Waffocopter's Blog

Anime Relations: Little Busters! Refrain

And after only one day of starting the common route for Akane, I’m already onto her route! Yeah, let the tears begin! One thing I was wondering, it’s still a mystery who it is that I found stuck in a tree when I was a kid. Who was it that was a factor in my accident, and consequently being turned into a familiar? It was a girl, apparently, but neither Kotori, Chihaya, Lucia or Shizuru revealed her identity. And it can’t be Kagari herself, right? Cuz she came after I fell. Could it be Akane? Somehow I can’t imagine such a high ranking person in Gaia climbing trees, even as a kid. Maybe I’m thinking too much on this girl’s identity and Rewrite never reveals who it is because it’s unimportant. ....nah.







-Hm, were the images for the other character’s routes beginning black like Akane? I know Shizuru’s wasn’t...

-After falling unconscious in the forest after the whole familiars and Kagari thing, I sleep an entire day and go to school the next day, if only to find out the whole thing was a dream or not. As expected, none of the Occult club members are at school. I’m unable to contact them through text either. Yoshino asks what’s wrong but I’m unable to answer him and he leaves, unhappy. After finding the clubroom locked, I realize that it’s not a dream.

-I visit everyone’s house but Shizuru and Lucia’s are empty. I ring the doorbell but no one comes out of Chihaya’s house and the curtains are drawn. Akane’s house is a big building called Enish house(?) that doesn’t seem like a private residence. It looks run down, with a broken doorbell and weeds all over. A passerby tells me that no one lives there.

-When the coast is clear, I break into the building. It’s a mess, with random stuff everywhere. I look around and find a toy box, drawings and a photo album. In the album are pictures of kids and a few adults. I conclude that this must have been an orphange. I guess the name and size of the place makes sense.

-You know, Akane is the most mysterious character. I really know nothing about her except for her having tons of connections, having an impressive private room in the school, playing games a lot, agreeing with Gaia’s plans, and being the “witch” of Gaia. Despite going through four routes, I learned nothing other than she may be crazy at some point and that she’s all for Gaia’s plan of Salvation for the world.

-So this place isn’t a fake address that Akane used but an orphanage that she did actually live at as a kid. Somehow, I didn’t think she was an orphan. There’s that one CG in the opening that looks like she’s going to attend a funeral so I thought it’d be a parent or something dying during her route. But I guess that isn’t possible...

-I take a picture with me and talk to an old woman outside. She says the place closed down a few years ago. All the kids were adopted by other groups or people and the orphanage was locked up.

-A housewife nearby says she remembers one of the kids from the orphanage so I call her to find out more. The girl doesn’t want to tell me much but then I lie about how it’s related to love and she tells me more. She says the person who adopted Akane was Kashima Sakura, the leader of the Martel Group, an environmental protection group. It’s very close to Kazamatsuri and seems religious but is more scientific. Ah, to me it’s more magical considering it’s a front for GAIA!!!

-Although there’s a lot of information on this Kashima Sakura person, there’s no mention of an adopted daughter and that’s why Akane’s last name hasn’t changed.

-I’m determined to find Akane, no matter how difficult it is so I go home and do a ton of research on the organization. I don’t really know much about it despite the fact that both my parents work there. In the past, it sounded very religious and against any kind of destruction from humans. They had to reword their stance several times to the present to sound more scientific and friendly to humans as well. I find a pamphlet for members with the picture of their headquarters so I head to it. It is indeed the same place I went to with Chihaya in her route..

-I wait outside, hoping to see someone familiar and end up seeing a group of people leave with Akane there as well.


Oh, I guess it wasn’t a funeral. Kotarou himself even says that it feels like one, though. It is mostly older women, some younger and a few men. Akane is right in the middle, as if being protected.

-I make the decision not to call her, as I know she won’t pick up anyway. She looks very serious and tense, as if she’s wearing a mask. I then just watch them leave. Back at home, I send everyone more texts including one for Akane titled “we need to talk”. No one texts me back.

-The next day, I walk downtown and sense people following me. Nothing happens though but I still feel like I’m being watched even when I’m at home.

-I sneak out in the middle of the night and go to Kotori’s house. Still, no one responds and I’m confused over the lack of care of her garden. As far as Kotarou is concerned, Kotori is just normal and not part of this supernatural business here.

-While trying to climb the fence to Kotori’s house, people in black suits try to catch me. Most likely, this is Guardian like in Shizuru’s route. But in Akane’s route, I escape to my room and text Akane that government is after me. Surprisingly, she actually called me back and said, “open the window”. Hm, so this is the first thing I hear from her in her route, huh? How very Akane-ish.

-Akane scolds me lightly about calling her Akane with no honorifics and says that my sorry isn’t enough and that usually, dogeza is better. Then she gets back on track and tells me to open the window again. She can’t tell me much more so I stand outside with the window open before a colorful bird comes in with a message tube.

-The note directs me to Akane’s clubroom where she lets me in after about ten minutes of waiting. She tells me I’m a fool for thinking that guy at Kotori’s house was part of a secret government agency. She spins me a lie, telling me it was just a cop. Kotarou doesn’t believe her.

-She tells me that at least her reason for disappearing is because she knew Kotarou would have questions and look for everyone and Akane isn’t really at liberty to answer any of my questions. She explains that her statement of not believing in the supernatural was a farce and that she expected most of my leads to be false anyway. If I did stumble upon a real one, Akane figured that at least she would get them first so she could cover them up. Kotarou accuses her of tricking him all this time...with her boobs.

-She tells me to go home and live a normal life.


Poor Kotarou thinks about abandoning the Occult club and starts crying. Akane wonders if this little club is really worth any tears but it is for Kotarou since he’s pretty friendless. I explain that it was something and the thought that it’s been reset to nothing is too sad. Akane feels bad and even wipes my nose for me...

-I tell her that I’m being watched but she thinks I mean the cop. I tell her that I meant someone else and she gets more serious, asking if there’s any proof or reason. I tell her that maybe it’s because of my superpower. I show her my wrist and let some aura come out, which surprises Akane. I tell her that I only controlled that recently but have been able to run fast and strengthen my body for a while. She says that it explains...a lot.

-I ask if I’m in danger and she ruffles my hair. Aw. Then I rest my head on her chest, non-pervertedly. Aw, this is like the opposite of Shizuru’s route. Instead of dating an underclassman, Kotarou will be the underclassman and the difference is obvious. She then tells me that I won’t get anything from her but asks if I’m sure I want to know. I nod and she tells me that my life will never be normal again if I know.


-After confirming that I’m okay with this and it doesn’t matter as long as I have someone precious with me, the screen fades to black and goes to this image with different music. I guess this is Akane’s monologue here but it’s confusing to understand what I’m reading about with no context. I’ll make a note to return to it at the end. It has something to do with remembering and something being lost forever, living by her own rules and scattered memories. The image lightens up to “reveal” Akane along with her name in the dialogue box.



Okay Akane, regained my power? And memories? Hm, maybe she knows the connection to the Key and wants it hidden. And how would I become her/Gaia’s Achilles Heel?

-I wake up and feel relieved just by being close to Akane, knowing that no real problems have been solved yet.

-Wait, when she says terms like superhumans and hunters and sees that I don’t recognize them, she sounds exasperated that I ‘forgot’ that too. Could these memories she’s talking about be from the previous routes?

-Akane tells me about Guardian and how I’d be kidnapped and tortured now if they saw me in the streets because I’m now viewed as a traitor as her organization (which she hasn’t named yet) is against Guardian.

-She shows me her own summoning of the messenger bird and explains that she’s part of Gaia.

-The next day after classes, Akane tells me that she’s going to make me her guard/attendant/pupil/secretary-in-training/whatever as a convenient excuse for me to be near her.

-Apparently, Akane is the Holy Woman’s servant in Gaia. Hm, I thought she’d be the highest up woman in the organization. But being her servant means that she’s a candidate to be the next Holy Woman.

-Hm, so I can’t remember Kotori ever knowing/caring too much about my rewriting ability, Chihaya encouraged me to practice it and both Shizuru and Lucia were okay with me using it as well. In Akane’s route, she outright tells me that I shouldn’t show it to anyone, showing some kind of disapproval.

-Akane tells me that I’m going to have to quit school but Kotarou already decided to, mainly because he’d just be isolated anyway since the Occult Club won’t return. She asks him if school was the best place for Kotarou. He says no and that he’s pathetic despite trying to make it his best place. Akane tells him that he made a good effort to cheer him up. She then tells him that since the Martel group funds Kazamatsuri, she can at least let him graduate.


Well, I heard your route is good, Akane. ...also because you’re the last route left before I get to Moon and Terra so it’s a given that I had to choose you at some point.

-I pack my stuff from home and meet Akane at the Kazamatsuri General Purpose Hall, which has plenty of space and land. There are a lot of people there but not everyone is Gaia so I obviously shouldn’t talk out loud about it.

-I head to the bathroom and a very large, muscley man is there doing his business. He’s interrogating me basically, asking if I’m a student and if I’m a normal member, all while not really mentioning Gaia at all. I can only vaguely answer his questions since I don’t know if he knows about Gaia, which pisses him off.


I accidentally compared his ears to gyoza out loud, which makes the man chase me outside the bathroom. Akane was worried about me but then saw the man, someone she calls Takasago, and his unzippered pants. After a little fight, I get lectured by Akane on how I can’t act like a student anymore. She confirms that Takasago is a member of Gaia.

-I then go to meet Gaia’s inner circle. I meet Akane’s secretary, Tsukuno, who was the person who was hunting for Tsuchinoko back then. I’m relieved that it’s someone I know and not someone scary like Akane was warning me about. Then she says the next person I meet is dangerous.


This is the dangerous person I have to meet, that I have to think before I speak to? She runs over to Tsukuno and hugs her and Akane asks if she was wandering around again.

-Ah, I guess she’s not the dangerous one. She is just a little kid, after all. Though I bet she’s something special since she’s close to people high up in Gaia and has her own sprite. And, and her name is Shimako.

-She’s a girl who doesn’t like overly cheerful people, apparently. I tell Akane that they seems similar in the way they act and Akane smiles, saying that it’s probably because she guides her. They’re both servants to the holy woman but Akane is older and has to guide Shimako. Despite how old she looks (about eight?), Shimako still can’t talk yet. Odd, what’s the reason for that?

-After Tsukuno and Shimako leave, I have to meet three old men who seem pretty intimidating. I make a fool of myself by apologizing when they weren’t even talking to me. Akane tells me to back off.

-This is apparently not an interrogation but a “formal objection”. They don’t like someone suddenly joining Gaia like this and they don’t like how young I am. There’s also rumors that Akane simply wanted to bring her lover into Gaia. They probably wouldn’t like anything Akane chooses to do, since she’s from one faction that doesn’t do well with the administrative side, led by Suzaki. She tells them that I’m rare and would be useful to her but they wonder aloud if it’s just as a meat shield. Ouch.

-She actually directly asks me if I’d die for her and I instinctively say that I would, if I have to. And that leads to a test to prove my unusualness between me and one of Suzaki’s subordinates later in the day with my martial arts skills that I don’t have. Before they leave, they ask to see the background check results that Akane did of me a while back.

-Since Akane still has work to do, I go through a secret tunnel that is only used by her and now me to go back to the club room. When work is done, she tells me that the test is to start and that it’s not important that I win. I do need to hide the existance of my powers, though. So we go to the school gym, of all places, and my opponent is...Takasago. I half-expected that. Takasago, Tsukuno, Akane and me are the only ones there. Apparently, we don’t deserve any audience. I guess it’s clear that Takasago is on the administrative side of Gaia, then.

-Takasago and I fight each other but he dodges well and is larger and strong. I cling onto him and end up using my power a bit to augment my strength when he’s not looking. Akane knew that I was going to do it before I did it.




Akane commands me to finish it and then says the above. How very helpful.

-I dropkick Takasago and he goes flying. I look at Tsukuno, since she’s the ref and I wink at her to remind her to count. She...winks back at me. No, that’s not what you’re supposed to do. Well, she’s right to not count anyway, since he’s back up though his face is bleeding.

-He has a dark smile on and his feet start lighting up with a magic circle. Akane tells him to stop but Takasago starts talking about how he was bullied when he was young so he tried to strengthen himself with various physical arts. He summons a small familiar that looks like a demon cat of sorts with a whip-like tail as a challenge to me. Tsukuno says that it seems like a good challenge but Akane objects since I have no training whatsoever in fighting familiars. Tsukuno brushes it off, saying she doesn’t trust me yet either.

-Akane tells me to defeat it, “as-is”. It’s a fast familiar but my eyes get used to it and I start attacking it but not without getting hurt. Injured arms from the tail and broken bones from its massive bite. Akane sounds worried, which Kotarou kind of appreciates. I end up stabbing and killing it with my aurora, hiding it from the others. Akane lectures Takasago on using made-up creatures as opposed to real ones. After he leaves, I ask Akane if Takasago was always that naïve. She answers that everyone in Gaia is. She doesn’t confirm or deny if she is naïve, though.

-I end up suspended from school as an excuse to never attend classes. Akane’s “magic” makes sure my parents aren’t upset. She tells me that she won’t be at the club room much anymore but that I’m welcome to stay there if I don’t want to go home anytime. She then gives me the room key. Akane gives me one last chance to turn back but I refuse. She tells me to be prepared to kill and that Gaia thinks of the Earth’s survival as more important than humanity’s survival.


Feels kind of lonely and sad here. Akane gives me permission to betray Gaia if I can’t stand for what I see and learn there.

-Shimako appears in the clubroom while I’m thinking by myself. I have a one-sided conversation with her, one that seems to make her want to hide every time I raise my voice. I realize to myself that good and evil don’t matter to me, just what’s precious to me. I tell Shimako that I’m going to be Akane’s bodyguard and that we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. She doesn’t like to hear that, kicks me and runs out into the school hallway. I find her but sound like a kidnapper or something so I get into a bit of trouble with the authorities. Tsukuno bails me out and Akane is a tad disappointed in me. She’s also disappointed that Shimako came all the way to the school but had never done it when Akane was there.

