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...mm, ugh...
...ma...sa, mari...sa...
Marisa, can you hear me?
Mm? Where is this? And what's that voice? Wait, is this like that dream I had during the mist incident?
Sounds like you can hear me then, Marisa. I have something to talk to you about.
Ah, sorry, I don't have time for that right now. Like you can see, I've been captured by the enemy.
Is that so?
Yeah. I wouldn't mind if you could tell me how to get out of here though.
Sorry, but you'll have to deal with that yourself. The most I can do if talk to you like this.
Guess I shouldn't have expected too much from a dream. So what'd you wanna tell me? I might as well listen.
The missing power of spring is drifting down from beyond the clouds. There lie the gates to the land of the dead. In other words, you may be able to slip into the Netherworld there, the source of this disturbance.
The Netherworld? Is that where spring comes from? Hold on, just who are you? And why are you telling me this?
All I want is to help you save Gensokyo from this crisis.
The border of reality draws near. Farewell, I have high expectations of you.
Wait up!
Music: What's the Strategy?
...!
That's the first time I've had a dream like that since summer. What's going on here?
But the Netherworld, huh? If Youmu's involved I guess that makes sense.
Hm?
...
Oh, it's you Shiro. I totally forgot that I put you in my hat. If one of our jailers finds you, you might end up as a snack.
...
Not that this makes much of a difference. I'm still stuck here.
I hope Sakuya and the others get here soon.
quote:
Cave Entrance
Music: Dark Clouds
I can't believe we ditched Marisa like that!
What else were we going to do? There was no way for us to bail her out.
But who knows what they're doing to her, even as we speak.
Maybe they consider humans a delicacy?
Stop that. Pessimistic thoughts like that don't help anyone.
B-but, we have to do something!
Right, which is why we sent Sakuya and the fairies to go scout the place. Forming a plan will have to wait until she gets back. There's no point to charging in recklessly.
But isn't there something we can do while we wait?
That's what I'm trying to think about, if you could be quiet for three seconds.
Yes ma'am...
Alice seems pretty on edge right now.
Yes, it's an awful situation all around. I can sympathize with her being antsy. But panicking will only make matters worse.
At least Sakuya should be calm enough to do this properly.
Footsteps_through_the_snow.wav
I'm back.
Whew, it was tough, but we did it.
Welcome back, everyone.
That was faster than I expected. And it sounds like it went well?
Indeed. It was easy enough to hide in a cave, and if worst came to worst I always had these three as back-up.
We helped a lot! Becoming invisible and muting our footsteps and stuff.
So you can't call it a breakdown anymore!
So how was it in there?
Seems like the youkai pulled back to their hideout. It was quiet.
So maybe we could sneak in?
True, it's not out of the question to go rescue Marisa.
Then that's what we're doing! Let's get started!
Okay, we'll need a cardboard box and some rations...
And lots of giant riceballs!
Are you sure about this? They should still be on alert from earlier.
Obviously we'll need to do this carefully. I'll keep watch at our rear. As for the vanguard...
At this point, you get to choose between having Alice, Nitori, or Patchouli lead the rescue. Whoever you pick will get an extra Friendship level with Marisa (or two, in Patchy's case). As this is a decision that affects gameplay, obviously I'll need some time to carefully deliberahahahhaha no.
If you pick Nitori, you'll get a buff that's useless half the time since Nitori (especially in FA) is so much slower than Marisa.
If you pick Patchouli, you actually get the overall largest boost, but she has the exact same speed problems as Nitori. I guess the boost could come in handy once you hit the boss, but at this point in the game Marisa should be nearing the level where she learns Strike. She isn't worried about bosses, she's worried about the stage.
Meanwhile picking Alice means making what was already one of the best teams in the game even better. How is this a choice?
There's actually a ton of branching dialogue in this chapter depending on who you picked and whether or not you had Marisa talk to them in earlier chapters. For sanity's sake, I'm just going to put Alice's dialogue if you convinced her in 2M.
Would you mind doing it Alice? You've known her the longest.
Huh? Me?
You seem like the type to make calm judgments under pressure. Am I wrong?
Yeah, I think you'd probably be able to predict Marisa's actions the best.
...I understand. I won't let you down.
We should leave pronto. We still don't know if she's safe.
Ugh, I really wanted to take a little break, but I can't say that now.
Marisa's been nice to us in the past. It's the least we could do.
(Really now, making me worry so much... If we get back safely, I'll give her a piece of my mind.)