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Chapter 3x: Life at Myourenji
Looks like we've polished them off.
For risking your lives for my sake, you have my gratitude.
The girl's the one who deserves your thanks.
She's the one who leapt to your aid.
Er, no, I just...
Ah, I see...
Then once more, thank you very much.
Likewise... Thank you for helping Hijiri.
Ahaha... Hearing it again is kinda embarassing.
Um, pardon me...
Ah, hello there.
An acquaintence of yours?
Yes. I see her around the temple from time to time.
You seem troubled. What is the matter?
Er, well, if you're helping people out, I was hoping I could ask you too... or something like that.
Hm? What's up??
Er, well... There's a youkai causing trouble, y'see...
A youkai? But, uh, aren't you a youkai yourself?
Well yeah, sure, but I mean...
She's being a serious pain! That's why I need your help.
For you to implore so strongly, I can't in good conscience turn you away.
Please, tell me about this youkai.
Really!? Thanks!
Ok, so...
HANNYAAAAA♪ HARAAAAAAAA♪ MITTAJIIIIIIII♪
---
What's going on?
Singing while cleaning the temple grounds? Looks like she's having fun.
Those are the sutras I read.
Wonderful. She's working hard without even needing to be told.
...
To be honest, having a youkai working at a temple feels a bit weird.
Seems fine to me.
Anyway, what's the problem?
It's her sutra chanting.
Oh? Why's that?
I think her diligence is most admirable.
You don't get it at all!
If it was normal sutra chanting, then sure, fine. Do it whenever or wherever, not my problem.
But! That volume aint normal at all!
Think about it. How far away are we from her right now?
We're SUPER far away, and yet we can still hear her clear as day!
I hear that aaaaall the time. Every day, from dusk til dawn, constantly. Constantly!
I seriously can't deal with it anymore.
Woah... Sounds rough.
So that eager sutra chanting I always hear...
I see, so she's the one.
If you knew about it then you should've done something already!
A-anyway. Please, do something to shut her up.
Those sutras are getting drilled into my brain.
Ah, if that's the case, mayhap you'd like to chant them yourself?
I'm sure it would set your mind at ease.
More like drive me crazy!
Yukari, what do we do?
Well, what do you want to do?
I think... I want to help.
Then it's decided.
I don't mind taking a detour, on occasion.
Thanks, Yukari.
But, take heed.
It would seem she was not the only one driven mad by all the noise.
Huh?
Yeah, everyone's gone kinda nuts.
I tried to tell her this'd happen, but she wouldn't listen to me at all!
If we want to handle the sutra-chanter, we'll have to deal with this lot, as well.
Also... if she continues, more youkai may show up.
Be careful around that area, as well.
sidenote: that's a lie, there are no reinforcements on this chapter
Got it, thanks!
Mmm... I'd rather encourage that girl's virtuous spirit, but alas...
For the time being, I'll have to refrain.
Let's take a look at the map.
There's a few particularly dangerous enemies mixed here, including a wolf girl with a Ghost-Slaying Axe. The green fairy near the bottom has the same Charisma skill as Shrine Maiden, which is kinda cute.
A couple enemies in the bottom left, including some magic users.
And finally, there's Kyouko up in the top left.
The way the chapter is set up, Kyouko is a "red" enemy, like normal, while the other youkai are "yellow" enemies. To win, we need to route everyone, but if the two enemy factions meet up, they'll absolutely fight each other. Amusingly, we win even if we're not the ones to beat Kyouko, but there's not a pressing strategic reason to let the other enemies do it for us.
Before we get on with the chapter, let's take a look at our new recruit.
Kogasa Tatara
Long Forgotten Umbrella
HP: 19
STR: 3
MAG: 0
SKL: 3
SPD: 8
LUK: 8
DEF: 5
RES: 5
A very solid lance user, with an excellent speed stat. She starts with low strength and skill, but her growths in both are pretty good, so they'll usually turn out fine. She's even got pretty good def/res. Despite her level 1 start, if you decide to train her, she usually turns out very well. As a bonus, she comes with another infinite-use Bronze Lance.