-I tell her that I do really want to learn to be a bodyguard. She asks why and I tell her that I want to protect her. Akane attempts to act nonchalant about it but spills tea from her mouth and swears she’s not nervous when I never accused her of being nervous. Aww, she’s flustered!

-Akane gives me a history lesson of Gaia. Gaia has existed since before writing was invented and members control familiars with their life force, the familiars often being mistaken for demons. Summoners often die young but there are a few exceptions, including the Holy Woman. Apparently, it’s not that difficult to become a summoner. You just need a sort of desire.


Relating the questionnaire at the very beginning of the game, Akane explains the question about being dissatisfied and changing yourself or the world to accomodate it and how it relates to the ability to summon familiars. Huh, that’s new. Chihaya was always a bit too much of an airhead to explain anything about summoning like this.

-Those people dissatisfied and can only trust themselves strengthen themselves instead become superhumans. They tend to work for Guardian to achieve their goal. They also tend to be extroverts. Hm, I find this kind of wrong. Chihaya keeps her emotions in? Shizuru being an extrovert? Lucia does have her outbursts so she’s okay, I guess. This theory seems a bit wonky when comparing the actual characters.

-Akane finds my aurora power odd since she doesn’t know what could have triggered that odd form. I tell her that it seems foreign (well, cuz it’s not mine) and Akane wonders if it’s just unrefined but doesn’t elaborate. She tells me that we should find out if I have the ability to summon or not.

-Akane seems surprised that I was paying attention when I ask her about Gaia’s goal. She was probably trying to avoid that touchy subject... She vaguely just tells me that Gaia does indeed use familiars to change the world as they see fit and that they can’t really change the world no matter how strong of a familiar they summon. And that’s the end of that conversation. Way to avoid the question, Akane!!!




Note: It’s been months since I last played this. I’m going to partially blame Persona Q for that. I’ve spent the last days catching up by reading what had happened up to this point and I’ll start back up soon.

Anime Relations: Little Busters! Refrain

And here I am, starting the common route again. Akane is the last one before I do the Moon and Terra, the true route(s?). From what I read, the person who planned and created Kotori’s route also did Akane’s so...I’ll probably cry. A lot. Oh man. Hm, in Kotori’s route, the Key died and we all avoided Salvation. In Chihaya’s route, she didn’t really want Salvation anyway. And Lucia and Shizuru are both from Guardian so of course they don’t want Salvation. But...Akane clearly wanted it from Chihaya and Shizuru’s route. How will her route end? Will it be another bittersweet one like Shizuru’s where the world ended anyway? Well, I’d better get started.









-For the first time, I’ll answer Akane’s question about having power and being dissatisfied about the world with the response of “change the world”.

-At my first meeting with Akane late at night, she goes over my questions and, when she gets to the important question, she seems happy with my answer. Well yeah, of course. She is the one who wants to change (destroy) the world with Salvation.

-Ah, don’t know what I realized this now but this is the first route with a girl who’s actually older than me.



-In the endless hallway, I find a gag practice room. I mess with the sign a little and Yoshino thinks it’s a gig practice room. He talks about how he goes to them and people always cheer for him. He then goes to a microphone and starts spouting...poetry about being badass. The microphone grades him 95/100 on his joke but Yoshino doesn’t hear the ‘joke’ part of the assessment. It keeps praising him and I eventually have to run out of the room to laugh at his misunderstanding.



-I go outside for lunch and encounter Akane. Looks like Chihaya was annoying her so she wanted to eat out for a change. She’s a tad overwhelmed by all the options so she makes me choose a place to eat. ...one with no annoyingly loud cash registers and none that have to ask her a lot of questions on how she wants her food.



Decisions, decisons. First two are pretty fancy considering it’s just two high school students going to lunch. And, well, I guess they don’t really have a need to recreate what it feels like to go to a cafeteria since they are high school students.


If you go to the “Crazy Beef” steakhouse, Akane thinks the name is too reminiscent of Mad Cow Disease. the restaurant’s very empty and has a cannibal cowboy cow mascot. They give us free soup, which actually tastes good, but Akane doesn’t touch it. The steaks arrive and I question the source of beef. The manager tells us that it’s perfectly normal beef and that this is a steak restaurant and have even gone through a health inspection and passed but the fact that there was an inspection has marred their reputation so no one comes by anymore. The steaks are great so I’m lucy and Akane pays for the lunch.


At the “Saezuriya” Italian restaurant, Kotarou catches that it’s clearly a rip-off of Olive Garden. Average food, average appearance and yet it’s popular thanks to the big risk the owner is making with the logo. And as luck would have it, the police come in, asking for the manager who has been ignoring questioning so now they have to arrest him. Akane says that she enjoyed the ‘performance’...

-At the cafeteria restaurant, it looks and works identical to a normal school cafeteria though the food is a bit higher-class. I’m a big uncomfortable because we’re the only ones in uniform and this place is also probably doesn’t have permission to do this. Akane likes it, though, and when people have objections about the place, she comes up to talk to them and the manager, fixing whatever conflict they had. The manager gratefully gives her an envelope of money as thanks, which shocks me.


As I investigate the school for interesting things, I ran into Lucia and, this time, decided to have her tag along. Different spots of interest popped up in Mappie, including this one. Apparently, that spot on the map is a P spot. Lucia shouldn’t even be revealing the phrase ‘power spot’ to me! But um, it’s actually a spot great for viewing panties...



-At school, I see Shizuru doing her usual sunbathing. Somehow observing her makes me think of how I’m changing and how uneasy it makes me, thinking back to the questionnaire. I then leave her alone.



-When asking to see people with super abilities and getting disappointed at the weirdos in our school, Akane says that the stupider my leads, the colder her heart. Kotarou’s mind then goes on a tangent: Better leads -> softer heart -> soft -> boobs

-That somehow is enough for encourage him to try harder at finding good leads. Perv...



-In the clubroom, everyone’s off doing their own thing and I tell them we’re going to look for a weekend quest. Everyone splits up to look for places and I stay behind with Akane to try to convince her to get out and help. She’s pretty stubborn to stay inside and avoid crowds. I suggest trying to test out various supernatural things then and she pulls out a ouija board.


Time to exhaust all the options again!


Akane says that I should’ve just asked her directly instead of asking the spirits what she’s most interested in.. And just look at that serious face! Unfortunately, that really is an honest answer of sorts... I make the planchette go to NO, denying her previous statement and then it goes to S...E...and then the last letter but Akane squishes my fingers and throws me down. I admit that I move it and she denies that spirits exist.


I ask if Akane wants a boyfriend and Akane asks me who I’m asking. I answer sprits and then she points out that spirits wouldn’t know how she feels about love. The planchette doesn’t budge, even when say I please, using cute honorofics to the spirits. It then moves to YES, and I tell her that it wasn’t me who moved it. I then tell her that, no matter what, I’ll eventually touch her boobs and that she has no choice. She tells me that she does have choices and that she’ll turn the tables on my ‘perverse trap’. Then, to Kotarou’s and my amazement, choices do show up.


So with the first choice, Akane did successfully dodge my attempt at proving spirits exist, and therefore dodged the boob touching thing. But then she also admitted that she wants a boyfriend...


Aw, her reluctance to admit it is pretty cute. She says it’s normal for girls to want a boyfriend and I tell her it’s cute. She turns red from embarrassment. Awww.


As for turning the tables with martial arts...she squeezes the joints in my hand to the point of immense pain and forces a “confession” out of me. Or more like a lie, I suppose. So....spirits, then? I can’t imagine Akane actually admitting on the Ouija board that she wants a boyfriend to me.

-Oh, and if I choose the supernatural question option, I ask about anything I can but it doesn’t move. Akane says this means there are no spirits and tries to leave but I try to stop her and...accidentally fondle her butt. Naturally, she sends me flying and upside-down. In sadness, I mess with the Ouija board myself and eventually ask if it knows English , to which the planchette moves to YES. It didn’t answer because my questions were too open-ended. I then ask a bunch of YES/NO questions.

-Will I get a girlfriend? YES. Within a year? YES. Will I be rich? YES. From 1 to 9, with one being a part-timer and 9 being an oil baron, how rich? 9. Does Senri Akane like me? YES. Is there anyone else who likes me? YES. How many? 4.

-And then I wake up from when Akane threw me and I hit my head... Well, those answers were still all probably true.



-Ah, back to when Akane discovered that La+ program where the user inevitably finds themself in embarrassing situations naked. Unlike before, I’m actually given a choice on whether or not to use it. Well, that’s nice.

-Exploring other options again and if I do the La+ program, I can choose to use my power to catch up with Yoshino. If I do, we both end up flying into the courtyard and Shizuru catches both of us with just her arms. That’s basically it.

-If I don’t test La+, I end up having to entertain Akane again since she doesn’t want to go outside to get more variables for the program. The lead I have about a supergirl leads me to...Kotori. She says that she doesn’t think she has a superpower but everyone else does. Her power is making plants grow (well, no, there’s more than that).

-I give Kotori a wilted plant to heal but she says that the plant is too strong and she loses the “fight”. As expected, Akane is unconvinced of any supernatural events.


ERMAGAAAH, KOTORI IS SO CUTE!

-Gah, no wonder she couldn’t heal a wilted plant. It was fake! Only the soil was real.

-Akane goes to leave the room and tells me to lock the door when I go. I stare at the soil and then a sprout pops up...


One of my quests is now complete... Yeah, being good at gardening explains it perfectly...



-For this date, I think there’s only one more lead of the ones they list that I haven’t done yet, the “Cohabitation with Ghosts for No Money Down”. After deciding it, though, we talk about other stuff like umaibo and bad sound cards. Our lack of motivation annoys Lucia, especially since both Shizuru and her are here to help us.


Well...that was horrifying. Chihaya and I wanted Akane to join us in the investigation of the haunted house. ...but Akane plays a creepy sound clip with what I guess is my voice. I sound like a robot, as opposed to the Kotarou I hear in the first parts of the game itself.

-None of us know where the “haunted” house is so we have to ask around at the source...elementary schoolers. So we go to Yoshino, who Shizuru calls the human phone book, to help us since he wanders around a lot and probably hears many rumors in town. His schedule’s busy trying to learn legendary martial arts from a book he found in the school library so he just points out the location on the map.

-Near the location, we’re all gathered. The Chihaya jet doesn’t exist so she’s no help. Akane’s listening to music. The Kotori sensor (women’s intuition) senses nothing.


Akane calls Chihaya and me idiots. Chihaya tries to relatiate by saying that only idiots call others idiots. Shizuru...what you say makes perfect sense. Also, the fact that she says “supairaru baka” is adorable.

-Immediately after I tell everyone to start investigating, Akane sits down on a bench. Way to go, laziness.

-The building is old, probably before Kazamatsuri became the foresty city it is now. Its old appearance is probably what made kids scared of it. An old woman comes out and opens her store for us. It’s a old shop with lots of various things like candy, food and toys that Yoshino used to go to as a kid. Apparently, the owner is just getting too old to maintain it and she’s closing it next month.

-Aw, Yoshino is such a nice guy. He returned to the store to say his final farewells and buys some stuff. The woman wants to just give it to him but he refuses because society isn’t nice to the elders much.

-Back at home, I have the choice of trying to get others to visit the old woman’s store, at least for a last visit and farewell or staying out of her business.



-If I chose to gather people for the shop, today is when most of us go to revisit the shop. Even Akane decides to go. It is the last day, after all.

-Poor Chihaya. Akane says her brain is less than a 2 bit CPU and Chihaya takes it as a compliment...

-We catch Yoshino leaving the store. He’s there to make sure how gangster friends who will be here soon don’t cause too much trouble. He says it in his trying-to-be-cool way though and I attempt to speak Yoshino to make him more understandable for the girls.

-The translation of Yoshinoese is awesome, if just for how happy and casual Yoshino and Kotarou sound compared to what’s being heard.

-Many people show up, even university students and businessmen. The old woman looks very happy. When she finally closes up the shop for the last time, I get kind of envious of Yoshino that he was able to have many memories here. He says that the woman knows it was me that organized this and is thankful. Now she’ll go to live with her son but at least she made some final memories of the store her husband started being busy again.

-Back at the clubroom, I write an article about the store but it’s kind of bad so I send it to Inoue. She says it’s good and will probably do a better job of writing an objective article on it.

-I tell Akane that we should search for something new occult since the last one wasn’t really occult at all. She doesn’t want to so I end up comparing her to a mole. She’s offended and wants to prove me wrong so she says she’ll go with me on my next occult investigation. Oh ho! ...but then she says to keep it near the school as any further is a pain.


Three more leads! Yeah!

-I have to say, there’s a lot of little choices on the way to Akane’s route. They don’t make a difference on the outcome but it’s a still a lot of things to see and experience. Makes it kind of a hassle to check one as far as I think it goes before backtracking and choosing something else.

-Alright, so the first mystery, #1 - Entrance to an Alternate Dimension. Sounds like the space for familiars under the school or the endless hallway. Akane agrees to search with me but hopes it doesn’t take longer than 30 minutes. Oh god, you’re so lazy!


As Akane counts down and I try to find the space I stumbled into before, I find a taped down photo of the forest in a garbage chute. I take it out and look at the back only to see the message above. I get an uneasy feeling about the photo but can’t really see anything out of place in it. I personally rename the first wonder to “cursed photograph” now.

-In the garbage chute, I also find scribbles written as if someone was ‘on the brink of madness’. “Found where it was taken: Halfway up the Southeast face of ***** Hill. November 11th , 1988.

