EPTOne of the craziest, maddening, and afterward, difficult to rate games ever. The write-up is LONG, it eclipses my Steins;Gate write-up by two-fold, and was done while I was playing, so it's not particularly proof-read. It's been sitting around in my inbox (was e-mailing a few friends as I played) forever, as I didn't really know if it's worth posting, but what the hey. At least this is a way to archive it alongside gmail.
Down the Rabbit-Hole
+ Show Spoiler +
So to give you an idea of the atmosphere of this VN, the title screen is almost pure white, has no background music, and clicking any of the buttons (Start, Load, etc.) makes no sound. It is dead silent.
When you first start from scratch, you get this unbelievably annoying image of a bluish-why sky with sunflowers and, in a spur of genius, white text (yes!) quoting lines from Cyrano de Bergerac.
Then you're introduced to the main character of the "first chapter," Minakami Yuki, a girl who "loves cigarettes, rooftops, and frilly dresses." She also loves staring at the sky; it's why she's on the rooftop of the school skipping classes. It's also readily apparent that although she's skipping school and smoking cigarettes as a high schooler, she's not some some typical low-level scrub - she's ridiculously well-read. It's July 12. In this first scene she encounters Mamiya Takuji, this timid guy that reminds me of Ikari Shinji from Evangelion. And it's made clear how much difficulty she has remembering people she should know; specifically, it takes her a while to recognize him despite being in the same class. The scene changes to her being in town buying a rock album, and on the way home she runs across some childhood friends, twins that by all accounts seem to rips from the anime Lucky Star - they look the same and even share names with them (well, their first names - Kagami and Tsukasa - the last name is different). Once again she appears to have difficulty remembering their names, although it's hard to figure out if she's just joking around (oh, ohh, right, so what's the big sister doing...). Nevertheless, after parting from them because she's not intending to go home yet, and being beat up by Kagami (tsundere) after teasing her, she wanders around, "gets lost" and happens across a mansion. She looks up.
At the rooftop of the mansion seems to be some shadows "scuffling." And they're perilously close to the edge of the roof and... voila, one begins falling. She briefly ponders what to do, because it's not like you can catch a freefalling person without dying, but then decides to go for it anyways (how heroic) and catches...
... a stuffed animal.
Confused, she races up the mansion to the rooftop, running into Takashima Zakuro, a girl from the class next door - she barely recognizes her. The ensuing conversation reveals that Zakuro is the "girl of the sky" and is trying to find the "girl of this world" in an effort to find the "sky of the beginning" and the "sky of the end." Yes, sort of insane. When asked about why she's tossing stuffed animals from the roof, she explains she's doing it because if she does it right, "all the worlds focus their attention on the stuffed animal's flight." She also reveals she must do this when the "summer's great triangle" (astrology - Altair, Deneb, and Vega) is visible. It's also worth noting that during this conversation Zakuro reveals an ability to keep up with and even trade quotes from classical literature. On a whim, Yuki decides to help Zakuro find the "girl of this world," despite the bizarre-ness of the talk. Does this make sense to you? Good, because it didn't to me either.
As a result of her decision to assist Zakuro, the latter decides to move into Yuki's house as a maid. Kagami and Tsukasa (the former clearly has feelings for Yuki) force themselves in, too, unwilling to let Zakuro live alone with Yuki (ie. jealousy). What follows is a bizarre night in which they have verbal catfighting and it ends up looking like your typical romance harem story. And because they mess around late into the night, Yuki and Tsukasa refuse to go to school (want more sleep - although it's just a convenient excuse for Yuki, who had no intention of going to school that day anyways). What follows is another day is weird catfighting over Yuki.
The next day they go to school, and Yuki skips class as always, simply opting to read books on the rooftop. Here you're introduced to Otonashi Ayana, a mysterious girl speaking largely in monotone who also inhabits the rooftop. She and Yuki joke with each other; they're both highly intellectual and slightly off-kilter. But there's something else about Otonashi, as she stares off into the sky, "I'm looking at the sky of the end." She knows about Zakuro, knows what Zakuro's doing, and even expounds on it, but speaks in riddles. The most noteworthy thing here is that when she says she's staring at the sky of the end, and mentions that one day Yuki will do the same, Yuki feels an incredible amount of fear.
Days pass, and on the 18th, Yuki goes on a date to an amusement park with Zakuro. Most noteworthy is one attraction they visit, "The Sky of the End," which is a haunted house. Except it's pretty obvious to you (the reader) that something's wrong. The first room they enter is an empty convenience store - all the packages expired ~1999, and given that in this VN it's the year 2012, yeah. At the register they see a placard titling the room "The Convenience Store of the End." Also noteworthy is that this scene is an actual photo of a convenience store, but given a blue Gaussian Blur. This theme continues for a classroom, an office, a kitchen, etc. All titled "The ___ of the End" and a blue Gaussian blurred photo. By the end, Yuki can't help but remark, "It's like we're the ghosts; ghosts whom have returned to wander an empty world."
On the way home Zakuro remarks that they'll find the "Sky of the End" tomorrow, for tomorrow is the 19th. And that things are coming to an end; for she must depart tomorrow: she's "transferring (schools, implicatively)" She thanks Yuki, and leaves, returning to her own home.
When Yuki returns home, she finds it empty, as the twins are nowhere to be seen. She finds this odd, given how forceful they were in barging in when they found out Zakuro was staying, but she's too tired to think too much about it.
She wakes up the next day..... and immediately realizes something's amiss. The world is empty. There's no one else around. The twins are not at their home. The train station is empty, and she didn't run across a single person on the walk to it. But the train is still functional - it arrives on time, and she takes a ride to get to school. And not knowing anywhere else to turn, she runs up to the rooftop, to find none other than Zakuro. What ensues is a conversation about worlds - how each person has an "inner world" consisting of things they perceive, and that there's an "outer world" in which the inner worlds exist and connect to each other. There is a transfer of "data" between the inner and outer world, and that's how different worlds see things in different ways. Yuki (and you) become confused by this - it's hard to see what the point of this conversation is. Zakuro then remarks that Yuki is a god of this world, and is able to make things happen as she sees fit. But she (and you) are confused by this. It makes no sense, and Zakuro's pretty batshit crazy anyways.
Zakuro, remarking that it's time, walks to the edge of the roof and tosses the stuffed animal. This time, as she'd been saying all along, she appears to "get it right," for the stuffed animal doesn't fall, it floats, then begins talking, cracking light jokes. And then Yuki hears a train. And it appears, stopping at the rooftop. The Galactic Railway. Zakuro gives a ticket to the stuffed animal, which calls itself the conductor, and steps onboard. Yuki remarks she has no ticket, but the conductor reaches into her pocket and takes out a very special ticket, littered with crosses. It's an unlimited pass - she can go wherever she pleases. She is rushed onboard, as the train only stops for 5 minutes. The train takes off, as she sits across from Zakuro.
A strange man greets them as they sit. What ensues is a bizarre conversation in which the man simply quotes from Cyrano de Bergerac, Yuki tag-teams quotes, and Zakuro seems to be quoting from something else. And then the stranger talks about how he's gotten old, but he fondly remembers the memories of his master whom he served for so long. He states his desire to be with his master, and shows the lines on his hands; they're marks given to him by his master, so that he would "look right." And then it dawns on Yuki. That this strange man isn't a strange man, but rather the copy of Cyrano de Bergerac she'd owned since she was a child, and had taken with her everywhere, for it was her favorite book.
And then the train approaches the "Sky of the End." It's a black hole. And she realizes that she's on the journey to the moon, like Cyrano, and then she realizes "the truth," and understands that she'd taken the wrong turn somewhere. She asks Zakuro if she needs to go alone. Yes, she did. And Zakuro tearfully tells her that Zakuro's duty was to guide Yuki back to her world, and that she cherished the time they shared together, that it'd be her most precious memory in her lifetime. Yuki realizes then that she's the "girl of this world." After asking, "So I was actually hit by [Zakuro's falling body]" as opposed to a stuffed animal, and being given an affirmative answer, she stands up. The train coasts through the black hole, and she sees utter darkness. Then a world of blinding light.
And then Minakami Yuki wakes up.
Staff roll.
Title screen.
When you first start from scratch, you get this unbelievably annoying image of a bluish-why sky with sunflowers and, in a spur of genius, white text (yes!) quoting lines from Cyrano de Bergerac.
Then you're introduced to the main character of the "first chapter," Minakami Yuki, a girl who "loves cigarettes, rooftops, and frilly dresses." She also loves staring at the sky; it's why she's on the rooftop of the school skipping classes. It's also readily apparent that although she's skipping school and smoking cigarettes as a high schooler, she's not some some typical low-level scrub - she's ridiculously well-read. It's July 12. In this first scene she encounters Mamiya Takuji, this timid guy that reminds me of Ikari Shinji from Evangelion. And it's made clear how much difficulty she has remembering people she should know; specifically, it takes her a while to recognize him despite being in the same class. The scene changes to her being in town buying a rock album, and on the way home she runs across some childhood friends, twins that by all accounts seem to rips from the anime Lucky Star - they look the same and even share names with them (well, their first names - Kagami and Tsukasa - the last name is different). Once again she appears to have difficulty remembering their names, although it's hard to figure out if she's just joking around (oh, ohh, right, so what's the big sister doing...). Nevertheless, after parting from them because she's not intending to go home yet, and being beat up by Kagami (tsundere) after teasing her, she wanders around, "gets lost" and happens across a mansion. She looks up.
At the rooftop of the mansion seems to be some shadows "scuffling." And they're perilously close to the edge of the roof and... voila, one begins falling. She briefly ponders what to do, because it's not like you can catch a freefalling person without dying, but then decides to go for it anyways (how heroic) and catches...
... a stuffed animal.
Confused, she races up the mansion to the rooftop, running into Takashima Zakuro, a girl from the class next door - she barely recognizes her. The ensuing conversation reveals that Zakuro is the "girl of the sky" and is trying to find the "girl of this world" in an effort to find the "sky of the beginning" and the "sky of the end." Yes, sort of insane. When asked about why she's tossing stuffed animals from the roof, she explains she's doing it because if she does it right, "all the worlds focus their attention on the stuffed animal's flight." She also reveals she must do this when the "summer's great triangle" (astrology - Altair, Deneb, and Vega) is visible. It's also worth noting that during this conversation Zakuro reveals an ability to keep up with and even trade quotes from classical literature. On a whim, Yuki decides to help Zakuro find the "girl of this world," despite the bizarre-ness of the talk. Does this make sense to you? Good, because it didn't to me either.
As a result of her decision to assist Zakuro, the latter decides to move into Yuki's house as a maid. Kagami and Tsukasa (the former clearly has feelings for Yuki) force themselves in, too, unwilling to let Zakuro live alone with Yuki (ie. jealousy). What follows is a bizarre night in which they have verbal catfighting and it ends up looking like your typical romance harem story. And because they mess around late into the night, Yuki and Tsukasa refuse to go to school (want more sleep - although it's just a convenient excuse for Yuki, who had no intention of going to school that day anyways). What follows is another day is weird catfighting over Yuki.
The next day they go to school, and Yuki skips class as always, simply opting to read books on the rooftop. Here you're introduced to Otonashi Ayana, a mysterious girl speaking largely in monotone who also inhabits the rooftop. She and Yuki joke with each other; they're both highly intellectual and slightly off-kilter. But there's something else about Otonashi, as she stares off into the sky, "I'm looking at the sky of the end." She knows about Zakuro, knows what Zakuro's doing, and even expounds on it, but speaks in riddles. The most noteworthy thing here is that when she says she's staring at the sky of the end, and mentions that one day Yuki will do the same, Yuki feels an incredible amount of fear.
Days pass, and on the 18th, Yuki goes on a date to an amusement park with Zakuro. Most noteworthy is one attraction they visit, "The Sky of the End," which is a haunted house. Except it's pretty obvious to you (the reader) that something's wrong. The first room they enter is an empty convenience store - all the packages expired ~1999, and given that in this VN it's the year 2012, yeah. At the register they see a placard titling the room "The Convenience Store of the End." Also noteworthy is that this scene is an actual photo of a convenience store, but given a blue Gaussian Blur. This theme continues for a classroom, an office, a kitchen, etc. All titled "The ___ of the End" and a blue Gaussian blurred photo. By the end, Yuki can't help but remark, "It's like we're the ghosts; ghosts whom have returned to wander an empty world."
On the way home Zakuro remarks that they'll find the "Sky of the End" tomorrow, for tomorrow is the 19th. And that things are coming to an end; for she must depart tomorrow: she's "transferring (schools, implicatively)" She thanks Yuki, and leaves, returning to her own home.
When Yuki returns home, she finds it empty, as the twins are nowhere to be seen. She finds this odd, given how forceful they were in barging in when they found out Zakuro was staying, but she's too tired to think too much about it.
She wakes up the next day..... and immediately realizes something's amiss. The world is empty. There's no one else around. The twins are not at their home. The train station is empty, and she didn't run across a single person on the walk to it. But the train is still functional - it arrives on time, and she takes a ride to get to school. And not knowing anywhere else to turn, she runs up to the rooftop, to find none other than Zakuro. What ensues is a conversation about worlds - how each person has an "inner world" consisting of things they perceive, and that there's an "outer world" in which the inner worlds exist and connect to each other. There is a transfer of "data" between the inner and outer world, and that's how different worlds see things in different ways. Yuki (and you) become confused by this - it's hard to see what the point of this conversation is. Zakuro then remarks that Yuki is a god of this world, and is able to make things happen as she sees fit. But she (and you) are confused by this. It makes no sense, and Zakuro's pretty batshit crazy anyways.
Zakuro, remarking that it's time, walks to the edge of the roof and tosses the stuffed animal. This time, as she'd been saying all along, she appears to "get it right," for the stuffed animal doesn't fall, it floats, then begins talking, cracking light jokes. And then Yuki hears a train. And it appears, stopping at the rooftop. The Galactic Railway. Zakuro gives a ticket to the stuffed animal, which calls itself the conductor, and steps onboard. Yuki remarks she has no ticket, but the conductor reaches into her pocket and takes out a very special ticket, littered with crosses. It's an unlimited pass - she can go wherever she pleases. She is rushed onboard, as the train only stops for 5 minutes. The train takes off, as she sits across from Zakuro.
A strange man greets them as they sit. What ensues is a bizarre conversation in which the man simply quotes from Cyrano de Bergerac, Yuki tag-teams quotes, and Zakuro seems to be quoting from something else. And then the stranger talks about how he's gotten old, but he fondly remembers the memories of his master whom he served for so long. He states his desire to be with his master, and shows the lines on his hands; they're marks given to him by his master, so that he would "look right." And then it dawns on Yuki. That this strange man isn't a strange man, but rather the copy of Cyrano de Bergerac she'd owned since she was a child, and had taken with her everywhere, for it was her favorite book.
