Part 126: Caina
Living With Determination -Iwatodai Dorm-
I think I'm done searching for clues. Yamagishi will pick up the search from here. From this point on, I'll be joining the main investigation as well.
Everyone's finally together now! If you need my help, don't hesitate to call me.
Mitsuru finally joins up, rounding out our party again. Since she joins at level 37, she's a decent level already and weirdly is both overlevelled for what comes next and not quite strong enough.
Since Mitsuru's not a great pick for the next area, we'll be bringing her. Metis is pretty much permanently in our party (for reasons), so we'll go with Yukari for the fourth giving us a Ladies Night as was popular previously.
New glow-y door is directly next to the stairs, so let's see where this leads...
Interstice of Time
So, I think at this point we've kinda got the general idea of how this is gonna go, huh?
Caina is visibly very boring, since it's just Yabbashah. Like, outright. Not even a different color or shade of blue or anything. It really sucks.
Caina is, of course, from Dante's Inferno so the pattern does continue. In fact, it's technically a section of Cocytus, albeit one deeper in Hell than the surface. It's named after Cain and is traditionally reserved for people who betray their family. Cain killing his own brother, and becoming the first murderer ever, fits that very well I'd say.
Mass Destruction -FES-
So, Caina is also kinda where folks think The Answer makes fights more difficult and interesting. It sorta is, but only in a scant few places so I kinda disagree with that summation.
Jealous Cupid doesn't really fit that. Holy Arrow and Charm Boost is something, though, I guess? Dodge Ice is expected at this point so whatever.
Bigoted Maya is the worst example, being a boring easy thing that's inexplicably so weak it could be dumped into Malebolge as is and it'd be just as takable.
Soul Dancer brings us a bit more in-line with that, though. Getsu-Ei is a weird choice for a skill, but the lack of weakness, instantly negating everything our party members can do (magically), having good Phys skills and both Distress and Charm makes something potentially dangerous.
Good job, Soul Dancer. Sincerely.
Furious Gigas slips back some, though. Nasty collection of resistances, sure, but being weak to Ice makes it easily shut down. Weak to Expel makes it outright die pretty easily too. If it gets a chance to knock someone down, Cruel Attack could be pretty dangerous I guess.
Okay, I know at this point we're really not seeing the idea that Caina is more difficult than previous areas. Constancy Relic is just yet another Shadow that shows that idea isn't quite as accurate as people like to think.
As is the Solid Castle. Poisma and Poison Boost is kinda annoying, I guess? Not much else to it, really. Wind just ruins its day. Moving on!
Hey look, the Champion Knight is kinda obnoxious and dangerous! Good job, Champion Knight! (Ma)Zionga and Elec Boost and Marakunda is a lethal combination. His resists are absurdly good... aside from that Expel weakness... but if you can't/don't do that, the Knight can be sorta theoretically challenging.
Or, well, you can Charm it. That works.
Jotun of Power is, well, it's a Jotun. Big bag of hit points, no weakness, strong combo of Power Charge + Swift Strike. Poison is nice for killing it quick, or you could just... not. Jotuns aren't really ever worth the hassle of fighting and this one is no exception.
That just leaves the red Shadow.
Royal Dancer is okay, I guess. Good at multi-target stuff, Fatal End is ubiquitous so whatever, flat instant death immunity... Not really much else to it, honestly. Group of 3 and no weakness means it won't be flattened instantly, I guess.
Interstice of Time
And then we hit the 6th floor, which is a floor of respite. There's no sign of that weird humanoid Shadow thing, though. Sure, okay.
Not even a mini-scene at the boss fight or anything either. Plus it came super, SUPER early this time. This is most unusual.
Emperor Death Castle and 2x Strength El Dorado Beast Master of Shadow
So, this fight is potentially long (welcome to The Answer) but not really difficult. Let's start with the Death Castle since it's alone, has no weakness and deserves to die early.
It has recovery spells.
The Death Castle is primarily a shitty white mage. You can even lock it into blowing its turns casting Re Patra over and over again.
It has 1000HP, nulls Wind and drains Fire and Ice. 31 Strength, 27 Magic, 36 Endurance, 38 Agility and 26 Luck.
Oh and it does have other attacks, but like... it's not getting to use them. And honestly never should.
The El Dorado beast, on the other hand, is more offensively focused. Kill Rush is, well, Kill Rush. We've seen it plenty before.
