天下制覇

I hope it's called Amazo.

Impressions:

Like PW, I'm taking a couple weeks off for this for a number of reasons. Not quite as decent a stopping point, although you can all marvel at the 'mysteries' of the end of this chapter. Nothing really exciting here, despite the chapter title's promise of a new enemy! The 'twist' that Wolfram was attacking Noah before, but now it's a random thingy with his powers is about the height of what I think one can expect from the writing from here on out, and the characters don't even so much as make any note of that at all. Or seem to even notice that it's pulling out their own weapons with its attacks. And somehow jump to the conclusion that it's telepathy that makes the thingy run away, saying "found it." Japanese writing really at its very absolute finest.

Our Story Thus Far:

Apparently what crashed the game last time is the sound of our alarm clock going off. We're awake early for some inspection. Tsubomi and Mashiro are already up to meet us. Mashiro tosses cold water in our face to wake us up. Thanks. We're supposed to go by ourselves, but they're tagging along, and demand to walk arm in arm. Once there, Mashiro hugs us because nobody's around and we get all squirmy because cooties. Tsubomi gets jealous. They go to leave, but Tsubomi hugs us anyway because otherwise it wouldn't be fair. We finally meet with Sketchy Principal and deliver our report on the other day. He blathers for a while, recapping who and what kind of person Shiori is, how awesome and amazing we are, and to work hard. Yawn.

We meet up with the rest for the continuing rebuilding post-Evol incident. We're doing various logistic work for the new year, like organize enigmatite distribution to other students. The girls are making us do the physical labor and Mashiro is acting like a portable AC. One of our jobs is to inspect the enigmatite. There's also some enigmatite for personal assessment our something. When we touch it, it immediately explodes. For the others, it reacts as you'd expect; gets windy or cold, etc. When Ena tries it, the enigmatite starts glowing and going nuts. We interrupt her, but she has the death stare going and doesn't respond for a moment. She snaps back and has no idea what was going on. Hot Pink tells her to go see the nurse just in case. The enigmatite is still shining though. Apparently this is a brand new thing. Ena suddenly has an idea and makes us stand still. She goes full power, shines bright, and telepathically shouts that she loves us. Tsubomi estimates that everyone on the island 'heard' that. We hit her, because we're an ass. Class finally starts and we can escape from this tedium.

Back to sidequesting, day 6/12. Since we're a high enough level now, we check out the new area and drag along Tsubomi whose Libidometer is halfway full. The new area is full of mutant turtles and deer. We find Sidekick and get another musical note. 3 more for our next combo bar. We murder wildlife at random. In the evening, we're trying to go through Shiori's files, but are too stupid to understand them. We go out for a walk and hear shouting. She's claims she's just using her power to create wind because it's too hot out, but it's obvious that she was secretly training. She says it's a noble's duty, especially as an unleashed, to be awesome, but not show it to the rabble, like us. We offer to walk her home as her bodyguard, because, again, we're an ass. She takes our drink. We accuse her of naughty intentions. She loses her temper and runs off in a huff. Elsewhere, bored Noah guards are ambushed by SOMEBODY with an attack identical to Wolfram's. Sidequest day 7, back to the same place to explore a little more and kill some more animals. I should mention that I regenerate 'time' to explore dungeons in battle now, which makes these explorations go on for quite a while.

That maxes out Tsubomi's horniness, so we deal with that the next day. We suspect she's dragged us to an empty classroom for another invention, but she says it's to help her deal with Engage's side effects, so she's going to 'investigate' us. Yada yada, blowjob, ctrl button, etc. Next day, at class, we're learning about THE GREAT WAR where Unleashed appeared and CHANGED EVERYTHING. Meanwhile, Sidekick is talking to us about the video games he's playing recently. We get a note from Tsubomi for everyone to meet on the roof later. And then get in trouble for not paying attention. Afterward, up on the roof, they all bitch at us for getting into trouble at class. Finally, Tsubomi shares some information she found about the industrial area on the island where students aren't allowed to go. She says that the guards there were wiped out a few days ago, and it was almost certainly Wolfram who did it. We decide the only way to learn more is to go there ourselves, but need Shiori's permission to actually get in.

