The mastermind behind the Fuwanovel death game watched the two screens on the desk before him/her with a wicked smile.
"Seven dead already, heh. This is going well."
The video from the past two weeks of the battle royale had been playing on the screens in a loop for hours, with the faces of the four picked for the current week displayed on a different monitor above.
"Hehe. Now, let's see, what kind of arena should I put these four in?"
"Mind if I handle that?"
"Huh?!"
Taken completely aback by the presence of someone else in the control room, <??> nearly fell out of his/her chair.
"How the hell did you get in here?!"
"Hmph. You think your weak magic can control me? Please. I was bored, so I figured I'd join in on this weird game you have going on. So, with that said, I'll be taking over for a bit, heh."
With that, Clephas devoured <??>, trapping them in one of his stomachs.
"Now, let's have some fun. Hmm, these four, huh? Alright. Let's begin."
Using his powers to summon the four members from their cells, Clephas devoured them all in an instant.
The First Stomach - alden_0023 & Thatcomicguy
The first thing Thatcomicguy noticed was the smell of blood. Opening his eyes, he could tell that he was no longer in his cell.
"Come on... Was I picked again?"
Getting off the floor, he shook his head in frustration. He had fought for his life against another Fuwanovel user in the death game just two weeks before. He was hoping he would be able to avoid being picked again for at least a few more weeks. But, he had no such luck.
"Where the hell am I...?"
Looking around in confusion, he could tell he was in a classroom. The windows in the room were shattered, and the walls were riddled with holes and cracks. The floor was also badly damaged, covered in claw marks of all things.
What on earth had happened there before he woke up?
"Hnng..."
Noticing some rustling coming from the other side of the classroom, Thatcomicguy gripped his spear and got ready for a possible fight.
"Ugh, my head..."
Alden_0023 rubbed his forehead, slowly getting to his feet. The moment he spotted Thatcomicguy standing in the other side of the classroom, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Then, in the next moment.
"Hah!"
Drawing his bow with incredible speed, he sent an arrow flying through the room. Barely managing to block the arrow with his shield, Thatcomicguy started running through the room towards the door, trying to escape.
Another arrow flew towards him, barely missing his neck before digging into a nearby desk. Having reached the door, Thatcomicguy kicked it as hard as he could, making the door fly open. His hands were full because of his weapon and shield, and he had no time to spare, as Alden prepared another arrow.
But, the moment the door flew open, both men suddenly froze in place. It was a natural reaction. Anyone would be shocked by the sight that waited on the other side of that door.
A group of six small figures sat hunched over a corpse, happily chewing at its flesh. They had already eaten a great deal of the corpse, and their small bodies were covered in fresh blood.
"Wh-What... the fuck?"
The group of small girls suddenly stopped eating, and turned towards the two men in the classroom. While they might have looked like normal young girls at first glance, they had two features that no human child had. First, their teeth. The mouths of the girls were covered in shark like teeth, each tooth about ten centimeter in length. As a result, it was impossible for the girls to even close their mouths. Their eyes were glowing in a bright red color, and their pupils were completely gone. The entire eye was simply covered entirely in the red light.
"Cannibal... lolis... Seriously?"
Thatcomicguy uttered in a voice dyed in confusion and dread.
"..."
Realizing the situation was quite dire, Alden lowered his bow, and ran towards one of the broken windows along the classroom wall, then leapt through it.
"HEY! ARE YOU LEAVING ME WITH THESE THINGS?!"
Ignoring Thatcomicguy, Alden performed a forward flip in the air, then prepared his body for the fall. It seemed like the school they had woken up in was quite big, and they were on the sixth floor. But, contrary to his expectations, Alden's body did not fall at all. Instead, he was pulled up, flying towards the roof of the school.
"What in the..."
Soaring up past classroom after classroom, Alden reached the roof of the building, but his body showed no signs of stopping. He was literally falling upwards.
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, Alden grabbed a hold of the railing covering the school roof, managing to stop his "fall" in the last second. Pulling his body towards the roof, he gripped the railing as he slowly moved towards the fire escape leading back into the school. The moment his foot moved inside the school building, he force pulling him upwards let go.
It seemed like moving outside the school was out of the question. The bizarre arena was nothing like the arenas used the previous weeks.
"What on earth is going on..."
Meanwhile
"AHHH, get away, get away, get away, AHHH!"
Thatcomicguy screamed, as he ran as fast as he could through the dark hallways of the school. Just a few meters behind him were five of the six small girls, giggling as they chased him.
He had managed to kill one of them with his spear in his escape from the classroom. This did not seem to anger the rest at all, as they chased happily after Thatcomicguy. It seemed like the girls had the ability to retract their teeth, and were now humming and laughing. Still, their eyes glowed. It was clear that their eyes were filled with bloodlust. If he stopped for just a moment, they'd probably rip him to shreds.
"Tehehe, I love playing tag."
"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you ~~"
"GO PLAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE, AHH!"
Still screaming, Thatcomicguy kept running at full speed down the hallway, until...
"Shit..."
He reached a dead end. The stairs leading down to the floor below were blocked by a massive pile of rubble. The roof above had collapsed, also covering the stairs going up in the process. In other words, he was trapped.
The small girls were now just half a meter away.
"Tag. You're it!"
The girls opened their mouths, and their fangs once again sprouted out.
Preparing for what would most likely be his final battle, Thatcomicguy took a deep breath.
"I'm naked in front of a group of lolis, pointing a spear at them. That's a headline for yah."
Crack.
A sound coming from above made Thatcomicguy look up towards the roof, and soon after, a big chunk of the ceiling came crashing down, landing on top of two of the girls, squishing them.
"WHOA!"
Sitting on top of the rubble was Alden, his body covered in small cuts. Or, were they bite marks?
"Ah..."
Realizing what that meant, Thatcomicguy looked towards the hole in the roof, and sure enough, peeking down from above were even more of the rabid lolis, looking at Alden like he was a delicious looking plate of food.
"... Sorry dude, looks like this isn't your day."
With that, Thatcomicguy stood completely still, as the hoard of cannibalistic lolis swarmed Alden, biting through his flesh and bones like it was nothing. The sight was horrifying, making Thatcomicguy look away in disgust.
Taking advantage of the situation, he quietly snuck past the hoard of killer lolis, covering his eyes the entire time. He then started making his way down the hallway, leaving the little monsters to their dinner.
The Second Stomach - xGreyHound & Jazid-Kun
A jungle of mysterious plants in all sorts of colors stretched as far as the eye could see. A nearby river was filled not with water, but lava, and the sky was dyed red, not blue.
In the middle of this impossible jungle stood Jazid-Kun, looking around him with a smile.
"What a fitting stage for bloodbath. Heh."
Striking a cool pose, Jazid spoke in a dramatic tone of voice. Wearing a black school uniform and with an eye patch covering his left eye, Jazid did not exactly look like he belonged in the strange jungle. If not for the two large swords in crossed sheathes on his back, he would have just looked like any other high-school student.
"Chaos shall rain! Today, we dine with death himself!"
"... The hell are you on kid?"
xGreyHound sent Jazid a confused look, gripping his AK-47 firmly. He was on guard, prepared for the worst. The arena he had been placed in seemed even crazier than any of the previous ones.
GreyHound did not have it in him to kill a kid like Jazid, so he had approached Jazid with the suggestion of an alliance. Jazid accepted, though now he was going on some kind of chuunibyou rant, which made GreyHound instantly regret his decision.
"Please kid, be quiet..."
"Let the curtain fall on this blood drenched play! Let the games begin!"
Jazid shouted, stretching his arms up towards the red sky.
"... I swear, I will smack you over the head if you don't quiet down."
"Hah! A mere mortal like yourself? You wouldn't be able to lay a finger on me."
Rustle.
"?!"
A nearby plant started stirring. GreyHound quickly pointed his gun in the direction of the sound. Another plant started to move, then another. Before long, every single plant in their vicinity had started to move. At first, GreyHound thought the movement was caused by something moving through the plants, but... that wasn't it. The plants themselves were moving.
Clearly a little weirded out by the moving plants, Jazid moved a few steps closer to GreyHound.
"I, uh... I shall protect you, mortal!"
"Yeah, whatever, just draw your weapons at least."
"Kukuku. You mean these?"
Jazid gestured towards his swords.
"I cannot simply draw them out of their sheathe without the proper chant. They are sealed by a powerful—"
"Get down!"
GreyHound pushed Jazid to the side, as a giant vine shot out from one of the strange flowers. The vine was covered in strange spikes, reminiscent of teeth. It slammed into the ground mercilessly, making its sharp spikes dig into the dirt.
"Y-You cannot scare me, for I am... I am..."
"Shut up and run!"
GreyHound turned around and darted into a clearing, as several more giant plant monsters approached the two.
"Y-Yes sir!"
Following suit, Jazid ran as fast as he could after his teammate. Just a second after, five more giant veins slammed into the place he had been standing.
"Wh-What are those thin—"
"Duck!"
Interrupting Jazid once again, GreyHound shouted a command and pointed his gun toward Jazid's face. Doing as he was told Jazid quickly ducked down, and the massive mouth of a bizarre plant closed right above him, catching some of his hair in its massive jaws.
"Dieee!"
GreyHound fired several rounds into the head of the strange plant, making green goo fly everywhere. The plant let out a deafening screech and backed up a few steps, hissing at the two. It's mouth was layered with more teeth than a shark, each one at least five centimeters long. In addition to its killer bite, it also had several long vines covered in spikes sprouting from its body. It was the height of a human man, and moved incredibly fast.
"Over there! Run to the lava!"
"L-Lava? Are you crazy? I-I mean, lava would have no power over my immortal body, of course, but you are just a normal human, so it would surely be in trouble."
"Just shut up and run."
Turning back towards the way they had come, the two started running towards the strange lava stream, about fifty meters away. The stream was no more than one meter in width, but if GreyHound's theory was right, it would do.
"We're jumping over that. Get ready."
Not waiting for his ally to reply, GreyHound leapt across the lava stream. The intense heat from just being in the vicinity of the lava made even just breathing hurt, but it was better than being devoured by flesh eating plants the size of humans.
Jazid made it across the lava soon after GreyHound.
"Kuku. Looks like our plant friends were not so smart after all."
At least twenty of the killer plants tried to follow them, but they all let out loud shrieks as they approached the lava, and took several swift steps back. They were clearly not fond of the heat.
"We have no time to waste here. There could be more. Come on."
"Look out!"
As GreyHound turned his back on the plants and started to walk in the other direction, several of the strange creatures sent their vines flying towards the two humans. It seemed like there was no real limit to how far the vines could stretch, and they approached GreyHound's back with great speed.
"Hah!"
But, just moments before they were about to tear GreyHound to shreds, the vines themselves got cut into tiny pieces.
"Hmph. To think you'd make me take off my eye patch. I'm surprised you'd push me this far."
GreyHound turned around to see what had happened. Sure enough, Jazid's eye patch was gone, revealing an eye with a different color from the other. He had also drawn his swords, which were covered in green goo from cutting apart the vines.
Jazid had somehow managed to remove his eye patch, draw his swords, then cut several vines within a matter of seconds. GreyHound could not help but be amazed at the spectacle, and thanked his teammate for saving his life.
Rustle. Rustle.
Something started moving in the leaves behind the killer plants, and Jazid stood rooted in place, watching whatever it was intently.
"Come on kid, more of those things are coming from the looks of things. We gotta go."
GreyHound did not wait for a reply, and started to walk away from the lava and the plants. But, Jazid did not move.
"Kid, I will leave you, I swear! What are you even... looking... at..."
GreyHound's voice began to falter, as he too laid eyes on the creature on the other side of the lava. It took the form of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. She wasn't wearing a thing, and on top of her head were two pretty cat ears. Wagging back and forth behind her legs was a fuzzy tail. It was, without a doubt, a catgirl. An incredibly beautiful one, too.
Being fans of visual novels and the likes, both men knew very well what she was. While she appeared harmless, the fact that the plants were not killing her was a clear warning sign in GreyHound's mind.
"We gotta get the hell out of here, now!"
Jazid did not respond, but instead started to move slowly towards the catgirl, dropping his swords on the ground.
"Wait, what the hell are you doing!"
Jazid showed no interest in GreyHound, and kept on slowly approaching the catgirl, who looked back at them with an enchanting smile.
"Dude, this is not the time for your weird ass fantasies! We have to get out of here. Guh?!"
GreyHound tried to reach out for Jazid's hand, but he had gotten so close to the lava, the heat made GreyHound jump back in reflex.
There was nothing GreyHound could do but watch, as Jazid slowly walked into the scorching heat of the lava, seemingly under some kind of spell cast by the mysterious catgirl. He did not even blink at the pain from having his foot melted by the incredible heat. All he did was watch the catgirl on the other side of the lava stream, with a smile on his face.
After a few seconds, Jazid's body had been completely consumed by the lava.
"Y-You bitch, what did you do to him?!"
Pointing his gun at the catgirl in anger, GreyHound's body shook in terror. The creature simply returned a brilliant smile, and started to walk back into the depths of the strange jungle. The flesh eating plants followed suit, leaving GreyHound alone with nothing but the smell of burning flesh, and a sense of dread.
Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984)
The Last GM Standing
Chapter 5 (Word count, 4491)
The Last GM Standing
Chapter 6 (Word count 3334)
- Finale, part 1/2 -
The atmosphere on the battlefield was suffocating. With the sun once again covered by dark clouds, a strong wind blew across the area, seemingly building up to a storm. The three GMs were standing on an open field, facing each other, with their remaining warriors at their side. Kaguya, Nosebleed and Down. Only one of them would come out of the battle alive...
....
Nosebleed was knitting his brows as the powerful wind struck him. In his mind, countless questions raged around. Why do we have to do this? Why wont the others put down their weapons? Why do we have to fight?..
At his side, Kingdomcome and Nebjula stood, with their weapons drawn. Nosebleed had lost many during the battle, and was down to his last two brave soldiers. He wished for nothing more than to let those two brave survivors make it out alive. But in order to do that, he had to fight ... He had to fight for them, and for the ones who had already given their life in this gruesome battle.
"It's time. I can't guarantee your safety during this fight ... Not that I have been able to do that previously either..." Looking down at the ground with a shameful expression plastered on his face, Nosebleed spoke to his comrades.
"Don't worry, we will be at your side until the bitter end." Kingdomcome said as he put his hand on Nosebleed's shoulder.
Nebjula said nothing, but walked up at Nosebleed's other side and prepared his maces for battle. His hands were shaking ever so slightly and his lips were trembling. Before them stood Kaguya, with his four remaining fighters, and to their right was Down, who also had four warriors remaining.
No one spoke. The overwhelming silence was soon followed by a loud roar of thunder coming from the east. Just as the sound of the thunder was heard, Kaguya made the first move... The battle had begun.
- The beginning of the end -
Kaguya lifted his arms above his head and summoned a massive fireball, hurling it at Down.
Down reacted quickly and pushed his comrades out of the way, then jumped up in the air, making the fireball collide with nothing but the bare ground. As he floated through the air, Down gripped his sword and made a big swing, targeting Kaguya. The blade approached its target with great speed. Kaguya lifted up his right arm and the blade collided with his flesh. But, despite the strength of the attack, his skin was not cut. A big shockwave blew across the battlefield, as a reaction produced by the powerful impact of Down's sword. Down quickly drew back his blade and went in for another attack. Kaguya used his arms to block the attacks, and retaliated with punches that Down fairly easily dodged. The two traded blows for a while, neither landing any good hits.
"Devourer of light,
bane of the living,
ruler of death,
envelop the world in darkness!"
Chanting a spell from behind Kaguya, Jade stepped forward and sent a large cloud of dark smoke towards Down. The smoke crept forward like a living being, seeking out enemies, and completely avoiding teammates. Down reacted quickly and jumped back a few meters, then he raised his sword towards the sky, and a bright green light erupted from the tip. The light wrapped itself around himself and his warriors, shielding them from the smoke.
"Dergonu, Greenshadow." Speaking to two of his underlings, Kaguya pointed forwards, and the two launched an attack at the exposed Down. Because he was busy holding back the shadow from his forces, he was wide open. It was not a physical barrier, but instead one to hold back magic, which meant humans could pass through it. The two ran towards their target and raised their weapons.
"Get back scum!" Before they reached Down, a shadow quickly jumped out from behind him, blocking both their attacks. Two green swords glowing in a green light, similar to that Down was producing, was blocking their weapons.
"Yaaa!" Their opponent, FinalChaos, pulled back his swords and spun around, making the blades strike at both targets in a circular motion. They both had to raise their weapons in a defensive manner to block the attack, at which point another attacker stepped out behind Down and struck at the two team Kaguya members. He held a long green dagger, and stabbed at Greenshadow's chest. Greenshadow quickly moved his shield in between himself and the dagger, whilst still holding back FinalChaos' sword attacks.
Fred the Barber, the second attacker from team Down, quickly moved sideways and tried to stab at Greenshadow's flank, but Dergonu jumped in between them. The four warriors started attacking each other left and right, looking for openings. Meanwhile, Down was still holding back Jade's magic, which was starting to approach its limit.
Suddenly a rain of crossbow bolts approached Down and the other fighters present. Down extended his left hand, making a physical barrier to stop the sudden attack, leaving him even more exposed than before. Kingdomcome from team Nosebleed was positioned about 50 meters away, firing freely at the group. To his left stood Nebjula, protecting his teammate from potential threats.
"Damnit ... At this rate we will be sitting ducks... Babiker, Kawasumi, take out the sniper, I'll hold back Kaguya. If you run into Nosebleed himself... then run." Doing as their leader told them, Kawasumi and Babiker started running towards the team Nosebleed members. Fred the Barber and FinalChaos were still in a fight with Dergonu and Greenshadow. Jade and Gijimu were standing next to Kaguya, working like bodyguards.
....
Team Down: Fred the Barber, FinalChaos
VS
Team Kaguya: Greenshadow622, Dergonu
....
