Nanashi: Aright, the Kasumigaseki base is just a few blocks from here. Onward!
Makara: GET ON MY BAAAAAACK, I'LL TAKE YOU THERE!
Nanashi: Thanks bunchly.
Wendigo: How do ya pronounce 'Kasumi-whatever' anyway; I'm not from around here! OOK!
Character notes: A cannibal giant of the Native Americans of the northeast US and Canada. Wendigos are much like Yetis in that they hide in the snow and attack humans. It's said that eating human flesh curses one to become a Wendigo.
Personality notes: Dumb punk much like Oni, but also makes monkey noises.
Gucumatz: IT PRONOUNCED 'KAH-SOOMEY-GAS-EKKY', YOU SOME KIND OF STUPID.
Pyro Jack: Hee-how is that dragon guy so smart but terrible at di-hee-ction!?
Character notes: More properly 'Jack O'Lantern,' but that didn't fit the character limit in Nocturne. He's the ghost of a wily but evil Irishman who tricked Hell out of taking his soul... only to find the Heaven didn't want him either. He now wanders around with a pumpkin for a head and carrying a lantern. If you see mysterious lights at night, that's him trying to get you lost. He's obviously a Fire specialist.
Personality notes: Similar to Jack Frost but rougher around the edges.
Makara: KAUMIGASEKI BASE PLAAAAAZA! ALL ASHORE GOOOOOOOING ASHORE!
Nanashi: Thanks dude.
Kasumigaseki above-ground is exactly as we left it in IV Vanilla, save the demon fauna being different and higher-leveled.
Quicksilver: Kzzzzat Kzzzzzzat KZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAT! HIHIHI! WATCHA-KZZZZZAT-DOIN! TAKE ME TAKE MZZZZZZZZZZZZE TOO-KZZZZZAT!
Nanashi: Gah! Have I found someone more spastic than Nadja?
Character notes: A Quicksilver is the female counterpart to a Poltergeist, and behaves much the same. Little to say here. All the skills she gets are Mazio and Shock, the Elec counterpart to Fire Breath et al.
Camazotz: Heyyo heyyo heyyo! Somebody around here needs some heads chopped right? That kid what's been knockin' off all them big names? Nice ta meetcha!
Bilwis: I called all the chop chop chopping round here, bud!
Character notes: A Maya bat-god representing darkness, who lives in Xibalba, the underworld. He's infamous for his murder of the culture hero Hunahpu, as documented in the epic Popol Vuh. He specializes in ailment-inflicting Phys moves like Tetanus Cut.
Personality notes: Obsessed with cutting off heads.
Jueyuan: Hey there little ladies? Wanna make some monkey babies with- wait, no, sorry, wanna go to a movie or something boring?
Moh Shuvuu: Ugh, failure as a monkey...
Character notes: A lecherous monkeylike Chinese spirit, who kidnaps, rapes, and impregnates human women to reproduce. Stand-up guy. He gets Poison Claw, Agilao, and Posumudi.
Personality notes: Lecherous douchebag, like Incubus and Night Stalker, but tries to hide it badly.
Senri: One side you filthy beast, I'll not have you touch my sisters here!
Gu Huo Niao: Nice save, old gal!
Character notes: A Chinese cat spirit said to come from an ordinary cat that has reached a great age. They then take on attractive human forms and drain the life from people. Gets Makakaja, Zanma, and Force Pleroma, so she's a good mage.
Personality notes: Protective mother hen type toward younger female demons.
Tattooed Man: Hey kid, I gotta map to a lost cavern underneath Kasumigaseki! Only, 1,000,000,000 Macca! It's full of even more Macca than that! Buy buy buy!
Nanashi: A... MAP to a LOST cavern?
Tattooed Man: Yup, gotta problem with that?
Character notes: Much like Hoolingan, Tottooed Man isn't a mythical figure but a demon-possessed human, in this case a member of the yakuza, the Japanese mob. Dig his sweet Jack Frost ink. He gets Phys skills including Fatal Sword, the mid-tier single-strike Phys move.
Personality notes: Street hustler.
Myrmecolion: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz leavezzzzzzzz me alone...
Nanashi: You just recruited yourself to my party; kinda hard to do now...
Myrmecolion: Zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzhut up. It'zzzzzzz not like I'll live much longerzzzzzzz.
Character notes: A beast found in Medieval grimoires, born from a mistranslation in the Bible. It's half lion and half ant, but since one part of it only eats plants and the other meat, it inevitably starves to death. Yeah, weird. He gets a good arsenal of general-purpose skills.
Personality notes: Perpetually tired and fatalistic.
We want to approach the elevator on the right-hand side here, where Nanashi's party are stopped by a guard, who assumes they're little kids and tries to shoo them back into the underground district.
Phoenix: Do you have ANY idea who you're speaking to you oaf!?
Fortunately he relents upon seeing the quest info on the phones and gives Nanashi and Asahi keycards for the fourth level.
