I am starting this 100% blind. I have NO IDEA what's going on or whether it will turn out to be worth LPing. Join me on this adventure! So, what can we tell from this opening video? 1. Swords. 2. Guns. 3. Blood. 4. Yuri. SIGN ME UP. I should also note that I will not necessarily print every line of text, I may sum things up at times. By the war's influence and the sharp drop in population, the things called "countries" that had once kept people together ceased to function and collapsed before anyone knew it. At first, there were small Sects which were formed among friends and which had only a few people in them. However, was it because of man's nature? That did not continue for long, and the Leader of one small Sect fought the Leader of another small Sect in order to expand his own Sect. Some Sects merged peacefully, but that was rare. Most of them fought, shed blood, and grew. (So we tore down all the countries, then we made new countries, and continue to kill each other over them. THe world is now split into about ten Sects but it fluctuates due to war. One of the biggest is Sect Queenkreuz.) It is morning. Above the crumbling buildings, a blue sky that is disparate with the land spreads out, seeming to create a somewhat refreshing morning. (Description goes on. There are people, most of them going about their lives but not very actively. Someone, however, is energetic.) Voice: "Hey! Girl!" Girl: "?" Voice "Just now, you stepped on my foot, didn't you!? That hurt! What are you going to do about it!?" (She turns and stares at him. He's pretty dirty.) Vagrant: "Huh!? What's with that look!? Is that any way to act after stepping on someone's foot!?!?" Vagrant: "What's that, bitch!? Think you're better than - ..." (Bad move, mister) The moment the vagrant, who was pissed off, tried to grab the girl--- Vagrant: "---!?" *shing* A quiet metallic sound. And - - a few strands of hair that had once been on the vagrant fluttered in the wind. Vagrant: "Wh-what are...!? You..." Girl: "Are you aware of how many people there are who sit around or sleep regardless of where they are in this Sect?" Vagrant: "H-...Huh??" Girl: "The answer is 'unknown.' The reason is 'because there are too many of them to count.' ... Do you know what this means?" (That no one will miss him if she skewers him?) Vagrant: "Huh...?" "I don't get what you're saying." That was the only line in the vagrant's mind. Girl: "Geeze... Don't make me say it... In other words..." Vagrant: "In other words...?" Girl: "I'm asking if you think I can walk around minding and avoiding each and every one of the legs and other limbs of all those vagrants who lie around on the roadsides, you vagrant!!! Are you picking a fight with me knowing that I'm the great Mio-sama, well known for having low blood pressure and also being very irritable in the morning!?" (This game is voice-acted, btw. She rants at a fairly high speed. If I were that guy, I would be backing away slowly.) Girl: "And are you still picking a fight with me knowing that I'm the great Mio-sama, well known for fighting those who want to fight her no matter what and getting back at them more than twice as much!?!?" Girl: "In that case..." Vagrant: "Wai.... A.... Horosco...!?" (Poor guy. He's not very bright. The right answer is RUN.) Mio-sama raised her sword and prepared to cut the vagrant... (Ladies and gentlemen, our Protag-chan! A short-tempered psycho with a sword!) Vagrant: "Ahh!! Spare at least my life!!" Mio: "Don't worry, I won't kill you... But, well... Prepare to almost die." (He screams. She laughs maniacally. And then we cut away to the sky...)
This sounds like my kinda game! All dating games are improved by blood and battle, all of them. ... Also, that sect thing sounds like a pain. Should we assume that most of Europe was wiped out or is there an exclusively polish-speaking sect somewhere?
I'm not sure if the sect thing is even going to come up at any point in the plot, or if it's just their way of saying "New world, new rules!". Ten seems like awfully few for the whole world... and if the world is screwed up enough how much would we even know of what's going on halfway around the world? Might be reasonable for now to assume that the world was wiped out and made uninhabitable except for China and Japan, and it's those parts which are split into Sects. That's a more manageable area. I have no idea, though.
Or maybe they THINK the whole world was wiped out and made their little sects, then off in Scandinavia there's another bunch of people who built farms and stuff and think China and Japan were wiped out, and America thinks they're the only ones left, etc. So in reality there may be hundreds of them, they're just all so scattered nobody knows about the others. That's gonna be my headcanon, for now. We'll have to see if it's disproven somehow.