Agilao seems to mostly get used arbitrarily, but I swear it focuses a bit more on Mitsuru than anyone else. That might be just a bias thing, though.
They DO at least have a weakness, and Dodge Ice because of course. But for once? It's fine. It liteally doesn't matter.
They can be inflicted with Distress. Distress does three things: extra damage (which we've seen), improved crit rate (which we've seen) and one last important thing.
Distress means that attacks cannot miss. Hama/Mudo still can, because they're technically rolling something else, but Distress straight up supersedes Dodge/Evade passives and it's great. Can't use it as much as I'd like to of course, but it's nice to have.
El Dorado Beasts have 1350 HP, 28 Strength, 17 Magic, 27 Endurance, 21 Agility and 29 Luck. On top of being weak to Ice, they null Fire. All in all, not too bad.
End Interstice of Time
Magic Mirrors are nice (and useful, even) as a post-battle reward this time around. We could buy them from the Antiques Store now, sure, but this is enough for now.
Caina's changing up the formula a bit, though, and is giving us a second boss fight for good measure. It's nice that it's doing that, since it's otherwise kinda bland really.
Mass Destruction -FES-
So, the next stretch of Caina brings with it a new batch of Shadows as we've come to expect. The Ill-Fated Maya is really kinda boring but don't worry:
Exactly half the things here are weak to Wind. Yeah, weird decision.
Bronze Dice is in the half that isn't, but that's about it as far as interesting things go.
Conviction Sword is a bit more interesting, despite its Wind weakness. Repelling Slash and draining Elec give it some theoretical survivability and Poison Mist with Poison Boost could be annoying (especially since the AI can't deal with poison).
Except Neo Orgia Mode Metis dunks on it, so...
Mach Wheel is potentially more resilient courtesy of Dodge Wind, but Last Resort runs contrary to that wholesale. Nothing says "durable" more than a self-destruct move.
Despite its Elec weakness, Wild Drive can be a real threat for a little bit. Gale Slash lets it hit everyone, Herculean Strike does too but is A LOT stronger and Rakukaja bolster its defenses some.
But, weakness so it only goes so far. It needs to get turns and it just... doesn't.
Order Giant is very obnoxious without being actually threatening. If it wasn't for that Ice weakness, they'd be pains to fight but that just means Metis and Mitsuru can run circles around it.
Arcane Turret is way more like it. Three nulls, Power Charge Torrent Shot and boosted Agilaos make it actually sort of dangerous. It might even get a turn to Power Charge occasionally!
It won't get to use Torrent Shot after though. Not quite sturdy enough for its own good.
Grave Beetle is Powerful. That Wind weakness kneecaps it hella hard, but I'm glad it's there. 1200 HP, Power Charge Herculean Strike is kinda terrifying at this point and Life Drain gives it a bit of extra survivability.
Wind weakness lets you lock it down and obliterate it, so even though it'll get turns it doesn't really get turns.
Ruinous Idol is also kinda strong on paper. Elec Boosted Mazionga lets it hurt (Yukari) a decent amount, Dodge Wind makes it annoying and it has Agilao just because. But if it gets knocked down, its dead and that's pretty likely.
Red Shadow fight is a pack of Buring Beetles. They really shouldn't have an Ice weakness, it just makes it embarrassing for them. Mind Charge Agidyne COULD be dangerous. Repelling 2/3rds of all phys elements COULD be annoying. Immunity to instant death COULD make them a real fight.
As is, Metis, Mitsuru and Aigis just dunk on them extra hard.
Interstice of Time
The thirteenth floor brings us back more in-line with what we're used to at these mini-landings.
Oh! I'm sensing it again...! I wonder if it's a Shadow... I wish I could tell for sure. But it feels just like...Just gonna make a quick trip back out to regain all out SP as usual, run all the way back down (easier than it sounds, mercifully) and...
That Which Comes From The Darkness
If there are Shadows waiting for us like this... could "that" be what's summoning them...?
Incoming Shadows! Lovers Harem Dancer and 2x Priestess Merciless Maya Master of Shadow
So, this fight is the first one that presents a real challenge that isn't just a question of being time consuming.
It also happens to be obnoxious about it.
The Merciless Maya aren't much of a threat on their own. Virus Breath is a weird skill that I think kinda sucks. It hits every enemy for 25% of their current HP and tries to inflict Poison. It sounds great, but the poison proc rate is abysmally low. You want it to land though.
