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Chapter 2: Ice Fairy Attack
So, you don't remember your name?
Yeah.
And the first thing you remember is being attacked by youkai?
Yep.
...Mmm, this tea is delicious.
Jeeze! Lady Yukari, there's no way we can trust this girl!
Calm yourself, Ran.
By the way, while you were running, do you recall touching anything noteworthy?
Hmm, not particularly...
Oh! Now that you mention it, there was this lock-ish thing. It vanished as soon as I touched it, though.
(I knew it.)
I see. Well then, we'll take you into our custody.
Lady Yukari, are you sure!?
She has clearly been honest with us thus far.
Besides...
Thanks, I owe you one.
Oh hey, could I ask for a refill?
Ran.
...Very well. I'll be back in a moment.
Ran leaves. The music drops out, as well.
Okay, we're alone. Was there something you wanted to ask me?
What do you need me for?
...Everything.
Hmm...
You don't seem like an evil youkai, but you've definitely got a bad side.
It's like, you're really fishy, or something.
Hmhm, you flatter me with your praise.
One last question, then.
Could you possibly explain why a youkai like you saved a human you've never even met before?
Well...
Heeey, Yukariii! Looks like we've got more guests!
Looks like a real lively bunch, too.
Without the barrier, I suppose "Mayoiga" is little more than a house, now.
Very well, we'll repel them.
Yukari leaves.
Huh? Barrier?
Mayoiga was protected by a memory barrier, of sorts. That was the "lock" that you broke.
I... broke it?
Your amnesia is probably because you touched the barrier.
Really? But...
But, Yukari didn't mention that, I suppose.
Still feel like trusting her?
...
Well, I should go greet our visitors as well.
Yuyuko leaves.
What should I do...
Ha ha ha! I win!
You guys are sooo slooow!
Haa... haa... You're just too fast, Cirno...
(Not to mention, you never told us where the goal was.)
Whew. I guess everyone else should be here soon?
Fairies spawn in from all sides.
Everyone! The goal is over here!
By the way, Cirno, can I ask you a question?
Sup?
...Where are we?
I aint got a clue. Like, duh.
"Like duh"? Seriously...?
Oh hey, there's a funky looking house over there! Let's go mess with it!
W-woah! Cirno, slow down!
So this time it's fairies?
Just fairies, hm? Though there sure are a lot of them.
...Yukari. Let me help too.
Ah, so you'll be lending us your aid?
Yeah. I can't just sit around doing nothing.
I see. In that case, would you care for some combat advice?
If we say yes here we get a cute tutorial corner from Dai, but I'm lazy, so I'm just gunna skip it.
It's fine, I'll manage.
In that case, show me what you can do.
It looks like the fairies on the east and west sides are ready to pounce.
We should focus our efforts on those ones, first.
Now that I can zoom the camera out, here's a slightly better look at what we're dealing with.
Like Yukari mentioned, the fairies on the sides will be coming right for us, while the enemies down south will stay put.
Ran/Yuyuko will be dealing with the western enemies, while Yukari/Suika will go east, with Shrine Maiden healing whoever needs it.
I've marked a purple fairy there (not that you can see the purple while she's tinted red) because she has lances. I'm avoiding having Ran go into her range to avoid being at a weapon triangle disadvantage.
The enemy turn goes by uneventfully, so we start picking off the fairies that got damaged.
At the start of turn 3:
Hrm. I suspected she was behind that barrier...
Looks like I hit a bullseye.
---
Ugh. It's him.
What's wrong, Yuyuko? It's rare to see you look so openly surprised.
I look surprised because I am. The one guy I didn't want finding me is here.
Seriously, couldn't we have done something about the barrier sooner?
Lady Yuyuko, that's a bit harsh...
Is this becuase I broke the barrier?
No, no, it's not your fault at all.
It's Yukari's. She's the one that should have fixed it.
As biting as ever, I see.
In the first place, you're the one who gave him a reason to chase you, aint'cha?
Ngh-
B-but, I mean, that's like, totally not my fault...
---
I know not who broke that barrier, but I offer you my gratitude.
Thanks to you, I've finally found Lady Yuyuko.
I'm very much looking forward to hearing why she's been fleeing from me.
---
Oh crap, he's coming over here!
Need an escape plan?
...No, I doubt running will change things.
I'll just convince him to go away.
You ARE the type to talk people in circles. Well, good luck with that.
