Part 38: Chapter 28M: Fantasy Cave

I tested out an in-progress UI patch with this update, so some stuff is in english.

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Sakuya's finally saved up enough PP to get Predict. Normally I'd be more focused on getting certain characters certain skills, but with all this voting I'm spreading the PP pretty thin.

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Music: Border of Regular and Irregular Days

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The winds from the surface sure are staying cold this year.

...!

Hey, someone's coming!



And there's a chilly breeze. It's hard to believe this is a cave.

Lady Patchouli, could this really be the Underworld?

I don't know. Had I known we'd be doing this, I would have studied up more.

Well, let's try going just a little further. If we turned back now, our whole trip would be wasted.

Yamame and a bunch of enemies spawn in.

Yamame, over here!

Whoa, they really are humans. What a rare find, Kisume. Nice work.

Oh, someone's here!

Youmu? Nope, doesn't look like it.

Do you two live in this cave? We're looking for someone. Have you seen a girl with a bobbed haircut and a pair of swords?

A girl with swords? That's a strange question for a visitor to ask. I don't even know how long it's been since the last time we had visitors from the surface.

Wait, from the surface? Does that mean what I think it means?

Oh, did you come here not knowing where this is? This is the entrance to the Underworld. I'm Yamame Kurodani. Come on in, I won't stop you.

Oh, dear. This place is truly connected to the Underworld?

Oh, geez... Look at her.

What's your problem?

Here she is! It's a spider, an earth spider!

Yah, an earth spider! We'll tear you to pieces!

Whoa there, Nitori. What's gotten into you?!

Nothing's gotten into me! That's an earth spider! They're rotten, despicable Underworld youkai that pollute rivers!

Oh hoh. I was curious why you came here. Was it for a fight? Interesting. I like it. If you wanna go, I'll go!

You heard her, everybody! You can do it!

Nitori, you are just...

Hey, whatever floats her boat. An enemy of Nitori is an enemy of ours.

Excuse me, didn't we agree before that we couldn't stay here long?

It's too late to back down now. Let's defeat them and get out of here, quickly.

Yamame, I don't like the way they're talking...

Hmph, act big while you can. I'll show you the strength of the youkai banished below the surface!



Huh, thought I fixed the Chapter # Chapter thing.



Welcome to Subterranean Animism stage 1. Notice anything fishy on the bottom right?

If Yamame's fighting, then count me in!



Kisume zooms ahead on the first enemy phase.

Whoa! A bucket just flew at us!

From these tactics, this is undoubtedly a tsurube-otoshi.

You know something, Patchouli?!

Yes, I've read about them. They're dangerous and highly aggressive youkai. They supposedly drop down from overhead when people are walking down dark roads at night.

That doesn't sound dangerous to me. That just sounds pesky.

I am not! I'll scare you good!

Kisume's a little shy, but she gets things done when she has to. Don't take her too lightly, or you'll end up with a nasty bump on your head.

Annoyingly enough, that doesn't count as Kisume's move for the turn. So she immediately goes for my weakest character.

I've been wondering... is it fun being in a bucket?

Huh? I've never thought about that.

Well if it is, I'd like to try too!

Sorry, but this bucket only seats one!

Music: Living in the Capital's Bucket



Luna, taking one for the team.



Yamame has a spellcard, so to get the bonus I really do have to jet through the stage as fast as possible. So the main duo (and Elly, so Marisa doesn't die) will skip to Yamame while everyone else deals with Kisume and the enemies.

This bonus would be much easier if I had Aya, but she's trapped on the other route. Just like Komachi back in MoF.

Also, there's a quick conversation if you attack one of the hell ravens.

What's with these things? They're not like regular youkai crows.

Of course not. These ravens were raised in a very harsh environment. Know what their favorite food is? I'll give you all one guess.

Ooh, what is it? What do you mean?

That raven's got the look of someone who craves dead flesh. Be careful, everyone!



Kisume's field makes her slightly more annoying to swat. At the same time, not having Shield Defense yet makes her much more bearable.

