Rewrite VN (Part 13 of ?)

-Kotarou decides to strengthen himself just a little bit and, for the first time, it moves less than a notch. -Is that what I’ve been stumbling into all this time? …oh my god, it makes sense! I am a familiar, after all! -Explaining the concept of the spaces, Chihaya sounds pretty knowledgeable. Apparently, she knows more about summoner knowledge than Akane. -‘So the encounter rate is 0.’ Oh Kotarou, keep using your RPG references. It makes me happy. -Our school used to be controlled by Gaia, which explains the power Akane has over so many aspects of the school. -Chihaya’s basically in Gaia because she’s a summoner and, to her, that’s just the way it is. Brainwashing! -…not Sakuya, right? -She says it’s not really possible to get rid of her familiar. -Urg, Chihaya fell in a hole in the space and one of the robed guys showed up with dogs. -What on earth makes this guy think I’m a hunter? -Akane was using me as bait, telling me to come to the school so they’d think I purposely came here to make them think that I have the key. Wow, that’s kind of confusing. -Hey, I can take on three dog familiars without getting injured! Impressive! -Oh man, I have a feeling this’ll be a curb stomp battle like with the vine dragon. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit. On the bright side, there was a really, really pretty magical circle effect thing right before it came out. -Oh my god, I thought it’d just stay a CG but it actually gets its own sprite that takes up the whole horizontal length of the screen. -Chihaya’s bandages gave me one free defense from a broken arm. It’s shattered now, though (the bandage/good luck charm, not my arm). -Damn, I escaped that space and returned to the school but the thing and guy just followed me. -Eh, trying to defeat the octopus spider is useless so far as I can’t even slice him. -Really weird. As I contemplate strengthening myself to ridiculous lengths, I hear a funky echoing voice telling me not to. Future me? I mean, this is a Key visual novel and they always take advantage of the way they’re set up. -Specifically, it says,　「Don’t do it. You know what will happen. Isn’t that why you’ve been holding it back? You won’t be human anymore.」 -Just to check out the bad end, I chose to strengthen myself anyway. The rune gear is just spinning around like crazy and flashing. Ouch. -Bad end: Voice said 「I warned you. …Farewell, Tennouji Kotarou. 」So I guess I was wrong on who the voice belonged to. It sounded way too casual about me rewriting myself into a monster/animal thing. -I keep trying to find a weakness to the familiar as I don’t want to kill a human, even if he’s trying to kill me. -…throughout all this, is Chihaya still stuck in that hole in the other space? -Destroyed one of its arms by attacking right at the end of the tentacle but…it’s still alive. -With no hope left, Kotarou looked at the moon (maybe for the Key?) and instead saw Sakuya. Tenma is scared shitless. -I glad Sakuya wasn’t just up there watching me but decided to help. Well, help is kind of a weak word for killing that familiar so quickly while I’m lying beaten on the ground. -The way he defeated it is the stereotypical badass way in every action movie. Zoom in, hear a slice sound, see him on the other side of the enemy and then it falls apart a few seconds later. -Sakuya just left right after defeating it. Well, more like disappearing right before my eyes. Huh. -Ouch, so Sakuya just fatally wounded it and now it’s trying to heal itself with Tenma’s energy. Just like I unfortunately automatically did to Kotori in her route. T_T More sad memories. -Also, it’s kind of bad that Sakuya left and that Midou (red hood guy) is here now. -That crazy Midou bid farewell to Tenma and then burned him right up, laughing evilly afterwards. -So my theory was correct? He’s obviously not talking about me being the strongest familiar. So Sakuya, right? -I guess I was spared for now. Chihaya escaped from the school space too. -No skipping around. Sakuya directly answers my questions, saying that he’s a familiar, that he’s the one who defeated Krivoy Rog and rescued Chihaya. -So with this shared bond between Sakuya, the strongest familiar in Gaia, and Chihaya, maybe that’s why she’s so freakishly strong like him? -Confessed to Chihaya and she’s awkwardly stumbling around her words. -Chihaya’s dad used to create familiars and her first memory is of touching a small one. She was able to make a contract with it (or was it a different tiny familiar?) even though no one taught her how. Her potential was obvious so she was forbidden to make any other contracts but could keep her current one intact. -Her parents were killed when Guardian found Chihaya’s village near a power spot in a space. Chihaya was the only survivor. She had to run but was found by the enemy. She had to summon her familiar but it was really only a distraction. All this happened in that space where her home was. -In that space, she found a withering cherry blossom tree and prayed