AMARANTO - Psycho protag-chan with a sword

Stay home, we're not exactly a model student as it is anyway.

Blood is quite sweet, but I'm pretty sure scrambled eggs containing it would be easily identifiable. Thus she probably mistook the sugar for the salt. Note that this means that if she had actually used salt it would be inedible. You need a lot more sugar to make something sweet than salt usually.

Go to school. I wanna meet this Ria chick from the intro.

Stay home. What's the point of a "school" where no teaching happens, anyway?

That is, if you assume this game uses logic... And we had the chance to suck up to the leader of one of the 10 clans in the world and gotten ourselves killed but we just walked away? Oh well... I vote for go to school, because I don't really like Shizuku. And ignoring her untill she starts drinking our blood sounds like a good plan to me. We've just survived probably the two most overpowered characters in the game by doing all kinds of stupid stuff, so let's continue doing so.

Stay home. She's probably kinda traumatized from almost being bitten yesterday.

I think what the game's trying to do is to have a serious story with deep characters who have these lighthearted/playful sides too. Which is a good idea, cute bantering so once things go to hell it hurts all the more, but... ah... Their "playful" sides are too detached and causing serious tone dissonance.
I suppose I'm learning what not to do when writing, now.

If the voting swings strongly one way or the other I'll go with the popular vote but if it stays mostly balanced I'll probably lean for staying home. Because, while I know that bringing logic into this game is laughable, I can't help but think that you do not let a suspected vampire out of your sight.

This, but also playing hooky is fun. Stay home and play apocalypse dating sims. Tokimemo Ragnarok edition or whatever the ladies are into these days.

Though I'm curious what's happening at non-school, I suspect that if we leave her alone, Shizu will probably wind up (un)dead. Since I'm not the type to break up a potential Battle Couple so soon, I also vote stay home.

Hmm, I wonder if Azoth is really a vampire. She seemed to be surprised that Mio would think that. And she then looked at the blood on her dress and hands as if she is was thinking: "ooh, that's how she got that strange idea! I get it now."

I vote for staying at home.

Awww, who's an adorable little yandere and possible vampire? You are! Yes, you are!

And yeah, stay at home, it's not like we're learning anything from that school anyway.

Who needs school? Let's hang out with our bestie who is totally not trying to kill us.



She's trying to get us out of the way so she can turn into a giant glowing coccoon. Vampires do that.

Mio points out that Shizu can't argue about her skipping when SHE'S skipping, and anyway, Shizuku clearly needs looking after.

Shizuku insists she's not sick enough to need a babysitter, and Yuuki will be lonely if we don't go to school. Mio doesn't believe that. Shizuku points out taht they have juicy gossip about the Real Vampire that they really should share with Yuuki... and this argument seems to sink in.



On the other hand, Mio says Yuuki will be angry when she finds out what the two of them were up to.



But Shizuku is insistent that Mio already agreed to leave... so fine she's going. Mio tells Shizuku to rest and heads out on her own.

We're going to come back and the whole apartment will be covered in glowing purple vampire coccoonvines and it will be all your fault for being wrapped around Shizuku's finger, Mio.

Mio goes off to school, feeling incomplete without Shizuku beside her. Everyone notices. Yuuki wonders what's up.



DID YOU FINALLY HAVE SEX AND RAVISH SHIZUKU TO THE POINT THAT SHE COULDN'T GET OUT OF BED??? TELL US, MIO!!!

... naturally Mio smacks her and threatens further violence if she keeps thinking along those lines.



Of course she did, she's a violent maniac.

Still, Yuuki can tell that something weird is up. Mio's not going to spill the beans to the whole class, so she suggests they skip first period to catch up.

Off to the school roof!

There were no people on the roof, a slightly cloudy blue color spread through the skies, and on the other side of the fence, the crumbling, grey city could be seen.



Mio looks out at all the people living 'normal' lives below despite living in a world that (makes no sense) has all these murders and stuff.

Finally, she starts telling Yuuki about what happened with Azoth and Queen. Yuuki is upset.



Mio: "I didn't have a choice, did I? I wanted to find out no matter what, and I had to fight in that situation."

Yuuki yells at her a bit about taking stupid risks, Mio shrugs because she made it out okay in the end.



Mio's all "Nah, no bites, I'm fine." Sure, *she's* fine. But...

Anyway, they wonder what Queen has to do with anything. Mio figures Queen just likes random violence.



They can't make any sense of it, so they just stare at the sky until the bell rings for the end of class.



Yuuki thanks her for the information.