Down finally got a break from all the oncoming attacks. Kawasumi and Babiker had approached Kingdomcome, and Jade's magic had finally stopped. But, just as he had some time to catch his breath, two pink shuriken soared through air, approaching Down's position. He quickly tried to swat them down with his sword, but as the blade was about to hit the oncoming shuriken, they moved as if they had a will of their own, making them avoid Down's weapon. They hit him in the chest, making his personal barrier take a strong hit. Upon closer inspection, Down saw that the shuriken were tied to a string, which was being controlled by someone further away.
"... Nosebleed."
Clutching his sword with all his might, Down swung it in a big arc, moving it towards the location the shuriken were being controlled from. A massive wave of green energy approached its target, breaking everything in its path. A pink magic circle appeared in the target location seconds after, blocking the attack.
Meanwhile, FinalChaos and Dergonu were in a fight a little further away from the GMs. As Down had engaged in battle with an enemy, FinalChaos had taken command of the battle against Kaguya's troops, and had sent Fred the Barber to fend of Greenshadow622 while he himself fought Dergonu. Fred's dagger would be of little use against a massive mace. Of course, it wasn't very ideal against a sword and a shield, but if he could at least hold out until FinalChaos finished his own fight, then that was enough. FinalChaos was calmly analyzing Dergonu's attack patterns as they fought, trying to find an opening. From the look of it, he would not tire easily, not to mention that if he stalled the fight too long, Fred could be in danger, so he would need to finish the fight some other way. Dergonu wasn't particularly fast, but every time FinalChaos moved in to strike at him with his dual blades, it made for a dangerous opening. All it took was one hit from the giant mace to knock him out. He had to play it carefully. Because of that, FinalChaos did not take the initiative, and instead waited for when Dergonu attacked. Then, he moved quickly away from the mace and sliced at Dergonu's exposed side. His swords collided with Dergonu's barrier, bouncing off him. Because the attack was a very swift cut, it wasn't particularly powerful, but it was enough to slightly weaken Dergonu. If he kept that up, he would be able to win.
"You little ... STAND STILL!" Shouting in an agitated voice, Dergonu suddenly lifted his mace above his head and smashed it down in the ground in front of him. As it didn't look like the attack would hit him, FinalChaos made no attempt to avoid the attack, which was a mistake. The mace produced a shockwave, which knocked FinalChaos off his feet. Dergonu followed up with striking at FinalChaos on the ground. It would be impossible for him to dodge it from that position, and so he used his swords to absorb the impact from the attack. He had to use all his strength in order to hold back the giant mace. It slowly but surely started pushing back FinalChaos' swords, inching in towards his chest. There had to be a way out. Still remaining calm, FinalChaos looked for a way out of his dire situation. He could kick Dergonu's legs, making him trip, but that could mean his mace would hit him in the process. Such a blow could be fatal, so that wouldn't work... As he approached his limit, no longer able to hold back the mace, he came to a conclusion. Suddenly letting go of both his swords, he made the surprised Dergonu tip forward. FinalChaos then gripped the approaching mace, stopping it right before it hit his chest. Following up his surprise maneuver, he kicked at Dergonu's leg, as the mace hitting him was no longer a risk. Dergonu fell over, losing the grip on his mace.
"Crap... You annoying pest!" Gradually getting more and more annoyed, Dergonu launched a flurry of randomly directed punches at FinalChaos, who had not been able to retrieve his own blades yet.
"You can have this back." As he said that, FinalChaos threw the mace at Dergonu. Acting on pure reflex, he gripped the mace midair. FinalChaos then snatched up his blades from the ground, and thrust them into Dergonu's wide open chest, crushing the remaining resistance in his barrier.
"Ghhhh..." Letting out a pained noise, Dergonu lost the grip on his mace, and fell to the ground.
"Now... Time to check on Fred." Turning his back on his dead opponent, FinalChaos looked around for his comrade.
....
Fred the Barber was trying his best to fight off Greenshadow's attacks. He was unable to parry the attacks directly, as all he had was a dagger, however he was able to stab at Greenshadow's side whenever he moved in for an attack. He had landed a few hits, to his own surprise, but he had also sustained a wound to his left arm, making the already difficult fight even harder. Greenshadow's shield was also a problem. Because of it, Fred could only attack Greenshadow's right side, because the shield would make attacks to his left completely impossible. Fred was breathing heavily, and his heart was beating faster and faster. The pain in his arm did not really bother him, but he was starting to get really nervous. He had no real plan of attack, and the only thing he could do was fend off his opponent, keeping him at bay with some sneaky counterattacks here and there. At this rate, he would not be able to win... Would he die? Would he lose? Was this the end?
Greenshadow looked at Fred with a hint of guilt as he moved in for another attack.
I see... So even he knows it, huh?
The blade moved towards Fred. He sidestepped, but just as he moved away, he realized his mistake. He had moved to the left, which meant ...
Greenshadow's shield bashed Fred right in the face, completely impairing his vision, making the world spin around in his head. Then, right after, a cold sensation hit him in the stomach. The feeling of cold steel piercing his skin.
This is the end, huh? ... Maybe it's for the better.
"FRED!" Someone shouting his name made him snap back to reality. FinalChaos jumped between them, striking at Greenshadow. His swords hit Greenshadow's shield, but he managed to force Greenshadow back, making him take the blade out of Fred's stomach. Fred collapsed, and FinalChaos dropped his swords, catching Fred before he hit the ground. Greenshadow looked at the scene, with a pained expression on his face.
"I'm sorry." With those words, he turned his back on them and walked away.
A hint of a smile appeared on Fred's face.
"S-Seems I did a lousy job of stalling him, huh? ..."
FinalChaos shook his head quietly, and held his comrade in his arms, closing his eyes. Fred had been one of the people on his team he cared quite a lot for. Some of the others were too brutal, too ruthless and bloodthirsty. But maybe ... Maybe those qualities were what one needed on a battlefield like this.
"Rest now ..." Upon hearing those words, Fred nodded ever so slightly, and soon after, the light vanished from his eyes, the smile still present on his face.
Team Kaguya, Dergonu- DEAD END
Team Down, Fred the Barber- DEAD END
....
Down felt the life force of another one of his warriors vanish, and anger welled up inside him.
Why? Why are we doing this? Why?!
"GAAAH!" Unable to contain his anger, he shouted at the top of his lungs, and struck at Nosebleed with incredible strength. The power of his attack was enhanced by his rage, making Nosebleed's barrier wither.
"Guh..." Surprised by the sudden attack, Nosebleed took a careful step backwards, putting more energy into his barrier.
"No more! NO More!" As Down shouted, he prepared to strike at Nosebleed once again, but was suddenly stopped as a Kaguya moved up next to him and struck at his chest with a fist wrapped in fire. The attack created a massive explosion, sending Down flying. He lost the grip on his sword, and as he hit the ground, it made a giant crater.
Turning around to face Nosebleed, Kaguya struck at his new target. Nosebleed was not caught off guard however, and easily avoided the hits. He then retaliated with a hit off his own. The two struck at each other repeatedly, making waves of fire and energy fly everywhere. Down as still lying in the crater, unconscious.
About 50 meters away from the GMs, another battle was taking place.
"Nebjula, duck!" Kingdomcome fired a flurry of bolts at Kawasumi, as Nebjula jumped to the side just in time. But, as the bolts were about to hit their target, Babiker moved in and hit every single one out of the air.
"Too slow kid." He said with confidence.
As Kawasumi saw an opening, she struck at Nebjula with her sickle. Nebjula blocked it with his maces, but Kawasumi was much faster, and followed up her attack with a kick to Nebjula's head, making him fall face first into the ground.
"Damnit..." Cursing to himself, Kingdomcome fired more bolts at the team Down members, trying to buy some time for Nebjula to get back up. But, every bolt was hit out of the air by Babiker before they hit.
"Who the hell is this guy?!"
"Keep them coming buddy, I can do this all day!" He answered in a smug tone.
Kawasumi grabbed a hold of Nebjula and lifted him up in the air by his neck.
"Good boy. I'll have some fun with you before I kill you." As she said that, Kawasumi placed her sickle on Nebjula's hand, and cut off one of his fingers.
"AAAAAAAHH!" Screaming in pain, Nebjula kicked at Kawasumi viciously.
"Come on now, be still! You are making this so much harder!" Kawasumi tried to get a good grip on her opponent, but wasn't able to keep a firm hold on him because of his resistance, and eventually dropped him.
"Look what you did! Your dirty shoes made my armor all filthy..."
Kawasumi kneeled down, once again trying to get a good grip on Nebjula's neck.
"Y-You bitch..." Nebjula suddenly thrust his head upwards, making the top of his head collide with Kawasumi's nose. As she gripped her bleeding nose and staggered backwards, Nebjula got to his feet and picked up one of his maces.
"Payback time." Nebjula then lunged forward and was about to strike at the defenseless Kawasumi. But, right before he managed to attack her, Babiker launched a kick which pushed Nebjula back. Nebjula hit the ground with a loud crash. But, during the second Babiker looked away from Kingdomcome, another volley of crossbow bolts flew towards him with great accuracy.
"... Shit." He had no time to deflect them, and the projectiles hit his body all over, piercing his arms, legs and chest. Warm blood flowed from his open wounds, and his entire body screamed in pain. After just a few seconds, he fell to the ground with a thump.
"Nebjula, let's hurry! Looks like Nosebleed is in a pinch!" Kingdomcome quickly ran up to the fallen Nebjula and helped him up. Nosebleed was in a fight with Kaguya, and it looked like Kaguya was landing quite a few hits. They had to hurry over to their commanders aid.
"Like I'll let you escape after screwing up my nose you little shit!" Kawasumi got to her feet and moved forward quickly, aiming for Nebjula's neck.
"Look out!" Kingdomcome instinctively pushed Nebjula out of the way, and Kawasumi's sickle hit Kingdomcome's neck. The thin blade made a deep cut in Kingdomcome's neck, cutting through his throat, nearly separating his head from his body.
"Whops... Looks like I hit the wrong one. Well, whatever. You're next."
Nebjula did not react to Kawasumi's words. He was completely paralyzed, covered in his teammate's warm blood. He stared at Kingdomcomes body, not knowing how to react.
"... Eh?" Kawasumi suddenly let out a high pitched voice. She had completely stopped moving, and blinked repeatedly, as if she wasn't entirely sure what was happening. She touched her stomach, and her hand was stained in blood. But it wasn't Kingdomcome's blood... It was hers. There was a large hole in her stomach.
"Grgh.." Not able to form actual words because of the blood flowing out of her mouth, Kawasumi collapsed. Behind her stood Gijimu from team Kaguya, his hand covered in red blood.
"I will let you go this time, but once we meet again in battle, I won't go easy on you." Gijimu simply left Nebjula with those words, before he had a chance to reply. Nebjula's legs were shaking violently, and he finally fell to the ground, covering his face in his hands.
Team Down, Babiker and Kawasumi- DEAD END
Team Nosebleed, Kingdomcome (REAL)- DEAD END
The battlefield was covered in smoke, massive craters and dead combatants. This was the final part of the battle. Team Down and Nosebleed now only had a single warrior left each. Kaguya still had three remaining warriors.
The battle between Nosebleed and Kaguya had not yet reached a conclusion. Down was unconscious, his body being protected by FinalChaos. Nebjula was still recovering from shock, and Gijimu, Greenshadow622 and Jade had joined in the fight versus Nosebleed. But, despite being in a difficult situation, Nosebleed was keeping his cool, and was not about to give up anytime soon. The fight still wasn't over.
A cloaked figure was looking over the battle from afar, waiting for the winner to be crowned.
Nayleen and Tay were relaxing in their seats, exhausted after a long day of work.
The past few weeks had taken a toll on them, but they were staying strong, keeping Fuwanovel safe from DDOS attacks and global mods breaking stuff.
As they fall asleep, gathering their strength for another day of defending the forum, a shadow glides into the room. The shadow moves quickly, slithering across the floor, sneaking up behind Nayleen's chair.
The shadow splits in two as it reaches its target. One part wraps itself around Nayleen, the other moves over to Tay and wraps itself around him.
...
The next day.
Nayleen looks over at Tay with a mischievous smile on his face.
"The global mods have gotten too soft lately. I think it's time we taught them a lesson."
Tay turns his head, meeting Nayleen's gaze.
"What exactly did you have in mind?"
Nayleen looks down at the chess board in front of him. This was no ordinary chess board. Each piece on the board represents certain members of the Fuwanovel forum. In addition, there was three sets of pieces, meaning there was a total of three kings.
Picking up two of the kings with the tip of his fingers, Nayleen breaks them in half.
"Three global mods, only one can remain in their position."
Tay nods, letting out a subtle, evil laugh.
"Who will come out alive?"
Nayleen joins in.
"Who will come out as the winner?"
He turned his gaze towards the broken chess pieces that had fallen to the floor.
"Now then... How will this end?"
Their laughter continued into the night, as the two made preparations for the fight that was to come.
..........
Chapter 1
The three armies
It was a cold day. A dark sky filled with clouds that never seemed to disappear was hanging over the battlefield. It was quiet; so quiet that one could hear the heartbeats of the people around you. The battlefield was a huge piece of land that went on for miles and miles. With terrain ranging from harsh deserts to big forests and steep waterfalls, it was truly an overwhelming place. Standing in a line in front of their commander, Kaguya's forces were prepared for battle. It had been four hours since the battle had started, and yet no one had reached Kaguya's base yet.
He thought it was a good idea to remain in his base and wait for someone to attack, instead of wasting his fighter's energy by charging through the huge landmass. It was possible that the other moderators were thinking the same, and if that was the case, the day would end without a drop of blood being spilled. Thinking back on the previous day, Kaguya rubbed his temples in anger and exhaustion.
The three global moderators had suddenly been summoned by the admins. They had no idea what was going on, and they did not have the time to ask. The second they were teleported to the administrator's location, they realized something was amiss. In front of them were huge racks filled with weapons, armor and the likes. Ranging from big swords, crossbows, shields and kunai knives, it was quite a scary sight. Next to the equipment there was a grand, black stone tablet with red letters written across it. It read:
"The time has come.
Three global moderators, only one can remain.
Recruit those you can from the forum within the next hour, prepare for battle with the equipment before you and then ...
Go to war.
Good luck."
Neither one of the moderators knew what to do. They stood still, immobilized by confusion and fear. They were sure this had to be some kind of a twisted joke.
"Alright, this is stupid. What the hell is going on?" Breaking the silence, Kaguya shouted that as he surveyed his surroundings.
A dark voice suddenly echoed through the area. It was impossible to tell where the voice came from; it was a thundering roar that made all the moderators flinch.
"Select your fighters, or face the consequences! This is not a joke. This is a matter of life and death!"
The sudden overpowering voice made the mods even more uneasy, but they still didn't act. This was a mistake.
Suddenly, a strange black sphere appeared before them. It was about the size of a football, and for a few seconds it merely floated in mid air. It gave of a strange crackling noise, similar to an electric current. Slowly but surely, the sphere started increasing in size, until it was big enough to fit a small car. Then, a big rift of pure white light split the sphere in two, and the figures of two people suddenly appeared in its stead. It took a few seconds for the moderators to recognize the people in front of them, but they soon realized, they were Fuwanovel members; 12kami and XionsProphecy. They both look terrified, as if they had just seen the devil himself.
XionsProphecy took a step forward and approached Kaguya.
"W-What is going on?! Where am I?!"
Before Kaguya had the time to respond, the overpowering voice once again erupted throughout the area.
"You will do as we say, or the consequences will be grave!"
And with that, a red magic circle appeared under the feet of XionsProphecy and a pillar of fire burst out beneath him. The sound of his screams and the smell of burning flesh made all the people present stare at the spectacle in shock. Terrified he would be next, 12Kami tried to run away, but chains sprouted from the ground and wrapped around him violently.
"Now, what will you do?"
"S-Stop it!" Nosebleed shouted.
"... Very well. If you are ready to begin, let me explain the rules. Each one of the moderators can recruit members from the forum to join their ranks. The moderators can use their own powers any way they want. Make your own fighters stronger by lending them your strength, directly attack your opponents army, make shields protecting your warriors. The game will be over once only one global moderator remains. Oh, and one last thing. You can name one of your fighters a general. This person will have ... A second chance at life, should something tragic occur." As the voice finished explaining the rules, an evil laughter followed. Soon after, all that was left was dead silence.
___________________________________________________________________________
"That was four hours ago, huh..." Kaguya whispered to himself as he looked at the quiet battlefield.
In the end, no one knows what happened to 12Kami. Was he killed too? Was he released?
When the moderators chose their armies, only a handful of the forum's members were selected. It seemed that only the ones who volunteered for the battle could be picked.
Looking over the warriors in front of him, Kaguya made a decision; he had waited long enough.
"You two, move out!"
The two soldiers saluted, and then they sprinted into the darkness of the forest ahead.
........
Eight warriors were scattered across the battlefield on the first day. Among them were team Down's soldiers Nashetania, Funyarinpa, Fred the Barber, their general Tiagofvarela and Moekyun. From team Kaguya, Dergonu and Velociraptor were deployed, and from team Nosebleed, only < ?? >was sent out to fight.
........
In a forest, 2 km from Kaguya's base
Dergonu and Velociraptor were headed for Down's territory, when a sudden fireball shot out from the depths of the forest. Barely dodging it by a hair, the two were separated from each other. Losing track of Velociraptor, Dergonu turned to face the person who fired the fireball. He was protected by Kaguya's armor, but the amount of energy put into each warrior's shield was small, meaning he couldn't take more than one or two of those attacks. Who had fired it? Was it someone from Nosebleed's team or Down?
"Who's there?!" Calling out for the person hiding in the darkness, Dergonu readied his mace. The weapon of his choice had been a huge metal mace, almost as big as himself, with menacing spikes. It was a weapon he couldn't dream of lifting without the strength given to him by his commander, Kaguya.