High Female Voice: "You worked hard. Today started out rough, didn't it?" Mio: "It really did. Geez... Well, it's still okay since you weren't involved, Shizu." (Suddenly, after the heavy metal screeches of the fight scene, we go into Bright Boppy Dating Sim Music. It's kinda jarring.) The two of them lived together since neither of them had parents. (Already cohabiting! Protag-chan moves FAST.) (She seems cute, sweet, shy, and a lot less crazy than our protagonist. As a paranoid person I will suspect yandere until proven otherwise.) (So, apparently Shizuku intervened and made Mio stop beating up that bum. There's a huge crowd staring at the battered form, and Mio's grumping that he deserved it and he started it anyway.) Mio: "Anyways, rather than that, I think the fact that you suddenly disappeared is more important." Shizuku: "Hmm... I want to know how that happened too." (What, she's developing random teleportation powers?) (Plot explains that normally Shizuku would have been at Mio's side since leaving the house, but... FLASHBACK TIME... where instead of teleportation they repeat the whole scene we just saw and explain that Shizuku failed to stop when the bum yelled at Mio for stepping on his foot, and thus wandered off. Back in the present, Mio scolds Shizuku for being an airhead and not noticing stuff.) (I am disappoint. I wanted teleporting.) (Because even after the collapse of society, this is a dating sim, so we have to go to a standard Japanese school!) In other words... most of them basically come to hang out. There are various students from elementary to high school age, and since there is no official uniform, they each wear what they want. Some wear student-like clothes that are like uniforms, while others wear casual clothes. (The girls go in and greet their friends, and we find out that Shizuku's nickname is 'Tenshi-chan' (Angel) because she's so sweet, whereas Mio is 'Akuma-chan' (Devil?)) (And there's an unusually high number of people here today. They don't have to turn up, of course. Sit wherever. Show up wherever. Wear whatever. Except that for all this freedom, the end result ends up looking a lot like every other schoolroom ever. This probably say something about the Japanese character. ... And then we hear someone running in the halls.) (Obsessively glompy teacher or other best friend?) (Probably a classmate, then.) Yuuki: "Aha* It's all right, it's all right! If I do it every day, you'll be able to take it." (Apparently she's not even in their class, although how much that matters in this school is debatable, but comes by every day to attack Mio. They catch her up on the morning's events. Yuuki points out that it's a good thing the bum didn't harass Shizu or Mio would totally have killed him. Mio agrees.) Mio: "But Shizu, it's good that nothing happened today, but that habit of yours of walking around without paying attention... you should really do something about it. It's become more dangerous lately..." (Wait, what? Sacrifices? ... And the music goes all dark again.) "Queen" is what people call the Leader of this Sect, "Sect Queenkreuz." A few years ago, this Sect Mio and the others were on was taken over by the group 'Queenkreuz," which Queen led, and this Sect which had had another name was renamed "Sect Queenkreuz." (The whole world war was only ten years ago anyway, all invasions have to be pretty recent! So anyway, some people really hate this Queen for taking over their area, but she has some fanatical supporters called 'Queen Followers' who are kinda cultlike.) "We need flesh and blood, a sacrifice for Queen's birthday." Recently, it seems that that line is popular among the Followers. Mio: "Geez, I wonder why they worship someone like that so much." Yuuki: "Queen gets people excited. The rumors about her are just right for this decadent, boring place." Inside and outside the Sect, there are many rumors about Queen. Of all things, that she can use magic, that she can summon the Devil, that she performs experiments on humans, and, when it becomes night, the crying of the ghosts of those who died in failed experiments can be heard from her mansion... (AYA IS THAT YOU) ... that all the people she killed until now are on display inside her mansion, that her staple food is human brains... All kinds of rumors, true and untrue (though the truth is unknown.) (Yuuki figures it's only natural that her followers would think making sacrifices to someone like that is a good idea, and Mio agrees that Queen would probably appreciate it.) Shizu: "And... how did it turn out?" Yuuki: "It looks like he was saved. I don't know the details, but they say someone beat up the Followers and saved him." (Suddenly Shizu looks like she has a crush on this mysterious hero. Is this mysterious hero Mio by any chance?) Mio: "Geez... THe nerve of these people... It's unbelievable that they're looking for sacrifices in this day and age." (This day and age? The age of complete chaos after a world war? Doesn't seem unbelievable to me!) Yuuki: "That's true, but the fact that they are looking for them is how the times are now." Mio: "Really, why is she called 'Queen'? For someone like her, Yoshiko is enough! Yeah, she's definiely Yoshiko!" (Is she actually our other childhood friend or something?) (Or was Mio just making up a name?) Mio: "This world is as good as done. It's messed up." Yuuki: "It's just that there's something wrong with this Sect. There are plenty of other Sects that are normal." (Yuuki suggests they all run off to the nearby Sect Falcon, which is bigger and pretty peaceful and safe. Mio doesn't think there's such a thing as a safe place... then realises that Shizu has dozed off during the conversation and thwacks her. Back goes the music to happy cheerful bopping.) (This game is kinda weird.)
