Part 44: Wednesday's Changes (IV)

Wednesday's Changes (IV)



We have no alternatives for places to go yet, so let's just dive straight into this meeting.

[Music: JPs -Geomagnetism Research Department-]



...That's where the situation stands now. After analyzing what Hibiki has told us...
We now know that those buds are created and ejected from Megrez's main body.
What we knew as Dubhe from the first day seems to be a fully grown bud.
And the countermeasure?



The Pacific Ocean?
Correct. We're still trying to determine at what depth. I have no details on that.
But we cannot deal with it at present. A countermeasure is currently being formulated.
Until then, all personnel must quickly report and eliminate any buds that are found.



That is all. Dismissed.

The meeting seems to have come to an end...

[Music: Exploration]



Yamato comes over to speak with you...

It was pretty rad.
Rad...? Hm. I can't say as I understand, but you seem quite calm about all this.
Now. You've heard the details. The other members will deal with the buds as they appear.



While we don't know the bud's powers, those three should suffice for now.
For you... I have something else in mind.
Okay.
Hah... That simplifies things considerably. Well then, I'll leave this in your hands.



Another such situation while dealing with these buds would be problematic.
So I'd like your team to look into the civilians and deal with any problems they pose.
All right.



I should be in touch with you soon about the countermeasure against Megrez.
It's up to you until then. Oh, but there's something I'd like to speak to you about.



Yamato bows gracefully before leaving...



Uhh, Hibiki? The Terminal's been adjusted. Just letting you know it's usable now.
Really?
Hey, would I lie? Don't worry, it's good to go this time.



People keep asking me to explain how it works. Such thorns in my side...



The call cut off there. There's no knowing what he's up to... or caring.



It seems you can instantly travel between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka now...



This is the real use for Terminals. We can basically go anywhere whenever we want to now. It takes no time, so it mostly doesn't matter if the plot wants us in one place or another any more. (The sole exceptions being whenever it's railroading us of course.)

Osaka and Nagoya both have Free Battles available, but neither gives us anything we don't already have at this point so let's see what this problem is. The alternative is just stopping here so we might as well fight something while we can.



[Music: Countdown]

What's with you assholes!? We don't even have food today!
Will you just let it go? Telling us how bad you have it doesn't change anything.
Look, I'm begging you. Can't you at least hand out some medicine? My mother's hurt!
Like I keep saying, we don't have any to give out.
That's a lie! People have seen you carrying medicine and food around!



Wow, that's... that's pretty shitty.

Wh-What...!? If that's how it's gonna be...!



You're abusing the summoning app. I must defeat you!



Stop!
And who are you? Are you friends with this civilian?
I've seen you before... Are you with those military guys?
Stop fighting, you two!

The response here actually matters in a way that's not just "how many Fate points do I get" for once. In this case, it affects the win/lose conditions of this fight.

What arrogance... Who do you think you are? I'll get you!
If you're not with us, you're against us!
Wh-What!? They're going to attack us, too! Hibiki, we have to do something!

[Music: Confrontation]



Since we told both factions here to stop fighting, we have to beat them both up. This is a lot easier than it sounds.



The real benefit to fighting both is that it lets us get all 4 skill cracks. Strengthen's the only new Auto-Skill (costs MP but turns all weaknesses to neutral for that skirmish), Force Boost is nice and Recarm lets you cheese some hard boss fight if you use it smartly. And, of course, getting all 4 is the hardest part about this fight.

If we picked a side, we'd miss out on something good. Force Boost is only on the JP teams, whereas Strengthen and Recarm are only on the civilians.



Also this map is pretty big and we start way too far away to do anything at first, so using Devil Speed to get closer quickly. This is pretty important.



Because these people WILL waste their turns fighting each other if they can. Even if you're stood right next to one, there's a good chance they'll just outright ignore you to beat each other up.

This mostly doesn't matter because the JPs guys only have one crackable skill and half the civilians are a party of 3 people with no skills at all.



Sometimes, though, they will remember to attack us... with the wrong units. This guy should be going after Hinako.



So I had to actively let him live. Dude has Petra Eyes (okay I get Paral Eyes but this one's just dumb) so Hinako needs to finish him off.



Instead, she gets jumped by a team of 3 civilians that have no skills at all.



Unsurprisingly, it ends rather badly for his group.



This Salaryman is the one with Strengthen. His AI is somewhere between "suicidal" and "completely bugfuck insane" because it either stands where it was and dies a turn later or runs back here... and dies a turn later.

Strengthen is the hardest skill to crack here because of this.



NPC teams taking each other out here happens a fair bit at first but once we catch up it gets easier to prevent.



Still got a little ways to go first of course.



Thankfully, Devil Speed means Hibiki can catch this man just before he gets beaten up by a JPs dude.



Shiisaa is usually weak to Fire by default, but Strengthen fixes that. Kinda want Strengthen because it means you don't really HAVE to patch weaknesses which will help for a thing coming up later.



That's the ulterior motive in not letting JPs dudes beat him up. I get to beat him up and have a way to make a not good demon with a billion weaknesses vaguely approach usable.



