Part 53: Thursday's Shock (Rigveda)

Thursday's Shock (Rigveda)



[Music: Exploration]





Pervert!
Huh? What...!? I-I'm sorry!
I'm only kidding.
Oh... S-Sorry. Um... Yeah.



Good morning.
Oh... Morning. Um, so...
You've heard, right...? From Ronaldo...?
About Fukuoka?



Hibiki! I'm comin' in.



Hey, move it! It's rude to go in without knocking, you know... Oh!
Oh... Hello. Um... G-Good morning.
Oooooo... Heehee! Sorry, did we interrupt something?
Huh...? W-Wait, it's not like that! You got it all wrong...
What brings you here?
Oh... right. We came over here to talk to you.
Hey, move it already! Stupid Hina...!



Of course.
Well, you remember Ronaldo Kuriki? He told us something...
About Fukuoka, right?
Yep. So... is he on the level?
You're so dumb, Ai. How would Hibiki know?
Anyway, he told us you're looking into it. So we got to wondering how that's going.
No progress yet.
Hey, you're crushing me! Move!
I see... Well, I said we might could look into it too. And that's when Hinako...



I appreciate that.
Oh, no need for that. I mean, we all live in the same world.



That would be helpful.
Hey, that was my idea! Stupid Hina...!
So, uhh... That's the plan. We'll look into what's going on in Fukuoka too.
See you guys later. C'mon, stupid! Let's move!
See ya! Hey, Io... Most men go for meek, innocent types. Make your move carefully...

Hinako and Airi leave...



That's your takeaway?
Hm... What? Y-Yikes... Sorry!
That's not what I came to talk about! I was going to ask about the photo, too.
...Wait, they asked you about that already.
So it goes.



...Sorry to bother you. That's all I wanted.
Um... If we were to go to Fukuoka... Is there really a Terminal there...?
Should we ask someone?
Oh... right. We should probably ask someone who'd know about these things.
Hm, who would that be...? It involves JP's, so it'd be someone who works for them...
That would be Fumi.



Whoa... H-Hi, Fumi...
I heard someone say "JP's." So what do you want? I'm in a bad mood.
Oh, um... Do you know if there's a Terminal in Fukuoka?



We can't use it?
No. Anything else?
Umm... Well... Why are you in such a bad mood?



What kind of photo?
Never mind that. Just thinking about it makes me irritated.
Oh... Um, I'm sorry to hear...



...Botheration. I can't believe this... Ugh.

Fumi leaves...



Eh, it happens.
Yeah... But what kind of photo do you think Fumi lost?
She mentioned the time she was under a demon's control...

You talk with Io for a while before leaving...



Okay, so Thursday's not quite as generous with the free time you get for a while. Especially not with all the stuff we're going to want to get done in the interim.

Needless to say we're going to want to spend time looking for Fumi's photo. We'll do that now just to get it out of the way.



Let's see... if I remember right...
"Remember right"?
Oh... S-Sorry, Hibiki. I was wondering if I could find the photo Fumi lost.
Remember how she said she lost it when she was under that demon's control? So...
Wouldn't it be inside?



Sorry, Hibiki, but... Would you mind coming with me?
Of course.
Ah...! Thanks...



Hey, Hibiki, where was Fumi that time...?
Near the corner.
Okay... Can you search the corners, then? I'll chick in the center.

Okay, yeah, I didn't remember wrong here. You search the area where you say Fumi was, so this way Io gets to search in the center of the room. If there's anything there, she'll find it.



Which, at first blush, does seem to be a pretty big if.





Hibiki, look at this.



We found them.
Yeah... Oh... But is Fumi from another country?
Does it matter?
Yeah, you're right. We have to give them back...



All right.
Thanks, Hibiki. Well, let's go.



We've still got some time before we have to worry about anything major for the day, so let's take the opportunity to give Fumi back her stuff. Again, best to get this out of the way sooner rather than later.



...What. What do you want.
Here's your photo.



Fumi snatched the ID and photo away from you...

I'm glad we found it too.
Quite. This is the only photo I have of them, after all...