Yuuki: "But Mio, don't do anything dangerous like that again, okay? It's really bad for my heart. Don't make me worry."

Mio: "You don't have to worry. I won't try to get involved anymore. Queen's involved. It's frustrating, but I can't do anything."

... yeah, like that's going to last.

What. Why even give us a choice if you're gonna decide it for us anyway, game?

(Flashback here reminding us of Azoth, the cryptic things she said, and that her eyes "looked sad". Cut to Shizuku alone in the apartment.)



However, something felt heavy. Perhaps... her heart?

Shizuku: "...Why?"



Shizuku: "I wonder why that girl had eyes like that..."

Shizu, sweetie, you're talking to yourself. THat's not a good sign.

Shizu thinks that she saw Azoth much more closely than Mio did, and Mio probably didn't see the look in those eyes.



Yeah, I'm pretty sure Mio isn't going to take that well.

Distracted, Shizuku gets up from the sofa and wanders outside.



So, is she going to run into Shizuku or is she going to go home to find her girlfriend's gone?



Oops. Well, it could have been worse. There could have been coccoons.

Mio, being quite dense, sits on the creaky sofa and muses that her sick friend must have gone for a pleasure cruise in eel-infested waters shopping, and so sits around waiting for several hours.

/title card, scene break/



Shizuku's returned to the scene of the crime. In daylight, it's a lot less spooky. And has a good view.



Okay, if the war was only ten years ago, she SAW all the buildings. Also, all the pictures of the city are FULL of buildings oh god why do I even bother arguing.

Shizuku: "Mio... I wonder if she's home already. I don't want her to worry; I have to go home soon."

If you didn't want her to worry, maybe you shouldn't have come out here?

Images pass by in succession to show her going down through the warehouse and the city FULL OF BUILDINGS until:



Shizuku: "Eh?"

She turns -

Woman: "It's Shizu-chan, right? *giggle* Do you remember me?"

(Is this streetwalker lady coming back? And STILL not having a sprite?)

Shizuku: "You're... the one from yesterday..."

Woman: "Oh, you remember me. I'm glad..."



Shizuku thinks "I have to run!" But she's a helpless damsel in distress so her feet REFUSE TO OBEY HER and she only takes timid little steps backwards.

Woman: "It must be by fate that we were able to meet again. I wanted to meet you this whole time, you know."

Bye, Shizuku! See you in the brothels!

I question the use of "streetwalker" as a label for women whose primary job description seems to consist of assaulting teenage girls who pass by.

I mean, unless the teenage girls are paying for that privilege.

Well, I guess they would walk around the streets at times, so perhaps it is just to be taken literally?

Well, this is why I keep assuming she intends to spirit Shizuku off and give her a new 'job' rather than assault her herself, but, you know, me and my logic.

This is what happens when you decide our path for us, game.
Look at what you did. Now Shizu's getting kidnapped/murdered/pushed into buying a prostitute!

If Shizu returns late at night, stuttering and murmuring about how she somehow ended up buying a prostitute, I'll forgive the game for that false choice. But that's not very likely...

That would be a great development, which is probably beyond this game, unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure that if you're drawing logical conclusions based on the game text so far, it's not going to mesh well with what this game actually does.

(I swear, this is like when I watched Two-Headed Shark Attack. It's great fun, but I'm not here because it makes sense.)

Perhaps knowing that Shizuku was afraid, the woman slowly walked toward her.



Ah, there's purple-haired prologue lady! I thought that might be her.

Shizuku: "P-... Please don't come any closer."

Any closer? If she comes any closer you'll be overlapping!

Woman: "Don't be so cold... I just want to be friends with you."

Shizuku: "I... I don't want to be friends with..."

The woman grabs her arm, and Shizuku squeaks. She's backed up against a wall and has nowhere else to go.

Woman: "Who were you looking for today?"



Shizuku: "How did you know...?"

Woman: "From the moment I saw you walking on the Street, I kept on watching you. You were looking around while you were walking... Ufufu, you were cute."

--- She was followed. Her slowed thought processes sent even more warning signals.

(The text has been describing lots of 'signals' which result in absolutely nothing since she couldn't even manage to run when she had the chance.)

Woman: "But, you can't, you konw? Keep on going places where there aren't any people..."

Shizuku: "..!"

Woman: "I might get the wrong idea. I might think that... you want some."

The woman's finger touched her lips and stroked them. Her frozen body did not even send warning signals anymore.

(Whatever brain she has is overloaded.)