for help when Sakuya appeared and called her master and swore to protect her. -By the looks of it, Sakuya doesn’t age so he’s not like me who is a human turned to familiar. -Man, poor Sakuya swears to protect her, and does a good job, but isn’t he always leeching on her life energy then? -…not a good thing to hear. He’s not there to stay, huh? -Strengthen my butt and use farts to fly? Probably the worst method of flight ever. -Several normal days went by with no attacks and hopefully no assassins will try to kill me, as they apparently have been exposed. -I already know making familiars involves bunches of dead animal parts and twigs and stuff. From what Chihaya says, if you’re good at cooking, you may be good at making familiars. To her, making curry (which even I can do) is impressive enough for her to think Kotarou has a talent for familiars. So Chihaya can’t even boil water? -Our date is interrupted by Midou happily setting part of a building on fire. -Midou’s pretty messed up. -Uh…okay. What’s she doing here? This is quite unexpected. At least in Kotori’s route, I expected Shizuru and Lucia to stay away from Akane and Chihaya the whole time. -Well, she’s not trying to kill us or anything, which is nice. -She wishes things could be back to normal but, for her, it was inevitable all this would happen and there’s no way to resolve it. At least I know she did like the club, though. -Kotarou’s kind of adorably naive and hopeful here. Such a contrast to the absolute hopelessness in Kotori’s route. -Relating to the early game questionnaire, Kotarou says that he’ll change the world. Looking back, I did choose “myself” over “the world” earlier in this playthrough. -Whoa, Chihaya likes me enough that she’s okay with eloping with me if it comes to it. -Oh shit, assembly with a lot of people…abnormally hot…Midou? -Oh great, all the students and staff are locked in the burning auditorium and the fire isn’t going out with a fire extinguisher. -Door handle leading out is hot. If I remember correctly, that means there’s a fire on the other side, probably worse than the side we’re on. Let’s see if real life facts will apply to this. -Yoshino opened the door and it was safe. So…no. The hot door handle rule didn’t apply in Rewrite. -The firey shit has hit the burning fan. -Ha, the next background is of Midou’s face zoomed up. It just looks hilarious that close. -Meanwhile, Sakuya, Gil and Pani are in the forest… -Ooh, look at Sakuya’s badass outfit. I guess everyone’s going to be participating in some epic fight today. -Rewriting my body gives me better ability to cope with the smoke from the fire. Nice. -Saved by Chihaya! Though I doubt she can inhale all that smoke for long like I can. -I can’t believe Kotarou is still worrying about defeating Midou without killing him. He tried to kill Kotarou’s classmates and won’t stop! C’mon, Kotarou! No holding back! -Damn, Midou’s stupid summon is making a barrier to protect himself. -Stupid crystallized silicon dioxide barrier is around the doors too so the firefighters outside can’t get in. Poor Yoshino is frustrated too since he knows Chihaya and I are still in there. -Very odd but this person, who I’ve barely seen, is letting Yoshino use her car to get in the building. How very random. Ram into the barrier? -I knew something would happen where Chihaya would end up hurt trying to keep me out of danger. She gave me her barrier. -Ha, and there’s Shizuru. She’s standing with Yoshino, giving him advice. -Seems like Sakuya is already nearing the end of his lifespan normally and he’s in a tough battle. I’m guessing he may die soon. -Kotarou chose some good things to rewrite at the end of the fight. His healing factor’s ridiculously good now. -I did survive the fight without killing Midou but he says that there will come a time where I will have to kill. -He says that I did kill him and laughs maniacally. How? I didn’t kill his familiar! -Yoshino helps carry me out of the building, similar to the ending of Kotori’s route. A lot less life-threatening for me this time, though. -Okay, so somehow Midou is dead. Tenjin’s alive, though, and was caught by Gaia. -Sakuya tells Chihaya that he felt something strange around the burning auditorium at some point. Hm? -No sprites onscreen but Akane has clearly found Kotori’s barrier and the Key with it. Kotori’s identity would be kind of vague if her route hadn’t been done at this point, though. -Ah, so that fight ended with Midou killing himself. -Ew, my skin on my back has a hard spot. Please stay human, Kotarou. -Whoa, the whole festival was cancelled. But there’s an unofficial one in the slums so we’re all going there instead. -Chihaya went home from our “date” and I’m looking around for Sakuya, who was frozen in shock earlier. The fact that he’s not around makes me think he’s not fully recovered from the fight or is starting to, uh, die. -Not surprised at all that she knows the truth. I’m assuming she’s on Shizuru/Lucia’s side? So she’s probably an enemy. -Music stopped. Not good.

