Deep Blue

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

I know nobody cares about this type of translation in this forum (for obvious reasons, for once the novel is already translated and second nobody really speak spanish in this forum xD)
I'm doing a translation of himeko's epilogue and posting it here mostly to keep track of my own translation and have a place to share it.

At first it was going to be an eng>spa translation but there are some huge mistakes on the translation itself (specially on the atogaki 1980 story) and also many sentences that don't make much sense or silly grammar errors that shouldn't be there even if they are silly (tons of these)... I don't know the guy who did the translation but it seems that he just rushed it and cut corners in some places because of time restriction, with more time and someone checking the script it could have been a good work. 
I don't like to complain or shit on others work but come on they are charging for it...it's not a free fan-translation project.

Second by looking at the files itself (again with the huge help of Schwarzstorch who is editing the images, creating the patch etc) we found:
*Inside the files of himeko is almost the whole ame no marginal script  (untranslated) 
*The game "hides" the UI in some lazy way but you can still active it, just turn the windows transparency up or down and it will appear.
*They used the same engine from sorairo (probably in this whole 10th anniversary narcissu project and ame no marginal) they just changed the script and CGs (with same engine I don't mean majiro but they actually grabbed it as it was in sorairo and didn't change anything besides the script and CGs), this isn't so hard to spot, I mean check this image and if you check the menu you can still see options that don't make much sense in this game, like changing the color of previous choices (in a kinetic vn ) and so on.
*There are some files from the Mahjong minigame and many more things but you get the idea.
 
In conclusion, it's going to take more time to check line by line to see if there are errors than translating everything from 0 so in the end it's going to take more time than I thought, but it won't take more than a month, on a side note my original idea was to add 1993 short story into this patch but I don't know if that's legal or not (probably it's not) so I dropped it.
それだけだ
 
EN ESPAÑOL:
Para hacerlo breve ya que no tengo muchas ganas de escribir xD voy a realizar la traducción del epilogo de Himeko, mi idea era utilizar la traducción en ingles y pasarla al español pero debido a los muchos errores que tiene, gramaticales y también simplemente de mala traducción - el traductor utilizó atajos en oraciones complejas y se nota! - también hay cosas mal traducidas, ejemplo de algo muy tonto "１９８０ 中坊の日のこと。" como "The mid-1980s... those days..." en español es "En los mediados de los 80'... aquellos días" cuando debería decir algo como "Aquellas cosas que sucedieron en esos días de cuando era un alumno de secundaria en los 80'" xD queda medio feo así tan largo pero ya se dan un idea de lo que hablo. Ese kanji raro (difícilmente aparezca seguido en algún lugar viene de acá 中坊) es decir un estudiante de secundaria de ese periodo especifico, no de cualquier momento. (si no entendieron nada de lo que expliqué no importa!)
La traducción va a tomar 1 mes, ma o meno - cachito más cachito menos xD , dependiendo de las ganas que tenga de traducir , calculo que voy a traducir unas 30 lineas al día y son casi 1000, y eso es todo por ahora.

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

Visual Novel Translation Status (05/28/2016)
Sorry for late blog post here. For the title, this week I choose ultimate title (You knew what I mean if you play Dangan Ronpa) and since the image header was from Homeless School Girl VN, so I'd use Homeless Girl (I'm not using school since the synopsis indicate that the girl couldn't attend school) from the VN title. Okay, about the VN itself, I'd read the VNDB discussion and let's just said that the girl was suffered many rape and humiliation, especially from her step father. Oh, and by the way thanks for translating Homeless School Girl, Deep Blue even though maybe the VN wasn't too much cheery for me and too heavy (Also quite dark from VNDB discussion).
Welcome to my VNTS Review for this week here. For catch up from last week, I'm sorry to said about Angel Beats (AB) translation team who must stop their work for translating it because Visual Art decided to translated AB by themselves. Oh, and by the way we also had news about Ixrec working to translating Rewrite + VN. As for my comment, maybe Rewrite was kind of divisive, but since we'd promised that there will be improvement about the scenario I wonder what kind of reaction we'll see later. AB once again not interested so much right now because it was only volume one, while KEY obviously will add more AB volume in the future. Let's see it later.
For fan translation project, we had another one established here. As for the progress, right now it was quite hard to said but the translator promised us that the moment he update the progress, it'll be at least around 75%. For the VN itself, it was some sort of nukige with fantasy world setiing and loser MC. And for the woman, we'll had big breast one. Not on my list of looking forward though, but good luck on the project though and hopefully this VN will satisfied any big breast fan in the future if it's translated.
About Indie Go Go (IGG), looks like it'll be trend in the future for localizing VN. At least it was had advantage over Kickstarter with flexible fund ie if the project didn't managed to get funded in time, the project itself could be extended compared to Kickstarter which couldn't be extended if it's failed (I guess). Also, apparently it was more flexible for the project with 18+ content ie not as restrictive as Kickstarter in term of adult content. For the report, this week we had 2 projects entering IGG (Corona Blossom and Princess Knight).
For Corona Blossom, right now it was gathered around 8,329 out of 30,000 (Half of it thanks to some backer who backed at 4,000 though), and while the goal was quite small some member here said it was probably for promotion for the VN itself. And this time Princess Knight was very surprisingly almost achieved the goal, with 10,864 out of 12,000 funded. Both VN was said will be delivered at this year, and both of IGG still had one month left for deadline. Let's see it later for both of IGG, although obviously Princess Knight will fully funded first obviously. And before forget, my condolence for Princess Knight MC seiyuu, Mochi Yomigi here who passed away at 30 years old.
Sekai Project
Well, not much here other than Maitetsu picked up again at 15.68% translation progress and WEE at 86.52%. And I think I'd said enough about Princess Knight above. For Darekoi and Memory Dogma, it was had some nice progress (78.75% for Darekoi and 42.15% for Memory Dogma) although I'm still not interested with those 2 though. And for 2 new announced VN here, Sekai was surprisingly fast at translating it (Although the VN length for those 2 was short though). By the way, the progress for both new announced VN was at 50.11% for 2236 AD and 47.08% for Love, Guitars, and the Nashville Skyline (Don't know much other than it was probably about guitar play thing). Other than those progress, not much ie no Chrono Clock and Tenshin Rahman progress once again.
Mangagamer
For 2 weeks update roundup we already had Kyonyuu (Or Funbag) Fantasy was fully translated and edited, Kuroinu at 70% translated, Imopara 2 at 46% translated, Pygmalion was at 100% translated, MYTH was about entering beta testing, and Da Capo 3 was at 94.7% translated and 91.3% edited. For nukige progress, no comment other than the progress for Kyonyuu was very fast for just recently announced VN (Or maybe Mangagamer was already did all the work, including partnering with Waffle and keep it secret before announcing it). For Pygmalion, let's see how much fast the editing will be, although hopefully it won't be too long. For Da Capo 3, actually it was had the true route translated and what's left is only epilogue/omake thing. Looks like Da Capo 3 translation will definitely finished before July, and hopefully in next 2 weeks we'll see 100% at translation progress for Da Capo 3.
Fan Translation
For Astral Air, after crazy progress from last week, it was slowed down again at 0.95% progress from last week (I'm still grateful of course) bringing the overall translation progress to 79.71%. Koiken Otome, looks like the VNTS was wrong although we had the QC update though from 86.71% to 87.71%. For Koiken Otome itself, although the game might get not so good review, just try to low your expectation very low in case you want to play it ie not expecting action like Tokyo Babel even though the premise was quite promising for that of course. Hanasaki, after reading Clephas review (He was slightly dislike it though) I think the prologue was indeed mean common route and right now it was 100% translated. About the next route for Hanasaki, they said they'll translated Hikari's route next according to this post.
Majokoi translation team just had the update after VNTS was finished, so I'll report the progress here. For the progress, it was at 5% translated and 3% edited. This is definitely good progress if I may said. Tsui Yuri, since Dergonu was faced the challenge with the name Math test (I understand) the progress was not much compared to last week, although it was still good though (3% progress, and the translation progress right now was at 25%). For last update, since Arcadeotic also busy with exam, there's not much progress in Bishoujo Mangekyou translation (The progress was at 4.7% translated for 8th script). Well, not much progress, but nevertheless good job for updating it even though both of you were busy.
And last word for Fan Translation progress, there is another new translation project for VN called Mahou Shoujo. Here's the page, and if some of you want to offer help just ask Chronopolis there.
That's all for my VNTS Review. And I think this week was quite usual ie not much excitement after many crazy time in April (I mean back in April we'd had many big release for translated VN). See you next week in my VNTS Review. Oh, and thanks for your interview with Sekai Project, Decay.

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

So... I can't sleep and since I was really bored I decided to write this tips about doing a translation in general (or ramblings whatever you want to call them xD ) this is aimed for those who are starting a project or want to start a new one.

*I'll start by saying that If you really want to translate something just do it, don't pay attention to anyone just do it, nobody can stop you from doing it aside from yourself! (and maybe a C&D letter but that's a whole different topic that I wont address right now xD). 
*Before starting a project be sure that you LOVE the vn you want to translate or you are  getting paid for the job in that case what you want it doesn't really matter xD , you are going to work hours with the same text, fixing errors, reading over and over the same lines so if you don't actually love the vn you are working with sooner or later you are going to give up and drop it.
*This point might sound silly having the previous one but read the vn at least 2 times before starting the translation, you really need to know the plot and every little aspect of it, if you don't understand the plot or some parts of it, how a character thinks or why he/she acts the way it does etc you wont be able to do a good job, this is essential!

*Internet is you friend, if you don't understand something google it, you will find the answer sooner or later, if you search in Japanese is better, most of the time someone in yahoo or some similar website already asked that question (yes I've seen japanese people asking for some really basic stuff there!) there are tons of webs where you can find examples of a word if you don't understand how it works in some specific context (weblio for example) and last you have fuwa and some great users who are always willing to help you out. I hate asking for help so I try to avoid it as much as, also the satisfaction for achieving something for yourself is much more rewarding than just asking and having the answer served for you.

*Work a little bit every day, eat the whale one bait at a time.

* And last but not less important, have fun while you are doing it, if it's not fun then it's not worth it! Most importantly translate for yourself! Don't translate something because someone else might like it or because is really popular (I'm looking at you moe vns), you are wasting your time, this might sound selfish but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, eventually you are going to drop it.

Now this is something I asked myself a lot of times and I was sure I had the answer but I didn't...
Did I improve my Japanese because of the translation aka "Do you learn Japanese by translating something"? It's hard to say, I did learn several sexual terms, if that counts for something... even some really obscure ones that I want to forget Overall I don't think so (yes Decay was right on this one) if you get stuck too often then it's probably a good idea to postpone the translation for a few months, learn more and get back to it later on. (This is what I did the first time I started translating this vn 4 or 5 months ago)
And that's pretty much it 

I want to thank everyone that helped me throughout this project, Schwarzstorch who hacked the game, edited most of the images and helped me out with pretty much everything (he worked for more than 2 hours with a picture of a dick lol sorry dude!!)  Outofthebox for helping me out with the editing (oh boy did I bother him xD) to Arcadeotic for editing the text too, XReaper for all the amazing advice, MikeY91 for being the first beta tester and Tyrosyn for testing the patch and giving such an amazing feedback, finally to all the guys who helped me in the Japanese help thread.