Woman: "Fufu... you don't have to be that scared. After all, it's not like I'm trying to do something bad..."

Shizuku: "No..."

Shizuku herself was reflected in the woman's eyes. She became unable to tell whether she was looking at the woman's eyes or at her frightened self.



At that moment -

Female Voice: "Get away from that girl."







Woman: "Tch- Who are you? We're trying to have fun. Can you not get in the way?"



Some people are into that.

Woman: "We like having fun like that."

See?



Keep your BDSM out of my dark alleyways, or something!

Move. Saying that with her eyes, she aimed at the woman's forehead and came closer step by step.

(Aimed? With the gun? So... she REALLY hates BDSM?)

The eyes of the woman with the gun did not show a trace of hesitation and remained dignified.

So, the woman (who seriously should have had a sprite, for the amount of lines she's getting) decides not to push her luck and lets go of Shizuku.



She pets Shizuku's hair (Shizu just eeps quietly) and saunters off, smiling.

???: "Are you okay?"

I want the apocalypse where streetwalkers want to compliment me and sex me up, dammit. That's way better than the zombie apocalypse type.

I think my headcannon for this will be that Mio and Shizuku are just going to a normal school in non-apocalyptic Japan, but that they're high on peyote constantly. It'd explain a lot.

So uh... was that one going to be on the house, or what? You should probably check if she can actually pay you first, lady.

Or maybe she was a rapist masquerading as a prostitute ...?
Or was she a cult member trying to recruit people through lesbianism?
Seriously, I'm confused. What reason would you have to do this, lady? Is this a common occurence for you? Were you planning to steal her wallet after seducing her? What?

My first thought at seeing the woman holding the gun was about Madlax.

It's kind of bizarre since it's been years since I've seen the show and they don't really look all that similar.

Hello, by the way.

EDIT: took out the pictures.

I am extremely disappointed that this didn't happen.

On another note, is it just me, or is Prostitute-san's head huge?

And yet, Shizu's eyes are twice as large as hers.

Just art choices, or VAMPIRE DISEASE?

So THAT'S why she's sexing up teen girls for free! It's all about the blood!

Shizuku says she's fine and thanks the stranger. Stranger wonders what she was doing alone in a place like this, where it's dangerous.

I hate to say it, but the game TOLD US that these places were perfectly safe high-traffic zones in daylight. CONSISTENCY. IT'S A THING. TRY IT.

Shizu mumbles that she was looking for someone. Woman asks who she was looking for, and -

- we suddenly hear Mio yelling as she charges into the alley.



Mio, honey, you have to calm down on these reactions every time someone speaks to your girlfriend.

Shizuku flaps her hands uselessly as Mio jumps for the mystery woman



who dodges out of the way and yanks on one of Mio's twintails. Woman scolds her for being rude. Shizuku tries to explain what happened, and how this lady saved her from the woman from before.



Only in your world's 'logic', Mio.

After pointing out how much trouble Shizu would be in if women weren't tripping over themselves to save her, she thanks the stranger and asks for her name. It's Ayaka (as we know from OP)



Ayaka: "Oh? Why?"

... because Mio knows an entire tenth of the world's population by sight? Because nobody in this sect has guns? Because nobody in this sect would wear that color?

Mio: "I just got the feeling that... you were from another Sect."

("I don't know, the writers just give me these random intuitions!")

Naturally, she's right. It's unusual for a foreigner to come here, but Ayaka says there's something she has to do.



If she tells you, she'll have to kill you.

Ayaka finds this amusing and asks for their names. After receiving them:



Ayaka: "Just kidding! Fufufu... It would have been cool if I were a spy, but I only came here to take a geological survey, unfortunately."

Then her cell phone rings and she goes off to answer it.

Mio: "I wonder if it's a spy message."

(Well, she certainly could be one of the mysterious message-people.)

After finishing her call, she tells the girls she needs to go.



Nice thought, Mio, but unless you actually tell her there are vampires, Girl With Gun isn't likely to be worried.

Ayaka: "It looks that way. A vampire, was it? It's kind of become a rumor, hasn't it?"

Oh. She already knows there's a vampire. Huh.

Ayaka: "But, from what people in other Sects say, I don't think there's any way something like that exists. Someone's just pretending to be one, right?"



Oh, hey, we get choices!

Spill the beans on our newly-earned vampire lore, or agree with her? She may not believe us if we tell her....

Let's tell her about the vampire! Because goddamnit ONE of these choices has to not be false!