Youki Konpaku
Half-Human Half-Ghost Swordsman
HP: 29
STR: 11
MAG: 4
SKL: 14
SPD: 13
LUK: 3
DEF: 17
RES: 8
Youki here is our designated Jeigan (ie: the early strong unit that falls off later) but with a twist. Ordinarily I'd save skills for later, but we need to talk about one to talk about him at all: Limitter. This reduces Youki's stats by about 30%. Which is to say, Youki's real strength is 16, his real defense is 24, and so on. Unfortunately, they only way to get rid of it is to use a Gem of Reincarnation on him, which, in addition to some other effects I'll explain later, resets his level to 1, and reduces his stats accordingly.
Basically, he's a Jeigan unit right now, but if you really like him, you can train him from the ground up and he'll be about as good as anyone else. His strength will be very shaky, but his other stats are fine. For the time being, he's primarily a stat-stick to shove on someone for the Pair Up bonuses.
This also gives me a chance to mention a cute thing about weapons in this game. There's a very loose, like, element system, I guess? Youki here comes with a Lightning Lance, which basically just means he's got a Killer Lance. Lighting weapons come in all weapon types, and they have a boost to Critical Hit chance, but are usually rarer/have less uses before they break. We'll be seeing another element in a bit, as you might guess.
ANYWAY, his other, real skills include Ghost, which Yuyuko had, and Flurry, which is basically Astra from the FE games: 5 attacks in a row at 1/2 damage. An oddity of the game system is that only the last hit drains weapon durability, so it's nice to proc even when the damage is unnecessary.
That was a lot of words about Youki, huh?
Contrary to what FE might have taught you, Youki actually joins us and is controllable right away. I guess it'd be annoying if he rushed in as a neutral unit and stole all your kills? He does have a conversation with Yuyuko, but we can wait until later to get it.
Regardless, he heads down and Pairs Up with Shrine Maiden.
A cute detail is that, while Cirno and all the other southern enemies are stationary, Dai constantly patrols one space around Cirno.
Okay it's my turn again, so I can show you the sick gains Shrine Maiden is getting from teaming up with Youki. +3 strength, 4 speed, and +5 def is nothing to sneeze at this early in the game.
It's hard to capture properly, but he's got a cool after-image thing in his attack animation. Very anime.
Shrine Maiden gets a level, with HP, Strength, Speed, Luck, and Defense. A fantastic result!
By turn 5, we've just got the lance fairies left from the sides.
This is a good pace - there's actually a Gaiden (bonus) chapter after this, and the conditions for unlocking it are beating Cirno in under 20 turns.
Not beating the chapter, mind you - it's specifically beating Cirno. We have to rout the enemy, but I think you can take longer than 20 turns for that, if you somehow need to.
This fairy drops a Bronze Lance. In addition to being infinite use, it has very low attack, making it the perfect weapon for Youki to soften up enemies with.
...Oh yeah, did I not mention that Youki, the swordsman, uses Highspeed Bullets, which are the lance-analogue? Yeah, that's a thing. Please be excited for every single blade-user in the series to be the same way.
Since we're about to engage them, lets look at the bosses.
Dai is like a weaker version of Shrine Maiden, being a sword healer. She, like all named fairies, has the Break Time skill, which just denotes that she'll revive even if she's defeated in Classic mode. Her other skill is Healer, which regens half her Magic in HP to units in adjacent tiles every turn.
In this case, her skills are completely irrelevent, but they'll matter more when we get our own units that can use them.
Cirno's a bit more dangerous. 8 strength and 7 speed is quite a bit early on, though Youki can more than make up the difference. Her skills are Break Time, and Charge. The latter is an interesting one: if you're above 50% HP after a fight ends, and you're lighter than the opponent, you have a chance of refighting the opponent immediately (doubles, counters, et all). What does "lighter" mean, you ask? Well, weapon weight is in this game, except it has no effect on anything but weird skills like this. There's also a completely invisible Build stat, that I can't access or figure out except knowing that it exists (because there are items that boost it).
...Let it not go unsaid that this game is weird.
By the way, Cirno has an Ice Lance. Ice weapons deal effective damage to flyers. "Effective" damage in this game triples the weapons might, so this Ice Lance goes from having 9 might to 27. Needless to say, she will fucking annihilate Yuyuko if you let them meet.
Ice weapons also have the weird property of, upon hitting, sometimes preventing the enemy from attacking for the rest of that combat. I'm not sure how the odds are calculated, but they're in the exact space of being infrequent enough to be unreliable when you use them but just frequent enough to be annoying when enemies use them.