Tsurube-otoshi make me think of bad memories. One time when we were playing behind the shrine, an apple fell on my head all of a sudden...

That's got nothing to do with me.



Guess I should have cast Guard instead of Focus.

I heard that in the Underworld, there are awful and dangerous youkai. Which one are you?

Well I guess the latter. But anyway, if I went to the surface would I meet even more strangers...?

Oh I see, you're just shy.



Huh, so the name listed in the status window is separate from the one in conversation boxes. Interesting.

That bucket certainly looks tough. I wonder if I can break it?

Please don't do anything weird!



Kisume is less of a speedbump on Lunatic, but really this whole chapter is kind of annoying there. Once again, there's a reason I chose Reimu route to be the Lunatic one.



Might as well give Sunny more levels.

I'm new to this place, but are there any of my friends in the Underworld too?

Yeah, the zombies are fun to play with.

Z-zombies?

The only fairies in SA are zombies.



Sunny picked up Grit. Because I guess she needed another way to stay alive.

Kisume drops an E-Shooter (Hit rates +10%) and a bomb.

Kyah!

Ack, Kisume! Is your bucket okay?

Um, yeah. I'm okay, it just kinda hurts. Sorry, Yamame. I'd better go.

Kisume withdraws.

I knew you guys were nothing to sniff at, but I never thought you'd beat Kisume. If I backed down now, I'd shame the whole Underworld.



Yamame automatically casts Strike when Kisume dies.



But since I beat Kisume so fast, my frontline units aren't close enough for this to be a problem.



The remaining grunts have aggressive AI, so I don't need to send people down to clean them up. I can just head straight for Yamame.



Who, predictably, headed straight for Marisa.

I've been in the youkai exterminating business for a long time now, but this is my first time meeting one of you Underworld folks.

Well for me, it's been a long time since I've fought a human from the surface. Before you all, all kinds of humans used to come here.

Huh, so I'll be going further than anyone before me? That's pretty cool. I'll show off as much as I can here, and spread the name of the magician Marisa Kirisame much wider than Reimu's!

Music: Upbeat Spider



No need to set up for Master Spark + Shanghai Doll here, Yamame's pretty flimsy. Danmaku Power 2 and Valor wil-



why did i cast alert i was saving up for valor



Ugh, whatever, I'll just Support Attack her into the ground.

Sickness, huh. That reminds me, earlier I caught a cold.

Oh, so even youkai can get sick.

Even though I take pride in my health, I ended up making Yuuka worried... but then again, I got to be nursed back to health. It makes me happy just thinking about it.



Elly grabs the kill and levels up. She gets a free level of Support Defense at 23, which is pretty handy.

Yamame also drops a bomb, because why not I guess. I'm pretty sure one of the changes Lunatic makes is cutting out Kisume's bomb drop.

Not too shabby. I can see that surface-dwellers don't slack off.

Hmph. For someone so hated and despised, she sure isn't that great.

I bet living so long without the light of the sun took away all her energy.

No, this isn't what earth spiders are all about. Their power is spreading disease. That's how they pollute rivers!

I see. Disease, the power to eat one's life from the inside out.

With a power like that, no wonder others loathe her.

Wow, I can see how much you hate me. We hardly ever use our powers. But it wouldn't do to let surface-dwellers make a mockery of me. I haven't hit any humans with disease in years, but I won't let that stop me!




Filled Miasma doesn't have a very interesting animation, it's just some random tiles forming in a spiral. Its effect (all stats -25) would theoretically be an issue if Yamame could hit anyone.



Sunny and Star drop both of my bombs to add insult to injury.

Okay, come at me! With my power, it doesn't matter if they're a human or a youkai, I can make them sick.

What a troublesome opponent. I'll have to stay at a distance and fight with my dolls.

Sorry, Shanghai. I'll clean you up later.

Shanghai...



One of the cooler things about Proto Malice Cannon is that Alice and Marisa can probably use it even if they've been spamming finishers.







