Part 17: Chapter 3 (Part 2): Ellie, Narika, Chloe + The other heroines (Summary)

~Bonding Focus: Chapter 3 (Part 2): Ellie, Narika, Chloe + The other heroines (Summary)~

Turns out the next story dungeon does have a small break, but it doesn't last nearly long enough to fill out an update. So we're going to go ahead and finish up the bonding events for our three focus heroines.

A lot happens after this update. Chapter 3 to Chapter 4 has some developments and characters to introduce, on top of finally giving us access to our final party member, Feene. So here's something to chew on while I get to work on that mess.

We start with Chloe this time, for no particular reason. Just trying to mix it up.


-Hallway-

Coming through.



It's "Good morning, Ms. Chloe." You gotta get this stuff straight, Mr. Manager guy.

Chlotz, what the hell are you doing here?

I heard you became Sis' manager. Admit it. Admit it or I won't let you into the Faculty Room.

That's cute. We both know there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop me.

Okay, well technically no, but-- Hey!


-Faculty Office-



Get a move on that reserves list! And get me the results from the recent Rank Exams.

You seem awfully busy. Sounds like boot camp in here.

Oh, sorry. I don't have time right now. I should be finished soon, if you'll be patient.

You got it. Need a hand with anything?

Thank you, but I'm fine. Now to finish up these documents... And sign here...

Ta-daah! I'm done.

Phew, that was exhausting. I think I just earned a pat on the back!



And why exactly would I do that?

Duh, because you're her manager!

Ugh, dammit. I guess I technically did get myself into that mess. Alright, hold on. I'll be back in a minute.

And while you're at it, get me a drink too!

Sure thing! What kind do you want shoved up your ass? I'm thinking a soda can would probably be big enough, but maybe you'd prefer a full bottle rammed in there instead?

Uh, never mind. I'm not thirsty.

That's what I thought.

*Wake gets some tea, like a damn sophisticated gentleman*

Here you go, Chloe.

Thank you.

You seem a little busier than usual today. What's going on?

There's so much to do, from writing tests to making arrangements for supplies...

You're handling all of that alone? What are the other teachers doing?



THIS PLACE IS DEVOTED TO QUELLING THE MONSTER THREAT! HUMANITY DEPENDS ON IT! Why in the fuck is it understaffed!? What are we going to hear about next!? Budget cuts!?

Those of us who can spare the time have to do what we can.

Make up your mind, game. Is this place gravely important to training disciples to fight against monsters and finding ways to defeat them? Or is it some boonies school that the government/Church doesn't really give a shit about? You can't have it both ways.

Okay, but you're going to burn yourself out at this rate you know.

Sis, don't push yourself too hard. You look like you haven't gotten much sleep.

No, I'm fine... But thanks, Chlotz.

Hey, I'm counting on you as her manager. Make sure she doesn't collapse one day.

She's a grown woman, Chlotz. I'm not her nanny.



Thank you. I wonder who it's from... Hmmmmm...

What's going on?

It's from the lead vocalist of the Choir Club, the one I filled in for. She wants me to throw a concert for the injured and wounded at the Field Hospital. They must have heard about my performance at the concert.

That's awesome. You have to do it, Sis.

But... what do you think?

You can't make any rash decisions. You need to think about this.



Last I checked, you weren't the manager or the talent, so of course it sounds fine to you. You don't do anything.

If you'll excuse the interruption, Ms. Chloe, may I tear you from these trifles?

Aw crap, Watts is gonna be a buzzkill.

I trust you've managed to complete the assignment I gave you?

Who is this guy? Why is a teacher giving another teacher assignments? Mattero is the Headmaster, and Watts is never referred to as a Vice Principal or anything of that nature. I know there's a bunch of seniority stuff in Japan, but this seems weird. Watts is still a coworker.

Everyone in this game just loves to go on insane power trips. And why not? Nobody ever calls them out on their bullshit.

Yes, here are the documents you requested.

Hmph! You mean to tell me that you're already finished? I pray you understand that speed is not a virtue when lives hang in the balance. Hmmmm... These numbers appear to be correct.