-Akane and I wonder if it was someone who just thought it was cursed and tried to pass it on to someone else for his own safety. Since we can’t search the location this late at night, it means this kind of counts as a win for me and the supernatural thing since she can’t disprove it. Akane won’t accept this and calls her minions/servants/whatever to search the spot.

-Creepy. The place that the picture was taken was an outcropping on a vertical wall that was wide enough to sit on. But the outcropping is hundreds of meters above the ground, isolated and the cliff is too crumbly to climb...

-So the only way someone could’ve taken a picture there is by falling down onto the outcropping... And there was no way up because he was probably injured. And then he probably died there. The angle was probably off so the guy who found the photo couldn’t see the body.

-I call Inoue and she says there was a cameraman who went missing in 1982 and was presumed dead. Akane’s search team checked the outcropping and found no corpse on it. I consider this proof that the body fell into an alternate dimension. If Akane doesn’t want her boobs touched, she has to debunk it. She then decides to use her “full authority” and summons a helicopter! It finds the body in three minutes and we hand it over the cops. Akane gets the full story. The man stuck on the outcropping threw his camera in hopes of getting help. Eventually, he started digging into the cliff, trying to get closer to the ground. He dug so much that half his body was buried in the cliff and one of his fingers was even missing a joint, from wearing it down. Oh god, that’s horrible. What a way to die.

-We got money from the police for solving it so I get about $250 from investigating this wonder. Wow. Well, Akane debunked the alternate dimension here so that’s it. Her phone rings, informing us that 30 minutes have passed as well.

-That was kind of creepy up until the end with Akane’s absurd connections kicking in.



-After I tell the club members that we will investigate this “rainbow river” with no complaints, I’m left alone in the clubroom with Akane. After some teasing, we do the next mystery.

-#4 - Hanako-san of the Toilet

-Akane likes how easy this sounds since we just check the third stall of the girl’s bathroom. I point out that we have to check all the girl’s bathrooms.

-We go from the fifth to the first floor. The first four floors are empty. When we get to the last floor, I hear girl’s voices, one being Kotori’s. Akane then mentions that the Greenery Committee uses the gym bathrooms at night to change. And...that’s it. Wow, I’m disappointed compared to the Alternate Dimensions one from a few days ago.



-Kind of odd that Kotarou even has these leads on his mind after that swamp. Everything was pretty depressing after that discovery in other routes.

-Last mystery here: #7 - Red Boy. It sounds kinda ominous.

-I take that back. It wasn’t ominous at all. After Kotarou explained the origins, Akane hopes we’ll find this “red boy” in the first room. We do. It’s a boy complaining about all the red marks on his tests... I think this is even more disappointing than the last one.



-This day ends exactly the same as Kotori’s, as far as I can see. So nothing new from Akane here.





Wow, a lot shorter of a common route than Shizuru’s. I took a look in the gallery and there’s a lot of pictures missing in Akane’s section so her actual route is probably long, though.

Anime Relations: Little Busters! Refrain

Note: Sorry for any typos from part 17 onwards. I had these all typed up for months but since MAL’s image posting on blogs was not cooperating for anyone, I just left it and forgot about posting for a while. I didn’t know that I hadn’t even gotten around to starting to post Shizuru’s route. At the time of writing this note, I was on Akane’s route already.


Alrighty, I’m ready to start Shizuru’s route! Lucia’s didn’t make me cry so let’s see how this one does on that. This is my...fourth route. Still got one more character route left before Moon and Terra.








-Kotarou crushes his phone by accident upon waking up, forgetting about how he rewrote his strength back in the forest. He thinks back on how Akane and Chihaya were enemies of Lucia and Shizuru, and they all were hiding things from him.

-He decides that, since Gil and Pani are technically familiars like the monsters he fought yesterday, he’s not comfortable enough to let them stay in his home any longer. Pani understands, though she’s bummed about it and Gil is obnoxious and angry.

-Wait a sec! My class says that I’ve been gone for a month and that they’ve heard that I transferred. Yoshino says that the whole club’s been gone. Uh, how is that possible? Pani didn’t mention anything about me being unconscious for an entire month! Trying to recall what happened with Yoshino is difficult and even he’s concerned. I’m positive that Shizuru had a hand in this. I can’t even remember who I was with and if there really were monsters anymore. Odd considering how more sure he sounded before leaving his house. But the specifics of his club members is very vague now.

-I recall that Shizuru had the ability to mess with people’s memories. I also regret kicking the two familiars out, wondering if I trusted them more a month ago.

-I’ve been getting no emails over the past two months but my browser history shows hardware stores, white charcoal and saury, amusingly enough. But are those first two a clue or something?

-Kotarou and I are thinking the same thing. Was I really unconscious that past month or just chilling with Shizuru in my house, with her sleeping over a lot? Maybe she got to know me better, asked me if I could accept her life or something like that and I denied it, making her have to erase my memory of the past month.

-In my wallet is...lots of money. Like several hundred dollar bills. Uh, did I reveal my rewriting power and work with Shizuru for a while? Also, there’s a business card from Esaka-san (the old guy with the antique store) with my handwriting on the back noting the word Guardian (which Kotarou here doesn’t recognize) and a phone number. Uh, but the number doesn’t work at all.

-I go to Esaka’s store and show him the card. He asks me if I ‘remember’ meaning that he knows enough of what happened to me. I lie, telling him I only remember a little so that he’ll reveal more. He really just says that maybe it was my power that helped me resist Shizuru’s abilty. So...I did reveal my power then. Esaka then leaves for a meeting, apparently related to antiques, and asks me to kill time in the store and wait for his return.

-Half an hour and the questions and answers start. Shizuru is in a Guardian facility. I may see her but I may regret it. He says Shizuru lived here with him for a while and he grew close to her. He’s impressed that the first thing I wanted to know was where Shizuru was so he’ll help me, even witht the fact that I may regret knowing what happened.

-Esaka also explains what Gaia and Guardian are and I’m surprised how well Kotarou is doing hearing all this. It’s information overload.


Deeply involved? Esaka says I wasn’t part of Guardian but helping out. Wow, must’ve been pretty useful.

-I’m the one who brought up the term ‘familiar’ so I suppose some memories really did stay intact.

-We rush over to where Shizuru is (an underground facility disguised as apartment complexes) immediately as Esaka was informed that she is seriously ill. I wonder if this is Lucia-related.

-Man, I just realized that I can be told by others what happened in the last month but I’ll never really remember it myself since that’s just how Shizuru’s ability works. So moments between us gone for me and she had to do it...


Oh. Nishikujou says she hasn’t woken up in a while now. They’re not sure how it happened and were hoping I would know. I tell them I don’t remember.


...and thanks for the guilt trip.

-They’re unable to answer if this is even my fault. NIshikujou just says she’s been sleeping and getting weaker. They’re unable to find anything wrong with her causing this.

-They do tests to try to get my memory to return but nothing changes. Esaka says that, with my ability, I still may have a chance. Meanwhile, Kotarou just stays by Shizuru’s side when he can and talks to her. He just wanted her to be happy and, with that thought, his memories start to return...



-Wow, an actual concrete date in a character route! I guess it’s flashback time.

-Two days after the forest event, I wake up and crack my phone. I stop myself from breaking it in time, remembering about Rewriting a bunch before.

-Everything starts the same as a month later, the only difference being that since my phone isn’t crushed, I can call everyone. I leave Shizuru for last and call the others but they don’t pick up. Also, Pani actually explains more about how she’s different than the Gaia familiars instead of just a short blurb.


I come to the conclusion that since Gaia is trying to destroy the world and Shizuru’s organization of superpeople, Guardian, is trying to stop them, then I must be on Guardian’s side. Pani makes an...interesting face when I say that.

-I thank Pani for the explanation and she’s happy that I’m not suspicious of her. Aw, and yet here I went and told her that I don’t trust her a month later. She must not know of my mind being wiped.

-I stop by Kotori’s house before going to school since Kotarou believes she’s not involved in this conflict. Of course he’s wrong but he’s still surprised to see no one answer the house, including her mom. Then a car shows up at the house with people who know me by name and want me to come with them to talk to Akane. I run away before they can capture me.

-Ha, wow. Back in my room, I’m about to change out of my school uniform when Shizuru rings the doorbell. I run down and start telling her about the guys trying to capture me and no one responding to my calls when she just calmly grabs and twists my arm, saying, “captured”. I say that I surrender and she asks if I’ll resist. I tell her I wasn’t going to anyway but this is changing my mind so she lets me go. She then says to the black-suited guys behind her that she should’ve gone first. Ugh, so the guys in black suits were part of Guardian. Well, considering that they mentioned Akane, can they blame me for thinking they were Gaia and running away?

-Shizuru brings me to Forest, Esaka’s store. They inform me that I’m here because it’s safe and I’m in danger because I’m in the middle of a war. I can’t stay here permanently though since Esaka’s not at the store 24/7. Shizuru looks for a better option while I tell Esaka about my power. He recommends I tell Shizuru as well and he gives me his number that only works for specific devices and public pay phones and tells me that Shizuru wants me to return to my home.

-I rush home and give a warning to my two familiars to hide in my dad’s study.

-As I expected, Shizuru decided the best way for me to stay safe is for her to stay at my place with me. Uh, she brought a tent though. Kotarou obviously doesn’t want that and invites her in. She says that she’s not sure if Kotori is part of Gaia but they’re looking for her. If she’s not, maybe she’s a superhuman as well and could join Guardian. Yeah, fat chance. She also mentions the status of Inoue, which is exactly the same as in other routes.

-Shizuru says that sleeping in my room would be the second most practical place to stay to protect me. I lecture her that an unmarried girl shouldn’t do that and it’s just too much. Shizuru points out that I’m smiling during this serious lecture. Oops. Well, she decides to stay and keep watch in my room. It’s awkward since she’s just...staring.


Well, funny you should say that. She really probably can, considering the fight between Lucia and Shizuru in the former’s route. She’s very video gamey.



Oh, please don’t tell me Shizuru cooked everyday that month. That’s...gross.


I...am speechless.

-There was a comedic chase scene where Shizuru somehow found Gil and was trying to kill him. I intervened and explained everything to Shizuru, Gil and Pani.

-Shizuru talks about how she’s never met such weak familiars before, or ones that speak. I agree with her but then mention the other human-shaped one I saw, Kagari. Shizuru ponders and says she’ll have to report it. So...she didn’t see Kagari in the forest? I suppose only Kotori and I can, then. I tell her more about Kagari and the stuff that’s been happening, from the “hauntings” to the infinite hallway and stuff.

-Shizuru goes out to report what I told her and tells me to stay put in the meantime. I agree but then go out to look for Kotori. We are friends, after all.

-Trying to avoid police checkpoints, I sneak into an alley but Gil senses familiars in a manhole cover. I decide I can rely on my “seaweed beams” if needed and I make a sword out of them.

-I successfully kill the giant worm that attacked me from the sewer but the scene itself was gross. The description of the sound and all that blood pouring out...blarg. Unfortunately, all the blood it spilled means it’s probably already killed some people in town.

-Right as Gil says the victims are mummies now, both Kotarou and I have the same thought about those mummified people in those houses a while back. Kotarou feels deep regret over the fact that he saw one of these things in the forest back then and that, if he had killed it then, he could have prevented some victims from dying.

-Because of this regret, when they see a black dog, Kotarou runs after it. He loses it though and Gil lectures him on how if he chases things all the time like that, he’ll never find Kotori.

-Since I’m in the park, I check out the ramen stand and find the owner, Gen, there. I ask if there’s been any big black dogs and one shows up after I saw that. I fight it off with my aurora while Gen punches another one uselessly. Still, they’re not as strong here as when I was fighting them in Lucia’s route. Or maybe that’s because I didn’t really strengthen myself in that route. I kind of expected it but Gen is also a superhuman and attacks the new horde of dogs with exploding, returning hatchets of sorts.

The fight ends and Nishikujou-sensei is there. She says that Lucia, Shizuru and herself were there for undercover work. She asks how long I’ve had that power and I answer her truthfully. Then she asks me if I’m a high school student. Very odd question. I say that of course I am and she only says, “if you say so”. Well, familiar or not, I still went to high school and middle school normally so yeah, I’m a student.

-I wonder about if I’m weak since it takes a lot out of me to kill a dog compared to Nishikujou and Gen. She says it’s because I haven’t been trained and I’d have to choose between getting trained and being stuck with Guardian forever or trying to go back to my old life. I ask her what I should choose if I want to stay with Shizuru and not be a burden. Nishikujou is impressed and says that I shouldn’t be a warrior.

-Before dropping me off at my house, Nishikujou says they’ll do something about Kotori and that I don’t have to do the searching. She then gives me a little pep talk on supporting Shizuru because she’s just a child and unstable.



-New fact about Shizuru: She needs more sleep than average as a result of her abnormality.

-I cook saury for her and we talk about how it tastes good because I put love in it. Shizuru talks about her family and how her dad used to cook saury outside. I realize that her love of saury is deeply connected to her family and find it hard to beat.

-At night, we go to the ramen stand together and get a bit more of an introduction to the gang. Lucia also joins.


Oh go ahead and rub it into Lucia’s face that she can’t taste things and can’t really understand what it’s like.

-After eating at the ramen stand with everyone, the three of us take a walk and Lucia admits that she’ll be leaving the city soon and that we may not meet again for many years. She’s glad she was able to talk to me on her last day here.


-Because I already did in your own route, Lucia! Don’t be selfish and ask for it in your best friend’s route!

-Aw, despite all the misunderstandings, Lucia still wishes she could’ve spoken more to Chihaya and understood her more. She says that, even though Chihaya is part of Gaia, Lucia can’t get herself to hate her.

-Both Lucia and Shizuru are sad about not returning to the school. Both of them never really graduated any of their schools, even elementary.

-A car comes by the school to pick up Lucia and...


...it’s you. How dare you show your face? Chibimoth’s murderer!