Until next time じゃあな

For my first ever attempt at a review, I did not want to try anything too ambitious. So it is that I present you Secret Agenda, a (very) short but sweet kinetic novel/nukige by GDIdoujins

This game has a rather unusual premise; It is told from the second-person perspective of a mysterious woman addressing you/the nameless male, whom she is seducing
I personally felt that this writing style works really well with the central theme of femdom, but I can imagine it feeling strange to a lot of people. The same applies to the extremely thick and descriptive prose, which spends most of the VN talking about things like the smell, attitude and (misplaced) expectations of her partner and how satisfied she is knowing that she has complete control over him. This kind of writing created some rather extreme expectations for me. the sex scene, unfortunately, did not really meet those expectations, as it felt rather tame and consensual for femdom. overall though, it'll still make for a great fap, even if you're only a little into femdom
The only two real downsides of this VN to me were the rather forgettable music (though it was not really grinding or distracting for me either) and the lack of sound effects. now generally, sound effects in nukiges are not that good anyway, so I didn't exactly miss them here, but some moans would certainly have been nice.
The two things that really make this game worthwhile though, are it's art and voice acting.

Artwise, I love it. The CGs (there are no sprites or backgrounds) are rough, yet elegant and colourful. it's what really drew me in to try this game out and it created a great atmoshpere, which I always care a great deal about. The H is pretty decent as well, though it's nothing really amazing.
The English voice acting, albeit as thick and exaggerated as the writing, is very good, very sensual, and overall, just HNNNNNNGGGG all the way.
while this game is extremely short (30 minutes max) the quality is undeniable and you can get it for the price of 2 dollars through the dev's patreon, with a release planned on nutaku as well
My verdict: don't hesitate to try it. If it sounds fun to you, it won't dissapoint

Some people here already know that I hurt my knee falling down the stairs a while ago... what most of you don't know is that the stuff they have me on (non-narcotic pain drugs, sleep pills, and antibiotics) in combination make me a zombie for most of the day... I sleep around twelve hours a day, am fuzzy for two to three hours more, have to do rehab exercises for another two hours, and I spend around four hours of what is remaining working. 
Needless to say, this doesn't leave much time for anything else... which is why VN of the Month is so far behind.  Normally, by this point I would have played through at least four or five of the month's VNs, and I would probably be considering which one - if any - was worth the VN of the month rating... as it is, it has taken me a little over seventeen days to finish just two VNs from April's releases. 
I'm basically venting my frustration right now... since I lose money with every day I can't work at full capacity and I go a little more stir crazy with every day I can't go out and get some fresh air without using crutches.  For the first time in almost nine years, I actually had to use up my entire pay for a month for bills and food  (the medical bills being the highest, obviously). 
Needless to say, I'm in a sour mood.
If I seem harsh toward the remaining VNs this month, please forgive me.  It is really, really hard to concentrate outside of work right now... and I'm actually having to reconsider a lot of my plans for the rest of the year based on the costs I project for the rest of the next few months.  Nothing pisses me off more than being unable to rectify everyday money problems (which is why I work so much normally)....
Anyway, that's enough moaning from me for now.  The two key points are that the above are the reasons VN of the Month is so far behind and I so rarely post, despite the fact that I'm technically 'online' (I rarely if ever shut down the fuwanovel tab, lol) all the time.  If I'm slow to respond, it is because I'm not myself, not because I'm not interested in doing so.

The last GM standing Q&A:
 
Link to the thread:

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...


 
Team Nosebleed, Nebjula- DEAD END

Team Down, FinalChaos- DEAD END

Team Down leader, Down-DEAD END

_________________________________________________________________

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.

What should he do? ...

_________________________________________________________________

The final battle, Nosebleed

vs

Kaguya, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 and Jade

....


 
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.

"I'm sorry..."

The end?...

_________________________________________________________________

The last GM standing Q&A:
 
Link to the thread:

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.
 
 
 
Who would come out victorious?
 
 
 
To be continued
 
 
 
________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
Deaths this week:
 
 
 
 
 
Team Nosebleed: Kingdomcome (REAL)
 
 
 
 Team Down: Fred the Barber, Kawasumi, Babiker
 
 
 
Team Kaguya: Dergonu
 
 
 
________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
List of currently remaining members!!
 
 
 
 
 
#Team Nosebleed: Members: Nebjula (-1life)
 
 
 
#Team Down: Members: FinalChaos
 
 
 
#Team Kaguya: Members: Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Jade
 
 
 
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 
 

This is going to be a guide on how to buy digital VNs legally on Gyutto, using Tsui Yuri ~ as an example.
 
This can indeed be done from a foreign IP adress, so no proxy is needed. That being said, the entire website is in Japanese, so here is a guide with pictures and steps, walking you through it. (NOTE! You must be 18+ in order to make purchases here, obviously.)
 
 
NOTE: NSFW PICTURES ON THE SITE!
Link to the Tsui Yuri ~ purchase page
 
 
 
Go ahead and add the game to your cart, like this:
 
 
Now go ahead and click LOG IN AS GUEST. For those of you who cannot read moon runes, click the box with the big red circle. Note, should they ever change the layout of their site, just find the big box with these moon runes and click it. (NOTE AGAIN! Slightly NSFW content in one part of the picture.) Yes, I will be saying NOTE a lot in this guide. Deal with it  
 
 
Now select credit card and continue. (Yes foreign credit cards works.)
Now just hit confirm and move over to the purchase page. (Just ... just follow the big red circles.)
And here we are at the big screen of death. Actually, what goes where is uber simple to understand, but if all you see is gibberish, don't worry. Here is the list of what goes where. (Once again, should they ever change the layout of their site, remember which one of these corresponds with what information, and fill it out.)
 
 
 
List of the required info in order:
 
credit card number
 
expire date
 
security code
 
Full name
 
Email adress. (THIS MUST BE YOUR REAL EMAIL! IT IS IMPORTANT!)
 
Confirm your email adress (AGAIN, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT.)
 
 
 
Now click the button on the bottom with red under it and continue.
 
 
 
Now it takes you to a screen saying an email has been sent, and it lists your order number etc. (You will see your email on the page, and if you managed to put in your real email, you did good. If not... Then just ... ugh..)
 
 
 
 
You will now have gotten an email with the download link and a unique password. THE PASSWORD IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! WIHTOUT IT, YOU CANNOT ACTIVATE YOUR GAME!
 
In the email there is a URL called "guest login." Click the link, and then move down and find your game. Hit download.
 
NOTE!
 
Seeing as you are a guest, you have 1 week to download your game. The game files themselves are movable obviously, so once you have them, you can put them on an external hardrive, but the download link will disappear after 1 week.
 
The password you got in your email WILL WORK EVEN AFTER 1 WEEK. It will be the password you use to activate the game. (EVERY COMPUTER MUST ACTIVATE THE GAME 1 TIME BEFORE USE.) So write this password down or save the email containing it.
 
If we look here, we can see that the text in the circle says the game download is expired, where as the one on the top, tsui yuri, is downloadable. Click the big download button of your new game.
 
 
 
Now, extract the game files with WinRaR or whatever.
( Copy your password to the clipboard or remember it. )
 
And here we are! You have your game downloaded, and only one step remains! Putting in your password and Email once. The first time you open the program, it should look like this: (Note that the .exe file will be called something different for each game, obviously.)
 
 
And now fill in the information. (THE TOP FIELD IS FOR YOUR EMAIL, THE BOTTOM FIELD IS FOR THE UNIQUE PASSWORD.)
 
 
If you did everything correctly, you will now have your game working and ready. The next time you open it up, you will not need a password to access it. (Every new IP adress will though. So, if you move the files to your work computer or whatever, you will need to activate it again using the password.)

The last GM standing Q&A:
 
Link to the thread:

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 fires of hell
 
 
 
The air was scorching hot, making breathing in itself a task. Large amounts of pitch black smoke rose from the inextinguishable fires that raged throughout the battlefield. The ground was stained in fresh blood, and the corpses of several brave warriors were spread around in the burning hot sand.
 
......
 
Eclipsed was making his way towards the sound of a woman screaming. Just seconds ago he had been searching for his wounded comrades when he could hear the sound of blades clashing and people shouting. Then, a terrible scream resounded throughout the desert, followed by silence. And there, standing over the corpses of two figures dressed in Nosebleed's robes, stood a member from Team Down. The man was holding a blood stained katana. His green garb was also showered in fresh blood. The dead man at his feet was headless, and the woman lying a few feet away was submerged in a great pool of blood.
 
The man turned his head towards Eclipsed and stared right at him.
 
"Tch..." Eclipsed clicked his tongue over being discovered. It had been such a great opportunity to perform a surprise attack. But it did not matter. Eclipsed did not waver and kept on approaching his enemy, Tiagofvarela. Seeing as the man was a general, he was not an easy opponent. Eclipsed had to attack with all his strength in order to win. He had to use... That.
 
"O keeper of flame, creator of light,
 
thou who maintains life itself,
 
lend me the power to set ablaze a thousand enemies,
 
bestow upon me the strength of thee,
 
O keeper of flame, creator of light."
 
Coming to a sudden stop mere meters away from his target, Eclipsed chanted such words of power and brought his hands together, as if praying. Upon hearing his opponent chanting, Tiago launched an attack, but Eclipsed's body was enveloped in a vortex of fire just as the blade was about to connect. The katana bounced of the flames as if they were solid, and a deep red flame started burning though the metal. The tip of the blade started melting quickly upon being scorched by the immense heat.
 
"W-What the ... You little..." Expressing his irritation and surprise at the sudden turn of events, Tiago took a step back and picked up the spear of the fallen Mitchhamilton. The weapon was stained in wet blood, but otherwise in good condition.
 
A few seconds later, the vortex of flame subsided. In the spot where Eclipsed was standing, a massive sword had appeared out of nowhere. The blade was completely orange, glittering like the coal at the bottom of a fire. The blade was more than two meters long, and looked almost impossible to handle. The hilt was formed like a claw of some monstrous creature, and the entire weapon was shining so brightly it almost hurt Tiago's eyes just looking at it. It was a scary sight indeed. Fighting against such a weapon on his own would be reckless. Eclipsed raised the massive greatsword over his head and brought his arms down. The simple motion created a giant wave of flame that washed over a big area in front of him. Tiago swiftly sidestepped, but a part of his leg was caught in the scorching heat. The energy still left in his barrier withered and faltered, leaving his leg badly burnt.  
 
"Kuuh..." Wielding another person's weapon and facing off against an immensely powerful flame incarnation, Tiago was truly in a tough spot. There was no choice. He had to call for help. Bringing his hands to the warm sand below, he quickly drew two symbols with the tips of his fingers. Because the weapon Eclipsed was wielding required such an immense amount of power, he was not able to attack again right away, and Tiago was able to finish creating the two summoning circles. After uttering a few words in order to activate the spell, the two circles erupted into pure light and tore a hole in the earth itself. Tiago's intent was to summon three of his warriors to the battlefield, but right as he started calling for them, Eclipsed was ready to attack once more. Failing to keep his concentration as another wave of flame approached him, the summoning spell went out of control and pulled several unwanted people into the battle...
 
...
 
"Ahh, what the hell just happened? I was just about to kill some idiot from Nosebleed's army... Ohhh, wait a minute. Looks like I still get that chance after all."
 
Gijimu, Team Kaguya.
 
"... Hey, Tiago, are you the one who called us here?.. And here I was thinking I'd get a day off from this fighting..."
 
Turnip Sensei, Team Down.
 
"Hmm... Well, I have nothing better to do. Might as well join the party."
 
 Valmore, Team Nosebleed.
 
 
 
Because of the chaotic summoning spell, several people from different teams were pulled into the fight.
 
Looking at the spectacle in front of him with a carefree expression, Valmore lifted up his pickaxe and faced towards the closest enemy. Valmore's weapon of choice was rather peculiar; a miner's pickaxe with two spikes at each end instead of one.
 
