This is long overdue… I bought this game back in April and didn’t get around to playing it for a while. It even took me a bit long to finish it since I’ve been busy over the summer. Anyway, this takes place after the first game and follows the events after it.
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Shizuru (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) Shizuru spoils Tsugumi with gifts and whatnot while they date. Incidents with “maremono” don’t occur anymore and life is seemingly peaceful. One night Tsugumi meets Shizuru for their date and they run into someone who knows Shizuru named Sakae who apparently got out of prison from France recently. He meets with Shizuru and he sends Tsugumi home in the meantime. Tsugumi decides to ask about this guy at Kuina’s shop and he reveals he’s done some illegal stuff and now he’s back in Japan to do it again so he tells her to be careful.
When Tsugumi gets back to the apartment she encounters Shizuru after a while who apologizes for leaving her but didn’t want to introduce her to Sakae and claims he’s a man who steal’s people’s lovers. Akari then gives Tsugumi a letter from a student who got in a fight supposedly with another student and she gave him a handkerchief while he was injured. Akari speculates the police may have done it though. So Shizuru goes back to work and Tsugumi gets paranoid Shizuru is doing sketchy shit with his old “friend”.
The following day Tsugumi finds a letter from one of Shizuru’s old lovers while organizing up books in his room. Shizuru knows she saw it but doesn’t say anything albeit clearly troubled by it. That night they go to the summer festival and both Shizuru and Tsugumi sell goldfish together. They hang around for a while until they decide to head back to the apartment. After that, they go to Shizuru’s room to frickle frackle. Shizuru then decides to tell Tsugumi about the letter she saw in his room. Apparently it was from his first love, a woman he barely spoke to but ended up committing suicide. He helped fix her sandal and always bore guilt thinking maybe he could’ve prevented it if he had talked to her. She ends up asking what he likes about her and because he teases her and doesn’t talk to her seriously, she gets pissed and storms out of the room.
The next morning, Tsugumi is still pissed at Shizuru and doesn’t even bother making him miso soup like usual in the morning. Shizuru tells her to meet him at the usual place they go at 7 after she’s done of work. Tsugumi does her normal routine and decides to meet with Shizuru for dinner. They happen to run into Hitaki too (who’s apparently studying english lol) and Shizuru invites him to eat with them. Hitaki then realizes he basically cockblocked them but Shizuru tells him its fine since he wanted to talk with him anyway. After Hitaki goes home, Shizuru takes Tsugumi to see fireflies and asks her to forgive him for being a dick lol.
The next day Tsugumi hears news about a student being killed. Apparently there’s anti government riots going on and students trying to revolutionize the country. When Tsugumi gets back home, she finds Shizuru talking to the same man she met before, Sakae. He tries again to persuade Shizuru to join him in starting a revolution to change Japan but Shizuru refuses again and tells him to never show his face again. He says he’s gonna try and persuade him again anyway though and leaves.
Tsugumi visits Shizuru in his room and he tells her he’s decided to leave the apartment and find somewhere else to hide until the suspicions against him are gone. So they have some angsty farewell sex in the meantime. When Tsugumi wakes up, she sees Shizuru writing something and notices an aura suddenly appear on the papers. She wonders about it being a maremono but knows he should no longer have it so thinks she was just seeing things. So in the morning Shizuru leaves and Tsugumi goes back to her patrols. One day there’s another incident so Fukuro investigates again.
Tsugumi meanwhile asks about a missing student involved in the anti-government fights. After another incident occurs, Tsugumi is again asked to join their anti-government group but refuses again. Tsugumi continues to feed Shizuru’s goldfish while he’s away and even checks to make sure if he still has a maremono in his room (which he doesn’t). So Tsugumi eventually encounters Sakae again who wants Tsugumi to join him. She’s harassed by one of the government officers and she tells him to stfu and to stop accusing innocent people of crimes they didn’t commit. After that whole situation she decides to visit her home after hearing the guy say her family basically recruits slaves because she’s from a wealthy family. But her butler explains he’s never felt suppressed by her family and that he always enjoyed the time spent with her and Hitaki. He has a touching moment with her and explains he’ll miss her when she has a new family name and gets married.