Man... He's still a dick.

Don't be so quick to judge him. He's actually an incredibly busy person.

Could have fooled me.

Anyway, forget about that.

So the concert is definitely happening. I'll go talk to the Choir Club.

Chlotz! You're not the-- Damn it. Already gone.

This is getting way bigger than I imagined. I wonder if I should be the one singing.

Well, people want to hear you sing. There's no arguing with that.

You're right. And I'll do my best not to let them down.



Well, I did make a commitment.

And that's Chloe out of the way. Her bond route goes back on pause until Chapter 4.

I gotta say, Chlotz has been getting weird in this route. It wasn't that long ago he was threatening to knock Wake's teeth out. What's your game, Chlotz?


-Shooting Range-

It's Ellie time. If you remember from the last update, Wake had promised her to go shopping for cute stuff she could put in her room.

That's weird, Ellie is usually here this time of day. Did she not come to school?

*Ellie rushes in*



Ellie? Are you doing okay? You look pretty pale.

H-Huh!? Um... It's nothing. I was late again, so I ran all the way here.

I'll be okay once I rest a little... Whew.

Looks like the Church is running you ragged.

No, that's all settled for the time being.

Anyway, did you need something from me?

I promised I'd go shopping with you. I figured I would see if you had the time. Maybe we should wait until you're more rested though.

N-No, I'll be okay!



Alright. I'll wait by the main gate then. Don't push yourself, okay?

Of course. I won't cause you any trouble. ...Then again, I am causing you trouble by making you go shopping with me. Aheheh...


-Downtown-

Hm, what would be suitable for the room... I thought flowers might be nice, but taking care of them would be difficult...

I guess a stuffed animal is better after all? I know! What if I buy a really BIG stuffed animal... Would you name it for me?



Sure, I can probably come up with something.

Aheheh, that would be most helpful. While I'm here at the Academy... I'm going to try to make enough memories for an entire lifetime.

...Ooh, look! A stuffed animal kiosk!

Hm? You mean that? That's not a store, Ellie.

It isn't? It's full of cute plushies, though... Look at that big stuffed bear! He's so cute!

Do you put the money in here? Is this... some kind of vending machine?

No, it's far more exploitative than that. It's a claw game. You put the money in, move the claw around, and try to grab something. Then you have to get it to the hole in the corner in order to get the prize.



Oh... But since that's how it works, I guess getting it that way means more.

That's... highly debatable.

I'm going to try my best to get that stuffed bear.

Well, if that's what you want. Let's see what you're capable of.

I'll try hard to live up to your hopes. Well then, time for the challenge!

There... Hmm... A little further... There! Ha! The claw's picked it up! Now to drop it in the hole...

5...4...3...2...1...

Wait... Ah! No! It fell!

Yeah, that'll happen with these things. Looks like it's wedged in there pretty good, too.

N-Nooooo!



Don't look at me like that. It's--

...

(So this is my life now, huh? Son of a bitch.)

Let me see what I can do.

I'm counting on you. Oh... I don't mind if you can't do it, so please don't look so glum.

Too late for that. Come on, trade places with me. Let's get this game started.

I'll cheer you on with everything I have!

*Apparently a LOT of fruitless attempts later. Seriously, it's evening now!*

Hmmm... This is small.

Sorry, best I could manage.

Oh, no, it's okay. Now that I look at it, this one is more charming.



I like this one a lot more!

Okay, slightly unsettling, but as long as you're happy.

Um, thank you so much for coming out with me today.

Thanks to you, I've gotten a really cute stuffed animal!

We'll try for a bigger one some other time.

Oh no, this is more than enough for me.

This one is stuffed full of memories, after all. I'll make sure to take good care of it forever.

Well, I don't really want to go, but I have to run.

Hey, slow down a sec. I thought you said you wanted me to give it a name?

Huh?

Remember? You asked me if I would give it a name for you?

Oh, there's no need. I've already come up with a name for it.

Oh, well that works for me. What did you decide to call it?



What's wrong? How come you're staring at me like that?

