, Shirabe would be a more sympathetic character if he had been raising Mai by himself, with his wife's parents doing intermittent babysitting while he worked. It's not even like he's working a job with long hours and high pay so that he can save up for if Mai wanted to go to college or something. Or even just to work hard for several years before retiring early. At least then I could see some excuse for "I've lost track of the days and somehow my baby has turned into a toddler and whoops now she's a child."
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Jul 9, 2021 01:01
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Kobanya posted:I've never been able to figure out how to quote just a section from a long post, but there's this bit from Saki that might be a typo? Maybe there is an easier way, but I usually just hit the quote button on the post and then highlight+delete everything before and after the section I want to quote. Admittedly this is a bigger pain when on tablet or phone compared to PC. As for the error, thanks for pointing it out. That one is probably on me. I usually take notice when the game makes a typo because it messes up my transcription rhythm. I'll fix it now. I know that healthy people sometimes can't handle it. I'm mostly basing my complaints on the fact that Shirabe said his wife had always been frail. I would be a lot more understanding if they had omitted that part and simply turned it into a case of a woman who never could have foreseen dying from child birth. As it is written, it comes off like someone with a history of illness or tenuous health deciding to needlessly risk their life.
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Jul 9, 2021 02:52
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Update XLVI: I Understood That Reference …Unnn… Where am I…? Hey, you’re up. Shirabe…? I blinked and looked over at him, and then everything came rushing back. (That’s right… I was fighting that piglet, and it hit me, and then I passed out…)Yeah, you were a real lightweight in that fight. OHKO? Come on, Saki. Don’t be a scrub. My gloves had been removed, and Shirabe had taken off his coat and laid it over me. We… we won, right? Yeah, we did. He nodded firmly. I tried to get up, but when I did my joints screamed in pain. Whoa there, little lady. Maybe you shouldn’t be running around just yet. Okay… I owe you an apology, I think. I said I’d keep you safe, but then I let all this happen… Oh come on, don’t be like that. Like what? We’re both safe now, and that’s what matters. Besides, you did keep me safe. If you hadn’t stopped the guy when you did… That goes both ways, you know. Then it was a victory won by both of us. …Yeah, I guess you’re right. He gave me a small, tight smile. Oh… how long has it been? Is Mai…? Huh… yeah, I guess you’re right. It didn’t feel right to try and go back to sleep, so I sat up and handed Shirabe’s jacket back to him. Thank you for the coat. It was very warm. Yeah? Good to hear. I checked my phone, and realized the day was already over. …It’s past midnight… Yeah. Oh, looks like Shidou tried to call me a couple times… (He probably got worried when we never showed up.) They were probably all worried about is, in fact. I should call them back and let everyone know we’re safe— Oh… right. Until we’d beaten the game, we could only talk to each other. You just focus on resting up for now. Who knows what other hoops he’s going to make us jump through. You’re right.*Transition!* We sat quietly at the corner of the stage for a while. Shirabe had said he felt restless, but it didn’t take long for him to quiet down and close his eyes. Um… Shirabe? What’s up? Ah. Yes… that. Curious, I take it?Just a little. Yeah… Well, I’ve got you in this deep. I guess you have a right to know. I’d like to, if that’s okay. He nodded, and rubbed his forehead. This all happened right at the beginning of my career. It was about twelve years ago. A bus and a car collided in Kanedo, and just about everyone involved died, including a friend of mine. (He sounds like an awesome guy…) The whole thing was odd right from the start. See, the bus had jumped the center divider for no apparent reason to collide with the car, which was on the other side of the road. Then the bus turned over, and both vehicles caught on fire. Huh… Well, that shoots down my hypothesis that Hogstein’s father was Shirabe’s mentor. Or I guess it could shoot down the hypothesis that Hogstein’s family is the flashback family (the one’s in the car). So… they both…? …Yeah. Anyway, the cops decided it was an accident, and not something more malicious. …But I think they’re wrong. What do you mean? When it happened, my friend was going after some pretty dirty guys. This is presumably the illegal poo poo that Urabe’s father was up to. Sure, maybe it was just a unfortunate coincidence, but… what if it wasn’t?Do you have any proof other than speculation? Hell, Urabe outright told us that his dad ordered a hit on that journalist and I still don’t understand how he engineered it. He somehow got some poor dope to play chicken with a bus and hope that it would blink first? And that would, through a stroke of pure luck, result in it jumping a divider, colliding with an oncoming car, and killing every person on board? That’s some Agent 47 poo poo. …! I couldn’t get that thought out of my head, so I’ve spent the last twelve years trying to get to the bottom of it. Have you found anything? No. Dead end after dead end. What? Really? But you know what? That just means I’m right. There is something going on. And I’ve gotten in some real scrapes trying to figure out what.Ah, yes. The absence of any solid evidence means that your guessing and speculation must be correct. It just means that the proof did exist at one point but doesn’t anymore, which is in itself proof! Eventually they paid off, and I got my hands on a document that said there had been a single eyewitness.This was Kouta. Once I’d read through it, I was more convinced than ever that the crash was no accident— someone had been trying to shut my friend up. Then I heard from someone who called himself “M2.” And that’s why you were here? Yeah. I figure it must seem kinda crazy to you to be chasing after the same thing for twelve years.I mean, I can understand wanting to get to the bottom of a mysterious death involving a good friend. Can’t say I would ditch the newborn child my wife had died to give birth to in order to do it, though. But I guess my priorities are just a tad different from Shirabe’s. But it’s like… the longer I’m at it, the more I need to know the truth. At this point, I don’t think I could give it up even if I wanted to.That is what most people would call “addiction.” And like most addictions, it is incredibly self-destructive and also harmful to the people closest to you. Like your daughter. Oh… (Twelve years…? That’s dedication.) And it all started with the death of his friend… I couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard that must have been.Not as hard as caring for a child, apparently. (He seems kind of lonely sometimes… I wonder if that’s why?)You know what would help ease loneliness? Spending time with your daughter. No, I will never let this go. I will hold this over Shirabe the exact same way I hold attempted murder over the head of Urabe. I didn’t know what to say. He held out one of his snacks, and as I looked at it I realized I hadn’t eaten in over a day. Yeah, thanks. We ate his snacks until we felt a little more full.*Wipe transition!*  He grabbed both pairs of gloves and stood up. Well, I think I’m going to go have a look around. Oh, I’ll go with you. Can you stand? Yeah, I’m all better now. I windmilled my arms and did a few stretches to make sure, but everything seemed to be in order. I still hurt a bit, but I figured I could handle it. Shirabe and I split up to investigate the colosseum.*Another wipe transition!* Looks like this is our only way out. It didn’t take us long to meet up at the door the piglets had come through, which was unlocked. All right. Let’s go! (I need to be careful or I might trip.) Almost as if he’d read my mind, Shirabe held out his hand. Here. What…? You might trip. Give me your hand. Wait, you want to… hold hands…?There’s a choice here. No idea why, but it’s there. The “correct” choice is “A-Are you sure…?”, which actually translates into: O-Okay, i-if you really think that’s the best i-idea…Jesus, Saki. He’s touching your hand, not slipping a ring on it. Calm down. Ha, I guess you are getting to that age, huh?*Affection up* He laughed. I’m conflicted here. On the one hand: gently caress you, Shirabe. 32 is not “old”. You’re still 15 years out from midlife crisis age for god’s sake. On the other hand: There is a 14-year age gap between the two of you and Saki is only a teenager. Probably a good thing to try and talk some sense into her hormones. You’re getting all nervous for nothing. He smiled, and took my hand. It felt warm… He guided me carefully through the darkness of the hallway. (I just feel kind of… safe with him…) My hands felt cozy inside his, and for some reason my heart began to beat faster. (What’s going on with me…?) Something wrong? N-No, nothing. Okay… He gripped my hand tight as we descended further into the darkness. After several long minutes in the pitch black hallway, we came out into a large room. The only lights were trained on a circular stage in the center of the room. This place feels a little different, but I think it’s an arena, just like the first one. See? They’re waiting for us. … On the stage were more piglets, each one already wearing gloves and shin guards. …There are three of them this time. Yeah. The piglets gestured for us to get up on the stage. But we only barely won last time… We were both still pretty exhausted, too. Things weren’t looking good. …! …! The piglets made a series of confrontational gestures. Shirabe sighed, and helped me put my gloves on. Ah, right. I was thinking about these gloves… I think they only put out a shock when you’re up on the stage. Nothing happened when I took yours off earlier, remember?Okay? What’s your point? It’s not like you can leave the stage. We saw in the last route that that results in a ring out. Huh… So once we get up there, we need to make sure we don’t touch each other, just to be safe. Don’t want to knock me out, right? Okay… I’ll be careful.*Wipe transition!