Part 11: Update IX

Alright, let's check out this hotel.



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫



Before we get to do anything...



This right here is a toy vending machine popular with the kids, the MonoMono Machine. By shooting Move at this machine, you can spin it for free just once. There's nothing scarier than free things... ...I sure hope nothing bad happens. Items that might be useful in battle will drop, so use it whenever you see one.

Let's give it a shot!





So this time it gave me a Break refill, just a short time after the last one I got, meaning I got one whole shot extra. Awesome.





Next, we get to boost ourselves up to the vomit staircase to proceed.



♪ BGM: We Can't Change The World ♫

As we proceed, Komaru gets an idea.

Wh-What?
I think I've got an idea! Look, if we use this telephone to call the police, won't they come save us?
The police? That collective of psychos that think all humans are criminals until proven innocent!?
That's...quite a bias...
It's a shitty idea! There's no way it'd go through. Telephones, internet, nothing!
Huh!? Nothing works?
I-If they did, this whole problem would have been solved by now! Jeez, use your brain!
You're seriously useless... More useless than... Than a salmon that already laid its eggs!





♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

Toko's a bit slow on the uptake, calling out Monokumas I've already blasted.



Hm, another door. Is this the path onwards or a side path to be explored? Let's ask the map!



And now we know! We should enter that room.



Looks pretty nice. And there's also a sparkly thing!







♪ BGM: DSO_Beautiful Dead ♫

You think *you're* tired? If you're tired, I don't even have a word for how tired I am. I need a new onomatopoeia to express the sheer tiredness...

Writing shorthand #1124: Actually using the word "onomatopoeia" means the character is a writer of some kind.

You're tired? You don't really look like it, Toko.
I'm liberal arts to the core. No energy...at all.
Aren't you younger than me!? Telling me you're tired already...
My age doesn't affect how tired I am...
Oh, hey... How old are you?
Y-Your tricks won't work on me!
...What?
You're trying to show how young you are by comparing yourself to my age, aren't you!? Trying to add "old hag" onto the usual insults of ugly and gloomy and smelly!
Th-That's not true at all! I was just curious!
Doesn't matter... I won't tell you.
Your hiding it makes me want to know even more, Toko. Makes me think that maybe you're even older than I imagined...
No *way* I'm 5 or 6 years older than you.
...No way you're younger than that either...
I very well could be!

Age insecurity!



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

Continuing on through the hotel, the Monokumas we encounter here have little chef's hats on! Adorable, but they get blasted all the same.



Over in the next hotel room, we find another sparkly thing!







Backstory!



Oh hey, a shiny looking gift!



It's a trap! However, a trap featuring a single Monokuma which is easily dealt with.



Also, why the hell are there church-style stained glass windows of Monokumas in a hotel? Not complaining, mind, because they look neat.



Another shiny thing in the next hotel room.



This is the best manga.







♪ BGM: DSO_Beautiful Dead ♫

Wh-What!?
The Bomb Inside Her! This manga... Oh it's been ages since I read this! I love it!
It's just a manga... Why'd they draw her eyes so big? Jeez, at least I still look remotely human.
The size of the eye is a sign of beauty! A sophisticated process and form! A manga with small eyes is like ramen with no bamboo shoots!
...Sounds like some pretty good ramen.
Oh have you even read it!? The Bomb Inside Her is like, required reading for high school girls!
There's no way I'd read even a single page of that manga dreck!
And what do you mean, "high school girls"? Were you even in high school?
Well age-wise, I am...
Age-wise? You've been...imprisoned since middle school? Is that your middle school uniform?
No, this is a high school uniform. While I was imprisoned, it was delivered to me one day along with the food. Until then I had been wearing my middle school uniform... The culprit probably felt sorry for me.
Well, for criminals, that was a pretty nice gesture. A grown woman in a middle school uniform... People would have called the cops.
Well you're one to talk, wearing a high school uniform after you've graduated...
But... I'm really glad they gave me one. This is the St. Koa Girls Academy uniform. It's a famous rich-girl school!
Koa? I've never heard of it.
Koa Academy has a 300-year history of culture, activities, and sports. The club uniforms are also super cute. There are tons of girls who want a chance to wear one. The school cafeteria is buffet style, and you hear about it on television all the time... ...
...Ugh.
Wh-What!?
I'm feeling... It's just silly of me to fantasize about all those details now, isn't it?
Well it sounded too good to be true, but you're telling me you made up the whole thing!?
I wanted a high school life like that!
Even if you weren't imprisoned, I don't think that school life was in your future.
Y-You don't have to be so blunt about it!

Toko Fukawa: Destroyer of Dreams.



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

Heading down the path, we find an elevator and another shiny thing!





This is...
D-Did you remember something?
Yeah, it's probably something the brats made. A list made so that they can efficiently hunt and kill targets like you.
B-But that's... Why would they do that!?
Take a look at this part. It says "Hunting Grounds". And with this stupid title, Hit List... It's got to be those brats. They made this.
But does that mean...there's other people who are being hunted by the children?
I'm not sure, but that does seem likely.
But why would something like this...?
Well I doubt they're passing this list around to the adults, so some brat must have dropped it.
If that's the case, we have to hurry and tell this person! The children know where they are!
Your life is more important than that right now. I understand how you feel, but we have to go on. If we run into them, we'll let them know then. That's how we have to handle this for now.
I-Is that really okay...?
Don't think of it in terms of "good" or "bad"... It is what it is...
I-I see... It is what it is...