"Well then, time to crack some skulls open." Performing a big swing with his pickaxe, Valmore smashed the weapon into the ground where Turnip Sensei from Team Down had just been standing. Barely avoiding the strike, Turnip Sensei retaliated with a hard punch. The attack didn't reach Valmore, so he did not even bother dodging it. But as Turnip Sensei's fist stopped, a powerful shockwave connected with Valmore and threw his body several meters back. The punch had been mixed with magic, and had created a really strong shockwave.
 
"Huh. Now that's a cool trick." Suddenly hearing a voice coming from right behind him, Turnip Sensei brought back his elbows with great force, trying to hit the person who spoke. But both blows hit nothing but air.
 
"Hah. Can't hit me with something so simple I'm afraid." The figure of a person dressed in red appeared before him. It was Gijimu from Team Kaguya. He held no weapons, just like Turnip Sensei, and was standing ready in a battle stance. His left arm was held in front of his body in a guarding position, and his right arm as resting right next to his waist, ready to strike at his opponents.  
 
"Now you've done it!!!" Valmore had gotten back on his feet and was once again rushing towards Turnip Sensei.
 
"A free for all huh? This should be fun." As Gijimu commented on the situation, Valmore reached their location. With violent movements, he attacked both Gijimu and Turnip Sensei. The pickaxe moved swiftly through the air, and was actually a little hard to dodge for Turnip Sensei. Gijimu on the other hand, nimbly jumped away from the weapon and brought his fist into Valmore's side. The punch bounced off Valmore's barrier, but cracks started forming in the pink shield, indicating that it was running out of energy. It looked like Gijimu was skilled in hand to hand combat. Valmore was trained in fighting with a weapon and lastly Turnip Sensei used magic in the form of shockwaves. A rather obscure mix.
 
The three clashed once again, and the ground shook as several battles unfolded at the same time in the blazing hot desert.
 
...
 
Kingdomcome Team Nosebleed vs Flutterz Team Down vs Duyy Team Kaguya.
 
Flutterz was running away from the relentless rain of crossbow bolts. His enemy was positioned nearly 50 meters away, and it was impossible to get close to him. Flutterz used a sword, and although he was fairly well versed in magic, it was difficult to find any openings to cast spells due to the constant onslaught of bolts. His opponent, Kingdomcome from Team Nosebleed, must have been using magic to operate the crossbow, as the bolts were fired nonstop with great accuracy. Also caught in the crossfire was Duyy from Team Kaguya. She was doing a good job of dodging the crossbow bolts, but she was also incapable of getting any closer to the attacker.
 
"Come on .... Is there no way to get an opening?!" Cursing to himself, Flutterz knocked down two oncoming projectiles with his sword. The entire desert was enveloped in a blazing heat, created by both the hot sun and the gigantic sword of fire that Eclipsed from Team Kaguya was using. Eclipsed was quite a distance away, fighting a battle of his own, but the heat still reached all the way over to Flutterz.
 
Suddenly, a loud rumbling made Flutterz' body jump in surprise. As he turned over to see what was happening, a massive wall of solid rock had erupted from the earth, and was blocking the path between himself and Kingdomcome. It seemed that the person who made the wall was none other than Duyy. How did she find the time to summon such a powerful protective spell with the relentless attacks constantly interrupting her? Well, no matter. This was his chance.
 
Firmly grabbing his sword, Flutterz started rushing towards the massive rock wall. Kingdomcome had started moving as well, and leapt up in the air, running up the wall. He must have been using magic to make his feet stick to the surface.
 
"Tch. At this rate, he'll get an even better sniping position." The wall was a good 20 meters tall, and if Kingdomcome got up there, he would have a perfect location to snipe everyone on the ground. Knowing he had to stop him, Flutterz finally had a few seconds to cast a spell.
 
Stopping in his tracks, Flutterz closed his eyes and aimed his arms at the top of the rock wall, where Kingdomcome was headed. Gathering his energy and focusing it into his fingertips, he cast a quick but powerful spell.
 
A big magic circle appeared before him, and hundreds of tiny pellets of pure energy were fired at Kingdomcome with immense speed and power. The perfectly circular pellets were shining brightly in a pink light. A massive cloud of smoke erupted from the stone wall as it broke apart from the attack. Large chunks of rock fell from the wall and crashed into the sand. Focusing on maintaining the spell, Flutterz did not move from his spot, shooting down any rubble that fell towards him with the energy pellets. The spell lasted for a good minute. As nearly nothing was left of the great rock wall, Flutterz let go of the spell, and the magic circle vanished. The feeling of a massive amount of energy leaving his body made Flutterz feel tired. Because of the smoke and rubble, it was impossible to see if Kingdomcome had survived the attack. Before Flutterz had time to scout the area though, Duyy suddenly jumped him. Throwing four great boulders from the rubble at Flutterz, she was trying to use the opportunity to take him out right after he cast a spell. Sneaky move.
 
There was no way he had time to cast another spell, and so he had to use his sword to slice the stones in two. His blade was sharp and imbued with magic, so it was no trouble. Problem was, Duyy was only using the rocks as a distraction, and had been charging a new spell during the time Flutterz used to deflect the boulders. Duyy brought her hands together and chanted a spell, then smashed them both into the sand below. Because she was still quite some distance from Flutterz, he was incapable of hearing her chant and had no idea what kind of spell was coming. Right after, a great deal of big spikes made out of rock sprouted from the ground. The spikes started right in front of her and quickly moved towards Flutterz.  There was no way for him to avoid them on the ground. He had to grow wings and fly away to get away from them, something he obviously couldn't do.
 
"... Crap."
 
As the wave of rock spikes reached his feet, the sensation of his own bones being crushed to bits made him want to throw up. An unbearable pain welled up from his legs as the rock smashed through his knees.
 
"GRUAAAAA!" Letting out a feral scream, Flutterz tried to move from the spot but was completely immobilized. The last thing he saw was a blue light; the flickering of a crossbow bolt moving towards his face from a distance.
 
So he did surivive huh? ... With that thought, Flutterz' consciousness faded.
 
....
 
Duyy was looking at the impaled body of Team Down's flutterz. Her surprise attack after Flutterz cast a spell had been successful, and he had been crushed to death by her spikes. Or so she thought.
 
"Game over sweetheart." As a voice coming from behind made her spin around awkwardly, five crossbow bolts ripped through her barrier and pierced her chest.
 
"Kuuh..." Warm blood was running down her body as her legs gave in under her.
 
"Y-You... B-Bastard..." As she let out her final words through clenched teeth, she collapsed.
 
After confirming that both targets were indeed dead, Kingdomcome sat down in the sand and started treating his wounds. A large amount of the energy pellets had hit his body earlier, and he had broken several ribs, as well as his left arm. He had barely been able to fire his crossbow after. Lucky for him, the two enemies had thought him dead, and he had gotten a chance to shoot them from a distance.
 
"Guah... This hurts more than I thought it would ... Just going to take a quick rest." Talking to himself in a strained voice, Kingdomcome let his body fall backwards into the soft sand and took some time to collect his strength.
 
Team Down, Flutterz- DEAD END.
 
Team Kaguya, Duyy- DEAD END.
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Dergonu and Eclipsed Team Kaguya, vs Totodile and Tiagofvarela Team Down.
 
 
 
Totodile was standing next to Tiago, creating a shield to protect both himself and his general. Totodile was a great magic user, and had been summoned by Tiago in order to protect him against the scorching hellfire that Eclipsed was wielding. The power inside the blade Eclipsed had summoned went completely out of control, and Eclipsed was no longer capable of containing it, sending massive waves of fire in all directions. Dergonu, Eclipsed's teammate, was also having trouble staying away from the flames due to their chaotic nature.
 
"Totodile, I'm going in for another attack, back me up."
 
"Gotcha." Bringing his hands together and concentrating on his surroundings, Totodile made waves of water appear from magic circles positioned throughout the battlefield. The weapon Eclipsed was using was a truly powerful fire incarnation, meaning mere water wasn't able to extinguish it, but it could at the very least weaken it temporarily. Sending the water in a giant wave towards Eclipsed, Totodile focused his attacks on the massive blade. As the water collided with the flaming weapon, a deafening hissing sound followed by big puffs of smoke were produced. Tiago rushed towards his enemy, spear in hand. He got up close to Eclipsed and jabbed at his chest. The spear made contact with Eclipsed's skin and pierced it, leaving a small hole. Eclipsed jumped backwards just as the spear hit, and because of that he had avoided a lethal hit. Still, the wound was bleeding quite badly.
 
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Totodile prepared another magical attack. He focused on the two nearest magic circles and created large arrows out of water. But ...
 
"Raaaaaawr!" Suddenly, a shout coming from his left made him lose control of the magic. Then, a strong impact to his entire left side made his body scream in pain. His barrier was crushed and several bones were broken as Dergonu's massive mace hit him by surprise. Totodile was thrown backwards, but somehow managed to land on his feet.
 
"Y-You ..." Pointing his still functional hand at Dergonu, Totodile started charging another magical attack. He knew there was no time for something too powerful. Firing a small blade made out of water at his opponent, he tried to push Dergonu back. Sadly, the giant mace knocked the magic out of the air fairly simply, and Dergonu rushed in for another attack. Totodile tried to jump to the side, but his left leg wouldn't budge. The giant mace collided with his head, and the world around him went pitch black...
 
....
 
Tiago was doing his best keeping Eclipsed in check. The massive weapon of hellish fire was completely out of this world, and every attack sent massive waves of flames towards his body. He had been able to diminish its effect with Totodile's magic, but for some reason it had suddenly stopped. The situation did not look good... Tiago had managed to wound Eclipsed two times, cutting his right arm and his chest, but neither of the wounds were fatal. It was clear that Eclipsed was almost out of energy from using the weapon for so long, but Tiago couldn't let his guard down for a second. One single direct hit, and he would be turned into ashes right then and there.
 
"Kuh..." Trying to fend off the immense heat, Tiago clenched his teeth and focused all his remaining strength on simply staying upright. Eclipsed was moving really slowly... All Tiago needed to do was land one more hit ... Just one ... More...
 
"Damnit..." It was too late. Tiago's barrier had already been broken earlier in the fight, meaning he had essentially no protection against the heat without Totodile there to help. His body was completely burnt, and he was no longer capable of standing.
 
"T-This is how it ends, huh?" Looking up at the sky, a bitter smile spread across Tiago's face.
 
"I-I served you well, right Lord Down?.." As he asked that question, the giant flaming sword moved towards his defenseless body and a massive explosion of fire and smoke enveloped the area.
 
...
 
Team Down, Tiagofvarela and Totodile- DEAD END
 
....
 
"Good job Eclipsed. You outdid yourself." Looking up at the source of the sudden voice, Eclipsed slightly raised his head. His entire body was aching. He was unable to move much, and his eyesight was completely blurred. All he saw white haze.
 
"K-Kaguya...Sama?..." Squeezing out those words, Eclipsed felt his consciousness slowly fade away.
 
Kaguya caught Eclipsed as he lost consciousness.
 
"You there, take him back to base." Speaking to Dergonu in an indifferent tone of voice, Kaguya handed Eclipsed's body over. Then, he turned around and gripped the giant greatsword lying a few feet away. Because the summoner had lost control over it, it would soon explode unless someone sent it back to hell form which it came. Gripping the hilt tightly, Kaguya closed his eyes and funneled some of his energy into the blade. The scorching flames meant nothing to him, and soon after, the blade vanished in thin air. Eclipsed had done something extremely reckless, summoning such a might weapon on his own. Even someone like Kaguya would struggle if he wielded it for too long.
 