It's actually pretty important you beat Yamame here since she drops another Firefly Gem. It won't be very useful in this game, but in FMW3...

There! We did it, everybody!

No one could take that many nasty attacks and keep on kicking!

Whew, that was fun. You guys know how to keep things flashy!

There's slightly different dialogue if Yamame was timed out or defeated before Kisume.

So, how about another round? Just kidding, my work here is done.

What? We can go all day if you want.

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure it's time we stop. There's no way you could come this close to the Underworld without her noticing.

Her?

Yeah, someone super scary. Not gonna lie, I'd start running if I were you.

Yamame leaves.

What's she talking about? Is this a bluff?

Look, we can't overstay our welcome here. If we do, we're in for trouble.

She's right, Marisa. We need to go back to the surface now.



Everyone starts slooooooowly leaving.

Man, you guys are no fun. We could at least find ourselves a souveni- hm?



What's that thing? There's something huge buried here.

You're right. It's shaped like a ship.

Hold on, I'm gonna go check this out.



C'mon, a quick check won't hurt anything. Woah, it really is a ship. What's it doing buried in the ground?

She's not listening to us. Maybe we should drag her out.

All right. I'll do the honors-

! No, don't. We're surrounded!

Huh?!

Music: Reinforcements - Theme of the Detestable Youkai



Satori, Orin, Utsuho, and a whole bunch of hell ravens arrive. Incidentally, the bird closest to Satori is actually just a regular youkai crow.

More Underworld ravens! A bunch of them!

You were right. There really are intruders.

...

No, of course I didn't doubt you. You did a good job reporting to me.

Wow, real humans. I haven't seen live ones in ages!

Bwah? But I thought surface people weren't allowed down here.

Hello. I am Satori Komeiji, ruler of the Palace of Earth Spirits. The last thing I was expecting was to find a group of surface youkai barging into the Underworld.

Um, about that! We didn't mean to intrude. We wandered here by accident!

So she claims. What do we do, Lady Satori?

Capture them. We'll make them tell us everything.

Looks like she's not in the mood for negotiating! Marisa, come on, we're getting outta here!

Got it! I'll just swoop right on out of here...

Marisa makes a break for it.

Whoa, she's fast!

You're not supposed to stand there admiring her! We have to capture her!

Orin. Okuu. That human will fly straight ahead. Block her path from the front.

On it, Lady Satori!



In that case, this time, I'll...

Her movement is a feint. Corner her from the opposite side.

Aye-aye, ma'am!



She will attempt to slip between you. Trap her in a pincer attack.



Argh, lemme go! Let go of me!

Ahh! They caught Marisa!

Lady Satori, do we capture the rest of them?

No, one will be enough. You can do what you like with the rest. Don't squabble with each other. Remember, sharing is caring.

Pfft, it's not fair letting the ravens have all the fun. Leave some for us, okay?

...

Yikes! Those ravens wanna eat us!

And with this many of them, we can't go to Marisa's rescue!

Now then, I'll be taking you to the Palace of Earth Spirits. I'll take as long as I need to find out why you came to the Underworld.

Stop it! I wasn't even...!

Marisa is dragged away.

Marisa!

MARISA!



And just for fun, here's the game over dialogue:



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Music: Bizarre Smile

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Music: What's the Strategy?

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Kisume and Yamame Kurodani
All Attacks
Kisume battle theme: Living in the Capital's Bucket (The Dark Blowhole)
Yamame battle theme: Upbeat Spider (The Sealed-Away Youkai)

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Okay, I'll be borrowing some grimoires today too.

My, if it isn't Marisa. You're just on time, have some tea with me.

Well that's suspicious. I've got business in the library, so gimme a sec.

Aaaah, it's Marisaaaa! Hey, hey, play with me!

Stop it. I don't know why, but I want to drink tea with Marisa.

Eeeeh? But don't you want to play with me, Marisa?

Hey, wai- gah, you're pulling me from both si- ow, quit it! You're tearing me apaaaaart!