TRANSMIT the PLACEBO - Let's Play The Silver Case

[Timrod]

Summary

: And welcome back to Tokio Morishima’s Extreme Email Simulator 1999.

: “These guys sure have a lot of shit to deal with…”

I went to the HC Unit. With the big news, the media was pushing themselves in there like crazy, so I wasn’t able to meet with Kusabi, but I spoke a bit with another detective named Nakategawa.

Thinking of Kusabi’s position, I didn’t use the name “Ayame”. Instead I asked about the guy named “Timrod” I supposedly met at Babylon, but this guy is apparently totally useless. I thought I might be able to ask this Timrod guy about what happened to me at Babylon, but…

Nakategawa looked at me funny. Like, he looked really sketchy. Apparently I’m considered to be “a reporter Kusabi knows”. That’s helpful. I mean, I still use a fake news agency business card to get by reception, but still.

So anyway, I have nothing special to report today. I need a lead on Ayame. It’s gonna be hard to get info from the HC Unit. The world has finally found out that Kamui has been arrested. The media is in a panic. I guess for today I’ll just boil up some spaghetti and watch TV or something.

: “What’s his number…”

: “Enzawa?”

: “Hm… I’m rather busy right now.”

: “Come on… I want to ask you about some stuff.”

: “Like what?”

: “Put simply, you know that “Ayame” woman, right?”

: “Yes, I know her.”

: “Then I was hoping you’d tell me what you know. I’ll compensate you, of course.”

: Compensate him with all that no money you have.

: “Ayame, huh. Ayame… now that you mention it, I just remembered that I had wanted to meet with you. I’ll be free around 5:00.”

: “OK, got it. I’ll meet you at Prussian again.”

: “That son of a bitch knew about Ayame. Is that fucked up old man OK? And he had something he needed me for? Well then…”

: “Enzawa showed up wearing the same exact clothes as before. Even the habit of wiping his sweat with the hand towel, nothing had changed at all.”

: “So, you know Ayame, huh?”

: “Of course. She’s Kamui’s ex-partner, after all.”

: “So for Kamui maniacs, I guess that’s common knowledge, then?”

: “You’re funny, Morishima.”

: “Huh? You even know that? Man, what kind of connections do you have, anyway?”

: “Among us maniacs, you’re pretty famous, you know.”

: “No fuckin’ way.”

: “Not really. So how did it go? Did you see Kamui? How did he look? What did you think?”

: “I didn’t see Kamui, and nothing happened. Sorry, but it was just some woman on the ground.”

: “That’s unfortunate.”

: “What kind of woman is Ayame?”

: “Don’t think that Ayame is just some normal woman.”

: This dialog reminds me so much of Shenmue it’s not even funny. I can even picture Tokio being voiced by the person who voiced Ryo.

: “What? Why?”

: “She’s a special woman.”

: “You mean to Kamui?”

: “I don’t get it. So how exactly is she special?”

: “Well… in a way, she may be above even Kamui. Her stage, that is. And the fact that she’s a woman is important.”

: “A man can only spread his seed… but a woman is able to choose a seed and raise it, right?”

: I’m imagining this being in Shenmue and Ryo hearing this and then being warped home immediately because Ryo cannot into sex.

: “Hey, man. I’m not asking to hear your weird-ass theories.”

: “Then maybe you’ll understand if I put it this way. Ayame’s very existence is bigger than Kamui. At the very least, that’s what I believe. Because she’s a clever and cool and noble human being.”

: Enzawa sounds like a Silent Hill cultist only dumber.

: “She’s not as savage as Kamui, not as sharp-edged, not transitory. But from the time that Ayame started having special feelings for Kamui, something started changing.”

: “These ‘special feelings’ aren’t ‘love’ or whatever. Ayame wanted Kamui. She simply desired him. And because of that, Kamui’s actions were, to Ayame, something to be hated.”

: “What Ayame desired was Kamui’s child. Ah, what the hell. That’s right. Ayame was trying to give birth to Kamui’s child.”

: Now this? This sounds straight out of Kojima.

: “Kamui needed many more women. It’s likely because he wanted to create the next generation. That was the beginning of all this tragedy. Ayame tried to prevent that.”

: “The self-preservation instincts of Ayame’s seed tried to leave behind only a single, definitive line. Like a sort of royal family. Only the unit of Kamui and Ayame – and those born from them would be chosen for the next generation.”

: Wait, is this going to be one of those things like Silent Hill 2 where it was actually about circumcision the entire time?

: “They didn’t agree on that. Which was correct, I don’t know. But personally, Ayame’s subtle yet strong spirit appeals to me. The blood flowing through her body is the most virtuous blood in this world. Ayame is perfect.”

: “Is that just your imagination?”

: “It’s the story of the truth inside me.”

: “The truth? The fuck are you talking about?”

: I like that there’s at least three different ways you can read this statement’s intent.

: “The perpetrator… huh? Hey! What the fuck are you…”

: “Of course this is all nonsense. My little joke.”

: “…What the fuck is up with you, anyway?”

: “I’m their neighbor.”

: “Neighbor…?”

: “Listen, Morishima. Ayame has been arrested. Don’t you have to go, Tokio Morishima?”

: “The perpetrator… fuck, is it really…? I… at Babylon… from that time…”

Ayame was arrested. Just as Enzawa said. It was actually Ayame who killed five people in this “Kamui Case”.

When I went to the HC Unit again, it was even more hectic than when Kamui was arrested. I could barely even get inside. Cameras, lights, strobes, mics, and reporters. I stood back and just watched from afar for a while.

After that, I was able to get Kusabi on the phone and spoke with him for a bit. Simple confirmations. He sounded fed up, but he also sounded relaxed. That guy is somehow able to calm people down.

I also called Nakategawa. He sounded pissed off. Maybe he just always sounds like that over the phone. Turns out I never saw Ayame with my own eyes. Well, Kamui neither, I guess. I’m just a bystander. But thanks to the incident at Babylon, I feel like I’ve gotten caught up in another bit of trouble. To the point where there’s no turning back.

Ayame was pregnant. That’s one fact. But what does that tell me? I can’t understand the truth.

Enzawa is wrong. Whatever he is, and whether or not it was really Ayame who killed all those people, and even if Ayame was really pregnant with Kamui’s kid, nobody understands the truth about Ayame. Maybe Ayame was just a little lonely.

: Yeah, that’s probably why she killed all those people… if she did.

The “Kamui Case” was actually the “Ayame Case”. Ayame’s motive was jealousy. I’m holding off on Babylon for now. I don’t feel like writing about it. I’m sure you understand how now really isn’t the time for that.

: “The truth is the truth. What Ayame needed was just a little bit of security… in my opinion, at least.”

: I’m not sure why they bother with these, given that we already know everything in them, but whatever. At least it’s not as egregious as Persona 5 was.

[] The real “Kamui Case” killer was a woman!

Regarding the “Kamui Case” in which five people were murdered, suspect Kamui Uehara was under questioning, but it was later discovered that the real killer was a woman named Ayame Shimohira, according to an emergency announcement from the department leading the investigation.

According to the announcement, she has already confessed, and her motive for the murders is to be revealed shortly.

[] Ayame Shimohira was Kamui’s ex-partner

Ayame Shimohira, the newly discovered perpetrator of the “Kamui Case”, was found to be Kamui’s ex-partner in creating digital art. Ayame Shimohira is still listed as a digital creator, working at an atelier named ‘Gladiolus’. However, her relationship with Kamui is thought to have ended several years ago.

: We also have an email from Erika.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Can we talk?
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999, 12:17:07

How about it, can we talk a bit? You seem to know quite a lot about Kamui and Ayame. I see you in a new light now. At around 2pm today, can you come to the Scolba chatroom? Let’s talk there. I’ll be waiting for your reply.

: This is how you know the game was written in the late 90s, because people thought shit like email and chatrooms were fucking thrilling. Admittedly, they kinda were at the time.

: If only any of them could have foreseen the hellscape that is getting deluged with so many emails each day that none of them mean anything.

Now I have several deadlines. The client and Erika both want to talk to me. But what am I supposed to report? I don’t have anything worth reporting.

Maybe I’ll go on a trip once this Kamui Case shit is over with. I should just skip work. That would be the smartest thing to do. I’ll take Red with me, too.

: If you know anything about Flower Sun and Rain, you know that Tokio does take that trip. I do feel kinda bad because the person who LPed the DS version of that on the archive said they wanted to LP this game… which was expected to re-release in 2010.

: “OK… time to report to the client…”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: S. INOHANA
Subject: It’s a man’s world

Here’s my breakdown of the “Ayame Case”. I’ll make it brief.

With Ayame’s arrest, mostof the details of the Kamui case have come to light. Ayame helped Kamui escape from the hospital, and then killed the two Security Force members. For Ayame, copying Kamui’s M.O. in order to camouflage the fact that it was her was enough.

The HC Unit, the Security Force, everyone was fooled. So Ayame hid Kamui at Gladiolus. I guess she wanted to be near him. That, or she wanted to make sure that the world totally thought that it was him so that she could commit her murders.

Her goal was to kill three women who had had physical relationships with Kamui. Why would she kill them? I can speculate on her motive. Ayame was a calm, calculating woman. But the emotions she kept bottled up were really violent and severe. Because of this, she was really sensitive about her beloved Kamui’s relationships with other women.

So out of jealousy towards Kamui, she decided to kill the three women he’d slept with. Ayame thought of herself as Kamui’s digital partner. Her feelings for Kamui, and her desire to have a baby, were the cause. Those feelings, along with her knowledge of Kamui’s relationships with other women, pushed her over the edge.

Ayame was pregnant with Kamui’s child. That solidified her desire to murder those women. From here on, I’m going to offer up my own possible theories. I don’t have proof for this.

In order to carry out the murders, Ayame became a Kamui copycat. She basically became the same as Kamui. It was Ayame’s feelings for Kamui that made this possible. Pretending to be Kamui and killing those women… what was Ayame feeling? Sadness, pleasure, repulsion, intoxication, hatred, joy?

One thing that’s certain is that Kamui himself was not responsible for any of the stuff that happened, from start to finish. So basically this entire case was caused by Ayame’s will and actions, and has now finished.

: The way they use the term “digital partner” is also very 90s. On an unrelated note, I wound up looking up reviews of this game, and they’re… not great.

: What’s funny to me is how most of the reviewers that panned this game get shit so incredibly wrong. This game’s only problem is that it kinda drags in places.

: In contrast, you have dipshit reviewers complaining about the lack of voiceacting, the controls, or the art style being different for the Placebo chapters.

: I think what they don’t get is that the art style change is a choice meant to symbolize the fact that Tokio sees the world differently than Kusabi does.

: Gamespot also complained about the plot rambling and having nonsensical asides, but that’s part of the entire point of the game. That’s just how Suda works.

: “Turtles apparently eat an amount similar to the size of their head. But it’s pretty clear that you’ve been eating more than that. You’re gonna get big.”

: “You’re getting too fat. Huh? It’s almost chat time…”

: I missed a shot here because it goes by without warning, but Tokio lights a cigarette here.

: Was I at all surprised that Tokio’s chat name is TurtleGuy? No, no I was not. Anyway, there’s a slur coming up that I’m going to omit.

(TurtleGuy): yeah sorry im a slow walker

(erica): i dont have time for your (r-slur omitted) jokes

(TurtleGuy): but did you know that turtles arent actually that slow? my pet red can run pretty fast

(erica): can we get to the point?

(TurtleGuy): yeah whatever

(erica): i want to ask you about ayame

(TurtleGuy): what?

(erica): did you look up her past?

(TurtleGuy): yeah

(erica): its weird right? her past has been erased or else maybe whats left is just made up…

(TurtleGuy): maybe yeah

(erica): what do you think?

(TurtleGuy): about what?

(erica): just like kamui, ayame has a lot of mysteries

(TurtleGuy): like what?

(erica): like the fact that ayame was almost as capable as kamui of killing. why?

(TurtleGuy): shes capable yeah

(erica): that kind of murder isnt something done easily

(TurtleGuy): maybe her jealousy made her able to do it

(erica): dumbass. with jealousy theres no difference between men and women. a womans jealousy being worse than a mans is just bullshit made up by men

(TurtleGuy) i wonder

(erica): to be honest im not sure how much i believe the story about ayame killing out of jealousy. i think she had some other deeper reason for doing it. thats what im interested in. so if you have any info then id like to hear it

(TurtleGuy): i dont really know much about ayame

(erica) you were checking out gladiolus from the beginning right?

(TurtleGuy): yeah but it was a coincidence

(erica): why did you decide to look into the kamui case?

(TurtleGuy): cuz i was hired to

(erica): by what publisher?

(TurtleGuy): just some client. im not allowed to tell you their name

(erica): i want to hear more about the info youve got

(TurtleGuy): pretty frank arent we?

(erica): yeah. i think we could work better together

(TurtleGuy): im surprised to hear you say that

(erica): yeah, but i mean in a business capacity

(TurtleGuy): so you wanna do business with me then

: Wait, what? I guess that turns my whole “Tokio was the real killer” theory on its head.

: Even though it seems like we could move right on to Hana, we can’t. We have to do Spectrum first… so next time, Spectrum. Spectrum is a case a lot of the reviews for this game complained about.

: Anyway, have a picture from Salty Vanilla of Red interviewing the player character.

[Timrod]

Summary

: There’s a monologue right at the start of this, and I’m going to use the character’s portrait for it even though it doesn’t show up in-game.

: “It’s lonely all alone.”

: “Where’d you go? There’s nobody here.”

: “Where’d you go? Do you hate me?”

: “Where’d you go? I can’t do it alone.”

: “Where’d you go? I’ll protect you.”

: “Where’d you go? Where are you?”

: “Where’d you go? Is it that good?”

: “Where’d you go? Aren’t you lonely?”

: “Hikaru is so kind. But he’s too kind… he has no sense of presence. But I really like Hikaru, and I really have a sense of presence.”

: “But just disappearing like that… Hikaru really did it this time. Maybe… he’s trying to surprise me and is hiding somewhere. The old lady won’t tell me anything.”

: “Hikaru must really mean it this time. —Not really. Maybe the kids in class have Hikaru all locked up somewhere. That would be bad. I have to help him… things have gotten pretty bad now.”

: Maybe Hikaru is locked in a shrine that is currently being lit on fire. Anyway, you’ll recall that I said that Decoyman was pretty much the last time we’d hear of Kamui until the end of the game.

: The way I understand it is that Suda had a bunch of ideas for VNs around this time, and just kinda went with whatever.

: “He doesn’t look it, but he’s really cheerful. I’ve seen Hikaru laugh lots of times… I know Hikaru’s true personality. He laughs a lot and sounds like a frog.”

: The first thing I thought of when I read this was the “Frog Kid” episode of Always Sunny. It’s too bad that show sucks now.

: “He really says ‘ribbit’. He really does… and so — to play with Hikaru again I have to help him.”

: You probably recognize this building coming from Yume - this is in fact the “Typhoon” apartment complex that Tokio lives in, and is the setting for the majority of Spectrum.

: “I went ahead and set up the Save Hikaru Special Headquarters at that base. The base is somewhere in these apartments, but it’s a secret.”

: “The base is only for Hikaru and me, as we promised each other… lots of people live here, and there are lots of grownups I don’t know.”

: “But we can’t tell the difference between grownups. We don’t really care about those grownups. But we like some of them.”

: While doing this update, I did my weekly “Does YIIK 1.5 have an announced release date yet” check. They put up a screenshot of Michael reading a book about sending dick pics to Satan.

: “He looks scary, but he says ‘that’s dangerous.’ and worries about us. ‘Quit playing games and go play outside.’ — he says that a lot. Then there’s…”

: “I don’t know anyone else; they all look the same. —One more time, I’ll try remembering Hikaru. Where did he play? Where could he be? Where is he hiding? Hikaru…”

: There’s a bunch of stock footage of various places in Japan playing behind the portrait, which is kind of par for the course for the PS1 era.

: “Mr. Muneo says to think of them as ‘pumpkins’, but… to me they all look like really scary monsters. When you move to a new town, with all the strange monsters, it’s sort of exciting.”

: “But — everyone is mean to outsiders so it’s really scary. Hikaru looked like that, too. I really understand.”

: There’s a stock footage video of two kids running up the steps to the shrine, and it plays for a good ten or fifteen seconds.

: “Our territory… I told him that the fifth grade kids hang out on 4th Street so he shouldn’t go there alone. I showed him the shortcut home, too.”

: “After school, we play together at the shrine and the park, and sometimes we find empty lots. Usually they soon turn into apartment buildings, but they’re open for about a month.”

: It’s funny because in Connecticut the opposite is true - we have a bunch of empty buildings that eventually get bulldozed into empty lots after people get sick of looking at them.

: “We play board games at Shigenori’s house… and we play video games at Minoru’s house… I don’t really like him, but he has video games so I put up with him…”

: Oh man, I remember that kid. His name was Brian and he had a PS1 and an N64 and parents who would buy him just about anything for them. Kid was a dick.

: "I don’t go to Kojima and Nakao’s houses. Because they’re mean— "

: I don’t think I’d go to Hideo Kojima’s house. I feel like he probably has a plot room for whatever his next game post-Death Stranding is and it works like Cthulhu where if you look at it you go insane.

: “Karasawa is a good guy, and he’s rich, and we can eat lots of yummy snacks at his house. Kunihiko’s house is fun, too. Kunihiko is good at drawing, and he draws really cool giant robots.”

: “What?”

: “Ayame.”

: " ‘Ayame’? The fuck is that?"

: “The ‘Kamui Case’ perp…”

: “Are you shitting me? You falling in love with a serial killer? What are you, fuckin’ stupid?!”

: “Well, yeah, but… but she’s hot, right?”

: I think it’s safe to say that yes, Sumio is an idiot.

: “Dumbass. You’re a real idiot… she destroyed Special Forces and murdered those three broads. That’s not the kind of broad a pussy like you should be fucking with.”

: “Fuck off, old man! She’s really not so bad… stop trying to break down a person’s love like that…”

: “Forget about her…”

: “I can’t… I’ll wait. For her… however many years it takes, I’ll wait for her so we can start our second life.”

: Second Life released in 2003, so Sumio’s still got four years to go.

: “Do whatever, then… what a bunch of bullshit. Fuckin’ kids.”

: Ok, grandpa.

: “Whatever, Tetsu. I know I felt something…”

: “And you call yourself a fuckin’ detective. Listen, don’t you ever say shit like this to anyone else…”

: “—Of course. I can’t talk about this with anyone else.”

: “What a fuckin’ honor.”

: “I wanna see her…”

: “Christ… just go for Hachisuka or someone instead… you two’d look good together.”

: “No way. That’d never work.”

: Something tells me Chizuru has better taste than to date Sumio.

: “Well, whatever…”

: “Come on. It’s not that simple.”

: “I can’t. We’re on a stakeout.”

: “What…?”

: “What about Morikawa? Aren’t you two partners? Go handle it as a team.”

: “He’s not here. I can’t get hold of him.”

: “Same as usual then, huh?”

: If there’s one thing we’ll learn in this part of the game, it’s that it is a miracle Morikawa has a job.

: “OK, fine. I’ll go by myself…”

: “No. Don’t move alone.”

: “He’s right. Don’t do anything rash.”

: “What else am I supposed to do? There’s nobody else…”

: “I’ve seen plenty die thanks to that kind of carelessness. I mean, do whatever you want, but…”

: “You’re exaggerating…”

: I’m sure the chinchilla can handle it.

: “It’s better than nothing, right…?”

: “That would be better. Live in the now.”

: “I don’t really get it, but… whatever. Can you get hold of him?”

: “You can get him online. Search for ‘part-time’, he’s registered.”

: Really? I mean, I just looked and all it shows me is a list of job openings.

: “His home address should be listed there, too.”

: “OK, I’ll do that.”

: “You OK?”

: “I’m OK, thanks.”

: “You’d better hurry.”

: She really should. I imagine that a talking, crime-solving chinchilla is probably in really high demand.

: “Got it.”

: “What was that? She seemed weird just now…”

: I mean, you just told her to call the talking chinchilla detective instead of either going over there or trying to find out where Morikawa was…

Uploading: TheSilverCase 2022-03-22 11-26-34-17.png…

: We can examine the TV for the same ghost thing we got last time, and then…

: If what Tokio said at the end of Yume is anything to go by, this is the same person who hacked into his chat with Erika… and is probably the same person who sent us that message in Decoyman.

: As soon as we finish reading the email, the doorbell rings.

: Chizuru is just off to the right once you walk out of the apartment. It’s amazing that she can fit in this presumably chinchilla-size building.

: “Put frankly, I want your help with an investigation. Technically… I just want you to come down to the site. How about it…?”

: This scene would’ve worked way better on film, because you’d have Chizuru awkwardly approaching this guy who doesn’t talk or do much of anything except wander around and see ghosts.

: Anyway, we can talk to her again for a few more lines of dialog.

: “It’s in District D4. A body was found in an apartment complex. Sumio and Tetsu are on a stakeout and can’t come out.”

: “It just looks like a regular apartment building, but… these apartment complexes look nice, but — something about them is creepy. Let’s start the investigation.”

: “Don’t waste any time. Let’s hurry.”

: “How did it it go?”

: “Isn’t this your guys’ job?”

: I don’t think I mentioned it when we met this guy in Decoyman, but his name is Riley Kawabata.

: “We got the request… all the detectives are out on bigger jobs.”

: “I see… well, sometimes it’s nice to do more low-key work like this.”

: “So what’s the situation? What was the cause of death?”

: If this was being written today I swear there would be a scene where Kusabi somehow calls in and goes “I BET KAMUI DID THIS!”

: “Look, up there…”

: “Suicide?”

: “I wonder… we can’t be sure, but if there was a motive…”

: “From up above…”

: “Cervical fractures, complex fractures all over the body, and bruising. They’d have died instantly. The ground is dirt, so the cranium is intact, but… the way the bones broke… damn…”

: “Any leads on a possible murder? Any signs of a struggle?”

: I’m imagining this case except Kusabi and Sumio respond. Kusabi sees the body and immediately calls for an exorcism to remove the crime ghosts. Then they go get drunk.

: “Nothing in particular… not at this point. We’re waiting on the autopsy.”

: “I see…”

: "Hey Chizuru, what’s up with Morikawa?

: “Skipping work.”

: “Yeah… if you see him, tell him to show up once in a while.”

: “Mahjong?”

: “Yeah, he hasn’t been coming around. He used to like it more than work. But now… since he has a hot partner, apparently he’s really into his job now.”

: “Kawabata, that’s…”

: “Well, the rest is your job. The investigation depends on whether or not we find a proper motive.”

: “Got it…”

: “I’ll contact you once we get the results. A rookie…?”

: Who’s this guy calling a rookie? Big Dick is a highly experienced chinchilla detective.

: “Basically.”

: “I see… well, good luck, then. You too, rookie.”

: “Thanks.”

: The dialog here is a bit more complex than in Decoyman, in that we have to check every screen and talk to some people multiple times.

: “Did you see anyone at that time?”

: This guy’s name is Mizoguchi - he’s the superintendent for Typhoon.

: “After that, did you see anyone suspicious?”

: “I pretty much know everyone, so nobody suspicious…”

: “OK… thank you for your cooperation.”

: “No problem.”

: Now what we have to do is turn around to face the door we came into the parking area from.

: “I came as fast as I could… ‘Timrod’, right? Are you taking over for me? Chizuru basically pulled you out and forced you out here, yeah?”

: “I guess women like the younger ones, huh? That broad’s a real piece of work… kidding, just kidding.”

: “It’s OK. You don’t have to go along with his sexual harrassment… just ignore it.”

: Why does Chizuru even work for the HCU? I seriously don’t get it.

: “You worried about me?”

: “Should I be…? Doing some sort of underground job, I assume?”

: “Not even… working part-time at a convenience store.”

: “Whatever you say… just get on with the investigation.”

: “I know, I know. Where’s the body?”

: “They just took it.”

: “What’s the word?”

: “It’s looking like a suicide. We can’t be sure till we get the autopsy results…”

: “So we need to finish checking the area then… what floor did he live on?”

: “Which room?”

: “We haven’t gone in yet.”

: “Get the key from the manager. We need to check it out right away.”

: “Don’t we need permission?”

: You’re a government hit squad, so I assume no.

: “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

: “Got it…”

: This part is the only part of the game so far that I think has some design issues. It seems like we’re supposed to talk to Mizoguchi for the key, right?

: “I cleaned up the front and went out to the back garden. I was shocked… I mean… even at my age, I had never seen a dead body before. I didn’t know who it was at first.”

: “Even after calling it in, I was scared… I couldn’t go near the body, but I had seen those clothes before. Of course I realized right away that he was dead.”

: “His face was purple and blackened, so… I didn’t think it was Hiruma from the third floor… he was a good, studious kid. He always greeted me politely. I still can’t believe it…”

: That’s all the dialog he has. Let’s try walking out back to the front of the building, maybe we missed something, or we can go to the front desk and get a key that way.

: I didn’t have a guide open, but I figured this was one of those moments like in Snatcher or Policenauts where you have to ask everyone about everything and tried talking to Kawabata again.

: “Or is it just me…? Well, try your best. The HC Unit is full of weirdos. That one chick looks cute, but she does some messed up shit. I, myself, have dealt with some really fucked up autopsies.”

: “Because those guys don’t know when to stop… if you ever have any problems, come talk to me.”

: At this point, I knew I was missing something, and started looking up and down to see if I could find it. What you’re supposed to do is see that dialog box right after the conversation with Chizuru and Morikawa and see that it’s on the top of the screen. Then you look up.

: “That’s the fourth floor. Hurry to the fourth floor!”

: We can now go back to the front of the building and take a left to go up the stairs.

: You actually have to go up all four flights of stairs. There is a missable achievement (if you’re into that) for checking every door in the apartment building, but we can get that later.

: This is Suda’s love of film showing. In case you haven’t seen it, Gattaca was a 1997 film about a world with two classes of people, one of which is genetically engineered to be ‘perfect’ at birth.

: “Help Hikaru… please help Hikaru.”

: Anyway, I’m going to cut this here, because next time we have a couple of long segments… including a thing I’ve only seen in games developed between 1999 and 2003 or so.

[SpammyV]

Sumio leans against the window inside the parked police car. His gaze is somewhere in the unfocused distance, and every now and then a hint of odd expression passes over his face, or he seems on the edge of saying something. Finally he breaks the awkward silence, looking over to the chinchilla sitting in the other seat and asks, “Big Dick, what you think about like, murderously crazy chicks?”

[Timrod]

Summary

: “On a stakeout.”

: “A stakeout? This whole time? Didn’t they start like three days ago?”

: “Technically it was four and a half days ago. It’s not just our unit. The whole department is in on this investigation.”

: “Is it that big of a job? What the hell? You know what’s going on, right?”

: “Of course.”

: “So, what is it?”

: “Morikawa, you’ve got a big mouth, don’t you? I can’t tell someone like that.”

: “You Department of Intelligence guys are real dicks, huh…”

: As we’ll learn in this update, pretty much everyone at the Heinous Crimes Unit is a dick.

: “Same as the Multiregional Agents. It’s the same deal. Everyone hates us both.”

: “Don’t equate us with you guys… you career types are just jealous.”

: “With the key to the ‘Silver’ case…”

: “Hey, Naka. You trying to pick a fight?”

: “No. Pissing people off is my job…”

: “Whatever… I just need to ask the boss.”

: “Why not?”

: “It’s under Central’s command. Technically, it falls under our jurisdiction, so…”

: “Central? Moving the pieces in the background… Naka, you gathering info?”

: “Well, I am helping, yeah.”

: “Give us some info, then.”

: “Well, it depends on the situation.”

: “C’mon… don’t forget that we’re all friends here.”

: Actually, Friends is a pretty apt comparison to this game because just like Friends, everyone in the HCU is an asshole.

: " ‘Friends’…? Morikawa, you’re the last person I wanna hear that from…"

: “Yeah, I guess you’re right… so anyways… why is that guy here? Timrod…”

: Honestly, I’m starting to ask myself that, because I found out about another game I probably would’ve LPed if I had known about it at the time.

: That game is The Caligula Effect: Overdose. The game itself is shit, at least as far as I understand, but that’s not what’s important about it.

: The important part is that it’s written by Satomi Tadashi, and is basically the plot to the Maruki arc in Persona 5 Royal… written several years before Royal released. I am thoroughly convinced that the people who took over for Hashino simply did what Hashino would’ve and merely stole Satomi Tadashi’s plot.

: I might honestly scout that out, because as much as I like this game I can tell it gets boring in places.

: “Looks like the boss called him out. Apparently he’s getting this case.”

: We have control now, which allows us to, uh, turn to the right for some more cutscene.

: “Can’t do what…?”

: “Trust him. I can’t trust my partner.”

: “Is that the reason why…?”

: “The reason… do I even need anymore reasons? Partners who can’t trust each other hurt the investigation. I’m requesting reassignment.”

: “For who…?”

: “Boss, do you understand me? Of course I mean for Morikawa. Please reassign Morikawa.”

: This reminds me so much of my last job, it’s not even funny.

: “I’ve got Morikawa on another investigation. You still want reassignment?”

: “I haven’t heard anything about that.”

: “There are some things I can’t tell you…”

: “I don’t think so. I’m his partner.”

: “I guess so… OK, reassignment it is, then.”

: “Thank you!”

: “?”

: “Leave them here and get the fuck out.”

: “Me…?”

: “Yeah.”

: Kotobuki is a fucking asshole. The canon version of this scene is that the chinchilla tells Kotobuki to fuck himself and walks off.

: “Why…?”

: “I only need agents who can get the job done. Can you tell me you’re better at your job than Morikawa?”

: “…”

: “I have no need for people who can’t trust their friends. Whatever his background might be… is this not the time to trust him?”

: “Boss…”

: “Your words… and your actions, the way you think… it’s about time you rethought all of it.”

: “What do you mean…?”

: “You’ve been here a year… I let you in on recommendation from the mayor, but maybe he’s gone senile. You can’t see reality with just pride.”

: “You need to understand that the times are changing…”

: Look, we don’t need forensics, we need exorcists and people who can point at a corpse and blame Kamui.

: “I understand… I’ll think about it and give you my reply.”

: “Think long and hard. Don’t worry about the time. If you see your father, tell him I said “Hi”…”

: “Excuse me…”

: “Hachisuka… there’s no need to rush it.”

: “You’re all flushed - what’s up?”

: “I’m sick of this… how come you’re allowed to work the way you do?”

: “Did the boss say something?”

: “He says you’re better at your job than me, and that the way I think is the problem…”

: “Isn’t that the truth?”