The next morning Tsugumi encounters the missing student who asks to speak with her since his life is in danger. He tells them he was in hiding so he wouldn’t be killed and found out Kuge is planning to assassinate the prime minister. So knowing he’s a target as a witness to one of the murders; he hides out in one of their apartments. Meanwhile, Tsugumi asks Shizuru on a date so she can speak with him about the situation. She tells him about the assassination and how they’re going to stop it and put an end to his suspicions. Shizuru then gets very thirsty for Tsugumi being all courageous and brave so he makes out with her in the rain.
The next day, Fukuro stops the assassination of the prime minister. Meanwhile, Tsugumi goes to visit Shizuru only to find Aisa instead. She insists she come with her since Sakae has Shizuru held hostage and shows her a ribbon that supposedly is his. She goes with her in her car only to be lured there. So they threaten both Tsugumi and Shizuru to join them in their anti-government cult but say no over again. Finally they give up and decide to just kill them with poison but Tsugumi says nope and finds a gap to kick the gun out of Aisa’s hand. Shizuru grabs it and convinces Sakae to lower his weapon and give himself in to the police.
So after that incident is resolved and Sakae is arrested, Tsugumi finds Shizuru asleep with a book under him. She thinks its a maremono so she immediately wakes him up and tells him. Shizuru gets anxious as she takes the book to get it inspected. Upon inspection from Mashiko. He tells her that its indeed dangerous in the sense that its full of romantic feels for Tsugumi. In other words, Shizuru wrote his own book about his love story with Tsugumi. And its only glowing because his feelings are just that intense. After finding this out Tsugumi makes sweet love to Shizuru (after he cries because he was scared it may have been another maremono lol). In the epilogue, Hitaki is with Shizuru and Tsugumi eating ice cream together. Shizuru ends up making out with Tsugumi in front of him and he flips and asks if they want alone time doing adult stuff lmaooo.
Thoughts: This was the first route I did and I actually was half way done of this route before I started Fortissimo in March, so there was a gap when I played and I think I just lost interest. All I know is that this was definitely my least favorite route. Albeit, it was more interesting than his route in the first game but it still bored the heck out of me. It was just too disconnected from the plot and didn’t seem relevant to Shizuru’s character (especially when they throw the problems of sub characters at you). Its kind of like the same story was being told over again from the first game. Shizuru is suspected of a “crime” and so Tsugumi acted on her own for most of the route. Actually, Shizuru wasn’t even present in his route for a big chunk of it (no joke). So yeah, as much as I wanted to try to enjoy Shizuru as a character (he can be pretty funny sometimes) his route just hasn’t been satisfactory. If there’s another game, there NEEDS to be more romance because watching Tsugumi go off to solve issues while the love interest is MIA is not appealing at all in a fandisk.
Akira (CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko) Tsugumi and Akira have been dating for about a year now but unfortunately they haven’t been super open about their relationship (even to those who already know about it). One day they find a ‘maremono’ that is supposedly written by a government fugitive after some guy brings it in to Kuina’s shop. Kuina tells him its a fake and so he leaves it with them. They then take it back to Fukuro to have it examined. They determine it was written by a teenage girl and that the part about it being a maremono is still vague so they decided to just treat it as a counterfeit book. Nevertheless, Tsugumi and Akira decide to investigate where the book came from and how a dealer guy named Yamada found it.
So Tsugumi and Akira visit different book stores the next day and they all had the same occurrence. Yamada came and tried to sell his counterfeit autograph book to these stores. On their way back, they bump into Hitaki who’s furious about Tsugumi being with Akira and refuses to accept him as her lover. Tsugumi essentially tells him to stfu and so after Hitaki fake cries he tells Tsugumi he hates her (boohoo go jump into a river). Tsugumi apologizes on his behalf and Akira again tells her its okay. Unfortunately, Tsugumi feels bad and wants to officially get Akira recognized by her family (and have her father meet him).
So after that Tsugumi and Akira go to the summer festival together in yukata after Tsugumi invited him. They decide to eat something first but are soon interrupted when they find Yamada in the crowd. They try chasing him but he ends up running away saying he didn’t do anything bad lol. After that, they find out one of the foods they wanted is sold out so Tsugumi decides she wants to try the shooting game. After many tries she finally gets a hit and excitedly hugs Akira lol. Then Akira gives it a shot as well and wins Tsugumi like six boxes of caramels lmao. After they leave, Tsugumi’s foot starts hurting because of her geta sandal. She tries to hide it, but Akira finds out and lectures her for not telling him.