That's amazing.
It's nothing unusual. I don't care about the ID, but this photograph is irreplaceable.
You've been a big help. Thank you.
Haven't you needed this?
Oh, you mean to get in and out of JP's?



So, you mentioned something this morning... What was it? Something about...
Oh, I remember now. About whether or not you could use Fukuoka's Terminal.
That's right.



That's a problem.
Yes, but not mine. Get the code from someone else. I don't owe you THAT much.
I closed the Fukuoka Terminal under orders. If I give away the code, I'll get an earful.
Good luck with that, then. 'Bye.

You leave the area after seeing Fumi off...



We can't get the codes to Fukuoka just yet, so we'll instead go from one family related incident to another. This time we have a bit more leniency with it, but we actively want to do this one by 14:30 at the absolute latest. We'll get it out of the way now, though.



Thank you so much! I can't say how much you've helped us!
Don't worry about it. I made the decision to help you.
I can't believe I've been reunited with my son... It's all thanks to you.



The mysterious man sees you and cuts his conversation short...

Well, my friend is here, so I have to say goodbye.



Sure, right. You stay close to your mom from now on.

The man leaves the woman and her son and approaches you...



I am good at finding people though, so it's not exactly something I can avoid.
Maybe I've been doing this job for too long.



It should be pretty obvious what he is by now. Sadly, the other two options don't have great dialogue.

Are you a detective?
Yup, you've got it. Just a lowly detective, still out walking the beat.



But it's kind of complicated now, and I can't see her yet.
I can't be with her at a time like this... I'm a pathetic excuse for a father.
I'm sure stuff sucks for you too, kid, but you've got to do the best you can.
Life is like fishing.



The mysterious man pats you on the back and walks away...



There's another Mystery Man event open now too, but we have until 15:00 to deal with that one. We'll put it off for now though. Something tells me whatever's going on at Tokyo now is more important.



Oh... Hey there, Hibiki.
Are you bored?
Aww, c'mon, gimme some credit. I found something unusual. Look...



Let's go talk to him.
Huh? You're gonna talk to him!? Hey, Hibiki...!



What's the matter?
...Ah, Hibiki. There's something on my mind...

[Music: Connected Hearts]



Septentriones.
Hm... Correct. You're quick to assess a situation.
The casualties keep rising, but there's no witnesses or data. It must be them.
Extrapolating from the time of the outbreak and the cases seen so far...



For optimal distribution of the toxin, it would have to be flying overhead...
I see...
It's just a theory, but I don't see any holes in it.
It's target... is here.



Right. It will definitely go after towers.
The towers are strategically vital. We must defend them at any cost.
Why? What's with the towers?
Ah... That's right. I ought to let you know.



Way, way back when we first fought with Merak he mentioned this and something called the Dragon Stream. I don't blame you if you've forgotten since then, on account of it coming up again exactly 0 times.

Yes...
Mm... And you did a superb job at the time. I should thank you again for that.
We of the Hotsuin learned of the Dragon Stream long ago. With the ancient incantations...



After the war, it was applied to build these towers to defend against all foreign invasion.
It creates a barrier?



Do you understand now? This is why they target towers, and why we defend them.
What if the barrier breaks?
The city will lose its only defense. It's certain to crumble and perish afterward.

The JP's member who was standing by came over to Hibiki...





[Music: The Enigma Deepens]

What is that...!? It came from the sky!
Stand back, Chief! Let us handle this!
I'll go around to the rear. You take it from the front!
Got it!



...No reaction? What does that mea-- UGH!

[Music: Countdown]



I-It exploded! Hey, are you all right?
O-Oh... I think I'm okay... But what is this...?



......! Gaaaaaaaahhh!
H-Hey! What's happening!? Tell me!
Stay away... Don't come close...
Gah...!
Hey! Hold on, I'm going to help you...!
You imbecile! Don't go putting yourself in danger!





We have to save them.
Hm...? Oh, my subordinates? Their predicament is their own fault. Leave them.
Oh... No!