Skills-wise, she starts with Ambush. While attacked on the enemy phase, she'll always attack first. Unlike in some FE games, Ambush always procs in this game, so she can tear through enemies like a hot knife through butter if given effective weaponry.
Speaking of effective weaponry, it's a GREAT idea to train her weapon rank to D in short order. You'll see why in a chapter coming soon.
Kogasa's teaming up with Youki for the stat bonuses and heading down southwest for a training montage. Reimu/Yuyuko will be accompanying for the Charisma bonus. Everyone else moves northwest to intercept the trash mobs before they reach Kyouko.
A few enemies with ranged weapons start getting mixed in at this point. Not too bad right now, since Hand Axes have shit accuracy, but it slows things down that we can't counterattack.
Even with Youki's stat bonuses, Kogasa isn't quite fast enough to double these sword fairies.
raise da roof
A lot of the wolf girls moved entirely northwards, instead of approaching us. The AI on this map will prioritize getting closer to Kyouko if none of your units are in range. I guess the bit about them being pissed about her shouting was true after all!
Any fools that dare to approach us are swiftly dealt with.
As an aside, I feel like I land on exactly 99 out of 100 EXP weirdly frequently in this game.
As it turns out, this fairy was juuust slow enough to get doubled, and died on the enemy phase. First blood for Kogasa!
The fairy Kogasa weakened previously gets healed. This game isn't shy about dotting the map with healers, so get used to that.
So yeah, you need to die.
She drops her Heal staff to compensate us for the trouble.
This wolf has the Ghost-Slaying Axe I mentioned. S'why I sent Yuyuko down south with Reimu.
In return for that kill, Yukari gets this glorious level: absolutely nothing!
I knew she was getting too lucky with those early levels.
At least we got that Ghost-Slaying Axe.
You can barely see her, but the tile Ran's sitting on counts as "forest" terrain, meaning it has defensive bonuses. Nice, since she'll be getting attacked quite a bit.
HP, Magic, Resistance. A prototypical Byakuren level.
One cheeky wolf decides to pop a vulnerary. Didn't move away first though, like they normally do. Weird.
One thing I didn't notice before sending Kogasa down here was just how many enemies have ranged weapons here. Oh well.
This won't kill, but luckily enemies are stupid as hell and won't move if they can already attack you. Thus, even though this fairy has a Javelin, she'll attack from point blank, and since Kogasa has Ambush, she'll get killed before she can even attack.
Being as that's the plan, Shrine Maiden's just gunna park right here and passively provide support via Charisma.
Up north, I've switched things around to just let Byakuren get attacked without counterattacking. Since this is such a light level anyway, I might as well keep some enemies alive to feed to Kogasa and/or the Three Fairies.
This is why I parked these two on that forest tile I mentioned, by the way.
As planned, this fairy gets Billy the Kid'd.
And Kogasa gets her first level! Strength and Resistance isn't the best thing ever, but I'll take it.
This fairy also drops a sellable treasure.
HP, Strength, Magic, Skill, Speed, and Defense. Now that's what I'm talking about!
Kogasa finally finishes off the southern enemies.
And Shrine Maiden gets a healer level.
Strength and Luck. Not great, but I have no room to complain about Shrine Maiden's growth so far.
Couple turns of dicking around to let Kogasa catch up.
Kogasa blows up another wolf, of the lance variety. This would not normally be noteworthy, but...
She gets a weapon rank out of it! She can now wield D-Rank lances. This will be very useful, next chapter.
We polish off the last of the yellow-faction, and Kogasa gets this level: HP, Speed, Luck, Defense, Resistance. A very nice level.
We've only got Kyouko left, now. She doesn't move, so we can approach her without fear.
I'll talk about her more later, but the big thing to know right now is that she has a Bronze Axe, and I want it.
Spoilers: she'll be joining us shortly, but her inventory as an enemy has no bearing on her inventory as an ally, so if I steal her shit, it basically gets duplicated.
