Welcome back, folks! Took a quick break from the first part to relax a little and unpack (just got home from Glasgow, so yeah), but now we're back where we left off!
We're greeted in the early morning by Yukari. We're given the option to ignore her, but let's be nice guys and open the door for her. Seems Mitsuru has tasked Yukari with escorting us to school. We're given another option to blow her off and go by ourselves, but we're new here and could probably use the help, so we'll let ghost-whisperer tag along. For now...
Cutscene time! We finally get our first glimpses of the OH WOW... That's one hell of a campus right there! I'm going to enjoy my stay here, I think. After that eye-watering cutscene, we're shunted back into gameplay. Seems Yukari's anxious to ditch us, no doubt to talk with her ghost pals. But now we have a new task: go see the homeroom teacher (whatever that is) and get ourselves set up. We can ask her which class she's in or say that we're fine, so in the hopes of finding out more about this obvious main character, I figure I might as well figure out what class she's in. Might dig up some ghost-dirt. But apparently Yukari doesn't know herself. Bah and humbug to you, Yukari! Bah and humbug! She tells us not to tell anyone what we saw last night before going off on her merry way. Seems that guns and coffin streets aren't natural occurrences in this school. Well, I certainly hope they aren't. Unless they're some sort of extra-curricular prop or something, I don't know.
But hey, we finally get control of our character! Seems simple enough. Left analogue stick to move around, X to interact. Basic stuff. So let's go take a look at that bulletin board everyone else seems to be looking at. Funnily enough our name isn't on the class lists. Hmm, does this have anything to do with the 'sudden transfer' that landed us in this place? Wait, no. There it is. A tiny note that we find after looking again. Class F is apparently where we're meant to go. So after that we decide to head on over to the office that Yukari was telling us about. On an unrelated note, some of the people here are insane. Seriously, there's a guy running around with a kabuto helm on his head! Also a guy with a butterfly fan and a cutout picture, so he's probably important. I'm pretty sure he's meant to be French as well. Curiouser and curiouser... Well, enough faffing about! Let's go find that office!
Upon entering we're greeted by a woman who looks a lot like an older Yukari. Coincidence, family relation or just lazy artists? Not sure as of yet. Upon chatting with her she reveals to the player that Minato's lived in a lot of different places. What can I say? The call of the Bearoga clan pulls this way and that, and... oh wait, I can't do that since you guys made me go with the canon name. And oh dear. Seems we got orphaned in 1999. I knew I couldn't escape the RPG cliches for long. Ah well, such is life when you're a pretty boy in a suit faced with coffin-streets and ghosts.
The teacher introduces herself as Ms Toriumi
, the teacher of Composition. As we're such nice guys, we say it's nice to meet her, and with an exclamation mark, no less! This enthusiasm is not lost on the teacher, who then goes on to explain that we're in her class. Hey, at least we aren't in King Moron's class! But before that, there's a welcome ceremony in the auditorium. Coolio. I guess even the school heads know that we're main characters, and so prepared accordingly. Ah, it's nice to be important.
Anyway, we cut to the auditorium, where the principal (who I swear I've heard the voice of before) lectures us on doing things well and such. As this goes on, we get badgered by another student, who stalk- I mean, saw Yukari walking to school with us. And now he wants to know if she has a boyfriend. Sorry pal, she's only interested in ghost boys with contracts. We reply that we don't know but, sadly, this does not deter the student from continuing to chat with us. However, a guardian angel/teacher hears our chatter and puts a stop to the interrogation. Hallelujah!
After that, we get accosted by a surfer dude student who seems to have picked his accent right out of the '90s. But he's got a cut-out, so I guess he's important. We ask who he is and he introduces himself as Junpei Iroi, who apparently transferred here from 8th grade. He feels the pain of being the new kid on the block, so he figured he'd be nice and say hey. What a guy. And apparently he knows Yukari as well. Most likely he's in league with her to keep the ghosts a secret, but I'm onto their little game! Seems Yukari's going to be in our class as well. Excellent! More opportunities to learn her poltergeist secrets! Being the slick, all-knowing protag dudes that we are, we respond that it must be fate! Yukari, however, is immune to our charms and refuses to believe in fate. Bah and humbug!
And oh hey, even Junpei knows that Yukari and Minato walked to school together. God, does this school have CCTV cameras specifically to get the freshest gossip or something? Yukari doesn't take kindly to Junpei's "subtle" questioning about whether or not something might be going on between us. But that's quickly forgotten when she returns to being all shady about the whole "carrying a gun" thing. Being the good little spies that we are, we put her fears to rest by saying that we most certainly did not. God, the way she acts about it you'd think we had a one night stand or something. Seems Junpei was thinking on those same wavelengths as well. I sense a kindred spirit in him. Yukari is quick to put those rumours to rest, however, and then leaves to do something for the "archery team". Sure, Yukari. Sure. We believe you. After she leaves, Junpei praises us on getting friendly with Yukari so quickly. Smooth, man. Real smooth.
Anyway, I'll wrap up this part for the time being and finish off the first day in a little bit. Hope you all enjoy!
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