Summary
: If there’s one complaint I have about this game, it’s that this particular chapter drags on a little. When I finished recording, I was almost 5 hours in according to the save file - and I think half of that was spent on this chapter alone.
: I guess we’ll never know what really happened at Babylon, apart from that it fucked Tokio up pretty bad.
: “…”
: This guy doesn’t have a name listed in the manual, which is kind of weird given that people like the medical examiner who showed up for all of two screens in Decoyman has one.
: “You don’t look like you got dumped by your girlfriend or something, huh?”
: “…”
: Nah, Tokio’s just uh, probably losing his mind from seeing one too many crime ghosts. Someone should really call Ghost Control.
: I would absolutely not be surprised if there are professional ghostbusters in every Suda game, up to and including No More Heroes 3.
: “If, in fact, that is the case, there’s a bit of advice that we always give at times like this.”
: “I don’t wanna hear it…”
: “Oh, come on now.”
: “What…?”
: “First, you buy a knife.”
: When I was recording this, I thought this was going somewhere very different from where it actually goes, and it wouldn’t have surprised me because this is what Suda does.
: “…”
: “A cheap one will do. One that fits well into the palm of your hand is best. Then you buy some wood.”
: “Wood?”
: “Yes. You can just get a random piece from a lumber dealer. The size doesn’t really matter. About the size of a brick probably works best.”
: “Then, you whittle away at the wood with the knife.”
: “With what?”
: With the knife.
: “It’ll calm you down. This will calm you down more than anything. This is something that people around the world have been doing for a long time.”
: “The Indians did it. Same as when monks would carve statues of Buddha. You know those carved wood anteaters on people’s mantles?”
: I had no idea what the hell this guy is talking about, so I did some looking into it. It’s not really a cultural thing or some kind of fad - there’s just lots of places that sell wooden anteater carvings for some reason.
: “The ones the Eskimos made, that’s the same thing… humans may have even begun using tools because of this.”
: “In order to calm themselves down, whittling something or making something out of clay were likely the first ways in which humans utilized their creative power.”
: “And so, of course, you can make some clay into a doll or bowl, or a pot or something, too. A little golem or whatever.”
: “And so, when God was feeling a bit down, maybe he decided to cheer himself up and got some clay and created people. That’s my theory, at least.”
: “Anyway, just go ahead and try making some sort of tool, anything at all. With your own two hands…”
: You know, like… god, how many LPs in am I at this point?
: “So I should try making something with my own hands, huh? That’s some laughable shit, man.”
[] Kamui is back! Murder at Babylon Shopping Center
At approximately 7pm on April 10th, a young woman was discovered dead at the Babylon Shopping Center. The victim’s chest had been hollowed out with a sharp blade, and the M.O. suggests that the killer was Kamui Uehara, who is in hiding after killing four people, including two members of the Security Force
[] One dead; Kamui back in hiding
The victim of the murder at the Babylon Shopping Center was 24 Wards resident Kei Nanami (23 y.o.). Police rushed to the scene, but suspect Kamui Uehara had already disappeared. Although the Babylon Shopping Center was full of shoppers at the time of the murder, police have yet to find any witnesses who actually saw Kamui.
: “Kamui… what’s going on?”
From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Are you alive?
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 23:38:17So apparently you were there at Babylon. I rushed to the scene, too. I was way later, though. Then I heard that someone had been rescued by the HC Unit and I tried going there as well.
I got hold of Kusabi while trying to find out who it was, and that’s when I found out it was you. You were in a coma, huh? I was really surprised. Having an ex-coworker die isn’t exactly the greatest feeling, you know? In the end it looks like you didn’t die after all, though.
Did you see something at Babylon? I’ve heard that Kamui is hiding out somewhere in the 24 Wards, and that’s it. There are several suspicious stories flying around. Please respond when you read this.
: “??? Kusabi…? At Babylon, something happened to me… I fell into a coma… and then… Kusabi… then… and then… ah! Fuck! I don’t know!!”
: “That old man might know something. But still… he’s making me wait again.”
: “Hey…”
: “Hello.”
: “How’s it going?”
: “OK.”
: “Good.”
: “I want to thank you. It seems you took care of me.”
: “Is that your ‘thanks’? Well, it’s my job, you know.”
: “What happened with Kamui?”
: “I got nothing to talk about.”