I feel there is a quite a strong dissonance between the first scene and this following one. Maybe I'm just imagining things.
Thus my 'this game is weird' comment. The mood is lurching around crazily at the moment and the music is really playing that up. Super dark intense heavy fighting music. Super cheerful chirpy music. Sacrifices. People who can't think of anything better to do after the apocalypse than dress up in school uniforms and go to school. Very odd.
I was looking into this game the other day. The description was pretty interesting, but not I'm kind of concerned about that vagrant. Did she stab him? For no reason?
It's a bit unclear (this translation is kinda awkward in places). What I can be pretty sure of is that she hit him repeatedly and left him collapsed in a heap like a rag. Whether she was slapping him around with the flat of the blade or using him like a pincushion, I can't tell. Either way, she definitely hurt him for no reason. Since he was spriteless it'll probably never even come up again, I don't know. The uneven mood so far makes it very difficult to tell how seriously we're supposed to take her behavior - is this comedy tsundere violence or a PC who's going to be drowning in the blood of her enemies by endgame? (Both, probably) And from the description, sounds like Queen will be even more fun to have around once we meet her! *nervous look*
(Still working on how much text to reproduce. The translation and writing are really too awkward and slow to attempt to print most of the lines as they are, so I'm probably moving into a lot more summarising.) Shizuku rubs her eyes 'adorably' and apologises for being sleepy. Yuuki and Mio bicker about how they shouldn't talk about serious things because it sets Shizu off, and of course with the bickering she starts snoring again. (The voice gets an echoing-from-far-distance effect here) So, talking about murders sends Angel right to sleep? TOTALLY not creepy. Okay. Mio points out that they're trying to remind Shizuku that the world is DANGEROUS right now so she shouldn't be ignoring it. (Because I luuuuuuuuuuv you?) Mio blushes. Yuuki teases them. Mio threatens to take her sword and go home. Then Yuuki says there's another rumor we should hear. (Yuuki is apparently nicknamed "The Informant") (And now the music goes spooky) People have been reporting sightings of a transparent girl in white. Check the expression, Yuuki is obviously a vampire fan. She says people have seen this girl in white covered in blood. Naturally, Shizuku goes faint. Mio is unimpressed unless there's reports of the 'vampire' actually attacking someone. And all the victims were female. (Of course they were, this is a yuri game! *looks over at Aoi Shiro* Trend!) Mio figures it was really the Queen Followers. Yuuki shrugs, and we go back to being cheerful. Yuuki says she'll keep investigating and will report back if she learns anything more. Mio is somewhat interested but warns her to be careful. Foreshadowing? Can I have a cute green-haired glasses vampire girl? Aww, Mio, you always spoil my fun. There aren't any reports of other people becoming vampires anyway. Mio says this is probably proof that the Girl In White is just a Twilight fan pretending to be a vampire and faking all the bites with a syringe. Yuuki's not convinced, but finally has to run off to her own class. After she leaves: Shizuku: "Hey, Mio? Do you think there really is one? A vampire girl in white?" Mio: "Hmm..." Choice time! How skeptical are we? Is it slightly possible that the girl might be a real vampire? Or is this complete rubbish?
