META
Updates have actually been slightly sketchier than my real play schedule, though I still mostly play in the small hours, suffering from sleep deprivation, until I can take no more. Thus, multiple installments to be posted today. And god, does that title suck. Oh well.ACT 3, SCENE 6 - TANOMURA
Tanomura enters the gym, and spots Hibarin and Yukacchi sitting silently in their usual places. Tano brusquely greets them, wondering why they look so tense. According to Hiba, Yukacchi's irritating. This is scary. Yuka tells Hiba shut up, denying that she's irritated. She sounds very irritated while saying this.
Both Hiba and Yuka have their worries; Hiba seems sleep deprived and Yuka's worrying - so much so that breakfast was quite a bit too salty this morning.
Thankfully, Tanomura is able to produce good news: it's a letter from Tsuka-chan! Turns out both Aroe (Hiba's very happy!) and Tsuka (Yuka's very very happy!) are alive and well. Hibarin's rather annoyed at Tsuka's businesslike writing though, since it's rather short and to the point. Her voice starts trembling toward the end of her rant, though; she's actually very relieved and happy and just tsun-ing it. How very unexpected. She finds herself unable to continue the tsun, though, and starts crying inelegantly, clinging to Yuka. Yuka is similarly moved, though her eyes are merely moist.
Tano mentally considers this a beautiful sight. He then says he has work to do, and leaves. Running.
This is the first good news Tano's had in a while, but the other letter from the Daichis, delivered with Tsuka's, is a different matter. it contains a hostage exchange proposal - for Tsuka-chan, apparently (wait, wasn't he supposed to be trapped there forevah until he donates some man-juice?). The Schoolers have decided to take the Daichis up on their offer, but are unsure if they can be trusted.
Being a captured Daichi is not a pleasant experience: they are bound with their hands behind their back and their legs are tied - with chains, no less. An illustration of a young woman in this predicament is shown in the top-right corner. The prisoners have more bruises on them than when they were captured; the guards seem to find kicking dogs fun. Tano reprimands Taku, who happens to be on guard at the time, telling him to keep his men in line. Taku considers this impossible regarding the particular specimen on display, however: she killed Suzuki - one of the vigilantes, presumably. It's clear that he really doesn't give a shit. Tano remains disapproving, saying that hitting a girl's face that much is rather unnecessarily cruel. Taku deflects. Tano asks if they at least haven't done anything weird to her - Taku asks what this thing would be, leaving Tano to wonder aloud is Taku's really didn't understand what he meant. Well, doing something cruel to the prisoners wouldn't be good for morale, Tano says, yet again attempting to get Tano to give a shit about the whole not kicking people that are down thing. He then says that they may have to establish penal regulations (good luck). Taku keeps deflecting, saying that treating war prisoners like this is normal since they killed people on their side and stuffs. Tano gets nowhere with Taku, though.
Hida-san hasn't kicked the bucket, but his strength isn't back either, so he's staying in bed for now. Tano whines that he's not suited to lead the kind of people he's currently dealing with, given his inability to be harsh. Hida whines back, since he's unable to be cheery and stuffs. It's all rather amicable, though.
Hida's not looking too good; he's breathing heavily, and fatigued enough that he fell asleep during one of Tano's reports earlier in the day. Tano's got a bad feeling about the whole thing.
I think we can safely assume Hida will die soon enough.
Scene change, and music I haven't heard before plays: it's a high-tension classical piece. It's two days later, and the exchange has been arranged. The stage has been set: it's to take place on an ice field, which will make ambushes hard to set up due to excellent visibility.
The other party arrives: they're ten, just like the Schoolers. All hostages involved have been blinded somehow and have their hands tied behind their backs, of course. Interestingly. the male and female the Daichis have on offer actually have bags over their heads - I suspect trickery.
The deal is this: the Schoolers release two of their hostages, then the Daichis will release theirs. The Schoolers will then hand over the last hostage; they've brought three.
The two parties, standing 50 metres apart, begin - aided by megaphones. The Schoolers' first two hostages make it to the Daichis without any major problems. The Daichis release their own hostages as planned - the hoods on their faces, however, make their journey a bit more troublesome. The Daichis do not reply when asked to remove the hoods, however - suspicion... rising. Eventually the hooded people that are totally Tsuka and Aroe (the male is leading the female by way of a rope tied to his waist, so there is that...). Taku says that this is suspicious; Tano agrees.
Given the circumstances, Tano finds it prudent to order the two to kneel, telling them that they are surrounded. It's mentioned in the text that the iron pipes the vigilantes now carry have been sharpened. Clever.
A vigilante proceeds towards one of the bagheads. A gunshot rings out. The vigilante, Tajima-kun, falls to the ground, shot in the chest. The male hostage isn't Tsuka, and he's holding a pistol. So is the woman masquerading as Aroe. Tano signals the attack, and the Vigilantes quickly kill the trojan gunmen - not before they manage to kill one more Schooler, however.
It's time for yet another track I haven't heard before to start playing. It's... epic.
The Daichis charge with a roar. Tano orders his men into a line, presumably intending to use pikeman tactics. The Daichis are rather less organized - one is actually holding a chainsaw!
It looks like Taku has other plans, though. He's holding a remote control, and activates some kind of explosive device. It breaks the ice, and the Daichis plunge in - Taku then announces that it's time to hunt seals, with great excitement. He's actually elated afterwards. Three Schoolers are dead, while ten Daichis are - they have also captured four hostages, two of which will die soon. It's not just Taku that's cheering; the rest of the vigilantes save Tano are doing the same. Tano is less happy, though he sounds more annoyed than shaken.
It's rather disturbing.