* We nodded at one another and climbed up onto the stage. Just like before, the fight started in silence. Right! Shirabe moved in front of me, and dropped into a fighting stance. … The piglets circled around us and began closing in. (There’s nowhere for us to go!) Before long, they’d herded us into a single corner of the stage. Yah! He tossed out a feint at one of the piglets— But they dodged it easily with a quick side-step. Shirabe threw out several more punches. None of them hit, but when one of the piglets took a larger step to dodge, another piglet moved out of the way. (…What was that?) It looked like the piglet had been trying to avoid touching his companion.Uh, yes? You generally don’t want to be shoulder-to-shoulder with your partner during a fight. How is that a weird move? I started watching them more closely, and realized that they seemed to be watching one another closely to keep their distance. (Wait… could it…) This seems unnecessary. Then again, when has that ever stopped this game? (Why are the piglets avoiding each other…? Shirabe and I need to remember not to touch each other’s gloves. Three against one is a lot to handle, even for Shirabe, especially when we have to be careful not to touch each other. The piglets have surrounded us and force us into a corner! But even though they totally have the upper hand, they’re not attacking, and they keep watching each other for some reason. Like, when one of them dodged Shirabe, another one dodged that one… If we’re going to survive this match, I have to figure this out!) That sure was a brain tingler. (Of course! We aren’t the only ones who have to be careful about not touching each other! The piglets can shock their buddies too!) Shirabe… I kept my voice at a whisper. Is something wrong? Why didn’t I see it?! Good job, little lady. Now on the count of three I want you to book it to the right. I’m going to go left. Got it? Uh… Three! …?! Just as Shirabe had likely planned, our sudden movement caught the piglets by surprise. He didn’t waste the opening. The moment he’d flanked them, he spun around, lowered himself into a tackling stance, and charged. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! One of the piglets reacted in time to throw out a kick, nicking Shirabe on the shoulder. Gah! But momentum was on his side, and Shirabe barreled into the piglet that had attacked him like a freight train. …! The impact threw it into the other two piglets, and they collapsed like sparking dominos.*The screen flashes* … They didn’t move. We… we did it…*And then Shirabe drops like a rock* Oh no! I ran over to Shirabe and he collapsed to the stage. Are you okay!? I quickly pulled off my gloves and shin guards, and grabbed Shirabe’s shoulder. Yeah, yeah, they got in one hit but this is… nothing… Nothing?! You’re hurt! Come on, you need to lay down! I gently stopped him from trying to get up, and laid his head down on my lap.Is it okay for him to be touching himself with his own glove? That seems like something you wouldn’t test. Haaa… He let out a long, relieved sigh. Yeah… Kinda thought we were done for there. We both smiled. Sss…! Then suddenly his face twisted in pain. What’s wrong?! N-Nothing, just… hurts a little. That’s all. I saw his hand shake as he pressed it to his leg. (Wait…) Sorry about this. Before he could protest, I reached down and pulled his boot off. …!  (Is this the injury he got at the hospital? Oh my gosh…)Dude, you couldn’t have put an ice pack or something on that? I’d noticed him favoring the leg during the first fight, but I’d never imagined… How on Earth were you walking on… on this…? You can’t do this to yourself! Suddenly I felt like crying. (I can’t believe he’s been like this the whole time, and never said anything…)   Oh Keiji Inafune, you sneaky little scamp.The “Don’t explain the joke” spoiler: Keiji Inafune was also the producer for Dead Rising. The main character (who is also a freelance journalist), Frank West, has a famous quote near the start of the first game where he says “I’ve covered wars, you know” as a means to try and back up his claimed skills in the face of being trapped in a zombie outbreak. But my point here is that if things had gone pear-shaped earlier, then you’d have been in a pretty bad way, and I apologize for that. I’m real sorry for dragging you into this mess. …You’ve been apologizing to me since yesterday. …Huh? Stop doing that. Please. What are you saying? It was my decision to come help you. … He stared at me for several long seconds, his mouth twisted in a sort of surprised grin. drat, I guess they make high school kids pretty mature these days, huh? Almost felt like I was talking to an adult there. He he. Really? Yeah. You kinda threw me for a loop, little lady. I smiled to myself. (Well, it sure is nice to feel like he thinks I’m not just a kid.)There are a lot of people in the thread who disagree with that and would rather you stay in the kid category and out of the “girlfriend/wife” category. It looks like those piglets were it, so I think we can take break here for a bit. Good, good. I… think that might be wise. He let out a relaxed sigh, and twined his fingers together over his chest.*Wipe transition! …Again!*  Huh? The story I’ve been after for twelve years. Hogstein brought it up when he was talking about telling Mai “what kind of person her father was”. Oh, right…  Thank you, game. That scene happened like 10 minutes ago in actual gameplay time. We had almost forgotten it. It was a real mess, that’s for sure. In fact, that was when I decided to go freelance. His face looked tight as he spoke. What do you mean? Not all of them, of course. I couldn’t find a few people, but I tracked down as many of them as I could. At some point during all that, I had a sort of… revelation, I guess you could say. You mean a bus accident? Those happen all the time across the world. I don’t care how compelling the story you wrote is, the world is definitely going to forget about it after a few months. Hell, Towa forgot about it and he was a survivor of said bus accident. So I gathered up all the facts and interviews that I’d collected, and put them together into one hell of a story. Shirabe’s mouth thinned into a line. …But things didn’t work out quite the way I’d hoped. What? Why not? My boss thought my article was boring.To be fair, he would be right. I can’t imagine a story about a bus accident attributed to the driver’s medical condition would have drawn much attention. Not in the age of the internet, at least. He wanted me to throw in some wild speculation; exaggerate— anything that would make it more sensational. Something people would talk about. That’s horrible! drat right, and I refused. These people had already suffered enough. I wasn’t going to use them just to get my boss’s readership riled up.And yet you did use them in an attempt to benefit your career. You can sugar coat it all you want by claiming that it was for them and the memory of their lost loved ones, but the fact remains that you needlessly dragged their painful memories back out into the open months or even years after the event so that you could package it into a story for the local news.  No… He changed everything— even put words in the mouths of people I’d interviewed. Turned it into something even a supermarket gossip rag wouldn’t publish.You may be surprised to hear (as I was) that this is totally something that an editor can do. Obviously they don’t usually make such drastic changes, but there’s apparently nothing standing in their way in terms of laws or anything that can stop them from mangling a writer’s work and still publishing it under their name. Granted, it’s incredibly stupid of Shirabe’s boss to have altered quotes from people that were interviewed. You run a real risk of defamation cropping up by doing that. …Then when it got out, it blew up. People were furious. That’s awful… Since the article still had my name on it, I got bags of hate mail, mostly from the families I’d talked to. Any credibility I’d managed to build up was gone, just like that. All I had left was a mailbox full of guilt, and the knowledge that I’d failed my story. That’s why you became a freelancer? Yeah. I couldn’t go back to the weasels who’d corrupted my words, but I couldn’t let go of my passion for journalism either. Wow… I had no idea… From his reaction, the look on my face must have been kind of strange. (I…)*Choice here* No, no, it wasn’t boring at all. In fact, I’m glad you told me. I like knowing more about you. That so? Yeah. Well, I admit I’m a little surprised you actually thought it was interesting. Can you blame me? You’re a mystery! Listening to your story was like reading a really good book. I’m… kinda hoping you’ll tell me more. Are you pulling my leg…? Although, I guess I’ve never really told anyone about this stuff before.*Affection up* Have to admit, feels pretty nice to finally get it off my chest. (That’s good to hear…) Oh, that reminds me… What, something wrong? Oh. Ha, yeah, I guess you did. Sorry, I— ah! He smacked his forehead, and I couldn’t help but grin. He he he. No more apologies from either of us, okay? We don’t have anything to apologize for. …You’re right. He scratched at his head and coughed awkwardly. Well, uh, we should probably be getting’ a move on. He climbed to his feet on his own, but still looked a little unsteady. Are you gonna be okay? I’d better. Mai’s waiting for me. I nodded, and we headed for the next room. In the back of it was a throne, in front of which was a stone with a large sword stuck in it. On the throne… was Mai.”Kneel before your Queen!  ” Mai! We ran up to her. Hi! She grinned when she noticed us. Are you okay? Did Hogstein do anything to you? …Hog’s tine…? She looked at us, confused. (Pink…? I didn’t think Hogstein was wearing pink…) There was definitely something strange there, but Shirabe didn’t seem concerned with it. What else did you do?! King…? What are you talking about? She seemed happy, and it looked like Hogstein had treated her well, just like he’d said he would. It sounded like they’d just been playing until we arrived.Calling it now: He treated Mai so well because she reminds him of his late sister. This is also the real reason why he didn’t force the group to take her along during the games. Mai… are you saying you went with this guy because he said he’d give you some candy? He was frowning. Um… Mai’s smile had started to waiver, and she looked over at me, then back at Shirabe. So I guess this means that Hogstein boarded the ship and broke into Saki’s room while she was asleep. Creepy. I bet he did! Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing before you ran off? Uh, Shirabe… I tapped him on the shoulder, and he sighed. Um… He looked like he was honestly at a loss. (Well, um…)*Another choice* Just give her a hug.”And that’s when I punch her, right?” God, I’m so full of memes today. I need to have that looked at. …What? A hug. A nice, strong, friendly hug. O-Okay… He looked confused, but wrapped his arms around her anyway. Daddy…? I’m just glad you’re safe, kiddo. Mai hugged him back, at least as much as her tiny arms could manage. …I’m sorry, Daddy. Did I do something bad…? You know what, never mind. What matters is that you’re okay.”But seriously, don’t follow strangers that offer you candy and claim to be my friend.” Shirabe gave me a wink over Mai’s shoulder.*Affection up*  I smiled back. Well, well. I didn’t think you’d make it this far, honestly. Probably should’ve taken your little girl back to my castle… I almost jumped as Hogstein’s voice blared out of speakers somewhere above our heads. You! Fine! I accept your victory. I now release Mai Shirabe to you as an exceedingly generous reward. Then with a click he was gone. Hooray! *Sigh* Looks like we did it, although I’m not quite sure how. I’m just glad we got Mai back! I-I’m happy you’re here! Almost on cue, the door leading outside slid open with a heavy, grinding noise. Well, time we headed back to the others, I guess. Right!