: “Are you serious?! How can you say that when you shirk your responsibilities in the field?”

: “Why? I have my own way of investigating. A career type like you can’t do it. This is my investigation. Don’t come in and start bitching.”

: “We’re no longer partners, got it?”

: “Well what a shame. Breaking up with the starlet of the HC Unit. I’ll be so lonely. I don’t know if I can take the solitude.”

: “What is your problem? Are you that dissatisfied? Do you want to work with me? Then don’t treat me like a sidekick! I don’t waste time investigating like you do.”

: “Really…? What can you do with that wannabe profiling shit?”

: “It’s the real thing… don’t underestimate the deeper side of crime. Data is the most crucial evidence of all.”

: Let me just say that this whole thing seems like an argument that’d be more appropriate to, say, a game like The Great Ace Attorney than a game set in 1999.

: “You saying that because of your pride as a career type? Or as a woman?”

: “I’m saying it as a professional!”

: “A professional career woman… what a fucking joke.”

: “The way you geezers investigate is old!!”

: “…”

: “That’s the truth. Nowadays, with criminal cases getting worse and worse, it just isn’t useful now… Hachisuka, you understand that, right?”

: “You’d better get out of here before that pride of yours gets destroyed.”

: “These days, profiling is archaic… it’s obvious which is ‘old’, isn’t it?”

: “Fine… I’ll investigate my way. I’ll find out what really happened in that apartment. I’ll find the answers you can’t…”

: This entire conversation doesn’t make a lot of sense. Morikawa and Chizuru both know that the chinchilla was brought in specifically to investigate this as a murder case.

: Then again, there’s a lot of stuff that gets retconned or changed between now and the sequels, which are a lot weirder than this game is.

: “Do whatever!!”

: “Hm?”

: “I don’t care what you do in private… but please keep romance out of the workplace.”

: “Me?”

: “It looked like a lover’s quarrel to me… it isn’t very pretty.”

: “Me and Chizuru? Are you misunderstanding something?”

: “If that’s the case then that’s fine… but it feels like remnants of sex are in the air. Morikawa, you’re a grown man, so…”

: “What the hell? You’re imagining this bullshit. Naka, you’re kinda fucked up.”

: “Really? My instincts are generally pretty spot-on with this kind of thing.”

: “What makes you think so?”

: “I was an undercover specialist in the Department of Intelligence. So I’ve broken up plenty of love affairs.”

: He was with the Government Anti-Horny Squad.

: “So you’re actually a hard worker, huh?”

: “Yeah, I’m kind of a social outcast, so… I could start up my own private detective agency anytime.”

: “That’s scary… I’ll be careful.”

: “Naka… you’re actually in love with Chizuru, aren’t you?”

: Well, I guess this outright confirms that Nakategawa is a pedophile. No wonder Tokio didn’t like him.

: “Oh, OK then.” (I can imagine…)

: Was Kotobuki possessed by a crime ghost?

: “I want to thank you on behalf of all of us.”

: “Boss, let’s get down to business.”

: “Hm… OK, I’ll be frank. I’m designating you Heinous Crimes Unit Special Agent. But whether or not to accept it is up to you. Do you want the position…? Decide now.”

: “You’ve been scouted. That happens a lot here. Everyone here was scouted by the boss.”

: Clearly, Kotobuki makes nothing but good decisions, like hiring a pedophile.

: “From what I’ve seen, I don’t think you’d be able to live outside of this world. You could say you’re built almost like a criminal. Tell me if you have any reason to turn this down.”

: “That means you’ll be living in this world now. That get your stomach all upset?”

: “There’s one way to turn it down… right here and now, the Firebird Splash. Do it. What do you say? OK then, welcome aboard.”

: I thought a “Firebird Splash” was some kind of mixed drink, but as it turns out, it’s not. In reality, it’s a wrestling move. I should’ve suspected that given Suda’s love of pro wrestling.

: The Firebird Splash is basically a jump off the ropes followed by a full front flip that ends up with the wrestler bellyflopping on their opponent.

: It was a signature move for a wrestler by the name of Hayabusa (real name: Eiji Ezaki) who would have come back to Japan from wrestling in Mexico right around the time this game takes place.

: “We’re buddies now. I may have pissed you off before, but let’s forget about all that now… looking forward to working with you.”

: “You’ve just started, but… the case of that apartment complex. Take over the case with Morikawa. Morikawa is already investigating. Timrod, you give him support.”

: “What’s the situation?”

: So yeah, this is the part I don’t get. Everyone in the building knew they were investigating it as a homicide, but kept telling Chizuru they weren’t.

: “I’ve checked out all the background info. The victim, Kenichi Hiruma, didn’t have any clear motivation to kill himself. I’m treating it as a homicide.”

: “Don’t let anything get by you… what about Hachisuka’s report?”

: “Still the same…”

: “Go easy on her… how was the crime scene?”

: “It didn’t look like a suicide after all.”

: “Why not?”

: “Just my gut feeling.”

: “That’s good… but don’t rely on that too much.”

: “I’ll be careful.”

: “Boss, have a look.”

: “…”

: “The kid living in those apartments? He was peeking from his balcony. That kid, huh…”

: “Timrod, keep in contact with him. He may prove to be a crucial witness.”

: “What about this ‘Hikaru’?”

: " ‘Help…’, huh… Morikawa, look into this too."

: “Got it.”

: Huh… they’re still investigating the Silver Case? I thought Kusabi solved that 20 years ago.

: “Nothing new to report.”

: “Even something small is fine… make sure to keep delivering your reports. I’m counting on you.”

: Even though there’s a contact point over the door, we can’t leave yet. We have to talk to Nakategawa for some reason.

: “I don’t like how the Chief Director thinks. What…? Stay out of my way.”

: “I’ve got some minor business to attend to… I’m taking the car. Sorry, but get a cab or something.”

: We want to go right to the 4th floor, where we met Koichi earlier. I investigated all the other rooms on the way up - there’s no dialog or anything. The 5th floor is locked right now.

: “Please, come on in. It’s a bit messy but come on in!”

: “Man, it was awesome. It felt like getting an electric shock all through my body. Like some sorta sixth sense, you know? It must be some kinda superpower.”

: “So, I guess that means that I’m a superhero then, huh? Right, Sumio? So that means you got a superhero for a partner. Must be sweet.”

: “That’s ‘telekinesis’… yaaaawn. I’m so sleepy.”

: “Hey!! Concentrate on your job! You’ve been slacking a bit recently, huh? What, you pick up a bit of know-how and think you’re a veteran now? Hah! Don’t make me laugh.”

: “That’s why you kids these days are shit.”

: “I’m 26… I’m not exactly a ‘kid’…”

: “Horseshit… is that the only excuse you got? The only real shit you’ve seen is a bunch of kids’ play. I’d say it’s six cups of sugary coffee.”

: “1 cup for adjustment, 2 cups for a slight tweak, 3 cups for your youth, 4 cups for diabetes, 5 cups to get back to reality, and 6 cups to get defiant. Basically --just a load of shit.”

: I feel like between Sumio talking about falling in love at gunpoint and Kusabi rambling, these two were made for each other.

: “Tetsu…”

: “What!?”

: “You’re super bored, aren’t you…?”

: “I want you to find him. Hikaru… he disappeared. We always used to play together, but… all of a sudden he just disappeared. Nobody else has noticed.”

: “Everyone in my class just totally forgot about Hikaru. Isn’t that mean? So I thought about it, and something’s definitely fishy. Everyone’s plotting something.”

: “They took Hikaru and hid him somewhere. That has to be it. Everyone hates Hikaru for being an outsider. Hikaru was getting bullied a lot. Everyone always does that to transfer students.”

: “When I was in second grade, I transferred here, too… for my first year, nobody would even talk to me. The same thing happened to Hikaru, too. So I’m protecting him.”

: I swear, if the end of this story is that Koichi killed him…

: “So everyone doesn’t bully him. Kojima and Nakao are really mean guys — so I’m sure they planned something. They wanted to bully Hikaru even more. I won’t let them get away with it…”

: “My mom…? She’s at work. She does a ‘grownup job’. So I’m always by myself at night. It’s not lonely. I cried a lot when I was small, but now I like being alone.”

: “But now I have Hikaru right next door so it’s really fun. He always plays the songs I like. Hikaru’s room is on the other side of this wall, so if he turns it up I can hear.”

: “I was always with Hikaru. We found fun places… it’s complicated. Hikaru’s house is, too…”

: “He parked in the parking lot in a foreign car. Hikaru’s mom’s boyfriend was driving the car, and the three of them moved in. Even then, Hikaru seemed really lonely.”

: “I think it was because he didn’t like his mom’s boyfriend… I know how he feels. Mom’s boyfriends can be good guys… but some of them are really mean and violent.”

: “But since they’re stronger, you can’t fight back. I think Hikaru must’ve felt the same way. Yeah, that was it.”

: To understand what’s going on here, you have to understand a little bit about Japanese politics and the economic climate of late 1990s Japan.

: Between about 1986 and 2012, the divorce rate in Japan shot up around 66%. This naturally meant a large increase in the number of single mothers with kids. In comparison, the divorce rate in the United States actually lowered over the same period.

: Japan was (and still is, from what I understand) basically completely unequipped to handle such a situation. Joint custody doesn’t exist in Japan, and child support is basically impossible to get - it requires that the mother prove to the court where the father works and where he keeps his money.

: At the same time, you had shit like employers asking potential employees for a list of the people who lived with them as a condition of employment - which made it easy for them to discriminate against single parents. Even when they do get hired, single mothers experience a larger wage gap than usual and have a harder time finding full-time employment.

: As a result, by 2017, 55% of all single-family households in Japan were living below the poverty line. I can’t imagine that number has gotten any better since COVID hit.

: This, by the way, is one of the reasons for Japan’s low birth rates. There are groups working to try and get Japan’s Diet to do something about it, but as far as I know they haven’t.

: “But I’ve been telling Hikaru. It’s nothing to be ashamed of at all. Even if people say mean things, just ignore them and keep going. You agree, don’t you?”

: “People don’t need to feel sorry for us…”

: “He looked really embarrassed and was hiding behind his mom… hehehe. I thought he looked so cute somehow. It turned out he was the same age as me and lives in the same district.”

: “So I told him we’d go to the same school. I said ‘I hope we’re in the same class’. Then Hikaru smiled. He laughed like a frog.”

: “I taught him all about these apartments, like the baker, and I introduced him to the guy on the second floor. We ran around the building together…”

: “Oh yeah! I’ll tell you our secret. You know the parking lot down there? There’s a secret base there. We tried lots of times and failed a lot, but… we finally finished our first secret base.”

: “This here…”

: “Wow, cool! It’s a secret robot base!”

: “Wow, this is so cool.”

: “It’s the special edition of TV Dream. Did you buy it, Koichi?”

: I looked this up, and as far as I can tell it’s not a real magazine.

: “Yeah. I’ll lend it to you.”

: “Really? For reals?”

: “Also, I have a plan.”

: “What is it?”

: “We’re gonna build a secret base, just like the robot one.”

: “A secret base…?”

: “Yeah, our own secret base!”

: “Wow, that’s so cool! Let’s do it!”

: “You’re in charge of the blueprints. I’ll be in charge of construction.”

: “Yeah, let’s do it! I’ll check out TV Dream for ideas!”

: “Yeah! OK, then I’ll gather materials for the base.”

: “OK, I’ll start designing it… hey, when do we start?”

: As much as this is kinda cliche, especially for stuff coming out of Japan, it’s at least not as bad as Persona 5 was with the anime garbage.

: “Right away!”

: “OK! Let’s get started!”

: “So… we made a second secret base. But I can’t tell you about that one. Are you gonna come again tomorrow?”

: “I’m gonna make sure to find the guy who did it. So help me with my investigation, OK? I need a really good assistant. Otherwise… I won’t be able to help Hikaru.”

: “Promise, OK? I’ll be waiting here… my mom is gonna come home, so you should hurry up and go…”

: Before we go, we can go into the back of the apartment and see Koichi’s room. I believe this is required for the achievement.

: I’m not sure if those figures by the door are just random designs, or if they’re re-used from something else.

: Well, looks like we’re done here. It’s probably just a kid being a kid, there’s no need to spend valuable chinchilla-hours investigating.

: Welp. Next time, we get even more proof that the main character is actually a chinchilla and get in a car chase.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Last time, Big Dick the Chinchilla went to Tokio’s apartment building and saw a ghost… and now, we’ll just promptly ignore that. You think Big Dick still cares about ghosts? Nah.

: “50,000…”

: “Tetsu? You listening?”

: “50,000! Shut the fuck up!”

: " ‘50,000’ what…?"

: “A horse?”

: “The fuck am I supposed to do for this month? Huh? What the hell am I supposed to tell Akemi…? Sumio, what day is today?”

: “It’s July 3rd…”

: “The 3rd? We just got paid… 22 more days… the fuck am I supposed to do? What am I gonna do?!”

: The extra-judicial murder police clearly don’t pay very well.

: “That’s, uh, not really my…”

: “I had a bad feeling about it. The name ‘Sprite Over’. You know Sonobe in Accounting, right? That fucking idiot told me. Said he had a ‘lead’.”

: This reminds me of the accountant from my old job who went missing for like a week, and then called management from Brazil to tell them he wasn’t coming back.

: “Said the Tsubaki Syndicate had fixed it. I mean, it makes sense if you think about it, right? How else is that fuckin’ idiot supposed to win?”

: “A digital check on the best nine. That’s what I thought. I fuckin’ knew it.”

: “Well, you believed him, yeah? So what are you gonna do for the rest of the month?”

: “Sumio, don’t say shit… just lend me some cash!”

: “Nope!”

: “C’mon, buddy… please, I said the magic word!”

: The best part about this is that you know there’s no way this is the first time this has happened.

: “Please, try asking someone else… check with Nakategawa over the radio or something. That guy’s rolling in it…”

: If you’ve played Disco Elysium, you’re probably wondering if Kusabi is about to join the exclusive club of cops who ask dispatch for money over the radio… and yes. Yes he is.

: “And show Naka that I’m weak? How the fuck am I supposed to ask a bitchy little queen like that to lend me money…?”

: “Here, I’ll turn it over to him…”

: “The fuck’re you doing, man…? C’mon… Naka? Sorry, I know you’re busy… I’m gonna ask you straight-up. Can you lend me some cash? Yeah, 50,000…”

: As much as the reviewers complained about scenes like this, I think this scene is actually pretty good. It tells us a lot about Kusabi and his relationship with Sumio, and doesn’t take that long to do it.

: So yeah, Big Dick saw a ghost and just didn’t give a shit. I wonder if Kusabi asked him for money too.

: There’s no weird jump scares here this time, just a strange email we can (but don’t have to) read before going out.

: The first thing we want to do upon getting here is go up to Koichi’s apartment on the 4th floor.

: We then get a note telling us… okay, let’s see. We need to put a watering can, a syringe, and a flower into a garbage can and then hide it from a giant head. Got it.

: Now, you’d think the first thing we’d want to do is see Mizoguchi, except…

: He’s not in. We still need to check this to set a plot flag, but what we really have to do is go to the second floor.

: If you go back to Apartment 101, Mizoguchi still isn’t there. This is another weird plot flag where we have to go to the parking lot and confirm the door is locked first.

: Yep, its locked. Back to 101 we go.

: “The parking lot? You can’t get there? Why not? … Ah, it’s still locked, isn’t it? Hold on a second. OK, can you open it with this? Yeah, just stick the key right in. I’ll go get the key from you later.”

: We now have the key. This is one of the only times in the game we’re going to need to use an item.

: Tokio’s car isn’t here, which means we’re probably going to see a whole lot of driving segments in his next chapter.

: Off to the side are some garbage cans. Now, you’d think that the answer would be to just walk up to them and try to Contact, except…

: You have to look down first. This one is kind of annoying because the contact point will show up even if you’re looking straight at the cans… only you can’t actually contact them.

: Now, we’re meant to believe that an adult human male fits through that hole. I think this is definitive proof that the protagonist is, in fact, a chinchilla.

: The view on the left is constantly rotating, though there isn’t much in this hole in the ground.

: “Isn’t this place cool? I worked really hard. Together with Hikaru… we’d start when it started getting dark and dig holes a little at a time.”

: Isn’t this just the plot to Holes? When did that come out, anyway? I feel like it’s right around this time frame.

: “Digging holes is fun. Guys like holes. Both Hikaru and me. I feel like digging these holes helped us grow.”

: “I got this from a computer company that went out of business. I don’t know how to use it, but it’s our secret base’s control panel. One day I’ll switch it on and use it for investigations.”

: Koichi clearly has a bunch of waking up to haunted emails and videos of carnivorous plants in his future.

: “Um, for this case… the perpetrator was really dumb.”

: “The solution is coming up after the commercial break… this has been ‘Columbone’. Hehehe, don’t I sound like him? I’m good at impersonation.”

: “OK, so… this is what I think about the perpetrator. I gathered some witnesses. By my reasoning, I narrowed it down to five people… hehehe. I’m like a bookie at the races, huh?”

: I mean, I guess? I don’t really know what Hideo Kojima looked like as a kid.

: “He’s big and he’s really mean. He lives in front of Midori Park, but he always brags about it. Because he has a big house.”

: “And since Hikaru and me only live with our moms, he makes fun of us… this guy, I thought about killing him. I don’t even know how many times.”

: “I’ve played with him before, but it wasn’t fun at all. Hikaru must’ve felt the same. So we always ignored him. He was crap, so he never played baseball, and everyone stayed away from him.”

: “Hikaru was crap, too, so he always got picked on. I always call Hikaru to play right away and bring him back… this guy’s the biggest suspect.”

: “We take the same route to school, and we’re in the same group. And he’s the group leader, but he always acts really big.”

: “He treats me and Hikaru and Shigenori like we’re his lackeys. He says lots of mean stuff. But one time I couldn’t take it anymore and we got in a fight.”

: “I always knew it, that this guy wasn’t so tough. But he acts so bossy, so it got me really mad. I couldn’t beat him, but… it was a tie. He got a bit better after that, and Hikaru supported me, so he’s holding a grudge. He’s another big suspect.”

: I’ll be honest, I almost fell asleep while recording this part. From what I understand, a lot of people consider Spectrum to be the weakest part of the game.

: I mean, this whole thing feels outdated even for 1999 - this feels more like 20th Century Boys, which takes place primarily in the 1970s.

: “He’s good-looking. He’s best at baseball and he has a sense of justice - and everyone likes him. But during baseball, his personality changes.”

: “Hikaru is bad at baseball, so Shimizu always gets mad at him… when we played against the sixth graders, Hikaru joined the game – and at a really important point, when he was pinch-hitting, he couldn’t get a hit…”

: “It was Shimizu’s decision to have Hikaru pinch-hit. But he couldn’t get a hit… so he blamed Hikaru for us losing the game. Also, um… also, he’s really stuck-up.”

: “He’s really arrogant. Since he’s really confident, he forces people into stuff. When I go up to bat, I’m a southpaw, but he won’t let me bat lefty. He makes me bat right-handed.”

: “So… I’m actually better at baseball than Shimizu. I’m actually the best in our class, but everyone discriminates against me. I can’t pitch, but I’m a better fielder than anyone else.”

: “I’m always in the outfield and if I bat lefty then I can get lots of hits, but… so Shimizu is another possibility.”

: “He’s kinda stupid. He’s big! He’s so much bigger than everyone else. He really hulks out sometimes. Seriously, he gets all violent like a monster and his face gets super red and he gets angry.”

: “He’s really strong. Unless we all hold him back he won’t calm down. Motonobu has it hard himself. The guys in the East district always make fun of him…”

: “We live in the West district, and so does Motonobu, but we play around places close to home, so we’re actually kinda friends… I feel sorta sorry for him sometimes.”

: “Kids act like they’re fighting a monster and come after him like that. Motonobu is really stubborn and he won’t give up… so we get done in even more.”

: “Koike and Takepin always make fun of him, and Takepin got Motonobu really angry. He kept calling him a stupid idiot, and then he’d run away, and Shimizu and Koike would beat on him.”

: I’m also not really sure what the point of all this is, but then again, this is Suda we’re dealing with.

: “Motonobu has a short temper so it’s his fault, too, but… when Motonobu gets excited, he gets really weird… so he’s even bullied Hikaru before. I hope it wasn’t Motonobu…”

: “There’s Aonuma and Tsukada and Satomi,and Aonuma is like their boss. They’re really powerful now, because they’re friends with the Misuhashi group in the sports center area.”

: “The Aonuma group lives close by, and they’re always grouped together and talking badly behind people’s backs. These girls really discriminate against people, too, and their parents tell them not to play with ‘single mother kids’.”

: “The girls in the East district are much nicer. Sakurai and Osawa and Yasuda live really far away, but they invited us over to play and their moms are really nice.”

: “I was really happy… maybe they feel sorry for us? But I don’t care. Even though it was New Year’s, they came to my birthday party and were super nice to me and Hikaru.”

: “But the girls in the West and East wards don’t get along at all, and they face off in groups. Sometimes, we get mixed up in their power struggles, and Aonuma tells us to join them…”

: “When I take Sakurai’s side, Aonuma bullies Hikaru. Aonuma is really good at dodgeball and she could beat Hikaru in a fight, so Aonuma is always making Hikaru cry.”

: “So I stand up for Hikaru and make Aonuma cry to get revenge. But she still bullies Hikaru behind his back. Girls can be really dirty, but I still think that Sakurai and them are way better.”

: “The Aonuma group might be keeping Hikaru locked up somewhere. These girls are also top suspects.”

: I thought about this whole scene last night, and at first I couldn’t figure out what the point of it was - whether this was Suda trolling or what.

: Then it kinda hit me. You have Big Dick the Chinchilla knowing that Hikaru is dead, but not really knowing how to break that to Koichi, so he’s just sitting there awkwardly the entire time.

: Speaking of which, since I don’t think anyone who reads my LPs follows me on Twitter, I decided against LPing YIIK 1.5 They just did a reveal of it last week.

: The reason I’ve decided against it is that I feel like I really wouldn’t have much more to say about it than I did the first two times.

: “We might be able to help Hikaru… promise, OK? I’ll get hold of you again later.”

: “Seriously, man… and how did it somehow get up to 100,000?”

: “Whatever. He says he’ll spot me, so…”

: “You’re gonna pay for it later…”

: For some reason, I have a feeling that Kusabi lost the other 50,000 betting on the same horse.

: “I’ll deal with that when it happens. Live in the now, man. In this moment, right now.”

: “I envy you… you’ve got guts.”

: This reminds me so much of CITY by Keiichi Arawi, which has two characters that are more or less Kusabi and Sumio only they’re female college students.

: “Don’t flatter me. Just live how you feel.”

: “I was being sarcastic…”

: “But anyways… how long is this stakeout gonna go on?”

: For reference, Kusabi and Sumio have been out there for almost six days at this point.

: “It can’t really be helped.”

: " ‘Can’t be helped,’ huh… ‘Can’t be helped’…"

: "That’s right. ‘Can’t be helped.’ "

: “Back when I was in Regional… the old man told me. 'Detectives don’t use the words “can’t be helped” '. ‘Don’t ever say that in front of me again.’ He looked like he was gonna stab me.”

: If only Hashino’s boss had been more like Kotobuki, Persona 5 might have been tolerable.

: “So Sumio, don’t ever use that phrase. If we give up, we lose. That’s a detective’s job. Burn that into your brain.”

: “OK then, if I decide I want to die, then I’ll use those words…”

: “Oh yeah, don’t worry… I’ll kill your ass.”

: “…”

: I’m not even going to apologize for this, because I absolutely could not refuse.

: Just like yesterday, we can look at Big Dick’s computer for some cryptic bullshit.

: “I’ve done OK with the gathering. That boy have anything to go on? You don’t need to rush it. Take your time. Something’ll pop up eventually.”

: “Chizuru? Well, women are complicated. Us men can’t really understand them. There’s a program. A really specific, original one. Chizuru is especially complicated.”

: “She’s half-assedly sticking her nose into forensic investigation, so she’s being pressured by all these unspecific personalities. Protecting her own self-consciousness is all she can do.”

: Wait, what. When did this become Persona?

: “Her job is to take in other people’s consciousnesses, you know? So basically, she’s like the fortunetellers on Mt. Osore. It’s a really tough job… it’ll get better once the storm blows over…”

: “She just needs to be left alone for a bit. She’s not a little kid anymore… once she remembers that she’s a professional cop, she’ll be back.”

: “Anyway, Timrod, you’d be solidify your position here while Chizuru’s out. Let’s go… Timrod, we’re gonna check out the area around the complex. See if we can get any info from the locals.”

: “It isn’t glamorous work but this is important too.”

: “Really? The results of our questioning have already disappeared from backup. That’s in the past.”

: So you’re saying that… you killed… the past?

: “Leave your stupid comments in your pocket! I’ve got my way of doing things. Let’s go!”

: Morikawa is exercising the little-known police right to piss wherever you want.

: Chizuru speeds by in her red sports car.

: “Wh- what?! Timrod, move out! That’s Chizuru!”

: It is my headcanon that Big Dick refuses to drive whatever it is that Morikawa drives and instead has a chinchilla-sized convertible.

: I would have had Salty Vanilla draw that, except cars are apparently hell and a half to draw.

: “Heh, he’s pretty good. So what do you want? I’m off duty right now. I’m just a civilian…”

: You might ask why Chizuru isn’t wearing her glasses, and the answer is I have no idea. I can’t even drive without mine.

: My theory is that she’s like Senator Armstrong in Metal Gear Rising and disabled her lesbian inhibitors via nanomachines.

: “What is this, desperate driving? And you were such a good girl… want me to make you feel better?”

: “Whatever… I told you. I have my own way of doing things. So? Is this your new partner? Good timing…”

: “By the way…is it some kind of structural problem that the steel is cheap and there are old marks everywhere?”

: “…”

: “Can I talk to you in private?”

: “I’m fine…”

: “I’m not.”

: “In that case…”

: “Do you understand?”

: “I don’t care. This shouldn’t be the time for thinking.”

: “Well, more than anyone, you should…”

: “Your father, huh?”

: “Timrod, can you head off to the scene on your own? Sorry, don’t ask… start questioning people thoroughly. Check every apartment. The inner garden, too. Try going back again.”

: I’m going to end this here, because there is a lot of optional dialogue up ahead. Next time, we should be able to finish Spectrum.

[Timrod]

Summary

: After we finish talking with Morikawa and Chizuru, we’re dumped right back at Typhoon. There’s a LOT of optional dialog here. You can book it right to Koichi and skip all of it.

: Weirdly, I didn’t get the achievement for exploring the entire apartment complex, even though I’m 100% positive I did. I actually went through this segment twice just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

: Anyway, we can now access the 5th floor, where Tokio lives. We’ll start by talking to him.

: “You doing stuff like this with a face like that? Hm… have we met somewhere? Maybe not… I know about the kid below dying. I’m not totally unrelated.”

: “But I have nothing to talk to you about. I heard some noise on this floor… but I was in a bad mood. Unfortunately, what happened right near me may as well have happened in another world.”

: If it weren’t for his friendship with Red, Big Dick would absolutely tackle Tokio right here. Anyway, we’ll move on to the third floor from here - because Koichi is the only person on the fourth.

: This guy doesn’t have a name, but I like to call him Mr. Very 90s.

: “Hiruma always came home late. Probably had some kind of flashy job. I never really ran into him much. I think he was at home during the day a lot. I could hear noises sometimes.”

: “But I’ve never really seen him going out anywhere. It’s so creepy… that stuff that happened next door, and the kid upstairs dying. I’m considering moving out of here soon…”

: “I mean, wouldn’t you? Kids around that age, they play around a lot and yeah, it can be troublesome, but… if they get yelled at every time then they’ll have nowhere to play, right?”

: “They were building something out of cardboard in my space in the parking lot. You know, like you do when you’re a kid. You played like that too, right?”

: “Remembering the old days makes me feel really nostalgic. I didn’t want to break their thing down, so for the time being I just parked on the street.”

: “Ended up getting a ticket… oh, by the way, Detective… could you maybe say something to the Traffic Unit or someone? Tell them about my situation…”

: “It’s a good enough excuse, right? At that time…? I have to answer again? Both of us work, so we eat out every day.”

: It’s kind of funny that of all the things in this LP, I probably don’t have to explain what Blockbuster was, thanks to all that news coverage of the last remaining one in Bend, Oregon.

: My only memory of being in a Blockbuster was going there with my dad one day as a kid and having him talk me out of renting Castlevania 64. That was a good decision.

: This one I’ll probably have to explain though. Millennium was a TV show that could only exist in the late 90s. It was written by Chris Carter, who also wrote The X-Files.

: It ran on Fox for 3 seasons, from 1996 to 1999 - which is kind of amazing given the sheer volume of shows around that time that ran on Fox for maybe two episodes before being cancelled.

: Anyway, from what I’ve read about it, Millennium was this heavily disjointed show about an FBI agent who joins the “Millennium Group”, which is actually some kind of post-apocalyptic Y2K cult, in order to investigate and profile serial killers.

: The show kind of took a turn into basically being a second X-Files, then veered away from that, and then got abruptly cancelled. The writer brought it back for a single episode of The X-Files, and that was pretty much that.

: “Oh yeah, I have the receipt. Here, it says the time was 11:40, and I rented two videos, see? At this place, if you rent two or more new releases, you can keep them for three days so it’s a bargain.”

: “So we came home just past 12:00. So how about it…? That’s a good enough alibi, right? You see this kind of thing on TV and stuff.”

: Checks out, I guess. I was also wondering why it is that everyone in the apartment complex is home today - that’s because July 3rd was a Saturday in 1999.

: “Oh, and here, we went by the convenience store, too. This was 11:52… after that the two of us just watched videos… oh yeah. I heard this from my wife, but…”

: Believe it or not, this is going to be important. Not for the case itself, but for another largely optional thing we’ll be doing this update.

: “It makes us feel a bit closer, doesn’t it? What, that wasn’t funny? Well, this is all I have to talk about.”

: Next up is the other occupied room on the 3rd floor. There’s three rooms, but one’s empty because it belonged to the dead guy.

: “Ah, about the jumper from the other day, huh? Anything strange? Hm… I don’t think so… Oh yeah, I did hear a sound. Maybe that was the sound from when the guy jumped?”

: “Otherwise, that’s about it… oh yeah, also, just before then, it looked like Hiruma had just gotten back. Yeah, I could hear his footsteps.”

: “It’s pretty quiet here, so adult footsteps really reverberate. What else… I did hear the sound of a motorcycle. That was definitely the younger guy on the second floor’s exhaust, I’m sure of it.”

