Summary
: “What the hell is this…?”
: “What’s up? How’s the trace going?”
: “Check this out.”
: “The reception point is scattered all throughout the 25th Ward… and look at these numbers…”
: “Even we can’t trace it… and on top of that… Kamui.”
: “Kamui, huh..?”
: “From the 24 Wards.”
: “I don’t know…”
: “Also, who was that on the phone, anyway?”
: Not shown - three text boxes of Osato and Tsuki exchanging ellipses.
: “Ah…”
: “What’s up?”
: “It’s about time to make contact with the diver.”
: “Yeah.. OK, I’ll look into this phone call when I get back to the office. Save the call data.”
: “Got it.”
: “Nothing yet… the diver is in his room. Two delivery guys are apparently heading this way now. I guess with those ID chips embedded in their bodies, it’s pretty useless to try to run away, huh?”
: “Where’s the room?”
: “12th floor, room 12010.”
: “OK, let’s go.”
: (Sakura…? No, no way…)
: “This is it.”
: “Hello! I’m here from the Ward Office.”
: “Tsuki…”
: “May we?”
: “Anyway, please excuse the intrusion.”
: “…”
: (This guy’s obviously on high alert.. we’ve gotta be careful…)
: “Come on, Mr. Kamoguchi! There’s no need to be so defensive, peeking out through the door like that.”
: “Dumb as ever I see, Osato.”
: “Am I? I may not look it, but I’m actually a pretty serious guy, you know.”
: (Get the fuck outta here…)
: “They’ll be coming a bit later. I thought I’d have a nice, long talk with you first.”
: “I see..”
: “Well then, let’s talk.”
: “Kamoguchi, about the other day… what exactly was that about, anyway?”
: “I believe I sent my report to the Regional Adjustment Bureau…”
: “Well, I read that report, and basically what you’re trying to say is ‘Cause Unknown’, right? Because of that report, we had to come out into the field to investigate and conduct hearings and all that. We’re gonna need to get a few more details from you today.”
: “Then I guess you’ve wasted your time..”
: “Huh?”
: “It’s just like I wrote in the report. I have no idea whatsoever why the delivery guys did what they did. I’m serious! It’s like they just came undone and went crazy! I don’t know anything! No word of a lie! You guys have to explain that to the higher-ups! Come on! Please!”
: “Nuh-uh. Kamoguchi, you’ve set up shop in the area as a diver to monitor the delivery guys, right? You say you have no idea why they went all balls-out, but wouldn’t that mean that you basically just failed at your job?”
: “Also, our area control system is top notch. If it was being used properly, then that wouldn’t have happened, and the simulations carried out thousands of times on the computers at Central Administration have proven that.”
: “Which means you’re the most suspicious guy on our radar right now. Our bureau theorizes that ‘someone’ manually screwed with the system, causing it to bug out.”
: “And on top of that, you know what kind of people live in this apartment complex, right? For this kind of situation to come up here, right on the doorstep of all these big shots…”
: “That’s a pretty serious problem. ‘Yeah sorry, it’s a mystery’ isn’t gonna fly here.”
: “..”
: “Be honest with us.”
: “Pressure?”
: “I can feel it. Working as a diver, you become able to feel these subtle changes in the air; you start sensing when someone’s watching. Someone is here.. someone with an extremely strong kind of power..”
: “Two or three days or so after first sensing that power, the delivery guys went off the hook. I couldn’t stop them. Your big, amazing system wasn’t able to control them either, and more importantly, I was totally unable to move.”
: “I mean that literally - it was like my entire body became unable to move at all..”
: “…”
: “Something went seriously wrong! It was like someone ahd stacked up a bunch of bricks, and then someone came along and ripped one out, and.. and then… I don’t know! I don’t know anything!”
: “OK, OK - calm down, Kamoguchi. We work in the field ourselves. We know how hard it is for guys sent out to work here and there. Also, ever since we met on the job, we’ve worked together the whole time..”
: “So how about you come back to the bureau with us, relax for a bit, and we all have a nice, long talk, OK?”
: “Osato, escort Mr. Kamoguchi.”