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Jul 17, 2021 16:53
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By the standards of this game, that's not a bad transition towards getting them more friendly with each other and offering up at least the vague possibility of her having romantic thoughts. It works better than some of the routes we've read.
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Jul 17, 2021 18:58
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gegi posted:By the standards of this game, that's not a bad transition towards getting them more friendly with each other and offering up at least the vague possibility of her having romantic thoughts. It works better than some of the routes we've read. On the Saki/Shirabe end, there's a lot of weirdness involved in Saki (as a teenager) being willing to go along with sleeping in the same bed as a 32-year old widowed father, even when you take into account the fact it's to make his daughter feel more comfortable. Saki has known Shirabe for less than a week. EDIT: Ignore everything above. I had a gigantic brain fart and completely forgot that I had to divide this into 2 updates. I'm talking about events that haven't occurred yet. 
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Jul 21, 2021 |
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Jul 18, 2021 12:53
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The fact that Shirabe's big dark backstory is that someone else wrote a fake, exaggerated story under his name is pretty lame. I expected him having done something genuinely wrong, maybe pushed people too hard to give him info against their will, but no, he's completely clean. Beyond the whole "really bad parent" thing which the game actually does still remember, but he's making progress there at least.
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Jul 20, 2021 02:37
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Blaze Dragon posted:The fact that Shirabe's big dark backstory is that someone else wrote a fake, exaggerated story under his name is pretty lame. I expected him having done something genuinely wrong, maybe pushed people too hard to give him info against their will, but no, he's completely clean. Beyond the whole "really bad parent" thing which the game actually does still remember, but he's making progress there at least. It is definitely a cop-out. It's basically the game trying to pass the buck and lay all the blame entirely on Shirabe's big jerk evil capitalist boss. But the thing is, as I pointed out in the update, Shirabe is still a dick for chasing after grieving families in order to write up an exposé based on speculation and heresy. Even if Shirabe's "boring" article was published and didn't end up offending anyone, Hogstein's criticism of him exploiting the grief of others for person gain is still perfectly valid. It's not like Shirabe was planning on publishing that story anonymously or anything. He was going to have his name signed to it and it was going to become part of his portfolio as a journalist. If his original article had been published and blew up in a positive way, there's no arguing he would have personally benefitted greatly from it. To me, his whole thing about "I didn't want the families' losses to be forgotten" comes off as him trying to justify his line of work. I really want Hogstein to attack that part of Shirabe's reasoning, but we all know that it's not going to happen. Hogstein is just going to find out that Shirabe didn't really write that article and that his anger was all based on a big mistake or some crap like that. The reason this bugs me so much is that we've already seen the game attempt to rehabilitate the image of a criminal to the point that they become a viable love interest again. If the game can justify to itself having an ending where Saki hooks up with Urabe, the possibly insane man who intended on killing a bunch of people for purely personal reasons, then having Shirabe be someone who engaged in some morally questionable work as a journalist should not require a hard backpaddling.
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Jul 20, 2021 17:08
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Note: For those of you that read my reply comment to gegi and was wondering what drugs I managed to score that had me babbling so much nonsense... I had a massive brain fart and completely forgot that I had to divide this into 2 updates. I was ranting about events that the thread will only see in this update. Update XLVII: Crazy Wall  It’s only four. They’re probably still in the middle of today’s game. Oh… I hope they do okay… I wouldn’t sweat it. What do you say we take a little time off while we wait? I’d say that sounds pretty good! We can’t go back to the hotel yet, though… What should we do? Hm… He he! Your stomach’s making noises! Ha! Maybe it’s trying to tell us something. I’m pretty hungry too… In fact, I hadn’t had anything to eat since that snack with Shirabe in the colosseum. Well, then I’d say our only option is the restaurant. Agreed? Agreed! Let’s go! Hooray! Let’s eat! The restaurant was open, and the “staff” was there, but nobody seemed to be cooking. Are you guys not open yet? … The piglets shook their heads apologetically. I guess they’re not ready. What should we do now? Can’t blame them, I guess. We are a little early for dinner. Daddy… where’s the food? Ha… Well, honestly I’m not sure, kiddo. So do we just wait here…? Give me a second. What are they doing…? Do you want to go take a peek? Yeah! We headed over toward where Shirabe had gone. He was… looking around inside a fridge. He plucked ingredients out of the fridge as he mumbled, stacking them deftly on the counter next to him. It looks like he’s going to cook… …He can cook?”Sure! He had lots of time to learn with you out of the way.” I think we’re about to find out. (He sure doesn’t look like someone who’d know how to cook…) I started to rethink my assumption, though, as I watched him. He was far from delicate, but there was no denying he did know what he was going. Before long a delicious aroma started to waft out of the wok he was cooking in. Whoa… that smells really good! Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? Let’s go wait for him back at the table. Okay! Bon appetit, ladies! He dropped a mountainous plate of fried rice onto the table, followed by a bowl of hearty soup. Oh my gosh, this looks delicious! Good job, Daddy! I felt my stomach growl as Shirabe scooped out servings of rice and soup for each of us. Thanks, Shirabe! Thanks, Daddy! Ha ha! Well, dig in! I took a bit of the rice first. It wasn’t too stick or too dry, and the seasoning was perfect. Do you like it? It’s amazing! All this is amazing! I had no idea you could cook! He rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. The seasoning is incredible, it’s just the right amount… I feel like I could eat this forever! Your food is awesome, Daddy! Shirabe broke into a wide smile. I’m real glad to hear that, Mai. Here, have some more. Chez Shirabe is an all-you-can-eat establishment. Yaaaaay! Mai was shoveling fried rice into her mouth so fast she could barely breathe. (I wonder if they like the same stuff, since they’re family and all…)Judging by the way she acts and dresses, I’d say Sweet Fuse comes down firmly on the side of nature over nurture, so that’s probably the case. You eat too! Eat! Right, right. Shirabe nodded and fell to eating his own rice.”fell to eating”? (If they spend more time together, hopefully they’ll get to know each other better…) That would be nice, anyway.*Text noise* Oh! I got a text…? Something wrong? No… It’s from my uncle!  But if they are bad, my advice to you is not to think about whether or not you can do something— just think about doing it. However hard things get, just keep pushing forward and I know you’ll succeed. I hope that you will never stop trying.Force ghost Keiji Inafune’s advice has really gone downhill as the game has gone on. I read through his message again, and felt his encouragement wash away my exhaustion. No matter what happened, I wouldn’t give up! Your uncle sounds like a pretty great guy. He nodded as I read what Uncle Keiji had sent me. And… send! (Oh man… I kinda said some really nice things about Shirabe, didn’t I…?) Hm? Something up? Oh! No, nothing! Um… shouldn’t the game have ended by now? Yeah. I wonder how they’re doing? Then the restaurant’s door opened. You’re ba— Urabe! He was soaking wet, and appeared to be unconscious. Whoa, are you guys okay?! They seemed just as surprised to see us. How did you get all these bruises? You look awful. Are you saying he took Mai? It seems like it, but he didn’t hurt her or anything. She’s fine. What about you guys? How did you find Urabe…? Urabe was the… prize, I guess you could say, of the last game we played. Somewhat similar to yours, I suppose. Is he okay…? He’s breathing, and his pulse is steady. He should come around in a while, but as you can see he’s soaking wet… Not only that, but his face was very pale, and it looked like he was shivering. If we don’t do something, he could catch a cold— or, poo poo, maybe even pneumonia. Can you turn on the heater?Your friendly old-wives-tale reminder that cold weather/being wet does not cause colds or stuff like pneumonia. At most, cold temperature just reduces the effectiveness of your immune system (and that’s a tenuous link). But there still needs to be some bacteria or germs around to infect you with. Your body doesn’t just decide to go “Hey lads, we’ve been -5 for a while. Fire up the pneumonia maker and brew us a pot!” The bigger concern for Urabe would be hypothermia. …! The piglet nodded and ran off. A few seconds later I felt the restaurant begin to warm up. The piglet returned with an armload of towels that he handed off to Wakasa. … …! I guess we can dry him off with these? He dumped the towels down on the table in front of him. …! …! The piglet scratched his head in an embarrassed sort of way, and scuttled back into the kitchen. We should get him out of these clothes, too. Right. Let’s get ‘em off, then dry him and wrap him up. I can give you a hand. They set to work pulling Urabe’s sopping clothes off, and I quickly turned around.Please don’t use the word “sopping”. Some people hate the word “moist”, but “sopping” is far worse in my mind. Aaah! Give me some warning next time! No need to panic, little lady. …I can’t look?When you’re older. Th-There’s nothing over there you need to see! Now come on! I hustled Mai a few tables away, and remained properly ignorant until they had finished wrapping Urabe up. All right, he’s decent now.That’s heavily debatable, but I know what you actually meant. O-Okay. I turned around and saw Urabe laid across a couple chairs, wrapped in numerous towels. …He looks like a mummy. Any reason for that intense expression, Kouta? Mai, you shouldn’t say things like that. We still had some time until the hotel arrived, so we decided to stay at the restaurant while Urabe warmed up.