: “But you know, that guy on the second floor? He looks kinda sketchy, but he’s actually a good guy. Look into him and I’m sure you’ll see… but, wasn’t that a suicide?”

: We’ll go down to the second floor next.

: “A detective? The guy on the third floor, that was a suicide, right? I don’t play with those kids, but I’ve talked to them a lot. Kids do stupid things, so I’d tell them to be careful…”

: “When I’m working on my bike, they’d come right over. I told them about how the engine is built, stuff like that… I doubt they understand, but anyway. They seemed really happy.”

: “My mom works nights, my little brother was studying for exams, and I was out on my bike. Those are basically our alibis. Hiruma on the third floor… I don’t really know him.”

: “He didn’t seem like a very nice guy, though… what a shock… the other kid has been really depressed, you know? I don’t even know what to say to console him…”

: “Oh, by the way… that night, I saw Hiruma on the street in front of the complex. I ride a motorcycle, you know? I didn’t talk to him or anything, and the parking lot’s in the back, so that’s it, but…”

: There’s two more people we can talk to on this floor - one of them is the woman we met in the last update when we were looking for the key to the parking lot.

: “His apartment was kind of dark and smelled like cigarettes. He lived in this building by himself, right? You know… there was definitely something creepy about him, but to think that he killed himself…”

: “The kid on the fourth floor, right? At the Kobayashi place… how unsettling. My kid is still small, so he wasn’t really the age to be playing with the older kids.”

: “But to think what could’ve happened… really, how sad… the child’s mother has been really upset… the building manager, Mizoguchi, probably knows better than anyone about the residents here…”

: “We don’t really interact with the neighbors, so you should probably talk to him…”

: There’s one more person on the second floor, and then we can go talk to Mizoguchi and the one guy on the fourth floor.

: “About the other day? I don’t know anything. But more importantly, do something about all the illegal parking out front. What? Anything else? Leave me alone. I have a bad headache.”

: “About the dead guy? How should I know anything about him? I don’t care, OK? Can we stop now?”

: “What’s the matter, detective? You want to ask me some questions? Well, OK then, come on in.”

: “Honestly, I’ve been troubled myself. The landlord and management company are always bitching. I mean, this sort of thing happens no matter who works as building manager, but still…”

: “As for me, all I know about the people living here is whatever is written in their documentation, and it’s not like I had any sort of personal relationship with Hiruma, so…”

: “That night? Yeah, I was awake. I remember hearing a sort of bang. But I never thought, you know…”

: We already know Mizoguchi’s version of events, but I think they’re missable if you look up and see Koichi right away when you’re here with Chizuru.

: “Recently more residents have been taking their trash out at night, and it’s a hassle to warn them about it every time… so I thought that’s what the sound was. At first, at least.”

: “Then when I went out to clean up in the morning, I saw what had happened… Koichi? Oh, the kid on the fourth floor, right? Poor kid… the kid next door died suddenly.”

: “Sounds like they were playing together and he suddenly had a heart attack. Whatever it was… at that age, the shock must’ve been really bad.”

: We can go to the parking lot. There’s nothing there but a jump scare.

: “What are you doing? What’re you doing over there? Hurry up and come here!”

: Wait, is this actually going to be a case of “a ghost did it”? Are we going to arrest a ghost? Anyway, there’s one other person we can talk to on the fourth floor.

: “Oh, the suicide from earlier, yeah? What a bunch of trouble. When stuff like that happens, the value drops. Huh? The value of this place, obviously.”

: I’m not sure why you’d care what the value of the apartment building is, unless this guy is one of the owners or something.

: “That night? I was at home. I ate dinner, watched the sports news, did some work I brought home… the economy is bad all over.”

: “I envy you guys. It’s not like you have to worry about going bankrupt or anything. Now is the time to spend. Use up all the company’s budget… do whatever you want, you know?”

: “Cause trouble for everyone else and then let another department wipe your ass for you. Anything I noticed? Nope, nothing, really… Oh yeah. I think it’s the guy on the fifth floor, maybe?”

: “Yeah, I heard footsteps. Footsteps going up to the fifth floor. No, it’s probably not even related, but just in case. I’ve never actually met the guy on the fifth floor.”

: Cue Big Dick trying to explain that he has it on good authority from a turtle that Tokio didn’t kill anyone… at least, not in the past couple of nights.

: “I mean, it was the first time I ever got the sense that he actually lives there, you know? Oh yeah, also… this is just my own personal idea, but…”

: “I see Hikaru’s ghost pretty often. You don’t believe me, do you?”

: We have to go all the way back to Koichi’s room, at which point…

: “Hikaru was really terrified. He was really scared of something. Especially that day…”

: This is a video, so it’s a good time to talk about something I saw last night.

: I checked the Twitter feed for one of the people doing the Eternal Punishment PSP translation, and… it’s not great.

: As of about three weeks ago, it was in a “playable alpha” stage without the extra Tatsuya part translated, and it sounds like they just used the PS1 script for the game itself.

: That’s bad enough, as the PS1 script was a fucking abomination, but now the development status is listed as “on indefinite hiatus”. Fuck that shit.

: “Hehehe, you don’t know what that means, do you? Huh? What? What’s that? I wonder who that is… who was it… something doesn’t feel right.”

: “The sun was bright and was reflecting on the apartment building. I know… from the third floor of the apartment building… he was watching! Watching Hikaru!”

: “Hurry up!!”

: “Koichi, no!”

: “He’s coming! He disappeared!”

: “Huh?”

: “On the stairs!”

: “Help…”

: “Run!!”

: “I’m sorry… I don’t feel so good… please leave me alone for a while… please… I want to be alone.”

: For the second time this case, we’ve gotten to a point where something might be revealed, only to go back to the office. This time, though…

: If you’re playing this for yourself and want all the achievements, you’re going to want to save here.

: “Chizuru is off the case and I tried letting you move on your own. That made things much easier for me, seriously. It was like a refreshing vacation.”

: “I was getting way too burnt out… anyway… how do you like investigating? You having fun? You don’t need to answer. Everyone has their own opinions…”

: “Let’s get down to business… that kid, Koichi Sugita. He’s the key to this case. It’s clear that the after-effects of the incident are still there. But he has no subjective symptoms.”

: “That kid has it shut away deep in the back of his memory. Taking our time and getting him to bring those memories back would be best. But that’ll take too much time.”

: “So what do we do? We need to force the truth onto him. That’ll shake his memories loose. It’s about time we found that ‘truth’…”

: “We’ve been investigating for four days. That’s more than enough time to get a good feel for this case. No… not really a ‘feel’ for it. Whatever. Anyway, I want answers.”

: Clearly, this means we’re going to call in Koichi for questioning, or, I dunno, have Kusabi threaten Hikaru’s ghost.

: “Timrod, I kinda wanna see what you’re made of, too. You’re being tested… what’re you gonna do? How about a simple 3-choice game? Like a quiz. That’s fair, right?”

: “But I won’t go easy on you… the boss used to do karate, so I’ll call this…”

: This is a very dumb pun of sorts, so let me explain. Kumite is a karate term used for sparring with an opponent, but is most often used in the context of competitions. It’s a very real thing.

: There’s a school of karate in Japan called Kyokushin, which has this idea of the “100-man Kumite”, in which one person takes on 100 opponents in a row. I’m not sure how much of it is real.

: All of the sources I was able to find on it come from the Kyokushin school itself, which is usually not a great sign for proving that something isn’t staged.

: “You’ll get 100 questions in a row. No breaks. Everyone has passed this. By the way, I made it to 300-Question Kumite. Tetsu made it to 500-Question Kumite.”

: “The boss decides at the end whether or not you’ve passed. You can only take the challenge once. If you make a mistake, you’re out. The borderline is also up to the boss.”

: “Anyway, it’s basically a matter of motivation. This is all I can tell you. Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll wait till you get focused.”

: The game makes it sound like you’ll have an opportunity to save here. You won’t.

: “Ready…? OK then, here we go! Oh yeah… I forgot. You’ve got a time limit of ten seconds per question.”

: I do have a recording of me doing all 100 questions, but I didn’t get shots of all of them.

: Some of them are plot-related. We know the answer here is Mizoguchi, because he discovered the body around 4AM, several hours before Chizuru and Big Dick showed up.

: Some of them are are about mid-90s pop culture, with a couple of questions about the PS1. Remember, this was a PS1 game.

: The answer to this one is C, though it really shouldn’t be. We need a goddamn Tim Curry Batman movie. I feel like Tim Curry would probably play Batman, the Joker, and Robin simultaneously.

: This one’s A, but only because of the “found in the Mediterranean” part. Kitti’s hog-nosed bat is technically smaller, and also extremely endangered because fuck Myanmar.

: This one’s also A. The only fifth-generation console to release later was the Nintendo 64, which released stateside in 1996.

: It’s A.

: Ignore the highlighting on these, by the way. I was more concerned about getting the screenshots at all than everything lining up. Answer here is Okinawa.

: This one’s C. Dr. Pepper was formulated in 1885, while Coke was formulated a year later.

: Really this one should be A, because a movie where Gordon Gekko gets access to a time machine and goes back in time to save the secret Wall Street quaalude mine would rule.

: Anyway yeah, it’s C.

: I’m going to skip to a few of the more interesting and/or plot related ones.

: This one is B, but I feel like he’s missing that Hikaru is also dead.

: This question is the third one that’s likely to trip you up - there’s one about the first Japanese Formula 1 driver before this that I honestly didn’t know.

: The answer is B, even though that’s not his real name. His real name is Chad Rowan, though he went by the name Akebono Taro when he was active.

: He retired not long after this game released, in 2001, after years of issues with his knees. His story after that is kinda sad, though - he got married, and as a result lost all his fans in Japan because sumo fans, like idol fans, are assholes.

: He opened a restaurant that folded, tried to get into MMA and got knocked out in one round by Bob Sapp, and then did some stuff with New Japan Pro Wrestling before having a heart attack in 2017, which he survived. The sumo stable he wrestled for folded in 2021.

: Answer here is B. For reference, 101 is Mizoguchi’s room and 501 is Tokio’s.

: This one comes right before the question about Akebono, and it’s another one no one outside of Japan is likely to know unless you’re a major Olympics fan.

: The answer is B. A waza-ari is one of two ways you can score in judo - it’s basically saying “You kicked this guy’s ass not but hard enough to instantly win” and you need two to win a match.

: The other scoring method is an ippon, which is essentially a perfect-form “You kicked that guy’s ass and no one has any questions about it” throw.

: Weirdly, the answer here is A… even though we’ve been investigating this as a murder the entire time we’ve been here.

: It’s Princess Mononoke.

: Here’s another question no one in the West is likely to know. It’s green tea, though I typically end my sushi meal by wishing I’d gotten something else.

: I don’t think it’s possible to LP three Persona games and not get this one.

: Since “A ghost did it” isn’t an answer, the answer is B.

: The answer is B. Tatsumi Fujinami is a big name in Japanese pro wrestling - he’s been in the business since 1971 and still shows up in New Japan Pro Wrestling to this day.

: He was also in Yakuza Kiwami 2 and in a couple of WWE games.

: The answer Suda wants here is A, but that’s mostly his opinion. Supposedly, Ridley Scott wanted Deckard to be a replicant, but couldn’t put it in because it went against the entire point of the film.

: I had to put this one in because I talked about Yamato a bit in the Persona 5 Royal LP, since Okumura’s shadow is heavily based on the villain from that.

: I haven’t done this multiple times, so I don’t know if this will accept any of the three answers, but the correct one is apparently C.

: I have to give the localization team points for putting A in, even though that whole joke is kinda stale these days.

: This one is a dick. The answer is A - a lot of NGOs have a “PKO” (Peacekeeping Operations) branch, but good luck googling that one.

: This one I’m doing because Ryoma Sakamoto (the correct answer) also has ties to video games. If you’ve played Live a Live, specifically Oboro’s chapter, he’s a party member in that.

: He’s also the main character of Yakuza Isshin, the samurai-themed Yakuza game that is probably never coming to the West.

: That last part is kind of ironic given that he was one of the most pro-Western figures in the Bakumatsu era, to the point that he was assassinated because of it.

: It’s a little hard to find information about his honeymoon, so I’ll explain - Ryoma Sakamoto was famous for his letters, including one he sent to his sister about it.

: This one’s super easy, given that we’ve seen Sumio call him “Tetsu” several times. That and, you know, the name cards in Decoyman and Lunatics.

: I think Kawabata mentions this when you first investigate with Chizuru. It’s the 5th floor.

: It’s Sumio. Sumio and Kusabi are Unit 2.

: The correct answer, or at least the one the game’s looking for, is A… though that last flashback with Koichi definitely makes that pretty questionable.

: Remember this one? I told you it was important! It’s A.

: And here’s the last question. It’s A.

: I’ll post my recording at the end, because at this point I had already played through the entire case and spoiled who the killer is.

: "Nice, you passed! Congratulations. The boss will fill you in on the rest…

: “There are no such thing as ‘points’ in our work. Don’t be swayed by all the white noise. You did great, Timrod. You did just great. The boy must know the truth…”

: “This is your final job. Get rid of this darkness. The boy hopes for that as well. Go on…”

: We’ll finish Spectrum this update. There’s not that much more left.

: The game warps us right to Koichi’s room, and…

: “Oh yeah, I remembered something else. When I went to eat with Hikaru. Hikaru came with my mom and me to the Cherry Grill. I ordered my favorite onion soup…”

: “Hikaru copied me and ordered the same thing… and he said it was good… we also ate Caesar salad and hamburgers, and Hikaru laughed like a frog again.”

: Damn. Usually I only have enough motivation to do the burgers.

: “He looked so happy when he was eating. That was our last dinner… the next day…”

: “That guy’s always watching us… this time he chased after us… we escaped into an alley… a narrow alley would make it easier…”

: “And then… and then Hikaru ran away down a different alley…”

: I’m not sure if this part is stock footage or not.

: “When I turned around I saw his face… I ran as fast as I could… I had to get away… I didn’t wanna die… I left Hikaru on his own… I couldn’t save him…”

: “Timrod kind of…”

: “Wow, so he did it, huh?”

: “Regarding that, what’s up with this, anyway? How long do we have to do this?”

: “What’s the problem? We’re detectives. Back when I was in Regional, it wasn’t like this.”

: “Back in the day, right? The kind of stuff you were doing, I couldn’t handle it! What the hell is the boss thinking?”

: “Just shut the fuck up! This is some fundamental shit! Quit bitching about every goddamn thing!”

: I have to wonder how much of this is Suda talking through Kusabi.

: “Fuck off! This is bullshit!!”

: “The fuck you say to me?! You little punk bitch! The fuck you think you’re talking to…?”

: “Fucking old-timer. I’m talking to a fucking old-timer. Is that a problem? Huh? Is it?”

: This feels kind of ironic when you realize that Sumio is solidly Gen-X.

: And there it is. This is what, the fifth time Kusabi has threatened to shoot someone?

: “Something just glittered…”

: “Yeah, something did, huh…”

: “What is that…?”

: “The fuck…?”

: Why do I have the feeling that Kusabi is about to dodge another bullet?

: “No, I don’t have conclusive evidence. But he had a motive.”

: “That came out of nowhere… you look all refreshed.”

: “Do I?”

: “Whatever…”

: “Koichi kept the fact that Hiruma killed Hikaru all to himself, all bottled up inside. He thought he’d be killed, too. An elementary school-aged child, with all that fear…”

: “But the police ruled Hikaru’s cause of death an accident. He’d always had a weak heart.”

: I like to think Big Dick goes “Wait, aren’t you guys the police?” and then Morikawa shrugs.

: “Knowing that, Koichi made up his mind to get revenge for Hikaru… to protect himself, he’d kill Hiruma…”

: “That’s not it… Koichi didn’t try to kill him.”

: “Well then…?”

: “He went off to get killed. He wasn’t able to save Hikaru, and was upset about that. Hiruma had problems with his autonomic nerves. There was no place for him at home or at work.”

: I’d say it’s kinda shitty to blame it on a disability, but then Persona 1 kind of did the same thing.

: “So Hiruma saw those two kids having fun and that set off a jealous rage. And then Hiruma approached Hikaru. Koichi tried to protect Hikaru, but Hikaru was killed right in front of him.”

: “Oh my god… how could… a little kid like that… in that little body, with all that fear and anxiety built up, he did that for his friend?”

: “It’s hard to believe…”

: “Hikaru trusted him, and he didn’t want to betray that. Being his age, he didn’t want to give up on personal trust. What do you think…?”

: “We had the same time as those kids once, too. But as we grow, that sort of primitive mindset becomes a hindrance for living in society…”

: “Everyone sheds those hindrances and focuses on only the mindsets necessary for surviving in society.”

: “Mistaking shedding those hindrances for ‘growth’ and sappy shit like ‘believing in people’… we got rid of that stuff years ago. I just don’t get it. Right, Naka?”

: “As long as I’m doing this job, I can’t sympathize, but Hiruma’s crime cannot be forgiven. Taking advantage of Hikaru’s weak heart to apply extreme pressure on him and force his death.”

: “Even more so than his sin of destroying those kids’ futures, I can’t forgive Hiruma’s very humanity itself. But what’s most surprising is the face that such a pure heart still existed in this day and age.”

: “Yeah…”

: “Yeah, it’s like an actual miracle. To think that kids like that still exist.”

: “He did it to keep his promise to Hikaru… but, I wonder if Hikaru ever forgave Koichi?”

: “Who knows… but I want to believe that it reached him. That Hikaru was watching over everything. Right, Timrod?”

: Big Dick is gesturing wildly and asking how none of them have seen the jumpscare ghost child in the five days they investigated the crime scene.

: “Onto that clear, pure mind…”

: To end the case, all we have to do is go to the interrogation room and talk to Chizuru.

: “I caused you a lot of trouble and got kind of hysteric, getting shot by that woman, being bothered by Morikawa’s actions, and my health hasn’t been very good.”

: “My hair is all messed up and I hadn’t slept much, the boss’s cologne stunk, Sumio’s not here, and with missing my bus and my friend getting married my parents have been bugging me.”

: “I’ve had to visit some real dicks in the hospital for work, so… I’ll go on a date with you to apologize, I want you to forgive me…”

: Next time, we’ll do Tokio’s second chapter.

[Timrod]

@SpammyV

Sumio leans against the window inside the parked police car. His gaze is somewhere in the unfocused distance, and every now and then a hint of odd expression passes over his face, or he seems on the edge of saying something. Finally he breaks the awkward silence, looking over to the chinchilla sitting in the other seat and asks, “Big Dick, what you think about like, murderously crazy chicks?”

This is actually the basis for one of the pics I’m having Salty Vanilla do… sort of. You’ll see.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Hana is a bit shorter than Yume was, at least from what I recorded.

: You can hear Tokio’s doorbell ringing, followed by someone pounding on his door. For reference, this is the same day Big Dick and Chizuru show up at Typhoon to investigate the murder.

: Presumably, the person ringing his doorbell is one of the generic cops, because Big Dick and Chizuru didn’t show up until after 3:00 in the afternoon.

: One thing that has changed is that Tokio now smokes every morning after he wakes up. He didn’t do this in Yume, so I guess this is a side-effect of all the weird murder ghosts.

I bought some materials. A block of rosewood.

I put it on my desk and stare at the reddish wood. Rosewood is pretty hard so it’s probably not very good for beginners. But with this wood in front of my eyes, I somehow start feeling nostalgic.

I decided to make a paper knife. I’m going to use a knife to make a knife. Like stone carving stone. Or like dirt digging up dirt. Like a star begets a star.

: It’s funny because today we have people using knives to make knives out of paper. Interestingly, I didn’t know for a fact that video existed, but somehow I just knew it existed.

: There’s nothing super important in Tokio’s email today, just this and another one of his carnivorous plant newsletters.

: “Maybe I’ll go check it out later…”

: “I started.”

: “Started what?”

: “Whittling wood. I’m making a paper knife.”

: “That’s good. Making a paper knife is like an introduction to knifework.”

: Soon, Tokio will have his own Youtube channel of nothing but him making improbable knives out of household objects.

: “I see. I didn’t know.”

: “There are many things in this world that one doesn’t know.”

: “You know…”

: “Yes.”

: “You can really get lost in it. When whittling like that, the time just flies by.”

: “Because it’s such a primitive thing. I know what you mean.”

: “So, like… it’s the same as eating food or fucking women, huh?”

: “Yes. But for women, whatever you do, you’ll never understand them, but with whittling, the more you do it the more you get the hang of it, the more you understand the wood’s features, right?”

: “I see…”

: Tokio gets woken up pretty much every day by his doorbell, which is a bit odd. At this point, the cops have already left and the only people poking around are Big Dick and maybe Morikawa.

: “Goddammit, shut up! Just fuck off… I feel like shit…”

From: S. INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Contact Request
Date: Thu, July 1 1999 9:18:45

How’s the Kamui investigation going? Hurry up and send reports on Kamui’s past and the recent movements of the HC Unit.

You need to be submitting regular reports. If you end up breaking your contract, you will be dealt with accordingly. I have no intention of coddling you. Get your work done as you’ve been paid to do.

: " ‘Kamui this, Kamui that’… just shut the fuck up…"

: “Huh…? Timrod…? What the hell is he doing…? Wait, huh…? Why do I know that his name is ‘Timrod’…?”

I saw something rare this morning. Some HC Unit-looking guys were hanging around my building. The guy I apparently met at Babylon. That Timrod guy, he was there.

Apparently someone in my building died last night. According to the info I got from a news site database, a younger guy who lived on the third floor jumped and killed himself. Sounds like it was right around the time I was at the bar. I feel weird.

Someone died in my building, but I didn’t see it. I didn’t hear the sound, I wasn’t told by someone else living here; I first knew of it via my computer. It doesn’t feel real. Anyway, that Timrod dude is one repellent guy.

: It’s because he’s a talking chinchilla.

: “Oh yeah… was he there too?”

: “He was there…”

: I think Tokio needs glasses, because this looks nothing like how Kusabi sees himself or how Big Dick sees him.

: “I’m on a goddamn stakeout.”

: “I can see that.”

: “You’re just as fuckin’ cheerful as always. You got nothing for me? ‘What are you watching’ or ‘What do you talk about during times like this?’ or some shit like that. You know, reporter questions.”

: “Hm… OK then… what’re you watching?”

: “Can’t tell you.”

: “Um… by the way…”

: “Hm? Ah, this guy? You’ve never met before, have you? OK, I’ll introduce you. This is Ballsack.”

: “Just kidding… this is Sumio. Be cool with him.”

: “Tetsu, come on back… we’re on a stakeout…”

: “He’s a serious dude, as you can see. A bit of a hardass, but still…”

: “Um…”

: “What?”

: “Are you just bored, or…?”

: “The fuck does it look like…?”

: “Looks like it to me…”

: “Huh… so I look bored, huh…?”

: “Yeah…”

: “Oh do I…?”

: “Yeah…”

: “For reals…?”

: “Uh…”

: “What?”

: “You’re dragging it on.”

: “Sorry… I’m so fuckin’ bored.”

: “I bet.”

: “So what do you want? I don’t care that you came all the way here. I’m not giving you shit.”

: “What’s the HC Unit been up to recently? A guy in my building killed himself… and the guys from your unit have been creeping around. I got a bit of info on you from them…”

: “Hm… that’s where you live? The HC Unit does all kinds of shit. So then, did you meet Hachisuka, too?”

: “Oh, her. No, but I saw Timrod.”

: “Big Dick?”

: “I told you, didn’t I? He’s Big Dick. Detectives need nicknames.”

: “What’s he doing?”

: “The fuck should I know? He’s kind of a weirdo…”

: " ‘Weirdo’? For example?"

: “He’s like a quiet, introverted teenager. But more importantly, are you rich?”

: We’ve seen this a bit in Decoyman, but Big Dick is canonically a silent protagonist, which is why a lot of people find him to be a little unnerving. Personally, I think it’s more because he’s a talking chinchilla.

: “Huh? No, I’m pretty broke.”

: I actually burst out laughing when I saw this while recording. I wasn’t surprised, but damn, I think Kusabi is more of a Hobocop than Harry DuBois is.

: “Me? If you’re gonna give me some info, then…”

: “That’s bribery.”

: “If you wanna talk bribery, I’ll talk bribery.”

: “Fuck it then. OK, you can go now.”

: “OK, whatever. See you… if you’ve got money problems, please call me anytime. For the time being I may be able to help you out, so…”

: “OK, if I change my mind.”

: “Call me, OK? See you later.”

: I was sitting here recording this, and as soon as I saw the conversation was over I went “Tokio’s gonna go home and blog about it, isn’t he?”

It took a whole pack of smokes to clear up my head. Looks like I’d been overlooking too many things.

When I first noticed that Timrod was here in my building, he was watching a kid. An elementary school-age kid. That somehow stuck with me, so I decided to ask a lady in the building whom I sort of know about it. Today, that kid dropped something and I went after him but couldn’t catch up… that’s what I told the lady to get her to tell me about the kid, and she apparently believed it right away.

His name is Koichi Sugita, and she told me he was friends with that Hikaru Kobayashi kid who died of a heart attack awhile ago. What does Timrod want with this Koichi kid? What is happening here? Something sketchy is going on.

I’m not sure whether I should get any further involved. Anyway, if the HC Unit is involved, at least I can use it as an excuse with my client.

: “I feel like shit… I’ve been smoking too much…”

When I opened my window late at night, it was raining silently. My paper knife is almost ready. It’s coming into shape. The knife I’m using to carve is just a regular climbing knife. It gradually spreads out from the base and has levels, which I use to carve the edge of the knife. At night, when I gaze at it, it glistens, silver and cold.

The carving knife is getting a bit blunt, so I’ll need to buy a sharpening stone soon. I need to master sharpening methods, too. Looks like starting something new can branch off into other unexpected things.

: “This paper knife, what do I even use it for…? I’m going to sleep.”

: “Huh…? It hasn’t gone off today…”

: “OK then… let’s see… I gotta talk to Kusabi.”

: “You again, huh? Oh yeah. Don’t worry about the money thing.”

: “Oh OK, that’s unfortunate. By the way, about Timrod…”

: “Your tone is a bit familiar there, boy. Whatever. Just watch yourself. So anyways, what about Big Dick?”

: “Do you know about his involvement with a kid named ‘Koichi’?”

: “Not my job. Whatever Big Dick does has nothing to do with me.”

: “But the HC Unit is working that suicide case at my building. That means it was a murder or something, right?”

: “Who knows… ‘the truth’ has been pretty much worked out.”

: “What has?”

: “The speculation on all this drama.”

: “Huh…”

: “I get worn out talking to you. We’ll talk some other time.”

: “Kusabi…”

: “Huh?”

: “I’ll call you again.”

: I’m gonna cut it here, because I kept recording and there is still a LOT of dialog left. I’ll leave you with this sketch from Salty Vanilla of Big Dick on a date with Chizuru.

: Don’t worry about the martini, it’s just sunflower seeds.

[Timrod]

Summary

: And we’re back with Tokio Morishima’s Extreme Blogging Simulator.

The kid was born with a weak heart, and he is thought to have suffered a heard attack suddenly while playing. A neighbor noticed and called an ambulance right away, but the kid died in the hospital while undergoing emergency treatment without ever regaining consciousness.

The assumed suicide, Kenichi Hiruma, lived in room 301. He was 24 and apparently worked as an advertisement artist.

And that Koichi Sugita kid lives in room 402.

: Wait, so now we have two people who are both ostensibly killers who are in the advertising business? I mean, I assume that’s what Kamui did with Ayame.

: Do we know that Kamui didn’t escape again, and that Hiruma isn’t just Kamui in disguise?

: “Should be OK, right?”

: The moral of this entire segment is that Tokio is kind of socially inept.

Timrod… why do I care so much about this guy? I think it’s his mysteriousness that bothers me. When I got all fucked up at Babylon, Timrod was nearby. The impact of that whole situation is still strong inside me. Some sort of irrational fear and Timrod’s existence have linked together somehow.

Something like that.

Will the client be interested in this stuff? I can’t stand that motherfucker. I’m sick of just tailing people like an asshole. Whatever. I’ll keep on going for the time being.

: “Now that I think about it, I’ve never really thought about what kind of people live in this building… even living in the same building, strangers are strangers, I guess…”

: “Huh? Ah… ah! H-hey… Hey, wait!”

: “…”

: “You don’t have to run, OK? I just wanna talk to you…”

: “What do you want to talk about?”

: “Huh? Um, well… Koichi, you were friends with Hikaru, right? So…”

: “I don’t have anything to talk about, so… bye.”

: " ‘Bye’…? Hey, wait up! So I got nothing… shit."

: I’m still not sure why the writer didn’t just do this part first, and then have Tokio blog about it afterward.

: “Maybe I’ll try asking Erika…”

Now the HC Unit is on the move. Which means it may not have been just a simple suicide. Remember Timrod? He’s been hanging around. Looks like he’s been watching over this kid named Koichi Sugita. I don’t know why.

It’d be easiest if I could speak to this Koichi kid directly,but it doesn’t look like he’ll talk to me. I have no idea how to deal with kids, you know? You interested in helping me out? I’ll be waiting for your reply.

: “If only Erika takes me up on this… OK, let’s see…”

: “How’s the paper knife?”

: “Oh yeah, I finished it. It’s pretty cool.”

: “Hey, that’s great.”

: “Now I’m working on my second piece.”

: “What is it?”

: “I’m making a turtle. A turtle figurine.”

: “That’s unusual.”

: “I’ve got a pet turtle.”

: “You told me.”

: “Wanna see it?”

: “See what?”

: “My turtle. I got a photo of him.”

: “Sure. Show me.”

: “Here it is.”

: “Let’s see… augh! This is rather nasty!”

: “What’s nasty about it?!”

: “I mean, the patterns… and this face…”

: Red is actually smiling - if you compare it to the shots of him in Tokio’s apartment, you can see the difference.

: “Is this him ‘smiling’?”

: The newspapers the next day have a headline about a local bartender being mauled by a chinchilla.

: “Whatever. You hurt my feelings. I’m going home. Fuck, man… I can’t believe you don’t see how lovely he is…”

: If you’ll recall, this is the day that Big Dick goes through the entire apartment building and talks to everyone.

: Tokio’s doorbell rings and there’s a knock at the door.

: “Shut the fuck up! Motherfucker!”

: Salty Vanilla’s kind of busy, but if he had the time I would’ve had him do a picture where Tokio opens the door and sees only the green battle aura thing, then looks down and sees Big Dick.

: “Timrod…?! Why is… he…?”