And then the train approaches the "Sky of the End." It's a black hole. And she realizes that she's on the journey to the moon, like Cyrano, and then she realizes "the truth," and understands that she'd taken the wrong turn somewhere. She asks Zakuro if she needs to go alone. Yes, she did. And Zakuro tearfully tells her that Zakuro's duty was to guide Yuki back to her world, and that she cherished the time they shared together, that it'd be her most precious memory in her lifetime. Yuki realizes then that she's the "girl of this world." After asking, "So I was actually hit by [Zakuro's falling body]" as opposed to a stuffed animal, and being given an affirmative answer, she stands up. The train coasts through the black hole, and she sees utter darkness. Then a world of blinding light.
And then Minakami Yuki wakes up.
Staff roll.
Title screen.
Down the Rabbit-Hole
+ Show Spoiler +
Theoretically the previous "chapter" was also titled Down the Rabbit Hole.
From the title screen, you're forced to click Start again, and this time it brings you to this... other title screen, except this time it's a picture of Yuki and someone else, and it's cracked in 6, radiating from the center. You know, like a pizza. The only cracked piece you can select right now is called Down the Rabbit Hole.
Once again you are introduced to the "main character," Minakami Yuki, a girl who "loves cigarettes, rooftops, and frilly dresses." There're some slight changes from the previous chapter (which I'll call chapter 0 from now on). For instance, while staring at the sky, she ponders the existence of god, remarking that there're two types of creators when it comes to works in project. One is those that say "I'm still working on it, don't look yet!" Another is those that decide "this isn't what I'm trying to make!" and then scrap it. She decides resolutely that god must be the latter, and that it means he stopped caring about humans. Bitch.
She also ponders why the sky is always the same color. If she were god, she'd make the sky have a different color every day. To keep things fresh. And then she wonders why none of god's subordinates offer any opinions to god. She wonders if god rules the heavens with an iron fist, like a dictator. How scary. Bitch.
Much of this beginning plays out like Chapter 0. The biggest difference is that on the way home, she runs into Takashima Zakuro, who abruptly kisses her, mentions "terrible things are going to happen," that she's going to "give some strength" to Yuki, and that she would "fight to protect the world" that's about to end. Zakuro is then taken away by two friends. And as Yuki stands bewildered, the twins appear, the intro conversation from chapter 0 repeats, but instead of simply parting, they drag her home against her will - she'd wanted to roam. And because she's dragged home, she simply goes to sleep. Yes, you can figure out what didn't happen.
So she goes to school the next day, having been forced awake by the twins. Only to find that Takashima Zakuro had committed suicide by jumping off the rooftop of a mansion. Remembering that she was "contacted by someone going to death" (kissed) she finds herself abnormally shocked. And then something deep down hints at her something is "wrong," something is "off" and she begins to investigate.
Things she finds includes bizarre anime-ish gibberish on Zakuro's desk, as well as Mamiya Takuji's voice. She finds two sets of fingerprints on the desk as well (using a detective set), and she finds out about the existence of an "underground forum" for the school.
Conversations with Otonashi Ayana initially mirror that of chapter 0, but as time passes Otonashi becomes creepier and creepier. She mentions how Yuki is trying to dig up "something that she'd hidden, herself" and wonders why human beings forget things that they should know, and shirk away from the truth. Yuki also begins having headaches and dizziness in some circumstances, primarily (at least that you can recognize) in the presence of Mamiya Takuji. This comes in effect later.
Investigations lead her to the underground forum and a certain "Web Bot Project," the latter of which foretells the end of the world on July 20th, 2012. Quick searching leads her to realize that for the most part the site is a scam (it posts "prophecies" after the fact, so that it looks like it foretold an event but in actually it didn't), but the one prophecy on the site is the July 20th end of the world. She also notices the underground school forum is filled with nasty talk such as the bullying of Zakuro - she deduces Zakuro had killed herself because of the bullying.
Around this time the school is becoming swept in a wave of hysteria over the end of the world, something Zakuro herself had also foretold. This is in particular because a week ago some student named Shiroyama had also jumped off and died, and now Zakuro, and then a future third. At this point Mamiya Takuji "wakes up" and becomes sounding like a messiah, speaking of prophecies of the future, such as that a third would also die, and he also spouts stuff like Zakuro and Shiroyama were simply sacrifices for the messiah to save the world. With the world going mad, Yuki becomes more and more urgent and trying to figure out what's going on. She tracks down the web creator of Web Bot Project - this leads her to Mamiya Takuji's family, or specifically his little sister (Mamiya Hazaki) and his apparently deranged mother, who'd prophesized the end of the world after splitting from a cult. Now firmly believing that everything is a sham, she begins setting about trying to discern what ended up giving Takuji so much power in the school after simply being the target of bullying for so long (rather quick and sudden turnaround in status). She slowly finds out that eerie e-mails had been sent from Zakuro's e-mail address, such as "it hurts it hurts it hurts" as well as photos such as "I am the ghost of Zakuro, and here is my corpse" with a photo of the three bodies after plummeting.
Around the 15th, she encounters Takuji by the old (now unused) swimming pool. She's beset by headaches and dizziness, destroying her concentration. And something is indeed wrong. Because Takuji was reading her mind completely, and giving cryptic answers like "I refuse to say hello to you" and saying that she knew nothing about the truth.
Around July 16 she hears moaning in the school grounds and is horrified to find a teacher dying, having apparently fallen from the rooftop. The teacher groans out "Mamiya... Takuji..." before dying. Yuki pockets the teacher's cell phone and runs from the scene, absolutely terrified. And then she tries to calm herself, and begins tracing cell phone messages. She finds Zakuro's cell phone number, as it had been used to intimidate the teacher. As the cell phone must be in police hands (you know, from the body of Zakuro), she bemusedly calls the phone, expecting no one to pick it up.
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
She stifles a scream.
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
Yes, Zakuro's bloodied, slightly-cracked cell phone is under her bed. She fearfully picks it up, and checks out the fingerprints. They all belong to Zakuro. She quickly sprays the room. Zakuro's fingerprints are everywhere. And then a black phantom begins creeping toward her from the side of the room, and it speaks gibberish. Now completely at her wit's end, she takes off. And having no where to go, she goes to the rooftop of school, encountering the mysterious Otonashi Ayana, who ridicules her lack of composure. After all, Yuki was designed to be cool, calm, collected, and smart. What was she doing?
And despite the taunting tone from Otonashi, it calms her down enough to settle down and backtrack. She checks the message history from both phones, and realizes there's a second set of fingerprints on the phone. And this fingerprint presumably matched the fingerprints in her room. She hurries to Zakuro's desk and checks for fingerprints again. Yes, the second set matches. And so she checks the fingerprints of the obvious suspect - Mamiya Takuji's desk. They match. She hurries back to Otonashi, apologizing for the delay, and explains what she's found out. Not that Otonashi cares. Anyways all the things tie together for Yuki - Takuji had used mind tricks to intimidate and then slowly convince the students, primarily centered around those who'd bullied Zakuro, into believing everything he said. And he'd caused the death of the teacher by scaring the shit out of her, causing her to look for Zakuro's doll, and then calling her, "I'm behind you now" as she reached over the fence to pick up the stuffed animal and thus lose her balance and plummet. etc. etc. But then Otonashi remarks.
Then what about the twins?
Riiight, because they don't fit into any of this. And then it hits Yuki - she hadn't seen the twins in days. She rushes home. Bangs on their door. Calls them. Nothing. And then she realizes how stupid she'd been, so self-absorbed in her fear that she hadn't realized they'd been missing for two days. Desperate, she begins tracing her memory for everything about Takuji. And she remembers meeting him twice around the old pool, including once in which she'd wondered where he'd appeared from. So she runs to the pool, and finds a manhole. Mmhmm. She lifts it, enters the sewer, goes through the tunnel, and begins hearing sobs. Tsukasa's sobs. She opens another manhole and appears in the power generator room for the current pool. And there she finds Tsukasa, sitting in a pool of blood, sobbing over Kagami's terribly cut-up body. She breaks down, apologizing for being stupid and late, and takes them both home - she carried Kagami on her back, and held Tsukasa's hand... and remembered how a long time ago, she'd carried Kagami like this before, and there's a brief scene reminiscing over their conversation then. And wiping away tears, she arrives at their house, rings the bell, and begins apologizing to the mother...
... only to find out that the residence is owner by someone she doesn't know. And they threaten to call the cops on her because...
... she's lugging around a ripped stuffed rabbit. The reader recognizes this rabbit as the conductor of the galactic railway.
And Tsukasa is not there. Instead in her place is the black phantom that had crept toward Yuki, and is again speaking gibberish.
Terrified, but also filled with anger and confusion, and with the clock ticking to the 18th, Yuki storms back to the sewer tunnel, and finds an emergency ladder. Climbing this leads her to Tower C, from which Shiroyama and the teacher had plummeted. And on the rooftop stands Takuji and another figure, but the other figure quickly walks off the rooftop and plummets to their death. She shouts at Takuji and outlines all of the "tricks" he'd used to dupe people (and in effect kill them), and Takuji laughs back, saying everyone was simply returning to the sky - the implication is that everyone in the school that had believed him had jumped off the rooftop ala that other shadow and were lying in a pile on the ground. Yuki demands to know what Takuji had done to her, and what Takuji had done to the twins. Takuji replies he did nothing to Yuki, and the twins "had it coming." Yuki shouts that the former is a lie. And then Takuji rants about the sky of the end, and about how Yuki was pathetic, stupid and slow, and didn't know a single thing until the end, and then he jumps off, himself.
Otonashi Ayana, standing on the rooftop (as always), begins mocking Yuki, chanting (in monotone) "Mamiya Takuji Has Died," and this confuses Yuki terribly, as she still doesn't know what happened to the twins. She remembers the words Takuji had thrown to her as he jumped.
"You know, I liked you all along."
Title screen.
From the title screen, you're forced to click Start again, and this time it brings you to this... other title screen, except this time it's a picture of Yuki and someone else, and it's cracked in 6, radiating from the center. You know, like a pizza. The only cracked piece you can select right now is called Down the Rabbit Hole.
Once again you are introduced to the "main character," Minakami Yuki, a girl who "loves cigarettes, rooftops, and frilly dresses." There're some slight changes from the previous chapter (which I'll call chapter 0 from now on). For instance, while staring at the sky, she ponders the existence of god, remarking that there're two types of creators when it comes to works in project. One is those that say "I'm still working on it, don't look yet!" Another is those that decide "this isn't what I'm trying to make!" and then scrap it. She decides resolutely that god must be the latter, and that it means he stopped caring about humans. Bitch.
She also ponders why the sky is always the same color. If she were god, she'd make the sky have a different color every day. To keep things fresh. And then she wonders why none of god's subordinates offer any opinions to god. She wonders if god rules the heavens with an iron fist, like a dictator. How scary. Bitch.
Much of this beginning plays out like Chapter 0. The biggest difference is that on the way home, she runs into Takashima Zakuro, who abruptly kisses her, mentions "terrible things are going to happen," that she's going to "give some strength" to Yuki, and that she would "fight to protect the world" that's about to end. Zakuro is then taken away by two friends. And as Yuki stands bewildered, the twins appear, the intro conversation from chapter 0 repeats, but instead of simply parting, they drag her home against her will - she'd wanted to roam. And because she's dragged home, she simply goes to sleep. Yes, you can figure out what didn't happen.
So she goes to school the next day, having been forced awake by the twins. Only to find that Takashima Zakuro had committed suicide by jumping off the rooftop of a mansion. Remembering that she was "contacted by someone going to death" (kissed) she finds herself abnormally shocked. And then something deep down hints at her something is "wrong," something is "off" and she begins to investigate.
Things she finds includes bizarre anime-ish gibberish on Zakuro's desk, as well as Mamiya Takuji's voice. She finds two sets of fingerprints on the desk as well (using a detective set), and she finds out about the existence of an "underground forum" for the school.
Conversations with Otonashi Ayana initially mirror that of chapter 0, but as time passes Otonashi becomes creepier and creepier. She mentions how Yuki is trying to dig up "something that she'd hidden, herself" and wonders why human beings forget things that they should know, and shirk away from the truth. Yuki also begins having headaches and dizziness in some circumstances, primarily (at least that you can recognize) in the presence of Mamiya Takuji. This comes in effect later.
Investigations lead her to the underground forum and a certain "Web Bot Project," the latter of which foretells the end of the world on July 20th, 2012. Quick searching leads her to realize that for the most part the site is a scam (it posts "prophecies" after the fact, so that it looks like it foretold an event but in actually it didn't), but the one prophecy on the site is the July 20th end of the world. She also notices the underground school forum is filled with nasty talk such as the bullying of Zakuro - she deduces Zakuro had killed herself because of the bullying.
Around this time the school is becoming swept in a wave of hysteria over the end of the world, something Zakuro herself had also foretold. This is in particular because a week ago some student named Shiroyama had also jumped off and died, and now Zakuro, and then a future third. At this point Mamiya Takuji "wakes up" and becomes sounding like a messiah, speaking of prophecies of the future, such as that a third would also die, and he also spouts stuff like Zakuro and Shiroyama were simply sacrifices for the messiah to save the world. With the world going mad, Yuki becomes more and more urgent and trying to figure out what's going on. She tracks down the web creator of Web Bot Project - this leads her to Mamiya Takuji's family, or specifically his little sister (Mamiya Hazaki) and his apparently deranged mother, who'd prophesized the end of the world after splitting from a cult. Now firmly believing that everything is a sham, she begins setting about trying to discern what ended up giving Takuji so much power in the school after simply being the target of bullying for so long (rather quick and sudden turnaround in status). She slowly finds out that eerie e-mails had been sent from Zakuro's e-mail address, such as "it hurts it hurts it hurts" as well as photos such as "I am the ghost of Zakuro, and here is my corpse" with a photo of the three bodies after plummeting.
Around the 15th, she encounters Takuji by the old (now unused) swimming pool. She's beset by headaches and dizziness, destroying her concentration. And something is indeed wrong. Because Takuji was reading her mind completely, and giving cryptic answers like "I refuse to say hello to you" and saying that she knew nothing about the truth.
Around July 16 she hears moaning in the school grounds and is horrified to find a teacher dying, having apparently fallen from the rooftop. The teacher groans out "Mamiya... Takuji..." before dying. Yuki pockets the teacher's cell phone and runs from the scene, absolutely terrified. And then she tries to calm herself, and begins tracing cell phone messages. She finds Zakuro's cell phone number, as it had been used to intimidate the teacher. As the cell phone must be in police hands (you know, from the body of Zakuro), she bemusedly calls the phone, expecting no one to pick it up.
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
She stifles a scream.