He then offers to carry her home but Tsugumi profusely refuses. So he takes matters into his own hands and literally picks her up and carries her on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes lmao. She tells him to put her down but he’s all nope you’re getting a ride whether you like it or not lmao. So, they get back to the apartment and Akira treats her sandal wound. He tells her that her yukata suits her as well and they end up making out which then leads to some love making. Tsugumi also tells Akira that she wants some I love you’s from time to time so he tells her over and over again he loves her lol.
Next day Tsugumi meets a girl named Chitori at the bookstore who is looking for the same fabricated book Tsugumi had been investigating. Apparently she was the one who wrote them but they got into the wrong hands after they were stolen. She wants to make sure they aren’t sold to others since it wasn’t something meant for other people to read. So Tsugumi introduces herself and says she may be able to help her given her job dealing with books. Chitori doesn’t give her contact info but instead tells her to meet her somewhere. So Tsugumi tells Tokimiya about her and she tells Akira and Tsugumi to investigate her situation to see if they can find a lead on the rogue anti-government author.
So Akira and Tsugumi meet with Chitori at they restaurant they often visit. She asks for the book back but Akira forces her to order something first. Tsugumi finally explains about maremono and how her book is very similar to it so they’re still investigating it. But Chitori demands they give her the book and Tsugumi asks why the heck she wants it so bad. She explains she wrote it for swindling money and now she doesn’t want to get caught. They ask if she knows the author she pretended to write as and she immediately stutters that she doesn’t. So after Tsugumi and Akira press for more questions she’s scared off by them and angrily leaves demanding the book.
So now with rumors about this authors book going around people are going from shop to shop to try and collect it for money. Regardless, neither Tsugumi or Akira can get Chitori to tell them what the heck is really going on and whether she has connections to the MIA author. Meanwhile, Tsugumi tries to talk to Hitaki back home to try and convince him to put on his big boy pants and realize her and Akira are a thing now. But of course he bitches and whines how Tsugumi betrayed him and their family and runs off. Tsugumi also reveals to her butler that Akira is related to the Shiginuma family. After this, Tsugumi goes to the library to investigate the books and runs into Akira there and he kisses her cause he can’t contain himself lol.
After that, Yamada is eventually caught and so Akira gets him to spit the truth so his punishment for his crimes will be lessened. He admits he stole the books from Chitori and that he did want to sell them for money. Eventually Akira and Tsugumi meet up with Chitori who demands her books back. Suddenly Sakae appears and basically interrogates Chitori to tell whether she knows the author. She says she doesn’t until he backs off. Akira demands Chitori stops screwing around since she could be in serious danger from hiding the fact she knows this anti-government author. Then a police official aggressively asks if they’re involved with Sakae and so Chitori starts to get suspected. Akira intervenes and ends up getting arrested for it.
Thankfully, his charges were dropped since there were eye witnesses that saw what happened. After rumors start spreading about the book, Tokimiya decides its best to go public about how the book is a fake. So Tsugumi manages to convince Chitori to attend so they can clear the suspicions of her being in cahoots with the author (Karisaka). Meanwhile, Akira continuously blames himself for all the unlucky occurrences going on with Tsugumi and the book situation. After that, Hitaki appears to go on a bashing spree about Akira and demands she break up with him. Tsugumi again tells him to stop bashing Akira but then he starts sobbing calling Tsugumi all sorts of names before leaving.
Tsugumi calls her butler and he tells her that he contacted her father and he indeed wants to meet Akira. Regardless, Akira clearly starts to avoid Tsugumi because he keeps getting rejected by her brother. So during the meeting Tokimiya holds, she reveals the book as a fake and as publishers look at it, they realize it really was a fake and go home. Of course the military police guy isn’t convinced so he decides to pull the book apart to find any secrets. Nevertheless, Tokimiya tells him to gtfo already and so he finally gives up. Meanwhile, Tsugumi tells Chitori she’ll return the book to her after fixing the damage done to it.
Akira also requests to work alone afterwords and constantly continues avoids Tsugumi. When she tries to get him to talk with her, he keeps stonewalling her and says he’ll talk when he’s ready. But Tsugumi is fed up so she decides to keep pushing. In addition, even Kuina and Shizuru play along by flirting with Tsugumi in getting Akira to quit being a debby downer. Finally, Akira tells them to all stfu cause Tsugumi is his lmao. Finally, Akira takes Tsugumi home and confesses he was indeed running away from his problems because he didn’t want to taint her and her family line with his name. But he says he can’t help that he wants to be with her anyway cause he loves her and so they hug.
