It doesn’t seem like a particularly dirty room, but for some reason they always run out really quickly.
Shuu just likes to keep things very clean.
Yuuya went ahead, and I can’t keep him waiting. Blast off at the speed of light! To the maintenance office and beyond!
In case you forgot, the protagonist is still a huge dork. Those things don’t even go together!
I hadn’t expected mister One, the quiet, foppish bird with a cult following to get along with the infamous studmuffin Sakazaki Yuuya!
Quite the odd couple indeed. What could they be up to?
“… but I don’t think we’ll find any evidence.”
“Right. I’ll check the others.”
“Yuuuyaaaaaa!”
“Salutations, mon amie! I was waiting for you. Here, I’ll take the heavy stuff, you take the broom.”
“… that is that, then.”
Mister One retreats into his lair with an unsociable expression.
“Mister One seems like kind of a loner. I wonder if it’s part of the job description.”
“He’s a nice fellow, once you get to know him. I think his taciturn nature does him great injustice, personally.”
“You’re friends with him?”
“I do have a lot of opportunities to talk to him, yes. It was only to be expected.”
A very curiously diplomatic way of phrasing that.
He starts carrying the supplies down the hall, ending the conversation. Somehow I feel like he doesn’t want to talk about it. Hmm…
There’s a lot more to Yuuya than meets the eye, it seems, and not in the Transformers way. Perhaps we’ll learn some of it in time.
I wonder if Yuuya’s already decided on his? Maybe I’ll go ask him for advice.
“Yeah, he was here this morning. Dunno where he went.”
“D-doesn’t he attend class?”
“He’s never been particularly serious, no. He isn’t even here half the time… I don’t think he’s planning to go on to university, is he?”
I never realized! Hmm… if he is still here, he’s probably at the infirmary or the shop. I’ll go to the shop first. We didn’t have infirmary duty today, and my hunter-gatherer instincts are telling me he’s there.
Just as our instincts told us, Yuuya’s browsing the school store.
That was easier than I expected. He’s acting kind of weird, though… he isn’t shoplifting, is he?
I guess hastiness is the cousin of guilt, come to think of it. Or at least, in the same family tree.
“Are you busy right now? I wanted to talk to you…”
“Uh, sure… here.”
“Waah!”
He takes my hand and runs from the store.
“Are you excited?”
“N-no!”
After the last route, I think we’ve had quite enough excitement in our life for a while.
“Oh well. Why’d you come and talk to me, mon amie? Were you drawn to my sexy aura?”
Maybe a little bit.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you about career plans and stuff…”
“You’ve always been a diligent girl, Tera. You know hanging around me is dangerous, though? You won’t get off with just a scratch.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you might get… Shot, knifed, dismembered, drowned, buried alive… That sort of thing.”
You know, the usual.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Yuuya.”
“Don’t think too hard! I mean exactly what I said. I’m going to disappear from this school soon, mon amie. I know it isn’t easy, but you should forget about me. That’ll be for the best.”
His tone of voice is as carefree as ever, but his eyes are dead serious. I don’t think he’s joking…
“Kind of hard to swallow, isn’t it? How about this—I’ll tell you something neat, as a parting gift. You know the rumors that missing students end up as meat in the cafeteria, and quill pens in the shop?”
”???
Well…”
“Why do you think I’m so forward, mon amie? And why do you think I work in the infirmary? Live an honest, happy life. Adieu!”
Before we know it, he’s hurrying off down the hall.
“Y-Yuuya! Wait!”
It’s no use, though; Yuuya’s long out of sight. His parting words raise more questions than they answer, as usual. We don’t see him again for the rest of the year. On New Year’s Day, we head down to the shrine, meet shrine maiden Ryouta and Kazuaki, and pick up a fortune. A familiar looking bird catches our eye while we’re out, though.
“Happy new salutations, mon amie!”
“It is you! Happy new salutations to you, too.”
That’s not how that works
“Aah, to meet you on the first day of the new year! A good omen indeed.”
“Did you come alone?”
“Not… exactly, no. I was looking for someone, but… I seem to have lost sight of them.”
You’re just as suspicious as always, Yuuya.
“But, I’ve found you instead, so I can’t say this was a wild goose chase, mon amie. I shall go thank the gods of this shrine for this fated encounter. Adieu!”
And so he sauntered off with a dashing wave. I guess he was in a hurry.
Well, at least we know he’s not dead.
Last term! Boy, things are really pacing along now, aren’t they? For Legumentine’s, we select for Yuuya some bitter black beans, to match his suave and refined palate… I guess?
I want to go give Yuuya beans, but… I don’t even know if he’s at school today. I guess I’ll have to call him!
“Salutations! Mon amie?”
He answered!
“Hello! How are you, Yuuya? Where are you right now?”
“I’m fine, but alas, I cannot say where I am. The best men always have a mystery or two thousand, after all.”
Maybe we could shoot for a more reasonable number. How’s ten sound?
“Do you need me for something?”
“Umm, could we meet up for a bit? Please! I’ll only ask this once!”
“A once-in-a-lifetime request, in other words? Really?”
“A once-in-a-lifetime (plus plenty more times in the same lifetime) request!”
Kinda takes the wind out of it. I can only assume the protagonist rapidly spouted that off under her breath, terms-and-conditions-apply style.
“Well, that sounds important. I can’t exactly say no, now can I! Shall we meet at the usual place in the park tonight, say at eight?”
“Okay!”
“Unfortunately, I do not have much time left today. Forgive my lack of romance, but may I ask what you wanted to meet with me for?”
“Oh, yes! It’s Legumentine’s, so I wanted to give you this.”
“You wanted to give me beans, mon amie?”
“Yes!”