I-I'm not staring! Not at all! A-Anyway, I'm okay on its name. P-Please excuse me!

*Ellie fucking books it*

Why did I just have a shiver run up my spine?

Ellie's gonna Ellie. What can you do? Being secretive and slightly stalker-ish towards Wake is kind of her thing.

Last on the docket is Narika. Last time she seemed to get some ideas for a new presentation for the next conference, Takoyaki Guy was nice to her and showed that he was a really swell guy, then Narika went accessory shopping and picked out a cute necklace at some weird pop-up shop in the park.


-2nd-Year Classroom-

Also Wake was there, I guess. He did... stuff.

I'll be needing your help again today, Wake.

Time for the next conference, huh? You came up with the proposal this time. Are you confident in it?

Yes... I'm ready. All thanks to you, Wake. You'll be watching over the conference as a scribe, right?

Of course. You can count on me.



Oh, you mean when I stepped in to deliver the presentation?

Yes. This time, I want to try to do this on my own.

Well, I'll be sure to stay quiet and just have faith in you. It's your show.

Thanks for believing in me...



I can respect that. I'll be rooting for you internally, then.

Thank you. Now, shall we head over to the conference?

(Not bad. She seems a lot more confident than last time. She's got a much more determined look in her eye. I guess that practice is paying off.)

(I hope it is, anyway.)


-Auditorium-

Still no sign of the 2nd-Year Class President by the way. Despite the performance last time, apparently Wake and Narika's class is just going to keep throwing her at this wall.


[Council President]: We will now commence the Second Strategy Conference. For the first phase, each representative will present their class' plan. After that, the representatives will debate their plans amongst each other. All Disciples will vote on a plan after hearing the presentations and debate. Our first presentation comes to us from the first-years' representative, Sasami.


Thank you. Allow me to explain our plan. What we propose is...

*Sasami presents her plan*

...And that concludes my presentation.

We don't even get to hear a general idea of what her plan is this time. The game just completely skips it. Likely because it would be equally as stupid as the first one.

No, I will not be letting that go. Not until Sasami eats dirt. I don't care what bullshit the game tries to throw out to try and make her look sensible.


[Council President]: Next, we'll hear from the second-years' representative, Narika.


Thank you.



We looked at how to minimize casualties and property damage caused by monsters...

(Wow, she's off to a way better start.)

Statistics show that damage and casualties are on the rise in many places. This takes a great toll on the populace mentally and economically, and...


[Male Disciple B]: She seems way more confident this time.


[Female Disciple A]: Yeah, it's like she's a completely different person.


*We don't get to hear the details on this one either. I think the game just gives up trying to come up with possible plans at this point*



(I've never seen her this composed. Although, this is the easy part. The debate is going to be rocky.)


[Council President]: We'll now move on to the second phase: a debate over the three proposals. I hope to hear good points raised between the three of you.


I have a question for the second-year representative.

Yes...?

I agree that trying to reduce civilian casualties is a very noble cause. But I must point out that your plan is severely lacking in detail. You didn't outline squad composition to be dispatched, let alone the cost...

Well, that's not quite true. Um... For that, I thought...

*The screen flashes white for a second*



You doing okay, Narika?

I-I'm fine... Um... to answer that question, we must first examine the possibilities...

You do realize that having no answer here jeopardizes your proposal's integrity...

Ummm... I... err...


[Male Disciple B]: What happened? She had it, and then...


[Female Disciple A]: Hang in there, Narika...


I'm still awaiting an answer...

...Uhhh...

(She's falling apart again. I...)



(No. I said I would have faith in her. If I keep bailing her out then she'll never get better, and she knows that. Come on, Narika.)


[Council President]: Please, Ms. Shina, answer the question.




(Good, she's bringing it back around.)

Not that that will matter of course. We've established that this whole thing is essentially a popularity contest, and the Disciples voting are drooling idiots.


[Council President]: The votes are in, and the winner is the first-years' proposal.


Thank you. I'm honored to receive your support once again.


[Male Disciple A]: Looks like we lose once again... *sigh* Makes me ashamed to be a third-year.