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
BZZZZZZZT
Yes, Zakuro's bloodied, slightly-cracked cell phone is under her bed. She fearfully picks it up, and checks out the fingerprints. They all belong to Zakuro. She quickly sprays the room. Zakuro's fingerprints are everywhere. And then a black phantom begins creeping toward her from the side of the room, and it speaks gibberish. Now completely at her wit's end, she takes off. And having no where to go, she goes to the rooftop of school, encountering the mysterious Otonashi Ayana, who ridicules her lack of composure. After all, Yuki was designed to be cool, calm, collected, and smart. What was she doing?
And despite the taunting tone from Otonashi, it calms her down enough to settle down and backtrack. She checks the message history from both phones, and realizes there's a second set of fingerprints on the phone. And this fingerprint presumably matched the fingerprints in her room. She hurries to Zakuro's desk and checks for fingerprints again. Yes, the second set matches. And so she checks the fingerprints of the obvious suspect - Mamiya Takuji's desk. They match. She hurries back to Otonashi, apologizing for the delay, and explains what she's found out. Not that Otonashi cares. Anyways all the things tie together for Yuki - Takuji had used mind tricks to intimidate and then slowly convince the students, primarily centered around those who'd bullied Zakuro, into believing everything he said. And he'd caused the death of the teacher by scaring the shit out of her, causing her to look for Zakuro's doll, and then calling her, "I'm behind you now" as she reached over the fence to pick up the stuffed animal and thus lose her balance and plummet. etc. etc. But then Otonashi remarks.
Then what about the twins?
Riiight, because they don't fit into any of this. And then it hits Yuki - she hadn't seen the twins in days. She rushes home. Bangs on their door. Calls them. Nothing. And then she realizes how stupid she'd been, so self-absorbed in her fear that she hadn't realized they'd been missing for two days. Desperate, she begins tracing her memory for everything about Takuji. And she remembers meeting him twice around the old pool, including once in which she'd wondered where he'd appeared from. So she runs to the pool, and finds a manhole. Mmhmm. She lifts it, enters the sewer, goes through the tunnel, and begins hearing sobs. Tsukasa's sobs. She opens another manhole and appears in the power generator room for the current pool. And there she finds Tsukasa, sitting in a pool of blood, sobbing over Kagami's terribly cut-up body. She breaks down, apologizing for being stupid and late, and takes them both home - she carried Kagami on her back, and held Tsukasa's hand... and remembered how a long time ago, she'd carried Kagami like this before, and there's a brief scene reminiscing over their conversation then. And wiping away tears, she arrives at their house, rings the bell, and begins apologizing to the mother...
... only to find out that the residence is owner by someone she doesn't know. And they threaten to call the cops on her because...
... she's lugging around a ripped stuffed rabbit. The reader recognizes this rabbit as the conductor of the galactic railway.
And Tsukasa is not there. Instead in her place is the black phantom that had crept toward Yuki, and is again speaking gibberish.
Terrified, but also filled with anger and confusion, and with the clock ticking to the 18th, Yuki storms back to the sewer tunnel, and finds an emergency ladder. Climbing this leads her to Tower C, from which Shiroyama and the teacher had plummeted. And on the rooftop stands Takuji and another figure, but the other figure quickly walks off the rooftop and plummets to their death. She shouts at Takuji and outlines all of the "tricks" he'd used to dupe people (and in effect kill them), and Takuji laughs back, saying everyone was simply returning to the sky - the implication is that everyone in the school that had believed him had jumped off the rooftop ala that other shadow and were lying in a pile on the ground. Yuki demands to know what Takuji had done to her, and what Takuji had done to the twins. Takuji replies he did nothing to Yuki, and the twins "had it coming." Yuki shouts that the former is a lie. And then Takuji rants about the sky of the end, and about how Yuki was pathetic, stupid and slow, and didn't know a single thing until the end, and then he jumps off, himself.
Otonashi Ayana, standing on the rooftop (as always), begins mocking Yuki, chanting (in monotone) "Mamiya Takuji Has Died," and this confuses Yuki terribly, as she still doesn't know what happened to the twins. She remembers the words Takuji had thrown to her as he jumped.
"You know, I liked you all along."
Title screen.
It's my Own Invention
+ Show Spoiler +
Chapter 2 follows Mamiya Takuji beginning July 2. This chapter really mindfucked me and I'm really confused so I'm not gonna be as detailed (it was also long as hell).
It starts off with him talking about his "secret base," a place you get to by going down the manhole near the old swimming pool, through the waste sewer, up into the power generator room, and then through it; you get to a little room, which he's decorated with a cheap carpet and brought furniture such desks, tables, chairs, etc. He's also got a computer set up in there, and he has a cheap power generator he stole from a farm in the power generator room - it's loud, but can't be heard from above ground, so aside from random maintenance workers coming in and thinking it's just related to the pool, no one is bothered by it and thus no one is tipped to the secret room. The room is filled with manga and anime and light novels, because he's a hardcore otaku. He's always had a fascination with secret bases because his mother was really strict raising him and looked down on manga etc. so he had to hide them away in random places, like abandoned buildings. This was his 7th.
On the 3rd he runs into a Takashima Zakuro, whom he doesn't really recognize, and in an effort to escape from bulliest he leaps under the manhole to hide - against his initial instincts, he brings Zakuro down with him because he knows she's also the subject of bullying. And pressed on by curiosity about her, he lets her in on his secret base, which awes her because she, too, is an otaku. She, in turn, to keep things "fair" tells him a secret, too, which is that she usually sticks a vibe in herself on the train-ride to school, and she also takes off her underwear for him. He thinks she has feelings for him.
However on the 4th something happens, because she begins to avoid him. He's angry, spitting that "girls are girls" and they show interest and then just toss guys away. On the underground forum he's created he notices bullying of Zakuro has intensified to the point that some of the classmates are afraid of the police, etc. but he doesn't really care.
On the 5th he gets bullied by Yuuki Tomosane and his cohorts.
On the 6th he gets bullied again, and remarks how the bullies had become "crazier" with their bullying, going into sexual harassment. He gets forced to dress as a girl, is forced to masturbate in front of them, and then is forced to give them blowjobs. However this sexual harassment took place without Tomosane, who appears, and enraged by this show, beats the crap out of the cohorts (including Shiroyama). Afterwards Takuji climbs up C Tower and finds the cohorts huddled around in a corner, taking what appears to be drugs and mentioning that they needed to keep things a secret from Tomosane, else he'd take everything from them. I forget exactly, but I believe around this point Shiroyama plummets to his death, but I don't remember why. Not sure if they mentioned it.
On the 7th Zakuro jumps and dies. He happened to be passing by the mansion. Terrified, and having his world shocked by the death of three people in front of him, he takes the cell phone from Zakuro (he doesn't have a cell phone, much like Yuki) and takes a photo, and calls the police to alert them. And then he runs to his base, shocked and disturbed and in disbelief. So to calm himself down, he decides to watch an H anime.
He turns on the PC.
He begins watching the anime, titled Magical Girl Riruru.
But something's wrong, because it's a rooftop scene of three girls, all of whom look like Riruru, and they call each other Riruru. But they're shouting at each other. About the end of the world. One doesn't want to die, even screams "this world should die, I don't care." But she's dragged by the other two off the rooftop, and they plummet to their deaths.
The girl who didn't want to die was voiced by...
And then the room blacks out.
And crawling in is Zakuro's bloody corpse.
Reaching out to him.
He screams and runs out of the room, into town, faints.
And wakes up in his room. Oh, thank god, it was all a dream.
He reaches into his pocket and takes out the bloody, cracked cell-phone. Orrrrrrrrrr not.
He does some investigating. He checks her desk, out of curiosity. And one line catches him.
"The world will end July 20"
This digs up a lot of memories for him, because his dead mother had prophesized the very same thing. Why was Zakuro saying what his mother had said so long ago?
And he begins to have a mental breakdown. He talks to his drawing of Riruru on one of the cement pillars in the power generator room. They converse about how he's a messiah. On the way to his base, he encounters Otonashi Ayana, who mocks him, talking about how he was digging up what he had himself hidden, and wonders why human beings forget what they knew, and deliberately shirk the truth.
Sound familiar? Mmhmm. But this one has a twist, she mentions hiding and seeking death.
And then she says "didn't your mother tell you" and then begins to give this creepy lecture about eternity and happiness. Something like
"So you'll try to find happiness in school life
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
A wonderful life
And this repeats itself
Ten times
A hundred times
A thousand times
Ten thousand times
A hundred thousand times
A million times
Ten million times
A hundred million times
A billion times
Ten billion times
A hundred billion times
A trillion times
Ten trillion times
A hundred trillion times
A quadrillion times
Ten quadrillion times
A hundred quadrillion times
And it still wouldn't end
You're happy at the start
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
But by the hundredth time you get resentful
And you kill them
Your wonderful girlfriend
Your wonderful friends
And at first this excites you, the act of killing
But it becomes natural, and boring
And you decide to kill yourself
To get away from
Your wonderful girlfriend
Your wonderful friends
Your wonderful life
But the world is set up to make you happy
So you revive the next day
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
And you go insane
But the world is set up to make you happy
And the next day, normalcy resumes
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
And still it doesn't end"
Yeeeah wonderful images.
Anyways all of this drives Takuji off the wall, so to speak, and he begins to "awaken" as a messiah, an otherworldly creature that's far beyond the capabilities of man.
So he races up to the rooftop, to confront Yuuki Tomosane. And after some verbal shouting composed mostly of Takuji's I AM THE SAVIOR ranting, combat begins, with Yuuki firing a punch at Takuji, who responds by parrying and dislocating Yuuki's shoulder. Angered, Yuuki lashes out again and this time upends Takuji, but Takuji, being the savior of the world, awakens with ferocity and knocks Yuuki down with a punch of his own, bloodying Yuuki and forcing him down. And there they are, Yuuki bloodied and sitting against the fence, and Takuji standing over him.
"You should kill me now."
"You're not worth killing."
"As you wish, but the next time we meet, we'll fight until one of us is dead."
"Bring it on."
For Takuji, the savior, knows nothing can stand in his way, and knows that Tomosane is simply but a hurdle for him to climb over, a trial for him to grow and become the true savior by the 20th.
What follows is some batshit psycho stuff that includes random sex, some sort of elixir, some bizarre divine dance, and the brainwashing of terrified students who begin to believe him, as had been laid out during "Down the Rabbit Hole." But amidst all this it's clear Takuji isn't as set as he thinks he is. Because he doesn't understand what Otonashi Ayana is, given that she seems to "know everything and sees through him." After all, why did Otonashi know what was said between him and his mother? And through it all Takuji has some issues with hearing things. That is to say, when people say what should be important, he can't hear it properly. For instance,
"Why are you abandoning , wasn't that the whole point of this in the first place?"
"Did you hear? said "
That sort of thing. And Ayana consistently mocks him for it, saying he's hiding from the truth, hiding what he knows. His psychoticness reaches the point where he imagines raping Ayana, only to find that he actually was simply standing there, and she mocks him relentlessly before vanishing into thin air.
On the 15th or so he encounters Yuki by the old pool - this is the conversation that took place, where Yuki struggled with headaches and dizziness as he read her mind. And in this route he still seems to "read her mind." This is interesting because in this route Kagami and Tsukasa read his mind, and he can't figure out who they are. He mocks Yuki relentlessly (as you know from Down the Rabbit Hole) and then departs. As much as he deigns her inferior to him in every regard, something about her ticks him off and he can't figure out why. Theoretically she's supposed to be his equal, he seems to know, yet something's "wrong."
The 17th is the crucial encounter. Yuuki Tomosane returns, having healed from his dislocated shoulder.
"Why've you returned now?"
"Didn't I say I'd be back, and that the next time we met I'd kill you?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Did you think I actually wussed out?"
"Well, yeah."
"Hahah, amazing. I was preparing myself."
"Preparing?"
"Yes, preparing to kill you."
And then he strikes at Takuji, who sees it coming... but can't react in time.
"What... happened..."
"What do you mean? I haven't done anything new. You know this as well as I do. You know what a hero needs? Hard work, determination, and determination."
And then as Takuji stands up again, Yuuki strikes a second time, this time completely upending Takuji.
"And that's preparation. I practiced harder and harder since the last time we met, and that's the result, while you stood pat. Because you see, I'm actually serious now."
And then the scene is a reverse of what was shown before - Takuji sitting with his back against a fence, and Yuuki standing over him. The latter pulls out a knife.
"I'll make it quick. Right through your heart."
And that's when Kagami and Tsukasa show up.
"No, Yuuki! That's not what you're supposed to do!"
That's when Takuji "wakes up" to the realization that he's the destined one. He stares at the knife in Yuuki's hand, and wills it to himself. All of a sudden the knife teleports from Yuuki's hand to his, and he stabs Yuuki through the heart. The latter is surprised, regrets letting down his guard, and begins speaking, with a sad look on his face.
"I'm sorry , I guess I screwed up after all."
"Sorry for being a bad , , I tried."
And then he vanished. No corpse, nothing. And the twins are gone, too.
Takuji retreats to his base, and realizes that when he killed Yuuki he'd been wounded too. Blood was spreading over his shirt, and it wasn't stopping. He drank the god's elixir, but it wasn't working, or at least it was really slow. That's when the twins barge in.
Kagami begins shouting.
"It's time to end this, Mamiya Takuji! Things weren't supposed to end this way! It's time for you to disappear! Now!"
But it doesn't work that way. Takuji shouts for help, and his "believers" storm in, dragging Kagami and Tsukasa off. Ensues is a gangrape of Kagami, as she follows a rather stereotypical "fall of the heroine" scene in h-games. But then she looks up at him.
"Is this all? Is this the best you can do? I thought you said you were gonna break me.
I mean, yeah, I've been dirtied
But it's nothing some detergent won't fix
You just need to toss me in the wash
If it's really bad you can use bleach
Did you know? You can use bleach on stuff other than white clothing these days
But really, is this all you've got?
Is this what you mean by "breaking" me?"
So enraged (something unbefitting a messiah), he hammers her to a cement pillar, takes a pruning sheer, and cuts her apart, amidst her screams and through Tsukasa's sobs of "stop it! please!"
And then he retreats back to his base.
Soon after, he climbs onto the C Tower rooftop with his followers, and they begin to depart on the Ark, for the sky. You see some of the students start walking away in the air, and the rest follow. And as the last one leaves, and he gets ready to go, himself, he hears a voice.
"MAMIYA TAKUJI!"
A voice he recognized. The voice of Minakami Yuki. He turns, laughing to himself. And she describes all the tricks he'd pulled. And he nods in satisfaction, what a cute little detective baby. And then he answers, "I never did anything to you," to which Yuki shouts "you're lying!" and then decides to go into the sky himself. But before he does, he decides to fuck with Yuki.
"You know, I liked you all along."
And with a satisfied grin, he steps off the rooftop.
Title screen.
Something I failed to mention is that in chapter 2 near the end Otonashi Ayana mentioned stuff about a creator, a destroyer, and a maintainer.
