That most wonderful time of year, again. Good thing we’ve been keeping our Wisdom stat up!
“Thielle!”
“Sir!”
“You ranked top of the year this time. Well done!”
“Wh… what…!?”
“She beat you by two points, Shirogane. Oh well!”
“Grr…!”
Sakuya’s glaring daggers at me again. How nostalgic! Anyway, my hard work paid off! Yippee!
Celebrate while you can, protagonist. You earned it.
Huh? There’s someone at the door.
“Howdy! Pelican express here with a package for a miss Thielle Tera! Sign here, please.”
“Oh! Thank you!”
“Thankee, little girl! Have a good one!”
Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Christmas present!
I wonder what it is? I don’t think I’ve ordered anything recently…
It’s from Doctor Iwamine. Woah, there’s even a letter! Hmm…
“I greatly appreciate your hard work in the infirmary. I hope this suits your tastes. Merry Christmas.” —Iwamine Shuu
He has really nice handwriting… Let’s see, what’s in here? There’s a big box, and a small one… Inside the small box is… A quill pen. It’s beautiful! A real, white bird feather… is he really giving this to me? It looks pricey!
No alarm bells ringing yet, protagonist?
The big one is… … huh? It looks like… a roast chicken? Or maybe a turkey? I’m not sure what people eat on Christmas. It’s still warm! He must have had it delivered in a hurry.
Alarm bells. Big ones. Ding ding ding.
“Thank you, doctor! Yum!”
Oh well. We’ll get what we want, and we’ll get what we deserve. Merry Christmas, protagonist.
It’s the first day of the new year. Looks like I’m still alive to enjoy it!
Somehow.
It’s a little cold out, but it’s calm and the sun is warm. I think I’ll go visit the shrine.
You can’t just… I think Shuu’s a bad influence on the protagonist.
I think I’ll buy an amulet and go home.
A familiar looking shrine maiden crosses our path.
”!?”
“Happy new year! Here’s to many happy returns, right?”
“What are you doing, Ryouta?”
“Exactly what it looks like! I’m working here today and tomorrow.”
“O-oh… it looks good on you…!”
“You came here to buy an amulet, right? Which would you like?”
We can select an amulet for fulfillment in school, fulfillment in art, or fulfillment in conquest. Even though our studies may be wrapped up, we need to keep on pushing that Wisdom stat, so fulfillment in school it is.
“Here you go!”
“Thanks, Ryouta! Are you here all day today?”
“Yup! The first day’s always busy.”
“Oh, well. I was going to ask if you wanted to get lunch together, but…”
“Sorry, Tera. Maybe some other time? Since you’re here, why not go get a fortune? They’re next to the main building, over there.”
“Okay! Thanks. See you, Ryouta!”
We wander over to the fortune stand, and bump into another familiar face.
“Mister Nanaki! Happy new year!”
“Oh, hello, Thielle. Happy new year.”
“Did you get a fortune, sir?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I seem to have drawn the chicken of ill omen… why don’t you take one?”
“I will! Hmm, which should I take…? … this one!”
I have never puzzled out exactly what the significance of these fortunes is.
“Good, you got a better one than I did. I think this will be a good year for you, Thielle.”
“Thank you, sir!”
As we start to make our way back home, we catch sight of yet another familiar bird.
Wait, isn’t that…
“…!”
He’s standing a little way away from the crowd. Do partridges have winter plumage? He looks a little fluffier than usual.
“I wouldn’t have expected to see you celebrating the new year here, sir!”
“Celebrating? Hardly. I have no interest in gods, temples, or celebrations.”
“Yup, that’s what I thought!”
So wait, what’s he doing here?
Why not ask him yourself?
“… so, what are you here for, sir?”
“I just happened to be passing by.”
“But there’s nothing else here! Why would you be…”
“Is it a crime to aimlessly wander the city in the morning?”
“N-no… I was just wondering.”
“… such a crowd, all at once. And as you said, there’s nothing else around here. Who would notice if one or two were to disappear…? … well, then. Goodbye, miss Thielle.”
