Part 79: The Mutant Apes
We have control of Ouka for this next section. Let's take a look.
We get her at level 50. Since she's a temporary character, we won't be able to earn any experience with her.
Oh, dear. Well, at least Kato's smart enough not to use the Émigré to try to bring the dead back to life. Instead, he's just using it to help him make weird monkey/human clones of dead people. That's...better...I guess?
She doesn't come with much equipment, just her weapon, a Nambu Special, and a Power Suit. She also has some standard Mana and Thera items and a few Daphne Fruit.
We leave the lab and immediately find someone standing in the hall.
She opts to talk to him, even though her orders were to kill anything in her way.
Ouka, that's Hien. He's one of the Mutant Apes, just like you.
Of course, "testing strength" means we have to fight Hien.
It's not a very difficult fight.
With that, Hien disappears.
This sets off a neat little mini-game.
Basically, as we're running through the hall, a target will pop up out of the walls, ceiling or floor. Hitting the button shown on the target destroys it.
If you push a button that isn't the one shown or fail to shoot the target before it goes back into its slot, it counts as a miss and Ouka is frozen for a few seconds.
Every so often, the target will have a picture of Kato on it. With these, you have to wait until the target goes back into the slot; shooting it freezes Ouka again. Kato really doesn't like it if you shoot "him".
After a short ways of running down the hall, you enter a room where you have to shoot a bunch of targets.
They pop out in quick succession, and you still get frozen if you miss or shoot Kato. Once you've shot 30 targets, any remaining ones withdraw and you can go to the next area.
We run through some more hallways, shooting more single targets.
At the end, we come to a shooting range.
This one has several targets moving down three tracks. If you hit a button that doesn't match one of the targets or one of them reaches Ouka, she's frozen for a few seconds again. I don't think any of the Kato ones show up in this section.
Once that's done, we can head left and exit the room.
One more target pops up in the hall, and then this part of the test is over.
Ha ha, Ouka's got a stylized cherry blossom on her butt.
A short distance down the hall we run into this charmer.
.........
Don't give me that look. I'm Raiden. I'm part of the Mutant Apes, just like you. ...I'm Ouka. Nice to meet you. Not so fast. First of all, I wanna see how good you are! Disgusting creature. Uppity bitch.*sniff* I sense the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.
Raiden is even more of a pushover than Hien.
Well done, Ouka. Now for your final trial. Mutant Apes!
Speaking of Hien, he appears out of thin air.
Yes, sir! 
So now we've got control of two more temporary characters. Hien's highest stats are his Agility and Luck.
Raiden's highest stats are his Strength and Vitality.
They both come with the Power Suit. Hien's weapon is the Crescent Blade, while Raiden's is the Thunder Brace.
Anyway, the door south of where we met Raiden leads to the boss.
Of course I won't. Troglodyte. Shrew.
...Here we go!
So now we get to face off against the Armored Fighter.
Raiden is hitting a lot harder now. He must have been holding back in the fight with Ouka.
The Apes have their own Combo Magic, Lightning Flash. It's pretty.
The fight is over quickly. With three level 50 characters, it's not much of a challenge. I think its main purpose (other than introducing the Apes) is to screw up your Ring Perfect score.
Kato finally shows up in person.
You three have done well.
Yes, Master! Ouka, how do you feel? Is anything hurting you?
I have a slight headache. That's not uncommon. It will go away soon. You're not yet finished, but you can still work with the other two. Do your best; soon you'll have your full powers.
Yes, Master.Okay, am I the only one more than a little creeped out by Kato having a clone of his dead love running around and calling him 'Master'?