A shadow suddenly burst out from the forest. Before Dergonu could react, two throwing knives collided with his armor. Both of them hit right around the heart, but they were stopped by the thick, red armor. Not wasting any time, the attacker nimbly closed in the distance. It took a second for Dergonu to recognize the attacker due to their speed, but he soon saw that is was MoeKyun from Down's army. The shimmering green garb he wore had several chains filled with throwing knives. Reaching for two more, MoeKyun made sure to stay so close to Dergonu that swinging his mace was impossible. Taking the opportunity when Dergonu was unable to do anything, MoeKyun stabbed at Dergonu's armor repeatedly. It didn't take long for the attacks to completely remove the protective shield made by Kaguya, and the knives started poking small holes in Dergonu's armor.
"Tch." Clicking his tongue, Dergonu tried to think of a way to get out of the situation. But before he could think of anything, one of MoeKyun's knives hit Dergonu's collarbone, sending a sharp pain through his body. Taking a step back and readying his knife, MoeKyun was preparing to deliver the final blow, when he suddenly froze up. Turning his head to depths of the forest from which he came, his mouth dropped open in surprise.
"N-No way ... G-General..."
Not wasting any time, Dergonu used the chance to take a step backwards and swung his mace straight at MoeKyun's chest. A green barrier deflected the hit and made sure the mace didn't break the skin, but MoeKyun was knocked down from the impact. Landing on the ground with the air knocked out of his lungs, he never stood a chance. The giant mace came down, hitting his head. Once again, Down's protective barrier blocked the attack, but every part of Moekyun's body felt like it was lit on fire from the pain.
"This time..." As he said that, Dergonu lifted the mace over his head one last time and brought it down on MoeKyun. What followed was a gruesome crack like sound, like breaking a branch of a tree.
A few minutes earlier, 100 meters from Nosebleed's base.
Down's general, Tiagofvarela, was making his way towards Nosebleed's base. Compared to Down and Kaguya, Nosebleed had a significantly smaller army, and so Down thought it was best to target him first. Because of this, Down had sent his strongest fighter in an ambush. If Nosebleed wanted to participate in the fight, he had to send several of his forces out into the battle, meaning his base would be exposed. It would be a fast, quick attack. Take out whoever is there and get the hell out. For his weapon, Tiago had chosen a long katana, which rested in a sheath strapped to his left side. He was wearing a green garb, woven by powerful silk threads imbued by Down's own energy. His garb was slightly different from the others in Down's army. This one was specially created for the general. The biggest difference was the big crest on the chest and back, with the word leader written in kanji.
As he spotted Nosebleed's base, Tiago took a deep breath and drew his katana. The blade was about a meter long, with beautiful markings.
"Let's do this."
Preparing for his attack, Tiago steeled his nerves and readied his blade. Then, he charged.
"Perish."
A soft whisper suddenly reached Tiago's ear, and a strong sense of despair washed over him. The voice sent a chill down his spine. It was as if the voice literally grabbed a hold of him, preventing him from moving. Before he could do anything, a man in a pink and black cloak stood before him. It was impossible to identify who it was, as the large cloak covered his head and body completely. The man simply snapped his fingers, and a huge explosion knocked Tiago several meters back. He felt his barrier slowly draining. Whoever attacked him was truly powerful.
"How did he notice me?!" He asked himself, trying to calm his hammering heartbeat.
"Game over." Suddenly, a different voice could be heard behind Tiago, and something cold cut through his chest. Looking down at his own body, he saw a long spear sticking out of his stomach.
"W-Who..?"
He never got the answer to that question. Tiago's body fell to the ground, lifeless.
Fred the Barber from team Down was positioned behind a large rock. The area around him was filled with smoke, ash and fire, and the only thing stopping him from being burned alive was his commander's protective garb. This was a volcano located a few km away from Down's base. Fred had been in a battle with one of Nosebleed's men for several minutes, when he suddenly felt it. His general, Tiagofvarela, had fallen. Hit by the sudden shock of losing one of his leaders, he fled from the battle in order to gather his thoughts. It was a strange feeling. Tiago had been his friend, and in this crazy battle, he had been his general. A powerful sadness welled up in him as he shook his head, holding back his tears. Why? Why was this happening? Just a day ago they were messing around on the forum, having fun like any other day. And now? Now they were here, caught in some insane death game.
"I ... I want this to be over." He whispered as he placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes.
"Then die."
A sudden hostile voice made Fred jump backwards, and just as he opened his eyes, he saw a fist slam into the rock he was leaning against, crushing it into small rubble. It was him; the fighter from nosebleed's army that he had been in a scuffle with a few minutes ago. Because of his cloak which covered every part of his body, it was impossible to identify who the attacker was. The cloak was black, with pink markings all over. The attacker was unarmed, but his hands glowed in a bright purple light. Clearly, he was using his energy to make his punches stronger. Whoever this person was, he was powerful. Had they underestimated team Nosebleed? Fred's general had fallen in nosebleed's territory, and this person was clearly using energy to make his fists into lethal killing machines. How could Fred fight such a fearful foe in his current state?
"No... I can do this. I have to avenge Tiago!" Encouraging himself, Fred got to his feet and readied his weapon. It was dagger with a fairly long, curved blade. The tip was emitting a faint green glow and the blade itself was black as the night. Of all the weapons on the weapon racks, this was the only thing Fred felt comfortable wielding. Carefully taking a stance preparing for the fight, Fred calmed his breathing and grasped his dagger tightly.
The attacker moved first. His movements were really fast and precise. Fred managed to dodge the first punch, but the second one followed right after. The assailant's fist hit Fred in the left flank, causing him to fall backwards. But as his body fell to the ground he moved his arm holding the dagger downwards and cut a deep gash in the attacker's cloak. It didn't look like the blade pierced his flesh, but Fred felt the resistance of his opponents barrier. He had done some damage to it at the very least. The problem was that he had taken a strong hit himself, and wasn't able to move very well. His opponent quickly regained his posture and moved in for the kill. Just then, an arrow flew past Fred's cheek and hit the attacker in the stomach. The impact of the arrow sent him flying.
"You okay Fred?"
Turning his head to see who had come to help him, he was met by Funyarinpa's gentle smile. In his hands was a beautiful green longbow.
"Come on. Let's retreat for now. Whoever that guy is, he isn't normal."
As he said that, Funya reached out for Fred's hand and helped him up.
Tilting his head slightly, Fred wondered what Funya meant.
"Isn't normal? I think we can take him if it's the two of us."
Funya simply shook his head in response.
"I got word from Down to come and get you. There is something wrong with Nosebleed's army. We have to go back to the base and ..." Before he could finish his sentence, a purple light flew past Fred's field of vision and collided with Funya. His bow was crushed into pieces and Funya was knocked down, his barrier broken.
"FUNYA!" Screaming for his fallen comrade, Fred turned to face the attacker. It was the same cloaked man from before. The arrow was still sticking out of his chest but he moved around like it was nothing.
"..." The man said nothing, but approached Fred with his fists raised. The purple light which surrounded his hands flickered about intimidatingly.
The man jumped at Fred, knocking him to the ground. After that, he made sure to grab Fred's blade and throw it away.
"..." The man still didn't say anything, but Fred could see a hint of an evil smile under the darkness of the attacker's hood.
Raising his fists above his head, he prepared to bash Fred's head in. But he had made one miscalculation. The arrow that was sticking out of his chest was within Fred's reach. Fred had merely pretended to be defenseless when he lost his dagger to get an opening. Grabbing the arrow with all his might, Fred pulled it out of the man's chest and thrust it upwards into his throat. The arrowhead pierced his Adam's apple and blood started spewing out from the open wound.
Making a disgusting gurgling sound, the man slowly lost all strength in his body. The endless stream of blood poured out, staining Fred's clothing in red.
After defeating his opponent, Fred checked on Funya. He was too late. The attacker had crushed his entire rib cage, and one of the bone splinters had hit his heart.
"Who ... WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Screaming in anger, Fred ripped off the attacker's hood. All he could do once he removed the hood was gasp, and fall to his knees.
"W-What the fuck..?"
Lying on the scorched ground in front of him was ...
"Aww, I thought it would at least take out a few more enemies before it broke."
"Hmph. It doesn't matter, it did its job just fine. Now we know ... They work."
Three men were sitting around a fire with their weapons next to them. They wore black cloaks with pink symbols; the armor given to them by their commander, Nosebleed.
The three men were chosen as guards, and were protecting the base of Nosebleed. Nosebleed's army consisted of about half the number of warriors that Down and Kaguya had, but Nosebleed had a trick up his sleeve.
Using the life force of the fallen general from Down's army, Tiago, he had created clones of his own warriors. These warriors were as strong as Tiago himself, and took the place of his own fighters on the battlefield. They didn't have the extra life that came with the role of general, but other than that, they were powerful and loyal. Each clone was linked to one of Nosebleed's soldiers.
The one that had been killed in battle had been the clone of Kiriririri, but Nosebleed had made the clone itself wear the face of Tiago. That would assure him an edge in any fight versus a team Down member. Sadly, that trick only worked once, as the body of Tiago himself had been used to create the clone. All the other clones were identical to the person they copied. Basically, it was as if nosebleed literally had two of each of his fighters, except for Kiriririri who had just lost his clone.
With this, the difference in numbers between the three armies meant nothing.
A sly smile spread across Nosebleed's face as he looked at his own general, Mitchhamilton. He held a long, golden spear stained with blood.
* Quick note, the clones in Nosebleed's army works just like a normal fighter.
This was done so that each commander has the same amount of fighters, making the first week of the RNG rolls completely even. Each clone will die just like a normal team member, though the person won't get a DEAD END unless he has lost his clone already. (Like Kiriririri has now.)
Mitchhamilton, Nosebleed's general, does NOT get a clone, as he is a general and already has 2 lives.
Having lost sight of his comrade, Dergonu, Velociraptor was making his way through the forest. Who had attacked them? Was it an attacker from Nosebleed or Down's army? Well, it didn't matter. All he could do now was search for his opponent and hope that Dergonu hadn't fallen in the time they were separated.
"Hm?" As he was running through the dense forest, Velociraptor spotted a strange light about 30 meters away. Was it an enemy? The light seemed to be flickering ever so slightly, though because of the tree cover it was hard to see what it was. Preparing for a potential fight, Velo readied his weapon and ran towards the source. He was surprised to find a member of Down's army sleeping near a fire. Was he for real..? Not only had he approached Kaguya's territory, he had lit a fire and then he went to sleep?! Who the hell was this guy?!
Taking a step closer, he saw that the fighter was Nashetania.
"Hmph... A free kill I guess." Whispering to himself, he readied his weapon. It was an extension of his hand; a glove with long, sharp claws. Each claw was at least 10 cm long. The glove itself was made out of tough leather, and the claws were metal. Lifting the glove above his head, he brought it down on Nash, who was sleeping peacefully. Or so Velo thought. As the glove was about to make contact with Nash, he quickly spun around and brought his fist upward. It hit Velo right in the face, making him stagger backwards.
"Well would you look at that. Like a moth to a flame." Nash moved his hand behind his back and brought out a large battleaxe from inside his garb.
"RAAAWR!" Jumping forward, Nash struck at Velo with full force. Barely dodging the attack, Velo sidestepped and cut at Nashetania's exposed back. The claws hit, but something tough was stopping them from doing any damage.
"Damnit, a barrier?"
Putting some distance between them, Velo ran a few steps backwards, positioning himself behind the fire Nash had lit.
"You can't cut me! Down gave me the strongest barrier among all his men! No matter how many times you hit me, a blade won't ever cut through it!"
After taunting Velo, Nash launched another attack, swinging his battleaxe around like a madman. Velo was faster and had a lighter weapon, but just like Nash had said, his attacks were useless against the barrier.
Had this been Down's tactic? Draw someone in close to his soldier, then have him crush the attacker when he least expects it? Seeing has he had put so much energy into the barrier protecting Nash, it must have been the plan all along.
"Damnit..."
If only Dergonu was with him they would have the upper hand, but because of the attack earlier, they were separated in the forest.
"What's the matter? Tired?" Smiling from ear to ear, Nash relentlessly attacked Velo with his battleaxe. A few of the attacks hit, sending strong waves of numb pain through Velo's body.
"Think! THINK!!! How can I beat him?!" Trying to figure out a way to win, Velo looked around.
"An opening!" As Nash yelled that, he spun around quickly and his battleaxe hit Velo in the chest, sending him flying over to the fire. He landed hard, most likely breaking a few bones in the process.
Had Nash been the one who attacked them earlier? Was his plan to split them up, then draw them in one by one with the use of the campfire? ...
Wait a minute... Fire! Nash had said that no blades could cut through his barrier. Could that mean it had little defense against magic? Was that the reason he was trying to lure his attacker into close combat?
"DIE!" Running towards Velo who had fallen to the ground, Nash prepared to crush his defenseless prey with a final attack.
"Now or never!" Velo brought his hands together and focused all his remaining strength on tapping the flames from the campfire besides him. Just the act of moving his arms hurt like hell, but he had no choice but to fight through the pain. As Nash was about to strike, Velo released all the flames in a vortex that wrapped itself around Nash. The flames ate through his barrier like it was nothing, and soon started burning away his flesh. Screaming and swinging his battleaxe around like a lunatic, Nash moved around desperately. In order to not get caught in the frenzy, Velo crawled away, sinking his glove's claws into the soft ground and pulling his body forward.
"I ... Lost..." With those final words, the burning figure collapsed.
Hello ladies and gentlemen of fuwa! Today I will be sharing with you a little writing project I've been working on. Thanks so much to Forgetful Frank for agreeing to edit the book for me! When I started I was editing it myself, which is slow work and I often miss mistakes in my own writing, and so this way it should be a lot better for everyone involved Also, a big thanks to Melowbee for making the illustration for Kitsune! It's a wonderful confidence boost to actually have someone make drawings for my story! Do keep in mind that the book hasn't been fully edited yet, and so a few mistakes here and there is to be expected. Once the book has been fully edited, I'll update the PDF!
On to the book:
キツネと私 - Kitsune and me
Summary:
After spending half a day locked in her clubroom at school, Sakura heads home in the middle of the night, in pouring rain. Taking refuge from the terrible conditions, she stumbles into and old and mysterious shrine. Here she discovers a strange little artifact that she thinks may have been stolen from a museum. Wanting to get it checked out the next day, she brings the artifact home. But as the artifact ends up coming to life in the form of the ditsy, energic and completely stunning Kitsune, Sakura's life will never be the same again...
Information on the book:
Kitsune and me is primarily a comedy, focusing on the relationship between the main character Sakura, and her new guardian ... fox-girl, Kitsune Mimiko. When writing it I focus primarily on having fun and silly interactions between the two, and purposely try to use clichés from common visual novel, anime, manga and light novel works. It's a fun little project I recently decided to start working on, and it's not meant to be taken too seriously. The story offers elements of comedy, romance (yuri), fantasy and action. The structure is fairly similar to most VNs, in that it starts of fluffy and is riddled with mainly humor, and then it gets more dramatic towards the end.
Also, note that this is written in English, though I use certain words and phrases from Japanese. Again, this isn't meant to be taken too seriously. Words such as bentou will be in the book to keep the essence of the "Japanese setting" and words such as "ne" will be left in Kitsune's sentences, as they are a part of her speech pattern and that doesn't translate as well into English in my opinion. I also keep Japanese titles when I see fit, like using Kitsune's name. For these parts, translations are on the side of the Japanese symbols.
DIGITAL PDF DOWNLOAD FOR THE BOOK!
A sketch of Kitsune made by Melowbee!
Art made by Melowbee, thank you x100!!
Editing is done by Forgetful Frank, thanks so much for that!
Special thanks to Nosebleed for helping me with Kitsune's name!
<??> Watched the screen in front of <him/her?> intently. Everything was ready. The time had finally come. All that planning, all that preparation. It had all been for this moment.
“All the pieces are in place. Well then, let’s start the game, shall we?”
<??> Pressed the button before <him/her?> with a wicked smile.
“Hear me, members of Fuwanovel. You are here for a single purpose; to entertain me! Those who have their name announced over these broadcasts shall enter the arena, and fight to the death! Anyone and anything you see out in the arenas will be an enemy, so be careful… And ruthless. As far as the rules go… There are none, heh.
Good luck.”
Day 1:
Members in this chapter:
“The game has begun. Good luck.”
“‘Alright, time to hunt.” Ranzo jumped down from the platform he was standing on, numbered ‘11’. He had woken up inside an unfamiliar room just moments before, where he had found his suit and weapons. After a short, confusing briefing from the person in charge, Ranzo’s <cell?> had opened, and he could walk out. What greeted him was a massive forest, full of large trees towering high above him. The large trees blocked out almost all the sunlight, making it hard for Ranzo to see where he was going. But, it was either straight ahead, or back to the cell, so Ranzo chose to keep walking.
The “briefing” had been simple. “You are stuck here. You are to fight anything and anyone you come across. If you are the last alive after the game is over, you win. If you die, you lose.”
“Gee, really? If I die, I lose? That’s a shocker.” Ranzo spun his scythe around his body with precision while he walked, clearly used to handling the weapon. A sabre hung from his waist in a makeshift sheathe, crafted from his belt.
After having advanced through the forest for a good ten minutes, Ranzo reached a suspicious looking cave, marked with a number— “7”.
“Hm, another contender?” Ranzo whispered, and gripped the handle of his scythe firmly while he scanned his surroundings. If his hunch was right, the numbers represented contenders in the “game”. He was 11, and “7” was a different Fuwanovel user, also entered in the game.
Crack.
Ranzo spun around instinctively at the sound of a branch breaking behind him, and in the same motion, he threw his scythe forwards. The sound of metal colliding with metal made Ranzo flinch for a brief second, and he lost sight of the person who had knocked his scythe out of the air.