Next day they find out Chitori had been kidnapped by Kuge so they go to his hideout. He only invites Tsugumi inside and finds he’s using water torture on Chitori to get her to tell him where the author is. She finally reveals he’s dead making Kuge pissed and tries to kill her. But Tsugumi whacks the gun out of his hand and turns the tables on him. She aims the gun at him, telling him to put his hands on the wall. He finally complies after she tells him she means business (you go girl). After that, Chitori reveals she indeed did know the author Karisaka but he was in horrible shape when he came to her village. She wrote his last book for him since he could no longer write or see. But after she finished it he died and had told her to not use his name in publishing it because it would cause her to be in danger. She did anyway so thats how the whole thing came about. She starts crying feeling like she betrayed him and Tsugumi tells her its okay and realizes she was in love with him.
Afterwords, Tsugumi goes to her house to talk with Hitaki once more as Akira requested to do so. He finally tells Hitaki his immense feels for Tsugumi and how he’s never gonna back off and he’s gonna love her forever. And if he can’t accept that, he’ll run away with her lmao 😂. Hitaki finally gives in and says he’ll accept it. So then Akira and Tsugumi make out in her room. In the epilogue, they eat dumplings while looking up at the moon together.
Thoughts: Akira’s route was definitely better than Shizuru’s so I did enjoy it more but like Shizuru’s it still lacked an actual plot central to the character. Instead, more than half of the route has to do with solving this mystery of these books + rando sub character. This FD doesn’t have nearly as many romance scenes as other FDs I’ve played so to whip up this filler plot seems really lazy. The only thing that happened relevant to Akira was the fact he finally opened up to Tsugumi more instead of just kind of being mute all the time. BUT, in addition to that there was more drama because Hitaki decided to be a huge cockblock for Tsugumi and Akira’s relationship by constantly bashing the fuck out of Akira. I don’t even dislike Akira, but I wish more came out of his route. Anyway, it wasn’t the worst, but it certainly wasn’t the most interesting. I hope if there’s another FD (which I really think there will be) there’s more romance for this guy.
Hayato (CV: Yuuki Kaji) Tsugumi wakes up with Hayato in bed and he asks for a good morning kiss before he gets up. But they’re cockblocked by Hitaki who bangs on the door and asks for Tsugumi. He ends up going on a patrol with Hayato and Tsugumi to write an essay for summer lessons he’s taking. During this, Hayato runs into his ex lover and actress Aisa whom he cutt off relations with before. Hitaki goes haywire thinking Hayato being unfaithful but Hayato assure Tsugumi there’s nothing between them. So Aisa tells Hayato she needs to talk to him and calls him later that night.
She tells him there’s an auction going on at Nachtigal again so they make plans to go there. So Hayato and Tsugumi get dressed up and go back to Nachtigal once again to encounter a foreigner named Sekka from a Shanghai drug trade. Shougo meets with them and tells them about him and how he’s grown interested in maremono and looking for them. After that, Aisa picks up Tsugumi and Hayato and asks for their help. She received threats from Sekka but through away the letters as proof. So Hayato tells her they’ll do what they can but tell her to stay on the down low as he consults the rest of the group about it.
Meanwhile, Tsugumi and Hayato go to the summer festival together and Hayato feeds her some of his childhood snacks called radio-yaki. They run into Hayato’s senpai Yoshikiri and Tsugumi’s friend Koruri (whom has a crush on him). Tsugumi thinks their on a date but whem Yoshikiri denies it, she storms off and they tell Yoshikiri to follow her. That night, Hayato and Tsugumi finally get their alone time back at the apartment so they decide to get randy in Tsugumi’s room. After that, Tsugumi bumps into Sekka and he invites her to lunch. Tsugumi uses this as an opportunity to gather info from him so she agrees. Sekka acts normally for a bit until Tsugumi tells him to stop threatening Aisa. However, he tells her she’s mistaken and Aisa is scheming against them.
After that, Hayato and Tokimiya find out Tsgumi met with Sekka and tell her to be careful next time and to not approach him carelessly. Hayato makes plans to go with Aisa to Nachtigal to gather info. Meanwhile there’s an incident where 3 people are killed (some being foreigners) and Yoshikiri assumes Sekka was being targeted by someone. Tsugumi then meets with one of Shougo’s acquaintances that also got a threatening letter supposedly from Sekka before burning it. In addition, she gives Tsugumi a duplicate maremono that was bought from the auction. So that night Hayato goes to the dance with Aisa and Tsugumi is overcome with jealously the entire time while waiting for him to come home. When he does, she pretends to be asleep.
