Part 5: My New Partner
[BGM: Sad Clown]
Well, we've got a few different possible combinations this time, and the good outcome is pretty obvious- keep Li Wen from falling and mis-hitting, and make sure Jimmy doesn't get a concussion in the process.
Let's start experimenting- first off, what happens if we switch both letters' pieces completely?
I swung my racket with my eyes closed.
The ball flew over the baseline. It was out.
Sigh... I did overestimate myself... _(:3」 ∠)_
The match was over.
Ughhhhhh... she must be mad at me now! //(ToT)//
[BGM: Air]
Jimmy took a swing at the ball. The ball flew out of the baseline.
Out...
Sigh...
7 to 9.
We lost. I lost.
Ugh... my precious 30 boxes of chocolate milk...
[BGM: Sad Clown]
Well, A+ for effort at least, Jimmy. (Also, although their guess was different, this is the outcome Nea's guess results in.)
Let's try making it so Li Wen is the one who swings? That might be the problem.
The ball flew past me.
I expected to hear her hitting the ball, but I heard nothing.
I turned around and saw her sitting on the ground, hunched over.
Did she just get hit by the ball? (⊙_⊙)
People were already gathering around. Someone mentioned “the infirmary”.
I supposed someone would take her there any moment now.
Honestly, I wished that someone could be me...
Our teacher walked over.
“You, take her to the infirmary.”
Wait, he was speaking to me?!
Oh my gosh! The Goddess of Fortune must have heard my wish! (=￣ω￣=)
[BGM: Air]
The ball was to my left, but I was stumbling to my right.
Not only did I not hit the ball, I even lost my racket.
And for some reason my stomach suddenly started hurting.
Why? Was it because I hadn't had time for breakfast this morning?
7 to 9.
We lost. I lost.
I took two pills in the infirmary and felt a little better.
I lay down on the bed. Everything around me was white and it made me feel sleepy.
Jimmy said he wanted to keep me company, so he was sitting beside my bed.
I thought maybe I should talk to him a little so that it would feel less awkward.
However, I think I was too exhausted and I fell asleep.
[BGM: Sad Clown]
And here you can see that the endings aren't intrinsically tied together- Jimmy got an 'A' rank ending because he got to help out the girl he's got a crush on. ...too bad she got a Bad Ending from possibly getting hit by a tennis ball (and also losing the bet). Not gonna fly here.
Li Wen said something about how she 'was stumbling to her right', but if we try this combination...
...Jimmy just gets a concussion still, even though Li Wen didn't fall over.
Whoops! (Also, this is the outcome that both Vauron and Junpei's guesses results in, despite the order of the pieces being different.)
What if we put it all on Li Wen's side, in an order like.... this?
[BGM: Air]
I took a swing at the ball, but I tripped.
Although I took another step my ankle was hurting too much to steady myself.
I fell on the ground, lost my balance because of the twisted ankle and mis-hit the ball, too.
The ball grazed Jimmy's right ear and hit Wang Qiang's nose straight-on.
Ouch... that must have hurt...
The game ended with the opponents' forfeit.
Rocky said that since the match had not been properly concluded, the bet should be called off.
That sneaky bastard...
[BGM: Sad Clown]
From behind me I heard her hitting the ball. Good job!
I felt the ball graze past my right ear and it flew straight at the guy across the net; it hit him right on his nose!
That was close... if I had stepped a little too much to my right... (⊙_⊙)
They forfeited the match.
I let out a relaxed sigh. Finally, I didn't have to embarrass myself anymore... _(:3」 ∠)_
There was still a little time before the end of the class.
By the time I had finally made up my mind to go and talk to her she had already left.
It's not a Bad Ending for her because, technically, we DID keep her from losing the match... but she didn't win it, either! Jimmy just gets a Bad Ending because he didn't get to talk to his crush.From here, most of the other combinations we could make that we haven't already will basically just give us the same outcomes we've already seen. Even though there are a lot of different possible combinations, not every one of them is guaranteed to have a unique outcome.
That said, this is the actual answer to this puzzle (guessed by dervival)- what's important that the only one who trips is Jimmy, not Li Wen, but also having her rush forward before she swings helps make sure that Jimmy is out of the way of her shot
Furthermore, we want her to take another step afterwards to not run the risk of Jimmy accidentally getting in the way![BGM: Air Dance]
I took a swing at the ball, but I almost tripped.
I had to take another step to stop myself from falling over.
The tennis ball flew over the net, kissed the baseline, compressed and bounced up.
Then it was stuck in the wired fence around the court.
Yay! Match point saved!
Rocky was such a sneaky bastard. With Jimmy barely able to move he was now aiming every ball at him.
But Jimmy was able to get out of my way almost every time, even with a twisted ankle.
We were coordinating surprisingly well.
After a while, Wang Qiang was left standing there too. The game had become a singles match between Rocky and me.
Maybe Jimmy was a lucky charm, because we eventually won the game 15 to 13!
What a great partner!
I had won my chocolate milk! Hooray!
[BGM: Life is Good]
I fell to the ground and my ankle hurt like hell.
Fortunately, we still won the point thanks to her.
Now our opponents were hitting the ball towards me almost exclusively, but Li Wen was too good!
And eventually, we won!
More importantly, she ran over and high-fived me!
I wasn't just daydreaming about this... she really did just give me a high-five!
Her hand felt so warm.
I would never forget that moment.
(=￣ω￣=)
…
[BGM: New Life]
Oh, hey, we have new letters! But, more interestingly, there's not a gold star on the ones we just finished. If we click on the letters again...
[BGM: Air Dance]
...A new section has appeared: “History.” And if we click on that tab...
...we can now review all of the endings we've seen for that particular letter! The squares on the right correlate to the squares we saw previously (and in turn, all the possible endings we could've gotten), and they're arranged in SABCDEF(X) order. You can see the eye symbol as well, which is the one that I'm currently viewing.
This is a tool to review endings in the event that you ever need information from a previous letter (or from a previous ending, even if that ending “didn't happen” as far as the humans are concerned). You can think of it as something akin to the chat log viewer in most standard VNs, in case you need to re-visit something later.
To give another example, if we go over to Jimmy's letter...
...we can his grouping of endings, which are separate (as each letter's endings are separate). As things get more complicated and letters start having more outcomes that aren't just a handful of Bad Ends, that distinction will be more relevant.
In this LP, I'm going to do my best to show every relevant ending for every letter, but in some cases, there's redundancy that can come into play- though the specifics might be different, the outcome is still functionally the same.
As I mentioned it earlier, I “missed” a Bad Ending for both Li Wen and Jimmy. I intentionally didn't get it, mostly to show off the History section but also because the missing ending is pretty much the same as the other bad ends we got- Li Wen hurts her ankle and they lose the match. Nothing of note happens otherwise: no missing dictionary terms, no information to be gained, nothing but a slight adjustment to the specifics. When there are ending outcomes like this, I most likely won't include them in the LP to prevent redundancy. (I will still give credit if someone's guess is one that we skip, though!)
In any case, let's return to the Letter Menu...
NEW MESSAGE: Strange Teacher
Before we get to Li Wen's new letter, we have a pair of letters from before we should check out...
***
Profiles have Updated.
