Part 39: The Cafe Across the Street

_{content warning: car accident, suicide, eye trauma}

[BGM: No Escape from Here]


Okay so believe it or not, there's actually not that many outcomes for this puzzle, so this will actually be a pretty quick section. Regardless, let's get started. (Regallion's guess for Li Wen still results in the default ending, whereas their guess for Alicia results in this ending.)



[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


I was drenched in sweat because of the nightmares.
Well, now that my clothes were already wet, I decided to just go home in the rain.

I walked into the heavy rain.
I walked towards the subway station.
At the last crossing, the lights had just turned from green to red.

I saw two people sitting next to the window in the coffee house across the street. Two very familiar people.
Ms. Yang... and him.

I stepped forward without even realizing it.
I had forgotten about the red light.

A truck charged directly at me from the side. Its headlights had blinded me.
My entire body was swallowed by the light.

The truck didn't stop after hitting me.

I lay there in the street.
The rain was so heavy that everything around me seemed blurry.
I could feel the warmth of my body washing away with the rain; I was getting colder and colder.
I was freezing. I struggled and took the phone out of my pocket, and opened the “Recording” app.
This time, no matter what, I had to tell him how I felt.



“Mr. Wen... I think I'm dying...”
“It hurts really bad...”
“I want to tell you something... The day of the exhibition... was actually my birthday...”
“I haven't... celebrated my birthday for years... so thank you for the ticket...”

“I really wished that I could... I could go see the rainbow... in the mountains with you... It must be beautiful...”
“Too bad... I probably... can't make it anymore...”
“I want to leave you... everything I have... in my apartment... There are still many boxes of chocolate milk left... Don't let them go bad, please...”
“I really liked... your sketch... I was only kidding... last time...”
“A-and... I...”

The phone fell out of my hand. And it kept recording the sound of the rainfall...



[BGM: No Escape from Here]


I apologized to the guest who had just come in, showed him to a booth and poured him a cup of coffee.
Then I went back to the door and started cleaning the wet floor.

I then heard a flush come from the restroom. The guest with the hat walked out.
He walked past the new guest's booth and went back to his own.
He took a ninth cigarette out of his pack and put it into his mouth.
Then I noticed a flame pop up near the end of the cigarette.

I walked over with a carafe, leaned over and refilled his mug.
I whispered into his ear,

”Excuse me, but this is a non-smoking establishment.”

If he were a fellow hitman, he would have understood.

The guest with the hat heard my words, nodded gently, and put the cigarette back into the pack.
The menace that had been brewing in the air suddenly dissipated.



It wasn't a regular cigarette. There were probably some elaborate mechanisms inside.
I myself had never used gadgets that were too complicated. I did sometimes hear that some fellow “workers” in my field would often use some unusual murder weapons that I had never even heard of.

He probably wasn't here for me.
But if he had insisted on messing up the shop, the dagger under my skirt would have to stop him.

The bearded man put down some cash on the table, and left.
Soon, the guest with the hat gathered his cigarette pack and adult magazine, gave me a nod and left too.



I soon noticed that I was being followed for the next few days.
There was more than one tail on me, and none of them were just some random slob.
I couldn't tell if it had anything to do with the guests from that day.

I asked Mama for some time off, and decided to stay out of sight alone for a while.
At the very least, I could not bring Mama into this.



There's one more set of outcomes for both of them, so let's get to it.



[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


“Are you going to the subway station?”

I nodded.

“Let me walk you there. I've got an umbrella.”
He showed me the umbrella in his hand, and squeezed out an unnatural smile.

We stood on the platform, silently waiting for the last train of the day.
Another young couple was there, too.

The headlights of the train lit up the tunnel.

I was looking at the train and didn't notice what was happening behind me.
When I heard the young couple's scream, the young man who had walked me here had already lay down on the rails.
The train kept running as if he wasn't even there.

I only heard a muffled noise, drowned out by the wind.



[BGM: No Escape from Here]


Water had spilled on my clothes. The black dragon tattoo on my stomach became vaguely visible through my wet shirt.
I apologized, then went and changed into another shirt in the back room.

When I came back both the bearded man and the guest with the hat had left.

I soon noticed that I was being followed for the next few days.
There was more than one tail on me, and none of them were just some random slob.
It couldn't be for any other reason but revenge.