The good doctor slinks off into the crowd, quickly lost in the sea of faces.
Happy new year, creepy doctor man!
Before long at all, third term has begun and Legumentine’s is upon us. Once again, we purchase the expensive racing blend. Only the finest for our bird of choice!
The doctor seems to be engaged in sweet embrace with a stack of papers at his desk. He didn’t even look at me, and from his voice, he wants me to leave.
“Do you know what day it is, doctor?”
“… February third.”
He glances at the calendar above his desk, and then returns to his papers.
“The anniversary of the first successful human embryo transfer.”
Shuu is just full of interesting surprises.
“Really!?”
“Of course, test tube babies had been successfully grown before then. So, what did you want? Were you hoping I would transfer yoou an avian ovum?”
I’m kinkshaming this.
“N-no! I’d have to be a really sad girl to be fantasizing about bird eggs in the school infirmary!”
Even the protagonist is kinkshaming this.
“It’s Legumentine’s, sir. You give beans to the boy you like. So, h-here!”
“You’re giving these to me?”
“Yes!”
He finally looks over at me. But his expression is still… no, it’s changed to something else.
“These are quite elegantly packaged.”
“Yes! I got the most expensive ones for you, sir!”
“So these were sold to you as some sort of luxury item. I see. Such a thing would never have occurred to us, if we had lived long ago. To think that we live in a society where price is completely disconnected from amount and nutritional value.”
Is this a roundabout way of saying that the beans aren’t worth their pricetag…?
Hatoful Boyfriend: Including a Brief Analysis of Post-Scarcity Capitalism.
“The value comes from the fact that they are expensive alone… Fascinating. I shall experiment on them later.”
“No, you’re supposed to eat them! The nutritional value and appearance aren’t important… The important part is the fact that I gave them to you, today!”
“You gave me beans that anyone could get, with the money. … worthless.”
Aaah, rejected! … your resistance only makes my maiden heart burn stronger for you, doctor!
[looks into the camera like on The Office]
“In that case, I’ll bring you beans that I grew myself, next year! Just you wait!”
If you live that long.
This is the last day I have infirmary duty, as well.
How strange.
The infirmary is quiet and peaceful as always. The orderly rows of medicines, the neatly-made be—
“… huh?”
Something is amiss.
Something stinks in here. It’s coming from the bed behind the curtains… I’m scared.
The sheets are stained brilliant red.
Oh dear.
At the foot of the bed sits a washbasin, its liquid pink, with a stack of scissors coated in blood and feathers in the bottom. The blood on the bed is still wet…
“Th-this is…”
The students who disappeared after going to the infirmary. Yuuya. That mysterious smile the doctor gave when I asked him…
“I… I have to get out of here… I have to tell someone…!”
I need to report it. To the police? Anyway, I need to get away. I need to get out before he—
A chilling voice interrupts this train of thought.
“You’re early today, miss Thielle.”
”!”
“D-doctor… this… blood…”
“Oh, forgive me. I just finished dismembering another student, and hadn’t cleaned up yet. Please, pay it no mind!”
Say what you will about the doctor, he’s a straight shooter.
He didn’t even try to deny it! He… he…
“……”
In panicked desperation, the protagonist bolts for the door.
The— The door’s locked…!?
“Going home so soon?”
“It won’t… open…”
“Indeed it won’t. After all, there are so many bad little boys and girls who try to leave before their examinations are over… like you.”
“D-doctor, you… You really have been… cutting people up and using them for your experiments…?”
“Do you really need to ask that? After all, you even helped me!”
I mean, it is a little apparent by now.
“Helped you…? I… I would never…!”
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already? Just at the start of this semester you helped me destroy a little evidence. You brought back the ID card of one of my guinea pigs. I suppose I dropped it by accident. You really helped me out, then. We can’t leave things like that lying around, now can we?”
“Then… Yuuya? What did you do to Yuuya!?
“Oh? I thought you’d figured that out already.”
Maybe you can, before Shuu goes ahead and spoils it.
“He’s in here, miss Thielle. In here.”