“Tch.” Ranzo gripped his sabre and chased the mystery person, like a wolf rushing towards a sheep. He had no plan. The only thing going through his head was: kill it. Whoever or whatever it was; kill it.
Meanwhile
SeniorBlitz ran as fast as he could through the forest, like he had the grim reaper himself on his heels. That was in fact what Senior had thought for a second when he saw the scythe fly towards him just moments before. Senior was not well versed in any kind of combat. He had, in fact, never been in a fight in his entire life. What he did have, however, was a special ability. The ability to know what to do, where to go. He couldn’t explain it well, but there was something guiding him at all times. If he was about to trip and fall, something in his mind would tell him to stop. If he ever got lost, something would guide him back home, even if he had no idea where he was. It was thanks to that power, that guide, that Senior was still alive. He had seen the scythe coming seconds before it was thrown, and had used the sword that was given to him at the start of the game to block its path. He had sadly dropped the sword in his escape, and was therefore now unarmed.
“Stop running my friend, I wish you no harm!”
His attacker was shouting at Senior from behind. Thanks to his ability, Senior knew that he would be able to shake off his tail if he just kept following the path laid out in his mind. He did not look back, he did not falter.
“Tch, you little… How long do you plan on running for?”
“I’ll catch you eventually you little slime! Just you wait, I’m coming for you!”
The voice of his attacker grew distant, as Senior just kept on running through the forest. Before long, he had completely shaken off the madman running after him.
“Haah, haah, haah…” Senior finally had the opportunity to stop for a breath. With his hands on his knees, he spent a few minutes calming down. He knew that the man behind him would not be able to find him for at least another ten minutes, thanks to his ability.
“Alright, time to find a better place to hide.”
Senior got back up, and started walking through the dense forest, looking for shelter. He figured it would be smart to find someplace safe to gather his thoughts. It would be best to do so before nightfall, so he started walking faster, following the path lit up in his mind.
“Just about another hundred meters this way, and— Huh?!”
“GRAARGH!”
Senior was so focused on following the path to “safety”, he paid no mind to his surroundings, and did not notice the strange creature approaching from his left. Whatever it was, its massive jaw closed around Senior’s chest, and he was lifted up into the air and shook brutally back and forth, the sharp teeth of the beast ripping his flesh apart with each movement.
“GYAAAAH!”
Senior let out a primal scream, and tried to punch the creature with his free arm, but it was no use.
The beast’s iron jaw remained closed, and the life soon drained from Senior’s body, as most of his organs and blood poured down onto the grass below him. His entire torso had been ripped to bits, and what was left of him was soon devoured by the beast, leaving only pools of blood and a few chunks of flesh behind.
About an hour later, Ranzo arrived at the scene of Senior’s death. Taking one look at the pool of blood and gore, Ranzo clicked his tongue, and turned back.
“Guess someone got to him before me. Oh well, time to look for the next guy, I guess.”
Whistling a song to himself, Ranzo spun his scythe around, matching the song’s rhythm as he walked back into the depths of the forest, looking for new prey to hunt.
Elsewhere:
Arcadeotic sat at the end of a cliff, looking at the waterfall below him with a emotionless expression, balancing a katana on his feet. A single sudden motion would surely send the sword tumbling down the fifty meter long drop.
Arcadeotic was wearing a blue yukata, stained red with the blood of a pack of wild boars he had killed an hour ago. After cooking some of their meat on a fire, he had eaten some for himself, then tossed the rest down into the abyss. He had no intentions of sharing the meat with anyone else, nor did he want the smell of the meat to attract possible predators. He had extinguished the fire as soon as he was done cooking the meat, but it might still have notified someone of his location. Nevertheless, Arcadeotic sat completely still on the cliff, staring out into nothingness.
Sure enough, after another few minutes, the sound of footsteps could be heard behind him.
Still, Arcadeotic remaind motionless, not facing his attacker.
Sneaking up behind him was Thatcomicguy, clutching his spear with his right hand. In his free arm was a wooden shield, covered in thick leather. Other than his weapons, Thatcomicguy was completely naked, though his body was covered in blue war paint.
Thatcomicguy snuck up to Arcadeotic until he was a mere two meters away, then stabbed at Arcadeotic’s back with his spear. Right before the spear hit Arcadeotic’s back, he jumped straight up into the air, grabbed his katana, and in the same motion as he drew it from its sheath, he cut at Thatcomicguy’s chest.
Thatcomicguy barely had time to block the slice with his shield, and was forced back a few steps from the impact.
Meanwhile, Arcadeotic landed gracefully on the edge of the cliff, and quickly moved in for another attack, cutting at Thatcomicguy’s left foot.
Arcadeotic closed the distance between them in a second, and mercilessly sliced a deep cut in Thatcomicguy’s calf.
“Ugh…”
Thatcomicguy groaned in pain, and pushed his shield forward defensively, hitting Arcadeotic in the chest.
Arcadeotic fell backwards, but quickly regained his balance.
For the first time in the fight, Arcadeotic glanced at his opponent, and chuckled.
“You look ridiculous.”
Thatcomicguy paid him no mind, and tried to focus on his plan of attack. He should have the upper hand, even with the cut on his leg, as he had the longest reach thanks to his spear, and a shield to block the katana’s slashes. The leather on his shield had taken a hit already, and was already starting to come apart. It probably wouldn’t last too long.
Seemingly having come up with a plan, Thatcomicguy stepped forward. Although the pain in his leg was nothing to joke about, he did not let it stop him.
“Yeah, well, we’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
Keeping just enough distance between himself and his opponent, so that the katana would not be able to reach him, Thatcomicguy thrust his spear towards Arcadeotic. Arcadeotic easily deflected the thrust, but as he was about to counterattack, Thatcomicguy swiftly changed his grip, turning his spear downwards towards Arcadeotic leg, and dug the tip of his spear into Arcadeotic’s knee. Arcadeotic winced in response, but didn’t let the pain stop him from fighting. Not wasting any time, Arcadeotic slashed two times, but both attacks were blocked by Thatcomicguy’s pesky shield.
“Tch.”
It became impossible for Arcadeotic to stand on his wounded leg, which meant he would be at an even bigger disadvantage than before. His strongest point was his speed, but without his full mobility, he would be unable to close the distance between himself and his opponent fast enough to stop the spear from keeping him at bay.
“... An eye for an eye, huh?”
Arcadeotic said to himself, as he tried to come up with a way out of the dire situation. He had cut his opponent’s leg, but in return, his own knee had been damaged. Both of them were less mobile, but it seemed like his own injury was a bit more serious.
“Well, what can you do.”
Arcadeotic walked forward with awkward steps, his wounded leg mostly just being dragged along the ground.
“I’ll end this with one strike.”
The bold statement from Arcadeotic made Thatcomicguy snicker.
“Oh, is that so? Well by all means, come at me.”
Thatcomicguy spat back, readied his spear, and covered his chest with his shield. There was no way Arcadeotic would be able to attack his opponent’s torso. And yet…
“Hmph!”
With a grunt, Arcadeotic jumped forward, and with all his might, he slammed the flat side of his sword into the wooden shield. The impact made Thatcomicguy stagger, and he let out a painful groan as he put all his weight on his wounded leg.
Still in the air, Arcadeotic slashed downwards. His sword moved along the rough leather covering the wooden shield, until it reached Thatcomicguy’s exposed shoulder. The sharp blade slashed open the naked shoulder, making Thatcomicguy drop his shield. Unfortunately for Arcadeotic, he was unable to brace himself properly after the attack, and he crashed into the ground, dropping his katana. The air was knocked out of him as his chest collided with the rough ground. But, he wasn’t done there. Although the world around him was spinning, he used his healthy leg to kick violently at Thatcomicguy’s wounded foot.
“Guaaah!”
Thatcomicguy screamed, as he too fell to the ground, paralyzed by pain.
Crawling towards his katana, Arcadeotic was ready to deliver the finishing blow. He gripped the hilt of his weapon, and turned towards his fallen enemy. Although every part of his body hurt, Arcadeotic somehow managed to stand, and moved towards his prey with clumsy movements.
“Hya!”
As he reached his target, he brought his katana above his shoulder, and slashed mercilessly at Thatcomicguy's neck.
Clink.
The sound of something breaking made Arcadeotic look at his sword in confusion. The katana’s blade had snapped in half, most likely a result from his fall. And since the blade had broken mid swing, he had not actually hit his opponent.
“Well, shi—”
Before Arcadeotic could finish his sentence, the tip of a spear dug into his throat, making a spray of fresh blood shoot out from the wound, dying Thatcomicguy’s skin in red.
As Arcadeotic’s dead body hit the floor, Thatcomicguy dropped his spear, as the strength began to leave his body.
“You… Tough bastard…”
With those words, he passed out.
Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the forest:
“How’s this place?”
“Hmm, looks good. We’ll camp here for now. Someone start a fire.”
“Ugh, do you think there are any more of those things out there? I’m not sure I’m comfortable sleeping here, out in the open…”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take shifts keeping guard. #28, #6, you two take the first shift.”
“Huh? Who died and made you the boss?”
Four figures, covered in mud and blood, were talking under the cover of a giant tree, just half a kilometer from the edge of the forest. The four of them were members of Fuwanovel, and contenders in the death game that had started previously that day. But, neither of them wanted to kill their fellow members, and as a result, they had formed a team.
Shortly after they teamed up, however, they were attacked by giant monsters that seemed to live in the depths of the forest. Hungry and tired, the four of them had finally reached a seemingly peaceful area, and were setting up camp with what little resources they had.
The four members were Sayaka (#28), Norleas (#9), Shikomizue (#13) and Kiriririri (#6).
Shikomizue was the natural leader type, and had taken the lead of the group as a result, something that did not sit well with Sayaka.
“Why do I have to listen to your orders, huh? I’m tired too! I want to sleep just as much as the next guy!”
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude here, but in terms of actual combat abilities, me and #9 are the strongest. We need our rest, so that we can protect this group when the time comes. You and #6 are… Well you know.”
Shikomizue gestured towards Kiriririri, a small girl with silver hair, who was poking the ground with a wooden stick, paying no mind to the conversation that was happening around her. So far, she had not participated in the fighting at all.
“Okay, I’ll give you her, but we’re not that crazy! Master and I helped you in the fight against those… Those things, didn’t we?!”
Sayaka pointed in the direction they had come from, where the group had fought against numerous strange beasts.
Shikomizue scratched his head awkwardly in response. He did not want the group to start fighting among each other, as that would just make things worse. He wanted to figure out what was going on, and how to get out of it. In order to do that, he needed to get as many people as possible to form a team. If no one killed each other, the “game” or whatever it was, had to come to a stop. That was the conclusion he had reached.
“Fine, I’ll take the first shift, along with… Her.”
Shikomizue looked towards Kiriririri, who had just finished drawing a strange symbol in the grass.
“Alright then, let’s get that fire going and—”
“Get down, something is coming.”
Norleas reached behind his back and fished out the two daggers he was storing in his jacket, then crouched down, signaling for the others to do the same.
The group gathered together, and those who had them drew their weapons.
“What did you see?”
Shikomizue did not have to wait for a response, as a large bear, covered in metal plating, walked past them. It was looking around, like it was searching for the group. It looked… Off. It looked intelligent, just like the other beasts they had fought that day.
“Something is definitely not right with these things. They started attacking us right after we formed a team. Almost like… Someone doesn’t want us to team up.”
Shikomizue thought to himself, as he recalled the days events. Actually, every time they had been away for combat for a certain period of time, something would come and attack them.
Almost like something, or someone, were controlling them. If that was the case, then...
“Master, behind you!”
Sayaka shouted to himself, and jumped forward. In the next second, a large paw covered in metal slammed down on the very spot Sayaka had been standing.
Reaching into his maid uniform, Sayaka fished out a strange statue, in the shape of an anime figure.
“They know we’re here master, so we might as well make some noise.”
Turning the head of the statue around 180 degrees, Sayaka threw it behind the tree, where the second bear had attacked from.
“Everyone, if you don’t want to go boom, I suggest you run!”
Moments later, the figure exploded, turning the ground beneath it to ash, blowing the bear to bits in the process.
The other bear was alerted to their presence, and jumped at Norleas, who slashed at its snout with his daggers before it had time to react. The beast roared in pain, and slammed its massive paw towards Norleas, who elegantly jumped out of the paws path, and went in for another attack.
While the plate armor proved to be an obstacle, Norleas still managed to bring the massive beast down in a matter of seconds, as a flurry of dagger cuts tore into its hide like it was butter, always finding the unprotected parts of the bears body.
Meanwhile, Shikomizue was fending of two wolves with his wakizashi katanas, holding back one wolf with each blade, as he pressed them against the wolves sharp fangs.
“Where is #6? Someone cover her.”
“Yes, yes, Master and I got her, don’t worry.”
Throwing explosive statues at everything that moved inside the forest, Sayaka jumped around Kiriririri, who was sitting on the ground, watching the fighting happen around her with an indifferent expression.
“Ohh, we’re gonna make master so proud, yes we are, tralala.”
Sayaka sang as he looked up at the sky, throwing statues now seemingly at random. A few landed close to Norleas, but he simply moved out of their path with incredible speed each time, still slashing and stabbing any beast that came in his way with his daggers.
The group fended off countless beasts, until finally, only one remained. It was a massive tiger, also covered in metal plating like the bears from before. The beast’s eyes were glowing in a strange blue light, and it moved faster than any other creature they had fought so far.
Sayaka had tried throwing several statues at it, but it always got out of the blast zone before it was damaged.
Norleas was unable to get close to the beast as well, as it was simply too fast.
Shikomizue knew they were out of options.
“Tch… Is this really how it ends?”
He clicked his tongue, and started to walk towards the beast while he shook his head.
“Am I really doing this?”
After glancing over his shoulder, taking another look at his three teammates, Shikomizue nodded, and closed his eyes.
“Listen up. I know what’s going on. These things are being controlled by someone. As long as we’re in a group, we’ll be sitting ducks. They are either being controlled by whoever started this fucked up game... Someone who wants us to keep fighting, or it’s another contender, in which case we should split up to try and find the bastard.
So... Guys, split up. Run. For now, just get as far away from each other as possible.”
“GRAAWRH!”
Like it understood what Shikomizue was saying, the tiger roared, and charged at the group. It was not happy.
“Yes come on, you stupid cat.”
Shikomizue charged as well, running straight ahead, towards the beast’s fangs.
Then…
“GUAAH!”
Shikomizue screamed in pain, as the tiger bit him, its large fangs digging into his left side.
“I’ll keep this thing at bay… You guys… Run away… Now!”
Lifting up his free arm, Shikomizue gripped his katana firmly, and slashed at the tiger’s front legs, which were not covered by armor. That should slow it down. The thing was, it would have been impossible to target its legs without making it stop first. And, the only way to do that was to make it stop moving, for instance, by letting it bite one of them. Shikomizue had realized this a while ago, as he watched his comrades fail to hit the beast, and he had given his own life so that the other three could live.
“You guys better figure out what the fuck is going on here, and stop this ‘game’, alright?”
Shikomizue looked over his shoulder, watching as his allies ran into different directions. No beasts chased them.
Pleased that he his plan had worked, Shikomizue fished out a cigarette from pocket, and moved it to his mouth, his hand shaking. He didn’t have anything to light it with, but he still put it in his mouth, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
That was his last breath.
Norleas walked through the forest in silence. His daggers were still dripping with blood from the countless monsters he had killed. Still, he had not even broken a sweat. Killing was his job, after all. It was a breath of fresh air for him to kill beasts instead of people.
It was strange. The person whose job was to take people’s lives had chosen to join an alliance to avoid killing others.
It was different this time, after all. The people in question were his friends. His fellow Fuwanovel users. There was no way he could kill them.
Sensing something moving behind him, Norleas gripped his dagger, and prepared for battle. But…
“Oh, it’s just you.”
He lowered his weapons. Behind him stood the strange girl from before, Kiriririri.
“What, didn’t you hear what the boss said? We’re supposed to split up. What, are you scared in the dark by yourself?”
Kiriririri didn't’ say anything. She simply lifted her arm, pointing into the darkness behind Norleas.
“What? What is… It…”
Norleas turned around to look at what she was pointing at, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down at his own stomach, he saw a silvery blade sticking out from his chest, covered in fresh blood.
“Wh-What…”
“Hehe.”
The laughter of a little girl was the last thing he heard, as his lifeless body fell to the floor.
Kiriririri pulled the sword out of Norleas’ corpse, and it soon turned into light particles, vanishing into thin air.
Kiriririri then simply kept walking through the forest with an emotionless expression.
Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439)
The Last GM Standing Chapter 4 (Word count, 3984)
The Last GM Standing
Chapter 5 (Word count, 4491)
The Last GM Standing
Chapter 6 (Word count 3334)
- Finale, part 1/2 -
The Last GM Standing (Word count, 3832)
Chapter 7
Finale Part 2/2!
"Raaawr! Take this!" Gijimu charged towards Nosebleed, striking at his chest with all his might. At the same time, Jade chanted a spell and several dark chains sprouted from the ground, wrapping themselves around Nosebleed's legs. Greenshadow622 was also attacking, striking at Nosebleed's back from behind with his blade.
"... Pathetic." Nosebleed simply caught Gijimu's punch with his bare hand, used his left leg to kick Greenshadow's sword away, and broke through Jade's chains like they were made out of air. Still, the attackers did not waver. They kept their assault going, trying to land even just a singular hit.
"Raaawr!" Gijimu took a step back, then jumped forward, bringing his right foot towards Nosebleed's head with great force. Nosebleed avoided the kick as if it was approaching in slow motion, and grabbed Gijimu's leg, picking him up and throwing him away.
"Tch. You ... monster!" Shouting at Nosebleed, Jade prepared another attack and started chanting again.
"Devourer of light,
bane of the living,
ruler of death,
envelop the w..."
But before he could finish, Nosebleed moved his left hand downwards, and the string attached to his wrist made one of his shuriken fly towards Jade with great speed.