: “What…? What do you want? Waking me up this early… what, you wanna talk more? What the fuck? You know… your face really pisses me off. Don’t come back again… just fucking go away…”

: “This motherfucker… how can you just stand there so stoically? Normally, being told something like that would piss a person off, right? Huh? Come on, get mad. Say something. Try getting pissed off.”

: One thing I think Suda does mistakenly is conflate a silent protagonist with someone who is emotionally dead - there’s plenty of games that have shown you can have a silent protagonist with emotion.

: Transistor is a pretty good example of that, even though the actual game was kinda meh. So is GRIS.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Doing OK
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 23:21:02

Hm, dealing with kids, huh?

I checked the incident out myself and I basically get it. It looks like the HC Unit is on the job after all. OK, I’ll take it.

: I, uh… don’t think water is capable of rotting. The stuff IN the water is, but the water itself isn’t.

: “I just don’t get that guy.”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: Re: Doing OK

I’m typing this while looking out the window. Looks like you were able to talk with the kid, huh? It’s been a while since I’ve gazed at you like this. You’re too far away so I can’t see your face, but I can still tell it’s you.

You two are bathed in the evening glow, and this sounds weird, but you look like an actual mother and child. So this is the kind of woman you’ve become. Able to smile and laugh like that. Three years goes by really fast.

: I feel like Tokio and Sumio could form some kind of club.

The stars know everything. I remember a song like that. But the fact that they know everything is a sad thing. There are more things in this world that it’s better not to know. I finally understood that after I turned 30.

When I realized it, I was a crime reporter, and it was my job to know things I’d be better off not knowing and selling that info, which made me realize I was unhappy. That’s why I quit. Erika was just the trigger for that.

But after I quit the news agency, I couldn’t think of anything I could do for work besides reporting on things. It’s good to be introspective sometimes.

I have something positive to talk about as well. The turtle I’m carving is coming along well. I have a knack for this. Although I can’t draw for shit, I was surprised that I was actually good at this. But it’s looking more like a scrub brush than a turtle, which bothers me.

: “Shit. I’m really into this…”

: “Do you know how to sharpen?”

: “You mean sharpen a knife, right?”

: “Yeah… at first, I kept trying to sharpen mine properly, but I kept rounding it off. Blunting it. I tried a sharpening stone, but… however I’d sharpen it, it kept getting blunt.”

: I tried knife sharpening once, and let me tell you, it sucks.

: “I see.”

: “But it’s easier to get better at stuff you like to do. Recently, I finally got the hang of it. Now my knife cuts 120% better.”

: “You can tell it’s been done properly if you can place a tissue on the knife and it cuts through it just with gravity.”

: “I’ll try that.”

: “Are you making that turtle figurine with your knife?”

: “No, I bought a carving knife for that.”

: “So you’re really getting into it.”

: “I want some sort of merit, you know?”

: “Merit…”

: Metal Gear!?

: Some kind of merit, yeah. People need some sort of merit… same as a knife."

: “Ah, like a knife that can’t cut, right?”

: “Yeah, a knife that can’t cut is useless to a person. A blunt knife is like a wild animal, you know?”

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Koichi
Sent: Sat, 3 Jul 1999 22:58:34

I met with Koichi today. I spoke to a kid playing by himself in the complex’s park, and it turned out to be him.

Anyway, I played with him for a while and avoided asking questions for the time being, and he’s a good kid. He did try testing me out a bit, but it’s clear that he’s clever enough not to just act out without considering those around him. It looks like I’ve managed to gain his trust.

I’m seeing him again tomorrow. It’s a Sunday so I’ll go in the morning. I plan to ask him about Timrod, etc., then.

: “First off… looks like it’s coming along well…”

: “Haah… I slept a long time. Quiet mornings are nice… shit, it’s already the afternoon.”

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Koichi
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 13:29:23

I just met with Koichi again. I’m writing to you from a cafe.

When I went to the park today, Koichi was crying by himself. I tried asking what was wrong, but he wouldn’t say anything. He looked really worried. So I tried asking again why he was playing by himself yesterday… then he told me about Hikaru. The kid who died of a heart attack. But it looks like Koichi doesn’t know that Hikaru died.

Or rather, it seems he doesn’t want to accept the fact that he died. He says Hikaru went off somewhere. 'I wonder where he went?" He says Hikaru went off somewhere and needs his help, and he has to do something about it, but he doesn’t know what to do.

I told him I’d help, too, but I felt a bit bad about it. Sort of guilty. I mean, I’m pretending to be his friend just to get close and ask him about all this stuff, you know? But I don’t think Koichi has anything wrong with him. He’s just in shock. His best friend, Hikaru, died… that’s why Timrod offered to help him, I think.

Koichi needs a person like that right now. He needs someone. It looks like his parents aren’t much help. Maybe that’s just how things are nowadays. Oh yeah, I also heard about Koichi’s secret base. A secret base just for the boys. It’s also his special place with Hikaru.

There may still be something else, and I worry about him, so I’m going to go check on him again.

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: Re: Koichi

What is that kid trying to do with Timrod? And does he know anything about that guy who died? I’m worried that you may be taking what that kid tells you at face value. Can you not talk to other kids and moms or whoever, too? Your attitude is kinda…

: “If I send this mail, I’m gonna get bitched out again…”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: Re: Koichi

I read your mail. I understand the situation. If possible I’d like you to keep in contact with Koichi. Mail me again if you find anything out. Guilt, huh? I think I know what you mean.

: “Putting yourself too deep in the shoes of the other person can be problematic. Well, whatever, it’s probably not gonna work out for now… I just hope it doesn’t turn into a hassle…”

: You may have noticed that this chapter kinda drags, even though it’s not as long as Yume was. Honestly, they could’ve cut probably half of this stuff - but the actual meat of this chapter is coming up.

: By the way, there is one thing I should point out. The Steam version of this game has achievements for completing each chapter.

: The completion count for Spectrum is just over 25%. The completion rate for Hana? 19.9%. Part of that is probably people not understanding how you’re meant to read through the cases, but still.

The stars know everything. But if I were a star, I don’t think I’d know anything at all, to be honest. Guilt? that’s not something you should feel with only a halfhearted understanding of a situation. We aren’t stars.

Wood and a knife and a sharpening stone. These guys are honest. They don’t know anything, but if you speak to them, they are sure to reply with something.

: “… Erika…!”

: Erika has a dialog portrait in this chapter, which we saw very briefly in Yume but which hasn’t come up yet. Unfortunately, it has the phone static effect on it.

: “It’s… been a while.”

: “So I finally get to see you.”

: “You could’ve seen me anytime, if you had wanted to.”

: “I guess so…”

: “Well anyway, more importantly…”

: “Is it about Koichi? I’m getting confused. What were you expecting from Koichi?”

: “Expecting…? I’m not really sure.”

: “He’s a good kid.”

: “I see.”

: “He’s really pure, which is rare these days. But after what happened with Hikaru… he’s hurting…”

: “I wonder?”

: “He still can’t smile, you know. I mean, he does, but… you can tell he doesn’t mean it. It hurts to watch.”

: “But like… kids aren’t really as ‘pure’ as you think, you know.”

: “What do you mean?”

: “Exactly what I said. Kids are, like… they watch adults really closely.”

: “And?”

: “It’s hard to explain, but… that’s why he ran away from me. You got close with him. That’s because you looked like a kind person. To put it in a different way… that’s what I was trying to say.”

: “He thought I’d be easy to deal with… is that what you mean?”

: “Basically, yeah. All kids are like that. Especially that kid, or at least I assume so. Kids are like a mirror that reflects adults just as they are. That’s why I don’t like kids.”

: Didn’t Morikawa say more or less the same thing to Chizuru at the end of Spectrum? I don’t exactly see him as “pure”.

: “The same as the pain you saw in him.”

: “That’s really cynical. You’ve forgotten what it was like to be a kid yourself.”

: I dunno. I mean, I remember what it was like being a kid, and it’s a lot like being an adult except you can’t buy all the video games. I don’t know if kid me would’ve liked this game or not.

: “Have I?”

: “You don’t understand the kid’s feelings at all. You’re just trying to use him, right? Trying to get some info… that’s all…”

: “Well, yeah. That’s true.”

: “I’m not like you.”

: “So is that…”

: “Children are weak, right? They have delicate feelings. So adults need to put themselves in kids’ shoes and try to understand them.”

: It’s funny because I thought no generation would be more opaque to adults than mine, and boy was I wrong on that.

: “Well what a textbook comment.”

: “You know, you haven’t changed in the slightest…”

: “I may have gotten worse. But… just let me say this. The purity of children is also a really terrible thing.”

: “I’m leaving.”

: “Huh…”

: “Bye.”

: “Huh.”

: “What the fuck is wrong with me?”

: You’re kind of an asshole and also kind of socially inept to the point where I wonder why you do what you do.

: “I wouldn’t know.”

: “I mean, I never really was the likable type.”

: I dunno, I think Ooka did a pretty good job of making Tokio likable. He’s definitely not the Disgaea 3 cast, which left me hoping the entire game that they’d just die off screen and get replaced by someone better written.

: “Hm.”

: “The only ones who’ll pay me any attention are my turtle and you.”

: “Hehe.”

: “I’m gonna go home and sleep.”

: “I see. Oh, you’re leaving already…? Goodnight.”

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Koichi
Date: Sun 4 Jul 1999 18:21:16

I came to check on Koichi again this evening. He looked like he was really depressed for some reason.

Maybe something happened. He wouldn’t tell me the reason, but he eventually started smiling again, so I think he’ll be OK. I tried asking if he’d show me his secret base, and after thinking about it for a while he finally said OK.

When I thanked him he smiled, so I felt sort of happy myself. Doing this sort of job, smiles become a rarity, after all. But I’m rather worried since when he smiled, I could see a shadow of sadness in it. We decided to go together tomorrow. I’ll tell work that I have a meeting or something.

: I mean, it depends on which Devil May Cry games are canon.

: “Without even noticing it she’s started getting attached to him. So how about Timrod? He’s… he’s also…”

: “Hey.”

: “Are you done with the stakeout?”

: “I wish. I just took off for a little bit.”

: I wish there had been a line here where Tokio asks Kusabi who’s replacing him if the HCU only has four active detectives, and it cuts to a shot of an empty car.

: “I wanna ask you something.”

: “I bet you do. That’s the only reason you come by.”

: “What’s the deal with that Slappy Nuts guy?”

: “Who the fuck is that?”

: Slappy Nuts is an alternate universe where Big Dick is a squirrel and not a chinchilla.

: “That one guy… Timrod.”

: “Ah, you mean ‘Big Dick’, huh? His ‘deal’? Nothing in particular.”

: “I’ve been wondering about him.”

: “He’s just a regular guy. But he has his strange parts, too. All-around, he’s kinda weird.”

: “Is he a private citizen?”

: I actually have a story about this from a few months ago. I was calling this local supermarket because they take sandwich orders by phone, and somehow their phone system put me on their PA.

: I know this because I can hear my voice in the background, so I go “It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m the government” and hang up. I don’t know why I did it, I just kinda did.

: “Back in the day, he was a member of the Security Force.”

: For reference, the ambush where Sakamoto and Inomata died was only around four months before this.

: "The Security Force… you mean like, the… "

: “Yeah, that one. During the Kamui Case, he was the only one who survived the first capture attempt. After that he got scouted and was officially assigned to the HC Unit as an investigator.”

: Didn’t Tokio see this in one of his news emails? I swear he already knew this.

: “Does he have some sort of special skill?”

: I transcribed like 99% of the dialog in a garbage anime JRPG, which… actually, make that two garbage anime JRPGs.

: “What, because he was scouted? Or because he survived? I don’t know shit about that. But apparently he’s actually pretty tough.”

: “Haah… so he’s completely different from someone else I know, huh?”

: “Me? You talking about me? I’ll shoot you in the face, you fuckstick.”

: “Don’t be r—. So this Timrod, he’s been looking after that kid this whole time, huh?”

: I omitted a slur.

: “Apparently.”

: “About this Koichi kid… do you know anything?”

: “I’ve told you before, I don’t care. I think… I think Big Dick attaching himself to that kid means he must be one interesting little dude.”

: “I see… thanks, that helps.”

: “Anyways, I’m getting back to the stakeout.”

: “OK, don’t let The Man get you down.”

: “Fuck off.”

: “Yeah, thanks…”

: I’m going to finish Hana this update, because I kind of already posted it by accident and there’s not really enough for another full update.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Koichi
Date: Mon 5 Jul 1999 23:15:00

I waited at the agreed place today, but Koichi never came.

So I thought about what you said. Then I went to speak with his elementary school teacher and his mom. His teacher was Ms. Kitajima, about 30 years old. She didn’t look like she’d be popular among students, but she does seem to be the type who gets her job done properly.

According to her, Koichi is a regular kid, with a regular sense of right and wrong, who plays regularly, ad who isn’t very good at his studies. He sometimes looks rather smart, but there you go. Anyway, he’s pretty far from the ‘center of attention’ in class, and is somewhat of an outsider.

But he has his own strengths. Apparently Hikaru was even worse at his studies. And it looks like he was bullied as well. Koichi was really close with Hikaru, and was always standing up for him. I was lucky to be able to meet with his mom. She works as a hostess. But she seemed really proper and respectable, and she seems like maybe she was just a regular cook or something who happened to also be a hostess.

She didn’t give a bad impression at all. Koichi has been living alone with his mom ever since he was three. His parents divorced early, but apparently that doesn’t bother Koichi at all. Apparently he’s never even met his father.

With that, I didn’t feel it necessary to think about Koichi any differently. I still think that he’s a really good kid. I didn’t get to go see his secret base today, but still.

: “…”

: “That’s what’s up with him. Do you get it?”

The truth and facts don’t matter. I need to work out the core of this stuff. If I can just find that, at least I can avoid choosing the wrong path.

I learned that when I first started doing this. I didn’t have any idea what it meant, but I kind of do now. If you just try and push through, stuff will work out somehow. There was a reason why I was worried about Timrod, and why I was avoiding him. When I felt the remnants of that woman’s thoughts at Babylon, Timrod was beside me.

So Timrod became a sort of catalyst, and I felt like it was his fault I felt that fear… and I secretly harbored those thoughts all this time. Subconsciously. When I heard that Timrod was the survivor of that Security Force group, something finally clicked inside my head, and the puzzle pieces all came together.

: And now, just before the end, we have what’s probably the most important email Tokio is going to send in this chapter.

It was probably a hacker or a cracker. Can you dig up who this guy is? At the very least, I’d like to get his mail address. This is a job request. I heard that you were the guy to go to for stuff like this. If you need any other data apart from the log, I’ll provide whatever I can. I’ll be waiting for your reply.

: “Just one more time… OK, that’s it…”

: “…What the…”

: As soon as we exit this email, the phone rings.

: “OK OK, I’m coming.”

: “It’s me.”

: “Ah…”

: “I was waiting at the agreed place yesterday.”

: “Again? Fucking Christ.”

: “Yeah… and that Koichi kid showed up and handed me a letter saying anything… I stuck it in your mailbox, so later on when you get the chance, take a look at it.”

: “A letter? OK. Hold on.”

: “Hello? Hey, Erika… bitch hung up…”

: “Goddammit. Passing me this kind of shit…”

: This is another part that’s a little counterintuitive. You would think “Oh, this must be like the note Big Dick got”, except it’s not an item we can use. Instead, we have to sit at Tokio’s computer first.

You’re such a good person. But you looked lonely so I decided to hang out with you. You sort of reminded me of Hikaru. But there are lots of lonely people, so I can’t spend time with all of them. Also you smelled really nice so I wanted to play with you a bit more.

I’m sorry I couldn’t go yesterday. Take care.

: “…”

Because of my personality, while I acknowledge his purity, I can’t accept that what he did couldn’t have been helped. Not now or ever.

Everyone feels like killing sometimes. Especially in that situation. Adults, kids, old people, men, women. Whether you actually kill someone or you’re able to avoid it, that’s a different story. Private citizens are expected to choose ‘not to kill’. That’s how it is standing on the side of the system. Someone incapable kills a person. The killer is then automatically expected to be punished. Because of their inability to not kill.

So this kid was lacking in his ability to not kill. But in his case, his purity was the trigger. That’s something that’s specific to these times. But is that true? Isn’t the desire to kill also originally born from ‘pure’ feelings? That’s why I don’t think that it couldn’t have been helped.

Koichi’s feelings for Hikaru were pure and brutal, and Koichi’s killing of the guy who killed Hikaru also came from pure and brutal feelings… I wonder what Timrod thinks?

: Timrod thinks this is kind of an interesting parallel to Morikawa, who went “It doesn’t really matter if Koichi killed him or not” - especially given that Morikawa is a cop and Tokio isn’t.

: I also think that if Koichi hadn’t killed that guy, Big Dick would’ve mauled him.

From: S. INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Contact Request
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:00:12

What’s up with the Kamui investigation? Send a report on Kamui’s past and the recent movements of the HC Unit. I was contacted.

: “Shut the fuck up…”

: “What kind of kid was I? Hey Red, when you were a kid… wait, how hold are you? Hey, Red… hey… HEY DUDE…”

: Red’s sleeping.

: Next time, we’ll move on to Parade.

[Timrod]

: One thing I didn’t get around to was talking about the music in this game, some of which is actually pretty good. As far as I can tell, most of the music in the remake is taken directly from the PS1 version - except the title track, which was remixed by Akira Yamaoka (better known for his work on Silent Hill).

: I didn’t buy the soundtrack on Steam, and I wouldn’t recommend you do it either should you play this for yourself, because the best tracks aren’t on it - those being the title tracks for each chapter.

: Sadly, none of these tracks play during the game itself - they’re only on the chapter select screen. Most of them are remixes, though some are much sneakier than others. Lunatics is a remix of Kusabi’s theme.

: Decoyman’s theme is a remix of a track called “His Room” that plays when you find Kamui in Ayame’s closet and at a few times near the end of Decoyman. They’re so similar I’m not going to bother linking the original.

: Also, you might notice the person uploading these is the person working on the Eternal Punishment translation. He’s been busy doing a podcast about Suda.

: The Placebo arc chapters are also remixes, but they’re much better disguised. Yume is a remix of Tokio’s theme, but you might not recognize it right away.

: If Spectrum’s theme is a remix, I can’t tell what it’s a remix of.

: The theme for Hana is easily my favorite out of all of them. It sounds like an early Chemical Brothers song. And with that, I’m all caught up - we’ll see Parade’s theme when we get there.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Welcome to Parade. You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly what Suda’s gimmick with this chapter is.

: I’d dialog portrait this, except knowing who’s talking here is a spoiler.

: Is this gonna be some kind of Persona ripoff because I swear…

: Parade’s gimmick is that it’s entirely in black and white. We’ll finally get to find out why Kusabi and Sumio were on that stakeout.

: The background this time is random crosswords. I didn’t know Suda was into Radiohead.

: “Where the hell did that come from…?”

: “It’s a type of fable or myth. A story you can lose yourself in.”

: “I don’t like kids’ shit like that. I’m not interested.”

: “I bet.”

: “Then don’t ask.”

: “Well, there’s this one nice story.”

: “I don’t give a shit. At a time like this…”

: “But this is just the right time for this kind of thing, isn’t it?”

: “I’m gonna die, seriously… just keel over and die. That stuff makes my brain itch. Makes me wanna scratch it out with a fork.”

: Oh my god, it’s like Kusabi somehow understands Persona 5 Royal nearly 20 years before it was a thing.

: “Come on, just listen…”

: “Sorry, I’m going to sleep…”

: “That’s fine. I’m just gonna go ahead and talk.”

: “Sounds like a great lullaby.”

: I wish Kusabi was real and also that he had been on the writing team for Persona 5. Or even better, Ni no Kuni 2. Just imagine Evan doing his whole “I want a magic fantasy kingdom where everyone lives happily ever after” and then immediately getting punched in the face.

: “You know, recently… some people say fantasy is like brainwashing. Giving kids sweet dreams for the purpose of controlling them.”

: “When you put it that way, that sounds right.”

: “Originally, they were pretty messed up stories.”

: “Like ‘messed up’ how?”

: “Realistic stories, without all the happy stuff.”

: “Well, that sure sucks.”

: “That’s why they got turned into happier stories.”

: “Is that all?”

: “No, here’s where it starts. So anyways, when I was a kid, there was this fairytale I heard – it’s an old folktale from my hometown, but…”

: “Hm.”

: “Once up on a time, there was a princess. A beautiful princess. A terrible giant serpent fell in love with her. The serpent ruled the land, no, he had taken over the land.”

: Isn’t this just the story of Kushinada and Susano?

: “He invaded it?”

: “Yeah. The serpent turned the king to stone. The greedy serpent wanted the princess… so he took her away…”

: “Pretty standard shit. Go on, go on.”

: “To rescue the princess, they ventured to the huge castle.”

: “Well of course. I’d do the same thing.”

: Kusabi would shoot the serpent in the face and that’d be the end of it.

: “The heroes combined their powers and fought the serpent. And then…”

: “What happened?”

: “They defeated it.”

: “Fuck yeah!!”

: “Everything was fine and good.”

: “Is that the end…?”

: “Well, mostly…”

: “What the fuck? That’s just a normal-ass fairytale. That sucked.”

: “You liked it, right?”

: I’d like to think that Big Dick sees Kusabi losing interest and goes “And then the heroes took 50,000 yen from the serpent and gambled it on some horses” and suddenly Kusabi is totally into it again.

: “No, that’s no good. There’s no twist.”

: “It’s not over yet.”

: “What?”

: “Well then, what the hell happens?”

: “The princess was dead…”

: “What the fuck?! What do you mean?”

: “She was killed by the serpent.”

: “Man, FUCK that serpent! The fuck kind of story is that?”

: “And one more thing - there is no serpent.”

: “No? Why not…? That stuff comes up in stories all the time.”

: “Of course there isn’t. There’s no such thing as a ‘giant serpent’.”

: I imagine Kusabi looking at Big Dick here. “Damn! We’ve got talking chinchillas, but no giant serpents carrying horse racing money? What the fuck kind of world is this!?”

: And yes, yes I am getting Salty Vanilla to draw that. They’re going to a con later this month, but I have this I can post.

: “Well, yeah…”

: “It wasn’t a serpent, but a human. The heroes were people, too. Humans killed another human, for revenge.”

: “That’s just a crime…”

: “Yeah… fairytales are crimes. The unrealistic fantasy that happens in real life is crime.”

: “…”

: “Tetsu.”

: “Huh?”

: “I have a question. If it was you, the heroes who got revenge… what would you do?”

: “What would I do? I wouldn’t do shit. Why?”

: Why do I feel like this entire thing is an allegory for something?

: “They killed someone.”

: “Well… they did murder someone, yeah. There’s no differentiation in crime. Doesn’t matter what kind of reasons they had.”

: “Yeah, I agree.”

: “Right? That’s how it is. The only way it can be…”

: “Tetsu…”

: “Huh?”

: “You can go to sleep.”

: “You’re sharp.”

: “Sorry, I’m tired. From that story…”

: “It’s not a very pleasant story, is it?”

: “Yaaawn…”

: “Tetsu?”

: “Zzz…”

: “He’s asleep. It’s time… Timrod, time for patrol. Go look around. Let me know if you see anyone suspicious. Got it?”

: What we’re doing is walking a circle around a building that’s off to the left, that being the Yukimura villa you’ve seen at the top during all of the stakeout segments in Spectrum and Hana.

: “The Yukimura mansion is up the hill.”

: Something about this reminds me of the mansion stage in Killer7.

: “The Yukimura mansion is on the left. ‘CONTACT’ it.”

: “Looks like nothing’s wrong. Let’s check the other side. Go up over the hill.”

: One thing I didn’t realize until afterward is that you can’t even see the house from the spot where the car is - at least, if you assume the 3D visuals are canon.

: God dammit Sumio, I know how to walk in a circle.

: “Go down the hill.”

: “Once more, ‘CONTACT’.”

: “No problem. Nothing out of the ordinary. OK, get back to the car. We’re going downhill.”

: “Nice work. Get in the car. Hm? What? Tetsu!”

: “What the hell is wrong with you?”

: “That—”

: “What?”

: “That!”

: “The hell are you talking about?”

: “It flashed!”

: “It did…”

: If you look in the game itself, there’s a wall where those stairs are.

: “Yeah…?”

: “It exploded.”

: “Yeah…”

: “What do we do?”

: “About what?”

: “This scene.”

: “Scene?”

: “I’m asking what you’re gonna do.”

: “I mean, nothing…?”

: I like to think that Big Dick is trying his hardest not to look at the explosion while also trying to find his sunglasses.

: “I won’t forget it. —Ever.”

: “It’s OK.”

: “Tetsu, it was me. It’s my responsibility.”

: “Well…”

: “I’m sorry.”

: “Exactly. It’s not my fault. It’s yours.”

: Kusabi has found a convenient scapegoat, and now he’s gonna run with it.

: “What the…?”

: “It’s fine, it’s the truth.”

: “Yeah, it is. It’s Sumio’s responsibility.”

: “Are you serious?”

: “Serious as a heart attack.”

: “You asshole!”

: “Listen up, Sumio… this kind of thing…”

: “…”

: “You clean this shit up. You’re gonna settle this case.”

: “Tetsu…”

: “Those are the guys from Central. A group of expert criminal investigators. But these days… traditional crime rates have dropped, and things just aren’t done their way anymore.”

: “They’re basically a band apart from everyone else. This case is comparatively close to an orthodox kidnapping, so these guys showed up.”

: You might wonder why he says “kidnapping” instead of “bombing”, but you’ll see in a minute.

: “Sumio, keep quiet. You don’t know when the same thing’ll happen to you. If crime changes, investigations change, too. It’s stupid to assume that all the old ways are somehow inferior. Am I wrong?”

: Unless you’re Chizuru, apparently.

: “Sorry…”

: “Well, it’ll be interesting to see how far ‘Afro’ goes. This’ll be something to watch.”

: “It’s starting…”

: “There’s something I’d like to get straight. Anyone referring to me as ‘Afro’ will be dealt with immediately. Watch yourselves.”

: “You hear that…”

: “He’s really into it…”

: “That’s enough pleasantries. Let’s get down to business. Two months ago, a note appearing to announce a crime was sent to the Yukimura Zaibatsu. It was stuck inside a newspaper. It was a really crude note.”

: Hoo boy. That whole sentence is weird and needs a bit of deconstruction. In real life, no one would have been using the term “zaibatsu” in 1999.

: In case you don’t know, the zaibatsus were a group of mega-corporations that existed in Japan prior to World War II. Each one was a group of companies owned by a single family at the top.

: To say they were a big part of Japan’s economy is an understatement. They WERE Japan’s economy, and were also Japan’s government. At one point in the 1930s, there were two political parties in Japan.

: The first party was more or less owned by Mitsui (now known as Mitsui-Sumitomo Banking Corporation) and the second was owned by Mitsubishi.

: Anyway, in real life, the zaibatsus were broken up at the end of World War II, mostly because they were anathema to the world view of the United States… at least, the United States in the 1940s.

: Of course, like most things the US does, they didn’t quite finish the job. While the zaibatsus no longer exist, there’s now this thing called the “keiretsu”, which is sort of similar but generally less powerful.

: That’s not to say the keiretsus aren’t a problem, because they absolutely are.

: The zaibatsus still exist in The Silver Case for reasons that only really get explained in Killer7 - where it’s revealed that in the Kill the Past universe, Japan secretly controls the US government.

: “It was found to be a code only understandable by Chairman Yukimura. At Central, we asked the Area 24 Precinct, who have jurisdiction, to watch over the chairman’s residence.”

: “And, as you know, although it was under watch, the chairman’s house was blown up.”

: This also isn’t without precedent - in real life, Mitsui’s Director was assassinated in 1932 along with the head of the political party Mitsui owned.

: “He’s looking at us.”

: “What a dick… being a dick is par for the course for Afro.”

: Look, it was one building, can’t you just let it slide?

: “Thanks to inexperienced investigators, this case has entered into new territory. We haven’t found any victims in the remnants of the explosion, and so we think it was purposely done while nobody was home.”

: “However, Chairman Yukimura has been missing since the day of the explosion, and so this case is now assumed to be a kidnapping.”

: “Finding Chiarman Yukimura is our top priority, along with finding the bomber. Each investigator is to follow Central’s orders and carry out the investigation.”

: “Everyone! On the name and honor of the Central Police, I need you all to put out your best to solve this case and bring Chairman Yukimura back alive. That is all…”

: Sakaguchi and Kotobuki look like, twenty years younger in this shot than they really are.

: “Yeah.”

: “How is your band of killers growing up?”

: “None of your goddamn business.”

: “I see you’ve scored a comfy position.”

: “Yeah, you, too…”

: “Me? Oh yeah… whatever you say, Kotobuki.”

: “You sound desperate…”

: “I am desperate. Keep laughing, Kotobuki. I’m on this. Whatever you have to say, I’m watching over this investigation personally.”

: “Do whatever. I don’t give a shit.”

: “Kotobuki… nobody wants anything too overdone.”

: “…”

: “You reap what you sow. Your dogs were always a bunch of pit bulls. Show them your ass and you’ll get bitten.”

: “…”

: “I’m warning you as a friend.”

: “You sure are a pleasant motherfucker.”

: “Just watch your back.”

: The manual lists this guy’s name as Michiru Kosaka. I’m not sure why he has a portrait that matches the Transmitter art style and Sakaguchi doesn’t.

: “A video from the perpetrator…”

: “It’s here!”

: “Play it immediately.”

: Yukimura is a cheap blow-up sex doll? Damn.

: Oh. The video shows the chairman struggling with the ropes, but you can’t see it very well in screenshot form.

: “Is this it?”

: “Yes, that is all.”

: “What was their purpose…? What do they want? What the hell does this video even mean?!”

: “From the video, we can confirm that Chairman Yukimura is still alive. However, there’s nothing about what the suspects want…”

: “Those motherfuckers!”

: “Sakaguchi…”

: “It’s a greeting from the suspect. It’s some grabby self-assertion.”

: “For what purpose…?”

: “It’d be easier if we knew. But…”

: “What is it?”

: We’ll go just a little further, because Parade is a rather long case, and the next part has a lot of stuff I can just cut out.

: Wait, didn’t we blow that up in Persona 1?

: I’m going to go ahead and say there is no fucking way this shot isn’t a reference to Die Hard.

: “This isn’t something that can be solved with huge actions.”

: “What do you mean?”

: “No meaning… but thanks to this, look at how many people have been hurt. Right there…”

: “…”

: “What’s up…?”

: “No, it’s nothing. This building just looks like a ghost or something…”

: “A ghost, huh…”

: Kusabi’s trying to work out how he’s going to arrest a building.