Shizu would seem like a sweetie if, when she retraced her steps that morning back to Mio, she hadn't acknowledged that virtually random act of violence with the standard, "You worked hard." No wonder she's such a cuckoolander; she's using denial the block out the horrible reality around her. Well, time to wake her up. "There might be one..."
Appearently, we need an evil to defend our harem from, or a non-human love interest who might or might not be more violent than us, so yup, of course there are vampires :)
This game is really schizophrenic about its tone. Also, who's the purple haired woman in the intro at 0:53? Can we romance her? Also, there's no way vampires exist.
Even if it may be unwise in this setting, I say stick to reality and say there's no way vampires exist. Does it bother anyone else that Mio is visible like the other characters? When she is on the screen along with others feel that when several of them are on the screen together, that they are somehow looking at a protagonist that doesn't exist. Or alternatively, all looking in the same direction for some reason.
I say vampires exist! Just because I want to tease that girl. Besides, there's no big difference between "actually drinks people's blood" and "steals people's blood for no apparent reason but probably isn't drinking it"...
I've gotta say, any apocalypse that kills 80% of the human population, but leaves the survivors ten years later with so many resources that teenagers can show up to school in clean uniforms just to "hang around", is such a shiny happy apocalypse that the human sacrifice barely registers.
Mio states that there could be a vampire. Shizuku is spooked. Mio promptly says she was just kidding. (shakes fist at false choices... but hey, Mio was pretty clear in her opinion earlier) Mio points out that even if the vampire is a fake, it's still dangerous out there and Shizu should still be more careful. The teacher arrives (no sprite, must not be datable) and people sit down to listen to her talk. If they feel like it. Mio, on the other hand, feels like "studying" sleep. A few days later, will something terrible happen? ... Nope, back to bouncy music school and Yuuki talking about the history of Sect Queenkreuz. The central city where we are is relatively safe compared to the rest of the sect. But why? Yuuki lowered her voice a little and waved one of her hands up and down. She looked like a gossipy old woman. ... There were no gossipy old women in this Sect, though. It seemed like there were people like that before. (Right, that apocalypse. Maybe it was one of those kills-everybody-over-age-sixteen type apocalypses? That might explain why we turned into weird gangs and people going to school out of habit.) Anyway, Yuuki suggests there is a mysterious hero in the city who protects people. Sounds like what we heard before about someone rescuing people from the Queen's followers. After the apocalypse, we will still have manga. Yuuki insists the stories are reliable and Shizuku thinks heroes are cool. Mio thinks the hero should work harder and fix this place up properly. Then they wonder why their teacher is so late in showing up this day. It's 9:45 and no sign. Sure, this school has no fixed schedule, but that's still unusually late. Yuuki (who you may recall is technically in another class) pops down the hall to check. Did somebody eat all the teachers? A girl from Yuuki's class (name of Hayase, but no sprite) rushes into the room and starts whispering to a huddle of students, who act surprised. Yuuki goes to ask them what's up. They turn to face her, and: All the girls who turned around... had tears in their eyes. There was even a girl who was sobbing. Hayase: "...Sayuri was..." Not a teacher; it appears that a classmate of theirs, a girl known for being cheerful, has been killed. Cue more tears and panic as girls start whispering about the vampire. Others try to deny it, but Yuuki confirms that there are rumors of a vampire and the Sect police think it's real. Shizuku clings to Mio for comfort. Finally a teacher arrives and makes the official announcement. Class is miserable enough that Mio decides to leave halfway through the day, dragging Shizuku with her. Mio: "Whatever. You're just as bad for following me." They keep walking. Shizuku doesn't know if she believes in vampires or not, but it doesn't make a difference - Sayuri's still dead. Mio decides she wants to know the truth, because it might happen again. Mio: "... though, it isn't like I feel that we have to do something because of a sense of justice or anything." (Protest more, tsundere!) Shizuku: "Then... why??" Mio: "It's just that... I can't accept it. I want to see if there really is a 'vampire'." Mio really hates "occult" people, and Queen, and the Queen Followers. She has a reason. There used to be a stray cat she was quite fond of... until a a Queen Follower took it to use as a sacrifice in one of their crazy "rituals". The Follower who performed the ritual was an old woman she knew and lived near. (Wait, I thought there weren't any old women left? GAME WHY ARE YOU SO INCONSISTENT) That mild old lady changed completely after becoming a Queen Follower. So Mio blames Queen for turning people into murderous loonies, ignoring the fact that she herself is a nearly-murderous loonie. Therefore, she wants to disprove occult things, or something like that. Shizu offers to come with her. Mio turns her down, claiming it's too dangerous, but Shizuku insists - she won't leave Mio alone in danger, and she wants to know the truth too! Shizuku: "Aren't you the same?"