Nanashi: Man people like that piss me off, and Asahi even more. There are Hunters younger than us; everyone does what they need to do to survive here!
Karashu Tengu: Want I should peck his eyes out?
Nanashi: Nah, not worth it.
There's a passage leading to the elevator here with a vent that leads up the a fenced-off area of the over world with a Power Spot. Take the elevator down to level 4.
Nanashi: Wow. Hunter HQ. Sah-weet!
You may recall this base was abandoned in IV Vanilla, but now it's been revamped as the new home of the Hunter Association! The far east wall has a Purple Tentacle Thing you can destroy with the Jade Dagger, but our destination is the door in the center of the northern wall.
Inside, Nanashi's party overhears two Hunters talking. It seems that the job to retrieve parts for the Shesha Radar is sponsored in part by the Ashura-kai, the yakuza outfit that had ruled Tokyo with an iron fist before Flynn knocked them off. They were floundering after the death of their leader Tayama, but a new one, Abe, appeared and revitalized them. It's also rumored they're now working for Lucifer...
Nanashi: Well that's worrying. Never did like them.
Lham Dearg: Bunchae weaklings, the lot! Ah'd snap those Ashura types o'er may knee!
The Hunters then part to reveal the Hunter Association's scientific genius, the ever-so-eccentric Dr. Matsuda! It's he who will be designing the radar enabling the tracking of the Serpent. He turns our attention to a monitor screen, where Fujiwara and Skins, two floors above, brief the Hunters on their assignments. They are to scour Tokyo for parts for the Shesha Radar, cooperating with the Ashura-kai in doing so. Each team gets assigned a different part and a location where it's likely to be. Nanashi and Asahi get assigned the sensor, which might be found in the old excavation site at the top of the Sky Tower.
Nanashi: Where Fujiwara and pals once tried to tunnel through the Ceiling; sweet! Always wanted to see that!
Narcissus: Gah, an excavation site? Why, that would be full of dust that could get on my beautiful petals!
Phoenix: Ah! A cleanly gentleman after my own heart! How goes things?
Narcissus: Ugh, a bird! Please do not defecate on my beautiful self!
Character notes: A handsome young man of Greek myth; he spurned the advances of the nymph Echo, who died of despair. He was cursed for this and forced to fall in love with his own reflection, and eventually wasted away staring at it and became a flower. We get "Narcissism" from his name. He gets Wind Breath which will be very useful where we're going next.
Personality notes: ...go on, guess.
Qing Niuguai: One side, all, the real grand personage is coming through! Bow to me, dudes!
Character notes: The immortal blue bull belonging to Laozi, founder of Taoism. Usually quite the mellow fellow, but Journey to the West records a story where he went ballistic when left unattended and had to be corralled by Sun Wukiong. Gets various Phys moves including Megaton Press, the high-crit-low-accuracy medium-damage move.
Personality: Pompous blowhard authority figure.
Vouivre: Heyyyyyy bitches! Guess who's back!
Gu Huo Niao: Yo, girl, lookin' good! when did you get back?
Vouivre: Just had to see what this kid here was all about! Is it true you freed Krishna?
Moh Shuvuu: Failure. As. A. Human!
Character notes: One of many Medieval heraldic beasties, the Vouivre or Guivre is the French counterpart to the British Wyvern. Initially they were depicted as dragons with wings and two legs, but eventually came to be drawn as beautiful dragon-women. Elec specialist.
Personality notes: The Alpha Bitch of the demon Girl Posse.
Basilisk: HIIIIIIIII DUDE. LOOOOOOOOK AT ME.
Oni: Inadvisable, bruh, trust me on this!
Character notes: Meaning "King of Snakes," it's an evil dragon said to be found in Libya. To create one, have a toad incubate a chicken egg and it'll hatch into a Basilisk. Merely looking at one of these was said to instantly kill you or turn you to stone, and accordingly he's an ailment specialist.
Personality notes: Downright scary sociopathic little kid, always trying to get people to look at him.
At the Sky Tower, Nanashi and Asahi don't get far before they're stonewalled by two angels, a Dominion and a Virtue. They refuse to let the part through!
Koppa Tengu: Ah well, we tried.
A deep voice suddenly sounds out, and our heroes turn to see a sharply-dressed man with two female demons and a silver-hairs teenage boy in a yellow jacket trailing behind him. He introduces himself as Abe, and the boy as his ward Hallelujah.
Nanashi: Our Ashura-kai contact is the LEADER? Was not expecting that!
He takes the angels aside, leaving Hallelujah with Nanashi and Asahi. Asahi is thrilled to have someone her own age to talk to again; Navarre expresses skepticism that anyone could green down here - and Hallelujah sees him! This is gonna be good. Hallelujah also reveals that the Ashura-kai took him in after his mother died and he's sworn to serve them, and as such he has rather mixed feelings on recovering Flynn...
Abe then returns, having successfully negotiated passage with the angels. Into the elevator we go!
Nanashi: Wow... the city... MY city, from above... Really makes me think it is worth saving from up here.