*Transition wipe!* After everyone had relaxed a bit and finished their dinner, Shirabe began to talk. Right, I remember you mentioning it, but you didn’t give any details. So what was it? It has to do with a bus crash twelve years ago… For the next few minutes, Shirabe repeated everything he’d told me. How the police had decided the crash was an accident that had been caused by the driver’s condition… How he’d become convinced that it wasn’t just an accident… As I watched, eyes widened and mouths gaped all around the table. The Kanedo bus crash…? Shidou was the most surprised. I’m pretty sure that was confirmed in Subaru’s route. If not, then we definitely already figured it out based on clues. What did you old man have to do with it? This is something we’ve known since Ryuji’s route. Your parents?! What the hell is going on here…? Could it really just be a coincidence that Shirabe, Shidou, and Mitarashi all had a connection to the same bus crash? I think we need to compare notes here, maybe then we can get a picture of the whole thing. Shidou, you want to go first? Sure. But that case was his greatest regret. What do you mean? At the time he was one of several detectives assigned to the case, so he’d gone out to interview witnesses and the families of the deceased. But just as their investigation was ramping up, the brass shut the whole thing down. Every chance he got, he’d bring it up… Presumably this was the result of Urabe’s father pulling some strings with some corrupt cops? Still want to know how he managed to orchestrate this though. What?! He died regretting never getting to the truth… In fact, that’s probably why he drank himself to death.Your dad must have had some pre-existing mental health concerns that this case brought to a head, because if not, then man… he was definitely not prepared for crime scene investigation. So you became a detective so you could make things right for your old man? I wouldn’t go that far but… yes, something like that. Shirabe grunted and scratched at his beard. All right, your turn Mitarashi. What can you tell us? Well, when I was still in elementary school my parents died in that crash. My dad was a journalist for some magazine. He was always chasing down some story, so we didn’t really see a lot of him at home.And yet, he still managed to make some time for you, since you told Saki in your route about looking forward to hearing him tell you stories as a kid. Anyway, that day my parents had gone out to have some fun because he knew work was going to be getting crazy in the next few weeks… Then on the way home the bus jumped the divider and… well, that was it. Wait, did you say he worked for a magazine?! Yeah. Why? What the hell are you mumbling about? Oh, just… I don’t suppose you knew a journalist who went by Susumu Kishiya? Wh-What?! But… but why the hell aren’t you a Kishiya?! After my parents died, my mom’s mom took me in. Just started going by “Mitarashi” after that. My God… What’s going on here? Yes, it all makes sense now… You’re his son! Ha!  Wh-What the hell?! Okay, this is getting a little too weird for me! I knew he had a son, but… drat, you sure grew up into a man, didn’t you? He grinned up at Mitarashi. …You might want to tone it down a little. O-Oh, right, of course. My apologies. Y-Yeah, uh, don’t worry about it… Can’t believe you knew my dad, though. I didn’t just know your father. He’s practically the reason I’m a journalist. I can’t begin to tell you how much I owe him…So then I guess Shirabe’s mentor wasn’t Hogstein’s father… Huh. Then who the hell are the flashback family? Just some random assholes? Yeah? Well drat. Can’t say I saw that one coming… So three of the seven of us are somehow tied to the Kanedo bus crash? That can’t be a coincidence. Agreed. Hogstein probably picked us specifically. So you think he brought us here for a reason? Us, yes, but probably not you. You were a volunteer, remember? If that’s the case, though, then Wakasa and Meoshi are probably connected somehow too. ”Not until it’s inconvenient for us, anyway.”  Me either. This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”At least until it’s inconvenient for us, anyway.” Really? Hm… We were silent for a few minutes, thinking, before Shidou spoke up. He was right, so we picked up Urabe and headed for the docks. I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about everything we’d learned. Shidou’s dad was investigating the crash, and Mitarashi’s parents died in it… (I never would have guessed any of that…) They’d all been through something difficult in the past, but each one of them had moved on and not let that define them. It was… reassuring. (Shirabe especially…)Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m pretty sure out of everyone in this group, short of Urabe, that crash has defined Shirabe the most. He spent twelve years chasing this story, inadvertently slandered or misrepresented the victims, abandoned his daughter to continue investigating it, and maintained a psychotic obsession with it even after it burned his entire career to ash. Shirabe has not moved on from it. He’d been looking for the truth about the crash that killed his mentor for twelve years. And he’d given up living with Mai because he was worried his investigation might put her in danger.Yes! How the hell is that not letting something define him?! That reminds me… (Does that mean he hasn’t been able to let go of it for twelve years…? Hm… The more I think about him, the more nervous I get…)That is the correct reaction. Maybe I should go take a shower. I jumped out of bed and hopped into the shower, hoping that it would clear my head.*One hot, sexy transition wipe later* Phew… That was refreshing!*Door knocking* (Who would be visiting me this late?) I wonder… Hello! It’s nice to see you, but… is everything okay? …Um… I want you to come back to the room with me. The room…? Oh, you mean Shirabe’s room?Please don’t do this, game. Uh huh. (What’s going on here? Did Shirabe tell her to come get me or something?) Okay, sure, give me a second. (Maybe something’s happened… I should go see what he wants.*Brief fade to black*  As soon as I stepped through his door, Shirabe sat up quickly from the bed, a surprised look on his face. Huh? … Um… I thought you asked her to come get me? No, no, I didn’t… What…? … Mai…? Did you bring her here, Mai? …Yeah. What on Earth… Damnit… What?! (All three of us in one bed?!) Shirabe frowned. I think you’re being a little selfish there, kiddo. You’re putting her in a pretty awkward position.You’re also putting your dad in a pretty awkward position. There’s a police detective on board this ship, you know. I think he’d have some questions for Shirabe if he found out he was sharing a bed with a teenager, regardless of circumstances. Does that mean she can’t…? Uh, well, that’s… um…Shut it down! That’s all you have to do. Just say “No, she can’t. When you get older you’ll understand." … (Oh jeez, what should I do?) (I-I’m not sure how I feel about that… Although… Mai’s going to be there, so it’s not going to be… weird…)Yes it will. We all know why Mai is doing this. She’s finally getting to spend time with her father, so now she’s angling to complete the family unit by pulling in a mom. It was a lot to think about. Um… (She looks worried.) … (Oh! Of course! Why didn’t I realize…) I still felt weird about being in bed with Shirabe, but… Mai needed me. (Okay…) That was enough to make up my mind. All right, Mai. If you really want to. Really?! Yeah. Now it was Shirabe’s turn to be surprised. You, uh, you sure about this? Look, if you want to, then I don’t… ah… mind… Then that’s that! Do you want to sleep between us, Mai? Okay! She grinned, and I felt that whatever my reservations had been, I’d done the right thing. All right then. Let’s go to sleep… Y-Yeah! We all lay down. Mai looked at me and grinned. And there it is. Wh-What?! I blushed. (A-A mom?!) Ha ha ha, she’s right. Not you too! He coughed and looked around awkwardly. O-Oh, okay… My face must have been bright red though, because Shirabe still looked uncomfortable. Oh boy… What’s wrong? Mai looked back and forth at us. Oh, n-nothing. Let’s just get some sleep. We’ve got an early morning tomorrow. Okay. Y-Yes! Right! Early morning! Um… good night. Yep. Sleep tight. Good night! The room was silent for a while, although occasionally I could hear Mai or Shirabe move or breathe. *Snore* She’d fallen asleep almost immediately. (Not surprised… She’s had a long day.) …Hey. I heard Shirabe’s voice in the darkness. Y-Yes? …Yeah, I’m fine. You should get to sleep too. I guess I should, huh… (We have a long day tomorrow…) Thank god that’s over with. Listen, even if you are a Shirabe fan, you’ve got to admit that that was an awkward as hell situation to have thrust on you out of nowhere. Next time: We’ve still got two more stages to go through. What will they involve? Who knows! Round Table Knights is now off the table, Moonlight OX and Bazaar Planet have both been used. Band Animal Family again, maybe? Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jul 21, 2021 |
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Jul 21, 2021 13:23
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... yeah that's weird. I can see what the writers are trying to do here but unlike the first half update, where extenuating circumstances are forcing the closeness and re-evaluation of each other, here it's just a super-strange choice for them to all get into bed together voluntarily. And Mai being the instigator makes it just further demonstration of both bad parenting (he doesn't know how to set boundaries other than by snapping at her) AND of her being desperate and kinda messed-up. To work correctly, IMO, this should either have been a situation where they were all trapped somewhere by Hogstein and had to curl together to sleep, and then Mai could chirp it was like being a family, or maybe if on the boat some disaster rendered Saki's room unusable and they awkwardly negotiated around trying to find a solution involving someone on the floor and Mai insisting it's fine, they can all share the bed, and them eventually going along with it.