"Well then... Let's go take a nap." Not caring about the fights still going on around him, Kaguya created a portal in front of him and walked through it, appearing back into his base.
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Valmore Team Nosebleed vs Turnip Sensei Team Down vs Gijimu Team Kaguya
 
Turnip Sensei blocked an oncoming fist and retaliated with a shockwave. The magical attack was dodged by the swift melee fighter Gijimu, but the more sluggish Valmore was struck in the chest. With Valmore knocked to the ground for the time being, Gijimu and Turnip Sensei traded blows. Gijimu was much faster, but in return, his attacks did not contain as much strength as Turnip Sensei's. In addition, Turnip Sensei was a magic user, where as Gijimu used only physical attacks. Twisting his body in mid air, Gijimu brought his leg back and hit Turnip Sensei in the face. Gijimu followed up by performing a perfect backflip and landed calmly on his feet. Sadly for him, right after, a pickaxe dug into his foot.
 
"Hahaha! Got you, you stupid ninja!" It seemed Valmore had pretended to be down in order to get a sneak attack in against the swift Gijimu. The pickaxe had gone through his barrier and dug a deep hole his foot. Gijimu said nothing, and simply kicked Valmore's head with his good leg.
 
"OW! What the ... How the hell are you still standing you little..." Before Valmore could finish his sentence, a shockwave approached from the left. Since his leg was caught by the pickaxe, Gijimu was also unable to dodge it. The shockwave blew both Valmore and Gijimu over, making them collapse in the warm sand. Turnip Sensei sprinted towards Valmore and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up in the air.
 
"L-Let me go you big brute..."
 
"Shut up!" Turnip Sensei shouted as he smashed his own forehead into Valmore's face. A loud crack could be heard, signaling that Valmore's nose broke.
 
"OWW!" As Valmore screamed in pain, Turnip Sensei lifted him above his head and threw him away. Valmore, who was flying through the air, suddenly smiled. There was blood streaming down his face due to the broken nose, making his smile seem even more crazy. Turnip Sensei suddenly realized why he was smiling. As Valmore was tossed, he had brought his hand holding his pickaxe upwards. Because of the velocity of the throw, the arm had moved quickly, and the pickaxe dug into Turnip Sensei's throat. As Valmore flew away, the pickaxe ripped out a chunk of Turnip Sensei's trachea, making large amounts of blood spew out. Valmore hit the ground a few meters back, looking at his blood stained pickaxe.
 
"Well, one down, one to g..." Before he could finish the sentence, a fist approached his face and hit him right in the nose.
 
"AAAAHHH! FOR THE LOVE OF..." Holding his already broken nose, trying to stop the bleeding, Valmore shouted. Gijimu threw three more punches towards Valmore, who was unable to dodge. They hit him hard, and made his feet give in beneath him. But, because Gijimu had a big hole in his foot, he wasn't able to move too fast himself, and Valmore hit him hard in the side with his pickaxe, just as he fell. Blood shot out from the wound.
 
"Nod tho tchough tnow arthe you?" Trying to speak with his beat up face, Valmore looked up at Gijimu. The pickaxe had made a deep wound in his chest, and Gijimu was covering it with his hands, trying to stop the bleeding. Preparing his pickaxe for a finishing blow, Valmore got ready to attack again. As he moved his arm in an arc approaching Gijimu, he felt a strong pain in his chest. As he looked down, he saw a hand covered in blood that had pierced through his rib cage, and was inside his chest. The pain was unbearable and he let out a pained scream. Gijimu pulled his hand out of Valmore's chest and staggered backwards.
 
Unable to speak properly because the attack had destroyed parts of his lungs, Valmore thought to himself...
 
"I'll be back you bastard... Just you wait..."
 
With that, his heart stop beating and darkness enveloped his world.
 
Team Nosebleed, Valmore (CLONE)-DEAD END
 
Team Down, Turnip Sensei- DEAD END
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Deaths this week:
 
 
 
Team Nosebleed: Valmore (CLONE),
 
 Team Down: Tiagofvarela, Totodile, Flutterz, Turnip Sensei
 
Team Kaguya: Duyy
 
________________________________________________________________
 
List of currently remaining members!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore (-1 life) , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life)  , kingdomcome
 
 
 
#Team Down: Members, Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber, FinalChaos , Kawasumi ,
 
 
 
#Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Jade
 
 
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
 
TO BE CONTINUED!
 
 

Grimo Love is a nukige.  Now, you'll notice that I generally don't bother to rate or comment on nukige... because most of the time I drop them inside of ten minutes.  However, Grimo Love has this sort of dread fascination to it that kept me playing right until the end (incidentally, it wasn't the story or the characters that kept me going). 
I'm going to be blunt.  This VN doesn't really have a story.  Oh, there is one in there that probably would have made for a ridiculously good charage with story if they'd bothered to develop it properly... and the sheer amount of detailed sprites in this VN makes me want to ask why they didn't.  However, this is ultimately a nukige and it has that ever-so-familiar 'sex under the necessity' trope going for it.
In this case, the protagonist is a member of the student council and the Second Literature Club (descended from the ancient Occult Research Club, whose leader died ten years before).  This VN is so full of supernatural incidents that they actually overwhelm the nukige H by a ratio of 10:1... and that's just weird, for a nukige (and it is one, from the feeling).  The school in this VN, its characters, and the constant incidents are comedic and feel unbelievably surreal... and virtually endless.  This VN is seriously long.  It took me twenty hours to finish, and most of the time I was either smiling or outright laughing.
If you asked me whether this was a pure comedy, I'd say no... but despite all the horrifying incidents that supposedly occur or almost occur around the characters (with a witch teacher who loves evil grimoires constantly causing trouble, ghosts and youkai attracted to the school like moths to a flame, and a vampire True Ancestor sleeping on the emergency stairs, how could it be peaceful?  lol) it never quite manages to be serious.  Sure, there is a really half-hearted attempt to make certain parts serious... but the characters and their reactions are so silly and blase that it is impossible to take even zombies, ogres, and evil gods seriously.  The protagonist's blase reaction to everything that happens around him is what defines a lot of the VN's atmosphere, and since he basically has sex with all the girls as a result of such incidents (or the girls' whims) it is kind of hard to take anything in this VN seriously.
In other words, I laughed but I never cried.
 
Anyway, now down to my thoughts on Jeanne... Liarsoft's new game.  I only started it about five hours ago, but I'm already ready to drop it.  Sorry, I just have trouble with Alice in Wonderland-type down the rabbit-hole stories.  Mixing it with chuuni-ism and a former French Resistance fighter doesn't actually help as much as you might think, at least for me.
I'm sometimes surprised at how intolerant I can be of this kind of stuff... but it doesn't really help that the writer is making it out to be a huge mystery when what is going on is blatantly obvious to anyone who has read a little bit of history and surrealist fantasy.  As a point of reference, I just have unforgiving tastes when it comes to serious fantasy in general.  My dislike for surrealist fantasy (I like down in the dirt fantasy much better) is an inevitable result of having outgrown that kind of crap when I was in second grade, lol.  Just making it  more mature doesn't make it interesting for me.
Anyway, I'm going to play a random VN until I can get into a mood to forgive this VN for being a part of a sub-genre type that I generally avoid like the plague, so don't expect another post on it for at least a few days.

The last GM standing Q&A:
 
Link to the thread:

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 3:
 
On the third day of battle, the sun was blazing hot.  The dark clouds that had been hovering over the battlefield for two days straight were nowhere to be seen. The base of team Nosbeleed, which was turned into a charred wasteland after the previous day's battle, was abandoned. The battle had been pushed further and further away from the forest and open plains, and a group of warriors found themselves in a harsh desert, being tormented by heat under the scorching sun.
 
...
 
Trying to get away from their pursuers, Kiriririri and Nebjula from team Nosebleed were running through the desert at full speed. Because of the protective shield granted to them by their commander, the heat didn't mean too much, but fatigue was taking its toll on their bodies. They had been running for hours already, and it was only a matter of time now; their tail would soon catch up to them, and they would have to fight. And sure enough, after a few more minutes, the outline of a person could be seen appearing in front of them. Coming to a complete stop, the two team Nosebleed warriors prepared for battle. Their pursuers soon came to a halt as well, their weapons shining brightly in the sun.
 
"Ohh, I see our prey has stopped running. What's the matter, tired?" Pouting her lips whilst making an intimidating face, the woman in the group presented her weapon in a taunting manner; a sickle. The curved blade of the weapon was forged in a deep black metal. The tip of the sickle was jagged, with several small razor sharp edges that were there in order to inflict as much damage as possible. It allowed the weapon to function as a stabbing tool as well as a cutting blade. The woman was wearing the green garb standard for Down's army. Interestingly enough though, behind her, two more warriors were approaching, but they were clad in the red armor of Kaguya's army. To her left was another one of her teammates. Had Kaguya's soldiers been sent after Down's soldiers?.. There was also one more person who had appeared in front of Kiri and Nebjula, another one of Kaguya's men. In order to cover both their sides, Nebjula and Kiriririri stood back to back, weapons at a ready. The situation was quite chaotic, and the only way to identify who was who, was by the color of their armor.
 
The female soldier from team Down took a step forward and smiled at Kiriririri.
 
"So, which one of you will be my playmate? Oh, wait! I haven't introduced myself yet, how rude." Taking a step back again and bowing gracefully, the woman's hair swayed in the harsh wind. She was paying no mind to the two enemies who had appeared behind her.  
 
"My name is Kawasumi. It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen. Now, I'll start by cutting up you!" Just as she finished her sentence, Kawasumi charged forward, her sickle heading for Kiriririri's neck. Kiri quickly parried the attack by charging his fist with energy and striking at the approaching weapon. The sound of his fist colliding with the steel was deafening, but neither party cared. They launched attack after attack at each other, completely ignoring their surroundings. Kawasumi laughed joyfully during the fight, seemingly having a fun time. Kiri was focused, not saying a word.
 
Nebjula, who was standing behind Kiri as Kawasumi attacked, quickly got his weapons ready and struck at the opponent in front of him. Zebhra from team Kaguya who was holding a sword, blocked the first mace hit, and jumped to the side to retaliate. The thin blade moved quickly, and Nebjula barely managed to stop it with his maces. Unleashing a flurry of attacks at Nebjula, Zebhra moved forward, not giving Nebjula a chance to strike back. At the same time, one of the men in the back came forward, joining the fight. The desert was soon turned into a big mess of a battle; green, pink and red clashing in an epic fight.
 
A shadow quickly moved towards Kiririri, and he only managed to dodge it by a hair. Looking to his left, Kiriririri spotted a man in red armor with his hand extended towards him. A big red magic circle was floating in front of his hand, and the shadow that had attacked him appeared to have been made by it. Beside him was a another one of Kaguya's soldiers, standing with his arms crossed. Was he not going to attack?
 
"Hahaha, this is magnificent!" Shouting in a wild voice, Kawasumi rapidly struck at Kiri with her sickle, each blow being blocked by Kiri's fists. Then several knives made out of shadow quickly flew towards him again, sent out by the magician standing in the back.
 
He was able to hit them in mid air, stopping them from doing any damage, whilst still fending off Kawasumi's sickle.
 
"You really are good. I'll make sure I kill you slowly as a reward." A wicked smile spread across her lips, and she took a few steps backwards, distancing herself from her foe. Then she readied her sickle again and leapt forward.
 