That is, there is a creator of the world, a destroyer of the world, and one that maintains the status quo of the world.
She mentions that things have changed.
That the roles have changed.
That creator had decided to destroy the world that it created.
Thus the destroyer lost its rights for destruction and become the maintainer.
And that the maintainer had become confused and simply opted to stand pat and watch.
It's really hard for me to figure out who's who, but Yuuki Tomosane remarked that he's the destroyer.
Is he the creator?
Or was he simply the destroyer that had become the maintainer?
Where is Minakami Yuki in all this?
Is Minakami Yuki an MPD of Mamiya Takuji? In retrospect it would make sense, considering Zakuro's random kiss (I believe she fell in love with Takuji). It would also fit with how Otonashi Ayana gave them both the same lines like three-four times, and would explain why they both seem to have contact with the twins, whom I believe are a doll and Takuji's little sister (because in chapter 3, yes the one I just started, Takuji's little sister Mamiya Hazaki is carrying around a certain white stuffed rabbit). I'm still confused who the two girls with Zakuro upon her plummet are, especially because they're not brought up by anyone else, but it would not surprise me if they are simply stuffed animals. That means three of the four primary characters from chapter 0 do not exist (Yuki and the twins).
It would also explain why Mamiya Takuji's fingerprints were all over Yuki's room (because it's her own fingerprints...) and would explain why Zakuro's desk had the fingerprint. It would also explain why Takuji was able to observe Yuki investigating the desk without being discovered himself.
I would also deduce that the name Takuji could never heard was that of his sister, because there is zero mention of his sister in that chapter, which is odd considering it's his sister and that she appears to be a student at the school. It would also tie into the "black phantom" Yuki sees, even though she did meet Hazaki in person once. Hazaki appeared to know Yuki though (not vice versa, although with Yuki's brilliant memory of people you can take it two ways), and it seemed to be like a "uhhh wow hi?" sort of reaction so maybe Hazaki was surprised that Yuki could see her as Hazaki for once. Tsukasa and Hazaki also have similar personalities (introverted and timid).
Then again why would the students have gangraped Kagami = stuffed animal, unless they saw her as Kagami too, or what? I'm confused.
This VN melts my mind.
It starts off with him talking about his "secret base," a place you get to by going down the manhole near the old swimming pool, through the waste sewer, up into the power generator room, and then through it; you get to a little room, which he's decorated with a cheap carpet and brought furniture such desks, tables, chairs, etc. He's also got a computer set up in there, and he has a cheap power generator he stole from a farm in the power generator room - it's loud, but can't be heard from above ground, so aside from random maintenance workers coming in and thinking it's just related to the pool, no one is bothered by it and thus no one is tipped to the secret room. The room is filled with manga and anime and light novels, because he's a hardcore otaku. He's always had a fascination with secret bases because his mother was really strict raising him and looked down on manga etc. so he had to hide them away in random places, like abandoned buildings. This was his 7th.
On the 3rd he runs into a Takashima Zakuro, whom he doesn't really recognize, and in an effort to escape from bulliest he leaps under the manhole to hide - against his initial instincts, he brings Zakuro down with him because he knows she's also the subject of bullying. And pressed on by curiosity about her, he lets her in on his secret base, which awes her because she, too, is an otaku. She, in turn, to keep things "fair" tells him a secret, too, which is that she usually sticks a vibe in herself on the train-ride to school, and she also takes off her underwear for him. He thinks she has feelings for him.
However on the 4th something happens, because she begins to avoid him. He's angry, spitting that "girls are girls" and they show interest and then just toss guys away. On the underground forum he's created he notices bullying of Zakuro has intensified to the point that some of the classmates are afraid of the police, etc. but he doesn't really care.
On the 5th he gets bullied by Yuuki Tomosane and his cohorts.
On the 6th he gets bullied again, and remarks how the bullies had become "crazier" with their bullying, going into sexual harassment. He gets forced to dress as a girl, is forced to masturbate in front of them, and then is forced to give them blowjobs. However this sexual harassment took place without Tomosane, who appears, and enraged by this show, beats the crap out of the cohorts (including Shiroyama). Afterwards Takuji climbs up C Tower and finds the cohorts huddled around in a corner, taking what appears to be drugs and mentioning that they needed to keep things a secret from Tomosane, else he'd take everything from them. I forget exactly, but I believe around this point Shiroyama plummets to his death, but I don't remember why. Not sure if they mentioned it.
On the 7th Zakuro jumps and dies. He happened to be passing by the mansion. Terrified, and having his world shocked by the death of three people in front of him, he takes the cell phone from Zakuro (he doesn't have a cell phone, much like Yuki) and takes a photo, and calls the police to alert them. And then he runs to his base, shocked and disturbed and in disbelief. So to calm himself down, he decides to watch an H anime.
He turns on the PC.
He begins watching the anime, titled Magical Girl Riruru.
But something's wrong, because it's a rooftop scene of three girls, all of whom look like Riruru, and they call each other Riruru. But they're shouting at each other. About the end of the world. One doesn't want to die, even screams "this world should die, I don't care." But she's dragged by the other two off the rooftop, and they plummet to their deaths.
The girl who didn't want to die was voiced by...
And then the room blacks out.
And crawling in is Zakuro's bloody corpse.
Reaching out to him.
He screams and runs out of the room, into town, faints.
And wakes up in his room. Oh, thank god, it was all a dream.
He reaches into his pocket and takes out the bloody, cracked cell-phone. Orrrrrrrrrr not.
He does some investigating. He checks her desk, out of curiosity. And one line catches him.
"The world will end July 20"
This digs up a lot of memories for him, because his dead mother had prophesized the very same thing. Why was Zakuro saying what his mother had said so long ago?
And he begins to have a mental breakdown. He talks to his drawing of Riruru on one of the cement pillars in the power generator room. They converse about how he's a messiah. On the way to his base, he encounters Otonashi Ayana, who mocks him, talking about how he was digging up what he had himself hidden, and wonders why human beings forget what they knew, and deliberately shirk the truth.
Sound familiar? Mmhmm. But this one has a twist, she mentions hiding and seeking death.
And then she says "didn't your mother tell you" and then begins to give this creepy lecture about eternity and happiness. Something like
"So you'll try to find happiness in school life
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
A wonderful life
And this repeats itself
Ten times
A hundred times
A thousand times
Ten thousand times
A hundred thousand times
A million times
Ten million times
A hundred million times
A billion times
Ten billion times
A hundred billion times
A trillion times
Ten trillion times
A hundred trillion times
A quadrillion times
Ten quadrillion times
A hundred quadrillion times
And it still wouldn't end
You're happy at the start
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
But by the hundredth time you get resentful
And you kill them
Your wonderful girlfriend
Your wonderful friends
And at first this excites you, the act of killing
But it becomes natural, and boring
And you decide to kill yourself
To get away from
Your wonderful girlfriend
Your wonderful friends
Your wonderful life
But the world is set up to make you happy
So you revive the next day
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
And you go insane
But the world is set up to make you happy
And the next day, normalcy resumes
A wonderful girlfriend
Wonderful friends
Surrounded by them
And still it doesn't end"
Yeeeah wonderful images.
Anyways all of this drives Takuji off the wall, so to speak, and he begins to "awaken" as a messiah, an otherworldly creature that's far beyond the capabilities of man.
So he races up to the rooftop, to confront Yuuki Tomosane. And after some verbal shouting composed mostly of Takuji's I AM THE SAVIOR ranting, combat begins, with Yuuki firing a punch at Takuji, who responds by parrying and dislocating Yuuki's shoulder. Angered, Yuuki lashes out again and this time upends Takuji, but Takuji, being the savior of the world, awakens with ferocity and knocks Yuuki down with a punch of his own, bloodying Yuuki and forcing him down. And there they are, Yuuki bloodied and sitting against the fence, and Takuji standing over him.
"You should kill me now."
"You're not worth killing."
"As you wish, but the next time we meet, we'll fight until one of us is dead."
"Bring it on."
For Takuji, the savior, knows nothing can stand in his way, and knows that Tomosane is simply but a hurdle for him to climb over, a trial for him to grow and become the true savior by the 20th.
What follows is some batshit psycho stuff that includes random sex, some sort of elixir, some bizarre divine dance, and the brainwashing of terrified students who begin to believe him, as had been laid out during "Down the Rabbit Hole." But amidst all this it's clear Takuji isn't as set as he thinks he is. Because he doesn't understand what Otonashi Ayana is, given that she seems to "know everything and sees through him." After all, why did Otonashi know what was said between him and his mother? And through it all Takuji has some issues with hearing things. That is to say, when people say what should be important, he can't hear it properly. For instance,
"Why are you abandoning , wasn't that the whole point of this in the first place?"
"Did you hear? said "
That sort of thing. And Ayana consistently mocks him for it, saying he's hiding from the truth, hiding what he knows. His psychoticness reaches the point where he imagines raping Ayana, only to find that he actually was simply standing there, and she mocks him relentlessly before vanishing into thin air.
On the 15th or so he encounters Yuki by the old pool - this is the conversation that took place, where Yuki struggled with headaches and dizziness as he read her mind. And in this route he still seems to "read her mind." This is interesting because in this route Kagami and Tsukasa read his mind, and he can't figure out who they are. He mocks Yuki relentlessly (as you know from Down the Rabbit Hole) and then departs. As much as he deigns her inferior to him in every regard, something about her ticks him off and he can't figure out why. Theoretically she's supposed to be his equal, he seems to know, yet something's "wrong."
The 17th is the crucial encounter. Yuuki Tomosane returns, having healed from his dislocated shoulder.
"Why've you returned now?"
"Didn't I say I'd be back, and that the next time we met I'd kill you?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Did you think I actually wussed out?"
"Well, yeah."
"Hahah, amazing. I was preparing myself."
"Preparing?"
"Yes, preparing to kill you."
And then he strikes at Takuji, who sees it coming... but can't react in time.
"What... happened..."
"What do you mean? I haven't done anything new. You know this as well as I do. You know what a hero needs? Hard work, determination, and determination."
And then as Takuji stands up again, Yuuki strikes a second time, this time completely upending Takuji.
"And that's preparation. I practiced harder and harder since the last time we met, and that's the result, while you stood pat. Because you see, I'm actually serious now."
And then the scene is a reverse of what was shown before - Takuji sitting with his back against a fence, and Yuuki standing over him. The latter pulls out a knife.
"I'll make it quick. Right through your heart."
And that's when Kagami and Tsukasa show up.
"No, Yuuki! That's not what you're supposed to do!"
That's when Takuji "wakes up" to the realization that he's the destined one. He stares at the knife in Yuuki's hand, and wills it to himself. All of a sudden the knife teleports from Yuuki's hand to his, and he stabs Yuuki through the heart. The latter is surprised, regrets letting down his guard, and begins speaking, with a sad look on his face.
"I'm sorry , I guess I screwed up after all."
"Sorry for being a bad , , I tried."
And then he vanished. No corpse, nothing. And the twins are gone, too.
Takuji retreats to his base, and realizes that when he killed Yuuki he'd been wounded too. Blood was spreading over his shirt, and it wasn't stopping. He drank the god's elixir, but it wasn't working, or at least it was really slow. That's when the twins barge in.
Kagami begins shouting.
"It's time to end this, Mamiya Takuji! Things weren't supposed to end this way! It's time for you to disappear! Now!"
But it doesn't work that way. Takuji shouts for help, and his "believers" storm in, dragging Kagami and Tsukasa off. Ensues is a gangrape of Kagami, as she follows a rather stereotypical "fall of the heroine" scene in h-games. But then she looks up at him.
"Is this all? Is this the best you can do? I thought you said you were gonna break me.
I mean, yeah, I've been dirtied
But it's nothing some detergent won't fix
You just need to toss me in the wash
If it's really bad you can use bleach
Did you know? You can use bleach on stuff other than white clothing these days
But really, is this all you've got?
Is this what you mean by "breaking" me?"
So enraged (something unbefitting a messiah), he hammers her to a cement pillar, takes a pruning sheer, and cuts her apart, amidst her screams and through Tsukasa's sobs of "stop it! please!"
And then he retreats back to his base.
Soon after, he climbs onto the C Tower rooftop with his followers, and they begin to depart on the Ark, for the sky. You see some of the students start walking away in the air, and the rest follow. And as the last one leaves, and he gets ready to go, himself, he hears a voice.
"MAMIYA TAKUJI!"
A voice he recognized. The voice of Minakami Yuki. He turns, laughing to himself. And she describes all the tricks he'd pulled. And he nods in satisfaction, what a cute little detective baby. And then he answers, "I never did anything to you," to which Yuki shouts "you're lying!" and then decides to go into the sky himself. But before he does, he decides to fuck with Yuki.
"You know, I liked you all along."
And with a satisfied grin, he steps off the rooftop.
Title screen.
Something I failed to mention is that in chapter 2 near the end Otonashi Ayana mentioned stuff about a creator, a destroyer, and a maintainer.
That is, there is a creator of the world, a destroyer of the world, and one that maintains the status quo of the world.
She mentions that things have changed.
That the roles have changed.
That creator had decided to destroy the world that it created.
Thus the destroyer lost its rights for destruction and become the maintainer.
And that the maintainer had become confused and simply opted to stand pat and watch.
It's really hard for me to figure out who's who, but Yuuki Tomosane remarked that he's the destroyer.
Is he the creator?
Or was he simply the destroyer that had become the maintainer?
Where is Minakami Yuki in all this?
Is Minakami Yuki an MPD of Mamiya Takuji? In retrospect it would make sense, considering Zakuro's random kiss (I believe she fell in love with Takuji). It would also fit with how Otonashi Ayana gave them both the same lines like three-four times, and would explain why they both seem to have contact with the twins, whom I believe are a doll and Takuji's little sister (because in chapter 3, yes the one I just started, Takuji's little sister Mamiya Hazaki is carrying around a certain white stuffed rabbit). I'm still confused who the two girls with Zakuro upon her plummet are, especially because they're not brought up by anyone else, but it would not surprise me if they are simply stuffed animals. That means three of the four primary characters from chapter 0 do not exist (Yuki and the twins).
It would also explain why Mamiya Takuji's fingerprints were all over Yuki's room (because it's her own fingerprints...) and would explain why Zakuro's desk had the fingerprint. It would also explain why Takuji was able to observe Yuki investigating the desk without being discovered himself.
I would also deduce that the name Takuji could never heard was that of his sister, because there is zero mention of his sister in that chapter, which is odd considering it's his sister and that she appears to be a student at the school. It would also tie into the "black phantom" Yuki sees, even though she did meet Hazaki in person once. Hazaki appeared to know Yuki though (not vice versa, although with Yuki's brilliant memory of people you can take it two ways), and it seemed to be like a "uhhh wow hi?" sort of reaction so maybe Hazaki was surprised that Yuki could see her as Hazaki for once. Tsukasa and Hazaki also have similar personalities (introverted and timid).