Jack the Ripper: Gag me with a cleaver.
Abe rushes everyone on from their sightseeing, when suddenly a huge bird crashes through the window!
MINI-BOSS: FLIGHT RUKH
Level 34. Resist Gun, Weak Fire, Resist Force, Weak Dark
Ladies and gentlemen, the definition of a filler battle! Yeah, this guy's pretty easy. He's got Mazanma, so forego anyone weak to Wind, and buff yourself up and pile on the fire! What's unique about this battle, though, is that Abe orders Hallelujah to assist us with his demon, the cute, fox-like Chironnupu: he makes Asahi go Squee! There's a scripted point here where Chironnupu uses as spell called Enduring Cheer, which gives the entire party the ability to survive a lethal attack with 1 HP, followed by Rukh using Charge and then Grand Tack, the heavy-tier Gun move, enabling you to survive it. That's the only thing this battle's really notable for.
We continue up the stairs into a bizarre area with the characteristics of a domain. It's lines with eerie, hyper-realistic statues of people in agony - and that, Abe informs us, is what they ARE - a demon turned these people into statues, but Flynn supposedly killed it.
Nanashi: ...and that makes me go right back to thinking we're screwed again...
Basilisk: MEH. I'D DO BETTER.
And of course there's demons about too.
Hairy Jack: ARF ARF ARF. ACHOO! WHA'TS A DOG GOTTA DO TA GET SOME GRUB AROUND HERE?
Nanashi: Uhh, I've got a lot of Magnetite; I'm not really sure what that IS but demons really like it.
Hairy Jack: FINALLY. ARF.
Character notes: One of several ghoulish black dogs seen around the British Isles, they're also called Barghests, and are said to be omens of disaster.
Personality notes: Crotchety old man who is also a dog.
Skogsra: H-hello... umm, would you mind... taking me with too? I, oh geez, don't know how to talk to men very well...
Nanashi: She makes me sad. I'll take her with to try to cheer her up.
Character notes: A tragic Nordic forest spirit, she's a beautiful woman from the front and a tree from behind. She helps hunters and farmers and truly desires a man to love, but everyone rejects her due to being terrified of her back... Other tales make her nastier, seducing men to their doom and kidnapping children. Another Wind Breath user.
Personality notes: Shy, sad girl that really wants a boyfriend.
Tuofei: ...HELLO. I CAN SEE THROUGH YOU...
Nanashi: Uhhh...
Character notes: Yet another bizarre Chinese critter, this one a one-legged owl that has a human face. They only come out in winter and are immune to lightning, and therefore their feathers are sought after to make clothes. Gets healing and Ice skills.
Personality notes: Speaks in short, creepy, cryptic sentences.
Head up two more floors to find a familiar area - it's the place where the first Terminal was in IV Vanilla! You can activate it again here. The room where Flynn found his first gun is here too; search it to find the sensor for the Shesha Radar.
Karasu Tengu: Wow, that thing as actually HERE? Where do these Hunter guys get their info?
Decarabia: Beings too easy! TOO EASY!
Nanashi: Wait wha-HUH?
The room suddenly quakes. The heroes rush out to see the two angels from the entrance... turned to stone! Oh yeah, you know who's here. It's Medusa, revived in a new body (with much-improved new artwork from Masayuki Doi too) as a member of the Divine Powers. Nope, she's not letting us leave!
BOSS: FEMME MEDUSA
Level 33. Resist Gun, Null Elec, Weak Wind
Medusa was infamous as one of the hardest bosses in IV Vanilla... and unfortunately for her, despite her revival she's much easier here. YOU are now much stronger as well, and have full access to buffs and medium-tier spells, so she should not take long to defeat at all. Her skills are Tathlum Shot, Marin Karin, Zionga, and her unique move, Snake's Fangs, which is three shots of random Gun damage to you with a chance of paralysis.
Narcissus: Harumph. I grew up on tales of this harridan. I'm not impressed.
Snake's Fangs can hurt as it's a "Heavy-"tier move, but with proper buffs and resistances, it's not that bad. And she has some Boss Banter too, where she feigns defeat and asks you to look into her eyes; as in the last game, the proper response is to side-eye her. On defeat, she'll lament that she's crumbling away yet again...
Narcissus: Thus always to the hideous...
When the battle is over, Abe makes a request of Hallelujah: travel with Nanashi and Asahi! You can be polite or rude to him here for Peace or Anarchy points, but either way, we've got a new Assist Character for the first time in ages! Hallelujah is rather limited in what he can do at-present - he can use Chironnupu to prevent ailments with Warding Shout or grant an "endure" ability with Enduring Cheer, and he can also prevent demons from getting Lost. Though this is, as mentioned, "at-present"...
Following this, drop the sensor at the Association to complete the quest. The next one, searching the Fairy Forest for the sword, is then accepted automatically.
Nanashi: Back to the Fairy Forest, eh? Why do I have a feeling this won't be a fairy tale...
Poltergeist: FOREBODE!