Meanwhile, Nebjula was busy fighting off an onslaught of magical attacks as well as a flurry of sword cuts. The attackers from Kaguya's army who had appeared behind him both seemed to use magic. The shadow user who was fighting Kiri and Kawasumi was Jade, and the one attacking Nebjula was Nimbus. One of the oncoming lightning bolts got past Nebjula's guard and struck his chest. It was blocked by his barrier, but it had been worn down by running in the blazing sun for hours, and it still hurt quite a bit.
 
"Damnit..." He needed a way to get some distance from the sword-wielding Zebhra in order to attack Nimbus who was attacking with lightning magic. This was easier said than done though ...
 
"Wohoooo! YEAH!" Suddenly, a surreal voice came from behind, and a man wearing a green garb ran past Nebjula at a crazy speed and rushed through the oncoming magic attacks. He brushed them off like they were nothing and quickly reached the two long range attackers. In his hand was a cleaver, stained with dried blood. It was the man who had been standing next to Kawasumi earlier.
 
"Nohman has arrived!" Loudly declaring his name, he swung his weapon violently at the two, making them scatter. Still fending off Zebhra's sword, Nebjula tried to get a closer look at the battle between Kawasumi and Kiriririri.
 
Kiriririri was still fighting off the relentless attacks with ease. Kawasumi's sickle moved through the air so fast, it was hard for Nebjula to follow it, but Kiri was still able to parry and retaliate using his fists. Now that Jade's magic had been interrupted, it was easier for Kiri to move around freely.
 
"Take this, and this and this and this and this!!!" Striking at the barrier protecting Nimbus, Nohman brutally attacked it again and again. His battle style was vicious and reckless, but it was quite effective. In seconds, Nimbus' barrier shattered, and he had no way to stop the cleaver. Just as Nohman lifted his weapon in order to finish off his victim, Jade fired several knives made of shadow at him. Quickly turning around and hitting every single one of them out of the air, Nohman shook his head.
 
"Two against one... Hm. Well, whatever. This will be fun." Smiling from ear to ear, Nohman advanced on Jade this time. Jumping slightly in order to avoid the lightning bolt coming from behind, he turned his body mid air and struck upwards, hitting Jade's right arm. A barrier blocked the hit, but he still did some damage. As he landed, Nohman spun around swiftly and launched at Jade again. But this time, the lightning bolts were moving a little too fast, and two of them pierced Nohman's chest, sending waves of pain through his body. Nohman lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. Still, he wasn't done yet. Violently striking at the foot in front of him, Nohman's cleaver made a deep cut in Nimbus' foot.
 
"GHAAAA!" A loud scream was heard throughout the blazing hot desert.
 
"Damn you!" Shouting at the fallen attacker, Jade fired several knives at his exposed back. But, before they hit, something hard hit him in the side. Missing his target ever so slightly because of the sudden attack, Jade stumbled backwards and slowly got back on his feet. Nebjula was standing in front of him, clutching his two maces.
 
...
 
Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri vs Team Kaguya Zebhra and team Down Kawasumi
 
Suddenly feeling oncoming danger from behind him, Kiri turned his body sideways in an awkward manner. Then, a sword struck in the place he had just been. The sickle that Kawasumi was swinging around like a lunatic also swept right past him, missing his arm by mere inches. Kicking the ground behind him hard, Kiri leapt forward and hit Zebhra in the chest. He attempted to block the sudden attack with his sword, but Kiri's fist was faster. Lifting his right arm slightly, Kiri then caught the sickle quickly advancing towards him in his palm, strengthening his skin with energy in order for it not to cut him. He then kicked at Kawasumi's legs, making her fall over. Kiri was currently fighting two enemies, one from team Down and one from team Kaguya. Nebjula had gotten wounded in the fight against Zebhra, and Kiri had taken over for him. Instead, Nebjula had moved over to the fight where Nohman was on the verge of being killed by the two magicians from Kaguya's team. He would be of more use there. He had sustained a deep cut over his back, making sudden movements really difficult. But in a close combat situation versus magicians that liked long range battles, he would hopefully be fine. It seemed impossible for him to retreat in the chaotic situation, and so he had instead moved over to a different battle. It was becoming difficult for everyone to determine friend from foe, and a wild free for all like battle was underway.
 
Zebhra and Kawasumi were both standing again, and charged at Kiri; it seemed they had decided, he was the biggest threat. Nimbly dodging the oncoming blades, Kiri turned his body around and preformed a roundhouse kick that struck Zebhra in the chin, bringing him to the ground. He didn't have time to let his guard down though, with two attackers being present, and paid the price for it. Lightly jumping up into the air, he brought his hardened fist down towards Zebhra's head, but before it hit, Kawasumi moved in. Her sickle cut through Kiri's barrier and left him with a small wound on his left side.
 
Stepping on Zebhra wo was still on the ground, Kawasumi moved in closer.
 
Zebhra angrily made it back to his feet and approached as well, but he still did not attack Kawasumi. He was dead set on taking out Kiri.
 
In order to win Kiri had to act fast. Seeing as the two weren't actually teammates, their attacks weren't very well synchronized, and they would still be wary of each other. He had to use this to his advantage. The two of them raised their weapons and approached Kiri.
 
"... Now!" Moving forward and grabbing both weapons in mid air, Kiri used the rest of his strength to protect his palms from the sharp blades. He then moved forward, advancing past the two attackers, turned around and brought his fist forward with all his might. It struck Zebhra in the neck, and an ominous snap sound followed. Zebhra fell to the ground, his head dangling about without the proper support from his broken spine.
 
"Haha, look at it wobble!!!" Laughing sadistically whilst looking at the spectacle, Kawasumi yanked her blade out of Kiri's hand and cut at his chest. No longer able to summon any strength, Kiri had no way to defend himself. The blade cut through his chest, destroying his lungs. Kawasumi pushed him to the ground and got on top of his bleeding chest, bringing her face close to Kiri's.
 
"Sleep well sweetheart." Placing the tip of her blade on Kiri's temple, she slowly put pressure on it. The jagged spike started making its way through the skin and after a few seconds of intense pain, Kiri closed his eyes for good.
 
Team Kaguya, Zebhra- DEAD END
 
Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri (REAL) - DEAD END
 
Team Kaguya Nimbus and Jade, vs Team Down Nohman and Team Nosebleed's Nebjula
 
"Whooohooooooo!" Swinging his cleaver at Nimbus like a madman, Nohman charged forward. Nimbus was having trouble moving because of his wounded foot, but managed to dodge the attacks. Nohman had sustained quite a lot of damage previously as well, and so he wasn't moving as fast anymore. Still, he didn't seem to care one bit.
 
"I'm going to cut your throat open and watch the blood soil the sand!" Nohman shouted as he switched between deflecting magic and striking at Nimbus. Meanwhile, the wounded Nebjula was fighting Jade, who had sustained a broken arm from Nebjula's earlier attack. Finally, Kawasumi was busy cutting Kiri's corpse open, not caring about the fight going on behind her. Her green armor was stained completely with fresh blood.
 
Jade was using his magic to both deflect attacks and retaliate, making his energy drain at a rapid pace. Lucky for him, Nebjula's back had sustained a serious wound, and he was moving rather sluggishly.
 
I'll have to finish this in a few attacks, or I'm going to run out of energy. Jade thought to himself.
 
Sending two large spikes of shadow towards Nebjula, Jade took advantage of the time Nebjula needed to dodge, and started chanting in order to strengthen his next, final attack.
 
"Make those who oppose your ways,
 
wither before your gaze...
 
Eyes of evil, hands of darkness, gazing, clawing...
 
Continuing his chant, Jade brought his hand together and aimed them at Nebjula, who was running towards Jade with his maces raised. A magic circle appeared between the two and black light particles started forming around Jade's hands.
 
"Turn their bones to dust and their heart to sand,
 
become their nightmare,
 
...the bane of man."
 
 As he finished chanting, a wave of darkness washed over the place where he stood, and the ground beneath Nebjula's feet split open. A large hand made of pure darkness gripped his entire body tightly, and held him in place. The pain of having pressure put on his open wound rendered him defenseless, and there was nothing he could do against the overpowering magic.
 
Several red eyes appeared from the darkness below, probably belonging to whatever creature had seized Nebjula. Slowly squeezing the life out of its prey, the hand gripped Nebjula tighter, and the sound of bones breaking made a chill go down Jade's spine. It didn't take long for the monstrous hand to crush every bone in Nebjula's body. After releasing the magic, Jade collapsed on the spot, having used up way too much energy. As his consciousness faded, he caught a glimpse of the fight still taking place some distance away, between Nohman and Nimbus. Both parties were still standing. As for Nebjula, the remnants of his body was brought back into the shadows by the devilish hand, and he was never to be seen again...
 
Team Nosebleed, Nebjula- (CLONE) DEAD END
 
 
 
"Die, you glorified light bulb!" Shouting at Nimbus, Nohman chopped vigorously at his target with decreasing accuracy. The two gaping holes in his chest had started to really slow down his movements, but in return, Nimbus had also received a long cut to his left arm, leaving him with only one functional arm and leg. No longer capable of moving much, he had resorted to using his energy for making his own shields as well as attacking his opponent with electricity.  Each time Nohman struck Nimbus' shield, Nimbus felt that the strength in each blow was decreasing. He only had to hold out longer than his opponent. Probably realizing his dire state, Nohman gritted his teeth.
 
"You little ... If I am going down here, I'll make damn sure you die as well." Suddenly throwing his cleaver onto the ground, Nohman reached inside his garb and brought out a small dagger.
 
 What could he accomplish with that? Nimbus wondered.
 
Getting ready for a possible surprise attack, he strengthened his shield. Then, Nohman did something quite surprising. Turning the dagger around, he thrust it into his own chest. Then, he uttered a small chant in a weak voice:
 
"I will be, the one who makes...
 
a world of pain, where no one wakes...
 
Once they hear, the voice of death,
 
the two will draw, their final breath..."
 
 
When Nimbus realized what Nohman was doing, it was already too late. Nohman's skin started glowing, and soon it started breaking apart. A green light shone through the cracks, and after a few seconds the battlefield was enveloped in a massive explosion.
 
It was a spell that, in return for giving up one's own life, granted massive amounts of energy for a final attack. Such an attack was designed for one simple purpose: to take out whoever else it can in the process losing your own life.
 
A massive crater was the only thing that remained of Nohman, but...
 
"Tch, what a pain." Holding his passed out teammate under his arm, Nimbus looked at the crater. He had moved quickly, snatched the unconscious body of Jade, then he had escaped before the explosion went off. It was an act impossible for most people, but Nimbus had used a last resort given to him by Kaguya himself; a way to stop time for a couple of seconds. Once used, he was no longer capable of repeating it. It was a gift granted to Nimbus because he excelled at magic, and so he was the one best suited for using it. And it had ended up saving the lives of himself and his teammate, Jade. The violent explosion that Nohman had set off would destroy anything in its path.
 
"Did that crazy bitch make it out alive?" Looking down at the crater from afar one last time, Nimbus started making his way back to Kaguya's base.
 
Team down, Nohman- DEAD END
 
Team Down, Kawasumi- ???
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Walking along the outskirts of the desert, Mitchhamilton and Satsuki were looking for their teammates, Kiriririri and Nebjula when they saw a massive explosion. A figure clad in pure red was making its way out of the chaos, and was headed in their direction. Mitch reacted quickly, recognizing the figure as someone from Kaguya's army. He grasped his spear and hurled it at the rapidly approaching target. The person, who Mitch had first mistaken for a team Kaguya member, was actually wearing Down's garbs, but they were completely stained in wet blood. The woman managed to nimbly avoid the spear, and kept running. Following her general's example, Satsuki moved towards the enemy.
 