[Council President]: Thank you for your time, everyone. This conference is now adjourned.


[Male Disciple B]: Damn that Sasami...


[Female Disciple A]: Narika didn't do too bad to start, but she fell apart during the debate.


You doing okay? Sorry it didn't work out, but hey, you did a lot better than last time. You made huge improvements.

Thanks...

Narika Shina!

Sasami...?

I must say, my opinion of you has definitely changed. And I know you can do even better still. Just try to be a bit more aggressive. I felt I had to come tell you that. Goodbye...

She sure has a lot of nerve coming over and saying all that patronizing crap after the way she acted last time.

I need to try harder, don't I?



Well, despite how much I hate her, I can't really argue with that point. You've got your footing, now you just need to learn how to swing.

Aggressive...

Riiight...

And that's Narika. She's a hell of a lot better than last time. Wake did basically nothing for that entire event. Hell, even Sasami has stopped being a complete tool and is starting to act like a halfway decent 'rival' should. Things are looking good on this front.


That brings us to the other 'fronts'. Specifically, the heroines that we left to warm the benches.

There's a problem approaching this LP that I was a little unsure of how to deal with. I asked for some input from the thread, and the people that replied seemed to agree on what choice I should make.



The issue is that our current Focus Heroines have been getting a lot of screentime to develop and win over users.



Meanwhile, the benchwarmers have only gotten the introductory part of their routes, which doesn't tell us a lot about them, or give many hints as to where their routes will go.



Torri and Feene also had the misfortune of joining relatively late (Chapter 4 is almost halfway through the game and is where Feene finally gets her time in the spotlight).

Basically, Chloe/Narika/Ellie have a huge advantage over the others, while Torri and Feene kind of have a bigger disadvantage than even Fuuko and Serina. It generally takes up to the second or third bond level to get an idea of the direction of the route.


-Route Summary-

To help remedy that, I'm going to do route summaries for all of the heroines up to the level that the Focus Heroines currently are (3rd Bond Bar I believe).

These will be short summaries of the major parts of Fuuko/Serina/Torri's routes. Feene's will be held off on until she joins officially. Chloe/Narika/Ellie will still get a slight advantage by having their fourth level bond events, but they did win the first vote.



What happened last?: When we last saw Fuuko, Wake pushed her to join the Aquatics Team instead of the Marksmanship Club. She clearly has a love for swimming, so Wake convinced her to follow her passion. Fuuko predictably got really down on herself, so Wake had to physically drag her to the pool in order to finally jumpstart her interest.

What happened next?: Ghostbusters. I'm only half kidding. Wake goes to check on Fuuko after swim practice one day, and Fuuko talks about how she was the slowest again, so she is cleaning the pool, but that's okay because she really likes being in the water. Either way, she seems to be having fun with it. Wake offers to help clean up while Fuuko heads off to change out of her swimwear. She kind of disappears for a while, long enough for Wake to finish the job himself. While waiting for her in the halls, he hears her scream.

No, Wake does not run in on her naked, despite the obvious set up. They meet up with each other in the halls and he asks her what happened. Fuuko is freaked out, but after calming down, she claims to have seen a ghost girl floating over the pool and it turned and smiled at her. Wake heads off to check for himself, while Fuuko sticks to him like glue because she's terrified of ghosts. They find nothing out of sorts.

Later, Fuuko still gets the inkling that something is up at the pool, so her and Wake go to investigate again during the night. The moon is out this time, and Fuuko and Wake end up meeting the ghost girl.




Turns out she's pretty chill though, and apparently Wake can only see her if he's touching Fuuko. Fuuko can apparently see her any time the moonlight is shining. The ghost girl is haunting the pool or water or something and trying to figure out how she can move on to the next life. Fuuko also mentions something about an event that happened in her past, but doesn't elaborate.