-He says that I’m now under Esaka’s command for training and gives me advice that I really shouldn’t try to become a warrior.

-Imamiya, the Chibimoth murderer, is seen speaking to Nishikujou. It sounds like she’s the one who forced Lucia to leave. They talk about how it’s needed and the Key is close. Maybe they’re doing it to lure Kagari to me and, consequently, to Gaia. Nishikujou then says she has a goal of wanting to be a teacher now and Imamiya wishes her luck.



-Oh yeah, I’m doing the dates here myself now. Rewrite only supplied the first date starting Shizuru’s route. I’m just trying to keep up. It’ll probably get messed up and stop when days start skipping or something.

-Shizuru goes to her work in the morning (with her ipod) while I act like a housewife and do laundry.

-Kotarou comments on everything of Shizuru’s, from her small socks to her sports bra to her plain panties that he has to quickly cover up and throw in the washing machine before the “demon of lust” begins to, uh, overrun his soul.

-And the dates now stop since Kotarou mentions going to Esaka’s shop like a part-time job everyday now. Esaka talks to me about how I shouldn’t worry about I’m not meant for combat and to do what I can. I hate the feeling of being protected and I try to strengthen my left arm, to prove what Imamiya said earlier wrong. My skin starts hardening on both arms like in Chihaya’s route and I go to Nishikujou about it. Both Shizuru and Nishikujou don’t like it and warn me not to do it again. They’re able to tell it’s veering towards inhuman and is dangerous to me.

-Nishikujou says there have been members in the past who could also strengthen themselves but they usually died young, and not in fights either. So warns that the same could happen to me.

-The biggest mystery of the entire game! How does all that food fit in Gil when he’s that small. I actually grab him and try to find out but to no avail. Even Gil and Pani don’t know how it’s possible.

-After watching a show with puppies being cute, I learn that Shizuru has never had a pet. I say that if she wants a fluffy pet, we’ve got Pani since she’s cute and she takes it as a compliment. Something with human intelligence doesn’t mind being called a pet?!

-Kotori still gets mentioned every once in a while in Shizuru’s route so I’m fairly confident she will make an appearance sometime.

-Shizuru has bought some “new” cds and wants me to rip them and put them in her/my ipod for her. But then there’s the trouble of using the computer and trying hide a certain boys-only folder...


Nishikujou sure tells Shizuru a lot...

-Imamiya tells me that, back when Esaka trained warriors, he would hit people. He’s shocked that I haven’t been hit at all. Esaka says that there’s no need since I’m not training for that. Then he hands me a thick envelope with my pay for the month, money I wasn’t really expecting to get at all. I end up buying massive amounts of cakes for dessert though there’s no way we could eat dinner and all that.

-We were able to finish off the desserts with the help of Pani, Gil and my inspiration from Chihaya and her bottomless pit of a stomach. Urg, I never was a big dessert person.

-Kotarou wants to make her happy, even thinking about bringing up marriage. So the next morning, he looks up saury for something special. Oh god, so that saury search on my computer was from me!!!

-He goes to a fishmonger after work and tells his situation, saying he wants to do something with saury for Shizuru. The fishmonger agrees and orders fresh saury that I need to pick up on Sunday. His annoyed wife cooperates as well, teaching me out to use a grill, and not with lighter fluid.

-On Saturday, I buy a shichirin grill. On the way home, I cross the street to grab a drink and see...Kotori in a bus! The bus driver says she got off at the last stop, near the forest. At the beginning of the forest, I call Shizuru and she tells me to stay put as the forest is too dangerous to wander in. I then get the choice of strengthening myself and venturing in or just going in the way I am. ...Well, might as well get the bad end out of the way now!

-So in the bad end, I get attacked as I put my shichirin down. I’m not fast enough to dodge and something kills me by stabbing (?) me in the forehead. My last thought is of the grill. -_-;;

-Okay, back to the correct choice. It seems I still do get attacked when I put the grill on the ground. This flying familiar attacks but at least I can fend it off now. By chance, I trip and swing my arm backwards, killing it.

-I’m still unable to contact Esaka and wander in the direction of what I think is the city. Somehow, I stumbled upon the “rainbow river”. In the common route leading up to Shizuru, it had skipped that. I try to go around it but it’s much too large and probably growing.

-Uh, that’s creepy. There’s big, ugly trees in the rainbow river and when I tried to climb one, its branches broke all too easily. I then realize it’s a familiar. Vines show up, searching for me but I avoid them and run.

-I come across one of the robed guys of Gaia and watch it summon a new tree familar. That rainbow liquid kills everything else but nourishes the tree familiars. Huh, I guess it wasn’t super pollution from normal humans after all. Kotarou says that the water looks vaguely like his own aurora...

-Mappie is “out of range”, meaning I’ve ventured into Kotori’s area that messes with perception. I see dogs and run away and encounter Chibimoth. I don’t even get to see a CG or sprite of him before he crumbles into sand.

-A dinosaur-type familiar shows up soon after Chibimoth’s death. I lose all hope of surviving.

-Kotarou is despairing mentally over how he was happy and just learned what he wanted to do. He runs away but then is mortally wounded. Then he hears Shizuru’s voice.

-I can’t see anything but can speak to Shizuru, who is trying to save me. It’s weird because she says I’m conscious so she’s absolutely sure she can heal me but it’s not working. ...well, I’m not exactly a normal human.


Aw, not a happy image.

-I’m going to make a guess here and say that since I was too difficult to heal, Shizuru did something to sacrifice herself to the point of a coma so I could survive. And that’s how things happened the way they did in present time.

-Yup, I was right. And then she erased my memories.

-Back in present time, Kotarou is lementing how he can’t save her and how unfair things are for Shizuru. He clences his fists in frustation and then feels some kind of heat in his chest.



-Whatever it is, it’s making him feel feverish and dizzy.

-I have some kind of conversation inside myself with something unknown (the leftover bit of Kagari that saved my life as a kid?). It apologizes and says it’s probably been tying me down for a while and that’s why things are the way they are. It says maybe it’s fate and I ask if it’s God. It denies it and says that Shizuru and I will have to change fate ourselves if we want. Also, there are more painful things in the future if we decide to continue. I ask what could be more painful than being torn apart.


Oh yeah, guess that would suck too. Seeing each other die young.

-Kotarou says it’s worth it if he can live together with her, see her for even a few more minutes. He says he doesn’t care about the consequences. The voice says that I’m amazing and that this is all it can do. And then it says goodbye to me.

-Back on the bed, Shizuru wakes up and smiles. Man, she really looks so young.

-Oh no, Kotarou thinks about the voice and how he feels he made her unhappy and how he felt he’d never be able to make her happy when he heard her say goodbye.

-...don’t tell me that was Kotori...

-And as I’m with Shizuru, talking to her, I hear a voice thank me. It’s not Shizuru’s voice.
-Shizuru’s all super embarrassed around me now since we confessed to each other when I was dying in the forest. I peel an apple for her and feed it to her, at her insistence.

-Ah, people from Guardian ask me questions about what happened back then and then I ask my own question of what the swamp is. Apparently, it’s from a power spot altering the water.

-Gah, that’s a brilliant way for Gaia to mess up the earth even more. Suck up Earth’s life force and kill people who venture near.

-Also, Gaia had found the barrier and was trying to break in when the mess with me and Shizuru was enough of a distraction for Guardian to fight them off. They know the Key’s there and don’t want it in Gaia’s hands, obviously. I ask about the Key and Imamaiya tells me that it’s the girl I was describing for a long time now.

-Esaka and Imamiya tell me that seeing the Key may be my long-term assignment since not many people can do it and I’m the only one who has been in any kind of contact with it (except Kotori but they don’t know that here).

-Ah, Esaka says that I was attacked because they mistook me for the Key. Of course, Esaka doesn’t know why but I do. It’d be the ribbon used to save my life. I’m told to be careful and stay at home if possible as familiars could even show up in the day outside. He says there are reports of two small ones, not like the bird familiars that tried to kill me, though. So...Pani and Gil.

-Shizuru’s sleeping so Kotarou gets extra corny and makes a playlist of his favorite songs and records himself saying corny things to her and then...singing.

-So I go up outside and sense Gil and Pani. Ah, I forgot I kicked them out when I lost my memory. So they’ve been lingering those past few days, then. I tell them thanks for everything but that they really shouldn’t hang around with me anymore because of the whole Guardian/familiars thing. Then they silently leave me alone. Aw.

-I go to apologize to the fishmonger and his wife for not picking up the fresh saury. They’re kind of disappointed in me and so am I. They ask how it went and I’m confused until I see Shizuru right next to me! We buy some saury since we’re there anyway and the old woman cooks it for us out back on her own shichirin.

-Man, I haven’t heard Shizuru say a word since the flashback ended.

-And as I say that, Shizuru tries to say my name. It’s pretty hoarse. I suppose it’s from her being weak and asleep so long. At least I think that’s it.

-Looks like her hearing is weak too. Man, it really took a toll on her. I suppose eventually at least her physical ability’s going to be back to normal. Hopefully she recovers normally and not with her power or it’d shorter her life more.


...is that...Yoshino’s voice at the ramen stand?

-Yoshino is apparently going around trying to find out what’s happening around Kazamatsuri. Gen isn’t revealing anything to him, since Yoshino seems normal. I unfortunately have to pretend I still have memory loss and can’t help Yoshino in finding anything out. He sounds worried and I thank him for it.

-When we are done eating our ramen, Yoshino tells me he knows that I’m involved in something big but that I probably can’t tell him. I give him a warning to at least stay away from the forest or he could die.

-After Yoshino leaves, Shizuru keeps smiling and staring at me so I look up and see something in the sky. Something yellow against the orange sky. Not Pani or Gil. Hm.

-Hm, Shizuru trips over nothing and scraps her knee. It heals (or she heals it) before I can do anything about it. I then say out loud that I guess she needs some time still and should get some rest but she shakes her head. Her weakness makes both Kotaoru and me anxious. Was that voice only giving me a little time? Do we only have days or months and will Shizuru stay this weak?

-I’m talking to Esaka and Imamiya about how I want to help when...


I’m sensing drama!

-Gah, I bet it’s that thing I saw in the sky earlier! It must’ve followed me! But then isn’t it a bit too soon to launch an attack like less than an hour after learning the location of Guardian’s base?

-Esaka leaves to get Shizuru (who is sleeping so leave her alone) because her presence would guarantee us winning this battle. Imamiya decides to be on my side and gives me instructions to her room.


He talks as if he knows that Kotarou has died twice now. Odd considering that, in this route so far, Kotarou himself doesn’t even know about the first time. Why does he know about it?

-Esaka gets very upset when he sees me, telling me to stop thinking like a hero. He gives up, gives me an unconscious guard and we both run to Shizuru.

-We split up and Shizuru is awake but seems to have not even known about the fighting happening. She heals the man, changes to her fighting clothes and rushes out to fight the familiars. She does well, mowing them down but it’s worrying. How is she able to fight well now when she’s clearly not back to normal yet?

-We pass a dead guard and a hurt one. Shizuru heals the latter and he warns of a strong, human-shaped familiar. So... Sakuya’s in this fight too then.

-The hell? I hear Esaka’s yell of pain and then, before Shizuru can be attacked by a dog, I shove my arm into its mouth and kill it with my aurora. Shizuru falls to her knees, clutching her arm and then goes to look at mine. Are we like connected now or something? No, my arm is now healed.

-As expected, it is Sakuya fighting Esaka. He doesn’t want to kill any of us and would prefer for us to back down though he knows it won’t happen. Shizuru and Sakuya end up having an super fight.

-Shizuru starts emitting poison gas and Sakuya charges but Chihaya butts in, commanding Sakuya to stop. He does and she tells us that she knew this day would come but didn’t know it’d be so soon. She apparently has already been questioning her role in Gaia and why this whole thing needs to be done. She also says that she swore when this whole situation here came up, that she’d quit.

-Kotarou calls her an idiot, but the good kind. She quits and Sakyuka has no choice but to agree to her wishes. She says she won’t join Guardian either so she makes the quick decision to leave. I tell her it’d be nice if everyone were like her and she says that like me would be good too. Sakuya asks if I can Rewrite and says I shouldn’t do it much. He then alludes to the fact that he Rewrote himself in the past into an immortal familiar. Aww

-Coming up to a dead Gaia summoner, I see a red ribbon connecting him and his familiar. I then realize that I’m becoming less human and that I must be connected to that voice I heard. Sounds like I’m realizing that it must be Kotori’s voice.

-Unfortunately, he’s also coming to the conclusion that he’s a familiar. Sakuya could Rewrite like me and he’s a familiar. I’m connected by a bond just like the dead summoner before me. But then the lines disappears before he can even think more about it. He tries to forget about it since, even if it’s true, he can’t do anything to change it.

-Back at with Nishikujou and Imamiya, I’m told that the Key has been found and has started resonating. It’s now too late to capture her/it so destruction is the only option now.

-Before anyone can go anywhere ,we get a call from Gen. There’s familiars in the park and he got fatally injured trying to save a kid. He doesn’t want to split up the squads out there more by getting medical attention so these are his last words. He asks how Shizuru and I are. Then he talks to Esaka about how he killed a kid forty years ago in a war and regrets it. He wonders if saving this kid counts as atonement but he’ll probably still go to hell. Esaka says that even if that’s true, he’ll join him shortly.

-Guardian is low on staff so they send Shizuru and me out. Shizuru’s strong enough to break through on her own (Or is she? She still hasn’t said anything but my own name.) and I can see the Key.

-Nishikujou sends Shizuru out to get prepared while I talk to her alone. She tells him something but the game itself skips to afterwards when I’m catching up with Shizuru. Whatever it is, Kotarou thinks about how it had to happen someday and, even with Shizuru walking by my side, it’s something I’m doing alone.