"Tch, can't a lady get a second of peace around here?" The team Down member was a woman, completely covered in blood from top to toe. Whatever had happened could have been linked to her own teammates, and so Satsuki wanted to interrogate the woman. But, in order to do that, she first had to defeat her. Preparing for combat, Satsuki drew both her twin axes from behind her back. The axes were small and compact, like hatchets used for chopping down trees, but they were solid steel and sharp as could be.
 
"Little lady, I am in a hurry, so please move."
 
Not listening to the woman, Satsuki charged just as her general Mitch was making his way over to join the fight. Satsuki jumped up in the air and swung her hatchet down towards the woman's head, but instead of hitting her flesh, a powerful force threw Satsuki back. Mitch, who had arrived at the scene as well, was also blown back by a sudden invisible force.
 
"Kawasumi, go back to base. I'll handle these two."
 
Satsuki could hear the voice of a man through the ringing in her ears. Lifting her chin up, she spotted the retreating figure of the woman. It seemed someone from her team had shown up in order to help bring their wounded back to base.
 
"Tch. Mitch, what do we do? Do we chase her?" Turning to her general for advice, a sudden shiver went down Satsuki's spine.
 
"LOOK OUT!" She shouted and jumped forward, grabbing a hold of Mitch. Barely managing to push him to the ground in time, several kunai knives flew past their heads and hit the ground behind them. Right after, an approaching enemy in a green garb rushed forward with a katana. Clutching her axes, Satsuki stood up and blocked the blade, staring straight into the face of Down's general, Tiagofvarela. Mitch quickly got to his feet and struck at Tiago's body with his spear. Sidestepping in order to avoid the attack, Tiago let go of his katana for a second, then snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground. Striking at Satsuki with great force, he swung his katana up in an arc. The blade made a whistling sound as it cut through the air, and the impact from the blow made Satsuki's arms burn. She managed to block it, but this was an enemy she was not capable of fighting on her own; that much was obvious. Luckily, it was two against one. The two started attacking Tiago in rapid succession. Every time one attacked, the other one would strike from a different direction, making it hard to block the oncoming attacks. Also, Mitch's spear made for a great medium ranged weapon, where as Satsuki was striking from close range, making the attacks even harder to predict. As a spear thrust was blocked, two chops from Satsuki's axes followed. Still, Tiago spun around swiftly, his katana moving so fast, it was like it became one with the air itself. The sound of steel clashing with steel and the constant footsteps of the three was all that one could hear. Tiago ducked in order to avoid the approaching axes, and used his katana to knock the spear thrust out of the way, then he launched his body forward. Pointing his katana at Mitch's chest, he took advantage of Mitch's poor close combat compatibility and the katana dug into Mitchhamilton's shoulder as Mitch did his best to steer the blade from his heart.
 
"GRAAHH!" Mitch screamed as he clutched his bleeding shoulder, and Satsuki quickly ran up to him to check on his condition. Tiago followed up with another attack, this time a diagonal cut, but Satsuki's axe parried the strike. She tried retaliating, but Tiago was able to keep her at a distance. Without the aid from Mitch's spear keeping him at bay, getting close to Tiago was a challenge for Satsuki. Every time she tried advancing, he would swing his katana quickly towards her body, forcing her to retreat or dodge.
 
"Time to end this." Tiago suddenly sped up his movements, stepping forward and clutched his katana with both hands. He then preformed another cut from above, but with much more force than before. The heavy attack made Satsuki's hands falter, and the sharp edge of the katana cut a deep gash in Satsuki's face, slicing all the way from her left eye down to her cheekbone.
 
"Satsuki!!!" Panicking, Mitch charged back into the fight, wielding his spear with only one hand.
 
"RAAAAAAARGH!" He Thrust at Tiago with all his might in the hope of pushing him back, but instead Tiago moved his body to the left, avoiding the spear, and stabbed at Mitch with his katana. Mitch, who was approaching at a great speed, was incapable of stopping and was impaled on the blade. Tiago started turning the katana around inside of Mitch's chest, making large amounts of blood spill out from his mouth and from the open wound.
 
"D-DAMNIT! DIE!" Charging towards Tiago whilst clutching her wounded eye, Satsuki tried to hit Tiago with her hatchet, but it was a futile effort. Tiago grabbed her arm mid air, not even needing a weapon to stop the attack, and snatched her axe out of her hand. He then used her own weapon to cut open her throat. Mitch, who still wasn't dead, tried to summon some strength to use magic, but before he could do anything, Tiago pulled his katana out of Mitch's chest and spun around. The blade flew through the air and connected with Mitch's neck, separating his head from his shoulders...
 
Team Nosebleed, Satsuki (CLONE) and Mitchhamilton (REAL) DEAD END
 
...
 
Satsuki had slowly bled out on the ground, and Mitch could not be brought back because he already lost a life the previous day. Nosebleed was looking at the figures of his four fallen soldiers. Nebjula and Satsuki had been clones, but it was still a tough loss. Kiriririri and Mitchhamilton had been two of his best fighters, and both were gone for good. Clutching his fists tightly, Nosebleed looked up at the sky; starting right at the shimmering sun.
 
The figure of a reaper holding a scythe was barely visible on the horizon. It was watching him from the distance, it's yellow eyes glowed faintly. It was the same creature that had stopped him previously when he fought with Down. He had noticed it then, this ... thing, used to be 12Kami, the member who disappeared on the first day of battle. For what purpose was he created? For what reason was here there, watching Nosebleed's every move?
 
Turning his back to the reaper, Nosebleed brought the corpses of his comrades back to his new base, preparing himself and his soldiers for the next day of battle. The coming days would be even harsher and more grueling than ever before, that he could tell...
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Deaths this week:
 
 
 
Team Nosebleed: Nebjula, (CLONE), Satsuki, (CLONE), Mitchhamilton (REAL), Kiriririri (REAL).
 
 
 
Team Down: Nohman
 
 
 
Team Kaguya: Zebhra
 
_________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
___________________________________________________________________________
List of currently remaining members!!
 
 
 
#Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life)  , kingdomcome
 
#Team Down: Members, Tiagofvarela (- 1 life) , Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber , Totodile , FinalChaos , Kawasumi , Flutterz , Turnip Sensei 
 
#Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Duyy , Jade
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
TO BE CONTINUED!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[WARNING]
[This entry will have massive amounts of bias in it. If you don't want to hear me gushing about Dracu-riot, I'd suggest you turn around right now. Also spoilerz.
You have been warned]
 

 
Mera Azusa is your average responsible petite girl, whose also a huge closet-pervert. She is the dorm leader and also the only human living in the dorm. Azusa starts out as this reliable senior to Yuuto at the start in her route, but their hierarchy evens out as the route progresses.
 
In the end of the Common route she does get a rather amusing ending to start her route, and it does a play a small part in her route, this being Yuuto's so-called "pedophilia", and as the result Azusa becomes Yuuto's partner, as a senior. Although this builds the groundwork for their relationship, this issue isn't touched any more than the start of her route.
 

 
Along the starting parts of the route you get some tension from the presence of hunters and some extremely funny moments from Azusa's extreme blushing and over-reactions. Yet still the starting part is pretty much just pure comedy and slight progression not in the relationships but in the story. The threat of the terrorists from the mainland is steadily rising, but kind of blends midst all the SoL.
 
As the route progresses, the two of them start to notice their feelings for each other. The way they notice each other really reminds me of Rio's route, albeit a little toned down. The steadily rising confronting feelings between the Hunters and the vampires is starting to reach boiling point when the Hunters start to arrest vampires without and with IDs. The SoL is really hefty and it drags on before the final event before dating starts. Enter Giordano. Honestly, the final confrontation with Giordano in the school is a really good one. And they show how vampires are valuable as well, as opposed to the Hunters' look on things. At the final moments before Yuuto gets heavily injured, Giordano says some cryptic things and RIOT. The confession in this was actually pretty good, at least better than in the majority of the routes in Dracu-Riot!
 

 
The start of the dating was really weird and confusing. I got some mixed signals from it. And they jammed so many H-scenes in a short amount of time. The ichaicha was good but not the best by a long shot. Overall, the dating part was sub-par, below average.
 

 
Following is about the final part of the route. Spoilers.
 
 
 The ending ties some ends, but leaves something to be desired, especially about Ougi's future.
Overall, the route isn't bad in moege standards, but definitely was the worst main heroine route in the game.
Still, it brought a nice story, so it wasn't bad in my book.
And of course, Azusa's as cute as ever.
 

 
 

The last GM standing Q&A:
 
Link to the thread:

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 great battle was approaching...
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
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.
 
Team Kaguya, Arcadeotic- DEAD END
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
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. ..
 
Team Kaguya, Velociraptor- DEAD END
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
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...
 
Team Kaguya, Hitoribocchi-DEAD END
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
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...
 
"V-Very well..."
 
....
 
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
Deaths this week:
 
Team Nosebleed: Deep Blue (CLONE), Mitchhamilton (General, -1 life),
 
Team Down:
 
Team Kaguya: VirginSmasher, Arcadeotic, Velociraptor, Hitoribocchi, Greenshadow622 (General, -1 life)
 
___________________________________________________________________________
 
 
To be continued.
 
__________________________________________________________________________________
List of currently remaining members!!
#Team Nosebleed: Members, Mitchhamilton (- 1 life) , Kiriririri - (1 life) , Satsuki , Valmore , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula , kingdomcome
#Team Down: Members, Tiagofvarela (- 1 life) , Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber , Nohman , Totodile , FinalChaos , Kawasumi , Flutterz , Turnip Sensei 
#Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Zebhra , Duyy , Jade
__________________________________________________________________________________
 
 

To Heart 2 is one of the all time classic original slice of life donkan protagonist harems with a cult following today, even if it is over 10 years old.
Positions desired:
Translate checker Editors Proofreader Graphic editors Windows scripters Anything else you think you can offer The completely translated To heart 2 translation project is one of the longest running VN translation projects still alive today that still needs people to polish it up to finalise the release. It's a fairly large work spanning 9 routes with 11 different girls and 50+ hours of reading (with 2267 unique kanji, 345512 kanji total, 2.9M kana, roughly 97,000 lines!).  I've kept this project alive for over 7 years now and would love to complete it but since I did almost all the translation myself and was not that strong a translator, what the work needs most is a translate checker to bring it up to a higher standard. I'd love to complete this project so that it would free me up to do more translation work on other visual novels instead of coordinating this project for ever more.
I'm looking for motivated people who can complete whole routes of translate checking or editing, or ideally can do the whole lot but understand how much work this is (since I know how long it took me to translate the text in the first place). More than half of it has had a 1st pass edit, but that still leaves quite a bit of text needing editing. I don't care if you don't have any experience editing VNs, so long as you have good English language skills, can work with UTF8 text files and have the time to dedicate to doing a large portion of it. Usually I get potential editors to undergo a small editor's test to verify they can do the task. I have an extensive style guide to guide how to edit it. Additionally I need a proofreader who can go over the whole lot looking for remaining errors and discrepancies in style and wording which takes a lot less effort than first pass editing.
Optionally if there was someone keen on trying their hand on graphic editing, there are a handful of text-on-graphics screens and icons that could do with being converted to English, and of course quite a few H scenes that could be decensored.
Finally if someone is good at creating batch scripts to extract, insert and recompress files in windows to patch the game in place instead of manually copying files across the way my patch currently does, I could use your help. The extraction, insertion and recompression tools already exist. The main reason I haven't included any edited graphics to date is that I would have to upload the entire recompressed data file and would prefer to have an archive with only the edited pictures. While I did a lot of the programming for this project, I'm almost exclusively a linux hacker and take short-cuts when it comes to windows.
The translation project thread is below. Please PM me or email me if you wish to help, or come onto IRC irc.rizon.net #aikeshi
 
 

So I know @Deep Blue made one of these a little while ago, but I really wanted to get one out myself as well. (I am also including pictures. You are too lazy man!  ) Now that the game is released, I feel it really deserves some coverage! 
(Note that I read the beta version, and so some improvements will have been made to the final release. Also, I wrote this review in a littel bit of a subjective style, really because I want to get through my personal feelings that I experienced when I read the VN. It might make the review seem slightly biased, but I hope this doesn´t make the review seem less serious. I played the game with a completely objective state of mind, and this is just my honest opinion of the game. Anyways, on to the review:) 
 
 
One thousand lies is a 5-10 hour OELVN made by Keinart Lobre, (@Keinart.) The VN is about a group of friends goofing around as they get closer to graduating from high-school, though there is a lot more to the novel than what initially meets the eye. 
(Note, the novel has both a Spanish and English version. I read and proofread the English version.) 
 