"Watch out!" Greenshadow jumped in between the shuriken and his teammate, and blocked the attack with his shield, but in the process, his shield was splintered into a million pieces. Both team Kaguya members were thrown several meters backwards from the impact.
"Ugh ... You guys are all freaking useless." A voice coming from behind him made Nosebleed turn around. Kaguya was sitting on a nearby rock, looking at his underlings getting beaten.
"Guess I'll have to put in an effort."
"..." Looking at the warriors on the ground, then back at Kaguya, Nosebleed shook his head.
"You aren't worthy of commanding them. I'll end the battle here today, and avenge my fallen." Nosebleed's face was distorted into a hateful scowl.
"Haha. Now that would be a fun sight. Come on then. Give it your best shot." Kaguya spread his arms in a taunting manner and got up from the rock.
Nosebleed moved his hands around, making his shuriken fly towards Kaguya's position. Kaguya caught one in the air, and swatted the other one away with his free arm. The shuriken caught in his hand wasn't able to pierce his skin, and the one he deflected collided with the ground, making a loud bang as the magical weapon crushed the earth beneath it.
"Hmph. Weak!" Kaguya started running towards Nosebleed, preparing for a counterattack.
"You're too cocky." With those words, Nosebleed snapped his fingers, and the shuriken in Kaguya's hand glowed. Before Kaguya had any time to realize what was happening, a small magic circle appeared above the shurkien, and a second later it blew up. A massive explosion enveloped Kaguya, making the ground beneath his feet cave in, and a massive cloud of smoke and dust settled over the battlefield. Nosebleed had made a shield in front of himself before the explosion occurred, protecting himself from the explosion.
"Gaaah... Now that one stung a bit..." Slowly walking out of the smoke could, Kaguya was once again approaching Nosebleed. His clothes were full of black spots and holes, and his arm that caught the blast was charred, but other than that, he seemed fine.
"Tch. I'm not done yet!" Nosebleed tensed his legs, and then jumped right up into the air. His body flew upwards, and once he had moved up about 15 meters or so, he brought his hands together, chanting a spell. As he chanted, Nosebleed's body was suspended in the air, like he was flying. A pink magic circle with black markings appeared before him, and slowly grew in size.
"This will take you down a peg!" He shouted, and the magic circle erupted into a blinding light, sending hundreds of shuriken tied to strings down towards Kaguya. Every single one of them were tied to Nosebleed's wrist, making it possible for him to control them like he had done with the previous two. The shuriken he created rained down towards Kaguya, and were mere seconds from hitting him.
"Shimmer, spear of Helios!
Flicker, and pierce all that stands before you,
burn down all resistance and turn flesh to ashes!"
Suddenly raising his voice, Kaguya chanted a spell as quickly as he could, and right after, the ground beneath his feet broke apart, making a big pillar of fire shoot up towards Nosebleed. It was the same spell that his underling, Eclipsed, had taken his own life with. A powerful fire spell, summoning the strength of one of the most powerful fire aspects. The pillar of fire broke through all the shuriken, turning them into dust, and kept on moving towards Nosebleed, who put up a last minute shield in a panic. Because he was also caught in the fire, Kaguya felt some of his strength drain from his body as the scorching fire assaulted his flesh. The fire hit Nosebleed's shield, crushing it to pieces, and Nosebleed was caught in the relentless flames.
....
"This really is the final battle, huh?" FinalChaos was seated in front of his master, Down, who had been wounded by the other GMs a little earlier. Now FinalChaos, the last remaining team Down member, was protecting his fallen master, while he watched the epic duel between the other two GMs. FinalChaos was clutching his swords so hard that blood was starting to run down his hands. There was nothing he could do versus such monsters. If it really came down to it, there was no way he could stop Kaguya or Nosebleed from killing Down in his current state.
"DAMNIT!" FinalChaos shouted, and punched the ground with great force.
"... Let them come. I might not be able to win, but I'll make damn sure it will be hard for them!"
....
Nebjula was slowly walking calmly towards the heat of the battle. His eyes were without light, his mentality weakened. Upon witnessing so many people die, his last ally dying before his eyes was the last drop. He no longer cared. It was too late... He wouldn't survive like this, so why even care? He was ready for his final battle. The last fight.
His right hand was missing a finger, and streams of fresh blood rand down his right mace, making it look even more menacing. The pain of his missing finger meant nothing. He walked forwards with no particular destination in mind, only having one though present in his mind... He would fight... He would fight...
Team Nosebleed's last member, Nebjula vs Team Down's last member, FinalChaos
Someone were approaching. FinalChaos pulled himself together and looked forward. The figure of a person could be seen walking towards him. The person was holding two weapons, and from the look of his armor, he was a member of team Nosebleed. But it was hard to see exactly, as his cloak was completely covered in blood.
"I'm coming to get you... I'm coming to get youuuu!~" The person suddenly started talking, and the words he uttered sent a chill down FinalChaos' spine. Who was it? Preparing his blades for battle, Finalchaos looked at Down one last time and then turned around to face his opponent.
"Split their skulls... Hehe..." The team Nosebleed member was quite close now, still rambling. His tone of voice was chilling. As he was just about two meters away from FinalChaos, he stopped completely. He held two maces, and his right hand looked wounded, as fresh blood was still pouring out from an open wound. The man suddenly looked up, and his empty eyes stared into FinalChaos'.
"... Die..." Nebjula suddenly moved his right arm, and threw one of his maces at FinalChaos. The sudden move made FinalChas flinch, and he struggled with avoiding the oncoming mace. The spike at the end of the weapon grazed FinalChaos' shoulder as it flew past him. Following close behind the mace, Nebjula ran towards his opponent, lifting his left mace. FinalChaos struck at Nebjula with one of his swords, but Nebjula easily dodged it and ran straight into FinalChaos. Nebjula's head collided with FinalChaos' solar plexus, knocking the air out of him.
"Guh..." FinalChaos staggered backwards, but managed to keep his footing. Nebjula quickly followed up with another attack, swinging his mace at FinalChaos. Every attack was mighty powerful, making FinalChaos flinch as the wind made by the mace hit his eyes.
"I'm coming to get you!!!" Nebjula kept on rambling, and suddenly ran straight past FinalChaos.
Wait ... Coming to get you..? Is he talking about?!
"DOWN, NO!" As FinalChaos realized what Nebjula's goal was, he shouted at the top of his lungs and threw his sword at Nebjula. The sword soared through the air at a great speed, and after a second, it collided with its target. The sword pierced through Nebjula's back, cutting through his lungs and parts of his spine. But ... It was already too late. Nebjula had just enough time to move his mace for one attack, which had been directed right at Down. Down was still unconscious, which meant his barrier was the only thing still protecting him, and it had been seriously weakened in the attack from Kaguya earlier... Nebjula's mace had crushed the remaining barrier, and had hit Down's defensless body, crushing his ribcage completely.
"... AHHHHHH!" Not knowing how to react, FinalChaos just kept screaming, and threw his other blade at the already dead Nebjula. FinalChaos shook his head as tears ran down his cheeks. His final job ... His final purpose... It had been to defend Down, and he had failed. His knees gave in beneath him, and his body fell to the ground. He slammed his fist against the bare ground over and over, most likely breaking the bone, but he didn't care.
"I ... Failed..."
Because the leader had died, all of Down's remaining soldiers would be disposed of. The one last remaining warrior, FinalChaos, shouted and screamed as he cursed himself for letting Down die... Soon after, his body turned to dust...
12Kami was looking at the battle from above, his body floating as if it was tied up by strings.
"One ... Dead... Two to go..." His yellow eyes shimmered brightly, and the scythe he was holding in his right hand was glowing in a green light. Down had been defeated, which mean that Down and all his dead warriors were sealed away in the reaper's scythe, and they would never come back.
12Kami remembered the rules that were branded into his mind.
1) The GMs are not allowed to fight until the final day. Stop them at all costs.
2) Once the GMs finally clash, only one can come out alive. If they refuse to fight, kill them yourself.
3) Once the winner has been crowned... The winner and all his forces will be released from the game, and all the deceased teammates will be resurrected. The members of the losing teams will forever be trapped in the reaper's scythe.
4) ... If you wish, you may challenge the winner. If you can defeat him, you will get your own freedom, and will be released from the hell we have trapped you in.
"... Two to go..." 12Kami whispered to himself as he looked at the battle below.
Nosebleed's body was aching, screaming in pain. Kaguya's attack had broken his shield, and the only thing that saved him from a sure death was his final remaining barrier. It had taken a lot of energy, but Nosebleed had been able to fight off the relentless heat, and survived the attack, but in return, his body was enveloped in pain. He had felt it... His final warrior, the last remaining teammate he had on the battlefield, had just died. It was over. Nosebleed was alone. Shaking his head in anger, tears ran down Nosebleed's cheeks.
"I wont ... let you die in vain! AHHHHHHHH!" Screaming as loud as he could, Nosebleed forced himself to his feet and charged towards Kaguya's location. Kaguya was still recovering, as the attack had hit his own body as well.
"Puppets! Stop him!" Kaguya shouted and pointed towards his underlings who were standing next to him.
"Buy me some time! Hold him back!"
The three team Kaguya members were slightly scared of fighting the GM on their own, but still listened to their master, running towards the advancing Nosebleed. Gijimu preformed a swift kick at Nosebleed's legs, trying to make him Trip. Nosebleed avoided the kick with ease, and retaliated with a punch to Gijimu's chest. Gijimu managed to block the attack, but both his arms screamed in pain as Nosebleed's fist hit, and the bone in his left arm broke. Jade cast several spells from a few meters away, while Greenshadow started cutting at Nosebleed with his blade. His shield had been broken earlier, so his sword was his only remaining weapon. Nosebleed avoided the attacks, and started chanting a spell as he kept on approaching Kaguya.
"O great shadow,
sever the bonds of the flesh,
divide, split, divide!"
As he chanted, Nosebleed's body suddenly split into four, and each part approached an enemy, the main body still continuing towards Kaguya. Gijimu's broken arm was dangling at his side, useless, and he had to fight off his enemy with his remaining limbs. Jade was doing his best, trying to keep his opponent at a distance. Greenshadow was being pushed back as well, and Kaguya was still recovering from his wounds. As no one were able to reach Nosebleed's main body, he continued his chant.
"Divide, split, divide!
fire, earth, water, air,
sever the bonds of the flesh,
release me from the chains of man,
and grant me the strength of thou,
oh great shadow."
When the chant finished, each one of Nosebleed's bodies erupted in a bright light. A round seal holding a picture of an element on it, appeared on his chest. Fire, earth, water and air, one for each body. The main body that was running towards Kaguya was water, the opposite of Kaguya's favored magic.
"It is time to end things, Kaguya!" While he shouted at his opponent, Nosebleed raised his right arm, and it morphed into a blade made out of water. He was now mere meters from Kaguya, and prepared the blade, striking at Kaguya's chest. Kaguya had regained most of his strength, and was able to avoid the attack, but Nosebleed quickly recovered and continued his assault, sending a flurry of attacks towards his opponent. Kaguya managed to sidestep, and clenched his fists, making fire envelop his hands. It was the same attack he had used to take out Down. He struck at Nosebleed with great power, but the water surrounding Nosebleed's body weakened the oncoming attack, making the impact much too weak. The inefficiency of his attack made Kaguya flinch for a second, but he quickly came back to his senses.
"Ok, then how about this?!" Kaguya took a big step backwards and held his hands out, moving them towards Nosebleed. As he did that, the ground beneath Nosebleed's feet started moving, and several spikes of earth quickly approached Nosebleed's chest.
"I don't think so." A voice came from Kaguya's left, and the spikes that were approaching the main body of Nosebleed stopped completely. A different Nosebleed was standing a little further away, holding the body of Greenshadow622 in his hand. The symbol for earth was branded on his chest. Using any form of elemental magic against Nosebleed would be completely useless. Gijimu and Jade were still fighting their opponents, but Nosebleed was clearly about to beat them as well. It seemed Kaguya was on his own.
"Hmph. Fine. Guess we will have to settle this the old fashioned way." Kaguya kept his cool, and raised his fists. After just a few seconds, the other two Nosebleed versions had defeated their opponents, and Kaguya was now staring at four enemies.
"You know, when I see you up close like this, I have to say... You guys are all butt ugly."
"Any other last words Kaguya?" One of the Nosebleed's spoke up, slowly approaching.
"How about bite me?" With those words, Kaguya stepped forward and struck at one of his opponents with all his might. His left fist struck the water version of Nosebleed right in the chest, and a loud cracking sound of bones breaking resounded throughout the battlefield. The body he had struck broke in two, making blood and bone fragments fly everywhere.
"I'm not going down that easy!" After easily having defeated one opponent, Kaguya moved over to the next one. He struck at the earth version, his fist moving towards Nosebleed's chest yet again. This version managed to dodge the attack by a hair, but Kaguya followed up with another strike. It wasn't as powerful as the first two, but it hit Nosebleed's left arm, making the bone bend in the wrong direction. As Nosebleed staggered backwards, clutching his wounded arm, Kaguya struck at him again, making Nosebleed fall to the ground. Trouble was, even though Kaguya was doing well against one of the Nosebleed's, the two others were preparing a spell behind him. As Kaguya was about to land a finishing blow on the earth version of Nosebleed, the wind and fire version behind him sent powerful spells directed towards Kaguya's back. A spear of fire approached Kaguya's back, and the wind spell quickly wrapped itself around the fire attack, amplifying its intensity. The brutal attack dug into Kaguya's back, slowly melting his flesh and pushing Kaguya's body forward. He flew a few meters away, and landed on his wounded back. Kaguya tried to get up again, but the earth Nosebleed moved his still functional arm over to Kaguya and gripped his leg, preventing his movements. Meanwhile, the remaining two Nosebleed versions prepared one final attack. As another enhanced spear of fire approached Kaguya, it dawned on him ... He had lost. When he started fighting, he didn't think any of his opponents were actually worthy of being called equals... He still didn't.
"... You got lucky." As he said those final words, the fire enveloped his body, and turned his remaining flesh to ash.
"..." As Nosebleed witnessed his final enemy burn to a crisp, he said nothing... It was over, but he had lost way too many. This was not a time to celebrate. This was a time to mourn.
Team Kaguya, Greenshadow622, Gijimu and Jade-DEAD END
Team Kaguya leader, Kaguya-DEAD END
....
....
...
..
"It looks like it's over. Congratulations." A dark, raspy voice spoke up from behind Nosebleed. Nosebleed said nothing in response, and simply sat down on the ground, covering his face. He was exhausted, and his emotions were running wild.
"Congratulations." Repeating his previous line, the person who was talking walked past Nosebleed, and sat down in front of him. It was the cloaked reaper that Nosebleed had seen several times before, overlooking the battle. The reaper who had gotten in between Nosebleed and Down's previous fight. In his hand was a scythe, which now glowed in a dark red color. Several red and green dots were spread across the scythe's blade... Actually, there was also one section towards the tip of the blade, which had several pink dots on it. Seven to be exact... The number of Nosebleed's warriors. Could it be..?
"Congratulations. You are the last one standing. You did well. Here is your reward." As the reaper spoke, he lifted his scythe up towards the sky, and the pink dots on the blade started glowing. The sky above the reaper turned dark, and clouds started forming out of nowhere. The clouds slowly started spinning around faster and faster, and after a little while, a full blown tornado had formed in the sky. The tornado slowly but surely moved down towards the two, however the wind was not affecting Nosebleed or the Reaper for some reason. It was as if the tornado was merely an illusion. As the eye of the storm reached the two figures, the wind settled at the tip of the reaper's blade, and the pink dots which were glowing brightly were sucked up into the tornado. Then, a completely blinding light shot out from the clouds, branching into seven smaller balls of light that all collided with the ground somewhere close to Nosebleed.
As the wind settled and the light went away, seven people had appeared next to Nosebleed. They were all the fallen warriors from team Nosebleed that had been killed during the battle, Mitchhamilton, Kiriririri, Satsuki, Valmore, Deep Blue, Nebjula and Kingdomcome. Each one of them were completely unscratched, and they were staring at the reaper in front of them in awe, not knowing what was going on.
"W-Where are we...?" Mitchhamilton spoke up, walking towards Nosebleed with a confused expression. The reaper was the one who answered.
"You have won the battle, and you are free. Congratulations." Before anyone could say anything else, the reaper snapped his fingers, and the figures of the eight warriors disappeared into nothingness. They had been called back to the world of Fuwanovel, as the only eight survivors of the long death game.
It was over.
....
As the dust settled, and the winners had been teleported away, a figure of a man walked up to 12Kami. He was wearing a black suit, but the entirety of his body was enveloped in a dark shadow, making it impossible to see who it was.
"So you chose to let them go. Why did you not fight them? Do you not value your own life?" The man's voice was distorted, much like the reaper's.
"... I do not want to witness more bloodshed." The reaper answered, looking down at his feet.
"Haha... Well, suit yourself. You do realize that this means you will be trapped in this dimension forever? You and ... them." As the man said the last word in the sentence, he pointed towards the reaper's scythe. The reaper, 12Kami knew... They were still there. They were still conscious, trapped inside the void. He could hear them. They were screaming... The 25 fallen warriors from team Down and Kaguya, as well as their two leaders... They were trapped in the reaper's scythe, and because they lost, they would never get out. They had suffered the same fate that 12Kami had.
"Well then. Enjoy eternity listening to their screams." With that final line, the figure of the man vanished, and 12Kami was left alone. He looked at the scythe in his hands, as he heard the screams of the poor people trapped within it.
Hey folks! So, for those of you who don't know, I am currently studying abroad in Japan, and will be here for the next 5 months. It's something I have been looking forward to for a while, though moving to a foreign country, especially one as different as Japan, is quite a tough transition. I'll be writing some stuff about my trip here in my blog now and then, talking about how things are going, what I have been up to and stuff like that. Today I'll be writing a bit about the first few weeks here, and the things that has been tough to deal with for me.