I asked Mama for some time off, and decided to stay out of sight alone for a while.
At the very least, I could not bring Mama into this.



And now, let's get to the S endings.



We want the heavy rain to be on Li Wen's side, to discourage her from leaving the hospital (which in turn means we have to keep the umbrella on Alicia's side, so the young man doesn't invite her to walk with him and lead to him committing suicide in front of her). Additionally, we want the soaking wet clothes to also be on Alicia's side to make her tattoo visible, sparking a conflict- we need whatever is going on with the two customers to actually get resolved then and there, to prevent Alicia from being tailed...

[BGM: Silence]


I went back to the room and hid under the blanket.
Even with my eyes closed, the detergent smell still kept reminding me of where I was.
I still couldn't escape those memories-----

[BGM: Whispered Feeling]


In my earliest memories, my father was the only person that I could picture in my mind.
He was a great painter, because every painting of his was great.

As far as I could remember, we had always lived in a big house.
It was so big that sometimes I couldn't even find my father.

When I was in elementary school we had moved into an apartment.
Father and I would often play with each other in the evenings by throwing pillows.

When I was in middle school, we had moved into a single room studio.
Most of the space was occupied by his paintings.
A few pieces of furniture sat in the rest of the room.



We would sleep on the floor when it was bedtime.
The place was so small, and many mornings I would wake up and realize that I had crawled into my father's bed in the middle of the night.

Life wasn't easy, but I was happy.

Father began to take on more and more assignments, most of which were not in his style.
He would also set up a booth on the street to paint portraits for the pedestrians.
Sometimes I would fall asleep before he even returned home.

We lived like this for two more years.

Then, at some point I couldn't remember, Father started drinking.
He spent more and more time inside, and less and less time smiling.
He would often tear up his own paintings, too.



On that day, Father woke up early in the morning to watch a tennis game while he drank.
Empty beer cans were all over the table.

His stomach hadn't been doing great in the first place; the excessive drinking was not helping.
I had a huge fight with him.
I had never been angrier in my life.
And I had never seen Father so mad either.
Still, whatever he had said to me, had done to me, I should not have said what I said.

“I hate you, Father!”



Those ended up being the last words I ever said to him.

When I came home from school that day, I found the TV on the same channel as it was in the morning. A commercial was on.
There were paints all over the floor.
And Father was lying in the middle of them, motionless.

I was standing in the corner of the emergency room when I watched them cover his face with a piece of white cloth.
They said there was no need for further medical assistance.

“Death” felt so unreal to me at the time.
I wasn't able to process any of it.
I sat on a hospital bench in complete silence for a long time, until a doctor crouched down in front of me and softly said my name.
I finally cried.
I cried my heart out.



I love you, Father.
But he couldn't hear it anymore...

I woke up, and I couldn't tell where I had been in my memories.
The boundaries between nightmare and reality had been blurred by my tears.
I sat up in the hospital bed, sobbing uncontrollably.
If only everything had just been a nightmare...

A wrinkled blue jacket that smelled like paint was placed softly over my shoulders.
He had come in without me knowing it. He didn't say anything, just quietly put his arms around me.
We sat there like this until the sun came out.



[BGM: No Escape from Here]


Water had spilled on my clothes.
The black dragon tattoo on my stomach became vaguely visible through my wet shirt.

I was about to apologize when I noticed the umbrella in his hand. Something was not right.
It was a sunny day outside.
He was here for me.

I jumped behind the bar, pulling out the gun Mama had hidden underneath.
Multiple deafening gun shots erupted outside the bar.
The meticulously painted walls were littered with holes made by a shotgun.

Mama was hunched over his magazine and his fake eyelashes had fallen off.
There was nothing but a bloody hole where his left eyeball was supposed to be.



I stood up behind the bar and aimed at the visitor.
Sweat, tears, blood, and my makeup were smeared all over my face.

Suddenly, I heard a flush come from the restroom.
The door opened quietly and a thin silver thread flew across the air and went through the forehead of the bearded man before my bullet could.
The thread morphed into a needle and pinned itself on the “Daily Special” menu on the wall.

[BGM: Misterio]
The guest with a hat walked gracefully out of the restroom, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.



He gathered his adult magazine and left.
But he left a business card on the table.
It had a simple design, but unusual contact information on it.
A few words were printed in bold on the thin white card.