The falling objects explode after a certain amount of time, releasing the toxins.
This is a great opportunity, Hibiki. We can't let this go.



I will now give you the details of this operation.
Please do.
I will go to the fallen objects and calculate the coordinates of the main body.



I need the rest of you to destroy the fallen objects before they explode.
...That is all. Do you understand?
Yes.
All right... I'm counting on you. If my subordinates are trash, I must depend on you.



Two Wendigos, the weird blob-y thing... and an Ikusa.

Well, okay. This might be a bit of a problem!

Now... It's showtime.

[Music: Septentrion]



Okay, so Wednesday was relatively nice, easy and relaxing all things considered.

Thursday starts off by proving that it is very not that. This fight has the possibility of being really goddamn difficult.

There are two Ikusas here, one of which is on a miasma that respawns very fast at that. The other one is stood in the top-right corner, right on the poison area.



There's only one of these things on the map, but they explode the instant they get a turn. That covers a 3x3 area in poison that deals damage whenever you start a turn standing in it.

They have 720 HP and the Poison they can deal when you fight them is potentially a minor nuisance too.



Yamato's mostly fine though. Dude's over level 50, can deal good damage with anything and has two Barbatoses backing him up.

Dunno where his Cerberus from a few days back went though. You'd think he'd have that here too rather than severely downgrade.



Life Aid's the only thing we can crack so it doesn't matter who gets to it.



Since we want to destroy the blob before it explode, we're gonna need to beeline for the one in the top-left. Getting to it is actually harder than it seems. Switching with Yamato gives a bit of a boost towards it AND keeps him out of the line of fire for a little longer.

Oh, if the blob does explode one of the miasmas will be covered in the poison residue. Avoiding that is useful but not necessarily mandatory.



Since there's still more ground to cover than you might expect, using Devil Speed here gets us a lot closer to it. Without doing this there is a good chance it will pop before we can stop it.



It also has the nice added bonus of giving us a chance to take down the first Ikusa over here. This one is actually more of a pain than the other one, so of course it's the one that spawns in from the miasma.



Two of the fuckers and a Pendragon. If I didn't luck out with taking out the first one already, this could happen more often. Unlike Kumbhandas who had Assassinate but didn't use this, these guys practically have a fetish for it.



...So of course the first time it gets used, it misses. I swear Assassinate is actually a problem that we have to contend with! The game just won't let me prove it.



There's a Wendigo right next to were we start, because of course there is. It's paired with two Suparnas and that's actually bit of a problem. They don't have Winged Flight, thankfully.



But I would be remiss to not take advantage of Ikusa's Aggravate to take them down quicker all the same. Their physical resistance is a mite annoying, as you might expect.



Jungo's regular Brutal Hit is just a massacre though. Remember, Keita needed a critical to manage to get a bit above Jungo and without that he just couldn't compete.

Jungo is just that good.



Meanwhile, the miasma'd Wendigo is deciding it wants to try and get in our way. It shouldn't stop Hibiki from getting his turn before the blob, but it might create enough of a delay to do so all the same.



I hope that's all it was trying to do at least. Not like it was able to manage much else.

It didn't manage to do that either though.



Life Aid's a pretty cool passive in theory. Stick it on a dude with a lot of HP and have them tank stuff; I don't use it much though. It's not a bad skill, per se, but it isn't good enough to warrant use over other stuff either.



Otome's gonna get rid of the slightly easier Ikusa now that she's made it over here. Only the Ikusa though. The Pyro Jack's gonna get in Yamato's way instead.



Strengthen's to compensate for the giant blob of weaknesses that make up Arahabaki. It doesn't help much mind.



Not because Arahabaki takes a ton of damage anyway, but because we just kill shit too fast. Ikusa and two Orthruses sounds like it should still be a problem but its really not if the Ikusa never gets to try and hit you.



Oh and the last Wendigo over here has a Basilisk.

Thankfully this is not the one that respawns. Double-thankfully, Hibiki has Anti-Curse equipped for this fight so he probably won't get wrecked by petrification.