Fuuko reads up and figures out that the ghost girl must have some kind of regret that is keeping her bound to the mortal world. After consultation, Fuuko tells Wake that apparently the ghost girl believes that dating is the thing that will allow her to move on. It seems that was something she never got to do and is a major regret. Fuuko allows Ms. Ghost to possess her body, at which point she starts flirting with Wake, hard. Ms. Ghost says that Fuuko's consciousness is seeing all of this, and she's apparently freaking the fuck out inside as this spectral entity tries to seduce her friend with her own body.



Fuuko starts growing some jealousy towards Ms. Ghost because of how well she seems to get along with Wake, but of course she just mumbles this stuff under her breath instead of admitting she might have a crush on him too.

Ms. Ghost says that she's just having some fun of course, and she proceeds to go for a swim with Wake, as their date. This doesn't really seem to do the trick, so Wake and Fuuko are left still trying to find out what is keeping her here.

Also, Wake gets this gem as one of his choices:



Sweet. I like it when Japanese localization teams have some light fun with the translation.




What happened last?: We find out that Serina chugs milk as if her family was running a dairy farm. She believes that it will trigger a growth spurt and she'll grow 9 feet tall or something. This is supposedly what she considers to be the optimal vision of what a disciple should be. She also still hates Wake because of that stupid accident.

What happened next?: Freaky Friday, or Big (the movie I mean). I'm only half kidding. Wake helps Serina out one day to acquire milk, because apparently the students in the cafeteria turn into a goddamn horde during lunchtime for cow juice. Serina shows a small amount of gratitude towards Wake for helping her, and gives him a coupon to a cafe or something.

Wake is wandering around one day and ends up at the cafe that he has the coupon for. It turns out that the cafe is run by Serina's family, namely her older sister, Nazuna. We immediately see that Serina's obsession with getting bigger is because she has an inferiority complex regarding her sister. Nazuna was the S-Rank Valedictorian when she graduated, was a powerful fighter (and is implied to still be one), is tall and beautiful, and she is mentioned to be crazy stacked. We only see her from the collarbone area and up, but Serina and Nazuna both mention it at different points, and one of Wake's dialogue choices is, honest to god:




So yeah, Official Wake's interest in women can be all over the place depending on your dialogue choices. Anyway, Serina wants to one-up her sister, because of course she does. Nazuna doesn't come off as being snobbish or anything, Serina just envies her because she isn't her. Nazuna proceeds to do what older sister characters/mother figures in anime always do, immediately start teasing Wake and Serina by suggesting they are dating. Serina says "He's not my boyfriend!" a lot, Nazuna thinks it's cute, you get the idea.

Later on, Serina is found on the rooftop actually trying to perform the 'Make your bust bigger with Star Energy' thing from that trashy book in the library. It doesn't work, because of course it doesn't. However, Wake and Serina get knocked into each other at one point, which causes Serina to actually transform into her 'perfect vision'.



Just a quick point here: There are 'Touch' events in the game, because obviously. I think they were way more common and involved in the Vita/3DS version, but maybe I'm just remembering wrong. Just think of it like the Fire Emblem: Fates debacle, where 'Vita/3DS Conception II = Japanese Fates release', while 'Steam Conception II = English Fates localization'.



Moving on, Serina treats this in the exact way you would expect. She immediately starts acting like the typical anime popular girl, being supremely confident in her new looks and wanting to rub it in people's faces. She ends up turning back to her original self at some point, which leads to her finding out a few things regarding the transformation:

A) She needs Wake's massive amount of Ether to activate it.
B) Wake needs to kiss her in order for it to work (she has him kiss her hand).
C) It only lasts an hour, or until she rejects the Ether and turns back of her own accord.
D) She can't use Star Energy while in this form, meaning it's worthless for combat.

Despite these minor setbacks, Serina proceeds to flaunt this for all it's worth and drags Wake around to act as her personal transformation item. All the while this is going on, Serina keeps talking about how guys would only want this version of her, while Wake keeps trying to tell her that he likes her as she normally is. Serina, of course, blows this off and continues enjoying her new body.

During a shopping trip out, where Wake offers to help carry shopping bags like a gentleman (Nazuna basically flatters him into doing it), Serina stops at some store to pick up "intimates" for Nazuna (Nazuna apparently gets her younger sister to do this for her). Wake wisely proceeds to wait outside, and Serina wonders why he didn't jump at the opportunity since she figured every guy was into her sister.