Shizuku wonders how we're supposed to find anything since the police and even Yuuki have no idea where this 'vampire' is. All they know is that the vampire appears at night. Best plan: wander around the city in the dark looking like lunch and hope something attacks you! Luckily, random people who don't even get names pass by and comment that the vampire was seen at a particular location: 'Takada Building', where 'Aki's Gang' hangs out. Thanks, random passerby! So it's the main street full of shops, but it's very quiet at night. The Sect isn't safe after dark, and only vagrants, drug dealers, and cultists are regularly out then. Oh, and us, but we're idiot schoolgirls. WHAT COULD GO WRONG. Also cultists generally hold masses during the full moon. LIKE NOW. Shizuku: "It's been a while since we last went out at a time like this, hasn't it?" Well sure, if you enjoy BEING MURDERED. Shizuku reminds Mio to keep her eyes open, and wonders if they should have asked Yuuki to come with them. Mio figures that Yuuki would have been worried and tried to stop them. Protag-chan has not yet leveled up enough to defend an entire harem, alas. Shizuku thinks about how Mio is always defending her - and then they're interrupted by a musical older woman's voice. Shizuku eeps. In a suggestive sing-song way, the (so far unpictured) woman asks what such nice young girls are doing in a place like this, and says she knows where to find a good hotel. While laughing "Ufufu" style. (Are we about to get shoved into a sack and sold to a brothel?) Without letting up, the woman smiled and started casually wrapping her arm around Shizuku. (COME WITH ME TO THE LOVE HOTEL!) Mio: "Don't touch her." (She grabs the woman's arm.) Woman: "My, you're pretty cold even though you have a cute face. Ufufu... But I don't hate girls like you." Woman: "Hey... Why don't you forget about that thing you have to do and come play with me a little? I promise you'll have a really good time..." (... bets that there will be opium involved?) After the woman gently freed her arm from Mio's grasp, she began stroking Mio's cheek with her fingers. Her smiling lips drew so close to Mio that it looked like they would touch her. Mio: "I'll pass. We're busy, you see. Instead of dealing with kids like us, go make friends with some other adults." (Mio grabs Shizu and drags her away.) (I'm mostly surprised that this woman doesn't even get a sprite!) Safe (ish) in an alley, Mio scolds Shizuku for being too polite to strangers. Mio, honey, I don't think money was what that lady was after. Oh, we're officially in LadyLand? There are more females in this Sect compared to other Sects because of Queen. Queen is well known for first massacring the males in any Sect she takes over. It seems around half the males in any Sect she takes over are killed. (There is a rumor that many more than half are killed.) The reason is that Queen hates males. That is the only reason. (... okay...) Mio blushes and says this isn't the time for that. On to the reason they came here in the first place - the Takada Building!
Ah yes, that is the best plan to keep humanity alive... Kill half of it. What the hell, Queen? Why do people follow you? How'd she even GET a clan, are there that many people who just plain hate men?
