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Headscratchers / AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative

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  • Why did the Okiuras adopt Mizuki? Renju already knew he was too busy to raise a child and how much work it takes, while Shoko was more than resentful at what she considers "giving up her own life" to raise Mizuki. Some of Shoko's rants were also about how Mizuki wasn't normal, but from the Epilogue dialogue, the orphanage knew about her super strength which leads to further questions on why the Okiuras went through with it and chose Mizuki.
    • It's possible that they didn't know how stressful and time consuming raising a child would be, as some couples can in real life and didn't know or take this into account. Mizuki's destructive behavior might not have been displayed before she was adopted either, as the orphanage probably wanted to make her look as good as possible for adoption. So once everything was done, they learned how incompatible they were with Mizuki, but neither wanted to return her to the orphanage even after the divorce.
    • Neither of them appears to be particularly ethical; they may have sensed some opportunity to profit from being the parents of a child with super powers and modified genes.
      • That wouldn't make sense. As Shoko, while she did run a fraud scam, didn't at all try to pull Mizuki into her fraud or pawn her off. Renju similarly doesn't make any attempts to use Mizuki in any way, and as we see, he does have some morals, even if he's very flawed. Neither of them try to make a profit off of her.
    • My thought is that Renju and Shoko's marriage was (or retroactively became depending on how aware of his sexuality Renju was at the time) one of convenience for the sake of a conforming, "respectable" heteronormative image, something that's Truth in Television for many closeted men and women worldwide. Adopting Mizuki would've been for appearances' sake.
  • What was the purpose of the computer password in the Masked Woman's Somnium? The first password in Ryuki's Somnium can be seen as evidence of paradoxical Frayer stuff, but the information discovered in the branching routes of this Somnium is discovered by Date and Bibi and quickly explained to the Resolution Route Mizuki without turning into proof of timeline shenanigans.
    • It's worth remembering that Somniums aren't actual representations of historical events but reconstructions of past events that can blur separate memories into one another. Since Bibi knows of the password it's no surprise that it appears in the Somnium, but whether or not she actually had to use that password to unlock the file on Shoma isn't confirmed in canon. It's even possible that she might've known of that password through other means during her time at Horadori, or found out about Shoma through other means, since the Somnium shows that she'd been snooping around in Chikara's files. The fact that Mizuki doesn't uncover the password in the canon route may further imply that the actual events never played out that way.
  • Why was ABIS not able to find amnesiac Date for 6 years? He’s not hiding and AI-balls can look at lots of security camera footage very quickly. They’re also a law enforcement agency so you’d think they could at least distribute a poster or something. He was even in Atami for a while, the exact place Boss guesses he might be (albeit as a joke).
    • Date stopped wearing the mask as soon as he lost his memory, and there's very few people who would recognize his real face.
    • They also assumed Date was dead, so there as no reason to send out a search party or to look for him.
  • When and how did Tearer get Tama? We're not shown a scene where Ryuki passes out with Tearer lurking around, nor does Tama talk about being offline for a suspicious amount of time. While it makes sense that this would successfully keep Ryuki quiet, we're not given the set up for it at any point.
    • That should've been answered by Wink Psyncing Ryuki at the Abandoned Factory in Mizuki's Chapter 4 "Visions". Tearer contacted Ryuki and said he'd be at the cathedral at 4PM, which Ryuki hints at when talking to him at the park in the scene before. Ryuki then just so happens to stand at the focal point of the cathedral wall's electromagnetic waves which shorts out Tama and knocks him out for an unknown amount of time, giving Tearer the chance to extract her and then subsequently modify her in the 6 1/2 hours between their meeting and the factory scene. That's the when and how even if it's a bit of an Ass Pull, Diabolus ex Machina, and too Zero-esque for Tearer's capabilities besides Tokiko planning literally everything.