Serina goes in, then runs back out huffy and teary eyed because some little girl in the store had bigger boobs than her and the sales lady said that that size was 'normal for kids these days'. Despite no antagonizing whatsoever, Serina demands to transform, struts into the store and buys the largest bra available, then meets up with Wake in the park and declaring victory while musing about maybe even being bigger than Nazuna.

Serina then gets her comeuppance when the Single Person Fusion Dance hits the time limit, and transforms back to normal, causing the bra to drop off of her underneath her uniform. She's then forced to have to give the bra to Nazuna or face the secondary humiliation of having to go back to the store and return it. No, Serina has still not learned any lesson by this point.




What happened last?: ...A.I.? ...Stella from Gundam Seed Destiny? Actually, god no. Forget I said that last one. That series ceased to exist after Seed. Or maybe Astray. Stargazer? Anyway, there is no such thing as Stella. Moving on.

I don't have an appropriate analogue to Torri's route. Last time we saw her she was being eccentric, talking about birds, staring out windows, and sort of being a vagrant despite Enzea leaving her in Ruby's care. There hasn't been much else to her beyond that.

What happened next?: Mostly those same things. Wake continues feeding her because she keeps spending all her allowance every month somehow.



Which culminates in this:



Wake feeds her Sara Potatoes and she acts like a fucking baby bird, flapping her hands and everything. She doesn't go so far as to tweet or anything, thank Christ.

Anyway, Wake mentions that he used to love the soup that his mother would make, you know, before she got killed and everything. The only problem is that it uses an herb called Siglett which is hard to come by. He mentions it in passing and doesn't really dwell on it or anything, it's just something he used to like.

Wake is talking to Torri in a different event when she darts off somewhere, saying she has something to do. He goes looking for her, Takoyaki Guy makes another appearance and is still cool (he has a baby girl ), then Chlotz eventually tells him that he saw Torri running off to the Cliffs of Moher or some shit. Wake takes off looking for her, since she wouldn't survive ten seconds without adult supervision.



He finds her dangling from the cliffs with an acompanying CG that I had to cut in half in order to display in the thread. I won't link the original CG, because it is an insane amount of upskirt and there is no way to not be creepy about it. So Torri nearly gets herself killed trying to get this herb that Wake briefly mentioned, Wake lightly scolds her for being a reckless idiot, and no lesson is learned because Torri only sees 'Wake + Mother's Soup = Wake Happy'.

After that little escapade, Torri picks up some type of whittling hobby and crafts some sort of wooden bird with wing-flapping action. She takes it outside and Wake watches as she makes it fly using her Star Energy. She then trips on a rock and the wooden bird nosedives into the ground. She says that she'll get to fixing it and making it better.




Wake returns in the next event to find that she has constructed an entire plane. Suck on that Wright Brothers. The plane is powered by her Star Energy, so she hops aboard and tries to fly it.




She gets some speed and a few feet of air...




...but then her Star Energy runs out and the thing nearly plows into a group of Disciples that are watching, then almost into the school itself, before she manages to veer it off its destructive course and crash land it without collateral damage. The plane gets wrecked, Torri vows to make a bunch of improvements to it, then Chloe comes in and orders them to the teacher's lounge to lecture them both, even though Wake had little to no involvement.


Now you're all caught up on the others. This should let everyone get a general idea of where the heroine routes are going. All of them have established a relative theme by this point, which is to say that I don't believe any of them pull a hard right into a completely different direction.

Chloe, Narika, and Ellie will still get their fourth level bond events in Chapter 4 (as they did win the original vote), and I'll do an intro and summary for Feene when she joins. Then sometime around end of Chapter 4, start of Chapter 5, we'll do another vote to see if the thread wants to swap anyone in/out.

Chapter 7 is the last chance for bonding, and whomever the three focus heroines are at that point will be the ending candidates.

But that's still a little ways off. For now, we look ahead to the end of Chapter 3, which is coming in the next update.