The Takada building was originally thirteen stories tall, but everything above the fifth floor was destroyed. It's a wreck now, covered in multiple layers of graffiti, with only openings where doors used to be. Mio and Shizuku peer inside but see nothing but rubble. Mio points out there are more floors to check, so they make their way up the stairs. Second floor - empty. Third floor - empty Fourth floor - empty (naturally, to be predictable, if there's anything here it will be up top) Halfway up the stairs to the fifth floor, the air changed. It was not air from a room; it was air from outside. Mio: "Nothing's here, and it doesn't look like anyone's here either..." But as Shizuku starts to speak, Mio shushes her, then quickly hides them both behind some rubble. Mio: "Someone's... there..." Slowly, they looked at the end of the floor, where they can dimly see two figures. Shizuku: "Wah... Is this... something we shouldn't be seeing, maybe...?" (Sex or vampires? More likely vampires.) The clouds begin to blow away from the moon, restoring the light. The girl... was biting the woman's neck. After a while, the girl slowly opened her eyes and drew back. The woman on the floor did not move. After the girl let go of her, as she was carefully laying her on her back, the woman's arms dropped to the floor without any strength. After that, the girl put her hands together in front of her chest. It was as if she was offering a prayer. The red, red bloodstains on the white, white clothes for some reason fitted the image of her praying well. (Game replays a reminder of the girl in white rumor, but still doesn't actually show us anything. ART! I WANT ART!) The girls are shocked and staring. Mio clenches her fist, accidentally crumbling some rubble and making a sound...
Well, if one assumes the hilariously unrealistic standard genre convention of "After the apocalypse, it's all rape gangs all the time!", then I can imagine a charismatic woman with a bunch of followers sweeping into a territory, killing off a large percentage of the men--specifically targeting the most violent and rapey of them--and then going, "Look! Women in power! Less rape! Yay!" and getting a fair amount of support. Especially since one needs only so many men around for a stable breeding population anyway. So that could be somewhat plausible. Kill off all the violent bullies, their former victims turn to you in gratitude, you keep on liberating more territory, you can get away with a lot of nasty quirks because it's still better than the previous status quo... ...but that assumes that any aspect of this game's setting makes sense, which it really doesn't. At all.
There's also the fact that we do know that people worship Queen like a deity, or at least like some holy prophet/the Second Coming/etc, which isn't all that different from what a lot of real-life cult leaders get their followers to do. And and said followers can easily be convinced to do and believe in a lot things simply because hey, if the Holy Leader says/does/believes it then it must be true for Holy Leader speaks the Heavenly Law! So yeah, it's not that hard to believe that Queen could get herself a clan of worshipers, take over a Sect and convince her followers to just butcher the majority of the men just because she says so, and why they'd not only do it willingly but continue to follow her and heap reverence upon her. She's Queen, the Holy Leader, and her words are the Heavenly Law! Though like fadeaccompli said, this also assumes that there's anything remotely resembling Earth Logic in the backstory.
It's sort of impressive, really. There are a lot of fictional settings that don't hold up well if they're scrutinized thoroughly. Of those, a subset don't really hold up to repeated questions. Of those, a subset don't hold up to even cursory questions. (Though this usually goes without comment if it's because of genre conventions.) But this is one of the few published (?) settings I've seen that has hit this many "Oh, come on, I really need to believe that?" points this rapidly. Between that and the mood swings, it almost makes me wonder if this is trying to parody something(s) and I'm just not catching the references.
It's both amateur-made and amateur-translated (by different groups); it is for sale, but self-published only. Seems higher budget than most English indie games, though, with all the voice acting and so on. Also, the original doujin circle that made it seems to have exited the business and their domain name is now in the hands of squatters? If it is a parody, I don't know about it either. So far I'm mostly reading along and imagining the authors sitting beside me going "Work with me here, I wanted a setting full of magic battle lesbians, it doesn't have to make sense if we can have girls kissing!" Not that we've actually gotten any girls kissing yet but it's got to happen eventually, right?