: “So, you found Kamui?”
: “So you do know what’s up. Whatever. I’ll tell you. We secured Kamui.”
: “Huh? Really?”
: “Yeah, really. We got him in custody right now. But he won’t say shit. He’s like a fuckin’ mannequin. He doesn’t say a goddamn thing.”
: “Where did you…?”
: “This broad named Ayame was the key.”
: “Ayame?”
: “She was in a relationship with Kamui. He was in that broad’s… what’s it called again? Oh yeah, he was in her ‘atelier’. It was so simple.”
: “I can’t believe it.”
: “Why not? Are you one of those dickheads who thought Kamui would never be caught?”
: “Well, maybe. But, why are you telling me this?”
: Honestly, why IS he telling us this? We already saw it in Decoyman.
: “You said it yourself, remember? That thing about having a few reporters I’m familiar with. Actually, it’s because I have a bunch of stuff I want to ask you about, too.”
: “You know, the talking chinchilla detective. Can’t miss him, really.”
: “Big Dick…?”
: “It’s a nickname I gave him. It’s a pretty nice name, huh? Maybe you don’t get it… anyways, whatever. I’m going to a hot spring with my woman tomorrow.”
: “Don’t be sniffing around like a fuckin’ dog too much, OK? And don’t go writing a bunch of bullshit about Kamui like it was leaked. Don’t screw me over.”
: This guy in the green is supposed to be our character. I would’ve had Salty Vanilla do a version of this with the chinchilla, except they’re already busy doing… something else.
: “??? What was that…? Just now…”
No, that’s impossible. Hahahaha, totally impossible. Either way, someone’s gonna write about it. First, it’s a hassle.
More importantly, Babylon. What I saw that time… No, what I experienced. I can’t get my head around it… Anyways, something happened at Babylon. That’s probably also what Kusabi has a hunch about.
Who is this Ayame broad? Did I meet her at Babylon? That’s not it. But some sort of memory… there’s something about her inside my brain. Get your shit together, man!
That night, I was in the car and decided to go by Babylon. To buy food for Red. Babylon is just a shopping center. It’s no haunted mansion. Nothing was any different than usual inside…
Anyway, Babylon. There might be something for me there…
: “Oh yeah… I was driving just like this that one time. Then I met with Enzawa…”
: “Yeah, and then I came here. After Enzawa and I split up, I realized that I was out of food for Red… and then, I decided to stop by… then, according to Kusabi, I met with some guy named Timrod…”
: “And then… I met… that guy… only him? No… Someone was right there with me. Who was it? Was that Timrod? Who the hell is Timrod…?”
: I ask myself that every day.
: “Fuck! I can’t remember shit…”
: “I lost my lighter… what the fuck, man?!”
: “?! Who was that? That voice… I’ve heard it before…”
: “I… no, that’s not it. Someone, like… came inside my head…”
: “And then…”
: “And then… fire… it lit up…?”
: “I… met with a woman. Then with that guy named Timrod… Kamui… did I not meet with Kamui? Kamui committed a crime at Babylon and was held down by the HC Unit.”
: “No… Kamui was at the ‘something-atelier’ and he was arrested there. And then… the girl named Ayame is the key? Fuck, something is about to connect, but…”
: Let me tell you, something definitely connected for me earlier. I got a notification on my phone about this game called The Caligula Effect that I knew nothing about other than that Satomi Tadashi wrote it.
: It’s a game where a vocaloid makes a world without pain that takes place entirely in a high school. Hmm… now, where have I heard that one before?
: Anyway, the game apparently sucks, but it more or less proves that the writers for P5 Royal did exactly what Hashino would do and ripped off Satomi Tadashi again.
: “I can’t think… maybe I’ll… take a little rest…”
: Tokio, you’re already in bed. In fact, I think you just woke up.
: That’s what I want to know. Is the point that Tokio killed her somehow?
: Well yeah, and that’s why we have to kill it.
: “Or… remember… first… I bought pet food. And then… fire… yeah, I went to smoke a cigarette. And then… a woman appeared in front of me… and lit my smoke.”
: “Then… the woman was asking for help. No… it wasn’t just one person asking for help… then… that woman showed up again.”
: “HELP… that’s what she was saying. To me…? She said she wasn’t like other women… and that’s why she was asking me for help… other women…”
: “Yeah… I met with another woman, too… and then… no… at that point I no longer had any idea what was going on.”