O______________O

-She has knives. Oh shit. Though really, if I could kill Midou, does she stand a chance? -Hey, at least she’s giving me a heads up on it. Music is back and it’s new. Sounds pretty cool. -Going to kill me to eliminate any threats to Guardian. -Seriously? There’s something about her that I can sense that’s already making me fear for my life? No confidence at all? -Oh, so her knives aren’t just knives. They’re flying, glowy homing knives. -Ah shit, I’m hearing Midou’s voice in my head telling me to kill her. -Sakuya helpfully scared her away. -A very confusing “conversation” between the Key and Akane is going on. Something about things going well and the　「illusion of Senri Akane」. -The Key said “memories” and Akane sounded confused and very, very frightened, asking what she (the Key) is trying to show her. It sounds like mind rape, honestly. -Two days later and we’ve heard nothing from Akane. What the heck happened to her? -Akane is underground in that space for familiar research, mumbling to herself, looking unkempt and scared of us. -The Key is also there and Akane is telling us to take it/her with us. -Oh, there’s the name. Now I don’t have to capitalize Key anymore. -She seems to have lost a few of her marbles, Akane. -You know, I thought Kagari looked odd so I compared her to her appearance in Kotori’s route. Here, her eyes are much duller. Creepy… -I asked her what Akane was going on about and Kagari said ‘memories’ again. -Sure, her speaking is much more smooth and frequent here than in Kotori’s route but she’s less…playful? Silly? Showing emotion of any kind? More just responding to stimuli like a robot. -Uh, odd. Shizuru’s calling me. -I feel I should be frightened. Also, I assume if she ends up killing the Key, I’m going to die too. -Yup, it’s a threat from Guardian. She’s kind enough to tell me my threat level (Endangered I) and what kind of people they would send out to kill me to get to the Key. How nice. -T_____T …Chibimoth? -Wait, no way of intervening if we worked together? -Ooooooooooh. Not Chibimoth, then. They’re talking about Sakuya, aren’t they? Shit. More death flags for him, then. -So I’m still not entirely sure if it’s true that whatever Akane did has prevented the destruction of a human-friendly earth but, either way, Shizuru doesn’t believe me when I tell her. -As I confidently tell her that she’ll see the truth when she meets the Key tomorrow, Shizuru says privately that it’s probably better if I don’t come to the meeting spot after all. This definitely sounds like it’s almost time for the final battle and an end to the route. -Oh wow, Chihaya will leave and betray Gaia with me. -Got to thank Sakuya for raising Chihaya well. -Ah, not good. That crazy murderous teacher is here at the meeting place. -I think the answer to that question is that Kotarou is much too naïve for his own good. Also, what the hell are you wearing, Shizuru? -Shizuru says Lucia 「couldn’t be here」. They had a fight and separated? Huh, I guess that vaguely explains how their two routes could be different when they’re on the same side. -Nishikujou: Yay, that’s great that the world for humans won’t end! Thanks for proving the Key is harmless now! Now let’s destroy you and your friends cuz we’ll never get along! -Oh yeah, just realized about Shizuru’s heterochromia, even though I did glimpse it in Rewrite’s opening. Maybe I’m used to seeing characters in other shows with different color eyes that it barely registered to me here. In-game, this is the first time Kotarou has seen her eyes (except what he may have seen in Kotori’s route before she ran off). -Impressive. Apparently, Sakuya has done a lot of damage to Guardian in the past but didn’t actually kill anyone. -Yes, Lucia is more likely to listen to the power of friendship! But yeah, still preferring Lucia over Shizuru so far, even if I really barely talk to them. -Shizuru’s said twice now that there are things she needs to protect. -Totally random guess here but I wonder if Shizuru’s the girl who was on the tree I was trying to help as a kid. I mean, I hear that a lot of people like her route so maybe she has some connection to my past that triggers that much adoration from others. -Veeeeeery cool scene there where Chihaya summoned Sakuya. I somehow thing this’ll be his last