: “Yeah, it’s actually sort of calm…”

: You know, like plaster their name all over everything, or have gold-plated toilets.

: “Like build this building?”

: “The more it stands out, the more people know what you got.”

: “I see…”

: “Also, it has sort of a sense of guilt. Somewhere in there…”

: “Hm…”

: “Big Dick! Quit fucking around. Let’s go!”

: We have to use the desk on the left side, as opposed to the one directly in front of us.

: “Hey lady, where’s it at?”

: “Sorry… we’re with the police.”

: “Thank you.”

: “Thanks.”

: “Here it is.”

: “Ah…”

: We can’t go anywhere but through the door.

: “It’s the ‘President’s Floor’…”

: “A show of wealth?”

: “Yup. It’s all imported shit. Someone’s got good taste, huh. Fuckin’ hell…”

: “OK, let’s go.”

: “I’m Kosaka, from Central.”

: “Hi…”

: “I’m Kodai and this is Kusabi, we’re from HC Unit 2.”

: “Nice to meet you. And this is…?”

: “This is Timrod, he’s new.”

: “My pleasure.”

: “…”

: “Any news?”

: “Nothing yet, but…”

: “But?”

: “Actually… we had everyone gather up top, but as you can see…”

: There’s a good… 20 or 30 screens of these board members arguing. I’ll cut most of it.

: “The hell is that?”

: “They must really want to kill the chairman.”

: “They’re fighting over succession, huh?”

: “Any leads on these guys?”

: “Anyone related to the company is currently being thoroughly checked out.”

: “What do you think?”

: “It’s too early to say…”

: “How about it, Tetsu?”

: “They all look suspicious. A bunch of goddamn weirdos.”

: “As you know, our investigators are quite ‘old-fashioned’…”

: “Are you Afro’s little bitch?”

: “I won’t deny that. I do think that our methods of investigation are somewhat old — but I don’t think it’s due to Sakaguchi’s wishes.”

: “Then what?”

: “There is no one single ‘official’ way to investigate. Nowadays, efficiency is what matters. But there are some things that get overlooked due to efficiency. Filling those areas in is Central’s job…”

: “Is that the general consensus?”

: “Yes.”

: “Fine with me… you guys take this over. You’ll need it sooner or later.”

: “…”

: “How is security here?”

: Part of me wishes there was an anime of The Silver Case, but I know if they made one these days it’d probably be one of those CG monstrosities and look like shit.

: “We’re watching over every possible route in. We’ve got Snow Tower on lock.”

: “Got it.”

: “…”

: “So that’s how it is.”

: “Huh? Oh, yeah… looks perfect here.”

: “There don’t seem to be any problems.”

: “Yeah, the problem isn’t here.”

: Next time, we’ll arrest a suspect, and shit will only go downhill from there. By the way, Salty Vanilla finished the piece I posted the sketch of last update, so have Big Dick and Chizuru on a date.

: Oh, and here’s the chapter theme for Parade.

[Timrod]

: If you’re wondering why we just jumped from being in the Yukimura building to here, that’s how it is in the game. You didn’t miss anything.

: “Move carefully…”

: “Whatever, hurry the fuck up!”

: There’s only one thing we can do here, and that’s go south through that door. Don’t ask me how Big Dick gets through it with that desk in the way.

: “…”

: “He’s totally emaciated.”

: “The bomber, Hanao Hiseki, killed himself. Our one and only lead…”

: “Time to put some work into it, I guess.”

: “Tetsu, you sound like it’s someone else’s problem…”

: “Huh? Well, I mean it isn’t ‘my’ job, so, you know.”

: “…?”

: “It’s not my turn to shine yet.”

: “Why not?”

: “You don’t wanna get in the way now, do you? We don’t need anymore breaks.”

: “What is it?”

: “It’s here!!”

: “Son of a bitch!!! Put it up on the screen, now!!”

: You can hear a lighter going off in the background and an exhale.

: The blow-up doll is covered in some kind of liquid from above.

: “What the hell is this…? What does this mean? Is this some sort of riddle?”

: “Maybe it’s a threat?”

: “So ‘murder’, huh… where’s Kosaka?”

: “At the satellite.”

: “Give it to Kosaka!”

: “Sakaguchi, how’s it going?”

: “Is this Kosaka?”

: “Yes.”

: “Did you see it?”

: “Yes, from over here.”

: “What do you think?”

: “What do they want?”

: “They must want something.”

: “What is it?”

: “At this point…”

: " ‘This point’ is the last one! There is no ‘next time’! Feel it, Kosaka! Feel their voices! What they’re trying to say… what they believe in… search out their screams!"

: “I’ll do everything in my power!”

: “Good!! I’m counting on you, Kosaka…”

: “This is the first case I’ve ever seen that needed this much legwork.”

: “Really. I don’t even know what to think.”

: “We’re screwed at this point.”

: “Us, too… our research guys have nothing. Nothing from the body of the bomber, Hiseki, nor from the items left behind…”

: “How about Tetsu’s side?”

: “No idea…”

: “Nothing here, either…”

: “How about you, Tetsu?”

: “He’s all shut off.”

: Kusabi is in the HC Unit 1 office.

: “This is Kosaka from Central. Is this Kusabi?”

: “?”

: “Actually, this is top secret, but…”

: “It’s just some dickhead… Hey! Whose radio do you think this is?!”

: “I know I’m not supposed to contact you here. I have no excuse.”

: “The hell do you want?”

: “That Kosaka guy, what a fuckin’ dick. Just cutting me off like that?!”

: “Yeah…”

: “It’s fine. Hachisuka is working behind the scenes. Timrod, find an open desk.”

: This is one of the few things in this game I think truly needed a re-design. You see how all of the desks are apparently empty?

: If we try contacting these computers, directly in front of us, the game will act like it’s doing something and then dump us back at the contact menu.

: Instead, we have to turn to the right and contact this computer, which for some unknown reason isn’t occupied despite there being no visual indicator that it isn’t.

: “Just hurry the fuck up.”

: “Wait a second. We can’t just go off.”

: “Huh? What do you mean?”

: “It’s not like I have some special skills or anything…”

: “Oh really?”

: “You didn’t know?”

: “Then why did the old man put you here?”

: “Because I’m more ‘common’.”

: “Common?”

: “Yeah. That’s what the boss said.”

: “The fuck kind of standards are those?”

: “They needed regular people.”

: “So what, you’re some kind of neutralizer?”

: “Basically, yeah.”

: “And you’re okay with that?”

: “I mean…”

: “What…?”

: The same video we saw in the conference room plays again.

: “Watermark?”

: Metal Gear!?

: “If you look through the picture, a code appears.”

: “What, like invisible ink?”

: “Exactly. Like modern-day invisible ink.”

: “Huh?”

: “To be more specific… this picture uses discrete cosine transformation for image compression. Burying data inside the DCT coefficient renders it invisible to the naked eye…”

: This might sound like something Suda made up, but it actually isn’t. It’s hard to explain what the Discrete Cosine Transform actually is - everything I found about it has a bunch of incredibly dense math.

: The easiest way to explain it is like this. The DCT is an algorithm that takes an image or audio file, runs it through this complex math equation, and then outputs a lower-quality version of the file to save space.

: In fact, you’re seeing the DCT in action right now - this site compresses my original screenshots (which are in .png format and are 1:1 copies of what I see on screen) into .jpgs which have lost some of the original data.

: One other thing I’d like to add is that hiding data inside the DCT coefficient is very much a thing, but most of the implementations I could find of it stopped being updated in like 2003.

: I want to talk about this a bit too, because this is actually something that doesn’t exist. The largest diamond ever mined is called the Cullinan - it was mined in 1905.

: The Cullinan weighed around 1.25 pounds before it was cut, and a quick search tells me that its estimated value is around $400 million.

: Keep in mind that diamond prices are jangly key man bullshit - they basically sell for whatever the person grading them thinks they’re worth.

: Anyway, 600 billion yen is around $4.625 billion US dollars at current exchange rates and about 11.5 times what the Cullinan was worth uncut.

: “Tetsu…”

: “These guys are greedy. Get hold of Kosaka right away.”

: “600 billion by tomorrow… is that even possible?”’

: “No idea. Maybe selling that building would bring about that much in?”

: “That wouldn’t be enough.”

: “Well then, Yukimura’s finished.”

: “But…”

: “Difficult. Things have gotten pretty shaky.”

: “The fucking hyenas…”

: “We’ll continue to negotiate. If that doesn’t work out…”

: “The government can pay. Get a mortgage on all Yukimura-owned land, there should be no problem.”

: This seems crazy until you remember that the zaibatsus probably are the government.

: “OK then…”

: “Go ask Tsubaki. It should work out somehow.”

: “We’ll have to deal with the aftermath, but…”

: “I don’t care. A man’s life is at stake. Necessity knows no law.”

: Funny how the cops that have a license to kill suddenly give a shit about human life when it’s a rich person.

: “Understood. I’ll get right on it.”

: “Do it.”

: “OK… be careful.”

: “See you later…”

: “Big Dick… no, it’s nothing… never mind.”

: “One hour ago… there was a phone call from someone assumed to be the suspect.”

: “A phone call here?”

: “Yes.”

: “Could they trace it?”

: “No…”

: I was going to say something about them having a spy satellite, but then I realized the spy satellite didn’t know that the person it was tracking wasn’t Kamui.

: “I see. – What’s up with Sumio?”

: “He went back to HQ.”

: “At a time like this…?”

: “Looks like they’re ready.”

: It looks like Kusabi’s going senile, but I left the dialog on this line while I waited for the video to play while recording to ensure I didn’t miss anything.

: “The items specified by the suspect.”

: “Specified? What do you mean?”

: “All they said was that we’d need this…”

: “What about the rest of the equipment?”

: “It wasn’t allowed.”

: " ‘Wasn’t allowed’ ?"

: “They said if they saw anything, they’d kill the chairman.”

: “Yeah, that makes sense.”

: “?”

: “Why Big Dick?”

: "Chief Director Kotobuki’s insistence.

: Kotobuki clearly realized that this is a job for a highly trained chinchilla.

: “The old man?”

: “Yes. I was told by Sakaguchi.”

: “Whatever… Big Dick, go get a real good look at their faces, burn them into your eyeballs…”

: “…”

: “Anyway, just be sure to come back.”

: “Until we get the signal from the suspect, please go ahead and rest.”

: “Weren’t you at HQ?”

: “They told me to wait here.”

: “I see…”

: “Any contact from the suspect?”

: “No movement at all.”

: “Everything feels really heavy now.”

: “Seriously.”

: “Here it is!”

: “Where?!”

: “This radio.”

: If you’ve played No More Heroes, you probably remember the weird text-to-speech voice that Suda used. This uses the same thing.

: “What’s it mean?”

: “Let’s dance…”

: “He’s fucking with us.”

: “Timrod, you’re up. Transporting a 600 billion-yen diamond… it’s a big job. I’ll guide you over the radio. Work out the rest on your own. Timrod, it’s all on you now. Don’t mess this up.”

: I don’t know if this is supposed to be Big Dick’s car or what, but it looks like something a chinchilla would drive.

: “Why do these assholes know about our radio frequency?”

: “They must be a pretty technically-skilled group.”

: “Or it’s an inside job…”

: “That can’t be possible. Those radios are set to a very specific frequency specified by the suspects.”

: “So of course they know the frequency, then.”

: “No… actually, it’s quite a difficult range. It’s not the sort of range that could be easily used to communicate.”

: “A real veteran then, huh?”

: “Timrod, move in accordance with the instructions.”

: “No instructions from the suspect yet.”

: “Where would he be headed moving in this direction?”

: “The industrial zone.”

: “If he enters into a highly concentrated industrial zone, it will be hard to pinpoint them.”

: “I guess it’s gonna be up to Big Dick then…”

: “Here it is!”

: “What’re they saying?”

: “I guess they want him to get off.”

: “Timrod, get off at the next interchange.”

: Big Dick does some sick drifts in the Chinchillamobile. Somehow, he knows exactly where he’s headed based off “go to the crematorium”… even though what we’re headed to really isn’t a crematorium.

: “OK!”

: “Emergency communication! Surround the trash processing plant. Set a three-kilometer perimeter. Don’t let a single ant get through. Keep it totally locked down!!”

: “They’re jamming the signal… I can’t reach Timrod by radio.”

: What we have to do here is take the left turn.

: This puts us in front of one of the incinerators, at which point we get the message…

: Turn left and move one space, and we get…

: When we move to the next tank, we get this message before we can turn to face it.

: Okay, that makes sense, because that’d make us face the last incinerator…

: I… guess we’re going back the way we came?

: Or we’re going to face away from the incinerator. That works too.

: Nope! This is just Suda trolling us. What we actually have to do is go back to where we came in, and then take the right path instead.

: This leads us to this cable box. We can try to contact it, but nothing happens.

: Remember how Kosaka had that pocketknife and the stun gun on the table?

: In a rare use of the Implement command, we have to use the knife to cut open the cable box, in a move straight out of the beginning of Resident Evil 2.

: This leaves us with a contact point that also doesn’t do anything if we attempt to contact it.

: This is what the stun gun is for.

: “Timrod, where are you now? What’s the situation?”

: “We’ve got him. This position would be… smokestacks? What’s the suspect thinking? Where are they gonna trade…”

: “They’re using the smokestacks to… Timrod, they’re not here. Check the surrounding… the radio’s out again…”

: I’m not entirely sure how this guy gets the briefcase with the diamond in it, or how a diamond that big would fit in that briefcase, but okay.

: Yep, that guy just jumped into a smokestack with the diamond. I’m sure he has some plan to get out, and…

: Uh, do smokestacks work that way? I didn’t think they actually shot fire like that.

: For some definition of ‘unharmed’.

: “Is this OK?”

: “Isn’t it? We got the chairman back unharmed.”

: “Yukimura is stuck with a 600 billion yen loss.”

: “Yukimura’s finished, I guess.”

: “Finished? Why?”

: I was kind of curious as to how much of a hit this would be to one of the big Japanese companies in reality, so I looked at two of them: Sumitomo-Mitsui and Mitsubishi, both of which were formerly zaibatsus.

: According to Fortune, Sumitomo-Mitsui had revenues of $36.8 billion in 2021. Of that, their profit for the year was around $4.8 billion. Would a $4.6 billion loss sink the company? Probably not. It’d hurt a lot, but they’d most likely survive it.

: For Mitsubishi, we’d need to look at their 2020 numbers, because Fiscal Year 2021 is kind of an outlier. They usually have around $5 billion a year in profit, so they’d likely survive as well.

: What if we adjusted for inflation?

: If we did that, both Sumitomo-Mitsui and Mitsubishi would be in trouble - they’d have lost their entire profit for the year and it’d wreak havoc on their stock price. Would they go under? I still doubt it.

: Both companies have hundreds of billions in assets, as Japanese companies tend to sit on massive piles of cash, and could probably survive it.

: “In Yukimura’s current situation, he can’t handle something of that scale.”

: Either 1999 is a real bad year for Yukimura, or they’re a really shitty zaibatsu. I mean, you probably control the government and you can’t even take a $4.6 billion hit?

: “Right? So he’s finished.”

: “The wounds the suspect inflicted were deep… I guess that was their target.”

: “Most likely… rather than money, screwing Yukimura over may have been their real goal. The guy jumped into a smokestack. As for the guy thought to be the actual perpetrator, we have no ID on him… there weren’t even any bones left.”

: “We have no way of finding out what it is he was after.”

: “What about the diamond?”

: This is another thing that I thought was fake, but is actually quite plausible. Because diamonds are pure carbon, they bond with oxygen at high temperatures and vaporize into carbon dioxide.

: This process starts at 763 degrees celsius (1405 F). According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, most trash incinerators are operated well above that.

: The average incinerator runs somewhere between 980 to 1200 degrees celsius (1800 to 2200 F), and an industrial trash plant is probably going to be on the high end of that.

: " ‘A diamond doesn’t turn to ash.’ Or, ‘didn’t turn to ash’, rather."

: “What a waste…”

: “From Central?”

: “My name is Kosaka. Is Kusabi here?”

: “He’s in the back room. Go on in…”

: “Thank you…”

: “Hey… what’s up, you guys get it cleaned up?”

: “Yes. We’ve finished removal.”

: “Where’s Afro?”

: “He went back to Central. He said to send you his regards…”

: “Regards for what?”

: “I believe he’s trying to scout you…”

: “Tell him I’m too expensive.”

: “I’ll tell him.”

: “I’m kidding.”

: “OK…”

: “How’s your stomach?”

: “Like a medal of honor. Thank you.”

: I’m not sure if this is saying that he didn’t try seppuku, or that he did but stopped early enough to not die from it.

: “And?”

: “I just thought I’d say hello. Thank you for all your help.”

: “Thank you.”

: “Let’s get together again sometime.”

: “It would be an honor.”

: “It’d be better if that time never came, but…”

: “I agree. Crime can ruin one’s heart. Even innocent bystanders can be greatly affected.”

: “Reducing that exact thing is our job.”

: “You mean covering it up?”

: “Close, but not exactly.”

: “Using ‘disposal’ as a method of solving crimes… but I’ve started doubting my opinion on the matter. The idea of bringing everything to light is…”

: Speaking of which, Kusabi hasn’t killed anyone this entire game, apart from that one guy from Moonlight Syndrome in the intro case.

: “Grave?”

: “No… so far, the case we’re working on has yet to claim a single person’s life, and we’re on our way towards solving it.”

: “Yeah.”

: “Maybe the perpetrator’s motivation was simply to act? To me, it feels like it was some sort of demonstration.”

: This part I’m a little confused by. We’ve already seen Morikawa and Nakategawa outright tell us why the crime was committed - it was done to ruin Yukimura’s company and him in the process.

: I think it’d be pretty clear to both of them, especially given that Kusabi is usually the one spearheading the investigations.

: “They’ve committed plenty of crimes with plenty of victims. But without showing their motive…”

: “There are many crimes for which the purpose isn’t clear.”

: “What’re you trying to say?”

: “I don’t know. I don’t know, but…”

: “…”

: “I feel like the fact that the perpetrator has put together such a huge-scale puzzle means they’re trying to say something to the world.”

: “You think too much.”

: “Do I?”

: “They’ve left some sort of message. But at the same time, they’ve left others with scars. The information distributed by the media is going to cause a great number of people to fall victim to their crimes.”

: “So I feel that covering up the very crime itself is a necessary evil.”

: I’m not sure whether this chapter would be better or worse without this part. I mean, I know why Suda is probably doing it - this is meant to be a character moment for Kusabi - but still.

: " ‘Evil’, huh…"

: “And… by covering everything up, we take away the chance for certain people to assert themselves. That is to say… the chance for the weak to fight back. They’ll be left with no way.”

: “Hm…”

: “Whether or not that’s actually necessary, I just don’t know anymore.”

: “Sounds like you’ve gotten in too deep. I get what you’re trying to say. But that’s some naive bullshit. You need to get rid of any superfluous emotions. Totally nuke them.”

: “Just look at what’s right in front of your eyes. Keep your eyes on the prize. Stare down the enemy in front of you. That’s how you investigate.”

: “Am I wrong?”

: “You’re right. I think I’d been getting a bit soft. I will repent. I’ll throw everything I have into this investigation.”

: Next time, we’ll finish Parade.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Right after the scene with Kusabi and Kosaka, this happens. Sumio is apparently talking to… who is that?

: “Nope.”

: “Sumio? I saw him.”

: “Where?”

: “Here.”

: “When?”

: “Yesterday.”

: “This motherfucker… forget it.”

: “Sumio went out.”

: “Where?”

: “No idea…”

: “…”

: “Oh yeah, that’s right…”

: “Today? Isn’t today Saturday?”

: “It’s apparently a secret meeting.”

: “So they plan on making some huge decisions behind their employees’ backs, huh?”

: “It’s always the uninformed lower-downs who end up getting screwed.”

: “Hopefully that’s all that happens…”

: There’s going to be a lot of screenshots here, because there’s a lot of dialog from characters who don’t have dialog portraits.

: Well, now I guess we know who Sumio was talking to.

: Did we really save this guy just so he could…

: “What has?”

: “Snow Tower.”

: “I have no words…”

: “The Yukimura Zaibatsu has been destroyed. The remaining land and buildings have been sold off to the government. All the proceeds will go toward paying back Chairman Yukimura’s ransom money…”

: “So it all went exactly as the perpetrator planned.”

: “As if they were specifically targeted, only the management was killed in the explosion… Central is gonna be treated like a joke.”

: I mean, most of the board members seemed like assholes, so…

: “Us, too.”

: “Things are going to get rough.”

: “It looks like Sakaguchi took the fall. He took full responsibility to ensure his subordinates’ jobs…”

: “What about that one guy? The big one.”

: Nobody cares who he is because he hasn’t put on the mask yet.

: “Kosaka? He went with Sakaguchi of his own volition.”

: “Where?”

: “A new assignment somewhere out in the sticks.”

: “I see… Tetsu is gonna be sad.”

: “Oh, you were here?”

: “Naka. I wanna look into Yukimura’s business.”

: “For information on the company you can check the Internet…”

: I’d say that people capitalizing “internet” is a late-90s/early 00s thing, but the Associated Press was still doing it up to 2016, even though most newspapers had already stopped by then.

: “No, I mean all of it. This case isn’t over yet. I wanna bring up all of Yukimura’s history. Let’s give the souls of the dead some fuckin’ peace.”

: “We’re gonna take these materials and check them from cover to cover. It’s a pretty ridiculous amount. Don’t start bitching about it.”

: As soon as we take a step forward, we get a security card - you don’t need to contact anything, it just gets put in your inventory. There’s a door to our left and a door to our right, so let’s do those first.

: The left and right rooms are basically the same - they have model buildings and photos in them, as well as the model city in the center. I used to work at a place that had a room just like this.

: We can contact the edge of the city model - I think there’s a plaque if you look down. I’m going to transcribe the text on these the way I do the emails in Tokio’s chapters.

Announced in 1974
“NEmoSweet” Series
1st Period “Advance”

Cutting-edge features for the modern age. Total comfort and high-level safety measures. Yukimura Group’s “NEmoSweet”.

The Yukimura Group: A conglomeration that cares about the future.
[7400]

: Then there’s this slightly different model in the other room.

Set for release in 2002
“NEmoSweet” Series “Royal”

People’s lifestyles change with the times. But life’s true necessities never really change. The Yukimura Group presents a whole new lifestyle. “NEmoSweet-Royal”.

The Yukimura Group: Bringing the future closer.
[0026]

: You might have noticed that there’s two numbers at the bottom of each of the building descriptions. Those are the code we need to progress - but there’s no obvious place to enter it.

: What we have to do is go back into the main hall and try to use the card on the front desk.

: The code is 7426, which you get by removing the zeroes in each of the two numbers and putting the other number where the zeroes were.

: This leads us to a room full of filing cabinets that houses one of the more annoying bits to do if you’re screenshot LPing this game. There are nine documents hidden in here, eight of which we can get to.

: Each document is numbered, and there’s an achievement for reading all the documents in order. They’re split up into two sides from where we start - there’s four on the left side and four on the right.

: Each side has two screens, with a contact point on either side of each screen for a total of eight. I’ll refer to their positions first by aisle, then by “front” and “back”, and then by “left” and “right” based on where they are from this screen.

: Document Number 1 is in the right-side aisle, front half, on the right. Don’t worry if all these documents don’t make sense - this will be covered in Tsuki.

confidentialdocument#1

Date: 07/16/1970
Case name: Relationship between the Yukimura Zaibatsu and attorney XXXX
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXXX
Report:

Re: induction to factory construction plan for Mikumo Village #32 “Mikumo 77”, apparently a large sum of money was exchanged between the Yukimura Zaibatsu and the attorney XXXX in the name of “political donations”. Information received from source XXXX.

The day before entering into an open investigation, XXXX gives orders to stop. On the same day, XXXX and XXXX from the XX Unit are ordered to fully investigate “Mikumo 77” and the Yukimura Zaibatsu, and constant reports are demanded for Yukimura’s background check.

From this day forward, anything pertaining to this case is to be considered highly confidential. Report provided by XX to XXXXX in the XX department.

: In case you’re wondering, the “XX Unit” in this document isn’t the Heinous Crimes Unit, as this dates to before the Silver Case.

: Document 2 is in the right-side aisle, back half, on the right. This puts it directly behind where Document 1 is.

confidentialdocument#2

Date: 11/02/1975
Case name: Influence of protests against construction of “Mikumo 77”
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXX
Report:

Group opposing the construction of “Mikumo 77” has lost final appeal to Supreme Court. Subsequently, construction has been legally approved, and is set to begin at the beginning of the year.

At dawn on 10/31, the representative of the group leading the appeal is reported missing.

On 10/31, the anti-construction group held a meeting, which representative XXX attended. After the talks, which lasted till late at night, XXXX, heading home with XXX, reports that XXX said they would go propose a mutual compromise with Yukimura.

Afterward, XXX went missing, and has apparently not returned home. Additionally, at the meeting, XXX was significantly drunk, and it is possible that some sort of accident occurred. However, according to XXXX, when they last saw XXX, XXX was no longer that drunk

Also, XXX was preparing to head to the Yukimura mansion. So it is plausible that XXX went to the Yukimura mansion. The XXX investigation is set to continue through the week.

: I got a little confused with this one when I was recording, because I couldn’t tell if they were saying that a representative from Yukimura had died mysteriously or what.

: This is basically Yukimura admitting they killed a guy to try and stop the opposition to their factory.

: Document 3 is in the left aisle, front half, right side.

confidentialdocument#3

Date: 05/17/1977
Case name: Inheritable heinous crimes
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXXX
Report:

While undertaking Yukimura’s background check, information was received from a surprising source. Inside “History of Inheritable Heinous Crimes” stored in the HC Unit materials room, the XXXX family line was discovered. The XXXX family line is old, and was able to be traced back 13 generations.

Among those, including the historic criminal XXXX, were 8 names. Additionally, the land on which the “Mikumo 77” factory is set to be completed this year was found to be the spot on which XXX was shot to death by the HC Unit.

It is unknown whether Yukimura purchased this land and built the factory knowing this fact. However, it doesn’t seem to be a simple coincidence.

Many residents are already filing complaints about the factory. There is a rumor that waste from the construction site has been flowing into the XX River, from which residents get their drinking water, and the village has requested a water quality inspection from the government.

: I thought the criminal they were talking about is Kamui, but that’s not possible - the Silver Case happened in 1979.

: Document 4 is in the right aisle, front half, left side.

confidentialdocument#4
Date: 02/16/1979
Case name: Suspicions regarding waste from “Mikumo 77”
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXX
Report:

In accordance with requests from residents, the water quality inspection of the XX River has been performed. The inspection is rumored to have stretched out two years due to XXXX controlling things behind the scenes.

Regarding the water’s safety, the XX Division of the XXX Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has given the ‘go’ sign. Harmful materials were not found among the materials from the waste. It seems there is no problem with water quality. At one point, residents staged a demonstration in front of the factory, but with word of this report spreading, the situation has calmed down.

Recently, standoffs between residents and the factory have been occurring frequently. Some residents’ behavior has been extremely inflammatory, and some of it is considered to be somewhat extraordinary. It is well-known that this has been caused by the discord between the residents and Yukimura, but this should probably be tranquilized by us before it gets further out of hand.

: This right here is why I wanted to present these in order. The next one is in the left aisle, back half, on the right.

confidentialdocument#5
Date: 07/28/1978
Case name: Suspicions regarding waste from “Mikumo 77” (Edited)
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXXX
Report

In the report from 02/16/1979, it was stated that the water from the XX River had nothing wrong with it, but the XXXX group performed a separate top secret inspection, and it was reported that the water was found to contain harmful materials from the factory waste.

Waste water was collected and checked for confirmation and an inspectionm was requested within the department, from which the following was found.

If these results are factual, then the factory would prove to be extremely dangerous to the Mikumo village. Measures must be taken immediately. Just in case, a waste water sample is being sent together with the report.

: I’m… not necessarily the biggest fan of this particular report, because you can kind of infer a lot of this from the previous one. Anyway, one big thing to note:

: The previous report was dated 02/16/1979, while this one was dated 07/28/1978… meaning Yukimura knew about the chemicals but covered it up.

: Speaking of which, Angiotensin II hormones are a real thing. They’re produced naturally by the body and constrict blood vessels as a way of regulating your blood pressure.

: You might think something this egregious wouldn’t happen in the real world, especially not as late as 1999… except it actually does, even to this day.

: Document 6 is in the right-side aisle, back half, on the left. This, along with the last three documents, are THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS CHAPTER.

confidentialdocument#6

Date: 08/09/1979
Case name: Mysterious points re: the Riru Yukimura murder case
Processing: Deletion
Reporter: XXXX
Report:

At dawn on 08/07, the body of a girl estimated to be 7-8 years old was found. Approximately five days had passed since the time of death, and decomposition had been progressing. The body showed signs of violence, leading to the decision to treat it as a homicide case.

Today the body was identified. The girl’s name is Riru Yukimura. Age 7. She lived with her parents, members of the Yukimura family line, in the Mikumo village, and her parents were in charge of factory management.

With regards to the Riru Yukimura murder case, several mysterious points have been brought up.

1: When the body was discovered, injuries suggested the actions of a single individual deviant, but the subsequent autopsy report indicates the possibility of multiple perpetrators.

2: The time of death was determined to be right in the middle of the parade (demonstration) put on by the residents, but there was not a single witness.

3: Although the 7-year-old girl was missing, the missing persons report and search request was not filed until three days after her disappearance.

4: Around the same time as the crime, three children who live in the village were apparently badly injured in a strange accident. Details are unclear, but the name of one of the boys involved has been found. The children involved were known to be friends of Riru Yukimura.

Residents were extremely uncooperative regarding the investigation into Riru’s murder. This is likely also due to the discord with Yukimura.

: Translation: Yukimura was such a dick that he sent his own… niece, I guess? to a town where he knew his company was dumping toxic waste in the water, and where she was eventually murdered.

: Document 7 is in the left aisle, front half, on the left.

Report:

Upon the arrest of the suspect, the investigation of the murder of Riru Yukimura has finished as of today.

With the self-surrender of main perpetrator XXXXXX, the case was solved and closed swiftly. Two accessories, XXXX and XXX, are said to have died while avoiding capture. Details have been reported in the HC Unit case file.

: And finally, Document 8. It’s in the left aisle, back half, on the left.

: Once you read the final document, a wall opens up in the space between the two sets of shelves in the left aisle.

confidential document #9
Date: 11/04/1979
Case name: Discovery of skeletal remains
Processing: Unreported due to death of person in question
Reporter: XXX

Report:

On 10/23, Mikumo village XXX resident XXX was XXXXXXXXX, and skeletal remains were discovered. Results of an analysis of the clothing worn by the remains proved that the body was that of XXX, missing since 10/31/1977.