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Jul 21, 2021 14:22
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Psycho Knight posted:Update XLVII: Crazy Wall 🍚 Also, I think it's a little weird the restaurant would keep rice of all things. I can understand keeping the other ingredients for obvious reasons, but rice usually is cooked at the times the restaurant is open, AFAIK. That, or maybe Shirabe has a superpower to manifest leftovers whenever he opens a fridge, who knows. No further comments on the Mai scene afterwards. Just Ugh.
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Jul 21, 2021 14:42
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Yeah, not cool with that last scene. I feel there had to be a better way to get to that point if the game absolutely needed to.
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Jul 21, 2021 15:00
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Well that was a awkward. At least Mai was in between them so no spooning. At least I hope not. "Shudder"
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Jul 23, 2021 09:35
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On the mitarashi roite at least they started with hand-holding. Here it basically went from 0 to 99 at once.
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Jul 23, 2021 12:07
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gegi posted:To work correctly, IMO, this should either have been a situation where they were all trapped somewhere by Hogstein and had to curl together to sleep, and then Mai could chirp it was like being a family, or maybe if on the boat some disaster rendered Saki's room unusable and they awkwardly negotiated around trying to find a solution involving someone on the floor and Mai insisting it's fine, they can all share the bed, and them eventually going along with it. This would have been a better option. Having be a matter of necessity as opposed to something purely meant to appease a child would have made the whole thing a bit more understandable. Space Kablooey posted:🍚 Fixed, thanks. It is weird, isn't it? From what we've seen, these are fully stocked restaurants. It was also only a short time before the rest of the group returned from the day's game. You'd think the Piglets would have been busy at least doing prep work. Maybe Saki and the others have a lovely palate and all this super delicious food the Piglets have been making has just been store bought microwavable stuff. Blaze Dragon posted:Yeah, not cool with that last scene. I feel there had to be a better way to get to that point if the game absolutely needed to. Space Kablooey posted:On the mitarashi roite at least they started with hand-holding. Here it basically went from 0 to 99 at once. FalloutFan56 posted:Well that was a awkward. At least Mai was in between them so no spooning. At least I hope not. "Shudder" Like most of the other routes in this game, a major problem is the lack of time available for these characters to get to know each other and slowly develop a relationship. I think one of the biggest things, for me, as to why this scene is awkward is the fact that Shirabe has (up until this point) been very clearly rebuffing any suggestions or flustering on the part of Saki. Any time she's hinted at a situation between them being kind of romantic or making her feel embarrassed, Shirabe has quickly gone "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're getting worked up over this old geezer." He hasn't really had any moments where it feels like he might be developing feelings for Saki in return. But then, suddenly, this update has him getting very shy and nervous, leading straight into the whole sharing a bed thing. It sort of feels like this route was written as a friendship route, but then it had romance crammed into it at the last second.
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Jul 24, 2021 16:41
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Yeah, imo this route could've worked well if they'd done a subversion of the typical romance tropes and instead had this be a more platonic route of Saki helping to fix Shirabe's relationship with his daughter, but the shoehorned-in romance really stands out in this route above the others. And regarding what you said about Hogstein in the prior update - I bet you're right, that he has no intention to harm Mai at any point since dead sister. Hell, I'm fully expecting the game to somehow "redeem" him in the end by fixating on how ineffective/nonthreatening he's been as a villain thus far, saying that was because he never really wanted to kill anyone. Never mind the actual death traps he's thrown in every attraction...
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Jul 25, 2021 02:27
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Update XLVIII: It’s about ethics in journalism Last time: Saki slept with Shirabe. It’s only slightly less weird than it sounds. When I woke up the next morning, Mai and Shirabe were still asleep. (Oh yeah… Mai wanted us to sleep together…) I’d been so worried I would be too nervous to sleep, but I’d been out almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. ”Of which I was going to be a part of very soon.” (Oh gosh, that’s right… Mai said something about how this made her feel like she had a mom… I think Shirabe’s wife died right after Mai was born. Does he still think about her…?) But when I tried to remember if he’d said anything about her, my head just felt… hazy. (Whoa… did I sit up too fast or something? …No, my whole body feels kinda hot…) I started when Shirabe spoke. I hadn’t realized he was awake already. Oh. Good morning… Is something wrong? You look red. Really? Yeah… Hold on. (Oh, that feels nice and cool…) Shirabe frowned. You’re burning up. What…? All that action yesterday must have been a bit too much for you. (Yeah… that makes sense I suppose.) I’m all right… I’m sure this’ll go away soon. Well don’t push yourself if you don’t have to. Why don’t I go see if I can get an ice pack from one of the piglets. He patted me tenderly on the head, then moved to get up. Rrgh! But the moment he dropped his weight off of the bed and onto his feet he groaned and bent over in pain. Are you okay…? Sssss…! What’s wrong? Is it your ankle again? Yeah, it’s bugging me a little. (A little? He can barely stand…) Let me look at it. …Fine. Oh my God… (I had no idea it had gotten this bad…)Really? Because I think I remember it being described as pretty gnarly back then. You would reasonably expect it to be a lot worse now considering how much strain was put on it yesterday. Yesterday’s game must have been really hard on it… You should probably stay off it. Hate to admit it, but you’re probably right. I’ll go get help… No, you’re sick. You should stay here. But… ”What good is a kid if you can’t get them to do poo poo for you?” Truly a valuable life lesson. She mumbled and opened her eyes. Daddy? Mai, do you think you could go get someone? We can’t really go anywhere right now. I’m sorry, I wish we could have let you sleep. It’s okay! I’ll be right back. She hopped out of bed and trotted purposefully out of the room. He was frowning down at his leg. How did it get this bad? Have you just been ignoring the pain? Believe me, it wasn’t this bad last night. (I should have paid closer attention…) Shidou pushed open the door, followed by Mai. Hey, sorry to bother you, Detective. Your daughter pounded on the door asking for help—my God! What happened to your ankle?! It seems to have swollen a bit over the night. Our young lady here has also come down with a fever. You’re both out of commission, then? Shidou sighed and shook his head. Sorry… What about the others? Are they okay? They’re in Urabe’s room making sure he’s all right. Everyone’s fine. Is he awake yet? No, not yet. Oh… Whoa there, pal. I might not be able to walk, but I’m not dead yet and the old noodle’s still as sharp as ever. I can— No. Not happening. A man who can’t even stand is just going to slow us down. I don’t care how smart he is. You need to stay here.I think today’s game is Animal Band Family, so while Shirabe probably wouldn’t have been a huge help, this is a game where his ankle being hosed up would have basically no impact on his ability to contribute. Rgh… Mitarashi’s back in action now. I think we’ll be able to manage today’s game without you. Besides, someone needs to be here when Urabe wakes up. Might as well be you. Okay. We’ll stay. Sorry about this. Shidou frowned at Shirabe’s ankle one last time, then turned and left the room. Do you really think they’ll be able to beat today’s game with just four people?Yes, because their performance doesn’t matter due to some Deus Ex Machina from Kouta’s MySpace page or some poo poo. Yeah. We just have to trust them. What should we do about Urabe, then? He might wake up soon… I’d like to point out that nobody has any idea as to why Urabe betrayed the group at this point in time. Sending her alone to a guy who stabbed everyone in the back once already seems like an incredibly stupid idea. Why? When he wakes up, I want you to come and get us. Do you think you can help your dad out? Of course! I’ll go over there right now! Thanks, Mai. You’re welcome! She trotted out of the room again. Shirabe and I looked at one another with slightly forced smiles. I thought we talked about that. Yeah, yeah, I know, you chose to come help me, but I’m not really sure you knew what you were getting when you signed on. And so far I’m pretty sure I’ve done nothing but get you in one scrape after another. Shirabe…*Choice time* You said you’d stop doing that. Stop apologizing all the time. He blinked. Oh… uh, right, sor—gah! What should I say instead, then? Ah, wait, I know. Shirabe grinned at me. Thank you.