“Aah, how wonderful! I am glad I risked my life to come here.”
Don’t sass us.
“I thought maybe your mature, manly spirit would like these.”
“Bitter black beans! Thank you, mon amie. I have loved these since I was but a child. Had I told you that?”
“Nope! But my hunter-gatherer instincts never fail.”
“I see. I wonder if we truly are bound together by fate! How romantic. This gives me hope and caffeine to carry me through this darkest of nights. Adieu, mon amie!”
And so he disappeared into the night. I can’t say I have any more of an idea what he’s up to than I ever do, but I’m glad he liked the beans!
Mission accomplished!
I haven’t seen Yuuya since New Year’s. Apparently he hasn’t come to school all semester… There are rumors he dropped out, but could that really be true?
I completely glossed over the fact that this is actually incorrect up until just now, writing this LP. We saw him at Legumentine’s, obviously. But the point stands. Yuuya is largely absent.
I feel like a hole has opened up in my heart. I think I’ll go drown my sorrows in arcade games.
“Yuuya!?”
“Y-you look like you’re doing pretty well! I, uh, have some stuff to do. Adieu!”
“H-hey, w-w-w-w-w-w-wait!”
Yuuya tries to duck away as suddenly as he’d appeared, but the protagonist holds him back in her firm hunter-gatherer grip.
”!
U-uh, Tera, could you not grab me so tightly?”
!
We notice something’s a little off about Yuuya; moreso than he already appears, anyway.
“Yuuya, is your wing bro…”
“Look out!”
There’s no time for questioning and closer examination, and Yuuya pulls us both aside with surprising strength as something loudly whizzes past.
!?
A gunshot!?
“Opening fire on a lady!? Such insufferable cads they are. This way, mon amie. Run!”
We hurry down a few twisting alleys back to the park where we usually rendezvous, staying low and out of sight.
It’s time to get some answers!
“Do you know of the Hawk Party and the Dove Party, mon amie?”
“The political factions?”
Seems like the protagonist is already a little more in the know than we are.
“Right. They were names used in human politics, but now they carry a different meaning. The Dove Party believes we should live peacefully with the remaining humans, while the Hawk Party believes we should exterminate them to make room for birds.”
You might remember the Hawk Party from such exciting moments as: when the protagonist was assassinated in the bad end!
“St. Pigeonation’s is actually a secret experimental institute created by the Hawks.”
Wh… what…!?
“Of course, it’s not like the entire faculty is working for them. There’s only one Hawk agent actually working at the school. By contrast, I was despatched by the Doves to infiltrate the school and investigate the experiments. As you said, I’m a wanted man. Ahaha, I’m proud to live up to that title! I’m an expert at clandestine information retrieval, and information is valuable.”
Our boyfriend is a secret agent! Nice.
“I imagine you’ve already realized why I was acting as a helper in the infirmary.”
Because the Hawk agent is…
We’re given the most pointless choice in the world here, because hopefully you all know exactly who the Hawk agent is. The game suggests it’s either Doctor Iwamine or Professor Nanaki. No prize for picking correctly.
“Correct. ‘Iwamine’ is no doubt an assumed name. He’s a researcher for the Hawk Party, and has been developing anti-human biological weapons using data collected during physical examinations. Remember when we bumped into each other at the school shop?”
“Yes, I think we…”
“I was investigating where the products sold there come from. I found that DNA samplings from the pens there matched samples taken from missing students. Same goes for much of the poultry in the cafeteria.”
”!
Th-that’s… horrible… But, if the doctor was out to exterminate humans, why did he never do anything to me?”
In this timeline, anyway.
“Hmm… this is just my interpretation, but I don’t think he holds any political ideals. I think he trusts only in his own knowledge, and his own power to expand that knowledge.”
“Something like… a mad scientist, maybe?”
“Exactly. I suppose it never occurred to him to target you, since you were working for him. I think he was more interested in observing your interactions with the other students.”
“I wanted to reveal the Hawks’ involvement in the school, but… In the end, it proved to be too much for me alone. And now, well… I can no longer live in the open. I plan to leave this city tonight. But I can’t leave just yet. I don’t know if I can… just leave you here, Tera.”
“Yuuya…”
“You may already have been marked as one of my associates, and if that is the case, then leaving you alone would be dangerous. … I’m sorry I got you involved in all this, mon amie.”
“Hardly! I was the one who approached you. You don’t need to apologize.”
We do have rather an uncanny ability to get ourselves into… hazardous relationships.
“Ahaha, you’re such a nice girl. Thank you. Hmm… I’ll let you decide. Do you want to come with me into the world of darkness, or would you rather live a normal life? Of course, if you want to stay, I’ll assign agents to protect you.”
True to Yuuya’s word, the game gives us a choice. But we live dangerously, and we’ve come too far to chicken out now. We elect to go with Yuuya.
“I want to go with you.”
“Are you sure? You may be putting your life at risk.”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
“Aah… somehow, I was hoping you’d say that. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. There’s nothing more keeping us here, then. Let us go, mon amie.”
Hand in wing, Yuuya whisks us off down further alleys in the nights.
Sometime in the future, a pair of spies and their endless battle for justice behind the frail curtain of society will pass into legend… But that’s another story.
And with that, the credits roll. Personally, I didn’t know you could marry into secret service, but hey - I’m sure the protagonist is more than qualified.
We’re positively speeding through the routes now, but hopefully not to their detriment. I hope you’ve enjoyed this route, and invite you to vote away on our next right here. I remembered to include Anghel in the poll this time, who we have not actually met yet! That could be exciting. Anyway, I’ll likely repost the poll elsewhere over the next few days and set off on our next update in a week or so. Until next time, everybirdie!