: This whole scene is a blatant Pulp Fiction reference, but I still like it a lot. It’s also great that Kamoguchi was probably one line from saying “It can’t be helped”.
: Body Count: 42
: “Aaah!! Hey hey hey hey hey! What the fuck are you doing?! Why the hell did you shoot him?!”
: I say this a lot, but I feel like more games need an option to interrupt cutscenes by shooting (or otherwise killing) someone.
: I mean, just imagine if someone made a video game based on The Talented Mr. Ripley and at any point you can press a button and Tom kills the nearest person.
: People would go “No, that’s out of character!” and I’d point out that Ripley’s Game (a book in which Tom kills like ten mafia guys for no apparent reason) exists.
: “Huh? Weren’t we supposed to come out here for adjustment?”
: “To bring him in! We were supposed to bring this guy in! I explained this yesterday, didn’t I? I TOLD you, right?! What in the fuck is wrong with you?!”
: “Are you sure that’s what…?”
: “Fucking hell, what the hell are we gonna do now…”
: “…”
: “We were supposed to bring him in, perform a cerebral inspection, and then carry out the adjustment, but Mr. fucking Processor over here has to go and do some dumbass shit like the goddamn HC Unit…”
: “That’s why I keep telling you that if you do stupid shit like drinking your soup by itself, you’re gonna end up fucking up the process for other stuff, too!”
: “Oh, for real…? You said to ‘escort him’, so I just assumed that you meant, like, you know.. to the next life or whatever. Ahahahaha!”
: Osato is so fucking dumb.
: “Don’t you fucking laugh at this!”
: “Sorry…”
: “So what the fuck are we gonna do now!? You know the delivery guys are on their way here now, right?!”
: “I guess, like.. maybe we should leave, then…?”
: “You realize that doing some out-of-the-ordinary shit like this here in the 25th Ward is gonna make us look suspicious, right? Those guys may be watching us right now, and if they see us they’re gonna get scared and run off somewhere…”
: “But, with their ID chip, we can find out where…”
: “These guys are aware of that chip and are gonna take desperate measures and run for their lives. Do you know the expression ‘A cornered rat will bite a cat?’ Shit is gonna get really goddamn tedious for us now!”
: “…”
: “Ok.. let’s hide the body.”
: “Huh? Hide it where?”
: “Anywhere, I don’t care! We just need to hide the body and make sure Iijima and Sakashita don’t get suspicious. Then, we’re gonna get them to come with us. As for Kamoguchi, we’ll tell them he went off ahead to the RA Bureau. Got it?”
: We’ll tell them he willingly walked off to our black site for executions. Yeah, that’ll work.
: “Wow, nice one! Resourceful as always!”
: “Yeah, well, think real long and hard about exactly why I have to be so goddamn “resourceful” in the first place, OK…?”
: “Ah, hahaha! Your face is all red.. let’s just cool down a bit, OK? Let’s just chill for a second. How about, like, that dresser over there? He’ll probably fit in there, right?”
: “Alright then… go ahead and stick him in there yourself, genius.”
: “Uh, OK…!”
: “They’re here! Hurry up!”
: “OK! He’s in…!”
: “Good! Uh.. who is it?”
: “Oh, OK, I’ll open the door..”
: The way Kamoguchi talked about the delivery guys, it made them sound like robots or like they were under mind control or something, but that doesn’t seem to be the case - they’re just Kamui maspros, probably.
: “Where’s Kamoguchi?”
: “Yeah, Kamoguchi, he went off ahead. We sent him back to the bureau.”
: “To the RA Bureau?”
: “Yeah.. he had to take care of some paperwork regarding the stuff that happened the other day. We actually want you guys to come back with us, too. We need to talk to you about a few things. How about you come with us?”
: “We’ve got nothing to do with all that. Just ask us now. We can talk here.”
: “We’re just following orders ourselves, too. You understand, right?”
: “What’re you gonna do if we don’t follow those orders? Adjust us?”
: “Hey, come on now. No need to get all worked up. We’re not just gonna pop you guys right here.”
: I have no idea how the RA Bureau can even function.