*Affection up* Very good. You’re welcome. Okay. I lay back down, closed my eyes, and was asleep almost immediately.*Fade to black* Some indeterminate amount of time later, Shirabe’s voice woke me up.*And then we fade back in*  (What…?) I opened my eyes, and saw Shirabe frowning to himself about something. My body was a lot less sluggish, and my head felt clear. When I touched my forehead, my fever felt like it was almost gone.Say what you will about Saki’s total lack of skills or talents; her immune system is loving incredible. Wish I could erase a fever by sleeping for an hour or two. What are you doing? Oh… Did I wake you? Yeah, but it’s okay. Is something wrong? Hm, not particularly. I’ve just been trying to figure out these notes we got. What about them? Shidou gave me a call just before the game started. I guess Hogstein is going to ask them what the answer is to these when they’re done. If we can get it right, the pig’ll turn himself in. Really?! That seems way too easy, though… Fortunately I’ve found myself with an overabundance of free time, so I thought I’d give it the old college try. Good thinking. So far we haven’t really been able to make any sense of them… Yeah. So, how’re you feeling? You were right about napping, my fever seems to be just about gone. Really? Well, that’s good to hear. He nodded, then looked at me for a long moment with a strange expression I couldn’t quite place. This is… I guess you could say it’s a little nostalgic. What…? Oh… (Does he still miss her…?) Um… Shirabe? Hm? Do you still miss your wife…? The moment I said it I knew it was none of my business, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me. Shirabe looked at me for a moment, then leaned back. O-Of course… So of course I regret that she’s not here, but I suppose you could say I don’t… miss her anymore. Um…? She’s gone, but I’m still here. I can’t spend my life wishing for something that’ll never happen. It’s not any easy balance to reach, but you have to learn to cherish the past at the same time you let go of it.You know what a great way to do that is? Taking care of your daughter. She’s a living memory of your late wife, but also a symbol of the future the two of you built that you should be moving towards. Just another reminder that despite what he says, Shirabe’s whole deal is “I’m stuck in the past and refuse to move on.” Yeah… I agree. (I mean, I don’t really have any experience with that kind of thing, but it sounds like the right decision…) I hoped that he was talking about the bus crash, as well as his wife. THANK YOU! Obsession is the word I’ve been waiting for! Now, how about we resolve this story with Shirabe learning this lesson and— Just kidding. We all know that he’s going to get the answers he’s been chasing after, thereby learning nothing from this entire experience. Shirabe seemed to have decided the conversation was over, and turned back to the notes. We didn’t get the one in the hospital, but Shidou gave me all the others. There were four scraps of paper on the table. Let me see… They said: “SUN,” “07,” “K1,” and “07/.” The first one we got was “SUN,” which… is probably talking about the sun. The rest, though… I can’t make heads or tails of them.It’s clearly a date. Why are you so stuck on this “sun” idea? I’ve been reordering them to see if that jogs anything, but… no luck. Mind if I give it a shot? Please, be my guest. I’m pretty much tapped out at this point anyway. Thanks. I stared at the notes, and thought hard about what they could mean. (Let’s start with “SUN”… It could mean “sun,” but… can we be sure?) …Wait… Something felt off. What’s wrong? (Oh… oh! I think…) (Why are we so sure than [sic] it’s talking about the sun anyway…? We found this note on the first day after we beat Samurai Fantasy VII. The announcement told us we’d beat the game, and the floorboards opened up to show a treasure chest. When we opened it, Mitarashi said something about the sun… We didn’t have time to talk about it though, because Mitarashi was hurt. The other notes are just meaningless letters and numbers and stuff. If they mean something beyond that, I don’t know what it is. But this particular one… there’s something about it, I just can’t put my finger on what.) The correct option is “something beyond that”… for some reasons. I think that “SUN” isn’t talking about the sun! What do you mean? Well, Mitarashi mentioned the sun, and I think that just got it stuck in all of our heads… Mitarashi, huh… That should have been our first warning sign.Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him? So if it’s not talking about the sun, then what could— wait! Did you think of something? None of us ever thought to question what Mitarashi assumed… If that’s the case, then we can switch them around… like this… He mumbled to himself, and shuffled the notes around. “07/,” “07,” “SUN,” “K1”… Ha! Of course! It all makes sense! Uh… I think you might need to elaborate. In this order, they’re clearly referring to the bus crash. What?! I think I mentioned this before, but if this game takes place in 2012, then this date lines up. 10 years ago would have been 2002, which is a year in which July 7th fell on a Sunday. So… what about “K1”? That… He tapped his head and frowned for a few moments. Oh my gosh…”…I have no idea why that’s significant.” drat, I can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out… I got thrown by “SUN” and that put me way off track. Amateur mistake… But there’s no doubt now that every one of us is connected to the crash, somehow. I’m sure Hogstein picked us for a reason! What about Wakasa and Meoshi, then? Maybe they’re lying, or maybe they honestly don’t know how they’re connected. In either case, we just need to dig a little deeper. Shirabe frowned and closed his eyes, deep in thought.*Force ghost Keiji Inafune calling* (Oh… It’s from Uncle Keiji.) Quietly, so as not to disturb Shirabe, I flipped open my phone. I’m glad you’ve got a good friend you can rely on.”Definite stress on the “friend” part, by the way. I don’t know how you kids signal that grammatically through text messaging.”  Watching out for each other is what friends do, right? Good luck! I’m rooting for you! (Right, of course, of course. I can’t depend on him all the time. I want to help out if I can!) The door burst open and Mai rushed in. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you guys!Did the guy we told you to check on wake up? Is that what happened? Did something happen? Um, um, he woke up! He’s awake!Well break out the cake and party poppers…. drat kids… Based on her reaction you’d think that she just saw Bigfoot riding a unicorn while high-fiving Jesus. Ha! Is that so? Thanks for telling us, Mai. You’re welcome! All right, I guess we should head over there. Shirabe tried to stand up, but the moment he put weight on his leg I saw him grimace and lean over to prop his body up with the bed. Here, you can lean on me. Thanks. I bent down and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. It wasn’t exactly graceful, but at least he was able to walk. Ready? Yeah. I nodded, and we set off toward Urabe’s room with Mai leading the way. Are you hurt…? No, I’m quite all right. I feel as though I’ve slept for days… That’s not too far from the truth. You were unconscious when they got you yesterday around noon. So long…Yeah, you should probably get checked out by a neurosurgeon after this. I’d be very concerned about lasting brain damage if I were you. I’m glad you’re awake now, though. …Thank you. I must ask… where are the others? They went off to play today’s game. I’ve got this bum leg, and the lady here had a fever, so we stuck around to hold down the fort. Urabe’s eyes widened. Will you be all right? Yeah, don’t worry. This isn’t anything I can’t handle. My fever’s almost completely gone too. How goes the