-Oh no, I realized like a split second before Kotarou why Shizuru’s been so quiet. She lost her hearing. She could always read lips so I couldn’t tell. But that’s why she didn’t turn around until I touched her or waved my hand in her view. And she won’t speak because of how weird it is or how she’s afraid of how she must sound to everyone.

T____T

-So she can’t ever hear what I recorded on the ipod then...

-She wanted to hide it from me since it’s pretty much my fault that she ended up this way. She says it’s not just me hurting her but that we do it to each other and that, yeah, they may not be normal, but she just wants me to be happy. Gah, I’m tearing up. It doesn’t help that the same that played during Chibimoth’s and Sakuya’s tearjerker scenes is playing right now. She writes to me that we’ll do better when this is all over but Kotarou thinks to himself that, no, only Shizuru will be able to. So...I guess the news Nishikujou told me in private is that I’m dying. Very soon.

-On a motorcycle, Shizuru drives much too fast to be safe, sees a hound and hands the controls to me, despite my protesting that I can’t even see the road.


I never really saw the whole uniform that Shizuru wears. Uh...the bottom half is interesting. She should probably change into something else, though.

-This fight is pretty difficult when she can’t hear me tell her that there are enemies in the front. Even with my aurora every once in a while, it sucks since they only come out of my right arm.

-Nishikujou to the rescue! She gets dropped down next to us in her Mini Cooper and uses her light powers to help out. We get to the forest and continue on foot.

-There’s many dead trees in the forest. Kotori’s familiars, maybe?

-Nishikujou says that Gaia still can’t locate the Key. And as far as we know, we’re the only team in Guardian with an “eye” that can locate the Key.

-The gun Shizuru is carrying is the one she used in Kotori’s route to kill Kagari... Oh man, aren’t I going to die then? Though I guess it doesn’t matter since Nishikujou already said that I’m going to die soon. Maybe for this very reason. Maybe she knows killing the Key will kill me.

-That’s kind of depressing that Nishikujou and Shizuru are running too fast for me so they slow down...and I’m still too tired and slow to stay with them for long.

-I try to strengthen myself but Shizuru immediately is in pain so I stop. Nishikujou and I realize that I’m the cause and there’s some connection between us. Obviously, this is something very bad from everyone’s reactions.

-As they continue on, I hear music. It’s like a girl singing and it’s kind of pretty. I thought it was a new soundtrack song or something but then I realized that Nishikujou and Shizuru can’t hear it. So it’s...Kagari’s song of destruction. Gah, I just complimented a song that would kill us all!

-At the site of a giant tree, I see Kagari. I notice how human she looks and how it looks like we could even speak to her. Nishikujou confirms that I see it and Shizuru shoots Kagari. And, like shooting a human, it tears through her with blood and everything. Aw.


I guess that bullet did nothing really substantial. Akane popped up to explain that she’s already stabilized and we can’t do anything. Akane says she’s obeying her destiny. Well, she’s still not as crazy as she was in Chihaya’s route.


Oh damn. Immediately?! That’s quite different from any of the other routes. I suppose the glass is half empty for her.

-Akane says that the only way to stop her would be to give Kagari “good memories” but then she scoffs, saying she knows we can’t.

-Well, at least Akane hopes for a peaceful, uninterrupted destruction since it’s not like she hated any of us. Uh, thanks. She says she just wants to disappear and, well, walks away.

-Kotarou thinks about how is it possible that Kagari didn’t find a single happy memory and how it should be okay for people to live, looking for happiness. A bell chime is heard and Kagari speaks.



-Kagari makes herself visible to normal people and Shizuru keeps trying to destroy her but it’s useless.

-Nishikujou doesn’t give up and charges at Kagari, turning the dirt at her feet into light projectiles and launching them at her.



Nishikujou is sacrificing herself because, really, there’s nothing else we can do.

-Wounds are showing up all over Nishikujou and Shizuru gasps. It sounds so pained and it kills me. Nishikujou smiles and tells me that if I ever see her parents, tell her that she found something she wanted to do and did it to the best of her ability. She wishes she could have taught me and she’s sure I would’ve been a great student.


And here are the first tears of Shizuru’s route. Better late than never. But the way Shizuru’s young voice cracks from seeing one of her closest friends and someone who was like a parent to her die is just horrible.



-When the light fades, Nishikujou is gone and so is the Key. Unfortunately, the world still continues to shake.


Well, Akane is at least happy about finally being able to disappear. So she does. And so does the freaking DIALOGUE BOX!

-Then Chihaya and Sakuya disappear.

-Then Lucia disappears.

-Then Yoshino disappears.




This world we know is crumbling away and Esaka calls. Apparently, the normal people are acting as if nothing is happening. This makes it easier for Esaka’s plan. He tells me to grab anyone we care about and bring them to the ruins on Esaka’s land since it’s a shelter.


That’s actually pretty horrifying. To be the only ones who notice that something is horribly, horribly wrong...

-Ah, so that’s what the Key meant by wanting us to see it to the end. The other people are being prevented from recognizing the end of the world. Only we will see it.


Once again, Shizuru’s breaking voice here is breaking my heart. And then her mom disappears right in front of us. And her voice continues...

-I can’t believe her dream, her only dream that made her live frugally and alone for so long, was destroyed like that. Just silently and cleanly, right in front of her.

-We pass Esaka in the park and he says there weren’t many people to save... He wants us to go to the shelter but he’ll stay behind to watch the final moments of the city. He says he hears bells and Kotarou is confused.

-Shizuru and I watch him disappear. Eventually, probably no one else is left.

-It’s finally revealed what Nishikujou back at the base. She said that we’re both sharing a life.


Well, that’s easy. I’m a familiar. So...Kotori broke her connection to me and moved it to Shizuru. So the reason Shizuru is so weak is she can’t handle how much life energy I’m taking from her.

-And now Kotarou is Rewriting himself to give Shizuru’s life energy back to her. Shizuru is back to being able to speak and hear but now Kotarou is dying.

-She knew all along that we wouldn’t last long this way and I tell her miracles don’t happen easily and that it won’t last. Shizuru knows but doesn’t really want to live without me. Because then she’d have nothing left...


...and he’ll wait for her here.



-He’s thinking of doing what Sakuya did to himself, then.

-He tells Shizuru to find him afterwards and that, if he’s changed too much, to please heal him. He says that then they’ll be together. Their time of being apart won’t be too long. He then tells her to go on to the shelter.

-Shizuru leaves and he wonders if he’s a protagonist right now and if he looks cool. Not cool, per se, but sweet. And sad.

’
I’m walking away, sobbing and thinking about the future we could’ve had.

-And then I hear Pani and Gil.



I started crying right here. They were happy to help for anything and even here, it’s keeping me company at the end of the world but they stay anyway.



-The refugees find a notebook about someone translating notes from the last song of destruction. They called the Key Mao back then and even though everything was supposed to be destroyed, obviously some things are left behind if people know about the past destructions and can even leave records of them behind. The author hopes that the next species has better good memories for the Key.

-Shizuru uses the blank pages in the notebook as a diary.

-52 people survived even though they had room for 100. They have enough food for a while. She doubts there’s more than one of these kinds of shelters and wishes there could have been more people saved. She tries to be cheerful and not envious of the couples that survived.

-One of the women is pregnant. Shizuru’s happy she studied medicine so she can help her. Shizuru made a friend and is like her older sister. She won’t be eating any saury for a while as there was none stored.

-An old man died and the leader, Imami, had to make the decision to not bury him because of decay and disease possible.

-They found a generator so they now have light and can even charge things. Shizuru is glad she has her ipod. She finally was able to listen to the playlist that Kotarou made. She found the file he recorded and cried from happiness.

-As the days go by, she thinks about Kotarou more and more. One day, she tears the book. An unknown number of days go by before Shizuru returns to the diary and starts over.

-It’s been maybe nine or ten months? Apparently, they’ll all be able to return outside soon. She’s only half hopeful that Kotarou will be up there.

-Finally, she leaves the shelter and rests under a tree.


Kotarou, the tree, welcomes her back.




Well, I most definitely did not expect that ending. I really thought Kotarou was lying to get Shizuru to go so she would survive and not see him die. Or that Gil and Pani would somehow sacrifice themselves and pass their photosynthesis onto him so he would have the energy to survive on his own and Kotarou would find his way back to the shelter before the world ends. This ending is pretty bittersweet. But it does show their love for each other, probably stronger than in any of the other routes. And although I didn’t cry as much here as for Sakuya in Chihaya’s route or for...everything in Kotori’s route, I still welcome the emotions I felt here as it was stronger than in Lucia’s. No offense, Lucia.

I suppose I can be optimistic and hope that Kotarou ends up eventually becoming human-shaped again like Sakuya did when he met Chihaya. Though it will be pretty painful to have to see her grow old and die as Kotarou lives on.

In the end, I really grew to like Shizuru. She was too quiet in the beginning and too awkward but, well, I spent a lot of time with her here and learned more about her and her dedication and guilt. Although she still was a pretty quiet character, the whole last half of her route was really amazing. Sometimes it was just a sound but it really conveyed her emotions and mental state and I applaud that. I suppose I can see why other people like her so much now, considering I went from dislike to approval and respect.

Anime Relations: Little Busters! Refrain

Finished off Lucia’s route and now I’m going to continue by doing Shizuru’s route next. Let’s see what new things I’ll learn from this one. I guess it’ll be Guardian-centric again.






-It took a lot of skipping to get to some new conversations! After eating ramen at the park with her the day before, I sit out with her outside during school break. I’m making her jump up and down but she’s not doing a good job. Thanks to the other routes, I know this is a lie. She can freaking jump two stories and bounce from ceiling to wall and run. I tell her I saw someone jump from roof to room last night and thought it was her. She, uh, bops my noise twice until I go back to telling her to not wander at night as it is unsafe for her. She ignores that, though.

-She tells me that she doesn’t get an allowance but does get paid (Guardian!).



-After one of the choices I made, Kotarou’s narration says the following:


-Making fun of the visual novel set up, I suppose. Ah, Kotarou.

-I sit next to Shizuru in the courtyard again. We’re falling asleep and she’s rubbing her eyes, which prompts me to ask if anything’s actually wrong with her eye. She says there isn’t, but hesitantly.


-Surprised to see this revealed in the common route but, if it is, maybe it isn’t supernatural at all. And thank you, Kotarou, for calmly knowing what it’s called. He calls it pretty and she blushes. Nishikujou then interrupts with a bunch of heavy art stuff that we help her carry.



-At school, I decide to check on Shizuru instead of going to the club on time. She’s cleaning her classroom. After I help her (she was reluctant to let me help), she has to go so I go to the club room alone.



-Shizuru’s late at the club again so I go to her classroom where she’s cleaning again. I ask her details and learn (not surprisingly) that her classmates are making her do all the work even when it’s not her turn to clean. So basically, bullying.

-As I help her clean, I hum an old song and ask her to join in. Apparently, it was a pretty popular tune but Shizuru doesn’t know it. Kotarou blames it on it maybe being the one year generation gap between the two of them but I’m sure it’s because she was at some horrible place as a kid and never encountered the tune.

-Whoops, so it wasn’t bullying. Just two days of two girls in the Drama Club who had to do casting right when class was over.


-Kotori, Kotarou, Shizuru and Chihaya are trying to find out what the name of the song is because Kotarou’s crappy humming skills don’t help in identifying it. Nishikujou comes in and finds the name of the song but it would take two days for it to arrive if she orders it. Uh...why can’t they just youtube the song?

-After school, Shizuru and I go to a used CD store and find several cheap copies of the CD. For some reason, it seems Shizuru needs to save up a lot of her money so even these $3 CDs make her debate over buying it or not.

-As a very late birthday present, I just buy her the CD as a very, very cheap gift.



-Choosing another option of what paranormal mystery to investigate from the club blog. I decided on the haunted house one.

-I’m pretty sure the girls just mentioned the orphange/school where Lucia stayed when she was younger. A building in the woods with bad rumors around it that no one dares approach? Gotta be...

-Akane talked about how fake urban legends are, like a monster that was just a top half of a body crawling at 140 kilometers per hour and how it should just shave itself into nothing like an eraser. It made me think of Hellsing and made me laugh.

-Apparently, we’ll be just fine exploring a haunted house because...




-I still love how Lucia casually goes with using my ridiculous terms for Chihaya’s strength, from the Chihaya drill to the Chihaya cannon.

-In this abandoned building, Kotarou asks Kotori to do something that relaxes him, especially since she’s the healing type. She decides to do impersonations instead. I got three choices, one of them being...someone telling a ghost story. So...a story in a story. Why is there even a suggestion for a ghost story when Kotarou is scared?!

-Chihaya bunker and Chihaya flash....

-Old building we explored was just abandoned after its last days as a toy warehouse so there’d be laughing from those things, causing people to think it was haunted. It doesn’t explain why companies would choose such an out-of-the-way area, though. Akane doesn’t have an explanation for that.



-Shizuru is unable to play that CD I bought her because...she doesn’t have anything that can play CDs. Why didn’t she mention that when I decided to buy it for her? Solution is that I’ll rip the CD onto my unused iPod and give it to Shizuru.

-Lucia’s getting jealous and/or protective since people are starting to think that Shizuru likes me.

-Talking to the girls after school and Kotori says she’d be okay with me going out with Shizuru.


-Aw, I love Kotori!

-Lucia barges in, saying that she won’t allow it because I’m bad but also listed good thiings like how Shizuru is comfortable around me and how we look good together. Make up your mind, Lucia!

-So very off-topic but we started talking about sakura denbu (a food, I suppose) and denbu literally meaning rump so...butts. Kotori admitted to liking sakura denbu.


-Shizuru still wants to hear that song and can’t wait til the next day so she’s coming to my house so I can rip it quick for her.

-Pani kicks Gil and herself out of my room as I look for my mp3 player.