Fixing that problem replaces it with another though. The Kikuri-Hime on the left is the one that has the Recarm that Io is cracking. The right one has it too, but she's not using that one.



This just became a problem. The AI can and will use Recarm if it needs to revive something. It just rarely does it unless its meant to be competent.



Instead of worrying about that just now, though, let's worry about something we can do. Namely beat this guy up and get a new Mystic spell.



I'm probably not going to ever use this because its not as good as it seems! Being able to petrify the entire enemy team in one go is really good on paper... but as a spell it's not that great.



That's a strange add-on to get here, but they do come in a set pattern so its not just arbitrary and random or anything. Does exactly what it says on the, uh, label? Boosts a demon's HP. Not very fancy but could be good for a Str demon that has Berserk or Brutal Hit or something.



Speaking of strong demons, Jungo's about to beat up this guy. He has Force Boost and...



Two Suparnas that both have Mow Down and +Paralyse. The left one managed to get it to proc on the Pendragon but nothing else. The right one just dealt a bit more damage.



Jungo responded in kind, of course, and... let me remind you here: Suparnas naturally resist Physical attacks. The guy in the middle has a boosted defence, sure, but he's neutral to physicals.



Jungo hits stuff so hard he doesn't even care if you resist it or not. (This is a Power Hit, so this is max Jungo right here.)



All shall fall before the mighty fists of Jungo.



This guy was between the two civilians but I guess he prefered his chances against Hibiki. I'm glad he did that and not the bottom salaryman though.



Means I get to take him out and it stops the possibility of that guy's second Kikuri-Hime dropping before it casts Recarm.

Instead it just means it might run out of MP first.



Before that has a chance to go one way or the other, though, this guy decides to pick a fight with Hinako. I guess its the best chance he has to not die horribly?



Like it doesn't work out at all, but Hinako is currently our least threatening party member fielded. Not that it means much when her current low Strength is more than made up for by Orthrus.



Thankfully, this guy DID cast Recarm. And then do absolutely nothing else.



Which, well, makes him easy pickings for Io to slaughter immediately afterwards. So, yeah, getting all cracks is the hardest part of this fight by far.



At least the only one we nearly lost was on a demon. Waiting for a Recarm doesn't work here otherwise for obvious reasons.



Oh neat, Thor just got Ares Aid. Now I can do Wacky Shenanigans with that.

You'll see.

[Music: Connected Hearts]



Aaaah! F-Forgive us! W-We understand now!
Ngh... Dammit, who are you guys...?
Stop this fighting.

[Music: Silence]

Ngh... But we're desperate!
The city's crawling with demons, plus we have those unknown monsters to deal with!

[Music: Elegy]



I don't believe this! Don't you see!? If we can't perform, your lives are in danger!
Cool it.
Hrgh... I-I'm sorry. We... Well, we lost our heads.

[Music: Silence]

Oh, no... We're as much to blame. But can you at least consider it?

[Music: Exploration]



Now we're talking! Well, we're both in a tight spot, but we'll be counting on you!
I can't promise much... Even if I report this, there's no guarantee things will improve.



...Deal. Thank you... all of you. Please excuse us.

The JP's members bow and leave...



Mm... It's a total loss for us. We got in over our heads and still have no food, haha!
What are you, stupid? Stop running your mouth and help me go look for some medicine.
Hmm, you're right. Thanks, guys. Hope we meet again!
Seriously, thank you. We'll be praying for your safety!

The civilians bow and leave...



Okay, cool. Let's move onto more important things now.

Like fusing new demons.



First up's Wendigo since it does one thing: hit stuff really hard. This one came from Garm+King Frost, solely to maximise its damage dealing ability while patching over that pesky Fire weakness.



Second's Neko Shogun of course. Like Ghost Q before, he can only be made in one way: Thor + Nekomata. Nekomata's a super low level demon at this point so that seems weird... but at least she naturally has Anti-Force so we can get rid of his weakness too.

Also Neko Shogun is a primarily Magic demon despite everything about it implying it should really be Strength. Weird, but whatever.



And lastly, we have a Suparna which I made from Thor and an Orthrus. Normally, Suparna's fast and magical oriented. Given the demons I used to make it, that changed to "Hinako in demon form". Unlike her intended next step of progression, though, Suparna's going to deal big (for an Avian) numbers.

See, Suparna comes with Mow Down by default which helps. It has space for 1 command and 2 passives. Multi-Hit was a nobrainer since its fast as all get out by default. The passives was tougher to decide since I couldn't patch both weaknesss. At least it was going to be until I noticed I had both Ares and Hero Aid skills available here.

They both raise critical chance. And they stack.

Suparna has a ~78% chance of any given hit being a critical. Multi-Hit basically means its going to crit every time it moves. Mow Down means its going to do the same but to full parties. This Suparna's sticking around for a while now. I normally skip Avian demons because they have a tendency to be completely worthless outside of that +1 Move. Welcome to the first exception.


Since it's the only one hiding offscreen here, Jungo's event is called Jungo And Cat.

That aside, we now have some time to kill. Demon Inquiry is a mandatory scene eventually so we'll get it out of the way now, and we should probably go see what Yamato wanted too. That does leave time for 3 others to choose.

So, who shall it be?