Then again why would the students have gangraped Kagami = stuffed animal, unless they saw her as Kagami too, or what? I'm confused.
This VN melts my mind.
Looking-glass Insects
+ Show Spoiler +
Chapter 3 is from Takashima Zakuro's perspective, and begins July 2nd.
She's on the rooftop of the school, and she runs into a Mamiya Takuji, who's smoking a cigarette, and they converse a bit - Takuji seems to have trouble recognizing her.
Then on the 3rd she's ushered into the manhole by a timid Mamiya Takuji, who doesn't know her at all, into the sewer, and into Takuji's base to escape from bullies. The vibe/pants scene does not happen.
Then on the 4th she's again on the rooftop of the school, and she encounters Mamiya Takuji, who's reading Cyrano de Bergerac while leaning against the wall in the shade.
WHAT.
THE.
HELL.
Write-up missing!
but IIRC it just follows Zakuro on a fairly stereotypical bully train gone too far, as she gets raped and then kills herself.
Jabberwocky - the Hero and the Savior -
+ Show Spoiler +
This chapter follows a certain Yuuki Tomosane.
His story starts around July 2nd, as he works at this one bar, along with a Mamiya Hasaki. She calls him "brother Tomo," something he dislikes. And then they head home, and he sleeps, constantly attempting to ward away Hasaki's insistence on calling her "brother Tomo."
July 3rd finds him on the rooftop of school, reading books. At his side appears Minakami Yuki, someone who had been gone for like three weeks. He's surprised by her sudden appearance, and she begins teasing him about disappearing. And then she mentions how she's being phased out, presumably because Mamiya Takuji was no longer needing the multiple personality named Minakami Yuki. Yes, the bombshell has been laid (although the writing is splendid in that this isn't surprising, you begin deducing it at this point). Minakami Yuki and Yuuki Tomosane are extra personalities in the body of Mamiya Takuji, although Takuji doesn't seem to know about this. Yuki remarks she's the "ideal girl" for Takuji (beautiful, hyper-intelligent, extroverted, personable, and very strong), and Tomosane can't understand why she would be phased out, if she is at all. But he's, deep down, glad that she's back after a three week hiatus. Another bombshell (that I deduced) is laid - amidst her fading memories, Yuki remarks that she's beginning to be unable to perceive Hasaki... instead she perceives her as a "Wakatsuki Tsukasa" and the stuffed rabbit as "Wakatsuki Kagami," a reflection of an anime Takuji had seen recently. And it pained her, because she'd sworn to protect Hasaki, but she was slowly fading away, and although she could try to protect Hasaki as protecting the Wakatsuki twins, it wasn't the same, and she was unable to actually communicate with Hasaki. This is hard on Hasaki as well, because she considers Yuki a big sister and an important part of her family.
He remembers his conception. For he awakens to a beating (of himself), looks down and finds himself wearing girls' clothing, and enraged, he strikes back, breaking an arm of Shiroyama and beating the three bully/thugs until they were bleeding and battered. He can't believe how much humiliation they were putting him through. And then as he relentlessly savages them he hears crying, from none other than a Mamiya Takuji, who's wearing girls' clothing. He savages Takuji as well, disdaining his weakness, and begins to mutter about how there's sperm on his clothing and his mouth feels weird. He quickly takes Shirosawa's clothing and leaves. As he picks up his belongings from his classroom and heads home, he's struck by a headache and dizziness, and an accompanying "hey there!" - it's a girl's voice.
And thus the self-annointed "big sis Yuki" appears, and begins bashing him. Reflexively entering a combat state, his focus sharpens... and the headache and dizziness go away, replaced by a clear image of "Minakami Yuki." They fight in the hallway, and he's more than stunned at realizing how much stronger she is than him. And gradually he comes to accept what she says as the truth - that she's "big sis."
Because they're both personalities created by "Mamiya Takuji."
She explains things to him, like how to communicate between different personalities (can be done internally as well as by using the mouth), and how long ago Mamiya Takuji was actually almost superhuman in how talented he was at everything, such as study, music, athletics, etc. The stuffed rabbit Hasaki carries around was hand-sewn by him, and it being a keepsake is why she lugs it around everywhere. But something happened, partly involving him and partly involving their mother, that caused Hasaki to be hospitalized (physically and mentally) for months, and caused Takuji to go from Mr. Perfect to the timid, weak otaku he is now. There's some implication that Takuji himself may be a created personality, as they mentioned "he's designed to be weaker than a girl."
Days pass, filled mostly by Yuki hitting on Tomosane and Hazuki showing extreme jealousy. Through it all there're some notable key points. First, is that Yuki seems extremely scared of "disappearing," remarking that it's taking her much more effort to piece together memories in between appearances, and that she's having to force herself to stay awake to avoid disappearing. "It's like pulling an all-nighter, then another all-nighter, then another all-nighter. You feel like the moment you let up, you'll lose consciousness... but I won't let it happen, not yet." Tomosane notices she seems to be "in a rush," but doesn't know why and, by all intents and purposes seems to not care.
A bit about Tomosane at this point. As we know from previous chapters, he's "the destroyer," created to destroy Takuji. He (Tomosane) believes his duty is to eliminate Takuji, thereby killing himself, and to slide Yuki into place. This is his "happy ending," as Yuki is their ideal, and she's got great people skills, so she's the most fitting to take the body for good.
The days of bizarre flirtation between him, Yuki, and Hasaki are pretty cute and light-hearted. You get a good sense of how close of a family they'd become - Yuki the mischievous big sister, Tomosane the grudging middle brother, and Hasaki the little sister that they care deeply for.
However around the 6th things start going bad, for him.
3 days pass before he awakens. It's the 9th. Things have happened, and he's confused. But he goes to sleep anyways, feeling, for the first time, scared. Scared because he's already got so little control over when he appears and disappears (it's implied that for the most part Yuki had the ability to appear and disappear at will, and it's only recently that she started "vanishing" out of control, specifically the beginning at the 3 weeks), and he has no memories of the in-between, whereas Yuki remembered everything that happened in between her appearances, so when she popped in she would pop in seamlessly. Basically for Tomosane it's eating one moment, waking up in a bed the next. No connection whatsoever.
2 more days pass before he awakens. It's the 11th. He bullies Takuji (basically his means of crushing Takuji's personality), then runs into Yuki, and Tomosane explains that he's finally realized what's happened to Yuki. Three weeks ago, Yuki was actually purged. And it took her three weeks of sheer, immense willpower to gather the brutalized remnants of her memory and personality and piece together "Minakami Yuki." Temporarily, she was able to make-do as if she were the old one. But it was becoming too hard for her to keep her consciousness together like this. It's hard for a dead person to stay alive. That's why she was so desperate in imploring Tomosane to promise to protect Hasaki, that's why she wanted him to understand. And now, he was reading the writing on the wall as well. He'd been shot out of consciousness for 3 days, and then 2 days. He was next.
The next day, he wakes up at night (the 12th, yes, the start of chapter 0/1) in the secret base. He'd been blacked out for another full day. He begins to go home, and notices there's a bag from a CD store. He's about to throw it away in disgust, but wonders if it has something to do with Yuki, and takes it home.
Home is empty. No Hasaki, but as he turns on the light he sees Yuki climb up the stairs. He calls after her, but she doesn't reply, and he follows her to her/their room, and calls to her, but to no avail. And then it sinks in.
That Minakami Yuki had died.
That this was the new Minakami Yuki, the new "her" that she'd pieced together from the old fragments. And this Minakami Yuki didn't know anything about the other personalities, and certainly didn't know how to communicate between the different personalities, as the old Yuki did. And it hits him really hard - he knew this was coming, he'd figured as much, but he hadn't fully braced himself for it, and now, watching Yuki go about her business, trying to listen to the CD and then realizing it's the wrong one, it made him feel incredibly lonely. So he starts crying, and realizing no one would hear him anyways, completely breaks down and wails.
And then Minakami Yuki embraces him from behind. In her last act, she'd gone out to buy a CD, and then placed all of her emotions into it, essentially as hypnotism. When she looked at it, she remembered him, and it let her get one more message in. It gives him closure, and they agree to share information by putting all of their knowledge in a notebook. Would she (the new Yuki) remember? Maybe, maybe not, but she'd try, by making it a habit. It was the best she could do. They part.
The next few haphazard days consist mostly of Tomosane desperately trying to gather as much information as he could, while doing everything he can to bully Takuji. But this is past the 12th, past the death of "Takashima Zakuro." The power and influence of Takuji is growing every moment, and it's taking him significantly more effort to maintain consciousness. He tries to bully Takuji in class, but after a few beatings he's zapped out. The next day he wakes up in his room, with Hasaki crying over him. "It's been a week!" Because the last time he'd seen her was the 6th, and Yuki is already gone, unable to perceive Hasaki (she only sees Kagami and Tsukasa now, and her Kagami + Tsukasa have nothing to do with Hasaki - they appear regardless of where Hasaki is) at all. Tomosane is her last remaining family member... and even he'd vanished for a week. He tries to comfort her, and realizes a few things.
1) He's terrified of Takuji.
2) He regrets not having killed Takuji earlier when he had the chance.
3) He realizes he's probably going to die either way.
So on the 15th, he wakes up after two days' blank from the 13th, and confronts Takuji on the rooftop. Yes, this is that fight. That fight where he's taken by surprise by Takuji's unexpected strength. His shoulder is dislocated, and he's beat up; he struggles to maintain consciousness despite getting beat up, and is left strengthless when Takuji leaves him to rot. Because it was his job to kill Takuji, but now he was weaker, and unable to perform his duty. He blacks out.
But he wakes up, this time being called at by Yuki, who's carrying him on her back. She takes him to the old Mamiya dojo, a place he'd never been to, but for some reason recognizes - their memories of locations is shared. It's a lucid dream, although she's not sure whose. And she gives him a lecture, asking him what he really wants to do and such. And he slowly becomes determined, that he wants to protect Hasaki, and that he's not going to rely on someone else (namely, Yuki) to do the job for him. Because after all, it's his desire, he needs to do it himself. And then he realizes this lucid dream was his after all, because he wanted a separate place to hone his skills. Yuki gives him two options. The first is to simply wake up, which would give him some time, enough time to share with Hasaki, and to hide her to a safe spot (the bar - the Master of the bar was a disciple from the Mamiya dojo, and is really strong, as well as being the master for Takuji/Tomosane). The second is to train, and train, and train - this means he would only wake up at the last moment - the moment of the last fight. Yuki knows this will happen because Takuji left Tomosane alive with the intention of fighting him again. "No matter what happens, this is probably the last time you'll wake up."
He decides to train, because he has a gut feeling he'll wake up. And he spars with Yuki, who crushes him pretty badly...
... until he realizes that he's in fact not having a lucid dream, but that he's simply dreaming, and if that's the case then what he needed to do was trust his instincts and never doubt himself. If he punches, he must know it would land, else it wouldn't. Because that's the nature of combat in between one's own psyche (which is what a Yuki vs Tomosane or Tomosane vs Takuji is - it's not like they're punching their own body).
And lo and behold he is awakened before the promised hour. What happened? Well remember in ch2 when Mamiya has that bizarre dream of raping Ayana? Yeah, when he touched Ayana the latter "cracked his confidence" a bit, and made the previously invulnerably Takuji personality retreat into a shell. She's surprised by the appearance of Tomosane regardless, but they exchange greetings, and whilst a bit bewildered by the presence of this "Otonashi Ayana" he realizes that just as there's no real easy explanation of who he is there's probably no real easy explanation of who she is. So he simply accepts her presence as "someone that's not gonna screw him over." But this is the chance he was waiting for. Because of his entrapment in his dream of raping Ayana, Takuji won't awaken until dawn. So Tomosane tracks down Hasaki - he wanted to return just once to leave her a word. But before that, he challenges the Master to a fight, to prove that he's stronger than the Master - the Master was stronger than Takuji, so if he can trump the Master, he can trump Takuji. And by trusting his instincts, he defeats the Master with a counterpunch despite a severely bruised body. And then Hasaki breaks down next to his battered body, crying, "I don't want a word!" And he replies that he knows, he wanted to come back to her to tell her that he'd defeat Takuji, win, and protect her for the rest of her life (aww). They have sex (O_o incest). And then he hurriedly runs back to the rooftop of the school. Otonashi is waiting there.
"Why'd you come here?"
"I dunno, I didn't really care, but you know, what with the Sky of the End and all, there didn't seem to be a better place."
And because there's still time, they have a short conversation, with her asking him if he's afraid of death, and he replies to the tune of, I'm not sure, because you can't experience death, you just have it once. She replies, that's the same as Yuki. On the other hand Takuji shouted back, indignant that she dare ask if he was afraid of death - a sure sign that he was afraid.
But then he continues, after being happy that he shared a belief with Yuki, that he has a dream quite often. Where a baby is being born, and everyone gives their blessings. But the baby's wails, they're not wails of happiness, the baby is cursing the world. And he knows he must stop the baby. But he can't bring himself to strangle it, and he crumbles to the ground, crying with the baby. But then the baby stops cursing, and the cries become just normal cries. And through his tears, he feels that that's how things are supposed to be. But it doesn't stop him from having mixed feelings about not stopping the cursing.
To him, it's that natural-ness that death is like. Because people die all the time, and very few of them rage at death at their deathbed. They simply accept it. It's life.
And then the time arrives, as Takuji appears with the headache and dizziness, and Tomosane is shot back, behind Takuji, like a third-person view. Takuji and Ayana have that conversation about how he'd raped her but she vehemently denies it, and mocks him. And she brings up how "Yuuki Tomosane cried over the original sin of man... cried over his inability to atone for the sin, of a newborn baby" and how it was very human of him - a trait she supposes isn't needed for Takuji the self-appointed savior. And she remarks but maybe next time... well no, there won't be a next time, I guess. And Tomosane realizes she'd set the stage.
"Mamiya Takuji."
"Where did you come from?"
"I was here all the time."
And there is the shouting from Tomosane, as he blasts Takuji for ignoring Hasaki, for leaving her, but as we know, Takuji can't hear the name.
And the rest you know. He beats the crap out of Takuji, but as he stands over Takuji with a knife, the door opens and Hasaki barges in.
"STOP! IF I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO DO THIS I WOULD HAVE WRAPPED YOU UP IN MASKING TAPE!"
"I told you that was one thing you could have done."
Because we know now, that what appears to them as Yuuki Tomosane pointing a knife at the fallen Mamiya Takuji.
... is actually Yuuko/Yuki/Takuji pointing a knife at their own heart.
And we know what happens next. The knife transfers to Takuji (same body...) and he stabs Tomosane (himself!) in the heart. Tomosane at first shows surprise, anger, sadness, and then acceptance, and smiles. "Congratulations, you're the victor, and I'm the defeated."