-Shizuru sucks at technology, it seems. She seemed kind of sad when I said that I don’t really listen to songs from three years ago and that I don’t want to listen to my mp3 player outside anymore. Don’t tell me she’s like three years old or something!!

-I went a bit off-topic, asking Shizuru why it feels lonely after a festival and, in a pretty serious voice, says it’s because it’s lonely when things end, especially when you’re having fun. She looks sad saying it too.



-Shizuru is using my mp3 player. Yayness. Too bad she turns up the volume so high she can’t hear anything around her.

-Wow, I didn’t realize it until Kotarou said it. Shizuru really does talk more now instead of just her miming.

-Naturally, as most of the club is talking about whether to confess and how liking is different than dating, Shizuru was listening in and ran away when I confronted her.



-The next day outside the school, Shizuru’s kind of awkward around me, as expected and I tell her not to. Lucia’s still trying to keep us apart but inadvertantly helped Shizuru ask me for an after-school date.

-This conversation here really hit me. Nishikujou sounds like me when I was giving my boyfriend a warning on how I am. Kotarou responds just like my boyfriend would. Wow.



-Nishikujou begs to drive us to wherever this date is. Apparently, it’s a fair distance away.


-Wow, that is pretty soon. ...unless they’re actually dead.

-At lunch, she tells me how cheap her meals are and I say her life must be hard but she denies it. She then says that I’ve shown her stuff about me that people might want to hide so she wants to show one of her secrets as well. I’m...pretty confused right now.

After agreeing to go with her, Kotarou thinks some more unhappy, serious thoughts. Uh oh.



-Something must be very odd about Shizuru’s parents. Nishikujou’s giving me these hints/warnings to prepare me in case I don’t believe them. She’s telling me that the house I’ll see really is where Shizuru grew up and that they didn’t move her and it’s not just people with coincidental last names. O...kay....

-Shizuru’s all tense and worried walking to this house. We arrive at a fairly poor-looking house with pink roses in the garden. It’s quiet, literally. In-game music is gone and we just stand outside waiting for someone.

-Oh, she wasn’t waiting for people to come home all those hours we’ve been standing. They’ve been in the house all along and Shizuru’s been hesitating this whole time.

-And Shizuru’s mom comes out, unable to recognize Shizuru. Shizuru compliments her roses and the woman thanks her, saying she doesn’t really remember when she planted them. A man I assume is Shizuru’s dad also comes by and asks if she wants a rose, which Shizuru refuses. Then we leave.

-Also in that house was a younger girl named...Shizuka. Shizuru confirms that it’s probably her sister.

-Shizuru shows me how her family doesnt remember her instead of explaining. Memory-erasing touch, I suppose. Shizuru’s own name disappearing from the dialogue box is a very nice touch.





-God, that is depressing when Kotarou has to ask Shizuru for her name. Doesn’t it hurt her?

-So she had this ability since she was young. She didn’t have the control for it at that age and overdid it.

-They were a happy, though poor family. They always had saury for dinner if something good happened or vice versa. She preferred eating it with her family than going to restaurants with her friends. The flowers in the garden were from her starting elementary school.

-At the harvest festival, they were looking at houses together because they wanted to move to a nicer place though her dad would be busier because of that. Shizuru wanted to say that she’d rather they stay at their house so they could still be a family that sees each other all the time but before she could say it, her family was caught in an explosion of some sort and she was in tremendous pain. She did the old “pain, pain, go away” rhyme and pressed on her right eye. Her blood felt cold but her hand on the eye was hot. As she crawled towards her dying parents and passed out, people’s voices were heard, surprised there were civilians around. I’m sure this means it’s related to Gaia and Guardian.

-Somehow she had ‘healed’ the wounds of her dad. Her mom was mostly fine. Her family was told about the healing and Shizuru learned about her new one lighter-colored eye. Shizuru came home before her dad and her mom was showing signs of trauma from the fire they were in. When Shizuru returned to school, kids teased her for her eye and then eventually stopped talking to her at all.

-She was asked to go to a school with special kids like her and everything for her would be paid for. They would also help look for a job for her father. She realized her family life wouldn’t return to normal so she accepted. She learned that she was making a lot of money just by going to that school but also saw that her family was fighting over something. One day she interrupted them, trying to stop them and...they lost a good chunk of their memories right then and there. She didn’t even know she had that ability.

-Shizuru could erase my name easily because it was my current thoughts. Back then, her parents were thinking about her as well and that’s why basically nothing of her remains in her own parents.



-That’s a pretty big jump from my secret as a preteen, lonely and stuff, to her secret ability. I guess she really trusts me. Also, this is an awful first date.


-Oh nice, I ask Nishikujou back in the car if she’s part of that faciility that Shizuru was talking about and who is she, but she just acts innocent.

-Shizuru’s got a ton of money saved up (like around $500,000) but doesn’t use it. She wants to use it for a house but since her parents are still in that old house, probably happy, she’s waiting for a change.



-In the clubroom, I talk about how I’m in love with Shizuru and Akane says the date must’ve gone well, even with a teacher there. She asks me why Shizuru and Lucia are so close to Nishikujou-sensei as Akane’s extensive reports don’t tell her anything about it. I’m unable to answer.

-Aw, got to walk home with Kotori today! We reminisce about how I confessed to her once and I got turned down and how love is difficult. He mentally apologizes to her since he did like Kotori in the past. I like this better than in Chihaya and Lucia’s routes where this fact is totally ignored.

-At home, Pani and Gil warn me that looking for the facility that Shizuru went to could be dangerous. Of course, they’re talking about Guardian and they wouldn’t get along with summons like Pani.

-I decide to sneak into the clubroom and find out what I can about Nishikujou and, consequently, the facility Shizuru went to.

-Ah, Akane. Her computer is full of games and the drawers have walkthroughs and portable game consoles...


-While snooping around for files, I find my own. Under the ‘comments’ section, I have stuff written unlike the other students. It’s about when I was a kid and strengthened myself too much for gym class. Type A, huh?

-Surprisingly, Yoshino has some comments there too. A history of type E injuries?

-Shizuru’s records look normal, though possibly forged as well. A normal school wouldn’t be carrying this kind of information so it’s probably Akane’s. Or Gaia’s.

-Ah, Akane caught me when we dropped a big box of heavy papers. My options for why I’m here are:

The second choice has her threatening to burn me with magic (hair spray and a lighter). The last choice results in her trying to shock me wth a stun baton, I mean spirit magic.

-She says all those files are just the tip of the iceberg and invites me to look through them and the letters (A, E, N) are all just things to make it look more top-secret and mysterious. N stands for normal. E is for problem children. Akane looks upset when explaining this. So it’s not supernatural with Yoshino? Just...like an abusive household or something?

-When I ask what A is, she pauses for a moment before saying that she thought I didn’t want to look at my own file. A is ‘another’, possessing something unique. She tells me that I’m the only A in the files.

-Well, now that was a mysterious conversation. I left the school, feeling bothered with the possibility that whoever writes the files knows of my power. Then, in the clubroom, Akane is talking to someone (her secretary?) about maybe she should’ve left a grain of truth (so it was all lies?) and to “scrub” me again and very thoroughly.. What does that mean? It does make me look forward to her route even if she was going crazy in Chihaya’s route. Lastly, she mentions to keep an eye out for Gil, who she calls a fly.



-Uh oh, here we are at that day It’s mysterious and quite depressing to see everyone seperate this way, as opposed to in Lucia’s route but this really was well done and I’m glad to see it again.

-Everything is going along as it did right before Kotori’s route but at the point where Kagari shows up, it’s Shizuru who stops me from attacking her, instead of Kotori. Odd considering Guardian wants the Key destroyed. Does she know what destroying it does to me? Hm, but that didn’t stop her in Kotori’s route at the end, either.

-Huh, I’m assuming Shizuru used her healing/medicinal ability to calm me down. I ask how she was able to jump like she did. Lucia and her say nothing and Akane realizes they’re from Guardian, hunters.

-I see the beasts behind Akane but not attacking and Shizuru calls Akane the enemy. Exhaustion and the injuries pile up but I’m able to see Akane and Chihaya leave, the latter more reluctant to.

-The common route ends with me being carried home on Shizuru’s back, realizing that she’s the hero, able to fight the dragon and a horde of dogs, not me and my half-assed power.


Not a bad start. There were certainly some slow moments here since, while Kotarou doesn’t know anything about the factions, I do know too much now and it was a lot of repeat. Despite that, there was still some mystery and an ability of Shizuru’s was brought up for the first time. Now to see what the hype is all about here.

Anime Relations: Little Busters!, Little Busters! Refrain

Looks like MyAnimeList’s coding won’t be showing images for a while, as the last entry showed.




-Guardian isn’t getting as much help as they wanted in Kazamatsuri because Gaia made the other countries believe that they’re the ones with the Key. So it’ll be hard for them to fight Gaia with so few people.

-Nishikujou and Shizuru talk about how it’s better to be ahead (except for Rock, Paper, Scissors) and when asked where Lucia is, Shizuru says that Lucia is ahead of her. In life, I suppose.

-Nervous and embarrassed as hell, Lucia is pretending to be looking for and trying to shake off Shizuru, who’s not even stalking our date.

-Lucia keeps asking to hear me say that I won’t leave her alone ever, pretty much a confession.


-Lucia kind of volunteered to come over and cook, in the cosplay outfit. She thought it required wearing as she was going to my house too. Oh god. And yes, cosplay outside of Halloween, parties and conventions is awkward.

-Nooooooooo, she researched the costume and bought the H-game! And she knows it’s an H-game!

-So what Shizuru meant earlier about being ahead is of Shizuru and Lucia’s promise to get boyfriends at the same time.

-Lucia’s voice sounds totally different when she’s being cute versus being angry. Like a different person entirely.

-First date and Lucia wants to hold hands Man, compare that to me (as in waffo me) who took months for that to happen. Even Lucia is better at this than me!


-Whoooooooa! The gloves come off!

-While giving a lecture on different types of make-up, she admits she doesn’t really know much about it herself. But...then she’s wearing a little to impress me.


-For the first time, I see a character (myself) spew out so much information that the dialogue box itself has to scroll to fit it all. All for a fighting game character I like...

-I’ve never heard of a bath bomb. I kind of wanna try it.

-...As Lucia recalls her mishap with making a bath bomb for Shizuru, causing things such as her smelling too strong and her underwear turning pink, Kotarou comments on how pure white is supreme. Her response?


-Lucia also has the ability to make vibrations of a sort out of her hands, an ability that hampered her ability to even wear a watch or it’d break.

-Ah, that’s how she broke the glass so often!

-Her main weapon is a sword. It fits her image. Guns would be weird with her.

-Kotarou has been following Lucia’s dream of a first date, thanks to Shizuru, ending with a confession at a skytop restaurant in the mall and first kisses.

-Ouch, Lucia finds her dead phone missed three texts and twelve calls. I knew it’d end badly. Nishikujou texted saying that Shizuru collapsed. It’s suspected that Lucia’s poison may be the underlying cause so they check me out too.

-Shizuru’s body can produce drugs at will so I guess she’s been making antibiotics or something against Lucia’s.

-The medicine Lucia takes doesn’t decrease the amount of poison she makes, just breaks it down in her own body instead but apparently, it’s not perfect and a small amount has always been leaking out. This caused Shizuru, the only person really in contact with her, to suddenly be affected. Her drugs she produced only resisted it, not neutralized it. So it’s been building up to the point where she now collapsed.

-I have a feeling Lucia will now stay away from me because she’ll fear the same thing happening to me, even though rewriting is different from Shizuru’s resisting.

-More explanations on Lucia’s body. Her body is made to accept the world and its poison 1000 years from now so the world now is poisonous to her. That’s why her body produces the poison, because it’s what her body is accustomed to. And thanks to brainwashing her when she was young, she has to believe that the world will end in 1000 years or she’ll find herself with no purpose in living.

-As I expected, Lucia told me over the phone that she’s afraid of holding my hand now.

-There are reports all over the city of large animals attacking and killing people. Familiars, I assume. All of the victims were Guardian agents and they’ve now lost 30% of their manpower.

-In Lucia’s room to get her phone charger, Kotarou ends up encountering one of the dog familiars. Since this is his first fight in this route, does that mean he’ll finally learn about his aurora?

-Ah, guess not. Nishikujou showed up with a handgun and got it to back off and flee.

-Lucia’s medicine has been perfect but it’s just not as effective for Lucia anymore so it’s unknown how long she’ll be kept in isolation. And the doctors have discovered that the suppressants now have no effect on her.


-Stupid scientists rambled about how afraid of Lucia they are with the mic on and now she’s angry and saddened.

-Oh god, someone appears at the window to Lucia’s room. It’s a woman Lucia knows very well, who was deeply involved in the Next Generation Humanity Project. I thought they were all killed off by Guardian.

-Brenda, the second in command of the project, brings her to a nuclear shelter from the Cold War where the Japanese had built a cryogenic storage unit.

-Lucia admits to herself that though Kotarou cares for her, swore to stay by her side and did so much to help her, he doesn’t need her for anything while she does. And being needed is a big thing for Lucia, who basically felt like she never belonged and had no purpose in living in the present.

-Live continues and Kotarou’s been going to school for a while now. The Harvest Festival is coming up. Lucia remains absent and there is no news of her location. Kotori’s tired and sighing a lot. Chihaya is worried the most about Lucia, The rest don’t really care since it’s been so long now.

-Thanks to more fighting in Guardian, the Vatican is planning to blow Kazamatsuri off the face of the earth with a nuclear missle to ensure the Key’s destruction. Nishikujou figured this out with the help of a CIA friend hopefully in time. She also figured out that Lucia must be in the nuclear shelter near Kazamatsuri.