Like you could've guessed without me spelling it out already; Yamato's perfectly fine on his own. He can even heal these light wounds without worrying about it.



I have completed my calculation at the first location. Please continue.



...And the Ikusa is already back. That was way too quick.



The Wendigo also came back basically immediately afterwards too. Fortunately both Hibiki and Hinako are right there so they won't be back again. Hopefully.



Problem is, of course, the time limit to wipe out this thing is now basically up. Even rushing right to it with every trick I could, there's only just enough time to manage it.



It might be easier with Avian demons, but Suparna's a wee bit antiquated by now so I dunno I've never tried it. Says the guy who still has a Pendragon around.



Oh right, yeah. So long as you can Fire Dance, this thing is not a threat. Hibiki doesn't have Fire Boost because it requires you to put some points into Strength and I haven't done that. I normally do by now just for Fire related stuff but someone else can main pyrokinesis antics this time around I guess.



And, of course, after the first blob disappears a second one drops in. Doesn't matter if it was destroyed or exploded; this one comes in now regardless.



Fortunately Jungo is still right there to deal with this. It resists everything but Fire and Force so we'll use Aggravate again to hopefully help take it out quickly.



...Unfortuately, its Retaliate procs for basically every hit you throw at it.



Wouldn't be a problem if this thing couldn't hit hard with its counters. Worse: even its counters can Poison you. It's not much of a problem for the most part; Hinako does have Hariti after all, so getting within Affection range will deal with it nicely.



Problem is I completely forgot Affection can cure ailments so I never deal with it. It is me, I am the gibbering moron.

So now not only is this thing still around, but Jungo's party came off second best and Ikusa's gonna burn its MP casting Diarahan just to stay alive.



Yamato, or anyone really, taking poison damage here is unavoidable. He has to get close enough to do that scanning thing, and that all but necessitates stepping onto a poisoned tile. It can't kill him, and he can heal it instantly, but it's there all the same.



Anyway, now that she's over here to help out Hibiki, it's time for Hinako to do her job. Take out this Ikusa before it can ruin everything.



...Y'know to say this Pendragon has over 30 Strength I am thoroughly underwhelmed. It's out of date by now which is a big deciding factor in stuff like this. I just need a good Strength demon to replace it with.



And when I find one, should I opt to use it, this will help in hopefully keeping the large Strength boost. Inherit+ doesn't boost anything in particular; it just transfers more bonus stat points when you fuse.



Back to the here and now, I'm not entirely sure why the newly spawned Wendigo decided to Devil Speed towards Jungo. Hinako's closer and she probably would've had a tougher time with it.



Admittedly, yes, Jungo didn't do a great job either but I blame Ikusa for getting poisoned for that one.



Like it's not really a big deal and easy to recoup from without worry. It's just mildly annoying.

I have completed my calculation at the second location. Please continue.



Oh well, let's get rid of this thing and/or its Basilisk just so it stops being an irritant.



Yeah, like, uh... like that.

But hey that's all the non-miasma spawned demons taken care of. Just got those miasmas to wipe out and wait for Yamato to fi-



Not quite. This guy warps in now and Jungo is not fighting it. That would be the dumbest idea possible.



Hitokotonusi here drains physical attacks. He has slightly more HP than the blob things, and comes with 2 Pyro Jacks just so you don't Fire Dance him to death.

It doesn't stop you electrocuting him though.



Speaking of blob things, before we take on Hitokotonusi, the second one of those got finished off by Jungo.



Of course a third one spawns in; this one's a bit more out of the way so we can't get to it in time. Devil Speed adds just enough of a turn delay to push the user back to immediately after this thing.

If someone was already down here waiting then it wouldn't be a problem but oh well.



In the interim, Hinako took out both miasmas. Now we really just are waiting for Yamato to finish up.



Well, okay, there was this Wendigo over by where Jungo was. It had the bright idea to pick a fight with Yamato.

It promptly regretted all of its decisions.



I like Otome's chances against the weird leafman, y'know. I totally didn't have her chilling over here the entire time just to fight it or anything.