The boys he was after. It is thought that he had been in contact with the boys in order to publicize the truth. Part of the report said to have been fabricated by investigator XXXX states the following.

: Before we get to the obvious thing, I’d like to mention that this report contradicts an earlier one - I’m pretty sure the remains they found belonged to the activist who went missing in 1975.

: Suda does this a lot - in fact, he released two lore books for Killer7 that contradict not only each other, but themselves.

: Anyway… SuXXio XXXXi… where have we heard a name like that before? There’s no way it’s…

: “What is this, a fucking fairytale? Protests… marches… kids… parades… a princess and some heroes… and a huge serpent… so there really is a fairytale town. Mikumo 77…”

: “Hey Big Dick. What can I do?”

: “Ah, the twilight town. Everyone has come into contact with this town at some point.”

: “How nostalgic…”

: “It’s been, what, like 20 years?”

: “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

: “Well… it looks like during that time, this became the kinda town nobody wants to come near.”

: “That’s right. This town has been waiting for us.”

: “Took enough time and effort.”

: “You happy now…?”

: “Sorry…”

: “Looks like there’s gonna be fireworks. Wanna go watch them?”

: “Tetsu…”

: This whole thing gets explained in Tokio’s upcoming chapter, but I like to think Kusabi used his license to kill in order to kill an entire town. Totally works that way.

: “Yeah…”

: “Why are you going this far?”

: I’m not so sure I buy this. I mean, this entire thing was one giant revenge plot against Yukimura for killing Riru and fucking up Mikumo Village. It feels more like Sumio was honoring the past than killing it.

: “What’s in the past?”

: “All of me.”

: “Fuckin’ idiot… you’re a fuckin’ idiot, you know that…?”

: “Finally… I’ve become an idiot.”

: “Let’s go.”

: “Yes.”

: “Keep confident.”

: “Yes.”

: “Stare hatred right in the face.”

: “Yes.”

: “Move forward.”

: “Yes.”

: “Sometimes the past is important. Your real fight starts here. If you feel like you’re gonna buckle, just remember…”

: “Who the hell are you?”

: “As of today, I’m your new partner, Kodai.”

: “Kodai? Never heard of you. You get the wrong unit or something?”

: “No, I was assigned here.”

: “I got no use for career types. Fuck off.”

: “Actually, I’m just a high school graduate.”

: I thought this was weird, since as I understood it, most police detectives have college degrees. I actually took a course meant for that in community college as an elective (I did my first two years there).

: The answer is apparently that it depends on where you are and how high you plan on going up - some places want an associate’s just to join the force, and expect a master’s to make detective.

: “Oh yeah? Then why’re you wearing that suit?”

: “Just personal preference.”

: “What the fuck? You look r—”

: Omitted the slur again.

: “Do I?”

: “That ain’t gonna work.”

: “Huh.”

: “What’s your name?”

: “Huh?”

: “Your first name. The one your mommy and daddy gave you.”

: “It’s Sumio. Sumio Kodai.”

: “Alright, Sumio. Follow me!”

: “To where?”

: “I’m fine, thanks.”

: “Just come with me. I’ll hook you up!”

: “Really, it’s fine!”

: “Hurry the fuck up!”

: “I really don’t need one!!”

: “Tetsu, we got a call!”

: “Where?”

: “The Tsubaki Syndicate.”

: “Let’s go, Sumio!”

: “OK!!”

: “You ended up never buying me a suit, huh?”

: “Whatever, just walk!”

: “My suit…”

: “Yeah yeah, I’ll buy you one.”

: “Awesome…”

: “Once you’re an old man, that is.”

: “Keep confident…”

: “Stare it down…”

: “Live positively…”

: And that’s the end of Parade, our third case out of five. Next time, we’ll move on to Tsuki.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Welcome to Tsuki. This chapter is where Tokio’s story really starts picking up, to the point where I kind of wonder what the point of Yume and Hana even was.

: Once the building shows up, there’s a really loud jackhammer noise that starts playing in the background.

: “What the fuck… shit… a nightmare…”

: Tokio smokes a lot more in Tsuki than he did in Hana or Yume.

: “9 o’clock…? It’s not morning yet… I’ll sue your ass…”

: Let’s check on Red.

: “He looks terrified…”

: And, of course, Tokio’s inbox.

From: Slash
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Found The Bat
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 3:21:14

Attacking Scolba is actually pretty hardcore. So it took some time, but by reverse-hacking the system I was able to pull up the user access logs. There were all kinds of things in place. People using proxies and jamming things up, but with their raw IP data totally visible, etc. So anyway, here’s what I found out.

: If this seems cringy and dated, keep in mind this game was probably being written within three years of the original release of the movie Hackers.

: As soon as we finish reading the email, the construction noise starts up again and we’re kicked off Tokio’s computer.

: “And it fucking starts again…”

: And now, one of Tokio’s more memorable lines.

: “Goddamn… this is so annoying, I can’t take it. …Wanna go for a drive?”

: Come to think of it, isn’t this how Francis York Morgan crashes his car in Deadly Premonition, by being on his laptop while driving?

Maybe he’s special, or maybe all turtles are like this, but Red seems to be a real coward. He just wants to spend his days floating around, and if anything disturbs that, he gets all sensitive and starts flapping around in his tank, and then stops eating. He’s a hassle, but he’s still lovable.

How about The Bat? The only thing I know is that he’s one fucked up dude. I doubt whether he actually has anything to do with Kamui. Why did he break into the chatroom that one time? Either he’s a hacker using Kamui as a front, or a cracker who actually believes all this Kamui bullshit. One or the other.

Other assumptions:

Real name: “Komori”, or something “bat”-like in Japanese. That’s why he uses the name “The Bat”.
Age: Little punk around 14 or so.
Blood Type: AB
Personality: Like a rat or a bird or something. Has a mix of indecision and cunning.

Fuck, I’m bored. Anyways, I got his email address. I doubt he’d reply, but I’ll try getting hold of him.

: “Placebo… I’m getting sick of this shit.”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: junk@kipple.ne.jp
Subject: Hello, CQCQ

To The Bat,

This is Morishima, the guy you picked a fight with a few days ago. You shouldn’t have busted into our chat like that. Now I have your mail address. I don’t know who you are, what you’re trying to do, or whether you’re a crazy fuckstick or a full-on crazy fuckstick.

Get back to me. Let’s talk about your homie Kamui.

: “Anyway…”

: The construction noises start back up.

: “And it fucking starts again… Jesus fucking Christ, man…”

: “This… motherfucker… head… hurts…”

: Poor Red.

: You can probably tell from the subject line of the email who The Bat actually is, but it’ll be real clear a bit later.

From: junk@kipple.ne.jp
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: parade
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 9:00:00

~Guessing Game~

What’s the answer?

[#1]

At the last moment, an intrusion,
an old witch, a wink.
Oil fries, nobody’s there.
Just Joan the slut.
Mom, dad, yourself.
A stick, a log, a stone, dead.
Made a slave by the bad guy.
It’s gotta be you or me…

Who’s missing?

: This riddle is going to be repeated a few times, so I’ll just refer to it as “Joan the Slut”.

: Incidentally, when I read this while recording, I immediately thought of the infamous “It’s just me, Gabe Newell” video.

[#2]

Old Mother Twitchett
likes kisses.

She turns over
her long tail
and with one eye,
stares.

Give her a kiss
on her cute little mouth.
As thanks,
she’ll share her tail.

Old Mother Twitchett… who is it?

[#3]

There was a crazy family
riding a crazy horse
running like crazy.

Where did they get to?

[#4]

Some brothers picked up a corpse
and buried it in a stone grave.

Who killed and ate the kid?

: “What the hell is this…? The Bat’s address… a guessing game? The fuck is this about?!”

: “Oh my god, shut the fuck up! Fucking seriously…”

: “This kind of thing pisses me off. OK, fine… so I have to play a game, huh?”

: To be fair, this is pretty much how I react to any game that has a dumb bullshit puzzle.

: Tokio opens his blog post with the “Joan the Slut” riddle copied verbatim, so I won’t bother reposting it.

At the last moment… is it me or him?
An intrusion… is it me or him?
An old witch… maybe him?
A wink…?
Oil fries… what the fuck?

Who’s missing? Who the fuck?

I don’t fucking get it!!!

: “Yup.”

: “Your husband, huh… he ‘used to’ smoke these… so you mean he’s…?”

: “If they sell them there.”

: “Yeah, I guess so. I’m going home… the construction should be done for today by now.”

: “But like… I hate playing games. Fuck… why the hell do I have to do this…?”

: “Ah. Hold on… maybe Erika could… yeah, she’d be better at this than I would.”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: Just Guessing

I got a weird email from that guy called The Bat. I’ll forward it to you. What is this guessing game? Do you get it?

I have no idea. Let me know if you figure it out. Also, from now on, I’m gonna encrypt my mails. I’m using a program I used to use at the news agency. Are you able to read this?

From: Tokio Morishima
To: S. INOHANA
Subject: Get It On

Has a guy called “The Bat” ever been involved in the Kamui case? He’s able to mess with systems on the net, and apparently doesn’t want people digging up stuff on Kamui. He contacted me online and told me not to fuck with Kamui.

He also sent me some sort of riddle. He also seems to know about that thing at Babylon. Let me know if you know anything.

At the last moment, an intrusion, an old witch… is this some sort of poem? Searching all over the net got me nothing. Nothing in the encyclopedia, either. Nothing in the newspaper database. Not even anything in the fucking Farmer’s Almanac.

Construction is finally finishing tomorrow. About fucking time.

: “Are you even awake…? OK brother, I’m gonna go to sleep, too. Getting woken up like this every goddamn morning… we need us a fucking break, you know?”

: “Sleepy… sweet dreams…”

: “Hm…? It’s already night… it’s been a while since I slept like that…”

: “Morning, sleepyhead. Hehe…”

: Looks like Red’s doing a lot better with the construction done.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Re: Just Guessing
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 22:10:48

This guessing game is a riddle. You’re probably supposed to look for keywords from this text. I don’t know the answer, though.

More importantly, who is “The Bat”? The version of that encryption software you’re using is too old.

From: S. INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Investigation Required
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999

Looks like nobody named “The Bat” was involved with the Kamui case in the past. But I agree that he should be marked for the future. Find out who he is and report quickly.

It’s about time you sent some info worth the price I paid you.

: “Keep looking, keep looking, keep looking… maybe if I get this quiz right I’ll win a trip to Hawaii. Fuck! Fuck this… I need food.”

: I think I said this exact line at least twice during the Persona 5 LP.

: “At the last moment, an intrusion…”

: “Excuse me? What does that mean…?”

: “Fuck if I know…”

: “Is it about someone’s personality?”

: “Like someone who’s intrusive?”

: Like a certain turtle-hating bartender who should shut the fuck up before he gets mauled by a chinchilla again?

: “Like ‘someone who intrudes at the last moment’…”

: “So you’ve been listening, huh? But no, it’s not about someone’s personality.”

: “I guess.”

: “It’s like this…”

: Tokio repeats the entire “Joan the Slut” riddle here, so I’ll cut that.

: “I’ve heard that somewhere before…”

: “What, seriously?”

: “What do you mean?”

: “Old word games. In English. Some of those words come from these games.”

: Here’s what I like about this: when I was recording this, I actually went “Wait, is this a real thing or is this something Suda made up, how the fuck are you supposed to even get to there from Joan the Slut?”

: He managed to make it work even in English without it being painfully obvious the way a lot of that kind of stuff was in Persona 5.

: "OK then, can you figure this out? It’s a riddle… the question for this one is, ‘Who’s missing?’ "

: “The blind man.”

: “Really?”

: “Definitely. The blind man is missing.”

: “You’re a genius.”

: “I like to do what I can.”

: “I’m going home.”

: “What does this mean, and what is The Bat trying to do? I still have no idea.”

: “If there’s one thing that I know for sure, it’s that my nerves are totally on end, and I want to pluck the feathers from that “Bat” or “Chicken” or whatever-his-name-is asshole, and those feelings are growing by the day.”

: “I’ll get Erika to help again…”

: “Those goddamn pig-fucking asshole sons of bitches are finally finishing that construction.”

: Well, that confirms it. The Bat is almost certainly Sumio. It makes sense when you realize that Big Dick also got all those weird emails, one of which referred to him as “Chinchilla” - a name only Sumio and Kusabi would know.

: “A fairytale? What a fucking dickhead…”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: About The Bat

Remember when our chat at Scolba got disrupted? Around the time of the Kamui case. You got dropped from the net and couldn’t get back in. When that happened, some guy replaced you and interrupted our chat.

The guy’s handle name was “The Bat”. He started talking to me suddenly and told me not to look into Kamui. For some reason he also knew about Babylon. So I hired a certain net detective to find his mail address for me. I mailed him, and got that weird riddle mail.

I figured out the first one. I also figured out how to solve it. Probably. It’s from some old Mother Goose thing. You know Mother Goose? With the right materials, the remaining three should be solvable, too. Feel like getting together to solve some riddles? Get me back. Let’s hook up and win that trip to Hawaii.

: “The noise is finally gone… looks like the construction is finally finished.”

: “She bought a Mother Goose book. We put the book and the mail from The Bat together and started looking for the answers to his little game.”

: “Without titles, it was hard to search them out, but this is what the first one is based on…”

: This is apparently a nursery rhyme dating back to the Victorian era, but damned if I could find anything on it.

: “What a fucked up poem. So here’s the riddle…”

: He repeats Joan the Slut again, verbatim.

: “The ‘blind man’ is missing. So literally, the blind man.”

: “Even the bartender knew this rhyme. That dude’s surprising.”

: “Maybe he really likes Mother Goose?”

: “I wonder… he does seem a bit weird. So next is this one.”

: Tokio repeats the second riddle, the “Old Mother Twitchett” one.

: “I’ve heard that before.”

: “Really?”

: “Old Mother Twitchett, right…?”

: “Yeah.”

: “Hold on…”

: “Oh, I’m waiting.”

: “OK, so… Old Mother Twitchett was… hm… ah, here it is. It’s from this poem, look. What was the question again…?”

: “Who is Old Mother Twitchett?”

: “Ah, I see.”

: “What is it?”

: “The direct translation of the original poem says this:”

: I also looked this one up, and did find a single website that had a version of it. Warning: Some godawful goddamn 90s-ass web design.

: “What the hell does that mean?”

: “The poem itself is a riddle.”

: You know what I just fucking remembered? Remember Gabriel Knight 3 and the godawful geometry management puzzles? That came out the same year this game did.

: I can only imagine the kind of bullshit puzzles that Jane Jensen would’ve put in this if she worked on it. You know what, fuck it, give me a 24th Ward Heinous Crimes Unit novel by Jane Jensen.

: “A riddle, huh?”

: “Listen. One eye, leaves its tail behind… therefore… Old Mother Twitchett is…”

: “Huh?”

: “A needle and thread… so what about the question…?”

: “I don’t know… but it looks like it means that a needle kisses thread.”

: “The fuck kind of kiss is that?”

: “Let’s leave that for now. The answer for #2 is ‘needle and thread’. What’s next?”

: “Um… here’s the third one…”

: Tokio repeats the third riddle from earlier.

: “A crazy family… there’s gotta be a poem with a crazy family and a crazy horse somewhere.”

: “Another fucked up poem.”

: “Quit complaining and search for it.”

: “Whatever.”

: “I can’t find it.”

: “Me neither.”

: “Wait, hold on…”

: “Waiting.”

: “It must be this.”

: “Which one?”

: “It’s a bit long.”

: This is the only one of these I had heard of before, and it’s only because of The Wolf Among Us. Too bad Fables was such a piece of shit comic.

: “Hm. That sounds right.”

: “So where did the ‘crazy’ family end up?”

: In what’s probably Telltale’s worst game outside of Hector: Badge of Carnage.

: “Hell.”

: “That’s the answer. Nice work!”

: “Now for the final problem.”

: Erika repeats the last riddle, which we’ve already seen.

: “Some brothers picked up a corpse and buried it in a stone grave.”

: “There should be a similar poem somewhere…”

: “Come on, hurry up.”

: “You keep looking, too.”

: “I am.”

: “Brothers and a stone grave.”

: “Brothers and a stone grave…”

: “Picked up a corpse…”

: “Is this it?”

: “What?”

: “I’m not 100% sure.”

: “Show me.”

: “OK, here it goes. The poem says…”

: “That must be it.”

: “OK, now we’re getting the hang of it.”

: “So who ‘killed and ate that kid’?”

: “Mother and father… so, ‘the parents’.”

: “Right.”

: “Awesome.”

: “Wow, we got all four.”

: “Let’s try lining the answers up.”

: “I have no idea what that means.”

: “Me neither.”

: “I wonder if this really means something?”

: “What is he trying to say?”

: “The Bat… is it really worth chasing after him?”

: I mean, it kinda depends what Batman we’re talking about, because half of everything Batman kinda sucks.

: “I don’t know… but I feel like it is.”

: “A gut feeling?”

: “Something like that.”

: “But after all this work… what if it’s just some creepy loser messing around?”

: “Don’t even say that.”

: “I mean, these answers, they don’t seem to mean anything.”

: “I know. But there must be something. There’s meaning in there, somewhere…”

: “Do you really think so?”

: “Yeah!”

: “You think it has something to do with Kamui?”

: “I think so, yeah.”

: “Why?”

: “I think so…”

: “You think so?”

Maybe I’m letting The Bat get to me too much.

Like Erika says, maybe he’s just some crazy fuckstick with no relation to Kamui… but for some reason he took the trouble to hack that chatroom and follow me on the net. The Bat gets to me because I’m scared. Even now, I’m still somehow scared of Kamui. In the same way, I can somehow feel a kind of terror in this guy, too.

Erika doesn’t get that. Because she didn’t talk to The Bat. Either way, I got my keywords. Now I just have to wait for the door to unlock.

: We’ll see what The Bat’s response is in the next update.

[Timrod]

Summary

: “There’s nothing else…”

: “Shut the fuck up… be… quiet… ???”

: “The politicians outside… I can’t hear… the microphone… a dream…? Seriously…?”

: And here we have a rare smile from Red.

: “The construction had finished, but… I woke up too early. This is frustrating…”

: “The fuck are you smiling at…?”

: Looks like we’ve got a response from The Bat… dated 08/02/1979. Clever.

: The other two emails are a little less shift-JIS intensive, so I’ll just transcribe those the usual way.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Contact
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 8:12:05

I’ve been thinking, and I thought of something. I want to tell you directly so call my cellphone as soon as you read this.

From: S.INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Report Now
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 9:00:11 AM

You find out anything about “The Bat”? Don’t forget that you’re supposed to report back to me right away.

: “Again…? Fucking assholes!”

: You know, I appreciate this game a lot. I really do. It hasn’t given me that moment a lot of things do where I realize how dumb the plot is.

: “Fucking Christ… Fucking Erika. You’re the one who said not to call you anymore…”

: “It’s been awhile…”

: “Hello?”

: “It’s me. I saw your mail.”

: “Oh, thanks.”

: “So? What’s it about?”

: “I just thought of this, but… hold on. Let me find someplace to talk.”

: “OK.”

: “Hello?”

: “I can hear you.”

: “I thought of something. For those quizzes, maybe the whole poems themselves have more than just the answers.”

: “The whole poems?”

: “Basically, the poems themselves are what contain some sort of message.”

: “Hm. But don’t you think it’s just as likely that The Bat is just some weirdo who’s into riddles?”

: “Well, yeah. But I decided to trust your gut feeling.”

: “Wow, I’m really moved to tears. By the way, I’ve got something to report myself.”

: “Did The Bat say something?”

: “I got another email. I sent an answer, and I got a new one. It’s about the ‘fairytale’ he mentioned before.”

: “I’d like to read it.”

: “If you can make it out this afternoon, I’ll be in the park.”

: “OK, see you later then.”

: “This bothers me even more than the last riddles.”

: “Really? To me, it just seems like some pretentious-ass bullshit text, meant to sound meaningful.”

: Nah, it doesn’t sound enough like YIIK for that.

: “A princess and three boys, only their memories…”

: “A princess and three boys…”

: “The date on this is weird.”

: “The date?”

: “Look. It says ‘August 2nd, 1979’. The time doesn’t make any sense, either.”

: “Oh yeah… 1979… that’s 20 years ago.”

: “Twenty years ago… there’s something there, but…”

: “What the hell? Some incident? An incident from 20 years ago?”

: “Yeah… maybe.”

: “So I guess there’s a meaning to it. This fairytale…”

: “The clouds… are dirtied black…”

: “Dirtied? What happened?”

: “The village… died out…”

: “What does it mean? Try to remember something, Erika.”

: “Hold on. I think I’ve…”

: “Really?”

: “Just shut up for a second!”

: “OK, fine. I’ll be quiet, Princess. I’m gonna have a smoke.”

: “Pollution…”

: “What?”

: One thing I didn’t realize is that this is still a few days before the Yukimura mansion gets bombed, meaning Erika figured out the whole case before Big Dick even showed up.

: “What are you talking about?”

: “Twenty years ago… there was a village called Mikumo. It got all messed up from pollution… the village disappeared… and then… a girl was killed, too.”

: “That’s it!”

: “It has to be!”

: “That’s gotta be it, Erika. This fairytale is about that village.”

: I have to admit, I think the game would’ve been better if you did the first part of Tsuki before Parade, then did the second part after.

: “Yeah, it has to be.”

: “Nice work. I knew you had it in you.”

: “Yeah yeah…”

: “Huh? Oh… Sorry…”

: “Before…”

: “What?”

: “We used to work together like this a lot…”

: “Yeah. Back in the day…”

: “Never mind.”

: “…”

: “We don’t have time to reminisce. We have to check out Mikumo.”

: “Let’s split the work.”

: “I’m going back to the office.”

: “OK… contact me if anything comes up.”

I looked into Mikumo.

Mikumo 77. Over 20 years ago, it used to be a village. Eventually Mikumo Village was developed as an industrial area, then it became a town, and pollution here became a problem. Then the factories were shut down indefinitely, and now that area is managed by the government and is completely off-limits.

It basically became a trampled on, cursed area. News about that girl getting murdered still remain in old newspaper articles. This is another fucked up story.

But why is The Bat talking about this stuff? What does he have to do with Mikumo? And what does Mikumo have to do with Kamui?

: Tokio’s phone starts ringing in the background.

: “Yeah, I know, I’m coming…”

: “It’s me.”

: “You got something?”

: “I found an old man from Mikumo 77.”

: “An old man? Didn’t everyone from Mikumo die off?”

: “This guy survived. I found one of the few survivors. I’ll make an appointment with him. I’ll go see him tomorrow.”

: “Hold on. You should just go see him without making an appointment.”

: “Why?”

: “Because I doubt it’s gonna be a happy, fun story.”

: “You’re right…”

: “He’s old, so you’d better go see him before he keels over and dies.”

: I like to think this is how Tokio deals with anyone even slightly older than him, including Kusabi.

: “What a dick.”

: “But somehow — I feel like something’s off. I got a bad feeling…”

: “Careful, huh. Even when careful, you can still get lost. Like if your map is wrong… OK then… Mikumo… I think that was it. What a fucking hassle. Maybe I’ll just ask The Bat directly…”

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Met the old guy
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 22:01:01 AM

I met with that old survivor. I get what you mean. He’s a weird old man. Even though I’m right in front of him talking, it feels like he’s staring off a mile away while speaking to you. It seems like he doesn’t care whether or not I even exist.

That Mikumo 77 pollution problem was caused by the Yukimura Group… according to the old man. It actually was the Yukimura Group that pushed for the development of Mikumo 77, though.

Also, he told me a creepy story. Another damn fairytale. What he told me was this:

“A demon marked a girl with a seal that would bring disaster. The people were all baffled by it. Some boys surrounded the girl to protect her, but the people had turned into a violent mob and took her away. The innocent girl had her feathers plucked and was sacrificed.”

So it was another story about a girl and some boys. There’s a continuation, but it makes no sense. I have no idea what this guy is trying to say. Each of the kids in this story is either blind, deaf, or dumb, apparently…

Additionally, he says the factory was producing weapons to fight off an alien invasion. What the fuck, right? If it were you, you probably would’ve tossed your tape recorded in the gutter at this point. But I feel like there is some truth mixed in with the old guy’s stories. The people who had turned into a violent mob, etc…

Hey, do you remember the origin of The Bat’s #3 riddle? The story about the crazy family riding a crazy horse to Hell. I think that this story may be referring to this violent mob.

: In case you haven’t played Okami or read any of the Persona LPs where I talked about it, this is where the ‘giant serpent’ in Sumio’s version the fairytale comes from.

: The old guy basically told Erika a version of the Kushinada and Susano story, except with Yukimura standing in for Orochi.

: Huh. We’ve gotten these emails a few times before, but they’re usually junk - there’s one from last update I didn’t show that talks about a computer virus going around.

: “The Yukimura mansion? The fuck is going on…?”

: “At least tell me what the hell happened…”

: “I can’t say shit. Just go back home for now. I don’t have time to waste with hacks.”

: “Hold up. In that case, I wanna say something.”

: Sirens start going off in the background.

: “Next time. We’re on emergency call right now. You hear the sirens, right?”

: “But…”

: “Anyway, keep out of this shit.”

: “Hey, wait… fuck, what the hell is going on?”

: So uh, yeah. Tsuki is a very, very long case

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Rumors
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 9:12:12

After that weird thing with the Yukimura mansion getting blown up, it looks like something has happened to Chairman Yukimura himself. It’s still just a rumor, but most of the rumors from this particular news agency turn out to be true, so plenty of care will be required for info concerning the Yukimura Zaibatsu. Stock prices, too.

It’s pretty apparent that the higher-ups here at my company are acting strange. I assume there’s gonna be some sort of press embargo. Something is happening to the Yukimura Group. Maybe threats from the bomber or something.

By the way, you went to Mikumo 77, right? Find anything new? And how about contact from The Bat?

It can’t just be a coincidence. We find out about that stuff at Mikumo 77, and then the home of the chairman of the Yukimura Group, which basically killed the town of Mikumo, gets blown up. Maybe The Bat tipped someone off? He must know something. Or possibly, he himself was the bomber. When you saw the news about the bombing, you said you felt something, too, right?

How do you plan to move?

: “What the hell are the HC Unit guys doing? I can’t get hold of them. I know… I think The Bat is suspicious, too.”

: For reference, this is about the same time that Big Dick is having the briefing with Sakaguchi in Parade.

I went to Mikumo 77 for three days. Of course I wasn’t able to set foot inside the factories, but it was still surprising to see that it had been left as-is for the past 20 years.

Mikumo 77 is like a ghost town now. Nobody lives there. The buildings are all old and fucked up. The roads are filled with potholes. Looking from higher ground, the old factories show off a black silhouette. The factories are relatively small. The small factories take up all the space, with almost no open areas. Like some weird plans cropping up. Or like guts made of metal were gathered together, all dead…

What happened to Yukimura? Was he killed? Or kidnapped? Or maybe the HC Unit is protecting him… either way, like Erika said, it’s certain that something is going on with him. Maybe I should hurry up and report on the info I brought back from Mikumo 77.

I probably know who did it.

: This one feels really out of place compared to the other “daily word” emails Tokio gets.

: “I’m gonna lose my shit.”

I went to the HC Unit and grabbed a guy named Morikawa, and gave him a message for Kusabi. I said I wanted to give him some materials concerning Mikumo 77. But it’s no good. He obviously wasn’t taking me seriously. The guys in the HC Unit are out for blood, and they’re probably not seeing what’s right in front of their eyes.

Regarding Yukimura, it looks like they have no intention of telling me what’s going on. I guess private citizens don’t have the right to know. Well, I don’t have to tell them shit either, you know.

The three kids from the old man’s fairytale. The princess who died = the girl. This is for sure. According to old newspapers, a 7-year-old girl was killed. The person responsible was caught and punished. However, there are many points of doubt in this case, and the injuries sustained by the girl were so bad that they couldn’t have been done by just one person. They apparently found blood of different blood types in her body. In the end, the story was wiped out quickly, and everyone forgot about it.

But if it was a violent mob who killed the girl, then stuff starts to make sense. There are some really intriguing analytical reports about the victims of the pollution at Mikumo 77. Those affected suffered from terrible asthma and overwhelming fatigue, mainly. But on top of that, it wasn’t known at the time but the hazardous waste contained a certain type of narcotic substance which possibly really fucked people up.

This narcotic substance has a stimulant effect which causes violent obsession. Maybe this caused the people to turn into a violent mob. Which is why the girl was killed…

So that leaves the two boys who tried to protect the princess. Of these three people, one was blind, one was deaf, and one was dumb. If the old man’s story is correct. Twenty years have passed, and they’ve become adults. Where are they and what are they doing now?

I’m almost certain that it was those two boys who blew up the Yukimura mansion. However I look at it, that’s the only thing that makes sense. I wonder how Kusabi will react to these materials. Can that dude even understand those fairytales…?

Also, The Bat… Erika’s theory that the words to the riddles themselves have meaning seems to be correct. “A blind man…” is that one of them? Who is The Bat? And what about Kamui? Is even Kamui somehow connected to Yukimura?

The HC Unit is really on the move. Something is still happening. What the hell is going on?

: “Getting revenge, 20 years after the fact…”

: I’m not sure where Tokio is getting the idea that there’s only two boys, given that he got the same version of the fairytale about a princess and three boys, but whatever.

: “I get all excited for some reason… I wonder why…? What do you think?”

From: S. INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Warning
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999, 9:21:14

You find anything out about “The Bat”? We’ve already been over when and how you first came into contact with him. This shit is no longer going to fly. I need some info from you.

With all these extensions for your reports, you’ve already broken your contract. If you don’t reply in 48 hours, drastic measures will be taken.

You will be in a world of shit.

: So yeah, that email I missed? It’s about a computer virus called FESTA. I’ll just right-click on this, and…

: “Fuck… looks like I’ve been hit with a virus. I guess… shit… goddammit… motherfucker! Yeah yeah, OK, I got it. OK, sorry, but I’ve got my shit all backed up and compressed and loaded to my laptop.”

: I’m going to cut the update here because the next update gets kinda dark. Interestingly, during recording, the game fucked up right after this and got some graphics corruption, I think due to my recording software.

: I thought it was part of the game until I saw a video recording of it where that doesn’t happen. Anyway, two new pieces from Salty Vanilla:

: Salty did this daylight version of the scene, which actually makes sense because the stakeout scene at the start of Parade happens at like 9AM.