  • How was Bibi able to psync with Tearer without removing his mask? The prototype psync machine they used expressly requires the eyeball to be removed to be able to reach the optic nerve, and while that's possible to do in a way that doesn't damage the eye and allows it to be put back in, it still would have required her to take his mask off to reach his eyes. This seems like a minor detail, but it would have meant that Bibi (and Date) should have seen Tearer's entire face ahead of the subsequent reveal that only showed half of it.
    • The answer is actually incredibly blatant: They couldn't. After Tearer's knocked out, Date reveals that they can't remove his mask because there's an explosive device rigged to it should it be removed. So they can't remove it to get to his face, and they couldn't reach his eye socket, so by all means, it's just not possible.
    • Quoth Appendix 82: "It also serves as a back-up in case ABIS HQ's Psync machine goes down." It's possible it was updated to the modern Psync machine's standards in the 3 months between games, especially since Boss does trust Pewter to keep doing his job properly. Though why nobody's actually watching over the site is another question...
      • It's established in the first game that while the prototype requires direct connection to the optic nerve, the official machine uses nanotechnology to establish a link. Tearer's mask could probably fit the nanomachines through it
  • Why does Tearer leave the Balloon puzzle for the police/Bibi to solve? Prior to the twist, the game makes it look like Tearer wanted us to find Tokiko's corpse and the basement where he was held captive, but we know that this discovery is made by Mizuki in the present (while the Balloon puzzle was six years ago). The best explanation I can think of is that he WANTED Bibi to find his former jail cell and see the suffering he went through, but that's kind of flimsy...
    • Possibly he sought to recruit whoever solved it; Naix already solicits new members by first having them complete similar puzzles in ARGs. Present-day Naix also seems to have at least one operative with Mizuki-level strength, as seen in the final battle, so he may have been trying to bolster their ranks with someone(s) with combat experience.
    • Tearer does like to play games, and even says as much in the piece of paper Mizuki finds. In general Tearer seems to have an obsession with puzzles and games, as shown by his Somnium. He even gives Ryuki a hint by telling him his fake name before detonating the thermite and causing the cathedral to collapse. So I think it's safe to say Tearer isn't the most sane individual and does some things purely for his own amusement.
  • Is the relationship between Gen and Tokiko ever clarified? Gen is present in Tokiko's Somnium, and she caresses him, but while Shoma (who is also in the Somnium) was inducted into Naix for a time, this does not seem to be the case for Gen. My assumption is that Tokiko simply knew about Gen because he was the result of Chikara's experiments, but is this ever confirmed?
    • Date says in Gen and Amame's route that Gen is acquaintances with Tokiko, I don't remember when that particular bit of information was established, but it means that the two did know each other and that Tokiko more than likely gave him sympathy.
    • Tokiko probably met Gen when he was younger and cast out by Chikara for being a "failed experiment". Considering that she was most likely the president of Naix Japan at this point, she was already familiar and sympathetic with the victims of Chikara's genetic experiments (such as Tearer), she sympathized with him and probably helped contribute to her guilt complex that led to the incident where she cast off her emotions.
  • Gen gives contradictory statements as to why he wasn't present when we found Ryuki drunk. He originally says he was buying ingredients, but later he says there was an odd customer sitting next to Ryuki, saying something like “When the king awakens, I’m gonna disappear like a candle. I’m not real just something that shows up in the King’s dream.” Gen says that he chased after his customer, which contradicts his original statement. I thought this would be a major plot point, but it's never followed up on. Do we have any idea who this mysterious customer is meant to be?
    • So the answer to the question is that we never know who the customer is meant to be, no (though it could have very well been Dokuta). But they are meant to highlight the idea of not being able to distinguish reality from fiction, mirror worlds AKA how the game was deceiving the player and leaving them unable to tell what happened in the present and past. It's more than likely that the person was a victim of TC-PERGE.
    • Likely this is intended to foreshadow "Gen" being Date sometimes. Probably what happened was Gen or Date chased the customer (probably Date) while the other went shopping. This slip of the tongue just shows that Gen/Date is having trouble keeping their stories straight.