: “Uwahahaha…! What the hell, man? You getting extra paranoid recently?”
: “Tsuki, listen. First off, like I said, we’ve got nothing to do with your little incident. We only survived because we were doing undercover work on another case, and we have no idea how all that stuff happened, either.”
: “…”
: “Also, before we came here, we got a call from someone we couldn’t identify.”
: “…!”
: “Was it a man’s voice…? Or a woman’s?”
: “It was a man..”
: “I see…”
: “And then we get here, and Kamoguchi’s gone.. so you see why we probably seem a bit paranoid now, right, Tsuki?”
: “What the hell is wrong with you two, believing some weird-ass phone call on blind faith?”
: “We know full well how the RA Bureau does things. And there was that little incident the other day. I’d been assuming that something must be up. But I never thought you’d be adjusting your own buddies. Or actually, I just didn’t want to think so.”
: “So, what’s really going on? Huh, Tsuki?”
: “Come back with us to the bureau and you’ll get it. Nothing’s going on. It’s just an investigation. Just in case, you know?”
: “More importantly, who was that on the phone? Isn’t that what you should be worried about right now?”
: “Huh? Well? Whatever.. anyway, we’re going to need you guys to come with us.”
: I’m also kind of surprised Osato hasn’t shot them both.
: “…”
: “…OK, fine. But if we get the feeling anything weird is going down…”
: “Yeah, I know.”
: “I hope so…”
: The closet failed because it’s not Dead Kamoguchi Storage. Storing dead Kamoguchis isn’t its business.
: Sakaguchi has a less stupid version of the hidden blade from Assassin’s Creed, though that’s not accurate because this game predates Asscreed.
: Body Count: 43
: “Why the hell did you have to make things turn out like this…?”
: “Tsuki…! You motherfucker…”
: “Hey, I didn’t wanna do it.. Osato, you fucking idiot! You should’ve made sure he wasn’t gonna move when you stuck him in there!”
: “But I mean, I was in a hurry, so like.. you know.. I didn’t really get the chance to fix him up properly.”
: “Christ, you moron! You stupid fucking moron! How irredeemably fucking stupid are you?!”
: “Sorry.”
: “I felt it, on the phone…”
: “What…?”
: “I felt it on the phone… the chills… I got them bad, real bad… something is beginning.. Tsuki, you’ll be dead soon, too…yeah, you…”
: “Anyway, whatever. You first.”
: “Ach…!”
: Body Count: 44
: “He said something weird.. what was that about? The chills…? Did he have a cold? He’s dead now, so he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore, so you know, whatever.”
: This is why Kusabi was a better deuteragonist, because Kusabi would never ask this. Kusabi would ask “Why aren’t there more bodies?”
: “Yeah, really.. how strange, right?”
: “You wanna become number four?”
: “Nope!”
: “Whatever.. well, we’re gonna have to take drastic measures now…”
: Sadly, we don’t get a Mr. Wolf scene.
: “Got it…”
: “I called them.. they’ll be here in ten minutes. Sorry about that… I really do feel bad. I totally misheard you yesterday.”
: “…”
: “But what did you think of my quickdraw there? I’ve been practicing. Whip it out, peel one off, and BAM! On the floor. Damn, it feels good!”
: “Yeah… you’re gonna be number four.”
: “No no no! I’m just kidding! Hahaha…”
: A phone rings in the background.
: “Hey Tsuki-san, you’re getting a phone call.”
: “It’s not me. That’s yours, isn’t it?”
: “Nope, not mine… huh?”
: “It’s Iijima’s phone… don’t answer it. Let the machine get it.”
: “OK.”
: “This must be the called Iijima was talking about..”
: “This isn’t just someone fucking around… I’m gonna take this phone. We’ll have it analyzed later.”
: I have no idea why this guy in particular looks like an alien.
: “OK, freeze! You’re under arrest!! I’m taking your asses in!!”
: “Maejima…”
: “Hi!”
: Osato’s so fucking dumb.
: “Christ… look, can you not do this kind of shit to like THREE people at once…? You know how much of a hassle it makes our job just by adjusting ONE person, right?”
: “Sorry… we fucked this one up.”