: “When I came to… a man was standing there…”
: “At that moment… someone entered… inside me. Inside me… residual thoughts started talking to me… the woman with the cigarette…”
: “No, this was a different woman’s voice…”
: “HELP… that’s what she was saying. Over and over and over and over… when I heard that, I wasn’t ‘me’ anymore… and I realized something…”
: “That the person she was asking for help wasn’t me… and then… Kusabi rescued me.”
: “I didn’t see Kamui with these eyes. Actually, he wasn’t even at Babylon. But… why? I met Kamui… why…?”
I still don’t know exactly what happened but it’s pretty much certain. I guarantee it. But for now, Kamui has yet to say anything at all. Maybe he can’t talk.
That’s all for now.
I saw Kamui. But, in my head. As a vision. In a hallucination. But he looked like the swelling sun. Not the moon. A huge, swollen sun. Like a demon. Or, like a god.
Why? The woman. It must be. The consciousness of the almost dead, or possibly already dead, woman flowed into me.
Then Kamui is… what? He was there. He was. Was he? Really?
That’s what’s scary. I’m scared of Kamui right now.
From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: “Ayame”I want you to look into the woman named Ayame. The woman who had a relationship with Kamui. You’ve got info, right? I especially want to know where Ayame’s ‘atelier’ is. If possible, her origins as well.
Get ahold of me by mail or whatever when you’ve got something.
: “Ayame…”
From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Re: Girl named Ayame
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 9:31:00So no reply to my mails? Anyway, at least I know you’re still alive.
I faxed you a map for the request you had. The atelier is called “Gladiolus”. This Ayame woman is a relatively well-known artist among the underground culture. She made a lot of strange digital content.
Her partner for that digital work was Kamui. It’s been said that Kamui was the real artist, and Ayame was just a simple programmer. The fact that these two formed a digital unit is not yet that well known to the public. So yeah, nice work on finding that out.
But if you go to any random techno-type club and listen to the wannabe ‘artists’ and their rumors, everyone is talking about it, but still. By the way, you could at least tell me what it is you’re looking into. Or did you forget to at least thank me? If possible I’d like to talk to you directly, but whatever, for now I’ll just leave you alone.
: “Gladiolus… what a weird-ass name.”
: “So Kamui had a partner… what kind of woman is Ayame? What does she think of Kamui? After being in contact with him for so long, can she even still be normal?”
: “She’s close enough with him to be his ‘partner’… was she scared? Or was she angry? Or maybe… something must’ve happened. She felt something…”
It was basically just a waste of a piece of paper. More mysteries. This woman with no past is scary.
What is Ayame? If I knew that, then I might figure out Kamui’s deal. I also got some of the “works” they did together as digital partners. Just looked like a bunch of crazy bullshit to me, though.
: “Shit, another dead end…”
Thinking about Ayame, I remembered the women at Babylon. Why were the women afraid of Kamui? No, why were they filled with such emotion? No no no wait wait, was that really even “fear”?
Were they not actually asking for help? From who? Me? Or Kamui? Or maybe that guy I apparently met at Babylon - “Timrod”, was it? Or the guy from the HC Unit? Those women are somehow involved with Ayame. Hm…
There’s something going on here. I got my hands on a photo, and Ayame is pretty beautiful. Damn. Not sure yet, but I feel like something is about to connect, little Red!
: Honestly, I wish Ooka would’ve cut it out with the recaps of shit we already know. I could understand if this was later in the game and we might’ve forgotten, but we just did Decoyman before this.
: This entire chapter probably could’ve been half as long without them.
From: Tokio Morishima
To: S. INOHANA
Subject: Out of sightSo you heard about the Babylon incident. You hear that I was there too? If so, this’ll go faster. I just happened to see a woman getting killed there. Just that.
There’s something from after Kamui’s capture, too. He was arrested at a woman’s atelier. Her name is Ayame. She used to be Kamui’s digital partner.
Also. I’m interested in Ayame now. So that’s it for now, don’t keep sending me annoying-ass mails every five minutes. You fucking weird-ass pervert!
: Idiot, I’m not telling you shit yet…
: I’ll cut it here because there are a couple more lengthy conversations coming up. We’ll finish Yume next time, and then move on to Spectrum.