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 8:12:05I’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 AMYou 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 AMI 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 9:12:12After 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, 9:21:14You 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.