And Hasaki wraps her arms around "their" body, crying, "I just wanted to be with you forever, let's promise, that over summer break, we'll go back to the sunflower field around the hill..." etc. And Tomosane dimly realizes, yeah, he does remember "that sunflower field around the hill," and thinks, yeah, summer break, it'd be nice, let's go together...
Fade to black.
Title screen.
His story starts around July 2nd, as he works at this one bar, along with a Mamiya Hasaki. She calls him "brother Tomo," something he dislikes. And then they head home, and he sleeps, constantly attempting to ward away Hasaki's insistence on calling her "brother Tomo."
July 3rd finds him on the rooftop of school, reading books. At his side appears Minakami Yuki, someone who had been gone for like three weeks. He's surprised by her sudden appearance, and she begins teasing him about disappearing. And then she mentions how she's being phased out, presumably because Mamiya Takuji was no longer needing the multiple personality named Minakami Yuki. Yes, the bombshell has been laid (although the writing is splendid in that this isn't surprising, you begin deducing it at this point). Minakami Yuki and Yuuki Tomosane are extra personalities in the body of Mamiya Takuji, although Takuji doesn't seem to know about this. Yuki remarks she's the "ideal girl" for Takuji (beautiful, hyper-intelligent, extroverted, personable, and very strong), and Tomosane can't understand why she would be phased out, if she is at all. But he's, deep down, glad that she's back after a three week hiatus. Another bombshell (that I deduced) is laid - amidst her fading memories, Yuki remarks that she's beginning to be unable to perceive Hasaki... instead she perceives her as a "Wakatsuki Tsukasa" and the stuffed rabbit as "Wakatsuki Kagami," a reflection of an anime Takuji had seen recently. And it pained her, because she'd sworn to protect Hasaki, but she was slowly fading away, and although she could try to protect Hasaki as protecting the Wakatsuki twins, it wasn't the same, and she was unable to actually communicate with Hasaki. This is hard on Hasaki as well, because she considers Yuki a big sister and an important part of her family.
He remembers his conception. For he awakens to a beating (of himself), looks down and finds himself wearing girls' clothing, and enraged, he strikes back, breaking an arm of Shiroyama and beating the three bully/thugs until they were bleeding and battered. He can't believe how much humiliation they were putting him through. And then as he relentlessly savages them he hears crying, from none other than a Mamiya Takuji, who's wearing girls' clothing. He savages Takuji as well, disdaining his weakness, and begins to mutter about how there's sperm on his clothing and his mouth feels weird. He quickly takes Shirosawa's clothing and leaves. As he picks up his belongings from his classroom and heads home, he's struck by a headache and dizziness, and an accompanying "hey there!" - it's a girl's voice.
And thus the self-annointed "big sis Yuki" appears, and begins bashing him. Reflexively entering a combat state, his focus sharpens... and the headache and dizziness go away, replaced by a clear image of "Minakami Yuki." They fight in the hallway, and he's more than stunned at realizing how much stronger she is than him. And gradually he comes to accept what she says as the truth - that she's "big sis."
Because they're both personalities created by "Mamiya Takuji."
She explains things to him, like how to communicate between different personalities (can be done internally as well as by using the mouth), and how long ago Mamiya Takuji was actually almost superhuman in how talented he was at everything, such as study, music, athletics, etc. The stuffed rabbit Hasaki carries around was hand-sewn by him, and it being a keepsake is why she lugs it around everywhere. But something happened, partly involving him and partly involving their mother, that caused Hasaki to be hospitalized (physically and mentally) for months, and caused Takuji to go from Mr. Perfect to the timid, weak otaku he is now. There's some implication that Takuji himself may be a created personality, as they mentioned "he's designed to be weaker than a girl."
Days pass, filled mostly by Yuki hitting on Tomosane and Hazuki showing extreme jealousy. Through it all there're some notable key points. First, is that Yuki seems extremely scared of "disappearing," remarking that it's taking her much more effort to piece together memories in between appearances, and that she's having to force herself to stay awake to avoid disappearing. "It's like pulling an all-nighter, then another all-nighter, then another all-nighter. You feel like the moment you let up, you'll lose consciousness... but I won't let it happen, not yet." Tomosane notices she seems to be "in a rush," but doesn't know why and, by all intents and purposes seems to not care.
A bit about Tomosane at this point. As we know from previous chapters, he's "the destroyer," created to destroy Takuji. He (Tomosane) believes his duty is to eliminate Takuji, thereby killing himself, and to slide Yuki into place. This is his "happy ending," as Yuki is their ideal, and she's got great people skills, so she's the most fitting to take the body for good.
The days of bizarre flirtation between him, Yuki, and Hasaki are pretty cute and light-hearted. You get a good sense of how close of a family they'd become - Yuki the mischievous big sister, Tomosane the grudging middle brother, and Hasaki the little sister that they care deeply for.
However around the 6th things start going bad, for him.
3 days pass before he awakens. It's the 9th. Things have happened, and he's confused. But he goes to sleep anyways, feeling, for the first time, scared. Scared because he's already got so little control over when he appears and disappears (it's implied that for the most part Yuki had the ability to appear and disappear at will, and it's only recently that she started "vanishing" out of control, specifically the beginning at the 3 weeks), and he has no memories of the in-between, whereas Yuki remembered everything that happened in between her appearances, so when she popped in she would pop in seamlessly. Basically for Tomosane it's eating one moment, waking up in a bed the next. No connection whatsoever.
2 more days pass before he awakens. It's the 11th. He bullies Takuji (basically his means of crushing Takuji's personality), then runs into Yuki, and Tomosane explains that he's finally realized what's happened to Yuki. Three weeks ago, Yuki was actually purged. And it took her three weeks of sheer, immense willpower to gather the brutalized remnants of her memory and personality and piece together "Minakami Yuki." Temporarily, she was able to make-do as if she were the old one. But it was becoming too hard for her to keep her consciousness together like this. It's hard for a dead person to stay alive. That's why she was so desperate in imploring Tomosane to promise to protect Hasaki, that's why she wanted him to understand. And now, he was reading the writing on the wall as well. He'd been shot out of consciousness for 3 days, and then 2 days. He was next.
The next day, he wakes up at night (the 12th, yes, the start of chapter 0/1) in the secret base. He'd been blacked out for another full day. He begins to go home, and notices there's a bag from a CD store. He's about to throw it away in disgust, but wonders if it has something to do with Yuki, and takes it home.
Home is empty. No Hasaki, but as he turns on the light he sees Yuki climb up the stairs. He calls after her, but she doesn't reply, and he follows her to her/their room, and calls to her, but to no avail. And then it sinks in.
That Minakami Yuki had died.
That this was the new Minakami Yuki, the new "her" that she'd pieced together from the old fragments. And this Minakami Yuki didn't know anything about the other personalities, and certainly didn't know how to communicate between the different personalities, as the old Yuki did. And it hits him really hard - he knew this was coming, he'd figured as much, but he hadn't fully braced himself for it, and now, watching Yuki go about her business, trying to listen to the CD and then realizing it's the wrong one, it made him feel incredibly lonely. So he starts crying, and realizing no one would hear him anyways, completely breaks down and wails.
And then Minakami Yuki embraces him from behind. In her last act, she'd gone out to buy a CD, and then placed all of her emotions into it, essentially as hypnotism. When she looked at it, she remembered him, and it let her get one more message in. It gives him closure, and they agree to share information by putting all of their knowledge in a notebook. Would she (the new Yuki) remember? Maybe, maybe not, but she'd try, by making it a habit. It was the best she could do. They part.
The next few haphazard days consist mostly of Tomosane desperately trying to gather as much information as he could, while doing everything he can to bully Takuji. But this is past the 12th, past the death of "Takashima Zakuro." The power and influence of Takuji is growing every moment, and it's taking him significantly more effort to maintain consciousness. He tries to bully Takuji in class, but after a few beatings he's zapped out. The next day he wakes up in his room, with Hasaki crying over him. "It's been a week!" Because the last time he'd seen her was the 6th, and Yuki is already gone, unable to perceive Hasaki (she only sees Kagami and Tsukasa now, and her Kagami + Tsukasa have nothing to do with Hasaki - they appear regardless of where Hasaki is) at all. Tomosane is her last remaining family member... and even he'd vanished for a week. He tries to comfort her, and realizes a few things.
1) He's terrified of Takuji.
2) He regrets not having killed Takuji earlier when he had the chance.
3) He realizes he's probably going to die either way.
So on the 15th, he wakes up after two days' blank from the 13th, and confronts Takuji on the rooftop. Yes, this is that fight. That fight where he's taken by surprise by Takuji's unexpected strength. His shoulder is dislocated, and he's beat up; he struggles to maintain consciousness despite getting beat up, and is left strengthless when Takuji leaves him to rot. Because it was his job to kill Takuji, but now he was weaker, and unable to perform his duty. He blacks out.
But he wakes up, this time being called at by Yuki, who's carrying him on her back. She takes him to the old Mamiya dojo, a place he'd never been to, but for some reason recognizes - their memories of locations is shared. It's a lucid dream, although she's not sure whose. And she gives him a lecture, asking him what he really wants to do and such. And he slowly becomes determined, that he wants to protect Hasaki, and that he's not going to rely on someone else (namely, Yuki) to do the job for him. Because after all, it's his desire, he needs to do it himself. And then he realizes this lucid dream was his after all, because he wanted a separate place to hone his skills. Yuki gives him two options. The first is to simply wake up, which would give him some time, enough time to share with Hasaki, and to hide her to a safe spot (the bar - the Master of the bar was a disciple from the Mamiya dojo, and is really strong, as well as being the master for Takuji/Tomosane). The second is to train, and train, and train - this means he would only wake up at the last moment - the moment of the last fight. Yuki knows this will happen because Takuji left Tomosane alive with the intention of fighting him again. "No matter what happens, this is probably the last time you'll wake up."
He decides to train, because he has a gut feeling he'll wake up. And he spars with Yuki, who crushes him pretty badly...
... until he realizes that he's in fact not having a lucid dream, but that he's simply dreaming, and if that's the case then what he needed to do was trust his instincts and never doubt himself. If he punches, he must know it would land, else it wouldn't. Because that's the nature of combat in between one's own psyche (which is what a Yuki vs Tomosane or Tomosane vs Takuji is - it's not like they're punching their own body).
And lo and behold he is awakened before the promised hour. What happened? Well remember in ch2 when Mamiya has that bizarre dream of raping Ayana? Yeah, when he touched Ayana the latter "cracked his confidence" a bit, and made the previously invulnerably Takuji personality retreat into a shell. She's surprised by the appearance of Tomosane regardless, but they exchange greetings, and whilst a bit bewildered by the presence of this "Otonashi Ayana" he realizes that just as there's no real easy explanation of who he is there's probably no real easy explanation of who she is. So he simply accepts her presence as "someone that's not gonna screw him over." But this is the chance he was waiting for. Because of his entrapment in his dream of raping Ayana, Takuji won't awaken until dawn. So Tomosane tracks down Hasaki - he wanted to return just once to leave her a word. But before that, he challenges the Master to a fight, to prove that he's stronger than the Master - the Master was stronger than Takuji, so if he can trump the Master, he can trump Takuji. And by trusting his instincts, he defeats the Master with a counterpunch despite a severely bruised body. And then Hasaki breaks down next to his battered body, crying, "I don't want a word!" And he replies that he knows, he wanted to come back to her to tell her that he'd defeat Takuji, win, and protect her for the rest of her life (aww). They have sex (O_o incest). And then he hurriedly runs back to the rooftop of the school. Otonashi is waiting there.
"Why'd you come here?"
"I dunno, I didn't really care, but you know, what with the Sky of the End and all, there didn't seem to be a better place."
And because there's still time, they have a short conversation, with her asking him if he's afraid of death, and he replies to the tune of, I'm not sure, because you can't experience death, you just have it once. She replies, that's the same as Yuki. On the other hand Takuji shouted back, indignant that she dare ask if he was afraid of death - a sure sign that he was afraid.
But then he continues, after being happy that he shared a belief with Yuki, that he has a dream quite often. Where a baby is being born, and everyone gives their blessings. But the baby's wails, they're not wails of happiness, the baby is cursing the world. And he knows he must stop the baby. But he can't bring himself to strangle it, and he crumbles to the ground, crying with the baby. But then the baby stops cursing, and the cries become just normal cries. And through his tears, he feels that that's how things are supposed to be. But it doesn't stop him from having mixed feelings about not stopping the cursing.
To him, it's that natural-ness that death is like. Because people die all the time, and very few of them rage at death at their deathbed. They simply accept it. It's life.
And then the time arrives, as Takuji appears with the headache and dizziness, and Tomosane is shot back, behind Takuji, like a third-person view. Takuji and Ayana have that conversation about how he'd raped her but she vehemently denies it, and mocks him. And she brings up how "Yuuki Tomosane cried over the original sin of man... cried over his inability to atone for the sin, of a newborn baby" and how it was very human of him - a trait she supposes isn't needed for Takuji the self-appointed savior. And she remarks but maybe next time... well no, there won't be a next time, I guess. And Tomosane realizes she'd set the stage.
"Mamiya Takuji."
"Where did you come from?"
"I was here all the time."
And there is the shouting from Tomosane, as he blasts Takuji for ignoring Hasaki, for leaving her, but as we know, Takuji can't hear the name.
And the rest you know. He beats the crap out of Takuji, but as he stands over Takuji with a knife, the door opens and Hasaki barges in.
"STOP! IF I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO DO THIS I WOULD HAVE WRAPPED YOU UP IN MASKING TAPE!"
"I told you that was one thing you could have done."
Because we know now, that what appears to them as Yuuki Tomosane pointing a knife at the fallen Mamiya Takuji.
... is actually Yuuko/Yuki/Takuji pointing a knife at their own heart.
And we know what happens next. The knife transfers to Takuji (same body...) and he stabs Tomosane (himself!) in the heart. Tomosane at first shows surprise, anger, sadness, and then acceptance, and smiles. "Congratulations, you're the victor, and I'm the defeated."
And Hasaki wraps her arms around "their" body, crying, "I just wanted to be with you forever, let's promise, that over summer break, we'll go back to the sunflower field around the hill..." etc. And Tomosane dimly realizes, yeah, he does remember "that sunflower field around the hill," and thinks, yeah, summer break, it'd be nice, let's go together...
Fade to black.
Title screen.
Which Dreamed It
+ Show Spoiler +
The protagonist of this chapter is none other than Mamiya Hasaki, starting from around June 15th, two days after Yuuki Tomosane disappeared.
Right from the onset she drops down a bombshell, that Mamiya Takuji isn't the big brother she longs for, it's Tomosane himself. The obvious implication is that Mamiya Takuji is indeed a created personality, and that the personality "Tomosane" is in fact the real one (despite being the 3rd and most haphazard).
Most of the events here parallel the other chapters.