(I have currently lived in Japan for about 2 weeks)
So, I have heard people talk about "culture shock" when coming to a country like Japan. I figured I wouldn't really experience that, because I knew so much about the culture beforehand. Well, I was wrong. That didn't help.
Japan is... different. I mean, I love it here, but man... everything is so different from what I'm used to, it has gotten to me for sure.
People here honestly look like robots to me. In Japan it isn't really normal to speak much in public at all. You are meant to be quiet to respect those around you. They also stand in nearly flawless lines on the subway/ train platforms, at restaurants, stores and so on. They stay at work and school until late at night, and you mostly see students studying, even at lunch time. They are incredibly diligent, almost to a scary degree tbh. Everyone picks up their own trash, and you won't find a single shred of garbage lying around anywhere. There is no noise like loud music or anything of the sort anywhere, (except for actual clubs and stuff like that, of course.) The buses and trains runs like clockwork, leaving and arriving exactly when they are supposed to, and the trains are filled with people sleeping, worn-out from long days at work/ school/ club practice.
It's like this country is literally run by robot overlords or something.
Honestly, it's a bit overwhelming. There are so many things you need to keep in mind. Don't do this, don't do that, make sure you remember this, never forget that, bla bla. From where to stand in an escalator to your body language when speaking to people, what forms to use when speaking to others in different social standings... My head hurts from trying to remember half of it.
Another thing that really hit me hard is the food. I love Japanese food, but eating it 4 times a day 7 days a week has taken a toll on me. I honestly just can't get the food down even if it tastes good, especially in the mornings. So, I have started looking for western styled restaurants and shops, and found a few, luckily. It's strange, but there is a certain... joint taste to all food in Japan. It's hard to explain it, but there is just a certain "something" to all of it. Without mixing a bit of western food here and there, I just don't have an appetite. It has been surprisingly difficult to adjust my body to eating Japanese food all the time. It will probably be a few more weeks, possibly even a month + before I get completely used to the food here. Until then I'll make some pretty frequent stops at western restaurants, to stop myself from starving, lol.
Ugh, and the climate. Holy crap, the humidity... please help, lol. The humidity here is constantly around 85-90%+, and with heat around 30 degrees C, it literally feels like you are walking around in an oven 24/7. You can't move an inch without getting sweaty. Go home and shower, then walk around outside for a mintue and you are already completely soaked. Not just sweaty, actually like, wet all over. You skin feels clammy from just being outside for a second.
And the bugs. They are some weird mutated monsters summoned from hell. Like, holy crap. Some of the wasps/ bees here are bigger than my finger, and the Cicadas and other bugs of that size look like they could literally eat me. There is also one huge ass spider living outside our apartments, and I am personally convinced he will some day grow large enough to take over Japan and rule as the new emperor. Luckily winter should be coming soon-ish, (heh,) so they should all die soon. As someone who is completely terrified of bugs, and who can't take too hot temperatures, I cannot wait for the winter. Please winter-san, just get here already!
Lastly, the university schedule really did a number on me. Today we were at school from 10:00 AM to 19:00 PM. In addition, each period is 90 minutes long, without breaks, and the classrooms are either way too hot or air conditioned too much, making them freezing. We will also have classes on saturdays, apparently. The club recruitment day is on Friday, and a lot of people are super excited about joining clubs, but all I can personally think about is: How on earth are you going to balance all this school work, and several hours of club practice each week? I'd die, lol. So yeah, I'll skip on the clubs, personally. They do have a few really fun looking clubs here though, like the TCG club, the cosplay club, the boardgame club, the English conversation club and so on.
The school festival is in a couple months. That will be awesome. Can't wait for that.
Anyways, this update has just been mostly about the stuff that overwhelmed me during my first 2 weeks here. I am getting used to them little by little, and there is of course tons and tons of good stuff that outweighs the bad. The next blog post I write will be much more positive
The Aojiru verse: Entry #1: An introduction
This is the first in a series of blog posts I will be making about the "Aojiru verse", referring to a series of Tinkerbell games drawn by Aojiru, which includes popular games such as Kowaku no Toki, In'Youchuu etc. Tinkerbell has quickly become one of my favorite VN devs ever, specifically because of the games drawn by Aojiru. I have bought all of the games in the Aojiru verse, and have slowly but surely made my way through them. While I am not done with every single game yet, I have played enough to start making these blog posts.
I will be doing a few specific game spotlights of my favorites later on, though this entry will mainly introduce the Aojiru verse in general. The next entry will talk more specifics about what to expect from Aojiru games in general, as well as a game spotlight of the first major title in the series, In'Youchuu 1.
The "Aojiru verse" started in 2004 with Hanamaru! While Aojiru drew two other games for Tinkerbell before this, Okite no Shima and Hidamari no Kage de, these do not share any characters or story with the games that followed, so Hanamaru! becomes the game that basically started the "Aojiru verse". Hanamaru! Is interesting in that it is a completely vanilla game, without any real dark content at all, though it's still set in the Aojiru verse, which mainly consists of very dark stories. Very dark stories.
Aojiru has drawn a few more games similar to Okite no Shima/ Hidamari no Kage de that are not counted in the Aojiru verse due to being done by different writing staff, and generally not fitting the tone of the Aojiru verse games at all. (The creative team behind most of his games have been the same, which has probably been one of the main reasons why they were turned into this one big universe.)
Though, while most of the games in the Aojiru verse share characters and stories, there are some that do not, but that are still counted in the Aojiru verse. I have a list of all of them below.
Games colored in green are important to understanding the overall plot in future games, and are considered "must reads." Yellow means they share characters/ plotlines with other games to some extent, and are recommended, but not needed. Red means they have little or no connection to the rest of the universe. They are still a part of the universe, though can be skipped completely if you want. This also means you can START with these games if you want, as they are standalone.
The current Aojiru verse:
2004-2009
The beginning of the Aojiru verse, consisting of games all tied together in some way
Hanamaru! (2004) - Introduces characters and story elements relevant in later stories such as In'Youchuu, Kowaku no Toki etc -
Chou no Yume (2005) - Happens before the other stories in the current Aojiru verse, but is confirmed to be a part of the story in Hanamru! 2, and simply happens way earlier, in the 1600s -
In'youchuu ~Ryoujoku Gakuen Taimaroku~ (2005) - Shares characters, story and a setting with Hanamaru! + introduces many new, important characters to the Aojiru verse. It is considered one of the, if not the best Aojiru game. It is definitely the most iconic -
In'youchuu Shoku ~Ryoushokutou Taimaroku~ (2006) - A direct sequel to Gakuen, introduces Ouka and Kikuka -
Kowaku no Toki (2007) - Somewhat standalone, though does use both Ouka and Kikuka, showing what they do after Shoku. Also shares a general setting with In'Youchuu, and introduces youma with different appearances and abilities from the ones found In'Youchuu games -
Hanamaru! 2 (2008) - Shares characters from ALL of the previous games, and introduces the idea of a multiverse. No, I am not kidding, this is marvel cinematic level shit. The game is mainly pure comedy, though it has dark scenarios for each heroine available in a side menu, so fans of the standard Aojiru games won't be disappointed -
In'youchuu Etsu ~Kairaku Henka Taimaroku~ (2009) - Introduces new characters relevant in future In'Youchuu games, teaches you more about the origin of youma -
2010-2014
The following period took a step back from the previous style of crossovers, introducing new stories and characters to the Aojiru verse, without needing knowledge of previous works
Mouryou no Nie (2010), Kuraibito (2012), Kagome no Mayu (2013): - All confirmed to be in the same universe as In'Youchuu, introducing other sides of the world. No shared characters -
Fuka no Jugoku ~Ugomeku Moushuu no Rensa... Owari no Nai Kyouen~ (2014)... - A standalone game seemingly unrelated to the rest of the universe, though based on the content and staff working on it, it's in one of the universes introduced in Hanamru 2 not related to In'Youchuu. It's an extremely dark thriller / horror game not for the faint of heart -
2014-2019
Releasing only games without any shared characters seemingly did not pay off too well, as the following period goes back to creating several new games int he In'Youchuu series, whilst also creating some new stories
(Since I have not had the time to play each one of these titles yet, some of them will lack detailed information)
In'youchuu Gaiden (2014) - Side stories setting up for the new In'Youchuu game, Kyou. Can be skipped since it's a side story, though I recommend reading it -
In'youchuu Kyou ~Ryoujoku Byoutou Taimaroku~ (2014) - Introduces a whole new set of characters. While they have been mentioned in passing during previous games, they have not showed up yet-
In'youchuu Kyou ~Kuon no Hime Miko~ (2015) - Side story to Kyou -
Sarai no Me (2015) - Standalone horror game -
In'youchuu Rei ~Ryoujoku Shiro Taima Emaki~ (2016) - Sequel to Kyou -
In'youchuu Goku ~Ryoujoku Jigoku Taimaroku~ (2016) - Squel to Goku -
Shin'yaku In'youchuu (2017) - A remake of the original In'Youchuu, mixing in the new characters from Kyou/ Rei/ Goku. It has a new artstyle, and some parts of the story has been re-done. It is considered canon in the In'Youchuu game, and basically works as both a reboot and a sequel to Goku. In short, it's basically just a modernized re-telling of the first In'youchuu story with the new characters mixed in -
Shin'yaku In'youchuu - Shiro Neko Honpo Hen & Tsukishiro ... (2017) - Side story, can be skipped, shows what other chars not in Goku were doing during those events -
Grand Guignol no Yoru (2018) - Standalone horror game -
Mugen no Sakura ~Hitsuya-hime Injoku Youshokutan~ (2019) - Standalone fantasy game where elves from another world flee into ours for sanctuary, as they are hunted by a mad sorcerer. No standard youma are present, and there are no shared characters or lore to the previous games, so it's considered completely standalone -
Hanamaru:
With the general introduction to the Aojiru verse out of the way, let us quickly talk about Hanamaru. There really is not all that much to say, so I'll make it quick. (The next game spotlights will be much more detailed, of course.)
It is honestly a fairly average moege. It's cute, it's fun, but that's about it. As someone who likes the Aojiru verse for its dark content, I wasn't really that interested in this game. But, it does set up the world that In'Youchuu is built on, so it's definitely still important. It's clear in the small details of the writing that the creative team were going to take this to a dark place. They just did not do it in Hanamaru itself.
There are magical beings in our world, some good and some evil. Hanamru only really shows us the good ones, but introduces the idea of evil ones existing. You don't really get many answers to where these beings come from or why they are the way they are. These answers come later in the In'Youchuu games. But, this helps create a mysterious atmosphere to the game, which will be picked up again when the main characters of In'Youchuu travel to the school where Hanamaru is set to solve a case of a large amount of youma, (monsters, I'll get into details about them in the next entry,) have invaded the school. You are also introduced to Momono Momo, who is actually a monster hunter herself. Though, she does work actively anymore, and rarely shows her skills on screen. She is also the character with the most cameos in all of Aojiru's games, and has become the games' mascot.
Anyways, the tl;dr of Hanamaru is: cute moe with a bit of a dark undertone that is picked up again in the games that follows it.
Here is the game's opening. Personally I find the song incredibly catchy.
That is it for this entry. In the next entry I will explain more in detail what to expect of the Aojiru verse games in general, as well as introduce the first big entry in the universe, In'Youchuu.
Looking for:
Translation checker: 1
Position filled.
Information:
We currently have a TLC on the project, however, due to him being very busy with other projects, we need one more for the team.
The game is not very long, and the language used in it is fairly fluffy, but we are still looking for someone who are well versed in the Japanese language.
As the translator on the project, I have to be honest and say that my personal level of Japanese is not top tier. (That is not to say it's bad of course.)
The game itself is, like I said, not very difficult and fairly short, so I am confident I can produce a good translation for it, however I do find myself making small mistakes from time to time, (fairly small, usually insignificant mistakes, but I want the final product to be as professional as possible.) Also, every now and then I find a line I can't really make sense of. (For refrence, this has happened 2 times during the translation of over 10% of the game, so it is not a common occurrence.) I will then mark the sentence in the script and make sure the TLC will be able to pay close attention to that particular line, in order to make sure there are no uneccessary mistakes in the translation before it goes into editing.
So, if you are interested in helping out, leave a comment or send me a PM on the forum. Alternatively you can reach me at [email protected]
The team has several hardworking individuals on it, and I am very motivated to get this translation done.
Let us know if you are interested in helping out!
Link to the project page:
2017 has been a pretty cool year in terms of VN releases. I'm not even close to Clephas' level of reading, so I have only scratched the surface of what was released this year, but I did still read what I think is a pretty decent chunk of VNs, and now that the year is coming to a close, I'd like to go through some those games and talk about which ones I liked the most etc. This blog post will only cover NEW releases in 2017. I might make a separate blog post about VNs that weren't released in 2017, but that I still read this year later on.
I started the year with Ryuu Kishi Bloody Saga, a cool fantasty game by Akabeisoft 3. The prequel to this game was a dark nukige-ish story, which didn't really impress me. But, Ryuu Kishi went into a completely different direction, and ended up being a really entertaining read. I wrote a blog post about Ryuu Kishi around the time I finished it, so I'll link that here if anyone wants to read it.
Summing up though, Ryuu Kishi is a good fantasty VN, with great action scenes, an interesting plot, and good romance. (With a functional harem aspect, which was interesting.) It's by no means a kamige, but it was definitely among the better games released this year in my opinion.
After this I played a few games, but none of them were anything special. Amanatsu Adolescence had some aspects I liked, but fell flat on its face with the heroine routes, which was disappointing.
The next game worth mentioning is Majo to Tsurugi to Sen no Tsuki. This was my first time playing one of Kai's Mahou Shoujo games, and the only reason I picked this one up was because Ban'ya had helped write it. (I love Ban'ya's stuff.)
The game honestly blew me away. I'm not saying it's a kamige or anything, (not by a long shot,) but considering that this is meant to be a nukige, it really went beyond my expectations. The story was legitimately interesting, the characters were great and the writing was satisfying. Reading this game made me interested in checking out the rest of the works in the series, which I'll get around to reading at some point. Hopefully they are similar in structure, as I took quite the liking to the way this game's structure. You basically have a nukige with a story, where making the right choices lets you skip most of the H-scenes, and move through the true route. But, if you make the wrong choice, you are thrown down "bad routes", filled with bad endings and H-scenes. So, depending on what mood you're in, you can choose what type of game you're playing, essentially. (There are of course still a decent number of H-scenes in the true route, but the bulk of them are in the bad routes.)
My review of this game can be found here, on Clephas' blog.
Now, next on the list is Chrono Box, and well, I'm just going to come out and say it right away: This game is amazing. It's without a doubt one of my favorite VNs of all time. Actually, it's tied for 1st place with the ChuSinGura series.
I went into the game without knowing much about the story, and I got sucked into the game right away, finishing the whole thing in about 4-5 days. (Considering it's a rather hard game to read in Japanese, that's pretty crazy fast for me.) The ratings on VNDB aren't the best, which is to be expected tbh. It's a hard game to read, and it's a denpa game where every single small detail matters. I'd imagine a chunk of VNDB votes comes from people who try reading JP games with machine translations, and well, that is not recommended for this game. In fact, there are many parts of the game that cannot be hooked, as they are either in image files in the game itself, or in voiced lines without any text. In addition, it's a game with some pretty dark content here and there, and I know some people just rate games badly because of that. (This is a story driven mystery/denpa game, and similar to SubaHibi, all the dark elements are there for a reason, driving the story forward.) I don't mean to come off as an elitist saying "EOP's opinions doesn't matter!" here, by the way. I do think the difficulty of the game, and the content in it might have caused a bit of a change in the votes from English readers, though. In comparison, the game is rated very highly on EGS, being #23 of the whole year so far, (and it also has a rather high amount of votes, in comparison to some games above it on the list, which just has a handful. Like, seriously, 2 of the games on the list only have 5-6 votes, kek.)
Overall, this is just a fantastic read. I strongly recommend it to anyone who can read it. It truly just blew my mind. If you ARE going to read it, do yourself a favor: Do NOT look up anything about it. No CGs, no story summaries, no nothing. Just go in blind, and enjoy the ride. Seriously, you have no idea what's in store for you.
Moving on from Chrono Box, we have Pure Song Garden, the first "normal" charage I played this year that I feel deserves a spot among the "better" releases I've read in 2017. This is Pulltop's newest "club-themed game", similar to Konosora and Miagete Goran, focusing on a future world where AI and VR has become an important part of our lives. It has fantastic romance, (in the true route at least; I have to admit, I skipped the other routes for the true route. It was all I wanted,) the story is surprisingly good, and the characters aren't just stereotypes, like they tend to be in similar games. Suzu and Iroha, the characters with the main focus in the true route, definitely makes the game worth it by themselves. The MC also isn't bad, though I do wish they added a bit more to his backstory. They introduced an interesting conflict with him, which just kind of resolved itself rather quickly, something that irked me a bit. But, definitely a solid game overall.
You can read more of my opinions on the game here, on Clephas' blog.
Finally we have Biman 4. This was my first Biman title, and I didn't really know what to expect of the game. And honestly, I was blown away by it. The writing was fantastic, and felt nearly poetic at times, even. The drama was well handled, and some of the scenes made me take a break from the game for a bit, as they made me feel so many different emotions. These scenes were so well done.
At the end of the day, the game is still a nukige, and I won't call it a kamige or anything, but man, this game is so much more than first meets the eye. Almost makes me sad that it's a nukige, as there could have been even more potential there had it been a little longer, and a little more story focused.
Either way, this is another truly good VN that I strongly recommend people read. Also, it's completely possible to read it without having read the other Biman games, just like I did.
You can read some more details about my opinion on the game here, on Clephas' blog.
Overall, this has been a great year with many solid releases. My backlog still has a good chunk of the games that came out this year, many of which might have made it on this list, if I had the time to read them. But, oh well. I'm still happy with the amount of VNs I got done this year, and look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for us.
Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here!
Chapter 1:
The Last GM Standing - Day 2:
Team Down's base
Down was leaning over several graves, looking down at the faces of his fallen comrades. Heavy raindrops fell from the dark sky, hammering against the green barrier that protected the graveyard. Down did not want the ground where his brave warriors were put to rest disturbed, and had put up a protective shield around it. The previous day's battle had claimed the lives of four of his soldiers. Tiagofvarela, Down's general, had been resurrected because of his position as general, but the other three were never coming back. The state that he had found them in had been absolutely horrifying. MoeKyun was completely unrecognizable, with a crushed cranium. Funyarinpa had his entire rib cage split open. Nashetania was burned to a crisp, and lastly Tiagofvarela was completely gone; made into a puppet by Nosebleed and his general.
"I won't ever forgive you for this." Cursing his enemies, Down turned around to face his remaining forces. Not a hint of fear could be seen on their faces. In its place he could see anger, hatred and a lust for revenge. Their weapons glistened in the faint moonlight, creating a heavy atmosphere that carried death and destruction. Upon losing so many of his warriors on the first day, Down had decided to take direct action. He would not sit by and watch more of his men fall while he himself sat around idly. Breaking the sullen silence with a voice that carried authority and bravery, Down spoke up:
"Today we will avenge our fallen! The reaper of death will no longer look to us for its victims! It will follow us, but the blood that it feeds on will be that of our enemies! Today, we bring down the evils that waits beyond those mountains!"
Raising his arm and pointing towards the huge volcano that towered some distance from them, Down pridefully drew his weapon. It was a gigantic two-handed sword, with a hilt long as a grown man's arm. The blade was forged in a green metal, Down's team color, and the massive weapon made the ground beneath Down's feet crack open from the sheer amount of power it held.
"TO WAAAAR!" Down shouted just as a lightning bolt struck the ground next to their barrier. The sudden roar of the thunder made his men flinch, but they soon joined in.
"TO WAAAAAR!" As the voices of Down's army rang throughout the mountains, a dark shadow spread across the centre of the battlefield.
Team Kaguya had already set off, and they were approaching Nosebleed's base with great speed. Team Down were headed for Nosebleed's base as well, and moved swiftly through the storm. Nosebleed himself had prepared for battle, sensing that a great danger was approaching.
Soon the three armies would clash, marking the start of the most fierce battle yet. Who would come out victorious? How many would die before the winner was crowned?
- The Last GM Standing, Chapter 2 -
The Cloaked Reaper
The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching could be heard in the distance. The ground under Mitchhamilton's feet shook as the two armies approached from the east and the west. There was no cover anywhere, just a huge open field that went on for a kilometer. No matter what, a stealthy approach was impossible. Clutching his gilded spear in his hand, Mitch took a look around. Two clones were at a ready, weapons drawn, and the rest of Nosebleed's army was spread out across the area; ready for the battle that was to come. Nosebleed himself had marched out to face off against Down, who had charged in ahead of his troops. As the two clashed, a massive shockwave had swept all the trees and vegetation completely off the face of the earth. What remained was charred ground, like something out of an old apocalypse movie.
It didn't take long for the first attacker to appear. Swiftly running towards them, three figures clad in Down's green garb drew their weapons. It wasn't possible for Mitch to see who the attackers were from the distance, but that didn't matter. Signaling the clones at his side, he sent them out to face off against the unknown assailants. The two instantly faced off against an opponent each, leaving only one attacker still on his way towards Mitch.
"Well then, let's do this." As he said that, Mitch tightly gripped his spear and hurled it with great velocity at the approaching enemy. The spear made an intimidating sound as it flew through the air, and a loud clink signaling the clashing of steel resounded throughout the battlefield. The spear had not hit its target, but instead it had been stopped by the attacker's weapon.
"Tch. Reappear!" Commanding his spear to once again appear in his hand, Mitch opened his palm, and a pink magic circle shimmered brightly, making the spear teleport back to him. Grasping it tightly once more, he jumped at his opponent.
"Neat trick you have there." The attacker said as he deflected Mitch's attack. His weapon was a big cleaver; the kind that a butcher would use. He wielded it in his right hand, and his left hand was hidden within his cloak. Did he have another weapon concealed there? Making sure not to get too close, Mitch continued to stab at his opponent with his spear.
"Seems I caught a general. Not bad." A mischievous smile on his opponents face made the hair on Mitch's arms stand up. It was a chilling sight; the sight of someone who enjoys battle. That in itself made the blood in Mitchhamilton's body boil. This was a worthy opponent.
"Break!" Taking a quick step back, Mitch snapped his fingers and the ground beneath his opponents feet cracked open. It wasn't a deep hole, but it was enough so that he might break a leg or sustain moderate damage. But instead of falling into the trap, the opponent grabbed a hold of Mitch's spear with his bare hand, and nimbly pushed himself backwards. He landed safely a few yards behind the hole. The hand he had used to grip the spear was bleeding fiercely, but it didn't look like the attacker minded at all.
"State your name!" Mitch called out as he tried to identify his opponent. It was a man he had seen before, there was no doubt about it, but he had trouble remembering his name.
"Nohman. Remember it, because it will be the last name you ever hear!" Charging straight at Mitch, Nohman shifted his cleaver to his other hand and hit Mitch's shoulder hard. Because of his spear being a long range weapon, it was hard to deflect such an attack. The barrier protecting Mitch made the cleaver bounce back, but he could feel the energy draining from his protective shield. Such a strong blow ...
The two clashed again and again, each time they deflected each other's attacks with precision. In the form of skill they were equally matched, but Mitch was at a disadvantage because of his long range weapon. Every time he managed to push Nohman back, he would come charging forward again.
"This is bad. At this rate, he is going to defeat me. I have to get some distance between us again." Thinking to himself, Mitch tried to find an opening that would allow him to move away from his opponent. He couldn't use too much magic, as every time he did, it put a great deal of strain on his body. Seeing as he was already getting tired, it would have to be an absolute last resort. The attacks coming from Nohman were relentless. Every time he struck at Mitch, he hit in a slightly different spot, with slightly different strength. It made calculating where and when his next attack would occur nearly impossible. All that Mitch was able to do was block the oncoming attacks.
"Are you getting tired general?" Nohman taunted Mitch as he continued to strike at his torso. A few of the attacks went through Mitch's guard and hit his barrier, but most of them were deflected.
"There really is no other way, is there?" Deciding that he had to resort to his final trump card, Mitch completely let go of his spear and extended his right arm so that it was pointing right at Nohman's chest. Probably realizing what Mitch was doing, Nohman suddenly jumped sideways in fear of an oncoming attack. But he had instead walked right into Mitch's trap. Using his left hand, he pointed two of his fingers towards Nohman's new location. Channeling all the remaining strength in his body, two magic circles appeared in front of his extended fingers. Shortly after, two beams of energy shot out, moving quickly towards his defenseless opponent. The first beam hit right below Nohman's collarbone, the other one hitting him in the right shoulder. Both went straight through his barrier and burned their way through the skin, leaving behind large holes in his body.
Not wasting any time, Mitch moved backwards and grabbed his spear that was on the ground. Finally getting some distance, he prepared for one final attack. But... Something felt a little strange. His stomach was tingling, and his body wouldn't move. Looking down at his own torso, Mitch saw great amounts of crimson blood running down his legs, down onto the charred ground.
"W-What..?" In a weak voice, Mitch questioned what had happened. Falling to his knees, he used what remaining strength he had in order to stay conscious. A shadow moved in front of him. It started talking as it presented a cleaver stained with blood. Unable to decipher the meaning of the man's words due to his fading conscience, Mitch collapsed on the spot. He was already beyond saving...
Team Nosebleed, Mitchhamilton- DEAD END
...
"My oh my, it seems it works." Looking down at the dead general, Nohman cleaned his bloody cleaver with the edge of his clothing. A few seconds earlier, Mitchhamilton had attacked Nohman with all his remaining strength, hoping to take him down in one attack. Problem was, the man Mitch was attacking was just a doppelganger. Mitch had not noticed it during Nohman's relentless assault, but right before Mitch dropped his spear, Nohman had used some of his strength to create a clone of himself. He suspected Mitch might be up to something, and took some precautions. Right after Mitch had gone to pick up his spear after he attacked Nohman's doppelganger, Nohman had cut Mitch's stomach open with his blade. The cut had gone all the way back to his spine, nearly cutting Mitch in half.
"Rest in peace, general." With those words, Nohman left the area and looked around for new prey.
A few hundred meters away, Team Kaguya's temporary command post
Moving quickly towards Kaguya's base, several hooded men in pink cloaks were running towards VirginSmasher's location. He counted four attackers in total. By his side was Kaguya, his fearless leader, wearing a long white jacket that simply hung from his shoulders. His arms weren't in the sleeves, yet the jacket stuck to his body perfectly, as if it was fastened by some invisible force. Unlike his soldiers, Kaguya was not wearing any armor, but instead he wore a long jacket with red writing on the back. He was seemingly unarmed, and paid no attention to the battles raging around him. Kaguya's tactic was simple. March out and make it seem like he was attacking. Then, pull back ever so slightly and wait for Down and Nosebleed to wipe each other out. Although it had worked at first, Nosebleed had now sent a few of his soldiers out to face off against Kaguya's army. As he noticed the approaching enemies, Kaguya sighed and shook his head.
"Just when I had some peace and quiet. Ugh, you, kill those morons." Waving his hand casually at VirginSmasher, Kaguya turned around and carelessly walked away.
"V-Very well sir!" Grasping his bow tightly, VirginSmasher drew four arrows at once, strung the bow, and fired. The arrows flew towards their targets with great speed and accuracy. Why were they not dodging? The arrows simply hit the four men, bringing them to a halt as they all fell to the ground, motionless. Was that it? He had at least expected their barriers to deflect the first shot, but there was absolutely no resistance at all.
"Was the shots simply stronger than they had imagined?.." Wondering what exactly had happened, VirginSmasher drew another arrow and carefully started to approached the fallen enemies. There was blood flowing from their heads, and each one of the bodies lay perfectly still.
"Freeze."
A sudden chilling voice coming from behind made VirginSmasher quickly spin around. As he moved his legs backwards to get some distance from his target, his body started aching. The temperature suddenly plummeted, and a thin layer of ice started appearing all over his body.
"Crap, magic?" Trying to shake of the ice that was restricting his body, VirginSmasher made sure to stay in motion so that the frost couldn't settle. He had been reckless. It was such an obvious distraction, and yet he had approached it without taking any real precautions. Just as he expected, the four men he had shot down earlier were now gone. Most likely it had been some form of magic as well. Whoever he was fighting clearly prefer magic over a physical confrontation.
"W-Who's there?!" Calling out to the mysterious opponent through clenched teeth, VirginSmasher tried to get a look at the man's face. The man moved his hands slowly towards his hood and removed it.
"Deep Blue huh?" VirginSmasher recognized the man as Nosebleed's soldier Deep Blue.
Not bothering to give an answer, Deep Blue launched his body forward and hit VirginSmasher right in the chest. The ice that had restricted his body broke off forcefully, sending strong waves of pain through his entire being. A thin layer of skin was ripped off along with the ice.
"GAAARGH..." Letting out a pained scream, VirginSmasher kicked at his opponent blindly with all his might. His leg hit something and he heard a light groan. This gave him time to awkwardly get back on his feet. His vision was blurry and his arms, legs and torso hurt like hell. Trying to string his bow with his weak arms, he aimed towards the general direction of his target and prepared to attack. He did not have time to look for a specific target; a general outline of Deep Blue's figure was the best he could do. Firing the first arrow, VirginSmasher quickly moved his hand behind his back to reach for another one. Trouble was, his quiver was gone.
"Tch. Did I lose it in the fall earlier?" Clicking his tongue and whispering to himself, he tried to move backwards to look for his quiver. Sadly for him, Deep Blue had recovered from the attack and was once again approaching. VirginSmasher's vision was still quite poor from the damage sustained in his fall, so he wasn't able to see if the arrow had hit or not. Moreover, it became impossible to see where his opponent would be striking him next.
"Ice bullets!" Deep Blue shouted and a few seconds after, a strong impact in his abdomen sent VirginSmasher flying once again.
"W-What a stupid name for an attack..." He managed to squeeze out before he hit the ground. As his body hit the hard ground beneath him, his consciousness faded for a few seconds.
...
Deep Blue's perspective:
I had fired four ice bullets at my target, though because of the arrow sticking out of my shoulder, my aim had been a little off. Only one of the bullets had hit, not making the impact hard enough to be lethal. It seemed he had been knocked unconscious though.
"Stupid brat..." I shook my head and moved over towards the fallen warrior. He was quite cocky, something that annoyed me. There was no room for such an attitude on the battlefield.
He had also been way too easy to trick, as a simple illusion had made him approach his enemy despite being a bowman. Such foolishness would be the end of him.
Creating a spike of ice in my hand, I leant down towards the fallen soldier and brought it towards his heart. I would be merciful. One stab to the heart would kill him in a few seconds.
"Good night." With those words I put some force into my hand and thrust the spike into his chest.
"Gnnnnng..." Groaning from the pain of being stabbed, his body started thrashing about. The barrier still protecting him was surprisingly strong, making the initial blow not enough to break the skin. I put some more force into it, but the barrier still wouldn't give in.
"W-What the hell?"
"Sorry. That kid gets a second chance. I liked his guts." A voice coming seemingly from nowhere made Deep Blue stop in his tracks. I-It couldn't be ... Was that Kaguya? Had he entered the battle himself already?
I better retreat for now... As I thought that, I got up and started running back the way I came.
...
"Come on kid, get up." Kaguya was standing over the fallen VirginSmasher, extending his hand to help him up. It was a surprising move, considering Kaguya's personality, but VirginSmasher would never turn down the help of his commander. Gratefully accepting the help, VirginSmasher got to his feet.
"Now go on, make yourself useful. He still hasn't gotten far. Take him out with one shot." Pointing towards the figure of Deep Blue, Kaguya turned around and started walking away. That was all the help he would get, huh? Still, it was all he needed.
"Let's do this."
VirginSmasher still had no arrows, and his target was getting further and further away. Any more than that and he would be out of range. He had to get his quiver back for starters. Spotting it about 5 meters away, VirginSmasher reluctantly moved his still painful body towards it. The arrows were all spread across the ground, some broken in the fall. It took a few seconds to find an arrow with no damage.
Getting into position, he strung his bow and carefully drew his breath. Then, he let the air out just as he fired the arrow. It flew through the air, whistling, as it made its way towards Deep Blue. The arrow then pierced his head, making Deep Blue fall to the ground.
Deep Blue, Team Nosebleed- (CLONE) DEAD END
...
...
...
"Phew... Kaguya, I hit him." Turning around to inform his commander of the kill, VirginSmasher instead ended up freezing up in shock. Kaguya was no longer behind him, but instead he was staring down the length of a gilded spear that was aimed right at his heart. It was precisely the same place Deep Blue had try to stab him just minutes earlier.
"Sorry kid, you got some bad luck." With those words, the attacker, Mitchhamilton sent his spear forward, crushing the remaining strength in VirginSmasher's barrier. The feeling of his ribs being broken and his heart stopping was the last thing he remembered. After that, everything went black.
VirginSmasher, Team Kaguya- DEAD END
Turning around in surprise at the sudden feeling of losing one of his warriors, Kaguya looked towards the place he had just helped VirginSmasher and saw several soldiers in black and pink cloaks. Where had they come from?! He had not noticed their arrival at all.
Despite having given him a second chance, VirginSmasher hadn't been able to do much at all.
"Hmph, what a waste." The soldiers from Nosebleed's team quickly surrounded Kaguya and pointed their weapons at him.
"This is the end Kaguya." The one who spoke up was Nosebleed's general, Mitchhamilton. From what Kaguya had heard, he had fallen in battle earlier. He must have been resurrected by Nosebleed right after.
"Haha. Right, end. Ok. Give me your best shot then." Lifting his arms in the air sarcastically, Kaguya simply stared back at the men with a carefree look.
"Tch, you bastard!" Stabbing Kaguya with his spear, Mitchhamilton was the first one to act. The spear tickled a little bit, but did not inflict any damage. Probably surprised at the inefficiency of his attack, Mitch ended up staring at his own weapon in shock for a few seconds.
"Alright, is the fun over? I'm going to go stand over there. You guys enjoy." Leaving his opponents behind, Kaguya simply walked away. One of the attackers seemed angered at his carefree attitude in such a situation and jumped at Kaguya. He never got close though. As his sword was moving through the air, a bolt of lightning shot out from the distance, knocking the blade along with its wielder back.
Three of Kaguya's soldiers, Velociraptor, Hitoribocchi and his general Greenshadow622 quickly came to their commander's aid.
"Took you guys long enough." Kaguya said in an emotionless voice as he walked away from the battle.
...
On the open field, six figures were visible. Three of the warriors were from Kaguya's team, and the other three from nosebleed's. Among the six were, from team Nosebleed: Mitchhamilton, Nebjula and Kiriririri. Kiriririri was unarmed, using his fists as weapons. Mitchhamilton held a long, gilded spear and Nebjula was holding two small maces, one in each hand. From Team Kaguya was, Velociraptor, Hitoribocchi and Greenshadow622. Velociraptor had a leather glove with metal claws, Hitoribocchi had a greataxe that he wielded with ease using only one hand, and Greenshadow622 had a black longsword and a big round shield. The atmosphere was heavy as the brave soldiers stared at each other. No one wanted to make the first move. As they stood there, waiting for their opponents to act, a dark cloud slowly covered the entire battlefield. Blocking the sun completely, a suffocating darkness consumed the area. As no one had yet spoken a word, a heavy silence was slowly driving them all crazy.