I have absolutely no idea why the girl is being called "Silence" all of a sudden, since we haven't met her and that isn't the name she has in the opening video anyway. Shizuku clings to Mio's arm and asks what they should do now. Mio keeps quiet. They huddle in the shadows, trembling, but the girl keeps staring that direction. She's not moving. She's not leaving. Finally, Mio sighs. Shizuku stands up too. And apparently she's holding a long knife which she's also been carrying around? Okay... Weapons in hand, they walk towards the girl. Mio: "...We were looking for you." Girl: "For me...? Do you... know me?" (No 'Silence' here. Maybe that was the translators being confused earlier. Also, she has a fairly childish voice to my ear.) Mio: "There's a rumor about you in the city. A vampire that wanders around seeking blood..." Girl: "Vampire...?" The girl looked like she did not know what Mio was talking about, but after taking a look at her hands and clothes, she nodded like she understood. (How come her sprite isn't bloody?) Mio: "Pretty much. It's different if you say you won't kill any more people, though." (What, if the blood-covered person-you-think-is-a-vampire says "Oops, sorry, won't do that again" you'll just walk away?) The girl closes her eyes and says nothing. Mio: "You can't do that, huh? Then I don't have a choice." Raising her sword, she tried to take a step toward her, when -- Girl: "... I'm sorry." (I had to paste in the last bit of text because it appeared after a delay so my screenshot missed it.) Vampire girl suddenly engages super-speed and lunges for Mio. Mio jumps back, waving her sword, and I can't manage to catch the effect fast enough to screencap. She yells at Shizu to stay away, and runs the other direction to draw the vampire off. Mio continues trying to hit Azoth with her sword, but she can't tag a vampire using Celerity. Suddenly Azoth slides under the sword swing and grabs Mio from behind. Mio falls, dropping her sword. The girl gets her arm around Mio's neck and starts squeezing. Her touch is very cold... Mio feels her body starting to go numb... she's going to die. Surprising no one, Shizuku suddenly leaps in to save her. Tries to, anyway. She's got a knife, but her hand is visibly shaking. Azoth drops Mio, who gasps for breath and then pleads for Shizu to run. Shizuku waves the knife feebly but Azoth easily reaches past it and grabs her. Shizuku tries to pull back, but trips over some rubble and falls. Mio: "Shizu..!!" Mio struggles to get up but her left leg isn't behaving right since the vampire kicked it. Mio: "Get away... from Shizu-... vampire-!!!" As she painfully climbs to her feet, the vampire's mouth is moving to Shizuku's neck. Mio grabs her sword and tries to be threatening, but... suddenly we hear the sound of footsteps. Female Voice; "Azoth?" (Apparently pronounced A-zo-to) Girl: "...She's calling." All of a sudden the girl lets go of Shizuku and stands up. Mio runs to her friend, pulling her to her feet and checking that she's okay, then sweeps Shizuku behind her and raises her sword to fight off the vampire's attack... but the vampire isn't attacking. She's just standing there, staring off in the direction of the voice. (A voice whose owner we still haven't seen.) So, do we take advantage of the vampire's distraction to LEG IT or to STAB HER IN THE BACK?
STAB HER IT PROBABLY WON'T DO ANYTHING, BUT STAB HER ... come on, being kicked in the back of the knee should not render you incapable of getting up. It might hurt a bit if she hit it hard enough, but... really? Making her leg stop working? And then she has no trouble running a moment afterward... Aah, this game's suspension of disbelief is asking too much!
^ I really can't add much to that, exept for EXACTLY! Sucking people's blood for the greater good? Just... What?
Stabbing it is. Deciding that her problem before was wasting too much time thinking, Mio decides to stab wildly without pausing for thought, and actually manages to lightly touch vampire girl's shoulder before she reacts. We're not doing so good on our Intimidation checks. Mio: "Don't tell me what to do! I won't feel satisfied until I land a hit on you!" Girl: "...I hate people who don't treasure their lives..." (Why is she still 'Girl' in the text box anyway? She told us her name.) Anyway, girl just stands there while Mio talks tough at her, and then the mysterious voice calls out again. Voice: "Azoth? Azoth?" (I should point out that from the voice files she CLEARLY says more than that. Either the text is missing or the translator is really goofing it here. My best guess would be "Azoth? Azoth? *sigh* What's going on up there?" based on tone and what little I can pick out of the language.) Girl: "You should go back soon." Saying that, the girl turned away again. Mio: "You-..." Yeah, calm down and stop trying to attack the monster we're fighting! Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Par for the course. Voice: "Azoth~! My, what a troublesome girl... Where are you?" The footsteps keep coming up the stairs. Mio raises her sword and waits. I guess she's just giving up on attacking Azoth because even with the vampire distracted it doesn't seem possible to hit her? And as the footsteps finally reach us, we change to a NEW ominous soundtrack. ... if you watched the OP you know that this is NOT A GOOD FACE TO SEE. We're screwed. Queen: "Well, it's all right. As long as you're not hurt." Queen acts like she doesn't even see the insignificant schoolgirls, walking right past them to pay attention to the vampire. The girls are baffled. Mio: "...We're going to run away while we still can, Shizu." (No! Just stab them both! They probably deserve it! ... Oh, fine, run.) As they scamper, Queen finally turns her head their way and looks down the stairs after them. She shrugs and turns back to her little vampire friend, all smiles. Queen: "Now, let's go back, Azoth." They stroll off holding hands.