When they're not doing that, they're casting Agilao. Which they have Fire Amp for.
And very rarely they're being extra annoying and casting Makarakarn.
But, hey, you can Enrage them. It doesn't stop them dodging but it does mean we can completely dunk on them.
They have 1050HP each, are weak to Wind, resist Slash/Strike/Pierce and drain Fire.
The Harem Dancer on the other hand is an obnoxious piece of shit who lives to spam Marin Karin. Why yes, they do have Charm Boost thanks for asking.
They use Maragion (and sometimes Agidyne) a decent amount too, but that's kind of a good thing. Even though Mitsuru is weak to it, yes, since they don't have Fire Boost/Amp.
They also have Heat Wave just to ensure we can't effortlessly no sell the entire fight.
The Harem Dancer is a piece of shit who nulls Pierce, drains Ice and Wind, and reflects Slash. That leaves Strike, Fire and Elec as the only elements you can use. So of fucking course they have Dodge Fire.
...But, hey, their only attacks are Fire and Strike elemental. You can't dodge repelled attacks. Oops!
Harem Dancer has 1700HP, 24 Strrength, 38 Magic, 23 Endurance, 26 Agility and 25 Luck. They also have Sharp Student because of course they fucking do.
End Interstice of Time
Attack Mirrors would've been nice to get free ones of earlier. I'm still not gonna complain about being handed them now, of course.
Precious Egg is damned nice. Odds are good this one is the first SP recovery item you'll get, outside of the Antiques Store. It's kinda bollocks, yeah.
Third section of Caina is somehow the least interesting. There's not even anything new here...
So I'm just gonna skip all the way to the end of it, which brings us to the 20th floor and the door therein.
Silence
Fan #2: Akihiko-kun!
Man's Voice: Hold on a sec. You're the captain, aren't you?
Scout: That was an amazing bout! I've never seen a junior high fighter deliver a KO like that! I'm with the school you were up against in the finals. What do you say about enrolling with us? We'll give you a fat scholarship--you'd only have to pay half your tuition!
Student Boxer: Hey... you're from another school!? That's against the rules and you know it!
...Get outta here.Fan #2: Squeee! Akihiko-kun is so cool!
Fan #1: You here that? He'd never go to your loser school!
Student Boxer: Come on already! Go home! ...Dammit, we can't leave until you guys do!
*sigh*
*chuckle* Couldn't you have handled that a little more politely?
Third year, class C... Akihiko Sanada.
I really kinda like Akihiko trying way too hard to pretend to be cool here. I dunno.
...Aren't you going to ask who I am? No need. Whatever you've come for, I don't want to get involved. All I want is to train and get stronger.
A request...? I have enemies that need defeating. They're not people, I Assure you. You wouldn't be bound by the rules of boxing. 
......!? You see, I'm in the same situation. I experience the same thing you do. The difference is, I know what it means. If you come with me... I'll share what I know with you. Who are you?
Kirijo...? I've heard that name before. You said you wanted to build your strength. What you really need is a riskier challenge.
...... Their Own Past
First Ken's past, and now mine... What in the world does it mean?
I have no idea, either...
That really brought me back, though... We were both in junior high then.
What was I supposed to expect when you gave me what looked like a gun five minutes after meeting me? All part of the plan... That was the best way I could think of to get your attention. If I'd asked you to do something like "fight for justice," I knew you'd never listen. Ha! You can say that again.
Yes, it was. But it was only a small portion of a school.
Really? Then, it's actually much bigger than that? Yes. ...Have you really never been outside before?
Well... That's...
I didn't mean to embarrass you. It's nothing to be ashamed of. 
Do you... also go to school, Sister? I did... but after this spring, I won't be going anymore. Huh? How come? All your friends go... They are your friends, right? You like to be around them, don't you?
Why...? It's because I... um... 
Oh... I see.
Y'know, for once I don't have any complaints to levy in these scenes. At least not here. It is a bit eyeroll-y that it took this long for people to realise that Metis is overly naive (she was enthralled by a fountain remember), but it's not like a real issue or anything.
No, not really bad... More like...
We've been taking her so seriously up till now, but... She's just a kid inside, isn't she? *chuckle* Maybe so...> ......
> You decided to return to the lounge.