A few km away, in the aftermath of Nosebleed and Down's scuffle
Arcadeotic from team Kaguya was sitting on the charred ground, resting his tired body. Just minutes ago the two commanders, Down and Nosebleed, had been fighting each other. Compared to the strength of foot soldiers such as himself, their powers were from a completely different world. It took almost all his strength just to remain standing during their battle. They had struck at each other with weapons, fists and powerful magic, and each move had sent waves of energy throughout the surrounding area, leaving it a barren wasteland. The surreal duel had lasted a while but it was suddenly interrupted when ... That arrived. Standing in the centre of the battlefield with shimmering yellow eyes, a man clad in a black robe looked at the two commanders menacingly. In his hand was a big scythe, making him look like the grim reaper himself. The most surprising thing of all, he had stopped the two monster's attacks with his bare hands. What or who was that?
It seemed that the answer to that wouldn't come quite yet. As quickly as it had appeared, it once again vanished into thin air. But right before it did, something rather strange happened. The two commanders, that just seconds ago had been going at each other's throats, turned around and simply left. This was quite weird, and also a little unfortunate. If the two leaders had taken each other out, then Kaguya would have been the winner right then and there.
Seeing a sudden swift movement in the corner of his eye, Arc jumped sideways and grabbed his weapon, expecting a hostile. This was a good decision. Several kunai knives had suddenly hit the ground right where Arc was previously sitting. The kunai knives were coated in a strange, clear liquid, most likely poison. The kunai themselves were shimmering slightly in a deep green metal. Did that mean that the assailant was from team Down? Either way, it would be dangerous to be caught off guard for even a second against such a weapon. Just one cut and the poison would enter your veins. The most worrying part of it all though, was that his opponent was nowhere to be seen. Grasping his naginata tightly, Arc moved around in a circle, carefully looking around for his opponent. Among the displayed weapons during the combat preparations first day, he had picked something a little more unique; a naginata. It seemed that his opponent, whoever he was, had also picked something a little different. A naginata makes for a medium range weapon that can deflect swords and the likes with ease, but a fight against someone with a throwing weapon could prove tricky. It is not as easy to move the naginata around to deflect oncoming throwing knives, making it a poor weapon for defending against his opponent's attacks. Moreover, he could not see his opponent, meaning he would already be at a disadvantage once the next attack came. Still, he would not give up. He would not want to disappoint his commander. Taking a deep breath and focusing on his surroundings, Arcadeotic kept looking around for his enemy...
...
Still under the effect of his invisibility magic, Tiagofvarela moved quietly towards his opponent. The few kunai knives he had thrown earlier had missed by a hair. Now all he had left was his katana. His enemy, Arcadeotic from team Kaguya seemed to be quite the tough opponent. Despite not seeing Tiago at all until the second he attacked, Arc had managed to dodge all of the kunai knives completely. The poison that the knives were coated in would have killed him instantly if they even just nicked the skin.
Complimenting Arc's impressive reflexes silently in his head, Tiago made his move. The spell he was being hidden by only lasted while he was not putting any real strain on his body. Essentially what that meant was, if he attacked someone or did anything that required him to use his muscles beyond just simple movements, the effect would disappear.
Charging right at Arc, Tiago brought his katana down towards Arc's exposed back. Just like when he threw the kunai knives, Arc managed to notice Tiago just in the nick of time and turned around to deflect the attack. Sadly, because of his weapon being rather poorly matched in close combat, Tiago managed to cut Arc over his left shoulder. Using the opening this created to his advantage, Tiago spun around, nimbly moving out of the naginata's reach and cut at Arc's body once again. The previous cut had hit a barrier, but this one did not. Cutting through the soft skin on Arc's back, the katana made large amounts of blood stain Tiago's clothes in an ominous shade of red.
"Gaaaah!" Falling to his knees whilst letting out a pained scream, Arcadeotic lost his grip on the naginata and was completely defenseless. The katana had cut rather deep, most likely doing some damage to the spinal cord. The fight was over.
"Sorry, it really is nothing personal." With those words, Tiago swung his katana at Arc's neck, cutting through his carotid artery.
After a few seconds, Arc's lifeless body collapsed on the ground.
The sound of steel colliding with steel resounded throughout the open field. The sound was something one would not find anywhere else but on a battlefield such as this. This was a place of war. A place of death and pain. Among the six fighters who were lunging at each other with an intent to kill, only three would make it out alive.
...
Nebjula, Team Nosebleed vs Velociraptor team Kaguya
Striking at Velociraptor with his two maces, Nebjula put a great deal of strength into his legs and sharply moved forward. The violent attack took Velociraptor by surprise, and one of Nebjula's maces hit him in the stomach. His barrier barely managed to block most of the damage, but the impact still stent a tremor through his body. Because of his rather short range weapon made for assassinations, Velociraptor was having a hard time getting any attacks in at all. He had fought someone with a similar, brutal weapon before, but unlike the heavy battleaxe that he had faced then, these two maces were swift and relentless. Nebjula lifted one of the small but deadly maces above his head and brought it down towards Velociraptor. At the same time, he used the other mace to lunge at Velociraptor from the left side, making it hard for him to move around to dodge. The blow from above barely missed, but the second strike from the left collided with Velociraptor's cheek and knocked him down to the ground.
"D-Damnit!" Cursing to himself, Velociraptor did the best he could to stand up again, but the last attack had left him dizzy and disoriented. Not being able to figure out what way was up and what was down, he was unable to get back on his feet.
"No, no, NO! I can't lose like this! Damnit!" Not knowing what else to do, Velociraptor started yelling at himself.
Not long after, two maces swept through the air and struck him in the head. The ends of the maces did not have spikes like some others do, but in return they had a sharp edge on both sides of the top, making it a fearful weapon. The sharp metal edges bored into Velociraptor's skull, breaking through the bone with ease. After a gruesome sound of bone cracking, the area become completely silent. ..
Hitoribocchi team Kaguya vs Mitchhamilton team Nosebleed
"Raaaaaawr!" Swinging his greataxe down with all his might, Hitoribocchi attacked Mitchhamilton for what felt like the hundredth time. Each time he did, Mitchhamilton managed to block the attack and retaliate with a stab of his own. The spear was an unbelievably annoying adversary, as if Hito stepped a little too far back, he would be right in its kill zone. But if he stayed too close, it would be impossible for him to use his massive axe, meaning he would be as good as unarmed. The greataxe was a gigantic weapon, with a long blade smith with solid and thick metal. The spear that Mitch was using was rather thin and frail looking in comparison, so why was it that he was capable of blocking the powerful attacks with such ease?!
"You annoying little ... Take this!" Changing up his attack pattern once more, Hito turned his axe around in the air, trying to hit Mitch in the head with the flat side. It would be impossible to completely stop the attack with just a thin spear. The large piece of metal approached Mitch with great speed, and sure enough, he was unable to stop the impact with his spear alone. Being knocked off his feet, Mitch stumbled to the ground.
"This time I will carve you in half!" Lifting the axe above his head, Hito used both his hands to grip the handle, and whilst summoning all the strength in his body, he struck at Mitch. There was, of course, no way for him to block such a ruthless attack. But, Mitch did not need to block it. All he had to do was dodge. Rolling to the side just in time, the axe hit the ground, making a loud bang that made Mitch's ears ring. Since he had lost his spear whilst dodging the axe, Mitch had no weapon. The deafening roar of Hito's axe crashing down right next to his ear had made Mitch dizzy, but he fought through it and got to his feet. Kicking Hito in the chest with great force, he managed to separate Hito from his weapon too. They were now both unarmed.
"Yaaa!" Swiftly rushing towards Hito, Mitch moved his head down in order to dodge Hito's oncoming fist and rammed into his opponent with his shoulder. As he brought him to the ground, Mitch sat on top of his chest and locked his arms down with his own knees. Then, he started punching at Hito's face brutally. A few of the punches got stopped by the barrier protecting Hito, but after a some more hits, it gave in and Mitch's fists hit flesh and bone. Ruthlessly punching his opponent's face for a long time, Mitch started to notice that his hands were bleeding. When he finally snapped back to reality, the figure before him was no longer recognizable as a human being...
Kiriririri Team Nosebleed vs Greenshadow622, Team Kaguya
Greenshadow622 was carefully eying his opponent, waiting for him to make a move. Kiriririri was standing a few meters away with his fists raised, but he did not make a single movement. It had been like this for over a minute already. Greenshadow was getting agitated, but he remained adamant; he would not make the first move. His sword was raised slightly, pointing towards Kiri, and his shield was covering his chest region defensively. He was holding his shield about 15 cm out from his body, which meant Kiri had to strike at Greenshadow's feet or his back in order to get a clean hit. It would be rather difficult. For an opponent using only his fists, this was an unwinnable confrontation. Sadly for Greenshadow, Kiri was no longer alone. Two of his teammates had just finished up their fights, and approached Greenshadow with their weapons raised. Nebjula and Mitchhamilton had apparently defeated Greenshadow's comrades, and were turning to him next.
"Hmph. It can't be helped. Get it over with, you pathetic weaklings. I might die here, but it sure as hell won't be without putting up a proper fight." Nebjula flinched slightly at Greenshadow's words, probably due to the determination and pride still left in his voice despite the situation. Nebjula slowly raised his weapons and got in a battle stance... Then, he charged. Following Nebjula's example, Kiri and Mitch also attacked Greenshadow simultaneously. One of Nebjula's maces was blocked by Greenshadow's shield. He then twisted his body sideways, avoiding the oncoming spear thrust from Mitch's direction. Retaliating by stabbing at Mitch with his sword, Greenshadow was handling the attacks from two sides with ease. Trouble was, there was a third attacked. One of Kiriririri's fists bored into Greenshadow's ribs, crushing his barrier and pushing him to the ground. Once he was on the ground he knew that it was a lost cause. Still, he would continue fighting until his limbs were incapable of moving. Fists, maces and a spear kept on hitting him as he lay there, but he would not give up. Using his shield to deflect some of the attacks and his sword to push back the attackers, Greenshadow kept up his resistance for several minutes. All three of his attackers sustained cuts during the battle. But, in the end, there was no way he could come out alive. Who dealt the final blow was impossible to tell, but after a little while, Greenshadow stopped moving. His entire body was stained with blood, covered completely in broken bones, deep cuts and large bruises.
Team Kaguya, Greenshadow622-DEAD END
The cloaked reaper was standing alone in the darkness, staring down at the battlefield below him. He was imprisoned in a strange room with no furniture, no doors and no windows. It was a place of eternal night, where no stars would ever shine. For the entire duration of the battle, he had been locked up. He did not know why and he did not know how. The only thing he knew was; someone were controlling him. A dark, scary voice spoke in his head every now and then. It would call out to him and make him feel utter despair and dread. There was nowhere to run, nothing he could do...
"Prevent the commanders from fighting each other until the end, that is your purpose. That is the only reason you still live." The voice once again spoke to him and sent a powerful chill down his spine.
He could do nothing but nod his head in agreement...
Introduction:
So I´ve been on this forum for a decent amount of time now, and for those of you who encounter me in the chat you know: I love yuri. And during my many fallouts with Jade and his trap,(Which is evil ) I post pictures of yuri left and right, most of which are from SonoHana. I realize though that there are people out there who hasn't played these short and plotless amazing yuri games! Therefore, I will be making a blog post to tell you about something that no one should go their life without playing! Before I get started, do note that a lot of these games are translated, with only the newest releases remaining untranslated, BUT! These are fan translations, and the company releasing these games have shown dissatisfaction with the fan translations due to piracy. (There was a way to get the entire game extracted from the patch alone.) Because of this, please make sure you BUY THE GAME LEGALLY before installing a translation patch for these games. (Information on where to buy the games is in the bottom of the post, however, due to their bad reputation, links to the patches will NOT be in this post. Please use the google no-jutsu for that)
This is NOT the case for remembering how we met, which is the ONLY licensed translation as of right now. Hopefully this will change in the future
Ok so, I am talking about Sono hanabira ni kuchizuke o, a yuri VN franchise which has been releasing games for years now. Writers have come and gone, but the games have still remained somewhat the same, introducing a lesbian couple going to school at an all girls high school for daughters from rich families. The norm has been that each couple gets a minimum of 2 games, with some exceptions being released later on.
The games are rather short, cute and fluffy. Its primarily just about the two main characters, and other characters rarely even have sprites in the early games. (Yes I´m looking at you guys, class mate-A, class mate-B) This however, changes towards the newer games, where most characters have sprites and there are more CGs and voice acting from others than just the main characters.
Their short length and small amount of content aside, there is still something that makes these games very enjoyable, (except the yuri H-scenes ) and that is the characters and their interactions. I already talked about this a little bit in my previous blog post about sonohana nyuu jene, but I realize that if one haven't played previous games, you won't be able to relate to much I say in that one.
And so!
The characters and story
The characters in Sono Hanabira ni kuchizuke o are wonderful. Each one of the couples offer a set of unique and colorful characters. (Unique as in different from each other, not in a general sense. I know a tsundere isn't very unique characteristic in a visual novel.)
Among the many, many couples who have been introduced, we are going to be looking at, Yuuna x Nanami, the first couple introduced in the franchise, and Hazuki x Manami, one of the latest couples. The reason I´m doing this, thereby omitting a lot of the couples in the middle, is simply because of the first and the last aspect, and not because I like the others less or anything. (Though it does have to be said, these two are some of my favorites.) Which couple you will end up liking the most will be different for everyone. Each one of them has their own characteristics that makes you like them. (Or not like them. Though lets face it, no one dislikes yuri. Right?)
Let us start with Yuuna x Nanami, and the first Sono hana game released.
It came out in 2006, and tells the story of the cute, silly little Nanami who comes to a school way out of her comfort zone. Its a school filled with oujousama´s (daughters of rich families), and she really doesn't feel like she fits in. Her first day starts of bad as her uniform rips and she ends up hiding behind the school building, not going into the reception ceremony. Then, her guardian angel, the beautiful onee-sama Yuuna walks up and asks her if she needs help. She then goes on to patch up Nanami´s skirt. Instantly lovestruck, the next few months of Nanami´s life are dedicated trying to get into a planning committee where Yuuna is the leader. She wants to get closer to her onee-sama, and well, thats where the love aspect of the game beings. I won't spoil too much of the very small amount of story in the game, and will instead speak in a general way about the game.
Yuuna and Nanami start dating, and have to deal with issues in school and between each other. There is a simple choice system that will lead to either incomplete endings, or the true end which is quite cute.
The rest of the games that follow are made in a similar trend. Girl meets girl, couple meets X issue(s), try to resolve them together, happy end. The games are fairly short, about 5+ hours of reading if you listen to all the dialogue and 2 hours or so if you skip it as soon as the text is read. The games do vary a bit in length, and some later releases do have an increased length, (for example Nyuu Jene comes out over 10 hours,) but for the most part the games are fairly similar in this regard.
Moving over to Hazuki x Manami, we have a fairly different setting from Nanami x Yuuna. This couple is introduced in the 19th installment of the series, Nyuu Jene, which I´ve made a blog post on already here:
The character´s troubles are essentially the opposite of Yuuna x Nanami, but the actual characters Nanami and Hazuki are fairly similar. The reason I bring this up, other than them being the first and last couples, is to make a point; the characters have kind of been re-used at this point, (lets face it, Hazuki and Nanami are very similar.) But despite this the games are very different and the couple´s "worries" or what have you doesn't feel repeated at all. This is another factor that makes the SonoHana games enjoyable despite their short and "plotless" nature.
Navigation through the many titles; how does it work?
So, lets take a break from the story and the characters and talk a little about how to navigate through these games. It might look a little overwhelming and confusing, seeing as there are so many titles and the couples are in seemingly random orders. (Kind of...)
So far there are 20 games in the franchise. The games have little in common with each other, except A) games that are with a previously introduced couple, working kind of like a sequel, (example games 1 and 6 being yuuna x Nanami, 2 and 4 being Sara x Kaede) B) Games released after Nyuu Jene; These games seem to have the same characters repeated, at least for the moment, and all works as sequels. (After the next 3 are released, this might change. No word on those games are out as of yet.) Other than that, you can just pick a couple you like and play it, which means, YES, you CAN start with, lets say game nr. 3 then play 5 to get its sequel, and go back to lets say 1 and then play 6. Its pretty much just about finding the individual game´s sequel.
To make figuring out exactly which game offers what couples simple, literally just look it up on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sono_Hanabira_ni_Kuchizuke_o - Do note that this list currently does not have Revolution - Rinagisa (the newest game) listed, but this is a sequel to Nyuu Jene and offers Rina x Nagisa, but with the other characters as supportive characters with a role in the story. This will probably be added soon though. EDIT: Due to a strange edit on wikipedia, they have removed some of the newer games from the list ... Really don't know why. But if you display the page in Japanese instead, all 21 games are there. The games from 1-15 are on the English list.
Do note that the newest games, Nyuu Jene and the rest after are UNTRANSLATED, and have no fan translations as of yet.
Conclusion; why should you play these games and where to get them
So, why should you play these games? There are many rom-com slice of life games out there, and to be honest I cant really sell why this should be prioritized over the others without mentioning yuri. Damnit. Well, these games are short, simple, but still offer very enjoyable characters and relationships; they are pretty much getting right to the point without beating around the bush with an incredibly long common route and a bunch of filler characters that has little to do with the story. If you are looking for a short, cute, funny and enjoyable slice of life love story, picking up one or two of these games is not a bad idea at all.
As for where to get the games, most of them are available on english DLsite, here: (NSFW content!!)
http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/fsr/=/keyword_maker_name/fuguriya+RG05173/ana_flg/all/from/work.same_maker
For Nyuu Jene and the rest of the games you can't find on DLsite, you can buy them here: (Note that this is a Japanese site, but it DOES accept foreign credit cards. For a guide on how to navigate the site and make a purchase there, look at the blog post below.)
http://gyutto.com/i/item161082 (Nyuu Jene)
All of the games
Remembering how we met is available on steam or on mangagamer and is the only licensed SonoHana title:
http://www.mangagamer.com/detail.php?goods_type=0&product_code=149
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