Images flash by as the girls run for cover. After a while they figure out nobody's following them and slow down. Mio muses that the building can look kinda creepy, what with the random cracks from the Illogical Apocalypse and all, but at the moment, it seems like a safe and wonderful place. Off to their room. Mio flops on the couch. Shizu scolds her that she'll wrinkle her uniform, as if that makes any sense at all. They reassure each other that they're not injured, then wonder what the heck is going on with the connection between Queen and the vampire. Maybe you'd know more if you hadn't run off? Or maybe you'd be dead, there's that. They have no clue, but it's late and they're tired, so off to bed. Shizuku: "That girl... Azoth, was it? What do you think about her?" (Sheesh, Shizu, are you really THAT clingyjealous that you immediately assume we have the hots for a vampire girl the minute we see her? ... Wait, I haven't polled the members, maybe we DO have the hots for her.) Mio: "Eh? What are you talking about all of a sudden? No matter how you look at it, she's a vampire... Her speed wasn't normal." Mio: "It's really frustrating, but since Queen's involved, it might be hard to do anything..." Shizuku: "Yeah..." This is about the third time Mio's asked her if she's okay. Uh-oh. Is Shizu going to turn into a vampire on us now? Sure. Everything's fine. I'm... just gonna get a garlic sandwich before I sleep, k? Mio: "...Can you sleep alone? If you're afraid, I can be with you." (Well, *she's* not worried about the biting. Or is looking forward to it.) Shizuku: "Saying something like that... aren't you the one who's scared?" Mio: "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not scared at all." They giggle over it, but do end up climbing into bed together. But as they start to drift off, they wonder how they'll handle things the next day, now that they know the vampire is real and really killing people. Mio: "...It's all right. You don't have to worry about anything. Relax. I'll protect you, Shizu." They hold hands and fall asleep.
I daresay, that CG is very cute. The amount of suspension of disbelief you need to find the story immersive is immense though.
Inter-title card, new scene. There are two very odd things about the audio for this new scene. One is that this is clearly crackling radio dialogue, suggesting things we haven't seen up til now. The other is: that really sounds like a male voice. WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS WHO LET MEN INTO THIS GAME. ... also, what the heck are they talking about? Voice 2 (female): "Roger. I'll be waiting." Voice 1: "Have a nice day." Voice 2: "Have a nice day." (Ah, polite conspiracies. And now, back to the bouncy happytime music!) Shizuku: "Mio, don't yawn with your mouth wide open." They tease and have breakfast. Shizuku is the cook, naturally. It used to be that they took turns cooking but... (Mio then breaks the fourth wall briefly to scold the narrator for telling this story. Maybe it IS supposed to be a parody!) Today's breakfast is scrambled eggs and toast. But... Well, sweet is better than mysteriously tasting of blood (eyes potential vampire warily) Shizu flusters and wonders if she mixed up the salt and the sugar. Mio points out that even though Shizu is kind of a ditz, she's usually good at cooking. Shizu pouts about the ditzy part. Yes, but... are you SURE you're okay? You were too distracted by thinking about biting Mio's neck? Mio figures it's normal because so much stuff happened yesterday. Still, Shizu looks pale and school is optional anyway, so why not stay home and rest? Shizu laughs and agrees. Choice time! Stay home with our friend who is DEFINITELY NOT TURNING INTO A VAMPIRE? Or go off to school and leave DEFINITELY NOT A VAMPIRE unmonitored?