: And here’s one of Big Dick winning a trip to Hawaii after successfully decoding the riddle. Sumio must’ve paid for it with some of that diamond money.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Just as a warning, this update’s going to contain some pretty dark shit, including a description of a sexual assault.

: “The Yukimura mansion… now the explosions start. Maybe they’re trying to set it up like some kind of festival. Criminals sure do love blowin’ shit up real good. Why is that?”

: Tokio’s phone starts ringing.

: “Who the fuck…”

: “Oh hey, Kusabi, right?”

: “I heard from Morikawa.”

: “That’s good. There’s something regarding Mikumo 77 that I just have to talk to you about.”

: “OK. But wait… I can’t give out any info right now. Listen, Yukimura is fine. Other than that, I can’t say shit for now.”

: “Who was the bomber?”

: “We’re looking into it.”

: “There should be two men left who were originally from Mikumo. It may have been them.”

: “I see…”

: “Do you have some kind of lead?”

: “No… but…”

: “Try checking that place out. Mikumo…”

: “Listen up. People’s lives are at stake, so don’t say shit about this to anyone. We aren’t letting anyone from the media get anywhere near this.”

: “If anything got leaked to the bomber and it gets found out, everyone involved will be fucked.”

: Oh yeah, one thing I should’ve mentioned earlier when Erika said there was a press embargo on reporting on the Yukimura bombing - while this is unheard of in most Western democracies, it’s actually not uncommon in Japan.

: In 2016, when The Silver Case re-released, Reporters Without Borders ranked Japan 72nd out of 180 countries surveyed, which is really low when compared to a lot of Western countries.

: As an example, the Abe administration passed a national security law in 2013 that could potentially put reporters in jail for asking about national secrets, even if the reporter was not aware of it.

: When TV reporters protested this and started asking very pointed questions, Abe simply went and used his influence to get them fired.

: Things haven’t really improved since then, either. After 2016, Japan’s press freedom ranking went up to 67th place before falling back to 71st this year.

: In comparison, the United States ranked 42nd in 2022, though in the case of the US it’s more of a “people are fucking idiots” problem than government censorship.

: “Of course I won’t…”

: “That’s all for now. I’m hanging up.”

: “So Yukimura is OK… something is definitely going on. Shit, I’m all out of leads. What the hell do I do now…?”

: “You’re not just living in elegance, right? I mean… you can’t understand me anyway, but still…”

: Red’s thinking about his upcoming trip to Hawaii, and how he’s going to order a vegetarian poke bowl twice his size and spend an entire day eating it.

: “If I’m gonna proceed further, I’m gonna have to talk to the old survivor from Mikumo; he’d know who the two boys were. I need to move.”

: “I went to the address I got from Erika, and it ended up being a small, dingy apartment building. When I knocked on the door, an old man with the veins bulging out of his temples stuck his face through.”

: “He looked a bit clammy and sick. ‘I came to ask you about Mikumo,’ I told him. For some reason, he seemed to smirk at my statement. He invited me into his apartment with a smile.”

: “Pardon me, I’m not in the best of health…”

: “Go ahead and lie down, don’t mind me.”

: “So… what do you need?”

: “There were three kids in Mikumo, right?”

: “Oh, the kids… yeah, they were there.”

: “I want to know what happened to those kids.”

: “Hm. You got any smokes?”

: “Huh? Oh, yeah… here you go.”

: “Please, tell me what you know.”

: “Hey!”

: “What is it?”

: “That’s good… these are some good smokes.”

: “That’s… wonderful.”

: “But yeah, that was some terrible stuff.”

: “You mean what happened 20 years ago?”

: “Those kids had grown up together… they were really close, always getting into mischief together…”

: “And?”

: “While I was sleeping, they shaved my beard off. Like, really cleanly and nicely. No, wait… that was my grandkids.”

: I’m picturing Red going “But you uh, don’t have a beard” and the old guy going “Exactly.”

: “Come on, buddy.”

: “Oh yeah. Those three kids had a leader, born into a poor factory worker’s family… what was the name again? Really clever kid.”

: Here I imagine Red going “Wait, so was the factory poor and the family worked at the poor factory, or was the family poor, or what?”

: “Is that… the princess?”

: “The right-hand man… oh yeah, it was a boy named Fuyuki. He didn’t talk much, but he was a smart kid.”

: Erika will clear this up a bit later, but Fuyuki was the guy who jumped into the incinerator.

: “So that’s the first guy…”

: “There was another selfish little boy named Kiseki, too.”

: “So that’s the second guy. And? What happened?”

: “What happened? Some really bad stuff. They ganged up on the kids, did some horrible stuff to them.”

: “What did they do?”

: To me, this feels kind of like the scenes in Metal Gear Solid 4 after you kill a member of the Beauty and Beast Unit, which are dumb shit like “She had her family murdered in front of her every day for five years”. That’s not an exact quote, but it might as well be.

: Oh, by the way, speaking of shit getting butchered, I found out today that Level-5 apparently sold the Ni no Kuni IP to a Korean crypto firm that just recently shit out a Ni no Kuni crypto-gacha game.

: “Seriously…? So that’s… the…”

: “That’s what happened to them.”

: “So who is ‘see no evil’, who is ‘speak no evil’, and who is ‘hear no evil’ ?”

: “Hm… as far as who was which, that’s all lost in the fog of my memory…”

: “So then The Bat is…”

Twenty years ago, there were three friends, a girl and two boys. For some reason, the girl was horribly assaulted by the violent mob of people from Mikumo and was raped.

The two boys tried to save her, but they were captured by the violent mob. The three had their eyes, ears, and mouths shut. This is what that riddle from The Bat was talking about.

They were drenched in oil, or just attacked with it, stabbed, and were sewn up with a needle and thread. Who was eaten by their parents? That means their parents turned a blind eye to what was happening to them.

The Bat can write mails, so he either can’t speak or can’t hear. The one who had their eyes gouged out and sewn up was either the girl or the one who isn’t The Bat. The one who had oil poured into their mouth and had it sewn up was also either the girl or the other one who isn’t The Bat.

And now the two boys are attempting to get revenge for what happened 20 years ago. They’re after Yukimura, the one responsible for causing the pollution and everything else.

: “When I get home, I gotta restore my desktop PC. No, before that… I gotta clean out the turtle’s tank.”

: “Well, the hard disk is clean — I guess this’ll do just fine…”

: I get why Suda did it, but it’s weird that none of Tokio’s previous emails are in his inbox, unless he was running his own mail server I guess.

From: S. INOHANA
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Final Warning
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 13:28:41

I’m warning you. If you don’t reply, your contract will be terminated. You’re almost out of time.

From: Tokio Morishima
To: S. INOHANA
Subject: Re: Final Warning

My computer got fucked up by a virus and I couldn’t send any mails. Sorry about that.

About The Bat:
He must be a Kamui believer. I heard his name among some rumors on the internet. He hasn’t mailed me back again yet. Apart from that, I have absolutely no info. So, conversely, if you’ve got any info, I’d like you to share it with me. I’m still investigating, and I’ll keep going.

Just a quick note. That is all.

: “Way to kick the fucking hornet’s nest…”

I can’t tell the client about the time The Bat crashed into my chat. It would break my non-disclosure agreement, as I was chatting with Erika. I can’t explain that.

Why was the girl at Mikumo raped and beaten? There must be a reason she was sacrificed. If I know who she was, I could probably figure that out, too.

: Why would he need to do that? Inohana already knows that Tokio’s been in contact with The Bat via email.

: “I guess it has.”

: “By the way… whatever happened with those riddles you were talking about?”

: “Oh yeah, those. I finally worked them all out. Then I went on a little trip.”

: “I knew it! So you won a trip after all!”

: I mean, Big Dick won the trip and only invited Tokio because he wanted to invite Red.

: “Thanks to you.”

: “In that case, how about a drink…?”

: “I guess I have no choice. Fix yourself one of whatever you like.”

The perpetrators of the bombing of Yukimura Group Chairman Yukimura’s mansion on July 11th were found to have committed suicide. According to reports, there were two suspects, both of whom were unemployed with no known address. Currently, the location, time, and motive for the suicides have yet to be publicized, but the police are expected to make an announcement soon.

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Follow-Up Report
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 13:39:00

With the press embargo this is still top secret, but it looks like Chairman Yukimura was kidnapped. The kidnappers were two people from Mikumo 77. “Fuyuki” and “Hiseki”. But Hiseki died immediately after the Yukimura mansion bombing. So it looks like the main perperator was Fuyuki.

Although there was an embargo on Fuyuki and Hiseki’s suicides, too, it was broken. Hiseki was blind. And Fuyuki, the one who jumped into the smokestack and killed himself, was a deaf mute. Now don’t freak out, but both men had their eyes and mouths sewn shut.

So most of what The Bat said matches up. I never thought this whole thing would get this bad… but why did those two return Chairman Yukimura unharmed and then kill themselves? Maybe Hiseki dying messed up their plan, and so Fuyuki decided to die, too? Something is definitely not right here. This whole case is still full of mysteries.

From: junk@kipple.ne.jp
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: parade
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 10:00:00

This email has been set to reach you on a specific date.

I’m not The Bat. My name is Hiseki. When I first received your mistaken mail, it was kind of fun. And so as thanks, no - actually, as a prank, I chose you to be a spectator for my little parade. You were apparently quite a good spectator. I’m happy about that. Do you like parade fireworks?

: I only just now realized I made a mistake when reading this email. The way I understood it was that The Bat was Sumio, and Hiseki was saying this because he’s not Sumio.

: But no, the idea is that whoever The Bat is had Hiseki’s email address and dropped it so Tokio would find it.

: “The Bat was Hiseki… no… I just thought he was ‘The Bat’, but it turned out that I happened to have been talking to Hiseki all along… but why was he able to write mails even though he was blind?”

: “It’s hot again today.”

: “By the way, do you have good eyesight?”

: “That’s actually ‘BA’, from ‘BATH’.”

: “It’s not a problem of ‘noticing’… What do you do when you watch TV and stuff?”

: “Turning the volume way up, that’s basically the same as ‘seeing’, right? Wait a second… ‘sound’…”

It turns out that blind internet users aren’t rare at all. There are all sorts of systems for the blind, like voice input, text-reading functions, all kinds of shit.

I feel like Hiseki is the kind of guy you just can’t hate. He was almost definitely the bomber, but apart from that, when I think about our back-and-forth via mail, he really had good sense for that sort of prank. I don’t know how good of a spectator I was, though.

I received my final mail from ‘The Bat’, or ‘Hiseki’, rather. I’ll forward it to you.

He likely died because of what they planned to do. I think the stuff these guys were doing was all part of the plan from the beginning.

The HC Unit is probably handling Yukimura’s kidnapping. Either way, since the guy is really well known, the embargo should be on for a while. It’ll be a while before I can get info from the HC Unit again. I wonder if Yukimura is really unharmed? Considering Hiseki and Fuyuki’s feelings, it’s pretty hard to think that Yukimura would come back totally unscathed…

I don’t care about the mystery anymore. Once the media gets hold of this, all the bullshit is gonna start flying again.

Whatever. Anyway, apparently while I was searching for The Bat, I ended up finding a different one instead. The bloodsucking type. A pretty fucked up dude. I wonder if they ever made it to the princess after all?

From: Erika Yukawa
To: Tokio Morishima
Subject: Favor
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 8:24:13

It looks like something happened to the old survivor from Mikumo. I got a call from the old lady living next door to him this morning. She didn’t know who to call so she saw my business card and called me. At this point it looks like he’ll be OK, but he could take a turn for the worse at any time.

I want to go talk to him ASAP, but all sorts of stuff about the Yukimura news has been popping up and I can’t get away. Could you go and check on him for me? Please? Get hold of me later tonight and I should be able to drive out there.

: “I guess it’s best to talk to the old man before he dies off… that may end up not even being a joke.”

: “There’s some really fishy shit going down… I guess I should hurry…”

: “Huh? Oh.”

: “Do you have any relatives close by?”

: “I’ve been living here on my own for years now… but the old lady next door takes good care of me… so I do OK…”

: “Really…?”

: “By the way, you’re… uh… oh, it’s you.”

: “Do you really remember me?”

: “Yeah… Fuyuki. Good to see you, boy.”

: “It’s Morishima. I’m Fuyuki’s… friend.”

: “I see…”

: Either this guy was having a really good day the first day Tokio met him (which, I remind you, was only two days ago) or he went very senile very quickly.

: I should mention that depending on how you take Flower, Sun and Rain, some or all of what the old guy says could be non-canon. We’ll talk a little about that at the end of the update.

: “Yeah. I know the name of one more, too. ‘Kiseki’ - no wait, ‘Hiseki’.”

: “Oh yeah…”

: “And the girl.”

: “Riru.”

: “Riru… that’s her name?”

: “Yeah. A relative of the Yukimura family.”

: “The Yukimura family? I see. So this Riru girl was sacrificed by the crazy mob because of her ties to the Yukimura family…”

: "You didn’t know that?’

: “No… sorry, it’s the first time I’ve heard of it. The fourth poem… ‘eaten by their parents’… so that’s what that meant.”

: “And one more…”

: “Huh?”

: “The deaf one… I remembered.”

: “Huh? What are you talking about? The deaf one, that was Riru… wasn’t it?”

: No, it was their leader, Suxxio Xodai. Suxxio is Sumio’s nobody… or is that heartless? I honestly don’t know and I’m too lazy to look it up for the sake of a dumb joke.

: I like to think that Kusabi has a nobody that is scared of guns and has never shot anyone.

: “Hiseki, have you forgotten…?”

: “What…?”

: “Your… your boss, right?”

: “Who is?”

: “…”

: “Come on, buddy. Old man… it’s still too early to die just yet.”

: “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten… I guess you must… you must’ve gone soft in the head… too…”

: “The fuck are you talking about? My ‘boss’… was there one more person?”

: “Oh… oh yeah.”

: “What the fuck? This guy, man…”

: Welp, old guy’s dead.

: “This fairytale is gonna be over soon.”

: No important emails today.

: “It should be hotter. Shit, I totally forgot about whittling that wood. I should probably play with you, too. What should we do…?”

: Tokio’s phone rings again.

: “Sorry, Red. I’ll give you some shrimp later.”

: “It’s me.”

: “Erika? Did something happen?”

: “It looks like the embargo will be lifted anytime now.”

: “The embargo, huh…”

: I’m not sure if this line was in the original game or not, but if it was, it’d have a strange relevance both to the 1990s and today.

: Assuming this line was in the original game, Tokio is probably talking about the Arab League boycotts of Israel, which more or less ended in the mid-90s.

: Most of the English sources on those boycotts are from Israel and have their own agenda, but I did find one from Haaretz that’s relatively unbiased if you want to read a little about it.

: If it wasn’t in the original game, this is probably a reference to the “BDS” (short for “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions”) movement, which is essentially an attempt at reviving the Arab League boycotts.

: The BDS movement has been heavily legislated against in the United States, and was effectively dead before it ever got anywhere. Most of that happened around the time this re-release was being made.

: “Are you trying to be funny? Why do you always have to screw around like that?”

: First the Israel thing, now this. This feels like the kind of thing you’d see in No More Heroes.

: “Whatever…”

: “Listen. The weather hasn’t been this nice in a long time, right? The weather’s been pretty ugly recently, you know? Why don’t we go fishing?”

: “Are you… asking me out?”

: “It was worth a try, I guess.”

: “I’m hanging up now.”

: “OK… bye.”

At approximately 11:00pm on July 31st, Snow Tower, which houses the Yukimura Group’s HQ, was blown up. The entire building was destroyed and eleven people were killed. Miraculously, there were fewer casualties than would normally be expected. The bombing is assumed to be related to the earlier Yukimura mansion bombing.

At this point, nobody has come forward to take credit for the bombing. Additionally, the victims killed in the explosion were Yukimura Group Chairman Yukimura and ten members of the board. Since it was a holiday, regular employees and security staff were away and therefore not injured.

: “I guess I’ll get going then.”

: “If you’re looking for Tetsu… he’s not here…”

: “Actually… today I’m here to see you.”

: “Me?”

: “I want you to tell me a fairytale.”

: “Go ask your mommy.”

: “My mommy isn’t here, and that blind kid is dead, so…”

: “It’s a long story… but if you don’t mind…”

: “A long story? Sounds nice.”

: “Don’t blame me if you fall asleep partway through.”

: “Hot again today…”

Today at noon, just 34 hours after the Snow Tower bombing, the Mikumo 77 area, once developed as an industrial area by the Yukimura Group, was suddenly bombed, causing an explosion covering a 4km radius.

Considering the previous bombings, it is thought that someone attempting to destroy the Yukimura Group is likely responsible. However the perpetrator is as of yet unknown, and no one has yet claimed responsibility. Additionally, there are currently no residents in Mikumo 77, and it is assumed that no one was killed or injured.

: “How about it? We should go fishing together… or maybe just sunbathing, I guess. OK… I guess I’ll just write it all up at once.”

: Tokio’s blog post is a gigantic wall of text, so I’ll split it up a bit by talking about Flower, Sun and Rain.

Sumio answered almost all of the questions I had. All off the record, of course. I just showed him the four mails I received from Hiseki. Sumio checked them all.

I’ll call Sumio, Fuyuki, and Hiseki the “Mikumo Boys”. The Mikumo Boys were childhood friends. Sumio had been their leader for the entire 20 years.

Twenty years ago, there was a beautiful girl named Riru Yukimura, who was like the three boys’ idol. Riru was raised in a branch family of the Yukimura Group, and is a distant relative. Riru’s family was given some of the Mikumo 77 land. Some time later, the pollution problem at Mikumo 77 came to light.

Mikumo was surrounded by a photochemical smog, and the river was full of water polluted by that narcotic. Soon, anti-industrial protests would begin as wel, with demonstrations filling the streets every Sunday. Residents sarcastically referred to this as the “parade”.

The parade would get more and more lively each weekend, and then one day, the residents formed a violent mob and attacked the Yukimura house. The residents, all fucked up from the narcotic in the water, were terrified of the extremely beautiful and early-maturing Riru, and believed she was a witch.

: Flower Sun and Rain was originally released on the PS2, and then got a re-release… on the DS. The re-release was… kinda terrible… and came out before The Silver Case had been localized.

: There’s an LP of it on the archive, but the person who did it had never played The Silver Case. There’s talk about them re-releasing the PS2 version, so I won’t spoil it… much.

Riru became a symbol of the Yukimura family who had caused them so much pain and suffering. That day, Riru’s parents, terrified of the encroaching mob, left their daughter at home on her own and ran away. The Mikumo Boys barely managed to save Riru from the mob, and brought her to the mountains to escape.

But while Sumio was looking away, Riru was taken away by the mob. Riru was sacrificed, and died. Because they tried to help her escape, an example was made of the three boys.

For “hearing Riru’s words and being enchanted”, Sumio had his ears stabbed out; for “seeing Riru’s cute disguise and being fooled”, Hiseki had his eyes sewn shut; and for “swearing allegiance to the demon Riru”, Fuyuki had his mouth sewn shut.

And — then… the Mikumo Boys spent the next 20 years silently plotting their revenge on everyone. Sumio joined the HC Unit. He became really good at lipreading, and learned to control his intonation when speaking. He faked all of his physical tests at the Central Police Academy, and bribed an examiner to pass him for the hearing tests.

He used special radios and cellphones created by Hiseki to avoid being found out. Hiseki developed software that would convert incoming transmissions into Braille. This software was installed into all communications devices used by Sumio.

The Mikumo Boys’ goal was simple: the complete and utter destruction of the Yukimura Concern. They put their plans into motion. For the Yukimura mansion bombing, while Sumio gathered security for his stakeout, Fuyuki kidnapped Chairman Yukimura and confirmed that there was nobody left at the house, and then Hiseki blew it up.

After that, Hiseki committed suicide as planned, to ensure that they couldn’t be traced. He had already set up the bomb at Snow Tower before killing himself. At the same time, Fuyuki had Chairman Yukimura on lockdown. Fuyuki sent two videos to investigation HQ to show them that Yukimura was still alive.

: So anyway, Flower Sun and Rain makes a number of changes to The Silver Case’s story that are contradictory to both Parade and Tsuki - to the point where it’s questionable if Mikumo 77 even happened.

: I’m inclined to believe that FSR isn’t really canon, especially given that the real sequel to The Silver Case (that being The 25th Ward) only kind of glosses over it existing at all.

Sumio met with the locked up chairman several times, and made a promise with him, to get him to destroy the Yukimura Group himself. Forced to make a painful choice, Yukimura finally agreed. Fuyuki demands the ransom. Once it’s received, he throws himself into the smokestack. Another suicide, just as planned.

Then Chairman Yukimura blows up Snow Tower by his own hand. The Yukimura Group has now been scattered to the wind. But the story doesn’t end here. The Mikumo Boys’ final target was Mikumo 77. They still had the purification of the cursed land on which Mikumo 77 stood and the release of Riru’s restless soul to take care of.

Sumio didn’t mention it, but there was no way the Mikumo Boys would let that dilapidated town remain. Anyone who’s seen the grotesque remains of Mikumo 77 would agree.

Does Sumio plan to die? Or does he plan to atone for his sins by continuing to live on? Where did Fuyuki and Hiseki’s hopes lie? Of course, I have no idea.

: Speaking of Sumio’s plans, there is one thing from Flower Sun and Rain that is definitely canon: Kusabi is either gay or bisexual, and he’s got a thing for Sumio. FSR outright confirms it.

: There are signs of it in The Silver Case that are more obvious if you’re playing in Japanese, apparently, but Kusabi was supposedly intended to be not straight even in the original 1999 release.

Princess Aurora slept the sleep of death at the top of the tower. Princess Aurora was reborn as beautiful as ever. But over the past 20 years, Riru would’ve been mummified, and her remains would be turning to dust by now. This parade must have begun from the feeling that the princess couldn’t be returned to such a filthy place.

: On a side note, Princess Aurora is apparently the “canon” name for Sleeping Beauty. I’m not sure if that’s something Disney came up with or not, and as I am not that one lady I used to work with, I do not care.

: “Two boys? That’s where I first fucked up.”

From: Tokio Morishima
To: Erika Yukawa
Subject: Final Riddle

I worked out the final riddle we had overlooked. By the way, August 2nd, 1979 was the day Riru died.

As for “7:75:64”, when I showed it to Sumio, he laughed and answered. Apparently it was the secret code he told Yukimura to use to blow up Snow Tower.

Only the memories of the princess and the three boys. The clouds are dirtied black, and the village died out. Then, a nightmare-eating chimera disappears along with the wind. The wording was purposely confusing. This is just a simple joke, basically. This was the bomb warning that Hiseki gave to me.

“A princess and three boys, only their memories.” Mikumo was dirtied black and once the Yukimura Gruop had been wiped out, the nightmare-eating explosion disappeared with it.

: And… that’s Tsuki. Next time, we’ll start Kamuidrome - the penultimate chapter of the Transmitter arc… assuming I don’t LP The 25th Ward, which also has a Transmitter and a Placebo arc.

[Timrod]

Summary

: Welcome to Kamuidrome. Kamuidrome is probably my least favorite of all the chapters in The Silver Case, mostly because it really dates the game - there’s a lot of the 1995 film Hackers in it.

: It also kinda feels like Stephen King’s later works where he did a lot of “old man yells at technology” stuff, but it does have some points that are more salient today than they were in 1999.

: Most of Kamuidrome takes place in what’s basically IRC. The fact that the first person’s username is Helter Skelter is probably a coincidence, but that’s also the name of the tutorial boss in No More Heroes.

: Anyway, I’m going to transcribe these the same way I do the emails in the Placebo chapters… for the most part.

: I don’t think I’ve seen a single SPLOOGEMEISTER in all the years I’ve been online. Anyway, I’m going to cut the last part of MonsterDong420 off because it contains a slur.

(Hugo)
: so youre running away?
: i mean,
: why cant you just talk it out?
: i wanna believe that
: since this is the internet
: people can come together!
: theres an even deeper connection than in real life.
: ive experienced it myself
: people ive met at offline parties
: were all really cool
: its because of people like you that people dont trust the internet.
: believe in the network!
: unpublicized messages are here!
: the power to connect people is here!

(oldman)
: believe in the net
: god is in the cables
: data transcends time
: and multiplies
: using billions of clones
: gives you undeniable proof
: and then people transcend the light

: This goes on for a good fifteen seconds or so.

: Big Dick is back from his vacation, and now it’s time to HACK THE PLANET.

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean it like that. I just mean, he wasn’t frigid, like you. Anyway, next time I see Kusabi, I’ll cheer him up a bit.

Anyway, to the point. I’m following an awesome case concerning the internet. All these charming ladies, who could be called “national assets”, have been disappearing left and right. Apparently it’s somehow related to the world of the underground. Some sort of club. It’s called “Ronny Rocket’s”.

Division XX, this is where their headquarters are. On the surface, it’s just a wholesome club. “Wholesome”? Do those clubs even exist? Whatever… anyway, I thought it may help.

I’ll probably see you again soon. Until then, keep living honestly.

: These chatlogs are formatted differently from the other ones. The way this works is that the user saying the lines is demarcated with a backslash after their name, and respond to people with a > after their name.

oldman/
I don’t get it at all
A middleaged woman who can’t come back to reality
Is this what people struggling with the gap of modern times looks like?
A parent’s duty to their child’s hope
They lose their roots and the parent-child relationship goes to shit
That means the family itself breaks down
It’s a really interesting truth
Do you all feel reality?

Sodom/
There’s lots of that kind of thing
The non-talk show-ness of it
It might actually be the best way
For these times now…

Grimes/
Sodom>
i agree
that style is all over
without a sense of despair
im so jealous

oldman/
but i cant rest easy… it doesn’t feel like a consolation
and is making samples of parents a sad thing?
a good thing?
nope, not for the person in question
its actually a really calm countermeasure

Halycon/
i really feel sympathetic
oldman’s views really get me in the heart
its not the sort of problem you can brush off as a ‘modern-day sickness’
with the branching off of psychological routes and the filing of medical records
the truth will be found
counseling is a deception
inside each and every person’s mind is the seed of truth
and each person has their own sickness
each one needs its own medicine
deception kills people

oldman/
Halcyon>
thats an exaggeration…
everyone is searching for their own place.
im gonna take off.
i wont be coming here again.
lets meet again someday, somewhere, everyone.

Neutral/
oldman, that’s a shame.
This BBS is going to get really quiet.
I think we needed you here.

Sodom/
losing friends, no mater what the form, is always sad.
oldman, please come back here someday.

JeffersonAirport/
you were light.

Grimes/
its gonna be lonely.

: I gave up on trying to learn Japanese, so I have no idea what kanji that is.

: If only he knew how bad the sequels were.

: Yes, I too would like some NEW DRUGS in what’s probably a blatant Huey Lewis reference.

: “Trying too fucking hard to look cool.”

: There’s a really big, really long text dump here.

UEHARA, Kamui
Estimated Criminal Record:

<12:1975 Age 16>
Assassinated Makoto Ishihara, Mitama City Mayor.

Around the same time, Shin Yanagi, president of Sumikawa Corp., the recycling business assumed to have bribed Nakahara, was also assassinated. Sumikawa Corp. had, as a recycling business, grown really fast, but a soil survey of the surrounding site showed that they had been engaging in the illegal dumping of PCDD.

: PCDD is a longer name for a group of chemicals known as dioxins, which are a by-product of certain types of industrial activity. They don’t degrade naturally, and wind up in meat and fish.

: Dioxins are known to cause all kinds of health issues, and are heavily regulated in the United States.

<12:1976 Age 17>
Assassinated Yukio Hata, Vice-Minister of the Kanto Ministry of Justice.

According to the Weekly Narc, Hata reassigned Chairman Kimura of the Non-performing Loan Processing Organization. The investigation by Entertainment Realty, Inc., with close ties to Vice-Minister Hata’s family, became complicated.

<12:1977 Age 18>
Residence: Kanagawa District

Assassinated 5 male junior high school students.

Those five students had kidnapped and violated a 17-year-old female family restaurant employee, later dumper her into Kawasaki Bay. This case became very topical with the reporting of the victims’ real names, due to the relationship between the Juvenile Act and the HC Unit.

<12:1978 Age 19>
Assassinated Church of Psyentology Representative Toshiki Sato.

With 45,000 members, the Church of Psyentology between 1987 ~ March of 1988 forced its members to use contraception and refrain from giving birth as part of the cult’s doctrine. Also, the poisoning case that occurred at the same time was also assumed to be part of the cult’s “research” activities.

: You know, I’m not so sure you can fault Kamui for that last one, especially if they’re where Cognitive Psience came from. And now… the important part.

<12: 1979 Age 20>
Silver Case
“Dispute among the Kanto Big 3 NGO Parties”

Nonprofit Regional Citizen Group TRO/CCO Confederation Chairman Ginji Nakane was on his way to a symposium recording when he was assassinated outside the front door of TTV Station. Cause of death was stabbing by a sharp metallic tube-like object.

The assassination occurred on 12/7, the day of publication of corrections regarding the election of the new district mayor, a dispute between the FSO and the TRO/CCO.

The perpetrator, Kamui Uehara, was immediately arrested upon commission of the crime. It was decided that he had acted alone and that the hit had been contracted, but the contractor was never found.

: This is what’s on the timeline on the game’s website. It’s called “Silver Case” because the people Kamui killed at that time were all elderly.

: You know, Kusabi’s method of solving crimes by going “I bet Kamui did this” is looking more and more sane as the plot goes on.

![TheSilverCase 2022-06-08 22-39-48-14|690x380(upload://sQcKSqM0LQRWvFH9LRRAXOO4eOw.png)

Due to this, he gained the nickname ~Angel of Absolute Zero~.

: Wait, they all happened in December… is Kamui a SNATCHER?

: Uh-oh, I think this kid just found QAnon and also possibly shit himself.

: Big Dick has a new email.

From: junk@kipple.ne.jp
To: The Main Character
Subject: bookend

It’s been awhile. Looks like you’re still alive, that’s good.

I thought I’d warned you. I said to stay away from Morishima. You met with him, didn’t you? That’s no good. Although it may have been by chance, you shouldn’t be meeting with him. Do you know why? I know this is sort of weird, being right in the middle of the story, but you and Morishima are actually the same person. You share the same DNA, the same body.

Just kidding. This isn’t a cartoon. But anyway, Morishima is dangerous. I’m thinking of killing him. Just look at him. Something about him just pisses me off. I’ll let you know once I’ve properly shot him to death like a dog.

: I mean, that was kinda obvious given that Tokio isn’t a chinchilla.

: This entire upcoming segment feels like an exposition dump combined with some kinda dated views on the internet.