ZUCCO
Assassin.
For business, text 9999-6666-8888.



Rest in peace, Mama.

…

[BGM: New Life]






NEW MESSAGE: Mr. Assassin



NEW MESSAGE: Promise



NEW MESSAGE: Formula, Note, and Answers



NEW MESSAGE: Life Unknown



NEW MESSAGE: Cell 28



What's going on now? I've never seen a blacked out letter before.

Let me explain. A letter will turn black when its pre-condition ceases to exist. So a black letter means that the events inside the letter never happened.

What is happening to Carlos might have something to do with his sister.

Do you mean that something that is happening to his sister might have an impact on Carlos?

Yes.



But judging from their letters before, I don't think they are writing to us at the same time. Alicia is 9 years older than Carlos, but both of their first letters were from when they were 18 years old.

You're exactly right. That's why the events of Alicia's letter will have an impact on Carlos. What is happening to Alicia now happened in Carlos's past.

Oh... I think I get it now.

By the way, we will not be able to process the blacked out letters.



As you can see, the other letter connected to it is also in a locked state. A locked letter means that other letters connected to it are blacked out.

If you see a locked letter in the future go and check the status of the letters connected to it. When you see a black letter, you may select it to obtain more clues.



The clues are shown as these black dotted lines. The letters connected by these dotted lines are the reasons the previous letter is blacked out. Knowing this, we can start by examining these letters first.

Understood.

Let me take a look at those letters, then.

Oh, here is one small tip. Remember what happened in Carlos's previous letter?

If I remember correctly, it was about what happened in the auction house after he brought Ye there.

Right. Do you remember what ending you chose for him?



Of course. He saved Ye and also managed to escape himself.

Then what happened?

Then? ...Oh! He was taken away by the police, wasn't he?

Yes.

You should go and check again. Because of the impact from some other events the ending might have changed.

You mean that, even within the same ending, the details of it could be changed at any time?



Yes. Such changes might happen in the non-ending parts of the stories too. It doesn't happen very often, but if you pay attention you might find it interesting.

Hmm...



WILL has a lot of little hidden bits like this that encourage you to play around and revisit stuff. For example, if you back out of the letters and check the profiles while a letter is still on a Bad ending, their bios actually update to reflect the bad turn of events (including the various causes of death)- the devs really went the extra mile when it came to attention to details.

I won't really be showing this kind of thing off in the LP that much, mostly because it's almost never actually relevant (and also finding all of them would be a huge chore), so think of it as an incentive to get the game yourself and support the devs! ...Just be mindful of the content warnings I've been giving, obviously, though we're basically “over the hump” in terms of most of the worst of it.



That said, since the game went out of its way to point this one out, let's go revisit the S ending for Carlos's last letter to see what changes Will was talking about before we go to our next letter!

[BGM: Russian Horse]


I won't be hitting Start, since this letter read section actually includes the ending when you revisit it, so let's just scroll down. Last time, things ended with Carlos being apprehended outside of the Maple House building, but now that we've seen more of Alicia's letters, maybe things are different?



I lowered my head and walked quickly towards the less crowded part of the street, afraid of being seen.
I found myself in a strange alley that I had never seen before.

At the end of the alley there was a small coffee shop.
The sign looked like a maple leaf, and it said “Maple House” on it.

I was stunned. I seemed to remember that Alicia had mentioned a place like this in her first few letters.
Yes! She used to work here!
Since Alicia had never mentioned the address of the coffee shop, I had never been able to find it.
Yet here it was... right here.
Finally, I was about to find my big sister, Alicia!



I burst into the coffee shop, ignoring everyone's startled looks, and stopped in front of the barista.
I took a deep breath and asked if he knew someone named Alicia.

“Alicia? Yeah, she used to work here, but she disappeared a while ago. Actually... I-I'm not entirely certain, so don't take my word for it... but I heard that Alicia... I heard that she might be dead.”

That... that couldn't be true.
I stumbled back in shock and fell onto a couch.
The barista put a hot latte in front of me and sat down by my side, trying to comfort me.
But I couldn't hear anything anymore.



It must be a lie...
My big sister... she couldn't just...

There was a smiley face on the latte.
But it started to blur,
and turned into a frowning face.
Eventually, the frowning face was gone.

Carlos

…

[BGM: New Life]




***

Profiles have updated.