  • When inspecting Jin's corpse at the very beginning of the game, Tama notes that he suffered blunt force trauma to the back of the head. All the other aspects of the corpse get discussed and resolved at some point, but this is the only detail that gets no clear answer. We know Jin was punched by Uru shortly before getting killed, but I'm fairly certain this was in the face or square in the jaw, hence the missing tooth. Where does the blunt force trauma come from?
    • Uru probably punched him hard enough to knock him over and crack his head on the floor.
    • This question is answered in the Resolution Route. Amame knocked Uru over the head with a wrench before killing him, thus he would have a head wound. The half-body we see at the beginning of the game, in the Stadium, is actually Uru's left half, not Jin's. The left half of Uru (the part that still had skin) was placed in the Stadium to convince people that Jin's corpse had time travelled when in reality it was Uru's corpse.
  • How did Date and Mizuki use the sink machine in the abandoned factory on Tearer? Right before that scene they pointed out that Tearer had a bomb strapped to his head set to go off if the mask was removed, and the previous game clearly established that, that particular sink machine was a prototype in which the eye needed to be removed. An action that wouldn't be possible with the thin slits in the iron mask Tearer wears.
    • It is mentioned in a blurb in the Japanese version that the Prototype Psync Machine was adjusted and upgraded by ABIS after the events of the first game, and the nanocables were adjusted in such a way that it no longer requires the participants to remove their left eyes to perform a Psync. It is now equally as advanced as the modern Psync Machine at ABIS HQ, and ABIS now uses the Prototype as a backup Psync machine.
  • Where did Mizuki’s desire to get a boyfriend come from? The first game mentioned she wasn’t into kissing guys, so where did this come from?
    • Probably her growing up and being a teenager with more hormones and whatnot. It's not unusual for teens to only really start getting into the idea of having a partner once puberty hits.
  • It's obviously a gag, but why does Moma have the Vochlocho back on during the epilogue? Didn't that thing almost kill him?
    • Presumably he adjusted its tightness so it wouldn't suffocate him this time.
      • That doesn't answer my question — I am referring to the fact he is wearing something that led to a near-death experience for a second time. If it were me I surely wouldn't want to try my luck again...
      • This is still Moma we're talking about at the end of the day: when you think about the big picture of what kind of person he is, he probably doesn't care that it almost killed him the first time and just wants to put it on. He's very risk-taking and in many ways it's repeatedly made evident that he's not very smart.
  • When and why did Bibi run with the Kumakuras as Quartz? Up until age 9, I imagine Horadori and his Institute kept a close eye on her and had her come in for regular experimentation. Then from ages 9-15 she was living happily with the Chieda family, and at 15 she was adopted by Boss and trained to be an ABIS agent. So either she was subject to regular experimentation, or living with a stable family up until the present day.
    • My personal interpretation is that she rebelled against Boss as an older teen and ran away from home, getting tangled up with the Kumakuras for one reason or another.
  • If Tokiko already knew the Nil Number, what was stopping her from using it herself, instead of forcing The Frayer to repeat it to her?
    • Actually, this is simple to explain. The Nil Number is only part of it. Remember, the entire point of the Nirvana Initiative is to create 'bugs' in reality to expose the holes in the 'simulation'. The Nil Number can only be learned by the two Mizukis after Tokiko is dead and after Tearer's plan is thwarted, but it can only be told to Tokiko by Ryuki six years before this all happened. She was basically counting on the player, the Frayer, to do all this. Having Ryuki tell her the Nil Number basically proves she's right and breaks a hole in reality allowing her to 'escape', because how can Ryuki know a number two different people learn in the future, and tell it to a woman set it up so the number is told only after after her death? The number is not the important part, its the paradox involving it that is. In revealing that paradox and opening a hole, The Bad Guy Wins.

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