: “Up to here, the report is the same as the previous month.”

: “We don’t need the introduction… so, what is it?”

: “The number of missing persons has increased exponentially this past month. There have been 15x more reports than last month.”

: “Are they related to Internet crimes?”

: “Definitely.”

: Let’s talk about this a bit. The idea of “cybercrime” was a big headline maker in the late 90s, even if a lot of it was just sensationalism.

: As an example, Wired magazine covered a story about a “web assault” on the Pentagon in 1998… even though it was really just an unsophisticated DDoS attack on the Pentagon’s web site.

: There’s also this one from 1997, where a hacker group got into Yahoo’s front page and claimed they had uploaded a “logic bomb” that would destroy the internet unless Kevin Mitnick was freed from prison.

: Most of the actual “cybercrime” was theoretical - things like a German hacker group discovering how bad ActiveX was, or two researchers from Columbia University inventing the concept of ransomware.

: That’s not to say some of it wasn’t real, though. A few months after this game released, a hacker going by “Maxus” hacked a CD seller in Connecticut and stole a database of 300,000 credit card numbers.

: “Actually, that’s not so far off. The number of domestic ‘internet circles’ is said to currently be at about 100,000… and among those, about 10,000 of them are what’s known as “Bohemian”, or non-fixed websites.”

: I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about, and I don’t think Suda did either.

: “Bohemian? I’ve heard of that before.”

: “Criminal and harmful websites that constantly move.”

: “Yeah… the kind of counter groups that exist in any category.”

: “So a bunch of criminal assholes, huh…”

: Oh, okay. NOW I get what they’re talking about. I talked about this a bit in the Persona 5 Royal LP around the end of the Futaba arc.

: They’re talking about 2channel (also known as 2ch). If you don’t know what it is, it’s a massive Japanese-language text board that spawned out of old-style BBS sites (like the one we saw earlier).

: It was created by a guy named Hiroyuki Nishimura, who also currently owns 4chan. Wikipedia claims he created it while in college in Arkansas.

: The idea behind it was that by having a Japanese-language social media site hosted in the United States, the site could get around Japan’s defamation laws, which are much stricter than those in the US.

: While that alone isn’t really cause for alarm (Pixiv also does this), the site pretty quickly got a large following of racists and other extreme right-wing groups, which continues to be a problem today.

: “Laws and restrictions don’t apply in that world. In reality, there are things happening similar to actual witch hunts and sponsored murder threats. They’re all methods to bring in more people.”

: “I just don’t get it… why would stuff like that be possible on these networks? You can’t see the other person’s face, you don’t know who they are… what’s the point in bringing in people like that?”

: “They actually can figure those things out, though… accessing one of these sites over telephone lines, and you’re connected to this net the moment you enter. With an invisible thread…”

: “After that, you just rake all the users in…”

: “Exactly. Pulling people in from across the Internet is pretty common practice these days.”

: “What a scary world.”

: “Say no more. I’m not interested.”

: “Chances of crimes originating from these ‘Bohemian’ circles are extremely high. Most net-based crimes come from these ‘Bohemian’ circles.”

: The way he says ‘Bohemian’ in quotes makes me think of all those dumb shonen battle anime where they call everything a proper noun that’s also usually in German.

: “So they’re hotbeds of Internet crime…”

: “A girl who was traipsing around those hotbeds completely disappeared.”

: “Girl?”

: “Yeah, she was a high school student. I used some of my more trusted connections to trace her movements.”

: At least we know Nakategawa didn’t kidnap her, because she’s too old for his tastes.

: “You mean the Department of Intelligence, right…?”

: “No, not just them. I searched all over and her life came into relief. This is the tale of an imaginary girl.”

: This sounds dangerously close to an Allanson Monologue, even though it’s a full decade too early for that.

: “She had a magical device in her room which would allow her to travel all over the world, and this device made her dreams come true.”

: Isn’t this just the plot of Serial Experiments Lain?

: “She had lots of friends. Some of her friends even wrote her letters in English. Even more than her classmates, her nation-less friends who sent here these letters were important to her.”

: “She could trust them. She was able to open up to them about problems she couldn’t speak to others about, and secrets she had kept locked away, deep down in her heart.”

: “The girl believed that this magical device would make anything possible for her. Then, one day… when she had thrown her body and mind completely into this device, she found the darkness.”

: “For this girl who had been gazing into the light of the magical device, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Her friends who were like fairies, and their meeting place which was like a garden of flowers, neither of them were anywhere to be seen in this darkness.”

: “In this darkness lived nothing but greed and evil and hatred. The girl was afraid. But she was also strangely drawn to it… pat of her wanted to see this horror. So she gathered her courage and dove right into the mouth of this demon.”

: “The girl felt a whole new world there. It was thrilling for her.”

: “The thrill got bigger and bigger. The darkness lured the girl out of her house with a love potion. She ventured out in to the world outside.”

: “She bought trendy fashion magazines and the sort of sexy clothes she’d never worn before, got all dolled up, and went out. The neon lights felt warmer than usual.”

: “Yes… the girl had finally awakened.”

: “She became hopelessly lost and tried to pass the time. She must have been trying to find a place where she belonged.”

: “Even though she recognized the darkness, she was pulled in by its sweet trap. She may have even been waiting for this trap.”

: This whole thing sounds like Nakategawa read one of those garbage detective novels the library always has and then tried to write his own.

: “On the last day, the girl spent the entire day sitting in front of her computer. She gazed at the animation flowing across her desktop, laughing heartily.”

: “She was in a trance. She waited for hours. In her pitch black room, the red modem lights shine suspiciously. Her eyes glittered.”

: This case would’ve been a lot better if Kusabi showed up halfway through this and tells Nakategawa to shut the fuck up.

: “And that is the truth of this case.”

: “What do you mean ‘truth’? What happened to the girl?”

: “After that, she disappeared.”

: “A mysterious Internet kidnapping… I can see the headlines now.”

: “So what you’re trying to say is, ‘Find the girl!’, right?”

: “That’s right…”

: “Do you have any leads?”

: “None…”

: “Nothing? What the hell? Naka, quit fucking around and tell me. Who was involved with this case?”

: “I was personally asked to take it on.”

: The police couldn’t find anyone else more qualified to track down a teenage girl.

: “Who’s gonna get involved in a dangerous case like that? Count me out.”

: “Sorry, but that’s not really my thing, either. Those cyber-whatever cases are a bit…”

: “This is a problem… you’re all detectives, yet choosing the jobs you take on is…”

: “Right?”

: “OK, I’m taking off.”

: “Alright then, Timrod. I’m giving this one to you. It’s my background job, so please don’t make any mistakes. Worst case scenario, you’ll get killed. This isn’t just a threat.”

: “Alright then, good luck.”

: Naturally, as soon as I knew this chapter involved Big Dick going to a club full of hackers, I asked Salty Vanilla for an artist’s rendition of what that might look like.

: Big Dick is ready to either hack the planet or become a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist, or both.

: Speaking of Shin Megami Tensei, I found out that Soul Hackers 2 has Mara locked behind a day-1 DLC paywall, and there has never been a better way to get me to not buy a game. No Mara, no buy.

: The “going underground” subtitle is probably a reference to a Japanese alt-rock band by the same name.

: Moving around in here gets us some optional dialogue.

: It’s not immediately obvious what you have to do, but you have to face the direction you were facing when you first entered and use the flyer from Nakategawa.

: “You can’t just do whatever you like around here, you know. You get that, don’t you? You some kinda detective? What do you want?”

: “Don’t be falsely accusing me of anything now. The stuff I sell is clean.”

: “You trying to say I’ve been spreading these around? Huh? Don’t be spreading weird rumors and shit. I’m all on the up-and-up. I run a tight ship here, so don’t be bringing weird shit like this in to my staff…”

: “I don’t know what this flier is, but it’s one of those things, yeah? Something having to do with ‘net crime’ or some bullshit, right…? What a waste of time. You can’t put restrictions on fliers.”

: “People need to be allowed to just pass them out wherever, right? I’m running a business here. If I started giving out information… you get me, huh?”

: “Hold on… one of the younger ones was saying something about fliers. This… it’s got an address on it. That’s all I got.”

: Oh man, it’s such a dark web site that you can’t even see the address. I like to think it’s actually a link to Goatse.

: “People will start getting freaked out if we’ve got military-looking types hanging around. You really stand out, you know.”

: Next time: more overly 90s hacker shit, giant pointless chatlogs, and old men yelling at technology.

[Timrod]

Summary

: The worst part is, I can’t tell if this is supposed to be a pun on Nakategawa being a pedophile or not.

: Anyway, this update is going to contain some uh… ‘risque’ footage, people being very horny and creeping on idols, and a suicide. Nothing much happens in this update anyway, so feel free to skip to the end.

: “So, what’re you doing here? If you don’t have anything to do here, you should hurry up and go home. We’re pretty strict on tardiness here.”

: “Ah! I forgot… yeah, that’s right. I’d assigned you something. What was it again? Ah, the sketchy websites… so how was it? Ah, I see. So you went and collected this flier… I see. Good work.”

: “OK then, shall we get to it?”

: “Using a firewall to strengthen it up, that’s clever. Hm. Bingo…! Hm… so this is the famous ‘dark site’.”

: I like to think that during this, Big Dick is skating around the office and dialling numbers on the phones for no particular reason other than to enhance the late-90s hacker atmosphere.

: Big Dick wakes up the next day and there’s a giant cardboard box labelled “HACKER STUFF” in front of his door.

: “It’s OK. We’ve put reverb on it so I know the address. I wonder how this’ll turn out… keep up the good work. Please continue the investigation. I’m busy with plenty of things myself… goodnight.”

: “If crime had a shape, then the Mikumo case would be lead. Hard, unyielding, and heavy… you can feel the weight of it. Like… it’s heavy.”

: If I was on the writing team for this game, I would absolutely have had Kusabi go “Sumio, you dumbass, lead isn’t a shape.”

: “Look, Sumio. Crime itself has no boundaries. Crime is crime. I’m sure this goes without saying. But, well, I get what you’re saying. That Mikumo stuff was the last of its kind.”

: “People got smarter. They decided they don’t want to touch on other people’s consciousnesses.”

: “Living every day, being exposed to the emotions of the masses, having to interact with people even when you don’t want to. That cycle can easily wear a person down.”

: “I wonder if from here on out this will change into some sort of lighter, easier form.”

: “Who knows… but a person’s emotions don’t just disappear. For example, take ‘evil’. It has to be transformed into actions. It’s the same as math. It depends on what equation you use.”

: You heard it here first, math is confirmed evil.

: “People choose the simplest equation, right? When something convenient is discovered, people adapt to that and grow. Well, some people call that ‘degeneration’, but…”

: “But about what you’re saying… Sumio, you’re just rationalizing what you’ve done. Rationalizing crime – just changing the process and method doesn’t make it a totally different act.”

: “However you try to twist it, you’re a killer. An unforgivable sinner.”

: “That’s pretty harsh…”

: “That’s because I’m a detective. It’s a given for people to try to take the easiest route. As long as a person is alive, that’ll keep going.”

: I hope you’re ready for more uh, exciting IRC action.

: This segment changes up the chat to be a little more readable, probably reflecting that different sites would obviously have different designs.

: Anyway, I’m going to post a brief summary because this is a very long, very pointless conversation: Furuya (as “oldman”) pisses off the Kamui cult, who threaten to kill him.

(stoney)
: here we go again

(Jack)
: Graham, get rid of him.

(Graham)
: oldman?
: what the hell?
: if you just wanna cause trouble
: then go do it somewhere else
: seriously, I’ll kill you.

(Henry)
: OM,
: look, the people here
: can easily confirm all your
: bullshit about yakuza and or whatever
: they’ll find you

: This feels like reading through Homestuck all over again. I got maybe fifty pages into that before I gave up on it.

(oldman)
: you threatening me?
: i’ll report you to the sitemaster

(Jack)
: here we go, trying to turn it
: around on us
: go ahead and report us

(stoney)
: we’re used to it

(sanderson)
: this is a bohemian site
: and by the way OM
: im the sitemaster
: your claim is frivolous
: im rejecting it

(Henry)
: get the fuck out of here
: ill find you and kill your ass

(oldman)
: can you really do it?
: for reals!
: bring it the fuck on if you
: think you can!

: Ah, the age of the internet tough guy.

(Henry)
: well…
: Jack, go for it

(Jack)
: got it.
: sanderson,
: please send me the log
: i just need 15 minutes

(sanderson)
: ok
: oldman, you seem pretty brave
: so go ahead and enjoy yourself
: here for a while
: thatll allow us to
: kill your ass for sure

(Graham)
: lets decide on a motif
: how about alabama, 1974?

: I looked it up, and I have zero idea what Graham is talking about.

(oldman)
: fuck off!
: you think you can get through my defense?
: its impossible, dont even bother

(Neutral)
: OM, you should run.
: you cant win this.
: these guys are net junkies.

(Henry)
: huh??
: you betraying us, neutral?

(Graham)
: hes just doing as his name says
: thats fair
: OM isnt gonna run away like that anyway
: right?
: OM

(sanderson)
: lets see what we can do
: jack, im almost ready on my end
: send it over and ill attack immediately

(Jack)
: youre sure in a hurry…
: just a bit more

(oldman)
: you think you can kill me with sarcasm?

(Neutral)
: these people here can

(oldman)
: how?

: They could’ve cut off the chatlog here and it would’ve been enough… but no. I’m not sure if this was less lame in 1999 or not.

(stoney)
: sanderson, is it ok to just
: leave him alone?

(sanderson)
: stop it there
: neutral is a nice guy
: but this is to protect our place here
: we have to fight our enemies
: or this commune is finished
: i love this place
: i like it here,
: so i have no problem killing with him

(Neutral)
: OK.
: im going now
: OM, keep it up and youre going
: to die, you know
: see you, everyone

(Graham)
: bye

(Jack)
: later

(stoney)
: see you

(sanderson)
: thank you

(Henry)
: stay stafe

(Jack)
: almost there…
: sanderson, you ready?

(sanderson)
: yup, im ready

(oldman)
: are you fuckers serious?

(Henry)
: hes hella scared

(stoney)
: into his crotch

(Henry)
: i bet hes already shit himself

(Graham)
: wtf?

(Henry)
: what?
: you know he is

(Jack)
: ok lets knock this off
: its distracting
: i got this chat window open
: while im working

(sanderson)
: hows it coming…?

(Jack)
: ok, all ready to go
: sending now

(oldman)
: psychos

(Jack)
: psychos?
: maybe…
: but youre having fun, right OM?
: all this thrill just from simple text

: I mentioned it extensively in the P5R LP, but my brain just kinda shuts off in situations like these where I’m being bombarded with exposition that I really don’t care about, and this is definitely one of those.

(sanderson)
: once it comes true
: that gap is gonna be even more thrilling
: hey here it is, I just got it
: ok, you ready
: OM?

(Jack)
: lets kill him

(Henry)
: where at? i got the car ready

(Graham)
: ok everyone, this is alabama
: so dont forget preparations

: I assume by ‘preparations’ he means having a bike in the back of your car in case there’s a football game nearby, because at that point the entire state is going to come to a halt.

(stoney)
: ok, ill set up
: the offline party

(sanderson)
: you ready too, OM?
: everyones so excited, we havent
: hunted in a while
: your address is…

: I stopped attempting to learn Japanese months ago, and the katakana here is too screwy for me to read much of. I can tell the last three characters are “Sa-ya-ka”, which is what this segment is about.

: This segment is probably the horniest I’ve ever seen Suda get, and that’s including No More Heroes.

: I would like to mention that it is implied Big Dick is searching for horny anime content. This is not the case. Big Dick is a chinchilla and has no interest in human women, unlike a certain cat-shaped shadow.

: No, you’re doing it all wrong! You don’t want to wear a swimsuit when eating watermelon, it drips all over the place. Now you’re gonna have to shower again.

: “What?”

: “Was the debriefing today…?”

: “Huh? You haven’t heard? The show’s being broadcast live.”

: “Show? What show?”

: “Sayaka Baian, the idol.”

: “Baian? What, that’s not so rare, is it?”

: “An idol concert means it’ll be broadcast on the Internet, right?”

: “Are you two really detectives? Secretly filmed footage of Baian.”

: “Really? You sure it’s not just a fake?”

: “Totally naked. They sold the password on underground PPV…”

: “How much?”

: “150,000.”

: “Did you buy it?”

: “With your own money?”

: “No.”

: “From the budget?”

: “I’m going to say, yeah.”

: So wait, is he or is he not a pedophile?

: “You think it’ll work?”

: “Yeah.”

: “What about the boss?”

: “Two for 300,000?”

: “Yes.”

: “From the budget?”

: “Of course - it’s part of an investigation.”

: I like to think that at this point, Big Dick shrugs, takes the department credit card, and then uses it to go on a lavish spending spree at an underground chinchilla club.

: They have grass that isn’t even legal in Japan, and expensive sunflower seeds imported from Europe.

: “Jesus Christ…”

: “OK, it’s starting.”

: I like that this is supposed to be a hidden camera thing, yet there’s cameras at multiple angles, including one close enough for her to be looking directly into.

: Even though the plot says it is, I like to think that Nakategawa paid like $2200 for some generic clip from a porn site, and it’s not even Sayaka Baian in the footage.

: Nakategawa and Kotobuki have a combined mental age of about 12.

: I’d like to talk a little about this, because it actually relates to something I talked about in Tsuki. Remember how I said that Japan’s press freedom ranking slipped in the 2010s and never really stopped?

: Recently, the Japanese government passed a law that makes “online insults” punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $2200.

: That law was passed as the result of the high-profile suicide of Hana Kimura, who I think I talked about briefly in the P5R LP. Hana Kimura was a pro wrestler who went on reality TV and developed an online hatebase, because that’s how idol culture works.

: Anyway, there’s serious concerns that the “anti-bullying” law could be used against journalists or people criticizing Japan’s government or politicians.

: “She was killed instantly. Yesterday, Baian had live footage of her private life exposed on the Internet, and upon learning this from her manager, she apparently went into shock and threw herself from the roof of the building.”

: “This isn’t a news report. Just say it normally.”

: “I am. Back to the topic at hand… just after the report of Baian’s suicide, the Telecommunication Crimes Unit found the host.”

: “Eleven people, made up of part-timers and unemployed people, all thought to be members of a hardcore Baian fan club, were arrested.”

: I’m willing to bet it was Konami.

: “So basically, they required high-spec machines and plenty of disk space. They partitioned and customized some of the computers used.”

: “The eleven suspects used their own home computers as hosts and passed the huge access numbers onto the other PCs.”

: “So they were hackers?”

: “Not exactly. Corporate networks with half-assed network administration are relatively easy to get into. You could get access with even just basic knowledge.”

: “Exactly. A lot of the fan club members worked part-time at the company. So they got information from other employees which made getting into the network easy.”

: “Is that even possible?”

: “It’s definitely not impossible at all.”

: “As I just said, it’s relatively easy.”

: “That’s scary. Are we safe here?”

: “I’ll take care of it, so yes.”

: “I see. So they went this far for Sayaka Baian…”

: “The eleven people arrested think they’re heroes, and are apparently looking to get picked up by the media.”

: “Hey, Hachisuka. Did you break up with your boyfriend or something? That short bob looks good on you…”

: “Funny to hear you say that!”

: “I bet you recorded it, didn’t you?”

: “Of course. I had to at least break even.”

: Some police force they have there.

: “Gross…”

: “As a woman, you sympathize with her, right?”

: “Not especially… I’m not interested.”

: “How cold… some messed up fans take this celebrity’s life, and the footage of her gets out into the world, and countless numbers of people peek into her private life. You don’t feel sorry for her?”

: “Should I? That was her job, wasn’t it? As long as her customers have needs, isn’t it her job to fulfill them?”

: “Damn…”

: “Anyway, I’m really not interested. Some idol kills herself and everyone reveres her for it. It’s somewhat common, isn’t it…?”

: “Fucking hell… is it really that bad, Naka?”

: “In a way, thanks to some of her fans, she’ll be able to shine forever now. She’s become a sort of legend…”

: “That’s kind of sad. It happens a lot, but she must’ve been lonely.”

: “But it was a manufactured loneliness.”

: I mean, if Oshi no Ko is anything to go by, it might not be.

: There’s no way this wasn’t shot at whatever building Suda was in prior to forming Grasshopper.

: The audio for this loops and becomes increasingly distorted as the video goes on.

: I’m gonna go ahead and say there’s no way this particular shot isn’t an out-take where the actress burst out laughing.

: This is almost the exact facial expression I made every time Maruki came on screen in Persona 5 Royal.

: Oh man. She’s not playing games, she knows that’s plastic love.

: And that’s this part of Kamuidrome over. There’s still plenty more, enough that I’m not sure I’m going to get through it all in the next update. Next time, we’ll watch as the plot devolves into something that’s more or less Fight Club.

[SpammyV]

It’s a shame we don’t get to watch Kusabi hunting and pecking to write the entire Navy SEAL copypasta one letter at a time.

[Timrod]

Summary

: You might ask what the point of that last scene was, and the answer - at least as far as I can tell - is that there isn’t one. This is something that’ll pop up a lot in Suda’s future works.

: With this game, it isn’t quite as infuriating as Persona 5 was, mostly because it lasts for maybe ten minutes as opposed to ten hours.

: The game sits there for about a minute repeating the “I’ll kill you” line while the bar in the back loads.

: “About Riru.”

: “Riru…? Who the hell is that?”

: Kusabi doesn’t want to share his boyfriend, especially not with the ghost of a seven year old girl.

: “Our goddess.”

: “What? Goddess? You’re burned out, man. The fuck are you talking about, ‘goddess’? Bunch of bullshit.”

: “Didn’t you see her? When Mikumo disappeared, Riru was crying…”

: “Sumio, you’re escaping into fantasy now. Thinking all those sweet-ass thoughts is just fueling your imagination. Coming into contact with ‘crazy’ can fuck you up, too. There’s no medicine for that.”

: “You gotta fight it back. If you can’t, then you’re fucked.”

: “So you think there’s something wrong with me?”

: “Don’t you feel it?”

: “My imagination? You don’t understand. All of our actions are real. The past had been alive. That past had to be killed. A wedge had to be driven in somewhere… I don’t regret it…”

: “The fuck are you even talking about? Sounds to me like you’ve completely checked out.”

: “Tetsu, you should know what I’m talking about. You should know… what’s about to happen now… you’re going to be the one to adjudicate… next it’s you who’ll have to drive that wedge in.”

: “----? You trying to start something?”

: “No… it’s just that the time is almost here.”

: “Whatever the fuck you say…”

: “I guess.”

: “Sumio, I’ll be back.”

: I didn’t think too much of these segments, until right after I finished recording Kamuidrome. After finishing Kamuidrome, I realized that these scenes are almost the main point of the whole chapter.

: Well, I got the offer letter for my new job today. Have I mentioned I’ve been unemployed for the past four months? I was.

: Also, this sounds a lot like the Oracle of Maia. Do we know for sure that Kamui isn’t just Nyarlathotep?

: Meanwhile, Furuya’s going apeshit.

: Anyway, we’ve got some emails between Furuya and “Neutral” here, so I guess I’ll just do those the way I’ve been doing them.

opennewmail
For oldman
From Neutral

Subject: the tin clown
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 03:01:18

its said that insanity begets insanity, but OM, youre a great example.
if you dont have a convenient place, you just make it yourself?
how stupid.
youre just the same as them.
no, youre worse than them
are you trying to become a dictator?
get rid of the outsiders and create a paradise
and make it into your own harem?
people like you are called idiots and losers.
you got the guts to reply?

opennewmail
For Neutral
From oldman

Subject: RE: the tin clown
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 04:26:31

whats so sad that you gotta follow me around?
this is hallowed ground!
disgusting monsters need to go!
dont get in my way.

opennewmail
For oldman
From Neutral

Subject: the unbearable lightness of being
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 05:05:25

a loser is a loser.
you ran away.
you ran away from the pain.
you couldnt take it so you ran away
it wont go away till you die.
you cant escape.
theyll come after you.
theyll hunt you down
youll live in fear.
for the rest of your life.
life in fear.
l.i.v.e.i.n.f.e.a.r.
live in fear.
live in fear.
l.i.v.e.i.n.f.e.a.r.

: I love nothing more than transcribing all-lowercase, no-punctuation internet fights.

opennewmail
For Neutral
From oldman

Subject: RE: the unbearable lightness of being
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 05:49:12

so youre their spy huh?
i dont run away.
im not like that.
im definitely not like that
im a human with the power to change
come at me if you want to.
if youre their spy
then you should know where i am.
do you even have the balls to come here?
bring it on!

: “A…a weapon! I need to find a weapon…”

: “I’LL KILL YOU!”

: “Come on out…”

: I’ve said it before, but I feel like they could’ve cut the Furuya plotline out of the game entirely and it’d be the same story. Kamuidrome feels like something that only really made sense in the mid-90s.

: Neutral doesn’t have an official dialogue portrait, which makes sense because she’s only on screen for a couple of minutes… except it also kinda doesn’t.

: The manual has an entire section of portraits for characters that aren’t even in the game. A couple of them are mentioned in Flower Sun and Rain, but unless the DS version is wildly different from the PS2 original, you never actually see them there either.

: “I…”

: " ‘Neutral’…"

: “Oldman… I’ve been waiting to meet you.”

: “I wanted to meet you, too…”

: “I’ve been watching you.”

: “I’ve been watching you, too…”

: “So your name is ‘Furuya’. My name is ‘Nakama’.”

: “So ‘Neutral’ is actually ‘Nakama’…”

: “So we finally meet.”

: “It’s fate… we’re connected by fate.”

: “I, too, believe in fate.”

: “I…”

: “I didn’t…”

: “It’s hard to explain, but because it was so easy…”

: “What was?”

: “I knew it would turn out like this…”

: “Turn out like this…?”

: “That you and I would meet…”

: “I…”

: “I’d been waiting for you. I’d been watching you.”

: “I wanted you to help me.”

: “No… it’s you who is going to save me.”

: “I’m gonna save you?”

: “Yes…”

: “I…”

: “You’re special. I know that.”

: “I’m ‘special’…? I always knew it, too. But…”

: “It’s OK now… you have nothing to fear…”

: “I was scared… scared of you coming for me… when you came, I understood. What is about to happen…”

: This scene is about three times longer than it really needed to be.

: “Hey.”

: “Hm?”

: “The moon?”

: “You’re going to shine quietly in the darkness… so quietly that nobody will notice.”

: “The moon… it seems so close yet so far away.”

: “A world to which no one can venture.”

: “I’ll look at the world from the side of the moon.”

: “Yes, you’ll watch over people’s sins.”

: Furuya’s about to become a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist.

: “We’ll create our very own world.”

: “You can do it… only you can do this.”

: I’m going to sorta, kinda spoil something here - this plotline is a dead end, and that’s one of the reasons I’m not a fan of Kamuidrome.

: I mean, technically Spectrum was also a dead end in that it had nothing to do with the main plot, but Kamuidrome exists in this weird space where I don’t think Suda understood what he wanted Kamui to be.

: It feels kind of like Suda originally had two endings for this game, with Kamuidrome being the first and then Lifecut (the next and final Transmitter chapter) being the one he ultimately went with.

: I won’t go so far as to say it’s bad, though. There’s definitely people who think Kamuidrome is one of the better chapters in this game, and I think it’s part of Suda’s storytelling style, but I just don’t like it.

: “You get used to it a bit?”

: “I’m comfortable. There’s nothing wrong.”

: “I see…”

: “How about today?”

: “Nothing special…”

: “Do you feel it? Like a harbinger or something…”

: “No… well, I do feel something.”

: “Something is about to begin.”

: “It’s nothing that exaggerated. Yeah, that’s an exaggeration. Shit may get pretty hairy.”

: “It’s complicated, isn’t it?”

: “Yeah, I don’t know.”

: “That’s so like you… are you gonna run?”

: “Run? That’s not what it’s about. Is it, Sumio?”

: “Who knows… I have no idea, myself.”

: “You know what it means for a person to no longer be a person? You get what I mean?”

: “I think so…”

: “How…”

: “How can I put this… you lose the connection that happens when you face another person.”

: “Coming into indirect contact… discommunication…”

: “Something like that. However you wanna put it.”

: This speech here is far more indicative of what Kamui actually is, to the point that when Kamui shows up in No More Heroes 3, he more or less quotes this directly with Travis in Kusabi’s place.

: “Like cables and radio waves.”

: “Like a TV antenna?”

: “Basically, yeah… the cable you connect to a TV… the antenna that picks up the radio waves… a network created by people.”

: “So that’s what you mean… in that case, I’m not interested.”

: “So you’re gonna run away after all…”

: “Fuck off. This isn’t it. Not this.”

: “It’s coming…”

: “What can you do with these connections?”

: “The world is about to change. That flow can’t be changed.”

: “Really? It can’t stand up to an actual entity though, right?”

: “When you put it like that, I get the feeling you may be right.”

: I hope you’re ready for the most Soul Hackers-ass thing since Soul Hackers.

: I like to think that Big Dick is watching this and laughing uncontrollably at what a dipshit mall goth Furuya is.

: “People are always losing love. We came for revolution. The days when love is taken back, I want to give this to the audience.”

: “A person’s history depends on the acceleration of their growth. If that’s so, then we shall take on the job of helping to advance this growth.”

: “From here on out, we will make this a reality in a short time. Let’s set a date for the promised day.”

: Oh my god, it all makes sense now. The white facepaint, the ventilation holes, 09/09/1999… Furuya is going to release the Sega Dreamcast! Truly, a fate worse than death.

: “It has a good ring to it. The time for the coming of the new age is almost upon us. Now we’ll release love. Keep your expectations high.”

: Meanwhile, Neutral has gotten halfway into a Demifiend cosplay and is very upset about it. She looks like a rejected SMT Nocturne demon design.

: “Oldman’s words remind me of those of our revered and accomplished predecessors, and have the same destructive power. I will not tell everyone to believe in me. Why not?”

: “Because people are given love fairly and without prejudice. What will the gods of legend do for you? Oldman is different. He will give you real love.”

: If I was writing this, you’d hear a doorbell ring in the background, and then the video cuts out as Kusabi shows up with a squad to capture the mall goths and bring them back to Hot Topic.

: “The results are everything. We’ll show you the truth. What is ‘reality’? The promised day will bring a great revolution. Are you prepared?”

: I’m going to cut this update off here and split it into two for readability purposes. The other half is almost done, and by the end of next update we’ll have finished Kamuidrome.

: In the meantime, have Big Dick going full-on 90s cyberpunk. Salty Vanilla is always looking for more work, in case you want something for yourself.