The next morning Hayato decides to greet Tsugumi and ask if she’s jealous. She finally admits it so he makes out with her in the kitchen to make up for the fact he didn’t get his goodnight kiss lol. So Hayato tells everyone he met Sekka but he again acted like he never sent any letters with threats. So Tsugumi meets with Koruri who says Yoshikiri never pays any mind to her feelings so she asks Tsugumi to ask about him through Hayato. After work, Tsugumi again runs into Sekka and tries to invite her out to dinner. She declines and he realizes its because she’s suspicious of him but warns her that the one who accused him of the letter, Aisa, is indeed an actress so could easily fake it.
So Tsugumi comes home to Aisa at their apartment. She’s worried because her lover Sakae was supposedly threatened by Sekka and wants Fukuro to take action. Hayato explains they cant do much without proof so tell her to chill and hide out at their apartment until they can figure things out. Meanwhile, Hayato goes outside with Tsugumi. He tells her in actuality he’s not sure if he trusts anyone at this point. After that Tsugumi finds out Hayato was injured but thankfully it was minor. However, he was only be intimidated by whomever shot him since they didn’t shoot to kill.
So during one of Tsugumi’s patrols she encounters Sakae who asks her to get Moriyama’s diary for him (which was being used as a bargaining chip to stop the threats from Sekka). Tsugumi refuses though and he backs down for now. Meanwhile, Aisa is going to a stage event as a promise for a friend and Tsugumi and Akira decide to go with her to protect her. When they do, a sudden shoot out happens and its Sekka’s chinese mafia. Tsugumi gets kidnapped by them. When Tsugumi wakes up she’s in a dining room and Sekka forces food down her throat by threatening her with his knife. He also tricks her in thinking she swallowed opium by putting sugar in her mouth. In addition, he tells her he hates Fukuro and especially Hayato and wanted to piss him off by messing with her.
Suddenly, Takashi, who should be in jail, appears with a whole different demeanor than before. He tells Sekka he should allow his guest to leave and so he tells her to come with him. If Tsugumi chooses to stay, it will result in a bad end where Sekka will take her to his drugged up hideout. There, he feeds her lychee berries while she’s stoned on whatever drugs he’s cooked up for her. Yikes. Well, Tsugumi goes with Takashi and he tells her he’s a ghost of Takashi and helped her to repay her. Whatever that means. Nevertheless he leaves and Tsugumi goes back to the apartment where she’s greeted by a super relieved Tokiymia. Hayato contacts them soon after and they tell him Tsugumi is safe so he rushes home and basically cries saying he’s relieved Tsugumi is okay.
So after Tsugumi explains what happened, everyone is surprised to hear Takashi isn’t locked up. When Tsugumi goes to bed, Hayato knocks on her door and asks to come in. He asks her what happened but she keeps saying nothing even though he tells her she’s lying. After getting randy and rough a bit she finally tells him what Sekka said about trying to get Tsugumi to kill him and how he did indeed set the attack on Hayato. After hearing this, Hayato apologizes and leaves. The next day Tsugumi visits Sougo with Hayato. They ask about Takashi and she gives vague answers but assures them he’s not an enemy but a mere ghost. She then goes on to explain Sekka’s motives and his past on how he was “chosen” to be a murder since he was young.
After that, Hayato and Tsugumi buy a watermelon and eat it in the backyard of the apartment. As Hayato eats it on Tsugumi’s lap, he begins to apologize again for what happened yesterday. He responded rashly cause he was jealous and frustrated he felt so helpless in saving her. He goes on a rant on how he wants her to be happy and basically starts crying when Tsugumi tells him she wishes she was more like him in terms of strength. He tells her he’s glad that he never took Nabari’s life because even after all the lives he took, killing him wouldn’t have brought them back. So they promise to survive together without killing anyone.
Next day, Hayato and Tsugumi meet Sekka face to face after he was stalking them. Hayato demands to know what his purpose is but he admits he merely wants to be Hayato and Tsugumi’s friend (lol ok). He then randomly attacks one of his own mafia guys before escaping again. After this they hear from Sakae that Aisa was kidnapped by Sekka and wants Mozuyama’s diary in return. So they agree to help and when they get there they immediately find Aisa in an abandoned warehouse. There, Sekka attacks both Sakae and Aisa. Tsugumi tries to help but gets blocked by Sekka. He then tells them that Aisa was actually a government spy who was merely acting as Sakae’s lover (until she fell in love for real).