fight, though. -Oh, this is so not good. Shizuru’s got some blue mist around here that may affect summons so Chihaya won’t let Sakuya get near her. She (and everyone here, really) doesn’t know that I really am a familiar. -I think the mist is weakening us. Sakuya and I have both been stabbed at least once now. -Ah, it’s a nerve toxin paralyzing us. Seems to be Shizuru’s power. Odd, what does that have to do with super familiar powers? -Telling us to leave Sakuya and the Key behind and that we’ll never be bothered is a blatant lie. Chihaya herself would probably die from Sakuya using energy to try to survive like I did with Kotori. Unless he’s strong and determined enough to hold back on that. -I just got a knife to the chest protecting Chihaya… -What is that stupid Key doing right now? She helped me out during that dragon fight. Now she’s doing nothing. -Kotarou should go to a psychologist after all this is over. Hearing voices that tell you to kill everyone is most definitely not healthy. -Kotarou asks for more power and the POV switches to Chihaya. -Berserk Kotarou slit Shizuru’s stomach! Whoa, violent. -Sakuya says Kotarou is trying to rewrite his own mind and that he’ll become a familiar (too late for that) and lose his mind. I have a feeling Kotarou may be berserk enough that he’s the one who kills Sakuya. That’d really suck. -Kagari seems to be interested in something. Maybe her own power being used by Kotarou. -Now Shizuru is using a white mist and trying to help. Ah, so blue is for familiars and white is for…humans? -Chihaya returned her share of Sakuya’s powers back to him, even if this means her protection is gone and her life will be shortened. -Back to Kotarou. The rune gear is flashing like in that one bad end. I’m starting to realize what’s happening. -There’s some unfamiliar male voice lecturing me before it switches back to dead Midou talking in my head. -Ah, so Shizuru’s ability is medicine, like paralyzing or healing medicine. -As Kotarou’s “predecessor”, Sakuya can’t lose to me? Shizuru’s confused on what he means as well but he won’t elaborate. -Whoa, Sakuya’s rewriting me?! -I’m hearing glimpses of Sakuya supporting and comforting little Chihaya. -So Sakuya was a superhuman who could rewrite himself just like me and protected someone named Minata, also fighting familiars and looking for the Key. -So back then he wanted to prevent salvation and yet Gaia’s goal is the opposite. Salvation happened and he rewrote himself into a tree, no longer being human so therefore no longer something the salvation would destroy. Many, many years later, Chihaya finds him and lets a small branch of him be a familiar for her. Then, when her family was murdered, she found the tree again and he decided to protect her. -That whole thing made me like Sakuya more, though. Despite this being Chihaya’s route, I really like Sakuya’s character more. Must be the angst. -No, the song I associate with Chibimoth’s death is playing… T_T -Contract between Sakuya and Chihaya is back now that Kotarou is out like a light. -Kagari has an unhappy look on her face. What, not happy that I didn’t die so that I could return her leftover ribbon back to her? -I’m not exactly sure why me going berserk made Nishikujou of all people start questioning her beliefs. Just because Sakuya saved her? -Sakuya’s in pain and not healing. Naturally, the scene jumps back to Chihaya’s house. …is Sakuya still alive? -Ah. Akane and Gaia are trying to use as much energy as possible to power their familiars for the fight against Guardian but taking it from energy around them. The photosynthesisy familiars, Pani and Gil, are weaker than usual and the trees outside are wilting faster than usual. This must be affecting poor Sakuya. -Kagari says we can’t go and stop whatever’s happening. Sounds pretty determined about it too. Wow, and her speech is even smoother than before. She says her role’s over so at least bring her to the final decider. Who’s that? -We think it’s Akane so we’re going to Gaia’s base. Everyone but Kotarou seems oddly optimistic about the outcome of all this. -In the actual base, it’s empty and I feel something bad is going to happen. Gil says the whole place feels weird. -Akane and Kagari are underground, next to an empty power spot. Akane’s been sucking up a ton of power to literally