In One Thousand Lies we meet Ciaràn Endyein, a slightly delinquent-like teenager who, along with his best friend Ausse Ealdwine, pull of silly yet harmless shenanigans that always end up getting them in trouble. The two are also accompanied by the pretty and intelligent Ziva Shani, who constantly try to psychoanalyze Endyein. 
 
At the beggining of the story, Endyein recieves a strange, mysterious email, telling him to go to a certain place without any more detailed instructions. The sender appears to have stolen a package Endyein was waiting for, so confused and angry, he decides to do what the email says. (With some persuasion from his friends.) This sends him down a fairly heavy psychological, yet heartwarming and slice of life-like journey. 
 
Story and writing
The story in the game starts of really light and funny. It´s a slice of life story that has refreshing and entertaining humor; it doesn´t use overused clichès that you have seen 100 times before. As you get further into the story, you will start to notice that not everything is exactly how it seems. It´s hard to talk about this without spoiling the entire story, so we are going to keep it short. The story is well written, has pretty good pacing and does a good job of hiding the real kicker until the very end. 
The writing in the novel is, like I´ve already mentioned, really good. It is every editor´s dream, going through a novel that has essentially no mistakes, and that doesn´t repeat itself over and over, but instead offers new, refreshing words and phrases for each sentence. The language was almost a little bit too complex at times, as I felt it was unnecessary to use such big words for a normal, every-day setting. Still, the novel does use a lot of psychology terms and the likes, so it´s not like a complex language is a bad thing for it. 
There isn´t much else to say about the story, as the novel is quite short, and giving any more information could possibly spoil it. All in all, story and writing is very well done, and deserves a good 9/10 rating. 
 

 
Characters and art
The characters in the novel are all diverse and interesting in their own way. You have Ausse, the slightly dumb but lovable rich kid who might or might not be the MC´s friend because of his financial situation. 
Ziva, the beautiful and determined female friend who constantly gets on the MC´s nerves when she tries to diagnose him with different psychological disorders.
Claire, the cute and shy girl who only opens up when in the presence of Endyein. 
Luce, the playful and energic joker who always has a funny remark that will put the MC in his place. 
And finally Diniz The Sloth. (I think that title should be sufficent in describing him.) 
 
Each character has nice and well drawn sprites with several facial expressions that feels natural. 
The CG in the game is very pretty, though certain facial features gets a little less "natural" in the CGs compared to the character sprites, especially Luce´s. Regardless of this though, the CG is very nice and well made. 
The backgrounds are kind of like a painted sketch, which is a unique but interesting style that I personally found quite enjoyable. 
 
The only complaint I would have about the characters is that Diniz seems to have very little screen time compared to the others, and therefore he has little time to become a part of the main cast. 
Characters, 9/10, 
Art 7.5/10
 
Music and atmosphere
The music in the novel is pretty good overall and seeing as the game is not voiced, this is a good thing. There are several comfortable soundtracks that helps bring out the emotion reflected in the scene, especially during the more enigmatic and mysterious situations the novel has to offer. 
The music did not take me by storm, but it still did its job very well in filling the "silence" when playing the unvoiced game. 
Not much more to say about it. Music gets a 6.5/10 score from me. 
The atmosphere in the game is quite hard to put into words. During the reading experience, it is obvious that there is something there that is more than just a few teenagers messing around. There is some kind of heavy undertone in the writing that clearly tries to tell you something more, but its written in such a way that what exactly that is, doesnt become apperant until the very end. I think that the way this was done is really quite impressive. Each character has a part to him or her that helps hint to this, and each scene does put out tiny clues, though in the end, figuring out what the cause of such an atmosphere is before the credits roll is not easy. 
This part of the game gets a clear 10/10 rating from me. It was quite the ride. 
 
Conclusion:
In conclusion, OTL is an entertaining and innovative OELVN that doesnt try to do all those things we have already seen in Japanese VNs, but instead it uses original humor, exceptional writing and an interesting and thrilling psychological aspect to make the entire reading experience a blast. 
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this, and simply voulenteered to proofread / test the game because of Deep Blue´s interest in it. Needless to say, I was not dissapointed. 
Final rating: 9/10. 
Here is a link to the thread for the game here on Fuwanovel:

 

Visual Novel Translation Status (03/26/2016)
Since Tay, Decay, and Zakamutt always submit their thought in every week at VN Translation Update, might as well try to write my thought here. The title format would be the image header of VNTS derivative word and Review, and since this week header image was Maitetsu girl train, so I'll use Densha Collection for the title (Densha mean train in Japan) and collection, well you should knew if you watch Kancolle). Note that maybe I'll deliver my though for VNTS late. And below was my review for VNTS this week.
For this week, once again the announcement at Saturday surely was underwhelming. Especially from Mangagamer which I'd already wrote my very long post about speculation for Mangagamer, which from 10 result of vote I guess Type-Moon as their future partner, oh well. But this time Sekai surprised us with Maitetsu and Tokeijikake announcement. I'll try to type my though here later but first I'll try to round up the translation progress. For all of the update, what I'd interested was only Astral Air and Karakara. As for Astral Air, good work for stable progress, but if each week we had update only at 0.4% we'll probably had 100% of Astral Air translated at 2017 (Hopefully not). For Karakara, I could not comment much other than good work for reaching 46.42% translation progress.
Now for Mangagamer announcement, we had 4. The announcement were Free Friend hardcopy, Bokuten Steam version, Yurirei drama CD, and Imopara 2.
For Free Friend hardcopy, no comment other than as long as people had necessary device like DVD RW and Free Friend download edition, they could made the hardcopy easily (Then again, maybe there was some fan who like to collect the box from every eroge hardcopy). For Bokuten, since according to Tyrosyn the H-Scene was important for character development, maybe Overdrive will try to substitute H-Scenes with porn free scene (I think they could made it just had black screen when in H-Scene or had the characters sleep and taking about their problem). Normally this VN was the one I'd looking forward the most, but Mangagamer already translating it and at this moment the progress was at 77%, so it's still a while. About drama CD, I knew GundamAce had translated Ever17 Drama CD at Animesuki forum. Here's the link for Drama CD Translation (Beware spoiler from Ever17 though). Although with this kind of arrangement, I'd wonder if Mangagamer will release it in Japan voice with translated script or either will hire local VA and had them voicing drama CD. First option will save cost, but to enjoy Drama CD required good listening and always need to read the script, while second option was more expensive because Mangagamer need to pay both VA and translator, but it'll allow us to understand Drama CD easily. Either way, it'll be interesting that Mangagamer will release their first Drama CD and hopefully it'll satisfied Yurirei fan, although Decay said he was satisfied enough. Imopara 2, I think my comment was Momoka sprite copied Aya sprite (Down to seiyuu) from first Imopara. Other than that I think it'll be standard nukige involving incest between cousins and imouto, because the cousins was born from different mother, and the mothers actually was Imopara 1 heroines (I mean back in Imopara 1 MC was involved in incest with his 5 imouto). And don't ask me why all imouto and cousins in this series attracted to MC other than the reason MC was nice guy. For Sekai, they announce Taiwan VN, South Korea VN, Sakura Spirit Ecchi Manga adaptation, Indonesia VN, Maitetsu, and Tokeijikake. For Taiwan, I think it was more eden like since it was said that the world will be destroyed because of the star. South Korea VN was more like dark love story involving NTR, I think. For Indonesian VN, well it's leaning toward dating sim and the premise was like fighting alien with you as the commander of 5 girls. The reaction from Indonesian anime community as expected quite positive. Here's the news at Jurnal Otaku Indonesia, and if some Indonesian user or lurker read that, you'll understand the news (If some of non Indonesian curious, you could just copy and paste the word to Google Translate). But the summary from the news and the comment the reaction was quite positive. For more info about Indonesian VN company, here's the website. As for Sakura Spirit Manga, no comment. And here I'll try my best to comment 2 big announcement from Sekai.
Maitetsu, what I saw it was already gather some controversy regarding censorship and loli thing. Although my interest was of course not those 2 unrelated thing, instead it was more to release date and the seiyuu as usual, beside there should be enough heat if we talk about censorship and loli. The release date actually was very new, in face one day before announcement or in America the night when this VN released. In other word it was the fastest translation news delivered (Not counting Nekopara since it was planned to be released in English at the same time for Japanese release), only few hours after released in original language. As for the seiyuu they got Kawashima Rino and Kadowaki Mai there. We obviously didn't need to doubt Kawashima experience, and Kadowaki also quite famous for Fate fan as Ilya. Another interesing note that we also had our MC voiced here. Well, let's see it later. Tokeijikake, the opening was quite good. I'd knew that this game was translated since Shinikiss translation finished. But since this is first part of trilogy, not interested because I'd heard that the first part end with cliffhanger. Well, hopefully Sekai could also announce and release part 2 and part 3 quickly (Although I knew it's like hoping that Yandere translation translating Aiyoku no Eustia though ie impossible since the leader already too busy at work). Oh, for the seiyuu they got Kawashima Rino here too and also another name to note was Ogura Yui (Himiko from Eiyuu Senki, Eika from Ikikoi) and Moka Choko (Ageha from Konosora, Otome from Da Capo 2). Sekai promised this game will be released at 2016. I think that's all I could comment from Sekai announcement. And one last note, could we got confirmation from Sekai if Root Double will be released at March or not. If not it's okay then, although what I understand that the flame will be going to Sekai, and many people who waiting for translated Root Double will said profanity. Well, at least we had one certain release came from Mangagamer (Tokyo Babel). For JAST, we still wait when they'll announce release date for Seinarukana.
I think that's all of my review of VNTL progress. And sorry for my bad English here.

I remember the not-insane guy from the documentary about The Pirate Bay talking about why he rather used AFK in place of IRL when denoting anything he did which was not in front of his computer. Recalling the exact quote proves difficult but it doesn't matter as my point isn't necessarily what he meant but how I perceived it. I seem to recall his reasoning being something along the lines of online and digital presence also, technically, being part of real life.
 
It makes sense to me that reality is not exclusive but in fact the opposite; inclusive. Anything that can be at all I would consider part of reality and thus also, if I am involved in it, a part of my own real life. Which leads me to virtual reality. Not VR but the idea of virtuality. As far as I know, European philosophers back in the day (and maybe even now?) sometimes divided reality into the material reality (is actual, has form) and virtuality. Keep in mind that I'm using the term very liberally. Something virtual can be a thing, such as a character in a visual novel, which is not material but according to some people very much real since it obviously exists. If the character did not exist, there would be no way to see or interact with it, even through the UI of the game. There may be moral values connected to the importance of something virtual vs. something material but that is another discussion. However, I don't really buy the fact that distinctions between forms of realities are necessary nor representative of the way it works. This is why I'm just going to say that everything is real, real to the extent that we don't even need the word real as nothing can not be real. Truth be told, I am making a conscious effort not to get trapped in a spiral of semantics, arguing the duality of language, thoughts and symbols such as the word 'reality'. So, in conclusion to this paragraph, let me say that since I consider reality inclusive and non-specific, I also consider reality all-encompassing and so it includes anything that follows henceforth.
 
