Part 36: Tuesday's Disquiet (Bridge)

Tuesday's Disquiet (Bridge)

As usual, we have a couple of new things to fuse up. Only two this time though.



First up's the second Megami demon, Kikuri-Hime (Power + Leanan Sidhe in this case). She brings with her Media like Leanan Sidhe did. She also brings Recarm once she gets a couple of levels, and that's pretty good; it's the basic revival spell and using it smartly can wear down some actually tough fights.

I'm giving her to Io, rather than Hibiki, as a change though. He'll keep his Leanan Sidhe for now. Well, after I buy a second Kikuri-Hime from the compendium, because...



I'm gonna fuse one of the Kikuri-Himes with Ictinike to make Orthrus. He's a pretty quick, durable and hard-hitting physical demon. Retaliate means he counters more often than someone with just the Counter passive, when he gets it Preserve Extra means he won't almost always lose his extra turns when he gets hit with Ice spells and Desperation is a suicide bomber move. Sacrifices all of his HP to hit the enemy with Almighty damage; I'm sure there's a real good and clever use for this but I'll be damned if I wanna try it and find out. Never used it, don't intend to start now.

[Music: Exploration]



Well that done, we can relax for the rest of the day. Let's start things off for real by bugging Fumi about Nicaea.



Hm...? What do you guys want?
Yo, how's it going?
Huh...? Fine, I suppose.
Oh hey, Fumi, there was something we wanted to ask you.



Nicaea's server? I don't know. Why do you ask?
Oh... Um, well, you seemed to know a lot about computers, so we thought...
Hm... I did look into it, actually.
What did you find?

[Music: The Enigma Deepens]



Its creator is unknown, as is the location of the server.
So even you don't know...
Indeed I don't. Were there any other questions?
We're stumped...
Well, baseless speculation won't produce results. I tried, but I'm still in the dark.
Hmm, no dice. Guess even an ace detective can't crack this one.
Don't give up!
Pff, like a brute force method will work. You can't prove a hypothesis without data.
Um... hypothesis?



Any theories?
Nicaea's purpose, huh? Hmm... I know! It's to get to know demons better.
Wrong. Are you stupid!? Nicaea shows the deaths of those you know, right?
Um... yes. That's right, but...
That's the first datum. Why would it do that?
To save them?



In other words, Nicaea shows you your friends' deaths to get you to prevent them.
Prevent... their deaths? It shows us what'll happen to stop it from happening?
Yes. And this summoning app... It was installed automatically, right?
Yeah.



Really? That's a roundabout way of doing things. Why go to the trouble?
Let's think about it. What have you done up to now?
Well, we beat Dubhe...
Hmm... That's it... Yes, yes, you're onto something there...
The loose demons probably came from the summoning app. They're nothing special to the site...



They're not in the JP's records, so they're not demons...
Oh...! I see. Weapons have no effect on monsters like Dubhe, but...
Demons work like a charm.
Yes, that's right. Demon tamers can stand up against those monsters...
So... does that mean the admin at Nicaea...



...That's one possibility.
That's amazing.
Yeah... it really is!
Uhh, sorry to interrupt, but who's doing this?
Um... That's...



[Music: Silence]

Everyone falls silent...

Huh...? Why's everyone gotten so quiet? Was it something I said...?

[Music: Exploration]

Well, no matter. I think we've taken a step forward from an informational perspective.
Oh... Y-Yeah, she's right. We're finally getting somewhere.
We'll find out eventually.
You got it. We'll find the answer sooner or later!



Gotcha.
See you around.

You say your farewells to Fumi and leave the area...



Having an idea about what Nicaea's all about is nice and all, but I think it might help us more in the immediate future to learn about our new friend over here.



You notice a familiar man up ahead...



Hey, how's it going?
Are you joking? You're just a civilian helping them, right? I don't intend to fight you.
You're not from Nagoya, are you? Where are you from?
Tokyo.
I see...
...JP's must be losing personnel, too.
Ever since the world was destroyed, they accept anyone who can summon demons.
So there are others?



...Why are you helping JP's?
It just happened.
...Considering the circumstances, that can't be helped, can it?

[Music: Silence]



This comes out of nowhere no matter what you say to Ronaldo.



Okay so reasons why I like Ronaldo that are obvious so far:

1. He has a sweet jacket (you know you would wear it);
2. He tries so hard to appear cool, but he's a total dork.

Dude's 26 and referring to his boss as ~*senpai*~. Kinda hard to take that seriously.

[Music: Dark Clouds]

I didn't believe him...



Was he killed?
I can't say. He suddenly vanished, without a trace.
As I was investigating his tracks... the world changed. And then they appeared.
Yamato's people?
That's right. The mysterious organization, led by one Yamato Hotsuin.



And they abandoned the people. They didn't distribute the goods they'd collected.
They literally treated us like garbage.
Sounds tough.
It was worse than that. People have died already! And it's all their fault!



Maybe he was.
Yes... That must be it. It's obvious, after seeing how they're acting now...



This is a fantastic idea and won't end badly at all. I say we do it.

You say your farewells to Ronaldo and leave the area...

[Music: Exploration]



Neither of these things should come as a surprise as this point, really. Of course Ronaldo has Fate levels; he's a named character with multiple unique portraits. His rank 1 bonus being just Fire was sorta hinted at in the fight against him too - he only had two resistances: Fire and Mystic, and he had Anti-Curse as a passive ability but nothing for Fire. It's subtle, but clever.



We can, in fact, go and ask Yamato about the stuff we just learned. Let's put that off for a minute though, and see what this tower thing is about.



Hmmm... I wonder. Is it just because they're monsters...?
See any radio waves?
Mmm-hmm, sure do. I can see 'em zapping around back and forth...!
Wait, you're pulling my leg, aren't you?
Anyways... Dubhe, Merak, and now Phecda. That's three times so far.
...You mean towers?



[Music: The Enigma Deepens]

Dubhe was after Tokyo Tower, yeah? Merak at Tsuutenkaku, Phecda at this TV Tower?
If this was a monster movie, it would be a dumb cliche to go after landmarks like that...



Yeah.
Yup. And that's not all. JP's is acting funny too, trying to protect towers.
Why would they do that? Are they hiding something? Oh, is it a tourism thing?
That's it!
Aha...! Yeahhhhh... Pretty shrewd of them.

Joe is still looking absent-mindedly up at the tower...



It just seems off, like it's a secret or something. I wonder if I can puzzle it out...
Well, I'm gonna stay here a while longer. See ya.

You say your farewells to Joe and leave the area...

Pretty weird that Joe of all people is the one to notice that, huh? Seemed like something Fumi would pick up on first but apparently not.

[Music: Exploration]



Oh well, let's go do something stupidly risky and ask Yamato if he got a dude whacked.



It's you... Kuze. Well done.
That was easy.



What more could you have hoped to accomplish?
...You met Ronaldo Kuriki, no? What did he have to tell you?

[Music: Dark Clouds]

Actually...





So you don't deny it?
Why should I deny it? Does a hawk not kill animals that would threaten its nest?



...There is no reason why a rat should have even heard about it.



Now, go. I truly do appreciate your annihilation of Phecda. Well done.

You say your farewells to Yamato and leave the area...



Well, with that totally not at all ominous scene done, we're officially finished with everything plot related. Or, rather, it seems like we are at the least since every scene left is just hanging out with someone. We have plenty of time to kill, and lots of people to spend it with.

As always, the question is who?