The doctor reaches over and lightly strokes my stomach.
I guess the real friends we made were inside us all along!
God, I’m sorry. That was terrible.
“The…”
Our protagonist flashes back to a certain Christmas dinner we received from the good doctor. Not chicken or turkey at all.
“Of course, technically speaking, he’s long since been digested and absorbed into your body, so we don’t really know exactly where he is, now do we?”
“That… you can’t be… no… no…!”
“How did he taste? I was worried he might be a little tough… I did so regret not having a better bird to send you. It simply wouldn’t do to have you throw him out.”
That… that was Yuuya…?
For once, the pure shock of the situation legitimately excuses the protagonist being slightly slow on the uptake. Shuu wears an exceedingly pleased expression.
“Aah! Aaaah… that’s a beautiful face, miss Thielle. I have longed so dearly to see that face. You could tell from the start that I was dangerous, couldn’t you? And yet you came to see me, again and again. Very… assertively.”
“No… I just… had to come for infirmary duties…”
“Was that really it? You knew I planned to kill you, and yet you came anyway. … are you sure you didn’t… have feelings for me, perhaps?”
Oh, if you only knew.
No! … I want to say, but my tongue is like lead in my mouth. Maybe it’s true. Maybe, somewhere deep inside, I love the doctor…
“I am afraid that I have room for only one love in my life, and that is research — but it would be cruel to ignore your earnestness. And so I put much thought into how I might reward you. Just cutting you up would be a terrible pity… and I think I want to keep you by my side. Forever.”
He’s going to kill me. I know he’s going to kill me. So why can’t I move?
“And so, this is what I decided: I shall preserve only your head. It will be easily stored. Of course, I can’t let such a rare sample slip by, so I will remove your brain.”
Why can’t I pull my eyes from his?
“From the neck down, I shall cut you up and study you thoroughly. Don’t worry, you won’t go to waste. I will make sure to examine your insides most… intimately.”
Suddenly, he has a cleaver in his left wing.
“You have chased after death’s allure most diligently. I suppose you’re too afraid to speak, now…?”
The doctor makes his move, and a sickening shade of crimson engulfs the camera.
And so my life came to an end.
The camera fades out to black. Normally, this would be the end… but we’ve worked so hard, we’ve earned a little more. We tune in to a distant, slightly panicked conversation deep in the shadows.
“We have an emergency report from the Pigeonation Project. The researcher we despatched to the school has stolen a highly-classified sample, and fled. He took sample HB:087, the human head. We have not confirmed that he is armed.”
“We have sealed off the area. He seems to be acting alone, so our retrieval squad should take care of everything quickly. Please, help yourselves — the cheese Danish are rather good.”
Elsewhere, a frustrated Shuu.
“… have these brutes no mercy? Though, I did agree to this from the start… hoho. We seem to be in a bit of a pickle, miss Thielle. They suddenly asked that I give you to them. And to think that until now, they considered you worthless! I was the one who preserved you so beautifully. You like the jar, do you not?”
The doctor gives another of his trademark disconcerting smiles.
“Do you know of the mere-exposure effect? It states that one can become attracted to things simply through repeated contact with them. A conundrum, indeed. I think perhaps I have felt new emotions, since I acquired you.”
In the distance, the sounds of sirens and weaponry can be heard.
“… we have but little time left together, I fear. I do not like the idea of handing you over to them, so I think I shall break you once more. Of course, I do not wish to force you into a double suicide. I shall break this glass only after confirming your feelings.”
Well… well. it seems to please the doctor to hear it.
“Hoho… hohoho… thank you. I am… so glad I got to kill you. Good night, miss Thielle…”
Once more, the world goes dark. As the protagonist’s tenuous remaining grip on life slips away, distant voices can be heard.
“Contact! In the water, left side!”
“Weapons free! Take him down!”
Something that might be a gunshot rings out, and we hear no more. The credits roll.
And thus ends Shuu’s route. It’s been a pleasure, as always. I’ve prepared another poll for our next route here, and I’ll report back on results before too long. Until next time, everybirdie.