Very nice of the game to follow up an attempted rape/complete misunderstanding of the concept prostitute with slapstick chibis, by the way. It feels like I need to be tonedeaf to enjoy this... They're lucky that those are some cute chibis.

I'm not sure - should we be trusting an absolute stranger? Should we just blurt out what we saw to someone we don't know, someone who could be dangerous/a spy?

I have no clue which option I should vote for. :T
Little miss Indecisive strikes again~ D:

Let's talk about the vampire!

Not that it likely matters, since the game makes its decisions based on pre-ordained plot regardless of our input! Yay!

There are multiple endings, so SOME choice has to matter SOMEWHERE.... probably...

I'm not sorry. I could even hear it in his voice.

And yes! Let's talk vampires!

Well, she did save our girlfriend from either a mugger or a prostitute or a kidney thief disguised as a prostitute. Even if she is a spy, good, then whoever she's reporting to will know about the vampire too. You can't stop here, this is vampire country.

Yeah, tell her there's a vampire.

...dammit, I was hoping Prostitute-san was going to be a recurring character.

Mio and Shizuku spell out all the details that they know. Ayaka scowls, then smiles as she says she doesn't think they'd make up such a story. She seems thoughtful.



She gives them her business card and phone number.

We got a girl's number! That's a score, right?

After that, she leaves. Shizuku wonders if they did the right thing by telling her about Azoth.



They start back.



Woman! Don't leave the house by yourself! Your place is in the kitchen!

Shizu sheepishly explains that she wanted to find Azoth.



Sad eyes, like the ones I'm making now! You can't resist sad eyes, can you?

Mio is naturally angry at Shizuku for taking stupid risks, since Shizu couldn't possibly take care of herself against either a vampire or Queen (or even a prostitute) much less all at once. Shizuku apologises, but tries to explain a bit more...



Mio: "And on top of that, I ran... I can't believe it, really."

Shizuku: "Mio, you're not thinking about fighting her one more time, are you?"

Mio: "One more time... I do want to, but I won't. Yuuki told me not to do anything rash too."

[Scene transition with full moon in a night sky]



Woman: "My, my. I wonder if she's lost."

(Could be the 'prostitute' again. After all, she seems to randomly glomp onto all lost girls she sees. Why does this woman not have a sprite??)

As soon as she saw the girl, the woman drew near, interested.

Woman: "Hey there, what are you doing at a time like this in a place like this?"



... oops. Sayonara, prostitute-san.

Woman: "You can't talk?"

Azoth: "... You smell like the people from yesterday."



Woman: "Don't be like that. Let's play for a bit."

The woman reaches for her, but quick as a blink, Azoth moves out of the way and comes up behind her.



Woman: "What are you talking about?"



Woman: "Hey, what's wrong? Don't you feel... *gasp!*"

The woman's eyes reflected the red eyes of the girl in white.

That was the last thing she saw.

Prostitute-san!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

In the place where two people were supposed to be standing, the girl stood by herself while by her feet lay someone on the ground. The figure on the ground did not move at all.



Her white nightgown is once again stained red with blood.

Voice: "Azoth."

Azoth: "Queen..."



Azoth: "I got my clothes dirty again..."

Queen: "My, you were concerned about something like that? That doesn't matter at all. I'll ready any number of them for you."

Kill all you like! I have lots of white nightgowns lined up for you, kid.

Oh, and also, Queen's not bothered by the dead lady, although Azoth seems to be.





Queen: (laughing) "It tastes a little like blood."

Queen: "Nero?"

Voice: "Yes."



Ah, just what every anime game needs, a maid girl.

Queen waves at the body and suggests that Nero should clean it up. Then she offers to take Azoth home to change her clothes. Azoth is pleased.



But that line seems to make Azoth sad...



Until the figures returned to the place they lived. The whole time.

(I have no idea what these lines are supposed to be about, but this closes the scene - we do a title card and new scene jump from here. So reprinting in case someone has an idea what that's supposed to say.)

Nooooo, prostitute-san! D:
Oh, cruel fate... You will be fondly remembered as not having any idea what your job actually entails.
And... huh, Queen and Azoth are an item, apparently. Yeah, no wonder Azoth's so sad, Queen is basically her mom.

Wait, "you smell like the people from yesterday"? Mio hasn't been macking on Prostitute-san off-screen, has she? Did Azoth meet Ayaka at some point yesterday too? She's clearly referring to multiple people.

Could be translation inconsistency, could be that Mio and Shizuku's scents were so tangled up from clinging to each other that she can't tell them apart, could be they smell the same because their apartment stinks?