One of the coinciding events is the one where Minakami Yuki, investigating the Web Bot Project, tracks down the Mamiya household and runs into Hasaki. One of the "strange" things here is that Yuki is unable to perceive Hasaki (she sees them as the twins) but for some reason she perceives Hasaki as Hasaki there. This is, heart-rendingly, the first time Hasaki encounters this new Minakami Yuki (remember, the old one died, and only Tomosane is aware of that).
Along the way you're told that the old Minakami Yuki had mischievously improved the Web Bot Project (ie. the internet prophet)'s programming to make it harder to detect that it's falsifying prophecies.
You also find out bits and pieces of "what happened" 7 years ago that messed up Tomosane. Apparently there was a Mamiya Takuji, but he was the twin brother of Hasaki. And for whatever reason he was about to kill Hasaki, or something, and Mamiya Tomosane happened to grab the knife and kill Takuji instead. By all accounts this was self-defense and unavoidable, but two people believe Tomosane murdered Takuji. One if the nutty cultist mother, the other is Tomosane himself, and via grief, guilt, and PTSD he created (or believed himself to be) Mamiya Takuji.
You also find out that there was also a Minakami Yuki. She was the daughter of the master of the gay bar, and it turns out that she's not "Takuji's ideal girl" but rather simply the memory of what Yuki was like - smart, strong, etc. You slowly find out that during that ordeal Yuki had sacrificed her for them, which is why the master treats Hasaki (and Tomosane/Yuki) as his own children.
Most of the rest is what we know already.
At one point she finds out that "Mamiya" returned home, so she runs home in the hopes of finding Tomosane, only to run into the new Yuki, who'd just realized the phone was under her bed and is absolutely terrified by the black phantom (Hasaki), who's trying to talk to her and tell her what's wrong and ends up being depressed because all she did was confuse and scare Yuki. It also hurts Hasaki because the Yuki she loved can no longer perceive her.
Tomosane returns from his disappearance on the 17th, challenges the master to a duel, triumphs, and leaves to confront Takuji.
Hasaki barges in, causing Tomosane to lose focus, and Takuji stabs themselves in the heart.
Tomosane dies.
Takuji, in all his rage, appears to drug it up (the elixir) and causes everyone (drugged up I guess) to rape and wreck the stuffed animal, with Hasaki sitting nearby confused and in tears.
Yuki appears (the person I least want to see now - Hasaki) and, still unable to perceive Hasaki + Rabbit, carries the rabbit home, talking to the rabbit (remember the walk home where she remembered the past), but this only serves to enrage and depress Hasaki even more, because the memory actually belongs to Tomosane, and he's carrying Hasaki, not "Kagami."
Takuji jumps off the roof, and Hasaki says,
"Ah... so this must be how Minakami Yuki felt, seeing someone beloved leap to their death... then I guess it's my turn (presumably to sacrifice herself to save him)."
RED staff roll.
Title screen.
Right from the onset she drops down a bombshell, that Mamiya Takuji isn't the big brother she longs for, it's Tomosane himself. The obvious implication is that Mamiya Takuji is indeed a created personality, and that the personality "Tomosane" is in fact the real one (despite being the 3rd and most haphazard).
Most of the events here parallel the other chapters.
One of the coinciding events is the one where Minakami Yuki, investigating the Web Bot Project, tracks down the Mamiya household and runs into Hasaki. One of the "strange" things here is that Yuki is unable to perceive Hasaki (she sees them as the twins) but for some reason she perceives Hasaki as Hasaki there. This is, heart-rendingly, the first time Hasaki encounters this new Minakami Yuki (remember, the old one died, and only Tomosane is aware of that).
Along the way you're told that the old Minakami Yuki had mischievously improved the Web Bot Project (ie. the internet prophet)'s programming to make it harder to detect that it's falsifying prophecies.
You also find out bits and pieces of "what happened" 7 years ago that messed up Tomosane. Apparently there was a Mamiya Takuji, but he was the twin brother of Hasaki. And for whatever reason he was about to kill Hasaki, or something, and Mamiya Tomosane happened to grab the knife and kill Takuji instead. By all accounts this was self-defense and unavoidable, but two people believe Tomosane murdered Takuji. One if the nutty cultist mother, the other is Tomosane himself, and via grief, guilt, and PTSD he created (or believed himself to be) Mamiya Takuji.
You also find out that there was also a Minakami Yuki. She was the daughter of the master of the gay bar, and it turns out that she's not "Takuji's ideal girl" but rather simply the memory of what Yuki was like - smart, strong, etc. You slowly find out that during that ordeal Yuki had sacrificed her for them, which is why the master treats Hasaki (and Tomosane/Yuki) as his own children.
Most of the rest is what we know already.
At one point she finds out that "Mamiya" returned home, so she runs home in the hopes of finding Tomosane, only to run into the new Yuki, who'd just realized the phone was under her bed and is absolutely terrified by the black phantom (Hasaki), who's trying to talk to her and tell her what's wrong and ends up being depressed because all she did was confuse and scare Yuki. It also hurts Hasaki because the Yuki she loved can no longer perceive her.
Tomosane returns from his disappearance on the 17th, challenges the master to a duel, triumphs, and leaves to confront Takuji.
Hasaki barges in, causing Tomosane to lose focus, and Takuji stabs themselves in the heart.
Tomosane dies.
Takuji, in all his rage, appears to drug it up (the elixir) and causes everyone (drugged up I guess) to rape and wreck the stuffed animal, with Hasaki sitting nearby confused and in tears.
Yuki appears (the person I least want to see now - Hasaki) and, still unable to perceive Hasaki + Rabbit, carries the rabbit home, talking to the rabbit (remember the walk home where she remembered the past), but this only serves to enrage and depress Hasaki even more, because the memory actually belongs to Tomosane, and he's carrying Hasaki, not "Kagami."
Takuji jumps off the roof, and Hasaki says,
"Ah... so this must be how Minakami Yuki felt, seeing someone beloved leap to their death... then I guess it's my turn (presumably to sacrifice herself to save him)."
RED staff roll.
Title screen.
Jabberwocky II
+ Show Spoiler +
This chapter follows Mamiya Tomosane, the eldest of the three siblings who'd been "sent off" to Sawai, the village their father is from and resides in. Apparently because their mother had brought out a knife at him and gotten herself hurt.
The backstory you get is that the mother and Takuji are pretty psycho, and they kept beating on Hasaki, so he'd always go rampaging to protect her. And finally the mother drew out a knife and, you get the drift. The story starts off with Hasaki being "called back" to Sawai by the father, to take her into his home. Hasaki doesn't remember Tomosane much, and Tomosane at this point seems like your typical lively kid. He's pretty strong in combat (due to training in the dojo), is relatively smart, is like a tsundere (tends to hide his true feelings and get embarrassed a lot, you know, typical elementary-school boy). He's far from "Mr. Perfect" that Yuki mentioned during Jabberwocky. Incidentally the rabbit doll was something Yuki and Tomosane together spent 3/4 of a year to create. Amusing is that Tomosane remarks, "I spent so much time now I can sew anything!"
Something that pings in the back of my mind is that they, or specifically the bar master, seems to wish? that "Minakami Yuki" is like a fragment of the real (deceased) Minakami Yuki. I don't know whether to believe that, as enough of this VN has been steeped in "reality" to wish for such a supernatural hope, but maybe that's what they want to get at. Because Yuki talking about Tomosane being Mr. Perfect felt like a big sis talking proudly about her little brother. It's really... touching.
The real Minakami Yuki is also pretty cool. As they'd mentioned, she's spunky, really strong, and fits the "big sis" role perfectly, with her mix of maturity and spontaneous childishness.
On a beach scene, Tomosane tells Hasaki,
"I'll be your hero, then, if Takuji's the savior. And whenever you're in a bind, I'll come. And if I'm in a bind, just take it as a show. Because the more I'm in a bind, the more I'm like a hero. And I'll transform, and protect you, forever."
Within a week of Hasaki's arrival, though, the father passes away, something he seemed to know was imminent, and is presumably the reason why he called Hasaki "home." In her grief, Hasaki tries to find "the highest place in the world" and gets lost in the sunflower fields and hills behind the village school, and as you may have guessed, this is
1) the sunflower fields and hills that they mention as Yuuki Tomosane dies and
2) the memorable scene in which Tomosane carries Hasaki on his back as they walk down the hill. This is the scene that "Minakami Yuki" "defiles" and enrages Hasaki in her chapter.
A year passes, and Takuji/mother arrive.
After a happy night talk about how all of them have grown, and Yuki passing her on thoughts on death etc. (basically, what Tomosane and Yuki would reply to Ayana later)...
Takuji grabs Hasaki using a knife to threaten everyone, and throws her off a cliff, to return her to the sky and to make the prophecy come true.
Yuki jumps off the cliff, cradling Hasaki, and dies, acting as a cushion for her.
Tomosane struggles with Takuji for the knife, but by accident the knife plunges into Takuji, killing him.
With his dying breath, Takuji claims to be taking over Tomosane's body, because he's the savior, he can't be dying like that.
The screen becomes white, and "Minakami Yuki" (as she's wearing a white school uniform) speaks to Yuuki Tomosane. About how that was when he started living the life of Mamiya Takuji, as opposed to Mamiya Tomosane. And whether it's PTSD/MPD or actually a case of Takuji taking over, no one can answer.
Tomosane, but using Takuji's voice (up to this point Tomosane was the ONLY character not voiced), wakes up on the rooftop of the C Tower. And Yuki talks him about how he's grown up, about how he's now as big and old as Yuki was "that day." And Yuuki replies with surprise at how now, he finds her hands so small, that he could wrap them up in his.
It's confusing at this point. This Yuki (the old Yuki, who we thought had perished and been replaced by the new Minakami Yuki... wow this is getting confusing. Minakami Yuki from ch0/1 is Yuki2. The original "personality" is Yuki1. And the one that died saving Hasaki is Yuki0. Yuki1, is speaking to him, and it seems like Yuki0 speaking to him... but now they're transitioning to a talk about being able to look into memories to find out the truth. And Tomosane regrets having lost to Takuji.
Y: What're you saying... that's good isn't it?
T: What do you mean... good...
Y: Because... it's all a show, isn't it?
T: A show?
Y: Yup... that's how heroes arrive, isn't it?
T: Heroes?
Y: You're a hero, aren't you? A transforming hero... Hasaki's gone through a lot because of you... but it's all just some spice, for the wonderful days that await up ahead, isn't it?
T: Yuki...
Y: You promised... Hasaki... on that beach... that if Takuji is a savior, you're the hero... that you'd stand up again, however many times as needed, whenever she's in a bind, to protect her... and if you're in a bind, that she should take it as a show... because being in a bind is what transforms a hero... Hasaki is believing in you, to the end... that you're a hero...
T: Yuki...
Y: Of course, that includes me... Tomosane won't lose until the bitter end, no matter what happens... because that's what heroes are, right? I believe it, too. That Tomosane will make everything right in the end
T: But I couldn't protect Yuki...
Y: Idiot... that's because you're a hero only for Hasaki...
T: But you said you believed in me, too...
Y: Yes, I do... <tries to hide her tears> I'll take him with me... so you should just keep walking...
T: Taking...?
Y: Takuji... that psycho, I'll take him with me... so you just keep moving on...
T: Moving on?
Y: Yes, moving on... from here... beyond the hills with the sunflower fields... beyond the hills we could never climb... you have to go pick up Hasaki there again...
T: The hill we could never climb...
Y: Come on, Tomosane, get a grip... because this is where we part
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2529/partf.jpg
T: Part?
Y: Yup... part... this is as far as I can walk... beneath this sky... this is where I part... with you, Tomosane... we walked together, under a long, long sky... but it ends here, because I'm not the one that gets to walk with you, from now on... I'm not the one that gets to walk the same path as you... so go... hero... my... hero... and Hasaki's superhero!
And he wakes up, to find himself dangling off the rooftop, Hasaki clutching his leg. And after some yelling "let go!" "no! why do I have to be the one that gets protected all the time!?" they plummet, and Tomosane covers Hasaki, and tries to blunt their fall by getting his leg caught inside windows (kicks them and then tries to grab it with a leg, ouch). They land on the ground, and after a tearful reminder of the promise, he blacks out.
The screen becomes white, and Wittgenstein(sp?)'s line from his book appears:
LIVE WITH PROSPERITY!
The VN resumes a year later - Tomosane appears to have survived the fall, and is now fully back to being "Mamiya Tomosane." What ensues is some philosophical discussion about worlds (harkens back to ch0 and this chapter, as they pull out stuffed that Yuki0 thought about. Tbh it wasn't very interesting.
Staff roll.
WTB a second staff roll.
By the way let me reiterate that Minakami Yuki (all 3) was in all ways way too awesome
Sucks that she died, like three times over this story.
The backstory you get is that the mother and Takuji are pretty psycho, and they kept beating on Hasaki, so he'd always go rampaging to protect her. And finally the mother drew out a knife and, you get the drift. The story starts off with Hasaki being "called back" to Sawai by the father, to take her into his home. Hasaki doesn't remember Tomosane much, and Tomosane at this point seems like your typical lively kid. He's pretty strong in combat (due to training in the dojo), is relatively smart, is like a tsundere (tends to hide his true feelings and get embarrassed a lot, you know, typical elementary-school boy). He's far from "Mr. Perfect" that Yuki mentioned during Jabberwocky. Incidentally the rabbit doll was something Yuki and Tomosane together spent 3/4 of a year to create. Amusing is that Tomosane remarks, "I spent so much time now I can sew anything!"
Something that pings in the back of my mind is that they, or specifically the bar master, seems to wish? that "Minakami Yuki" is like a fragment of the real (deceased) Minakami Yuki. I don't know whether to believe that, as enough of this VN has been steeped in "reality" to wish for such a supernatural hope, but maybe that's what they want to get at. Because Yuki talking about Tomosane being Mr. Perfect felt like a big sis talking proudly about her little brother. It's really... touching.
The real Minakami Yuki is also pretty cool. As they'd mentioned, she's spunky, really strong, and fits the "big sis" role perfectly, with her mix of maturity and spontaneous childishness.
On a beach scene, Tomosane tells Hasaki,
"I'll be your hero, then, if Takuji's the savior. And whenever you're in a bind, I'll come. And if I'm in a bind, just take it as a show. Because the more I'm in a bind, the more I'm like a hero. And I'll transform, and protect you, forever."
Within a week of Hasaki's arrival, though, the father passes away, something he seemed to know was imminent, and is presumably the reason why he called Hasaki "home." In her grief, Hasaki tries to find "the highest place in the world" and gets lost in the sunflower fields and hills behind the village school, and as you may have guessed, this is
1) the sunflower fields and hills that they mention as Yuuki Tomosane dies and
2) the memorable scene in which Tomosane carries Hasaki on his back as they walk down the hill. This is the scene that "Minakami Yuki" "defiles" and enrages Hasaki in her chapter.