[Music: Shudder]



On the one hand, that 99 doesn't sem very impressive. On the other hand, both Jacks are still alive (not for long). To make it better, Hito got paralysed here too.



Poor guy's just gotten walked all over. Even with his bucket of HP, remembering he existed was all it took to take him out immediately.



I'd say it's not very often you end up Overwhelming what the game calls a miniboss but... well, this makes 2 in a row.



Only one that I'd call "mini" that didn't get Overwhelmed was Ghost Q. Botis didn't either but, eh. At that stage, he was a legit boss.



...But of course we can't just sit back and wait for Yamato to finish. Once Hitokutonusi's been beaten demons just spawn in one at a time. They will not stop until Yamato does his calculation stuff.



It seems arbitrary, and it kinda is, but I can at least get why it happens.



Ugh, the toxins! I wish we'd taken care of that sooner...!

If the blob actually gets to explode, then it turns into the 3x3 poison stuff on the spot. Might be a problem if all 3 get to do it but still not that big a deal really.



Just gotta deal with the trash since it wants to die, I guess. Yamato's still not quite done, so we've gotta wait for him. Killing time and lesser demons.



...This reminds me that I should just give Jungo the ability to use Mighty Hit soon. He doesn't have the stat requirements yet, but he should be close. This is a Mow Down crit by the way.

If it was Power Hit then I can only imagine that it would be even more overkill.



Yamato's done, and in time too. After the Jack got wrecked, a Wendigo spawned in on the top-left corner. This one doesn't have a Basilisk at least.



It does, however, seem to share the Pyro Jack's death wish.



I am all too happy to oblige. I'm also a tad surprised that Ikusa managed to petrify the Pendragon given how it resists Curse. Wendigos are just outright immune of course.



It doesn't really help them out, but hey I'm not gonna complain about something going easier.

At least I'm not going to most of the time.



Ikusa managed to even get Aggravate to upgrade. Agitate also guarantees a 100% crit rate from the first attack, but it also keeps the crit rate boosted. Rather than immediately return to normal, it slowly decreases every turn in the skirmish.



EXP's pretty nice from finishing up, I guess. Only Lailah got a level out of it though.

[Music: Silence]

All right... All the demons have been destroyed. Good work. I will now return.



[Music: Countdown]





Huh...? Wh-What do you mean, "not good"...?



Yes, Chief? Did you call?



......!? B-But we don't see anything here...!
He is invisible to the naked eye. I'll send over a filter module now. Check the skies.
......! U-Understood!



Wh... What in the world is that...!?
Ch-Chief...! There's some unidentified flying object up there...!
Tch... I figured as much. We have no choice. Cut the power!
What...!? Did you just say...



Th-That's absurd! If we do that, Tokyo will...!
It's out to eradicate the barrier. If it loses power, it'll no longer be a target!
But Tokyo will fall!
Then what else do you suggest? Sit idly by and watch it destroy the tower?



R-Roger!



Tch... Can you hear me? Respond.
Is he dead?
...I don't know. But...



What happened? Give me a status report!
Yes, Sir... We're safe. The tower's power has been cut!



Thank goodness...
We're not out of the woods yet. North, eh...?
What's up north?



It's going to Sapporo.
...That's right. It hasn't given up on attacking the towers.



And we can't leave the barrier here in Tokyo off forever.
Unless we defeat it, it will eventually return here.
Now's the time.



...Can you hear me? Alioth is headed to Sapporo.
Relay that to all JP's personnel and begin work on a countermeasure at once.
U-Understood! We'll post status reports as soon as possible!

[Music: Exploration]



Of course.
...Thank you. Alioth's altitude is far higher than our demons' effective range.
If this continues, it could destroy the tower without us ever intercepting it.



We'll be making our own preparations. I have every faith in you.

You say your farewells to Yamato before leaving...



Of course, for beating Hitokotonusi we gained the ability to fuse it. We can't do so until level 36, but we're pretty close to there anyway.



We do have a small amount of down time now. We'll go see what this is all about but we also have enough time to do two more things of our volition.

Who do we spend the free hour with?