Apologies for the delay, mes amies! It’s been some time, but the poll is in; our next bird of choice is Yuuya Sakazaki, school playboy and flirt. Well, that’s something, at least! As you hopefully remember, Yuuya works alongside Shuu in the infirmary, so we’ll be heading back there once more. Except this time, we’re not going to touch the doctor’s stuff.
The doctor might show up and turn me into Tera salami.
Alas, our protagonist is not privy to that alternate timeline, but fortunately their sense of self-preservation prevails for now. The year passes quietly until the sports festival. As an infirmary worker, Yuuya’s staffing the first-aid tent, and we’ve volunteered as well.
Something like that.
“Umm… I heard the first-aid team was shorthanded.”
(“Salutations”??)
You’re gonna have to get used to it. Personally, I think it’s charming.
“Alas! Spurned for the sake of medicine. I must work harder to prove my love. Anyway, happy to have you. As you can see, we have plenty of work to do.”
“Aah… the obstacle course does always hurt a lot of birds. Why use a game designed for humans?”
“Beyond me, mon amie. I suppose it’s tradition.”
Fortunately for us all, Yuuya knows better than to think too hard about this scenario.
“Where’s the doctor? Shouldn’t he be here, too?”
“Over there.”
He’s resting in the shade of a tree, some distance away. It looks like he’s taking notes on the performance of the birds on the race track…
“What’s he doing over there?”
“He doesn’t want to ruin his girlish complexion working in the heat. He does the same thing every year.”
“Is he taking notes on something?”
“A lot of the birds graduating from this school get scouted by pro sports teams, so maybe he’s checking up on the promising ones?”
While we can only guess at whatever ill intent the doctor intends, a starter’s gun rings across the field.
“Uh-oh, they’ve started. We’ll be busy soon—get ready, mon amie.”
“Yes, sir!”
And so I spent the sports festival patching up damaged doves with Yuuya. I learned some first-aid from him, so it was time well spent… I think?
There’s worse ways to spend time, as we’ve learned. Before long, midterms have passed on by.
Doves smell kind of funny when it gets humid like this… Huh? There’s a bunch of birds in front of the staffroom. What are they doing? Oh! There’s Yuuya.
“Yuuya! What’s going on?”
He gestures at a news clipping on the staffroom pinboard. It says “Brian, the first Intelligent Pigeon, Crowned Again.”
“Brian…?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know who he is!”
“I think I’ve heard the name, but…”
“He was the one who suggested that the dove olympics be called the ‘Pigeolympics.’ He’s extremely influential—the name was adopted right away. Why don’t you look him up right now, mon amie? Try Googling ‘Brian Pigeon.’”
“Okay!”
This is, certainly, one of the more bizarre diversions in the game, even after the cafe advertisement. Brian Pigeon has been blogging, as a pigeon, on his blog for apparently over ten years now. He also has a Twitter account, naturally. The Brian Pigeon persona has no actual relation to the game, apart from being, ostensibly, a pigeon of above average intelligence, and does not appear again in the story. This is purely a curiosity. Thanks, Moa.
“Okay! … uh-oh, lunch is nearly over. Adieu, Tera!”
Yuuya hurries off to class, presumably. What a hasty bird.
I wonder what I should do during break…
In various lives, we’ve been to the cafeteria and infirmary on this shining day. This time, we visit the store.
I don’t really need anything, but I think I’ll go to the store. I’ve never really looked around there before.
Though, these nest-building materials… look like what you’d find in a human store’s trash.
In fairness, they probably are!
“My, how mature of you, mon amie. Planning to settle down already?”
“N-no, that’s not it! I’m still a highschool student…!”
“That may be so, but you know we doves reach sexual maturity within a year of birth.”
It’s up to you to interpret this as an impromptu biology lesson, or a really creepy and awkward flirt. Maybe a touch of both.
… they do!? That seems a little hasty.
Hastiness is Yuuya’s trademark, if anything.
“That aside, what are you here to buy, Yuuya?”
“Your love, of course.”
“My l……!? Yuuya, that’s… we’re not… ……!?”
Understandably, the protagonist is a little overwhelmed. Yuuya could stand to slow his gosh dang roll.
“I’m not good enough? Oh well, I’ll have to try again later.”
He won’t, though.
Is this how he talks to every girl he meets…?
We can let it slide, or give him a little piece of our mind. We may be trying to win his heart, but that doesn’t mean we have to take his careless flirts in stride.
“I think that’s a little rude, Yuuya!”
“What is?”
“That sort of… loose talk. Like I’m a game, or something.”
“You know, that’s the first time a girl’s ever said that to me.”
“I’m surprised.”
Sadly, we can’t all be so assertive.
“Thank you, mon amie. I’ll carry this warning in my pigeon heart forever. Adieu!”
Hopefully we can, if nothing else, spare some other lass the trouble. He departs, and the day carries on. Some time later, at Tanabata, we find a curious amulet hung on the bamboo tree.
We are, evidently, on the right track. A week or so after, we’re on our way to the infirmary to clean up. Ryouta warns us, again, of the Seven Mysteries of St. Pigeonations, and we promise to actually be careful this time. Of course, once we get to the infirmary, we stumble into an argument between one Yuuya and the good doctor Shuu. Shuu insists Yuuya has messed with his desk, Yuuya insists - falsely - he was with us. Once, we’d sided with Shuu, but today, we’ll lie for Yuuya’s sake.
“That’s right. Yuuya and I were having a sexy and luxurious sunbath in the courtyard up until a few minutes ago.”
“Sexy and luxurious it was indeed. Well, doctor?”
“… very well. I shall have to wait for more solid evidence. Please, do be careful.”
“Of course, doctor.”
The doctor barely has time to usher the two of us out of the infirmary before Yuuya has whisked the protagonist away on his own.
“Forgive me, mon amie. I can’t explain right now. But… one day.”
Hastily as ever, Yuuya rushes off to whatever business he has.
And he’s gone. What was that supposed to mean? Is something really happening in this infirmary?
Of course, we know the the truth; a part of it, at least. All will be revealed in the fullness of time. Hopefully not too full a time, though, since I’m going to try and get this route knocked out at a decent pace. Please let me know if I ever start over-condensing material we’ve covered before; retreads are something of an inevitability over this number of routes, and past routes are readily accessible here, but I’d hate to trade personal convenience for reader comprehension. Until next time, everybirdie!