Part 31: Chapter 25M: Visitor in the Snow

Full Text

------





What's wrong Marisa? Where's your usual vigor?

Say what you like, I'm gonna end this with the next attack.

Stop this you two!



Alice?

I thought I told you to stay out of this!

W-we can't do that! You need to calm down, Marisa.

This is my problem! It has nothing to do with you!

It's no use, she's not listening.

In that case, Yuuka, you can back down. You must be satisfied by now.

Oh, so you think you can break up our fight?

Yes. I can't just sit back and watch you bully her.

Heh. I do like the fact that you have enough spine to stand up to me,

But if you think that's enough to get me to stop then you're gravely mistaken!

Yuuka charges up another Spark.

Both of you, watch out!

Gh-!



Koishi pops up.

...!

I asked what you're doing out here in the cold.

What's with you? And can't you tell by looking?

Can't you tell that I'm asking because I can't tell?

Hey, you! It's dangerous over there! Find somewhere to hide! Quick!

Oh, I see. So you're having a duel. Thanks for letting me know.

...

...Who are you? What are you doing here?

My name is Koishi. You're the local youkai?

How annoying. If you're going to get in my way, then-

!



And then Koishi vanished.

Huh?

She's gone? When did she-



...!

What? How did you get over there?

You had no presence at all for a moment. Just who are you?

So when are you going to start fighting again? If possible, can it be sooner rather than later? I want to see the whole thing, so I can give my sister the blow-by-blow.

We're not playing around you know.

...

This isn't fun anymore. I'll let you go for today.

You gonna turn tail and run, Yuuka?!

Heh heh, there's no need to rush. I'll fight you again someday. Besides, I have somewhere else to be.

And where is that?

It's been a pleasure, Alice. I'll visit again later.

Yuuka leaves.

Gah! That little... Does she thinks she can say whatever she wants and get away with it?!

Oh, it's over already? I was hoping to see a drawn out, bloody battle.

Don't say unpleasant things like that. I'm glad the fighting's over.

So, who are you anyway? Where are you from? And why did you come here, of all places?

I'm Koishi, a simple tourist.

A tourist? The Forest of Magic isn't a place for sightseeing you know.

Wait, something's coming!

Music: Reinforcements - Theme of the Detestable Youkai



...

Youkai crows? What are they doing here?

Oh, I guess I've been found. Have I been showing myself a bit too often?

Those crows came looking for you? Somehow I don't think they're your friends though.

...

Zenki approaches.

...! Looks like they're going to attack.

Let's fight 'em off then! I need to vent off some steam anyway.

I'm not sure how I should feel about that, but it is true that we need to do something.

Is that so? Should I leave them to you then?

All right, let's go you two!





More filler. If you're curious, yes, the map is a winter version of 2M.

Priority one, as you'd expect,



is to check out these flowers!

Huh? Are these flowers blooming in the middle of winter? Well, sorry you guys. Right now I've got a more interesting flower to play with, so I can't get distracted.

It's another bonus conversation spot. As you'd expect, Alice and Nitori also have words to say.

It's the flowers Yuuka brought me. Japanese camellias and winter jasmines, hmm. I believe these are Himalayan, or something like that.

If she just brought flowers I'd be happy, but why did she have to bring trouble too?

Even though it's the middle of winter, these flowers are blooming. Weird. Were they specially bred or something?

But is it really natural to bloom in the winter?

And despite being an uncontrollable neutral unit, Koishi has a conversation too.

Oh, are these the surface's flowers? I should bring some back with me and decorate the house.

I have no idea how you're even supposed to see this.



Koishi runs closer to the enemy force.

H-hey, it's not safe over there!

It's fine. I came all this way, so I need to make this worth my while. Wow, these sure are different from the crows I know. They don't smell like carrion, and they've got some kind of spirit in them.

She seems comfortable enough out there. Did she even need our help?

More importantly, it looks like the crows are ignoring her completely. Is she using some kind of ability?

Save it for later. Let's clean up the trash first.



And it figures that right after I say that, for the first time ever in my 10+ playthroughs Koishi runs towards the flowers instead of the enemy.



Those white tiles you could just barely see represent Koishi's ability, Cognizance Stealth. It prevents both player and enemy units from attacking her, and anybody who stands in her field gets the same effect.



I wasted one of my five turns on those bonus conversations, but I can still do this. Just gotta go fast.

Music: Be a Shooting Star

So we have a girl named Koishi, and crows chasing after her. What's going on here?

Well, whatever. I've got all this anger, might as well take it out on them!

These lines are only supposed to play against the "bosses", Zenki and Goki, but I guess something broke.



There's nothing special about the enemies, so the chapter's as simple as charging in.



Note that this kedama can't counter Alice; that's because Alice is standing in Koishi's field.

Of course Marisa would get angry after everything Yuuka said. She always speaks without thinking. I wish she'd stop and reflect on her actions.



I had Marisa zoom right into the middle of the enemy swarm. She was Focused so the danmaku penalties didn't cripple her evasion, and took just enough graze damage to zero out enemy hit rates with Instinct Dodge.

This is a pretty risky strategy, but eh. Gotta spice things up.



Then I had Alice run right next to her and slammed Zenki with Artful Sacrifice + Master Spark. The crows flee at about 40% HP I think, so that's this chapter over with.

...





There were three kedamas left to defeat, but meh. Probably should have at least had Marisa cast Valor so I could have at least killed Zenki and got some points, but again meh.

If you defeat them, Zenki and Goki drop a Frozen Frog and a Rat's Tail respectively.

The way these crows are moving is weird. It's like they're following a computer program. Hmm, I wish I could capture one and study it... This isn't the time for that though.

As intended, Nitori only speaks if she fights Zenki/Goki. She never got there, but thanks to the text dump I have the line anyways.

That takes care of that. They weren't anything special.

Oh... so that wasn't a big deal? I got to see something interesting.

What was up with those crows though? They seemed like they were someone's familiars.

You said you were Koishi, right? No reason to stand around in the cold, let's talk inside.

I don't mind talking.

Let's head in then. I'll make some tea.



------


Music: What's the Strategy?

Full Text

------

So, has Magical Girl Kurumi picked out her transformation chat yet?

Yup, I thought up of all sorts of things but I guess I should have known I should keep things simple. Like a demon calling himself Demon Man.

If you keep up that line of thought, you'll end up like Koakuma. You want to be respected as a devil, right? Why not go for something more erotic?

H-huh?

What, got a problem with that?

No, but that seems really embarrassing...

I guess you're still too young for something like that then.