A year passes, and Takuji/mother arrive.
After a happy night talk about how all of them have grown, and Yuki passing her on thoughts on death etc. (basically, what Tomosane and Yuki would reply to Ayana later)...
Takuji grabs Hasaki using a knife to threaten everyone, and throws her off a cliff, to return her to the sky and to make the prophecy come true.
Yuki jumps off the cliff, cradling Hasaki, and dies, acting as a cushion for her.
Tomosane struggles with Takuji for the knife, but by accident the knife plunges into Takuji, killing him.
With his dying breath, Takuji claims to be taking over Tomosane's body, because he's the savior, he can't be dying like that.
The screen becomes white, and "Minakami Yuki" (as she's wearing a white school uniform) speaks to Yuuki Tomosane. About how that was when he started living the life of Mamiya Takuji, as opposed to Mamiya Tomosane. And whether it's PTSD/MPD or actually a case of Takuji taking over, no one can answer.
Tomosane, but using Takuji's voice (up to this point Tomosane was the ONLY character not voiced), wakes up on the rooftop of the C Tower. And Yuki talks him about how he's grown up, about how he's now as big and old as Yuki was "that day." And Yuuki replies with surprise at how now, he finds her hands so small, that he could wrap them up in his.
It's confusing at this point. This Yuki (the old Yuki, who we thought had perished and been replaced by the new Minakami Yuki... wow this is getting confusing. Minakami Yuki from ch0/1 is Yuki2. The original "personality" is Yuki1. And the one that died saving Hasaki is Yuki0. Yuki1, is speaking to him, and it seems like Yuki0 speaking to him... but now they're transitioning to a talk about being able to look into memories to find out the truth. And Tomosane regrets having lost to Takuji.
Y: What're you saying... that's good isn't it?
T: What do you mean... good...
Y: Because... it's all a show, isn't it?
T: A show?
Y: Yup... that's how heroes arrive, isn't it?
T: Heroes?
Y: You're a hero, aren't you? A transforming hero... Hasaki's gone through a lot because of you... but it's all just some spice, for the wonderful days that await up ahead, isn't it?
T: Yuki...
Y: You promised... Hasaki... on that beach... that if Takuji is a savior, you're the hero... that you'd stand up again, however many times as needed, whenever she's in a bind, to protect her... and if you're in a bind, that she should take it as a show... because being in a bind is what transforms a hero... Hasaki is believing in you, to the end... that you're a hero...
T: Yuki...
Y: Of course, that includes me... Tomosane won't lose until the bitter end, no matter what happens... because that's what heroes are, right? I believe it, too. That Tomosane will make everything right in the end
T: But I couldn't protect Yuki...
Y: Idiot... that's because you're a hero only for Hasaki...
T: But you said you believed in me, too...
Y: Yes, I do... <tries to hide her tears> I'll take him with me... so you should just keep walking...
T: Taking...?
Y: Takuji... that psycho, I'll take him with me... so you just keep moving on...
T: Moving on?
Y: Yes, moving on... from here... beyond the hills with the sunflower fields... beyond the hills we could never climb... you have to go pick up Hasaki there again...
T: The hill we could never climb...
Y: Come on, Tomosane, get a grip... because this is where we part
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2529/partf.jpg
T: Part?
Y: Yup... part... this is as far as I can walk... beneath this sky... this is where I part... with you, Tomosane... we walked together, under a long, long sky... but it ends here, because I'm not the one that gets to walk with you, from now on... I'm not the one that gets to walk the same path as you... so go... hero... my... hero... and Hasaki's superhero!
And he wakes up, to find himself dangling off the rooftop, Hasaki clutching his leg. And after some yelling "let go!" "no! why do I have to be the one that gets protected all the time!?" they plummet, and Tomosane covers Hasaki, and tries to blunt their fall by getting his leg caught inside windows (kicks them and then tries to grab it with a leg, ouch). They land on the ground, and after a tearful reminder of the promise, he blacks out.
The screen becomes white, and Wittgenstein(sp?)'s line from his book appears:
LIVE WITH PROSPERITY!
The VN resumes a year later - Tomosane appears to have survived the fall, and is now fully back to being "Mamiya Tomosane." What ensues is some philosophical discussion about worlds (harkens back to ch0 and this chapter, as they pull out stuffed that Yuki0 thought about. Tbh it wasn't very interesting.
Staff roll.
WTB a second staff roll.
By the way let me reiterate that Minakami Yuki (all 3) was in all ways way too awesome
Sucks that she died, like three times over this story.Jabberwocky I -> Jabberwocky II -> The Sunflower Hill
+ Show Spoiler +
Yes, take 2.
There was a split when Hasaki asks you if you'll protect her, and whilst in take 1 you answered "of course," in take 2 you answer "even more than that."
What ensues is a declaration that you have to be more than just a protector, that you have to take the place of their father as well. On the first playthrough I don't think this makes much sense, because so little is revealed to you at this juncture about their prior history. At this point though it makes more sense, knowing what we know from Jabberwocky II.
Notable changes (I'm skipping through all the overlapping scenes):
You sleep with Yuki (how does that even work...) the next day (this is the night before you get owned by Takuji).
The rest remains the same.
The next change resumes in Jabberwocky II.
At the end, when Yuki tells you it's time to part, the lines change.
Y: Because this is where we part...
T: Part?
Y: Yup... it's time to part... I need to deliver him...
T: Yuki...
Y: Don't look at me like that, Tomosane...here... don't you feel me... inside you? <she holds his hand> I'm always by your side... I have to go... but I'll always be by your side... <she takes a step back, and shouts> Now... go! What kind of hero doesn't protect the heroine in the end? Isn't that right... Tomosane... Hasaki believed in you... as did I... Tomosane. That you'll win. Against destiny!
End: The Sunflower Hill (sorry I should have mentioned before, the other ending was A Wonderful Every Day)
This part takes place a month after, as opposed to a year.
I AM CONFUSED. Okay Hasaki and Tomosane (as with the other end) return to their father's village (where the first tragedy occurred), and Minakami Yuki greets them. WHAT?
:'(
Apparently the night he came back, Yuki appeared. But not as a switching of personalities, more as an ever-present... ghost? That both he and Hasaki can see. And then they climb the sunflower hill, and sprawl out on a field of grass. Hasaki decides to look for a four-leaf clover, and Yuki joins her - but Tomosane remembers how they'd done this very same thing long ago, because of an event where you could trade a four-leaf clover for a silver can, and if you collected five of those you could trade it in for a golden one. And they'd gone up to four, but couldn't find the fifth one. So symbolically, this meant...
That when Yuki found it, it was time for playtime to end.
Y: Play is play... because there's an end...
T: That's not true...
Y: Yes it is... when it becomes evening... and the chime to go home sounds, it's time to go home... because that lets you know playtime's over...
T: Then just break the chime
Y: How primitive... that's just simple terrorism. Without the chime... evening turns to night... and either way, you can't keep playing. When it's dark... you can't step on shadows... play the sand... nor kick stones... when the sun falls... it must end... must end...
T: Yuki!
H: Yuki...
Y: From now on... be happy... you two...
T: Shut up... stop sounding so selfish...
Y: Selfish?
T: Of course... those that just disappear... just go away don't have the right to say that...
Y: Those that just disappear... you were gone for a long time, too...
T: But I came back, I came back here!
Y: That's... because you're the hero. That's called a hero's special privilege... I'm not a hero... that's why... see... look... the sun's falling... playtime's over...
T: Yuki... you...
Y: Over... playtime's... ah... it's time...
Y: For food
T: ... eh?
So it turns out she's like this inexplicable 'thing' that's visible only to him and Hasaki, and is basically like MPD is still ongoing, except... kinda more like schizophrenia I guess? I'm kinda deflated by this end, as it seems like it's forced happiness. Oh well.
There was a split when Hasaki asks you if you'll protect her, and whilst in take 1 you answered "of course," in take 2 you answer "even more than that."
What ensues is a declaration that you have to be more than just a protector, that you have to take the place of their father as well. On the first playthrough I don't think this makes much sense, because so little is revealed to you at this juncture about their prior history. At this point though it makes more sense, knowing what we know from Jabberwocky II.
Notable changes (I'm skipping through all the overlapping scenes):
You sleep with Yuki (how does that even work...) the next day (this is the night before you get owned by Takuji).
The rest remains the same.
The next change resumes in Jabberwocky II.
At the end, when Yuki tells you it's time to part, the lines change.
Y: Because this is where we part...
T: Part?
Y: Yup... it's time to part... I need to deliver him...
T: Yuki...
Y: Don't look at me like that, Tomosane...here... don't you feel me... inside you? <she holds his hand> I'm always by your side... I have to go... but I'll always be by your side... <she takes a step back, and shouts> Now... go! What kind of hero doesn't protect the heroine in the end? Isn't that right... Tomosane... Hasaki believed in you... as did I... Tomosane. That you'll win. Against destiny!
End: The Sunflower Hill (sorry I should have mentioned before, the other ending was A Wonderful Every Day)
This part takes place a month after, as opposed to a year.
I AM CONFUSED. Okay Hasaki and Tomosane (as with the other end) return to their father's village (where the first tragedy occurred), and Minakami Yuki greets them. WHAT?
:'(
Apparently the night he came back, Yuki appeared. But not as a switching of personalities, more as an ever-present... ghost? That both he and Hasaki can see. And then they climb the sunflower hill, and sprawl out on a field of grass. Hasaki decides to look for a four-leaf clover, and Yuki joins her - but Tomosane remembers how they'd done this very same thing long ago, because of an event where you could trade a four-leaf clover for a silver can, and if you collected five of those you could trade it in for a golden one. And they'd gone up to four, but couldn't find the fifth one. So symbolically, this meant...
That when Yuki found it, it was time for playtime to end.
Y: Play is play... because there's an end...
T: That's not true...
Y: Yes it is... when it becomes evening... and the chime to go home sounds, it's time to go home... because that lets you know playtime's over...
T: Then just break the chime
Y: How primitive... that's just simple terrorism. Without the chime... evening turns to night... and either way, you can't keep playing. When it's dark... you can't step on shadows... play the sand... nor kick stones... when the sun falls... it must end... must end...
T: Yuki!
H: Yuki...
Y: From now on... be happy... you two...
T: Shut up... stop sounding so selfish...
Y: Selfish?
T: Of course... those that just disappear... just go away don't have the right to say that...
Y: Those that just disappear... you were gone for a long time, too...
T: But I came back, I came back here!
Y: That's... because you're the hero. That's called a hero's special privilege... I'm not a hero... that's why... see... look... the sun's falling... playtime's over...
T: Yuki... you...
Y: Over... playtime's... ah... it's time...
Y: For food
T: ... eh?
So it turns out she's like this inexplicable 'thing' that's visible only to him and Hasaki, and is basically like MPD is still ongoing, except... kinda more like schizophrenia I guess? I'm kinda deflated by this end, as it seems like it's forced happiness. Oh well.
The Sky of the End
+ Show Spoiler +
In Jabberwocky (again) after the previous two, you unlock the option to say "who cares."
In Jabberwocky II at the same scene this leads to
T: Didn't I die?
Y: If you died, you wouldn't be here, would you... this isn't the netherworld nor the afterworld...
T: But this Tower C isn't the real Tower C either... did Yuki make this?
Y: Who knows... I don't... all I know is... what's not here is the most important thing isn't it?
T: What's not here? That's...
Y: Right... what you need to do... what you yourself must do... do you remember now?
T: I... I...
Y: Now... go... Tomosane... you're gonna protect Hasaki aren't you? No matter what...
T: Right... no matter what... I have to protect...
Y: Mmhmm... good answer... Tomosane, who Hasaki believed in... and so did I... you're gonna win, against destiny!
~The Sky of the End 2~ (where was 1?)
Minakami Yuki awakens. She's on the roof of school, on Tower C, and it's been one day since yesterday.
She's confused; why is she here? How did the wounds go away?
Otonashi Ayana is in front of her, and she proposes some theories.
1) If she's the personality created by Mamiya Tomosane, then her existence = Mamiya Tomosane's physical body still being in existence.
2) Her existence is actually the spirit of the deceased Minakami Yuki. Her spirit now reigning over the body signifies Mamiya Tomosane's death.
3) It's a dream
4) Minakami Yuki is just a figment of Ayana's imagination
She looks around; the students and staff are acting as normal, despite it being the 20th. Which is beyond odd considering what had transpired of late. She also doesn't understand why she knows the term "Sky of the End," nor does she understand why everyone else seemed to use the term, despite it originating from...
... that amusement park attraction in Ch0!
5) Minakami Yuki was in fact struck by Takashima Zakuro's suicide, and she has not yet awakened from that dream
6) All of her memories are simply wrong, perhaps information mis-storage via the interchanging of personalities
And then she poses a question to Yuki. Who is Minakami Yuki? How many Minakami Yuki are there in this world?
One was born in Sawai village, and died there.
One was created by Mamiya Tomosane.
And there is another now speaking to Ayana.
So what # Minakami Yuki is she? When was the "Sky of the End" term created? Yuki traces back her memory, and for some reason remembers the date on the calender...
The final theory, 7) All existence is one soul.
"Giggle... Yuki, who existed so many times... if each of them is Yuki... then this world doesn't need that many souls...
One soul just needs to have all the perspectives...
Takashima Zakuro, Mamiya Tomosane, Mamiya Takuji... Mamiya Hasaki and the Wakatsuki twins... were all scenes observed by one soul...
And what ensues is some philosophical stuff that results in nothing being answered and Otonashi simply raising more questions, considering that at the very, very end, she (Otonashi) is called to and she (Otonashi) is the one that makes snide narrations to the reader to close the game. She also mentions finding "where the story began," as she offers theories, such as when Yuki was smashed by Zakuro, the event 7 years ago, or maybe even something older!
Maybe the world is simply a loop, like Otonashi Ayana had said in her conversation to Takuji (the infinite happiness).
Review
+ Show Spoiler +
What'd I think of it? I thought it was engrossing, but then started turning into a bit of a clusterfuck, especially with what I felt was a rather forced paradoxical ending via Otonashi. I also felt like the whole PTSD -> MPD shenanigans have been overused in novels, so as early as chapter 2 I figured what was going on :/ If you look around you'll see a lot of gushing over it but I felt like it was super duper overrated; the initial "trick" was really good, but I didn't like how it tried to be typical Japanese horror (leaving you mystified at the end) and I didn't like how the pieces came together and they tried to wedge a twig in it to just make it somewhat not fit. It deffo had one of the most disturbing mental images ever (ergh, the bunny). Still, somewhat overrated I thought. Would I recommend it to people? I think it's nice to see their initial reaction to the trick and then to the bunny, but there're much more hilarious VNs to troll people with (Kara no Shoujo #1) and there're much better VNs in general.