: “I’ll hear your explanation later. Anyway, let’s get to work!”
: “Hm… so Osato took them both out at once, huh? That’s pretty impressive.”
: “No, it was nothing, really…”’
: “But adjustment is something that needs to be dealt with really carefully. It was you who triggered this whole debacle, right?”
: “Yes.. I’m really sorry…”
: “Also… Tsuki, you did this guy here, yeah?”
: “Yeah, that’s right…”
: “Look at this. He died with this weird smile. His face really kinda pisses me off…”
: The boss’s name is Kiryu, which flashes on the screen before the dialog box finishes. It’s funny because this game pre-dates Yakuza.
: “Sorry, Chief…”
: “Osato’s a rookie. Keeping him under control is your job, right?”
: “If only I’d talked to him about the Mont Blanc thing…”
: “Huh? What’s Mont Blanc?”
: It’s a big mountain in Europe. Part of it’s in France, part of it’s in Italy, part of it’s in Switzerland.
: “Sorry, it’s nothing. Never mind.”
: “Anyway. Fortunately, we were able to clean this up ourselves. The HC Unit hasn’t caught wind of it. The higher-ups think that Iijima and Sakashita instigated this, and caused Kamoguchi to pull the trigger.”
: “We were somehow able to get them to chalk this up as a group of guys going off on each other. But the original plan wasn’t carried out. This is clearly a blatant screwup. Bear that in mind, Tsuki. I have faith in you. Don’t let me down.”
: “Yes, sir..”
: Oh, so Osato’s a nepo baby. Got it.
: “I know…”
: “I read the report… regarding the ‘pressure’ Kamoguchi felt and the person who called Iijima’s cellphone, I have a feeling that these points are connected to the name that woman you spoke to on the phone tossed out.”
: “Kamui…”
: “What do you think?”
: “Chief.. please let me follow up on this.”
: “I thought you’d say that. No matter what kind of info may come up, you just can’t ignore Kamui.”
: “That’s right.”
: “Either way, we have to immediately adjust and remove the element that is destabilizing the 25th Ward system. And this particular element is absolutely not to be underestimated. We’re going to continue the investigation into this matter. Keep working on it along with the rest of this case, and find out what’s really going on.”
: “Thank you…!”
: “Hah, they think we’re really gonna let something like that happen? I’m not about to let anyone kill this ‘life’. We’re the men behind the curtain in the 25th Ward. We’re gonna stop this. Right, Tsuki?”
: “Yes…”
: “Basically, this is our job.”
: What we’ve just seen is this game’s central conflict: SAVE THE LIFE vs. KILL THE LIFE. We know that the Regional Adjustment Bureau is on the SAVE side, while Kamui represents the KILL side.
: Though actually, if you assume that Tsuki and Osato are both Kamui maspros, it would mean Kamui is on both sides.
On the surface, it appears as though the ward government manages the operation and administration of the 25th Ward. But underneath the surface, the postal service used the power of the MIAC to expand its territory and scope of operations in order to control and regulate the ward residents. They had martial power surpassing that of even the police, and effectively ruled over the ward.
The postal service workers known as deliverymen were charged with secretly cleaning up various problems occurring throughout the 25th Ward, and each district was sent a supervisor, known as a diver, to manage and watch over the deliverymen.
The deliverymen and divers were provided with licenses to kill, which was known as adjustment, and they collaborated with employees of a nonpublicized group of 25th Ward employees known as cleaners, who were tasked with covering up incidents involving the deliverymen and divers and restoring order to the scenes of said incidents afterward, ensuring that the actions of all involved were never known by the public.
Apart from the cleaners, the 25th Ward government had one more secret agency.
The “RA Bureau” was tasked with administering both the deliverymen and the divers, as well as with providing solutions for problems not even the deliverymen nor divers could solve, and were considered the top-level government agency in the field. This group is composed to elite experts, personally selected by Bureau Chief Tetsuo Kiryu. Suppression through power.. the 25th Ward carried out its business day by day without a hitch thanks to this simple yet powerful methodology.
: Next up is the second Correctness chapter, titled “Good Looking Guy”.