Hayato demands to know what Sekka’s purpose is again and he tells him he wants to kill him. Hayato, knowing that he could’ve killed him before, knows that isn’t the case. But then Sekka takes Tsugumi hostage by putting a knife to her throat. But Tsugumi manages to escape his grasp and Hayato takes thr opportunity to lunge at Sekka and pin him to the ground. He finally admits he wanted Hayato to kill him and set him free since he’s tired of living now that he’s grown up murdering to no end. But Hayato ain’t having that so he goes on a preach about how Sekka should take control of his life and find freedom. This ends up in him finally giving in until Aisa decides to shoot him herself. She says she has to kill him for Sakae’s sake but then Hayato manages to take the gun from her and they tell her she needs to go back on stage instead of being a murderer lol.
Hayato then tells Sekka they’re gonna get him help for his injury and Tsugumi thanks him for his meal (HAHA that he shoved down your throat). And so they leave and get the others to help. Meanwhile, Hayato encounters Takashi and asks him to help Sekka escape. After that, Tsugumi gets a call from her butler that Koruri has eloped with Yoshikiri making Hayato want to plan their honeymoon already lmao. They seemingly go upstairs to make love bit Hayato is so tired from all the events that he falls asleep in bed with her lol. In the epilogue, Hayato and Tsugumi see Koruri and Yoshikiri off as they go off together as a couple. Hayato then takes his chance to propose to Tsugumi and puts a ring on it lol.
Thoughts: I don’t mind Hayato but I really don’t see the huge charm in his personality. I think he’s like any other poster boy yet he still one most popular in the vote polls and even in DGS somehow🤔. Well, anyway, his route wasn’t bad in terms of plot. I actually found it pretty interesting when it involved Sekka because he was a pretty unique character and I actually wouldn’t mind a route with him tbh lol. Overall I felt like there was a good amount of romance with the plot itself. Tsugumi also really kicks ass in this route and I enjoy her a lot. He’s def cute but I can tell he’d probably get really clingy at times and thats not really my taste lol. But gosh, this game has an obsession with making bad guys go good or I guess that’s the power of friendship and persuasion from the fukuro team lmao.
Shougo (CV: Kimura Ryouhei) Shougo and Tsugumi watch the lotus flowers together while sitting on a bench in the park. They share a kiss and Shougo keeps saying he loves Tsugumi and hopes even as he keeps saying it, it won’t get boring to her after a while 😊. When they get back to the apartment, they find out about an arranged marriage between Shougo and this woman named Kiriai Sumire. She explains her parents urged it to be roght away. Tsugumi is shocked but Shougo explains the circumstances and refuses to marry her. Shizuru then hears it and chimes in and covers him saying Shougo’s a lady’s man that would cheat on her lmao. But regardless, she says she doesn’t mind.
After she leaves, Shougo goes to house to go speak with his mother and father directly. He spends the night at his place, leaving Tsugumi to anxiously worry. When she comes back from work the next day, the prime minister aka Shougo’s father is at their apartment. He apologizes and explains the situation to Tsugumi. He tells her that the arrangement was really made on a whim by his wife who was best friends with Sumire’s mother. But after Shougo came to the apartment due to the incident he had with the maremono, the arrangement was forgotten about and Shougo fell in love for real.
Later, Tsugumi finds out from Shougo’s butler that apparently he heard from Hsiugo’s mother that the only way she’s approve of Tsugumi as Shougo’s wife is if she quit her job, left the apartment, and stayed art her parent’s home to study on how to be a bride-to-be. Tsugumi doesn’t bode well to this since she definitely doesn’t want to leave her job and knows Shougo doesn’t want this either. Next day, Tsugumi dresses up in her yukata and meets with Shougo to go to the summer festival together. During the festival Tsugumi and Shougo play the ring tossing game and Tsugumi accidently falls on top of Shougo while trying to play 😂.
They’re the center of attention after that so Tsugumi runs off all embarrassed. Shougo chases after her and she apologizes for embarrassing him. But Shougo is too thirsty to care and just starts making out with Tsugumi. Before he can go any further, Tsugumi interrupts and he flips out of embarrassment. He basically admits he wants to go back to her place to continue and so they do. After love making, Tsugumi is still anxious about them getting married but Shougo reassures her it’s fine and says he loves her.