Thankfully Chiyuudou's smart enough not to overuse Ice weapons, most of the time.
Dai by herself is not very threatening. She dealt a massive 3 damage to Yuyuko, here.
An amusing thing about ranged weapons in this game is that they actually position units farther away from each other.
Please be excited for late game siege weapons, where you have to watch bullets fly across the screen for like 5 full seconds if you're attacking from max range.
Dai goes down pretty easily.
Suika gets a Strength and Luck level.
Meanwhile, Yukari gets Strength, Magic, Luck, Defense, and Resistance. If this keeps up, thi'll be the best Yukari I've ever had.
Incidentally, Dai drops a healing staff upon defeat.
Ahh!
Dai!
Dangit, how dare you bully Dai!!
Cirno...
Dai, get behind me!
That's it, you guys are toast!
I'mma kick ALL your butts!
Hey, Yukari. Is it just me, or does that fairy out in front look stronger now?
Such is the power of Pair Up.
Would you care for a tutorial?
I've already handled it, thanks.
It's fine, I think I get it.
Pride comes before a fall.
Let's take things carefully, lest we suffer any losses.
They formed up right as my turn ended, so they get to move first. Luckily they start where Cirno was, and she was out of range.
Here's their stats post-Pair Up. Still not too bad, but seriously, keep Yuyuko away from Cirno.
I'm going to let Cirno run into Youki wielding the Bronze Lance, so I might as well grab this conversation now.
There you are, mistress.
O-oh, did you mistake me for Yuyuko?
Sorry, but you've definitely got the wrong person~.
I don't believe I mentioned Lady Yuyuko's name.
...
*ahem*
G-good day Youki. What brings you here?
I wish you'd consider my feelings before running from your training.
Now, let's go home, and-
Hold it.
Have you not noticed what's going on? That's rather unlike you.
...True. I suppose I was blinded by my grievances.
I apologize, I have been neglectful in my duties. I, Youki Konpaku, shall join you on the field of battle.
Wait, what? You're staying?
Indeed. Though I may be lacking in power, I will do my utmost to support you.
Lady Yuyuko, I will speak with you further at a later time.
...
Well, that backfired.
Back to your regularly scheduled asskickings.
It seems like the AI prioritizes putting Dai in front, so I guess she'll be dying first. Naturally, Youki takes no damage, and reduces Dai to 8 HP.
...Despite that, the enemy switched back to Cirno inbetween turns.
Yeah, they cheat like that sometimes.
On a hunch, I pulled back and let them come to me.
Sure enough, the AI put Dai out in front again, even though she's much lower on HP than Cirno.
For your cheating, I sentence you to death.
Ohoho, and here's another fun surprise!
Now that Dai's dead for good, Cirno got a permanent stat boost. She's now even stronger than she was while Paired Up with Dai. Wonder if that says something about their relationship...
Her accuracy might not be the best, but we can't take Cirno lightly. She hits hard right now.
Even Youki can't double her right now, so I bust out the Lighting Lance. Getting a crit would be a waste of EXP, but luckily that doesn't happen.
And with the WTA, Suika finishes her off.
We also get an Ice Lance out of the deal, which Yuyuko will appreciate.
We still need to finish off the rest of the enemies, so let's get to it.
Some levels for the road.
Yuyuko gets Strength(!), Magic, Speed, and Res.
Yukari gets HP, Magic, Skill, Speed, and Res.
Shrine Maiden gets HP, Magic, Skill, Speed, Luck, and Res. What'd I say about "lots of stats" levels?
And lastly, Ran gets HP, Skill, Speed, Luck, and Def.
Solid levels all around.
After defeating every enemy on the map, the next dialogue triggers.
Gahhh! I'll remember this!!
I'm done for...
*pichun*
Whew, they were a pretty energetic bunch.
So uh, when they vanished... they're not dead, right?
Life and death mean nothing to fairies.
Give them a bit, and they'll be right as rain.
Huh. That's a relief.
Worried about the people attacking you? Pretty weird.
What's wrong with that? They're just kids.
From where I'm standing, you're pretty childish yourself.
Same to you.
The hell'd you just say!?
Hard to tell who's the adult here.
---
A fairy's strength depends on the youkai around them.
Those two, however, seemed different.
As fairies go, they were unusually powerful.
The barrier vanished, and now powerful fairies have appeared...
This matter may have spread beyond just Mayoiga.
Ran. Tomorrow, I'll have you perform a brief survey of Gensokyo.
Roger that.
And that's it for now. See you next time.