She starts equipped with the Bronze Axe, so to steal it I need to make her equip her Hand Axe, first. Shrine Maiden'll be doing that job.
This morning's chores are cleaning, making fried rice, and an ambush.
I'll make your cries echo throughout the temple!
---
Huh. Is THAT what this temple's about?
Oh my, how very strange. I wonder where she picked up such strange ideas.
PLEASE tell her she's wrong, already!
Big shouts.
As promised though, SM aint getting hit by shit.
Sunny Milk moves in. She needs to dodge Kyouko's counter for this to work, but considering Kyouko's got 4% to hit, this is a safe bet.
Also, Kyouko is a "beast" unit like Ran, so she takes effective damage from this Fire spell.
Dodge, and...
Smooth criminals.
On the enemy phase, she uses a vulnerary.
Which reminds me...
Yoink. That vulnerary's mine too.
Quick switcharoo on the Pair Ups to give Suika some extra EXP (instead of wasting it on Youki).
Down she goes. No levels, but they both got like 50 EXP or so.
Aaand, that's the chapter.
I'VE BEEN DEFEATEEEEEEED!
Holy crap, you are SO noisy!
Whaa, noisy? But, like, I'm a yamabiko. That's my entire thing, you know?
Even so, there's gotta be a limit! Do you even realize how loud you are?
But this is my normal speaking voice. Can't say it's very loud at all.
Besides, if you wanna talk loud voices, it's got be like this, see?
YOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kyaa!?
ACK!!
Urk!
Ohh dear.
See? Get it?
Quite the lungs on this one.
Ran, are you alright?
Urgh... I thought my ears were going to break.
The downside of having good ears, I suppose.
What the hell!
Jeeze! Can you guys do something about her?
Mmm, well now. This is quite a pickle, isn't it?
I'm pretty danged pickled at the moment!
Hmm...
Say, Miss Yamabiko. Why are you chanting sutras?
Why? Well, I mean...
I'm a yamabiko, you know? I'm just repeating back the stuff I've heard.
I just feel like if I work hard at this temple, I'll be better for it as a yamabiko, or something like that.
I can't even begin to understand where you're coming from.
I think your goal is wonderful.
Chanting in a loud voice is nice, but it's not quite enough, I think.
Isn't that right, Byakuren?
Quite so. Chanting alone will not suffice.
You must think upon the sutras' meanings, reflect upon them, and take the words to heart.
Huh... is that right.
Yep. You're a yamabiko, so I get that you've got a loud voice. Your heart's in the right place, too.
But still, if you don't understand the sutras' meanings, it's a waste of your efforts.
Pisses off everyone around you, too.
You've been doing your best, but your methods have been just a little bit off.
Thus, I'll teach you everything I know. That includes how to chant sutras, of course.
This way, I'm sure you'll become a splendid yamabiko indeed.
R-right!
Guess that settles things, then.
Yeah, thanks!
I've been dying for a little peace and quiet.
Ah, I've just thought of something wonderful!
Wha-
You have the sutras memorized by now, yes? So you should join me as a disciple as well!
Wait, what!? I'll pass, thanks!
Come now, isn't that a bit hasty?
If you go through ascetic training with this yamabiko girl, I'm certain that you can become an amazing youkai as well.
Me? An amazing youkai...?
Then it's decided!
Together, you will aim for the heights of youkai-dom!
Right! I'll do my very best!
How the heck'd it come to this?
My name's Kyouko Kasodani! I'll give it my all with you!
Who cares who you are right now!
It's all your fault this is happening!
Ahh, such good friends already. You'll get along splendidly.
---
...Hey, Yukari. When'd this temple turn into a youkai gym?
Virtue comes to both humans and youkai alike.
Or something like that, anyway.
In that case, maybe I should become a priest myself.
You? No way. One day of abstinence and you'd crack.
Unless you think you can give up meat forever.
...An impossible endeavour, indeed.
The life of a priest just isn't for me, I suppose.
That's it for this chapter. See you next time, for Chapter 4.