So, this is the next kind of collectible we have in this game - the Hit List. Throughout the game, we are going to find assorted profiles of Demons the Warriors of Hope are hunting. And the more astute of you will have noticed something, the same thing Toko noticed. Somebody with the last name of Ishimaru... son to a former Prime Minister of Japan... this is Kiyotaka Ishimaru's father.

So, remember those "motives" that Monokuma showed everybody in DR1, those that were about "human connections"? The one where Makoto was shown his sister and parents subjected to an unspecified, yet implied grim fate? The one where Sayaka was shown her bandmates subjected to a similarly unspecified, yet implied grim fate? Well, UDG shows us what happened to them. Turns out that they were apparently imprisoned in a very confined, isolated, yet not entirely unpleasant life, presumably with the idea being that if somebody were to actually win the killing game, they would be reunited with them, or would be shown them being murdered right in front of them for extra despair, or whatever - trying to figure out what Junko's plan would have entailed if it went a different way than it should have is a path down which lies madness.

Regardless, seems like they were all stuck in Towa City, and now that Junko's plans have completely gone to shit, the whole thing with the motives has become entirely pointless, and I guess the fallback plan is "Monokumas break open their confinements and they either get slaughtered or hunted by insane children for sport", judging by what Komaru is going through.

Well, it is what it is. Let's head down the elevator.





Some more Monokuma blasting occurs, and Komaru levels up again!





That means we now get to have an extra heart! I haven't taken a hit yet, but I'm sure it'll come in handy later. Let's head through those swanky doors, which mean...



♪ BGM: It's a Monokuma World ♫

...it's Monoku-Man time!



♪ Jingle: Monoku-Man Activate ♫



This one is pretty simple, just to get you into the swing of things for the general way these things are going to go. We have four regular Monokumas facing away...



...and one Bomber Monokuma walking between its current position and right between the four Monokumas. The course of action seems clear.



That last room's clear requirement was to get past without getting caught. But from now on, arcade machine room clear requirements will be: kill all enemies.



All arcade machine rooms have strategies that can destroy all the enemies at once.



Of course, you could just clear them all with Genocide Jack, but... If you use it too much, it might affect how that being judges you...





Huh? Who is "that being" you say? It's "that being" who loves you deeply... Well, anyways... I believe looking for the strategy is the best thing for you smart people to try.



Oh, I almost forgot! If something happens, and you feel like you're stuck... Please choose Retry from the Menu. But, using Retry affects that being's review, so play wisely...

Mysterious.



Anyway, like both I and the tutorial said, this is easy. Wait for the Bomber Monokuma to move up...



...blast...



...explode...



♪ Jingle: Monoku-Man Success ♫

...win!



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

We make our way through another stained glass hallway...



...and find ourselves in a large foyer-like area with a Monokuma kid and a computer.



♪ BGM: Riddle Land ♫



What is this? A letter...?
Maybe it's a love letter! This might be the last one you ever receive, so open it!
You don't have to make it sound so ominous!





Wh-What the heck...? This is no time to be playing games like this!
I want to slap this brat in the face for this... Monokumas would ambush us if I did... It's a pain in the ass... But we gotta do it.



Did... Did you just make a pun? Wow... That does not inspire confidence.

She sounded so damn proud of herself for that pun, too.



♪ Jingle: Challenge from a Child ♫

So this is another thing to mix up the gameplay a bit - every once in a while, you'll get these challenges from the Monokuma kids. Here, we need to solve this puzzle to open the door out of the hotel, so I guess we should get going on that.



Good idea, Toko.



There's the arcade machine, but also a sparkly thing, so let's pick that up first.





So, Towa Group has been a frontline fighter against despair, and seems to have been deterring Junko from attacking Towa City due to sheer technological power. Interesting. Well, I guess that went out the window now, with killer Monokumas roaming the streets of the city. Now, let's check out the arcade machine.



♪ Jingle: Monoku-Man Activate ♫



...hang on. That's not right.



There we go. Toko suggests looking at it upside-down, and mentions she feels like she's seen this trick before. It probably involved the number 11037. Anyway, this is pretty simple. We just flip it upside down, and get 7734.



So we punch the password in...



♪ BGM: We Can't Change The World ♫

...and the door unlocks!



Boo hoo!



"In yo FACE, you little shit!"

D-Don't be gloating about beating a little kid...



Anyway, that means we now get to leave the hotel.



♪ BGM: Hope of the Other Side ♫



Toko! This way!
Hold on a sec...



We're almost there! If we cross that bridge, we can get out of this town!
I hope so...

Well, I think that'll be enough for this update. There's a save point right nearby to where we are right now, so that's where we'll be picking up from next time. Next time, the bridge, maybe?