game, then? So far we’ve beaten everything he’s thrown at us. But… I have to ask… Can you tell us everything you know? … Yes. Of course. I owe you that, and more. Urabe bowed his head. Do you know about the bus accident in Kanedo city twelve years ago? Urabe’s face stiffened. Well? Yes. I do. As he spoke, I saw a tear run down his cheek. What…? (Why is he crying?!) It was no accident… It was my father’s hand at work. What?! I wasn’t sure what sort of answer I’d expected, but it certainly hadn’t been that. Keep going, I know there’s more. What you know might be the key to finally ending this ridiculous game. Urabe nodded, took a moment to compose himself, and began to speak. Unfortunately for him, however, all wrongdoing eventually comes to light, and in time a reporter caught wind of the truth. …! (That must have been Mitarashi’s father!) My father needed this reporter silence, and so he conspired to kill him, and make his death appear to be an accident. No…! I overheard him giving the order, and then a few days later… The journalist was dead, along with so many others, whose only crime had been choosing to ride the bus… He shivered, and I saw that he was crying now. Your old man orchestrated that crash…? Yes…Will you tell us how? ”No.” So how did you end up working with the pig? But I was in no position to leave, so even though it made me ill I remained. It began to take a toll on my sanity… That was when I met a man via the internet who referred to himself as “M2.” M2! Shirabe frowned. From what I remembered, it had been someone called “M2” who’d convinced him to come to the park. M2 understood me better than anyone, and when he suggested I take up fortune telling, I threw myself into it. In time, M2 became my best and only friend. Then, one day, he asked for my help. Help with what? …! I was blind with adoration for M2 and hate for my father. Of course I agreed. Unconditionally.You are a stupid, stupid man. The park, of course, was this one. My father is among the hostages. Now you know all that I do.Uh, nope. Pretty sure you skipped over the part where you intended to kill everyone just to get to your father. Shirabe dropped his head into his hands. I never thought… drat. You’re really his son… But now I know the truth! I was right! It was never an accident!Okay. And? Congratulations, you were right. That’s not going to bring back the people who died, or turn back the clock on your daughter so you can be there for her during her childhood, like you should have been. Honestly, it’s been 10 years. I’m not familiar enough Japanese law to know if Urabe’s father would even face charges at this point, what with statue of limitations and all. Your father killed my friend to shut him up! Shirabe’s hands had tightened into white-knuckled fists. (Finally, after twelve years…) I… I am truly sorry. Urabe lowered his own head, and tears dropped into his lap. It’s not your fault… You don’t need to apologize.Well, he does, but not for that specific thing.  That’s not how that works, despite what Greek mythology, the Bible, and a shitload of old English poets my want you to believe. And have I [sic] betrayed all of you.Now that one is a different story. You are guilty as hell for that. I should have died when the hospital exploded! You idiot! Shirabe reached out and batted the side of Urabe’s head. …! He froze, and stared wide-eyed at the older man. Don’t talk about dying like that. Yeah. And you saved us, remember? But… I… Listen to me, Urabe. You mean a lot to us. All of us.I have no loving earthly idea why that is the case, but sure, go on. I… do? Yeah. You made the right choice back at the hospital.And the wrong choice at every step leading up to that. That’s all that matters. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Urabe. *Sniff* *Sob* It looked like something in him finally broke, and he started to sob openly. Before I knew it, I was crying too. (Oh Urabe… I don’t know how you lived with that for so long…) He must have felt lonely, even when he was with us. But Shirabe had been able to accept him for who he was. Maybe now Urabe’s life would be a little less horrible.Oh no, he’s hosed in this route. He won’t get to hook up with Saki, he’s 100% going to jail, and whatever fame or popularity he accrued will be wiped out by his public conviction on terrorism/accessory to murder/attempted murder charges. I am so, so sorry… After a few more minutes of crying, Urabe finally pulled himself up and wiped his eyes. He still looked pale and shaken, but it seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now, I don’t want to hear another apology out of you, got that? I’m looking forward to working together as a team again. Yes, yes, of course! He nodded vigorously. Good. That’s the attitude I’m looking for. Shirabe rubbed a hand across his chin. …Yes. Then who is he? Urabe only shook his head. I am afraid I know no more than you do. I only ever spoke to him over the internet. There is nothing I know about him that might give us a clue as to his true identity. Hm. Is that so… I’m sorry. I wish that I could be of more help— Hey. No apologies, remember? I’m pretty sure whoever’s playing Hogstein went to a lot of trouble to keep his true identity hidden. Then Shirabe’s cell phone rang. …Looks like it’s Shidou. Are they done already? He turned on the speakerphone so we could hear the conversation. Hello? I’m here. What’s going on? Huh. Good work. Did you figure anything out? Yeah, about that… Stop! Halt! Anyone who wasn’t in today’s game doesn’t get to participate! We could hear Hogstein shouting from the other end of the line. Damnit, he’s right. Can’t be helped. We’ll just have to handle it on our own. Okay. Interesting… All right. Talk to you later. Did he say that Wakasa and Meoshi are tied to the crash too? Yeah. There’s no doubt now that the reason Hogstein brought us here is that crash. Given that, the pig himself must be related to one of the victims somehow… What? How do you know that? He chose this park, a project Urabe’s father had invested heavily in, for his little game. Believe me, I know irrational hatred when I see it, and Hogstein’s full of it. Makes sense… I know why my friend died, so I got what I came here for. Of course we’re not. And that is Shirabe’s problem. He will never be done with anything. What are you going to do? I’m going to root out who Hogstein really is. And then I’m going to round up everyone connected to that crash, and bring the truth out into the light.You going to spend 12 years on that little project, too? I’m sure Mai won’t suffer any kind of emotional pain through her teenage years from her father’s lack of involvement in her life. I could hear the determination in his words. …Sorry, Urabe. His tone was apologetic. When I write about this, I’m going to expose all the horrible stuff your old man’s done. You needn’t apologize for that. That is what must be done. Indeed, I hope that you do so… Do not worry about me. Pursue the truth. Perhaps it will bring some good to those who were harmed.Yeah, I’m sure the victim’s families are looking forward to this reporter digging up past trauma for the second time in order to take another crack at publishing a hit article about it. Not like that backfired during the first attempt or anything. …Thanks. I appreciate it. He nodded and turned toward the door, but the moment he put weight on the bad leg he grimaced and bent over. Where are you going? Wait!*Choice time* I’ll come with you! What he was trying to do was dangerous. I couldn’t just let him go alone. Thanks for the thoughts little lady, but it’s too dangerous. You need to stay here.Can we not do this for the umpteenth time? *Affection up* No! I can’t! C’mon… I took a step toward him. You can’t even walk right now, can you? Uh… Just take me with you! I promise I won’t get in the way or anything! No. YouNope, gently caress this. This is five times too many for this scene. My patience is gone for this horseshit. They bicker, Saki gets mad at him, Shirabe goes—  and then he buckles and agrees and says some crap about needing her and making sure to protect her. Done. Moving on. Perhaps I should also— Shirabe shook his head. No. You need to stay here. But… You need to rest. Tomorrow’s the last day. … …Very well, I understand. Last, but not least, he turned to Mai. Mai, I need you to be a good girl and stay here with him, okay? Can you do that? …Yeah. I’ll be right here! That’s my girl. We’ll be back before you know it. He smiled and rubbed her head. Good-bye, Mai. Good luck! All right… Now we just need to figure out how to get to him. What?! There is a secret switch, the location of which I am privy to. It took only a few seconds for him to explain. Sounds like the hotel has docked. Yeah. Let’s go. We nodded to each other and headed out of the room.