-School ends and the week of the Harvest Festival starts. Kotarou leaves school, feeling so lonely and suddenly sees Lucia, who’s just as happy to see him as he is to see her. Odd, she says that she’s been at a different hospital that created a new, better medicine so she doesn’t even need gloves now.

-Ew, I hate Brenda’s voice. I hope she dies in the attack from Nishikujou’s group.

-Lucia can’t taste anything. That utterly sucks. She has to use her imagination.

-Oh, she can’t smell, either. The purfume she wore at the mall was one Shizuru chose for her. God, I’d hate not being able to taste and smell.


-And her sense of pain sucked back then too. I can’t imagine living in such a fog!

-While waiting for the parfait, Lucia gets too tired and wants fresh air. I have a feeling this “suppressant” is getting rid of her poison that she technically needs to adapt. Either that or she’s not on any suppressant at all and Brenda is trying to cause chaos. Why else would she suddenly get some sense of taste and smell back?

-Sounds like this is her last day before being frozen and sent to the future, with the way she’s savoring everything. So I tell her I’ll go to the future with her. I kind of expected that.


-Shizuru’s in the shelter, imitating the Matrix. Pretty good for someone not 100% recovered yet. That’s her advantage of her drug cocktails, I guess. She’s here without Nishikujou’s permission because...she’s bored.

-Shizuru’s scary. She’s threatening to torture Brenda with mental experiences of horrible pain.

-Lucia rejects Kotarou’s wish to go to the future with her because he can live without her. She then goes to a phone booth that’s ringing and talks to someone very cultish-style.

-She asks me to come with her a short distance. ...and then a vocal version of one of the BGMs plays.


-She says she still loves sunflowers and finally touches one, remembering how rough they are.

-The one she touches dies and she bids farewell to me.


-Aw, knew it was too good to be true. The kind of happy, hopeful music doesn’t really fit, though.

-All of the sunflowers die. Then the trees. Birds fall from the sky. And even I black out. Wait, wasn’t I immune to her poison? Was she holding it all in as much as she could until that moment?

-The poison must be different so when I wake up on a bench in the park half a day later, I rewrite myself to accept the new stuff. Chihaya is nearby and is surprised how well I’m doing. She says many people are lying dead around us. Ugh, bet this is the big disaster Gaia’s been planning. They must’ve been the supporters for Brenda’s project.

-Chihaya wonders what I am and I, as usual, just say my full name and a silly description. Chihaya says she’s fine because she’s “not normal”.

-Kotarou is horrified by the bodies of pedestrians and children everywhere.

-Chihaya says that the news reported Gaia, a “terrorist” organization, is to blame and she says it’s a lie.

-I got a missed call from Nishikujou so I call back and she comes to pick us up in a helicopter. Naturally, she and everyone in the helicopters are gowned up for protection.

-All of Guardian present point their guns at Chihaya. After I tell them that she helped me and break up the fight, Shizuru and Nishikujou apologize. Chihaya doesn’t understand the different factions in Guardian so she blamed them all at first. But the tension is breaking a bit.

-100,000 deaths, expected to surpass 9/11, huh? Didn’t expect a mention of that here.

-Damn, so it was Guardian higher-ups who funded Brenda so they could have a good weapon against the Key. Idiots. So the project never ended. And what Brenda gave Lucia is something that magnified her poison for this attack.

-After knowing the truth, Chihaya thankfully doesn’t blame Lucia at all. She confirms with Shizuru and Nishikujou that they want to find Lucia so she can expose the project and help her, not silence her.


-Brenda demonstrates how she’s a freaking monster with no morals whatsoever. Whoever she’s talking to on the phone says that the Key, Gaia and the power spots have been destroyed. Eh, I think if Chihaya survived, it’s not that easy to kill Gaia. Though I seriously hope Kotori is okay...

-Lucia is in the mall, waiting for the missle. She finally checks her phone and is bombarded by the sheer amount of texts Kotarou had sent her. She calls him and asks for the why she exists but Kotarou doesn’t give her a satisfactory answer and resigns herself to death, comparing herself to the Key that she herself destroyed.

-The reason Chihaya isn’t affected by the poison is because Sakuya gave her that protective ribbon/bandage (the one I got in her route) right before collapsing. Kotarou finally explains how he’s able to resist her poison, with his Rewriting ability.

-In the mall, I find Lucia by herself. She’s pretty resigned to her death. She picks at my words and says that I’m telling her she has no meaning unless she stops producing poison. She then says that she’s back to being Asahi Haruka and that it seems that while Kotarou wants Lucia, he doesn’t want Haruka and she has no purpose. And then she pulls out a sword.

-Lucia leaves for the top floor to see her last sunrise. I follow after and then a huge chandelier falls down on me, thanks to her. Chihaya protects me with her abnormal strength and Shizuru shows up as well. They’re determined to rescue her, by force as it seems.




-Chihaya tries to get the chandelier off while Lucia with her sword fights Shizuru and her knives. When Lucia slips, Shizuru switches to two revolves, which she fires like a machine gun. Wow. And the fight continues.

-In the middle of the clash, Shizuru tells Lucia it isn’t a miraculous coincidence that I can resist her poison but that I wanted to change my own body to accept her.

-...Lucia cuts a huge gash on Shizuru and, after I catch her, she convinces me she can heal from it with time and to catch up with Lucia. Hm, can she really heal from that or is she going to die?

-Chihaya holds onto Lucia and tells her she’s spoiled. She thinks she’s the most unfortunate, which is fairly true and yet everyone accepts her past and she has Kotarou to stay by her side. Chihaya sees a lot of herself in her and can’t stand it.

-Ah damn, Chihaya’s protection does little against direct skin contact with Lucia. She collapses, foaming at the mouth and, to Lucia, she looks dead. She’s still conscious though and will recover eventually.

-On the roof, Lucia threatens Kotarou with saying she’ll infect and destroy the world with her poison unless he kills her. He says that he hates cliches like that. He doesn’t know how she feels but she doesn’t know how he felt, either. He tells her he’s sick of hearing of the world ending, suppressants and so on and none of it matters to him.


-Lucia tries to cut him and he blocks with his arm. It stops cutting at his bone. Kotarou’s aurora makes its first appearance, gushing out of the wound and protecting him, and then eating away at Lucia’s sword. He tells her she can find her own meaning to her life or whatever but he wanted to save her because he wanted to. He wants her alive for himself.


-Kotarou’s “I love you” has finished recharging and he says it to her again. He tells her he said too much about poison and should’ve said his feelings earlier. These words finally do affect her and she cries.

-Nishikujou interrupts in her helicopter to rescue us all.

-One year later, and Kazamatsuri is still off-limits. A bunch of people from the Vatican left, most likely from Guardian Japan’s findings on the project and its support. Brenda and her gang are unfortunately still MIA.

-Nishikujou has been spending (blackmail) money from Guardian to move Kotarou and Lucia around. Currently, they’re apparently in Florida...with a pool. Nice. Of course, these shelters they’re moving to are all underground but generally pretty nice. Simulated sunlight, high-speed internet, fitness machines, and game consoles from Shizuru. They haven’t had luck finding a good suppressant, even with Kotarou’s cooperation and samples, but he’s happy as long as he’s with her.

-Shizuru’s busy investigating a rumor of a druid in Kazamatsuri (...Kotori?) and rumors of new Keys popping up all over the place, though they’re duds.

-The route ends with Kotarou showing Lucia their new shelter for the next few weeks. He leads her, eyes closed, into a field of sort-of preserved but real sunflowers.

-The epilogue has Kotarou think about the anguish Lucia, who was kind of the Key in Kazamatsuri, felt for all the deaths she caused. He hopes that a Key never has to go the route of causing the deaths of all of humanity so it wouldn’t have to feel that pain. He hopes that the world is good by then so it never happens.


And that’s the end of Lucia’s route! Honestly, I’m surprised to finish a Key route that didn’t make me cry at all. I mean, I felt bad for her and there were some shocking moments but no tears. Well, next up is Shizuru. Maybe I’ll understand why so many people love her route and why the heck she has heterochromia.

Anime Relations: Little Busters! Refrain

Aaaaand here’s route number three! Gonna make my usual screencaps a little bit bigger for clarity.



-Lucia’s route starts off with me reading mail (as in physical mail, thanks to Shizuru) about a girl named Asahi Haruka who is cursed. Even talking about her will apparently curse you and the writer knows the story from a boy who died after telling her about it. I hope this isn’t alluding to the girl really being Lucia or something. We even have a lead. The boy who died apparently went to the same district as Yoshino and his name was Kishida Ryuugo.

「At the time it felt like a perfectly ordinary ghost story.」

-Well, if that’s not foreshadowing, I don’t know what is.

-Apparently the boy did exist and always looked sick since he transferred. Yoshino basically says not to do this if I’m just looking for a story for the newspaper. As if sharing the story is bad because he believes in the curse. He doesn’t believe in it anymore apparently. He’ll bring up a list of contacts from his old school to help, though.


-Yoshino is very serious about this. He does probably still believe in that curse. He says that by danger, he means whatever feels dangerous to me. When I asked if it’s true that I’d be in danger if I looked into this, Yoshino just bluntly tells me yes.

-If this was just some story about a random girl and mystery, it wouldn’t be the first thing mentioned in Lucia’s route. Lucia does live in an apartment alone instead of with any parents so there’s a good chance that the rumors are talking about her. And maybe her death thing affected the boy and, when he transferred, he eventually succumbed to it.

-Aw, I’m so happy to still see and tease Kotori a little here. Then again, we haven’t hit that turning point that usually signals the end of the common route so of course we’re all still around.

-And why, after hearing about how it’s dangerous to talk about and investigate it, do I tell Kotori the extreme basics of the story anyway? Eh, maybe it’s so little info that she’ll be okay.

-Kishida Ryuugo was terminally ill so he wanted to go to school one last time and only lasted two weeks.


-I went with Lucia to use the school copier and ran off after getting my copy and the original. A bit later, Lucia sees it print out this paper… So I guess I’m wrong about the cursed girl being Lucia. It sounds like an actual curse with the whole printing message thing. It’s obviously not her then.


-Yoshino says to take care of that copy. Ugh, this is bad. How the hell does this curse already know that it’s being investigated?

-Being dead serious, (as most of this route has been so far) Yoshino tells me to watch out if glass starts breaking around me. That’s my warning if that starts happening. Wow, so Yoshino does know more than he said.

-Yoshino says that the people in class who believed that it was a curse weren’t hurt but the one kid who didn’t believe it almost died. Urg, I think I’m in the latter category.

-Usual school hallway background but it’s all cloudy and dark. Apparently, it’s been cloudy and the wind’s been howling. Ominous much?

-The note that Lucia was going to hand me now has “Or else you’ll…” added onto the original message of “Don’t wake me”. >____>

-Even Lucia freaks out when I read it out loud. She knows that second line wasn’t there before.

-O___________O I hear the sound of glass breaking, the music stops and Kotarou confirms that the window next to them suddenly got a crack on it. Really, really freaky. I have a feeling we’re both stuck in this curse now. And now it’s the sound of wind blowing.

-Now that I think about this though, this whole plot of a curse and all can’t be the whole plot of Lucia’s route, right? Maybe it’s just the first of many before I learn more about her.

-Right as I decide to call some people and ask about the dead kid, I pull out my phone and it’s dead. Like not even charging anymore dead.

-Oh my god, it skipped to Yoshino in the darkness of his house using a flashlight. There were a bunch of broken bits of glass, I think, on the ground and the phone started ringing in the distance. He then said to himself, “It’s been a long time . . . . . . four years I think?”. God, and the phone kept ringing with the little red light in the distance.

-Lucia now know the story about Asahi Haruka (didn’t mention the glass though) and feels bad for her. Makes sense as they’re pretty similar.

-Lucia says her only victims were animals and plants but she feels bad for Asahi Haruka as she was blamed for the deaths of humans. So now my goal for investigating is to clear her name.

-With the similar pasts of the two girls, I’m hoping that helping one will help the other. And with the goal of helping Haruka, Lucia’s going to help in the investigation too. Aww.

-Now we’re trying to debunk the printer with the extra message.

-Nishikujou appears and says she knows what happened. She says the second copy is because paper sometimes sticks together. And the reason it’s a different message is that they sometimes recycle paper and use the other side. Alright sure, that works. Except for the second line appearing after it had already been printed.

-Urg, Lucia realized that Nishikujou’s explanation didn’t debunk the second line appearing. She’s not going to tell me so that I don’t get discouraged, though. >_< Not a good idea!

-Oh shit, right as she thinks that, glass from a street light falls right in front of her. And as she keeps saying that it’s just another coincidence, another one shatters. Oh no, is she going to be more affected by the curse than me?

-A girl with a bob cut shows up and asks Lucia why she’s waking her. O___O

-Haruka somehow shows Lucia her memories and says that they’re friends who share the same pain. Oh shit, possession?

-The two are basically arguing back and forth on if their pain can be healed or not.

-Ah, the phrase of “Don’t wake me. Or else, you’ll…” ends in “…feel the same pain and sadness as I do”.

-Haruka disappears and leaves her voice to mess with Lucia. Lucia somehow still denies that it’s a curse and thinks she may be losing her mind. Haruka really is digging up her wounds.

-On the phone with Lucia and trying to get her to be enthusiastic. I ask if glass has broken around her if received any ominous messages but she pauses and says “…of course not.” Now why wouldn’t she just tell him the truth if she’s scared shitless? Curses are serious business.

-Also, will she ever call me anything other than my full name?

-Everyone I called bluntly said they can’t talk about it or don’t know about it and hung up. Whoa, touchy subject. Something big must’ve happened that kept everyone silent out of fear.

-Ah, because I’m investigating, I’m causing trouble for those guys from that class. Glass is breaking around every single one of them too. Oh yeah, it did happen to Yoshino too.

-Yoshino’s mention of something being four years ago is his class reunion where a student from a different class and the newspaper club was investigating.