Tano proceeds to whine about Taku not telling him about the bomb - Taku waves it off, saying Tano wouldn't agree to such a plan. He then delights in a new girl hostage being rather cute, saying that they can have some fun with her. Looks like Taku's gazed into the void, and the void has gazed right back at him.
Tano continues to ineffectually protest the whole raping prisoners thing. Taku, meanwhile, calls it a welfare program. Everybody from the vigilantes agrees happily to the arrangement.
Scene change. It's now february, but there's no sign of it getting any warmer. Tano again attempts, unsuccessfully, to make Taku see his point of view. He really doesn't get Taku's viewpoint - as usual, he thinks. They're standing on a rooftop - Tano's chain-smoking cigarettes. Hibarin drops by, rather annoyed for whatever reason. Trivia: Tano was very srs about Kendo training while in High School.
Hibari proceeds to lambast Tano for a while; she then offers Tano some chocolate out of the blue. Tano refuses it, saying he is in no mood for sweet things; this prompts Hibarin to remind him that this is in fact Valentine's Day. Of course, it's totally not like she's not giving chocolate to lots of other people too to try to make them happy and stuff. Tano then accepts the chocolate, and somehow manages to back up a claim that he's so happy that he could cry by actually crying. Oh, and he says she is cute when she puts herself down regarding the subject. Hiba wonders what kind of trick this is, and says it's rather creepy, before acquiring a Luminous Blush and running away.
The screen fades to black - Tanomura resolves to keep on fighting, even though his body feels heavy. One bad thing after another just keeps happining, though: that night, Hida-san dies.
Scene switch, and Tanomura's talking to Hida's body. Tano contemplates what to do, now that Hida's gone - he tended to somewhat dampen the extremist factions in the Admin department, but he won't be any help any more. He decides he needs cigarette enough that he'll smoke one even though he's in the same room as a dead man, in the hospital wing and stuff. While looking for an ashtray, he finds a still-full syringe in the trash can - when a nurse comes around, he tells her that they must make sure to dispose of those things responsibly. She gets a rather strange face when she sees it. Tano gets suspicious, and decides to reject the nurse's offer to dispose of it, taking matters into his own hands. He injects a cat with the stuff, and it dies within thirty minutes. Its name is Mary. Sorry, Mary.
Tano concludes that Hida was murdered, and contemplates why. He find the whole thing rather disheartening; it would appear that his power within the admin department is pretty much gone. He's approaches by Taku and four other men. Taku grins unsettlingly as he greets Tano. Tano tells them that he has seen through them, and that their plan is to murder him. He's holding a shovel, which he was using to bury the cat.
Tano gets ready to defend himself as Taku calmly admits that they are indeed out to kill him, and have framed him for Hida's murder. Taku offers Tano his sword (which seems to be a katana), throwing it on the ground. Tano asks his final question, and as he suspected, everyone in the admin department except for himself is aware of the conspiracy. It's all done in a rather gentlemanly, cheerful manner. As Tano reaches for the sword, he hears the ambush he's been expecting: people are coming up from behind him. This isn't going to intimidate a trained Kendo fighter, of course; Tano picks up the sword and rolls to the side. As one might expect, the scabbard and handle are tied together, so the sword's kind of useless. The enemy's using projectile weapons, and five men armed with spears are now charging at him from the front. Tano's not giving up, though - he decides to use the shovel instead, noting that it's not a very well-balanced weapon. He also notes that though Taku brought the "relatively better fighters" for the job, they still suck. All Tano's taking is small cuts; he's able to fend off the five men quite easily, to Taku's great frustration. Eventually, he manages to free the katana, and it turns out that Taku didn't quite think this through after all: it's now fully usable. Tano immediately cuts off a guy's hand.
In the end, Tano wins. Easily.
"I tried not to kill as much as I could help it, bit I'm sure most of them are dead. man, what a bummer."
Taku's chest has a nasty cut on it, but he's not dead. He's rather pissed at getting owned, though. Tano says that he will leave, as Taku wishes. He asks Taku to do his best to guide the Schoolers, and says that Taku could've just asked for the leadership instead of all this killing nonsense. Taku's not very happy with being the sole survivor of the ambush, though, and begs Tano to kill him. Tano refuses, and leaves a crying Taku behind.
The people have gathered outside to gawk at Tano, who's covered in minor cuts and generally rather bloody all over, brandishing a sword. He calls out for Hibari - there just this one thing he wants to say to her before he goes.
Calm, tender, somewhat melancholy music plays. Then again, I always say music is melancholy. Maybe I just add that emotion to everything.
Tanomura: "I love you from the bottom of my heart. Let's leave this place together."
Well, that will greatly ostracize her if she actually decides to stay.
Tano closes his eyes, waiting for a reply.
Hibari: "Yeah, okay."
Tano is rather confused by this turn of events. He'd prepared a speech and everything... But Hibari instead manages to embarrass him with her frankness. Yuka denies a request for her to follow Tano as well. After much sentimentality, including Hibari confessing her liking of Tano, Hibari says goodbye to everyone. Well, maybe I got the order of things jumbled up, or whatever. Hibari finally starts walking away, urging Tanomura to follow her. Tano still can't quite believe that Hiba really does like him.
Under the stares of everyone at the shelter, our two lovebirds leave, walking hand in hand. Despite what he's gotten into, Tano feels better than ever.
Of course, a lone, if badass, man and his meh-ly skilled girlfriend? The guy is, realistically, going to have a damn hard time scavenging for food. And this VN is proving remarkably realistic... Wish them well, ladies and gentlemen, for they shall need it. That or join the Daichis, which will sure be interesting.
White fade-out. That's right, it's time for a new character, and guess what - it's Yuka! Time for a brand new look at things, I guess.