4 sidequest days to go. We've been collecting extra junk that boosts Like and are down to just Mashiro with an available Libidometer, so let's level up some relationships. Everyone's on Level 4 but Mashiro. We hang with Kanae and ply her with a teddy bear to get her to level 4 2/3. No special scene. Afterward, we wander as close as we're allowed to the factories that process enigmatite and wait for Shiori. She's a no show. We decide to go in anyway, and up comes the battle setup screen. We switch partners to Mashiro to fill her libodometer. An alarm goes off as soon as we're in about Evol members on site. We immediately run into one and beat the hell out of them in a single combo. Then we're confused because they were supposedly really strong. I'm confused too, but for a different reason. We hear a commotion and run to investigate, and find a gigantic version of the teleporting panthers. We beat it right as Noah soldiers arrive.

They thank us for our help and show us to the entrance where we rendezvous with everyone else. They lament about how we didn't learn anything. Tsubomi's worried about how the NPs were extra strong (supposedly), but she shakes it off. Everyone's hungry, so we all head home. At night, something's madly screaming incoherently about Evolution's King Plan or something. Day 10/12, we chill with Tsubomi (lv 4 1/3). In morning, we find Erika on the phone with her injured friends/former teammates who are recovering well. She worries about what she'll do when they come back. We say they should just join our team. She gets flustered about how 'kind' we are.

Day 11, we hang with Hikaru and give her some charm for the extra point (Lv 4 2/3). Final day, we hang with Kanae (Lv 5). She's in a good mood because she got the stuffed animal she wanted, a gigantic white GSD for hugging. We want to know what she named it. She makes us promise not to laugh. She named it after us. How 'cute.' We tell her we want to see her collection next time. The next day, Hot Pink tells us we've got a job acting as bodyguards for some kind of transportation from the industrial people. We have to guard a ship until it leaves the island. Outside the classroom, Ena tackles us until Blondie pulls her off. She wants to come with us since she's gotten stronger. Everyone agrees, so she'll be our support. She blushes and tackles us again, pissing off the harem.

At the mission site, Shiori's barking orders to soldiers. We assure her we've got the guard duty in hand. Ena's nervous and on edge. Everything's finally ready for the mission to begin. Mashiro pats us and tells us it'll be okay. We give a little speech, but nothing much happens for a while. Ena gets set up with her telepathy and whatnot. Erika's still wondering what Evol was doing the other day and has to explain to us that it wasn't just random terrorism because we're a nimrod.

There's suddenly an explosion. Swarms of NP are attacking. We run off to save them. We're so overleveled for this area that not a single enemy will attack us. Eventually, we find the same big panther NP as before. After beating it, that seems to take care of the NPs, but we're attacked by Wolfram's signature shockwave. Except it's not him who steps out, but some crazy-ass mannequin with a chunk of Enigmatite in its chest, ranting about how it finally found something.

It's hard to tell since it dies so easily, but it uses a hodgepodge of attacks from other characters. In the battle, you can see it use Chaos's bow, Law's beams, and Tsubomi's roll attack thing. I think its base ground attack is Kanae's mace. So naturally, not a single character even so much as mentions this in any way at all, and I guess the audience is supposed to be as oblivious to it as the characters. Sterling writing, once again.

After defeating it, it gets right back up with its wounds healed. We try to smack it again, but our sword bounces off its head. It screams and zaps us. We get back up and attack it again. Offscreen. Elsewhere, Ena's worried about us. We're tossed through the wall into the room she's in. We tell her to stay behind us as the thingy comes in and rants some more about the King. Ena jumps in front of us as it's about to attack. The thingy stops, says "it found it" and then runs away. CAN'T POSSIBLY IMAGINE WHAT THIS MIGHT MEAN. Ena passes out from the stress of it all.

Later, the mission was a failure, but nobody blames us. We're curious about the doll NP. They're looking into it and will let us know. It's apparently a brand new kind of NP. Telepathy seems to work against it, they say, coming to an entirely insane conclusion. We don't want Ena going anywhere dangerous, but they all say she's strong, so it'll be okay. Ena runs up afterward and tackles us again, annoying Erika. She's got the results of the Enimgatite test stuff from earlier and it turns out her power level's now at the same as ours. *gasp!* She says it's the power of love.