Part 18: Make-Up Work

Update 17 - Make-Up Work







: Yeah, stuff gets pretty expensive whenever the school festival's near.
: This year's kind of different, though. And that new rule...



: "Hourai High students are forbidden to interact with students of the opposite gender no matter what the reason. Even relatives of any kind will be punished if caught walking together"?!
: What kind of stupid rule is that supposed to be?!



BGM: Hospo Editors' Room



: Yeah... It's almost as if they LIKE oppressing students by making up stupid rules.
: And they're still going strong even with that Rachel gone...
: Why don't we investigate the Committee Centre again?



: By the way, there's something else that's bothering me. I just checked my computer, and...
: It looks like item prices have been rising exponentially since just before the new rule was passed during the holiday. There's even a black market in the sports grounds now.
: I just know they were up to something while everyone was away on holiday.
: They were working over the summer holiday? They're pretty serious about this.



: I knew it... Nice work, Hinako. Well, what should we do? Go to the sports grounds?
: Oh, the place where the pool is, right? Leroy, it's easy to find. You just need to follow the tracks south.
: You know the way pretty well for someone who keeps skiving off sports! Anyway, let's drop by Newtown or Side Street when we have the time. We might find something out.

Alright, since we haven't been to Hourai in two chapters there's a number of things to see and do around campus.

BGM: School 1



First, we now have so many party members that at least one member has to stay behind. Those left behind don't get any EXP or club experience. You can leave any party member behind except the main four. If you try to put one of them back, you get this:





Since we can leave people behind, that also means we can call them up. Whenever somebody isn't in your party, you can either call them on the phone or find them on campus and talk to them to get unique dialogue that changes every chapter. I'll be showing all the dialogue off, so let's start with this chapter's:

: Guess what? The school trip for our year's was a journey across the Gobi desert! Man, that was so exciting! Woohoo!
: How was the school trip? I hear it was really, uh... (Ah, cripes. How do you say it in Japanese?) Uh... I hear it was good.
: I wish... Sniff... I wish I could have gone on the school trip too...
: You must have had such an awful time on the school trip. I've come to see you in a whole new light now. So, er... Could you keep that unpleasant little episode about me eating a live fish quiet? Please?
: Mitsurin like Hourai High. Mitsurin join Leroy class!
: SCHOOL FESTIVAL... INTRIGUING. I WOULD LIKE TO INVESTIGATE. DO BRING ME WITH YOU.
: I've got a big job on now, haven't had a moment's peace lately. Sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to help you for a while.
: The Mad Scientists always show off their year's work at the school festival every year in the form of a giant robot. Then the robot usually ends up going berserk and wrecking everything... They're a real handful, those Mad Scientists.
: That school trip was unreal! By the way, I heard that one of the Seven Wonders was in the jungle to the south... Did you find it?
: Items have got seriously expensive this year... Is someone manipulating the prices behind the scenes?
: By the way, I heard that some places in Side Street are doing a special menu for the school festival. Still, I can guess what kind of "special" this is... They're just getting rid of their old junk, I know it!

Time to explore campus, starting with the main building.



That's the entirety of that club. Not bad to just have on somebody with a free club space.



: As a result, we often resort to using students with specialist knowledge as substitute teachers. Have you met Kamifukuoka? He's one of those special temporary substitute teacher student...er, things. He tends to keep to himself upstairs.



: Of course, I can't tell anyone about them.

Riiiiight. Moving from the main building, we need to go check on the statue at the girls' dorm. The GDP still don't trust us, but we've got Hinako at our side!





They unfortunately don't tell their girls inside that we're good, since we still run into battles while on our way up.



: Hmmm... Well, it almost kind of looks like it...
: I guess it's just a story after all.
: Let's check it out again in the new year.

A new location - Shinobazu Lake - opened up after the trip. The Patrol Squad's HQ is located there, so we might as well go bother them.





Seems like the HQ is running smoothly.









What are you asking me for? I don't know the guy. You think that 'cause I'm in Hospo I know everybody on campus and what they're doing at every second of the day? People don't just go around announcing who they are to me.



Oh. Uh... pleasure to meet you. Somebody was looking for you.

Hinako suggested heading to Side Street and Newtown, so it's time to get down to business.



: Buy now! With this book, you can see where you can eat and run at a glance!



: I have no idea how a guy like that got to be representative. He must have bribed someone...





: Shin from the third year did just give a presentation about how brilliant he thinks it is... Maybe losing the electic drove him insane?



Oh come on, you think Public Safety really cares? I could walk up to them right now and they wouldn't do a thing.



See? Do your jobs, guys.

All this investigating is making me hungry, so let's head over to the Sketchy Soup.



That sounds good, I'll take--



: Whoa! What? What?
: I-i-it's... It's... It's the A Menu!
: So...what? Is it really rare or something?
: Who cares how rare it is?! They say it tastes so good, it feels like your tongue is melting! And on top of that...
: They call it the Menu A of Happiness because the divine taste is guaranteed to make you happy!
: What?! We've got to order some fast!





Eating the A Menu pumps the character up, which means more crit hits. This is the only time you can buy it, so stock up!

With that out of the way, it's time to go to Newtown.



There's only one real point of interest here.





If you for some reason felt the need to try your hand at the mini-games again, then hooray! Now you can.



This time you can actually be rewarded for your hard work with special prizes. The prizes are all equipment that are exclusive to the game parlor, so if you're good at the games then you can get yourself some nice stuff. I won't be partaking because of the equipment glitch and because I'm not too great at either of the games.

There's one last stop to make before we head to the sports ground. The desks blocking the way on the first floor of the Club Centre have been removed, so we can finally make our way out to the side of the building.



The next two skills raise your HP and GP by 10% and 20%. There's currently nobody in our party who can join (but Lara can!).



Now we can finally head to the sports ground! It's located below the campus and across a bridge.





: How rude! I'm here to see the Mad Scientist Club!

Two students run up to Shin.



: This gentleman is Class Representative Shin! He is assisting us in our work. In fact, he's come to see the giant robot we're going to show off at the school festival -- "Invincible 22"!
: He says he'll get the Student Council to buy it if it turns out well. MUHAHAHA!











: Shin asked me to run a shop here. I'll give you a special price, just because I love your stinking guts so much.



...I don't want to go to Roku's Love Shack.



There's actually yet another club to join, located underneath the sports ground.



The second skill raises all allies' STR by 20% while the last skill allows the character to equip Hit-type weapons and gives them the ability to counterattack.



Sucks to be you. Well, that's about all there is here, so we might as well take off.



But of course, it wouldn't do to just walk out without a massive, booming earthquake jolting the entire campus. Hospo is back on the case!









Next update we get in the fucking robot.