Since smooth segue is smooth and If I haven't already lost everyone at this point, what I wanted to get to was this: animu and vidya are for realz! In fact, it makes me very satisfied that I can fool myself into believing the equal reality of MMORPG worlds enjoy compared to the one my shrink wants me to be functional in.
 
Ever since I was a wee lad I have enjoyed escapism a lot. Like many of my generation I was at a point completely absorbed in the World of Warcraft, Azeroth. Because, while I love the worlds of my favourite movies, anime, fighting games, visual novels and so on, they are a bit lacking in the world department. With world I mean a traversable landscape which preferably differs enough from Earth to make it interesting. So, for me, what an MMORPG needs to be is a system which makes an as large of a virtual landscape as interesting and exciting as possible, ideally to the point that you start to forget that it is not indeed virtual.
 
My interest in these kinds of games has dwindled significantly for the past several years. I feel they have become more about being virtual landscapes supporting a gameplay system than the other way around. Specifically I'm talking about convenience features which make the gameplay systems quicker and easier to understand. I didn't get into them for that, though. There are plenty of games I enjoy primarily for their gameplay features, such as Street Fighter and Starcraft, but none of them are MMORPGs.
 
Recently I have regained hope, though. On March 11th this year, Visionary Realms streamed over an hour of gameplay from the pre-alpha version of their game Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. I've been skeptical, thinking the game was most likely vapourware until I saw the stream but now, seeing how far along they've gotten, I think it will most likely see the light of day after all. Basically, the game is like any other game in the genre only stripped of what I consider bloat features. It will also be significantly slower paced and focus more on group efforts as opposed to solo play. There will be limited fast-travel, instancing and enemies which can be killed by a lone player. They are promising that there won't be exclamation marks over the heads of NPCs giving quests and combat as well as regeneration of health will take longer than in modern MMORPGs. The graphics aren't exactly state of the art but to me they look serviceable, although I'm fine with playing Dragon Quest (1986) on my Famicom so my standards aren't exactly sky high.
 
Maybe this pitch sounds like a snorefest to you and I completely understand why someone might think so but I do hope that there are enough people interested in this kind of niche to let the game stay afloat. Perhaps you are like me and love to escape to a world of fantasy, be it in a visual novel or otherwise. Perhaps you are like me and happen to have 12-20 hours to kill in front of your computer before you sleep again. Just thought I'd put the word out there in my own construed and needy way.
 
That's all, thanks.
 

Tokyo Babel is scheduled to be released pretty soon, so I decided to replay it.  As Propeller is one of my favorite companies and Tokyo Babel has a more or less permanent place in my top fifty (when the number of VNs you've played passes five hundred, fifty is a good place to be, lol), so this doesn't bother me.  Tokyo Babel is one of the few purely all-ages titles from Japan on the PC, and it is a chuunige of rare quality that was obviously written with one of a dozen or so pairs of eyes on Masada and the rest on an internal vision that more prudish Christians would probably call blasphemous.
Tokyo Babel is not only the name of the game, it is also the name of the setting, a remade version of Purgatory floating in mid-air, where angels, humans, and demons are working together desperately in hopes that they can convince God to stop squishing the universes.  This is not a VN for the excessively religious to play... to be honest, there were moments when even I felt uncomfortable and I've never seriously adhered to any organized religion, though I was raised Christian. 
Some of the major characters include Astaroth, Belial, Carmael, Uriel, and many other famous or infamous demons and angels.  The three heroines are Raziel, Kugutsu Sorami, and Lilith.  Raziel is the angel who recorded all of creation in her book, the Sefer Raziel (this is partially taken from various apocryphal mythology).  Kugutsu Sorami is the first character you meet in the VN, whose ignorant untainted perspective gives you your first clear insight into the world from a human perspective.  Lilith is the first wife of Adam, who left him and who lay down with demons and produced all the monsters of the world (book of Enoch). 
Understand, like a lot of stories using Christian mythology, it uses bits and pieces from Milton's Paradise Lost, medieval literature, Gnostic ideas, and many other elements and branching-off literature that went off in all directions since the genesis of that particular faith.  One thing to keep in mind if you are a Christian and were raised to believe that Lilith never existed is that the Bible is not and has never been what we would call 'complete', as each version had bits and pieces grafted on or removed based on what the powerful and influential of an era or region felt was convenient, necessary, correct, and/or all of the above.  The Book of Enoch is one of dozens of 'books' not included in the accepted versions of the Bible, that were considered paradoxical in the eyes of the church of the time.  So... just keep an open mind when reading up on this kind of thing, because Wikipedia isn't exactly reliable when looking up religion-related facts.
Now, setting philosophical, historical, and other issues aside... this is a pretty enjoyable VN on a lot of levels.  Propeller developed its own (fairly hilarious in my opinion) style of humor that is incorporated into the story, and its effect in Tokyo Babel is one of humanizing the characters.  I don't think a lot of people who read chuuni really understand how vital a few moments of humor can be in giving life to a character, even in this type of VN.  While Masada and his type choose another path, Propeller's writers generally choose to use humor as one of the elements of their characterization.  On another level, this VN is chuuni crack.  The protagonist is a self-hating guy with a dark past and a deathwish seven billion kilometers wide, but he also has an even stronger sense of responsibility toward those he comes to care about, which is seen in the heroine routes.  The situation is one fit to drive even the most optimistic mind to despair, and there are bad guys behind the curtains, waiting to push everyone in the abyss.
In other words, this is one of those VNs that has almost an infinite capacity for fun in a chuuni sense of the word.
The art style of this VN is... unique.  In some ways, it feels like an elaboration on Propeller's previously-preferred style, but it was actually done by a completely  different artist from their previous works and it does show in a lot of places.  In particular, the vivid designs you see on the more monstrous demons and monsters in the VN shows this off very well.  Leviathan (the giant serpent) and the Seven Beasts from Setsuna's sword are two of the more distinctive examples of this art-style, and ones that honestly impress me even today. 
Sound-wise... I'll be straight.  There is no such thing as a bad Propeller sound track... well, until Sougeki no Jaeger anyway.  Tokyo Babel's isn't as good as Evolimit's, but that's kind of like saying that Sasaki Kojirou wasn't as good a swordsman as Musashi (token weabooism, lol).  Generally speaking, the songs in this VN vary to a surprising degree, ranging from techno tunes, to rock, and even a few hymn-like ones.  The one thing that unifies them is that none are poorly used, lol.
Now... down to the story.  I've already described the basic concept above, but now I'll get into structure.  This VN is split into three major routes after a pretty short common route (the trial ends about the same time you are supposed to head into the heroine routes, from what I've heard).  Raziel's route is the one that keeps you furthest from the 'deepest truths' of the VN, and having played her route is pretty good preparation for Sorami's route, as Sorami's route reveals some things that might make it hard for some people to read Raziel's route and take it for what it is.  Raziel's route has a bad end that is seriously... bad.  However, it is also a highly-detailed and reasonably long diversion from the 'good' (this is debatable) ending.  Sorami's path has a good ending (bittersweet but technically a good ending), a normal ending (really sad...), and a bad ending (like Raziel's, it is fairly long).  Sorami's path has a different focus on the events in Tokyo Babel than Raziel's, and I've heard some people describe Raziel's, Sorami's, and Lilith's paths as the Angel, Human, and Demon paths in that order... However, that is a pretty generalized statement and one that doesn't really feel correct, lol.  Lilith's path... is the true path.  I'm going to be blunt.  If you are silly enough to try to do Lilith's path first, you'll deserve your inability to figure out a third of the references in the path, because it is constructed so that the information from the previous two paths feeds directly into the events in that one.  In other words, if you haven't played the other two paths, Lilith's path has a lot of potential for being confusing.  Lilith's path has three distinctive bad ends, one true end, and one 'Setsuna' end, which is a branch-off from the true one.  Lilith's path has some of the best battles in the VN, and there are no secrets left in shadow by the end, which makes it a great way to end things.
A few thoughts about Propeller as a company... Propeller doesn't really produce that many overwhelmingly attractive heroines.  I'm pretty sure that this is deliberate, as there is a definite tendency toward the story being more important than the heroines in these VNs.  For people accustomed to the extreme character focus that defines a lot of VNs, this has a potential to be problematic...  Take Ayakashibito, for instance... how many of you really, seriously were obsessed with the romantic aspects of the VN (if you read it)?  There are even heroines in Propeller games that are actually deliberately made to seem bland (the elf in Bullet Butlers, for instance) or somehow unattractive for situational/emotional reasons (Kaori in Ayakashibito).  This is a part of their style, which calls for heroines to not take up the whole of the limelight in the VN, and it is one of the reasons I honestly find their VNs so enjoyable, other than the sheer chuunige nougat that makes my mouth water.
Overall, while Tokyo Babel is no Dies Irae, it does have a high level of quality, as well as being one of the few chuunige to dare to avoid the 'perfect happy ending' that has become standard even in many VNs of the type in recent years (for some reason, bittersweet endings are less popular these days...).   It can definitely play on your emotions at times (especially the endings), and there is just enough humor to keep the VN as a whole from being unbearably heavy.  Of course, if you dislike gloomy protagonists who don't really understand other people very well, there might be some abrasive moments in this VN for you... but Setsuna comes by that particular set of flaws honestly, so I never held it against him, lol. 

As it happens, my younger sister had to write a text for a Portuguese test, and I like it. Therefore, I translated it (probably not too well) and decided to read it aloud. In both languages:
There exist various characteristics that can be considered crucial for surpassing the most difficult difficulties and reaching the most faraway goals.
For an argument as simple as "Attempt, be daring, be courageous and persevere", many will ignore it outright. After all, just because we try to do something, just because we are stubborn, we do not obtain instant results. Various situations are, clearly, impossible. To this, there's nothing I can do but point toward the history of this country.
How many times has Portugal not achieved the impossible? A mere county, led by a teenager, becomes a country among countries triple, quadruple its size, fighting against Moors and Castilian Kings. One of Europe's smallest countries was given half the world by the Pope. A country in plain dictatorship, achieves a revolution without a single casualty.
I understand that some may not believe that tenacity and audacity enable the impossible, but something I can guarantee: Without attempt, there will be no success.
----
  Existem várias características que podem ser consideradas cruciais para ultrapassar as mais diffíceis dificuldades e alcançar os mais longínquos objetivos.
   Para um argumento tão simples como "Tenta, sê ousado, sê corajoso e persevera", muitos ignorá-lo-ão de imediato. Afinal, só por tentarmos fazer algo, só por sermos teimosos, não obtemos resultados de imediato. Várias situações são, claramente, impossíveis. A isto, nada posso responder senão apontar para a história deste país.
   Quantas vezes não realizou Portugal o impossível? Um mero condado, liderado por um adolescente, torna-se num país entre países com o triplo, o quádruplo do seu tamanho, lutando contra mouros e reis castelhanos. Um dos países mais pequenos da Europa recebeu metade do mundo do Papa. Um país em plena ditadura, realiza uma revolução sem um único ferido.
   Compreendo que alguns não acreditem que tenacidade e ousadia permitam o impossível, mas algo posso garantir: Sem tentativa, não haverá successo de forma alguma.
-M.F.V. (Poltroon)