destroy the world because Kagari showed her how evil humanity can be. Akane’s lost her mind, basically. She summoned both Krivoy Rog and Kilimanjaro. -Uh, and how old are you then, Akane? -Sakuya woke up, saying he has to protect Chihaya and, according to Pani, he’s trying to switch dimensions? I’m confused. -Ah, so that’s his dangerous method of “teleporting” to where we are. -Oh man, he’s like some sick, dying person. He’s lost his sense of pain and back’s in shitty shape. -And here they are, my first tears for Chihaya’s route. You get to know the guy for hours, he helps you train, kind of accepts you and Chihaya being together, has a tragic past and has the difficult task of basically raising and protecting Chihaya for most of her life and then he tells her not to mourn his death as he’s pretty much dust? T___T -I feel like sprites used for Chihaya don’t fit at all during emotional moments like this. She’s either looking angry, blankly staring straight ahead with no emotion or like staring off to the side with no emotion. -No, bad Akane! Let Sakuya be dead in peace and leave his body alone! -I have a feeling that Pani jumping in the power spot to find Akane is technically suicide. Gil seems very subdued. -Geez, doesn’t Kagari have any happy memories of humanity to show us? -And Kagari dissolved into pretty gold dust. Bye bye. -Sounds like Key’s usual method of having all the routes having technically happened to the player. -Ah, never mind. It’s Chihaya’s old village. -Oh no, even Gil’s too tired to fly. -Oh, Pani’s already gone. She just conscious energy now. -Just like Sakuya calling himself dust, Gil is calling himself the product of garbage. He’s not as negative and just wants to be useful though. -Damn, tearing up for the little green brat too (Gil). -Ugh, death things always make me cry. I got a few tears reading the letter/memory from Chihaya’s dad. Still nothing compared to when Kotori’s parents spoke of protecting their family in her route, though. -Guardian came to help and now Akane’s depressed and we’re trying to tell her that there’s no reason she has to kill herself and that she has her own life to live. -Uh, who’s that? Akane’s predecessor? Her mom? -Oh man, here I was about to say that this wasn’t very climactic of a route ending at all. Then a giant rune flows up to the sky and a giant monster that looks like some kind of Final Fantasy boss or something appears. I guess this is what Akane wanted to summon to destroy the world. Well…that’ll be fun trying to destroy something that strong. -Oh shit, I thought when Akane said she wanted to use Sakuya’s body as a vessel, his body would stop being his body. But no, Sakuya is clearly embedded in the monster’s chest. -…Chihaya’s going to attempt to kill herself since she still has a bond with Sakuya, right? -Or hurt herself badly repeatedly so that the familiar has to expend energy over and over to heal Chihaya… -Oh, please don’t let that be the solution. That’s unbelievably corny. -Wow, is this route going to end without Kotarou never finding out that he’s a familiar? -The hell? I need heat to get through some of the vines as it regenerates slower then. So I actually get some from Fuego/Midou inside me? -It’s nice to be able to say goodbye to Sakuya (again). -Uh no, I think Sakuya’s last moments should be with Chihaya, not fighting me in a last match. -Eh? So we’re back in the clubroom. Yoshino apparently naps here a lot. Shizuru, Chihaya and I go to club meetings. Akane will be held back but will be able to return to school next semester and Kotori is somewhere unknown writing letters. -And Lucia 「still can’t move」 and everyone’s trying to help her? Wait, what happened? -“Took you long enough” is the last words of the route. A single white petal floats in our vision in the woods as Chihaya is trying to see if she can resummon Sakuya. Alright, that’s the end of Chihaya’s route! Took me a while! So that means I’m…2/7 done? Not including the extra route that’s usually just humor. Geez, this’ll take a while. Eh, there were some intense fights and Sakuya was a more interesting character than I first thought but, emotionally, I really still prefer Kotori’s route. I mean, I had watery eyes but no tears actually fell. And Chihaya was always kind of meh for me. Well, let’s see how Lucia’s will be.