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Jul 30, 2021 16:40
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 Hey guys! I waved and called out, and everyone looked over at me. What are you doing out here?!Something stupid, I assure you. Shirabe and I hobbled over toward them. I could see everyone’s eyes on Shirabe’s ankle. Are you okay, Shirabe…? I’m fine. Had worse. Shidou shook his head. We couldn’t figure out the answer. Hm… I told you the other part earlier. We found out we are all connected to the crash. He turned and looked significantly at Wakasa and Meoshi. Mitarashi’s mom saved me. I was really, really young though, and I don’t remember any of it. I… I never managed to come forward, but I actually witnessed the crash. I see… (It’s obvious now that the crash is the reason for all of this, but… how?) Oh yeah? How’s he doing? He’s not at one hundred percent yet, but he seems fine. Mai’s with him right now. Oh man, I’m glad he’s okay. Did you talk to him? Did I ever. He had a lot to tell me… As quickly as we could, Shirabe and I went over everything we’d learned from Urabe. Everyone was surprised, but none of them seemed to be angry with him.Because none of them have functioning human emotions. I was worried you’d all hate him or something… Of course not. He’s one of us.HE PLANNED ON KILLING ALL OF YOU UP UNTIL 2 DAYS AGO. Why is that such a difficult concept for everyone to grasp? drat right. He feels bad about what happened, and after all the stuff his dad did, he’s practically a victim too, right?NO! NO HE IS NOT! THAT’S NOT HOW IT loving WORKS! “Well, nobody he loved or knew died in that bus crash and he literally had no involvement in it whatsoever, but he felt bad that his dad was responsible, so I guess that makes him a victim too, huh? How could we hold terrorism, accessory to kidnapping, and attempted murder against him?” loving idiots, the lot of you. I’m just glad he’s okay. …Yeah. In just a few days, we’d become friends… I could feel happy tears in my eyes. Shirabe smiled. He was worried too. I think he’d be happy to hear you guys say that. Then we’ll make him happy enough to cry.I hate all of you right now. Yeah! Good to hear. All right, have we covered everything? Let me see it. We both looked at the note. On it were two letters: “M2.” M2 huh… Unfortunately that still wasn’t enough for us to figure out the riddle.It’s not enough for Shirabe or Saki, either. That’s why it’s kinda weird that they are insisting on going to face him right now. Well, M2 is obviously referring to Hogstein… Given the content of the other notes, I’m pretty sure that answer is his real identity. You know who he is?! No, unfortunately. I haven’t figured that out yet. Perhaps…Unless that note contains Hogstein’s full name, I doubt it. We’ve been through every route in this game and we still have no loving clue who Hogstein is other than “a kid from the flashback family.” Even that is kind of debatable. We all fell silent for a few moments before Shirabe started to talk again. We’re going to go confront Hogstein directly. What? I… I have to know the truth. I need to know who Hogstein is, and why he did all this. I’m going to hit him with everything we know, see if he cracks.By far the stupidest plan I’ve heard all day. There’s a chance we might not be back before tomorrow’s game starts. I’m… hoping you’ll let us go. He looked across the assembled faces. Sorry we both have to go, but please… There was a short silence. Sure, go on. Get to the bottom of all this. His voice sounded cheerful. Mitarashi… What he said. I’m not going to try and keep you from that. We can handle the game. Thanks. Guess I’ll see you when I see you, then. He looked at them again, smiled, and nodded. They all returned the gesture. Inafune, take care of him, all right? Will do! All right then, little lady. Let’s get a move on. Just as we were about to walk off, though, Shidou stopped us. Take this. W-Wait, this… This isn’t strictly legal, but you’re going into the lion’s den. If you think you need to, don’t be afraid to use it.Not strictly legal? Pretty sure you’re looking at a forced change of career if your boss finds out about this. Thanks. I appreciate it. He tucked the gun into his back pocket. Right. Let’s go. Okay! This is the final battle… His voice was calm and hard. I’m sure you’ll win. We’re this close to the truth! He smiled at me. Listen, I’m real grateful for everything you’ve done for me.Please tell me we’re not doing this scene a second time in one update… Why are you bringing this up now? Oh come on, that’s not true… I know there hasn’t been much of it, but… I’ve really enjoyed spending time with you and Mai. He was staring off into the distance and it made me nervous. Stop that. You’re talking like you’re about to die. It’s bad luck to do stuff like that. I tried to keep my voice cheerful, but he turned to look at me with a crooked smile. Is that so? Of course. Besides, there’s nothing saying we can’t all hang out together again. Really…? A look of surprise spread across his face. I… never thought of that… (Oh…!) I suddenly realized I’d just been assuming he would want to, when the truth was I had no idea. U-Uh, I mean, we don’t have to… um… Only if you want to… I could feel my face turning red, but Shirabe just grinned. Huh? There aren’t a lot of ladies out there who can keep up with my craziness. It’s approaching… And honestly, I’ve never seen Mai this attached to anyone other than her grandma. …What I’m getting at is I think we make a pretty good team.Does she even spend time with anyone other than her grandma? Shirabe… (Does that mean…) He sighed. But I feel like I’m a little too… Well-aged, you know?I may be speaking only for myself, but I think the age difference isn’t the major issue. The bigger problem is the fact that Saki is still a teenager. If Saki was 25 and Shirabe 39, I think it would be a lot less weird. His tone said it was a joke, but then he shook his head. (The age gap…?)*Choice here* That doesn’t matter. It was the truth, even if I’d been a little afraid to say it. Wait…*Affection up* …You’re serious? I nodded. …It’s not nice to make fun of people. I’m not making fun of you… I shook my head. (I’m really not… I honestly like you…) If he could just understand that, somehow. I looked up into his face, and… it seemed like he did understand. To those of you who may be dreading the upcoming moment, this is your last chance to skip ahead before you end up seeing the CG out of the corner of your eye. He rubbed the back of his head bashfully. Yeah… Well, there it is. Then I realized… (Oh jeez… I haven’t even really asked him how he feels!) And he hadn’t really said anything… What if I’d gotten everything wrong?! I’m so sorry, I didn’t even ask… I shouldn’t have said anything… No, it’s fine. Huh…? You didn’t need to ask. Suddenly I felt his arms around me. O-Oh…! I was too surprised to think of anything to say, but Shirabe filled the silence. Honestly, when I met you I thought you were just another kid. … Yeah… You surprised me with insights I never would have thought of, and you always stick to your guns. Truth is you’re… Well, you’re pretty charming. (Me…? Charming…?) I just didn’t realize that—… No, I think maybe I did, but I pretended not to. We’re… well, no point sugarcoating it: You’re pretty young. Are you loving 12, Shirabe? “I’d like to keep liking you for a long time”? Weeeeeak. I… you… I mean, me too! But with you! He smiled. Really? You sure you want an old man like me? I nodded. Thanks… Saki. Shirabe… Hey, I think we’re on a first-name basis at this point. Okay… Ayumu. Yeah, that figures. One of the only actual kiss CGs in the game and it’s with the oldest guy. Well, I have been complaining about it since Towa’s route. Be careful what you wish for and all that, I suppose. He looked deep into my eyes, and then gently, softly, we kissed. I tasted the faintest hint of chocolate. I nodded back.*Wipe transition here for absolutely no loving reason* We stood up straight, squared our backs, and walked toward the castle. Urabe told us there was a secret button, right? Yeah. He said it was off to the side, and pretty well hidden… All right, let’s split up and see if we can find it. With both of us working together, it didn’t take long to find. We pressed it, and the door began to creak open. Our path to Hogstein is finally open. Ready, Saki? Yep! We hadn’t been there since the first day, but I remembered what had happened then all too well. Hogstein! Hogstein was on the throne as if he’d never moved. (We’re finally here…) He feigned an expression of exaggerated surprise. There’s something I’d like to ask you. Well now, I wonder what could be so important that you would force your way into my castle with no appointment whatsoever? Ayumu shrugged. Yeah, it’s pretty important. Your stupid game is a big part of it. He cleared his throat and began. You chose each of us very carefully, Hogstein. … Urabe told me that the crash wasn’t an accident. His father had set it up. You took advantage of Urabe’s conflicted emotions to pull him into your orbit, and used him as part of your game. … Urabe’s father has invested heavily in this park. You’re planning to get revenge on him by blowing it up. Am I wrong?I love how Shirabe is treating this as if it’s the result of some clever investigative work that is going to blow Hogstein’s mind. In actual fact he’s just regurgitating everything that Urabe told him. Hogstein said nothing, so Ayumu barged ahead. Those notes you have us were hints pointing to the crash. July seventh, Sunday, the route number of the bus… And of course “M2.” (Come on… we’re so close!)Keep telling yourselves that. There was a long moment of silence, and then Hogstein began to shake with laughter. Oink oink oink! Well done, Ayumu Shirabe! Well done. What’s so funny? I think you’ve really been the X-factor here, Saki Inafune. You really shook things up! Me…? Yes! Shirabe might have had all the cards, but you built the hands. The two of you working together exceeded my expectations. Well I’m sorry if you’re disappointed, but face facts, big boy— You made a mistake. …So, you’ve shown me how much you know, but I haven’t heard a question. What is it you want from me? I want to know the truth. I know what really happened in that crash now… but I don’t know anything about you. If revenge is what you’re after, it would’ve been much simpler to just deal with Urabe’s father directly. The rest of us are connected to the crash, sure, but what’s the reason for putting us through all of this? … Silence fell over the room. It was odd to hear Hogstein, usually so talkative, suddenly quiet. (What is he thinking?)He’s probably trying to figure out what the hell your end goal is with this stupid stunt. …So, you want to know about me. I understand. Very well, I’ll tell you! What? There’s no way it’s that easy… But that was what he’d said.And you’ll fall for it regardless. I am a magnanimous fellow, after all. If you really wish to know, then please, go right ahead! Oink oink oink. He tossed something down toward us. It looked just like the one that had held the other notes. We walked slowly toward the chest. Ayumu picked it up off the floor and opened it. …Another note. (Is Hogstein’s identity written on it…?) He pulled the note out of the treasure chest and unfolded it. It said… Aaaah! Wha—?! With a tremendous “clang,” a giant cage dropped from the ceiling. In an instant, we were trapped. What the hell is this, Hogstein?! Just what it says on the note! You picked the “wrong” one! Oink oink oink! Hey! Let us out! But he didn’t respond, and several piglets appeared out of nowhere to cover the cage with a black cloth. Urgh… I suddenly felt very sleepy. What… what’s going on…? Saki… Are you okay…? My body was sluggish, and I could feel my consciousness beginning to fade. Ayumu… Well, that turned out exactly as everyone expected. Not sure “You were involved in the crash! Hah! We got you all figured out! Now explain everything we don’t know!” was a solid choice of game plan. Anyway, next time on Sweet Fuse: We finally put this game to bed… sort of.
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Jul 30, 2021 16:42
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