-On Lucia’s end, no one told her anything either. She’s very scared and wants us to stop. Uh, I personally agree. You two should stop.

-Getting hysterical, Lucia finally admits that the copier message did get longer by itself.

-Urg, her room’s lights have all broken too. She’s sitting in the dark with just the TV. She’s practically begging Kotarou to stop.


-Aw, she cares about me!

-Kotarou stubbornly says that he’ll stop if he doesn’t get any more leads from the newspaper guy who was seriously injured four years ago. Urg, no.



-Oh. That’s bad. So Kotarou’s yelling for the curse to affect him and not the classmates or Lucia will be useless, then. He’s not who Haruka’s interested in.

-Oh god, Haruka really is possessing her. Or manipulating her from (literally) the shadows to get Kotarou to stop. Not that it worked.

-Haruka is really messing with her head. She says she is cursed (which I now totally believe) and that although Lucia isn’t, she does still have filthy hands that rot everything she touches.

-Lucia says that she can’t be filthy because she always washes her hands practically all the time. And the cursed girl says that she must’ve forgotten how filthy is and that she’ll “remind” her. God, this is like mind rape.

-Aw, so back then when we went to visit her house, Lucia really did take those flowers that Chihaya bought and Kotori gathered after Lucia knocked them down.

-That bastard girl triggered Lucia’s death thing, whether it was always just bad luck or was a power that she had to learn to control.

-Funny, Baraki Kunihiko, the newspaper club guy, works at the parfait place. So he’s not like in a coma from a sign falling right on him or anything. He had come to the reunion four years ago and some people were okay with telling him the story about Asahi Haruka but some kids stayed away.

-And since I’m playing Rewrite in English, I didn’t even think about the spelling of Asahi Haruka. Apparently, it’s not known so no one can really check if she existed.

-You know, for a guy who was injured by the curse and does believe that the cursed girl did it, he sure is telling me a lot of details. Apparently, during the party, a clock suddenly fell down. Two minutes later, a horizontal crack appeared on a window. A teacher removed the broken clock and put tape on the window and left. A minute later, there was another crack. Girls got quiet and guys whispered that it must be the curse. Two minutes later, the lights broke. A minute later, three more windows cracked, one in a spider web shape. The teacher went to check the windows and most of the lights shattered. The class panicked and teachers got everyone to leave.

-After being released, Kunihiko was walking home in the rain and Haruka showed up, grabbing his arm and saying not to wake her. More glass broke and he looked up and saw the sign waving in the wind. And then it fell, bounced and the corner hit his head.

-Wow, Kotarou still insists it could all be coincidence. Really?

-He has a scar that looks like a light bruise from someone with small hands grabbing him too tightly. It’s been four years and it’s still visible, huh? It’d be creepy as hell to have a permanent reminder of the supernatural like that on you.

-See, I knew talking about it would be bad. A light broke in the restaurant. And then…almost all of them break so the manager, Kunihiko and I have to cover our heads with our arms to protect ourselves from the raining glass.

-Ah shit, as he’s thinking about how he has to meet her first before any accidents happen to him like Kunihiko, it does happen. She grabs his arm. I think Kagari (who also left a hand print) would kick Haruka’s ass, though.

-Speaking of Kagari, will Lucia’s route even have anything to do with Kagari, Gaia, Guardian and salvation? The way it’s going on is interesting but I do still wonder if this one is just doing its own thing compared to the main plot of Rewrite.


-…and Haruka has now officially possessed Lucia. Good luck getting rid of her. It’s your fault, Kotarou.

-Oh wow, I didn’t even notice. Yeah, her gloves are off. And…she’s touching my arm.

-Kotarou says that he felt that this ghost story felt familiar to him from the beginning because they didn’t know her at all and judged her on it.

-He’s actually very calm talking to Haruka in Lucia’s body. He also defends her when she calls Lucia’s hands filthy.

-Ah, that’s actually interesting. Lucia wasn’t sympathizing with Haruka but seeing how her past got turned into a ghost story and was afraid the same thing could be happening to her. Kotarou says that she was never cursed. Just called it for so long that she had to accept it herself, similar to how Lucia was called filthy and so washes her hand obsessively. He swears that he’ll disprove the curse and she laughs and smiles as more lights are destroyed. Despite this happening in front of his eyes, he keeps saying it’s not a curse. I guess this is like a war of attrition now. He’s determined to end this ghost story and her belief that she’s cursed. She says this is her last warning to him and then “leaves”, letting Lucia fall unconscious for Kotarou to catch.

-Lucia sees a flashback of a sick Haruka touching the helpful nurse, who then dies by the end of the day. Haruka says that they’re the same, really. Haruka says that the two of them are the only ones who will accept the coming world. Coming world? Of death/salvation? Or something else?

-Aw, he didn’t want Lucia to catch a cold so Kotarou had to take off her uniform but covered her up and she was sleeping in his bed. She apparently has no memory of the whole day. She’s not really freaking out over the whole lack of main clothes thing.


-Poor Lucia. If the curse isn’t real, then it makes Lucia feel better about herself. But if it is real, which is certainly is looking that way, then Lucia’s probably going to break down.


-And there’s the final proof that it’s not just her imagination or a string of bad coincidences. I finally see the effect of her touch from my perspective. But still, it’s not exactly bubbling up into a black gross mass either like Lucia’s been seeing. She says it’s been like this since last night. I’m still uncertain on if this is because Haruka did something and made her lose control/start being able to do this, or if she’s always been able to do this but was forced to take off her gloves and finally confirmed it again.


-T____T Aw, I don’t Lucia to cry! Stinking Asahi Haruka is making poor Lucia say her hands really are filthy.

-If the curse had happened to him, Kotarou would just persevere and keep fighting but because it happened to Lucia, he actually yelled that he surrendered. He wants her hands to be back to normal.



-Aw, poor Lucia. I keep saying that but it just sounds so lonely.


-This is definitely more emotional than Chihaya’s route. Lucia herself shows more emotions and the music is just perfect, even if the current song has played in previous routes before. It just fits this current situation so well.

-Maybe a little plot hole but I tried reaching out my hand to comfort her but Lucia slapped it away. But…wouldn’t she need to touch me with that exact cursed hand to slap it away? Ah well.

-And now she’s seen the mark Asahi Haruka in Lucia’s body left on my arm. And my arm does still hurt from it.

-I wonder if she’s ever tried to find out if it was more than just her hands with the curse/problem.

-Chihaya tried to check if Lucia had a fever but Lucia slapped her hand away and called her hands filthy. I think Chihaya will be mad but I doubt Lucia has the energy to really fight back. She just wants to be alone now.

-I decide to check just one more student from Yoshino’s school, a boy who moved recently.

-Oh wow, he’s going to the site of the orphanage somewhere in the forest. It’s protected by two fences, one super high with barbed wire. There’s also signs like “Hazardous industrial waste site” and “Trespassing here may endanger your health”. Wow. This is either a big cover up to keep prevent any more victims of Asahi Haruka from being made. Either that or this orphanage really, really sucked.

-That is a good theory. If there really is industrial waste and it got the kids sick, they’d be too young to understand that that is the real reason for kids dying.

-Despite the fact that he’s alone in an abandoned church of an abandoned orphanage, he’s not really scared.

-He calls out, saying he wants to see Asahi Haruka and then corrects himself to Konohana Lucia. She appears (as herself) and asks why he thinks they’re the same person. She’s also fairly calm, not crying and yelling like at school or at my room.

-Ah, the guy who moved has an old couple living there now. And though they’re not involved at all, glass broke in their apartment too. Nothing happened to the kid who moved, though.


-So really? My theory at the beginning was right all along that Asahi Haruka was Lucia? But then why wouldn’t she remember some of those past events? She blocked it out? Split personality?

-Ah, so the parts where Lucia narrates is an example of unreliable narrator, huh? She simply reprinted my copy to see what it was and realized her past was being drudged up again.

-Kotarou believes that if she can break glass without touching it, she can mess up my old phone too. Makes sense.

-Lucia acknowledges that Haruka was her old name. She says the real story is basically what we know and that she’s not a vampire as the stories say but not human either. She calls herself a…future human?

-So she can control it but does have days where she can’t like when she’s sick.






-Hey, the serious mood can’t last forever! I loved this part.



-Uh, so who cursed her? And how the hell is Lucia expected to live that long?

-Wow, so I’m basically dying right now. The mark on my hand is getting darker and my fingers are turning purple. I guess the area itself really is still bad.

-Kotarou apologizes for his body being too weak. Hey, I wonder of rewriting myself to resist her “poison” would work.

-Hey, I was right! Rewriting FTW! Lucia has no idea what I’m doing and wants me to go to a hospital immediately but I’m not listening.

「If your power is a curse, Lucia . . . then my power will let me accept it!」

-My rewriting worked and Lucia is shocked as hell. Still, I can’t really say her curse is broken. More like I’m immune to it.

-In utter confusion, Lucia asks what I am. I answer, 「Tennouji Kotarou. Second-year high schooler. Friend of Konohana Lucia」. Aw, that’s so sweet!

-I suppose after all this is resolved, then it’d go into the whole Guardian and Kagari situation. Otherwise, this would be a fairly short route.

-She’s having such a hard time believing that I’m fine and not feverish or anything so I interrupt by grabbing her arm.

-I guess she doesn’t need to be able to touch her. Just at least one person who can accept and be able to touch her without dying. Aw, and that’s me.

-Grabbing her arm wasn’t enough to prove it to her so Kotarou decides he needs something more. For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss her. But no, a nice heartwarming hug is definitely good here.

-She cries into my shoulder, telling me to stay with her forever and not to die. And in a church, no less. Proposal!

-Guardian interrupts and thinks I’m sick so they’re examining me. Lucia says they’re allies (of course) and tells them I’m immune. They take away to a hospital anyway and I’m perfectly healthy. Naturally, Kotarou’s confused as hell because he doesn’t know about Guardian yet.

-Uh yeah, that’s it. Born immune. >_> <_< Let’s keep letting them think that.

-I just noticed that the immunity cost me two notches on my rune gear.

-Nishikujou says that they’re a secret organization and Lucia says that if I promise to help them, they’ll explain more. She says they’re not evil or dangerous. Well, at least the second is a lie. They want me to be silent about the orphanage. It was technically a mistake that I was able to get past the first fence in the first place since there was a security system.

-As I have the ability to tell others about them as well, I ask for some requests to make things fair. First being a bento from Lucia sometime. Request number two is to eat dinner at her house sometime.

-…and that’s the third request. Nishikujou just smiles and turns them all into orders so Lucia has no choice. Oh god, she’s going to dress as a maid?

-And the fourth request is to call me “master”. Uh, I hope that’s not in public.

-Finally, I ask about this secret organization and they vaguely explain about Guardian protecting the earth from whatever.

-Whoa, didn’t know their membership was that big.

-Live has been going normally and I was told to go to Lucia’s apartment tonight, probably about the maid dinner thing, which was just a joke. Uh, I’m not sure she knows that.

-From how Lucia was talking over the intercom, Kotarou thinks this isn’t about food but something serious. It’s going to be the maid costume, isn’t it?

-Oh…wow. I was expecting a more normal monochrome maid costume… Poor Lucia’s dignity is out of the window.

-Even worse, apparently it’s a cosplay from an H game where when a character wore that outfit, they did…stuff. The order of it was: Girl wears maid costume-> calls him master-> makes him dinner -> feeds him with chopsticks.

->___< Hey, Kotarou, how do you know all that? You’re not old enough!

-Kotarou feels so guilty about this that he wants her to go back to normal so they can just eat normally. Lucia refuses and says she has to do what the order says. So she’s trying to feed me and calls him master but in her usual angry voice. >_<

-Kotarou, being an idiot, accidentally hints that he knows what the cosplay is from.

-And now Lucia’s explaining Guardian in a little bit more detail, but nothing I don’t already know.

-And finally some stuff that’s new. Lucia was part of a project that did simulations on what earth would be like in 1000 years (when the earth supposedly ends) and how to make technology that would help humans cope in such an unforgiving environment. Lucia was one of those people in the experiments that actually killed some people, just because their brains reacted to the stimulus that they were in danger.

-So this simulation of future earth shows rust and sand made of poison. Oh god, she can block and ignore the pain of her eyes being gouged out and breathing in sulfur. Though she has no choice in that if she acknowledges the pain, it will actually affect her body.

-She survived the experiment that means she can live where no other life can. …She’s the only survivor so the other two she was working with in the flashback died while she was doing it, huh?

-These people sound so creepy and cultish. And they say now they need an Adam…and I rewrote myself to withstand the poison. Oh great, I can’t wait til they find out about me.

-Experiments continued with other kids to find others whose brains could withstand this future world but they all died. O___O No morals?

-Her whole purpose of existing is this project. I guess that’s the only way you get kids to do all this without kidnapping or evil parents selling their kids. “Next Generation Humanity Project” is bleh.

-While about to use Lucia’s bathroom, I see movement and go check. Lucia freaks out because she thinks I’m a pervert again but the

-So the whole time from when I entered Lucia’s apartment to eating dinner with her with her in the maid costume, Shizuru was in the closet?!

-Ah, so she had bought the food and helped taste test it. Naturally, there was apparently a lot of saury in our dinner.

-So though she was afraid of forever being alone, Lucia did have Shizuru who is unaffected by Lucia’s poison. But I guess she wanted a normal life with being able to have a boyfriend and stuff too.

-Aw, Shizuru says I’m Lucia’s miracle. She has been praying for someone to show up who’s resistant to her poison. And now we’ll go on a date.


So I have a confession to make. It’s been quite a while since I last really played Rewrite. I still have a long backlog of Summer anime along with Fall anime now starting. I still want to play Rewrite though but it’s hard to find time. Also, I now have a boyfriend so let’s see how that changes my perspective on playing a VN.