After that, a case comes up where a woman is killed after being strangled by someone. However, its not a normal case because apparently they also raped the victim’s body afterwords (wtf). Nevertheless they have no clues except it may be someone the victim knew. Again Tsugumi finds out about another death of a girl she used to know named Michiko and how she had a diary left behind that has an aura like a maremono. Apparently a main suspect is someone named Sasabe who’s apparently Shougo’s classmate. Tsugumi asks to see the book but once she does, she hears the voice (or spirit?) of her old classmate Michiko asking for help and falls unconscious because of the immensity of it.
After this, Tsugumi has dreams of this guy murdering her in Michiko’s point of view. She doesn’t really remember it when she wakes up though and does her normal patroling in the morning. She encounters Shougo and his classmate Sasabe there. Shougo invites him out to talk to him about school and so Tsugumi goes with him to try and gather info. She doesn’t find out anything though and Shougo tells Tsugumi to look after herself after hearing she collapsed. Meanwhile, they continue to investigate Sasabe and find out he’s a loner with no friends and is clearly targetting rich families.
One day, Tsugumi encounters Sasabe after work and he invites her out to eat. Tsugumi declines and so he offers to see her tomorrow. Suddenly, Sumire appears and tells Sasabe to back the fuck off (confirming they apparently know each other). She tells Tsugumi to stay away from him and even tells her he attacked her once. After that, Tsugumi lets everyone know about what happened. They think its a good idea to keep tabs on Sasabe to gather info since unfortunately they can’t make a move without any evidence. So Tsugumi agrees to talking with him but Shougo insists on keeping an eye on her to make sure she’s okay.
So the following day Tsugumi speaks with Sasabe while Shougo and his butler hid and listened in on theit conversation. Sasabe didn’t reveal much except for the fact he was all for Sakae’s ideals of changing Japan and revolutionizing the country. He also asks if Tsugumi is Shougo’s lover whuch she lies and says she isn’t so its easier to meet with him. That night, Shougo visits Tsugumi in her room and just as he touches her, Tsugumi has a hallucination of Shougo becoming the murderer who killed Michiko. This causes her to scream and black out until Tokimiya comes to see whats going on. They end up figuring out that Michiko’s soul from the diary has essentially resided inside Tsugumi. Which is why she’s always been feeling sick around Sasabe.
So Tsugumi decides she’ll continue to try and meet him so the next day she happens to and makes plans to have dinner together. Shougo is against it but tells her to be careful. When she does, she talks to him and learns more about how he feels some women judge him because of his blood line and rank. But he doesn’t feel Tsugumi does and wants to know more about her. He asks to let him take her to his place to get to know her better and just as he touches her, Michiko’s spirit makes Tsugumi feels sick again. Suddenly Shougo appears and urgently tells Tsugumi Tokimiya is worried about her before taking her into his car.
Next morning another murder happens and Tokimiya gets everyone to investigate. Meanwhile, Tsugumi goes to speak with Sumire about her attack with Sasabe. She explains he once gave her a love letter and even though she refused, he insisted. She didn’t even speak to him before this and knew it was merely her looks that drew men to her, so she ripped up the letter in front of him. About a month later he stalked her and shoved her into his car and assaulted her. She never said anything to the police either because she didn’t want it to be known she ever got involved with him. She then tells Tsugumi she needs to choose already with Shougo’s engagement because if she wants both her job and his marriage then she’s being too greedy.
That night, Shougo invites Tsugumi to light fireworks. He tells her about what his mom said about her quiting her job. He knows its important to her and even though he used to think woman working wasn’t normal now he thinks differently thanks to her. He wants her to quit her job if it means staying with him but understands its ultimately her decision and wishes her a good night. The next day, Tsugumi encounters Sasabe again. She starts to then feel sick and suddenly Shougo appears again with good timing and takes her home while Sasabe rages that he’s stalking her. Shougo realizes she has a fever and when he brings her home, Tsugumi says all sorts of mushy stuff of how she wants to stay with Shougo. He holds her hand and stays with her until she falls asleep.
Next morning Tsugumi feels better and Shougo makes her breakfast. She keeps saying how good it is and Shougo acts modest saying its really not all that great lmao. Anyway, Shougo tells Tsugumi he’s okay with her trying to hunt Sasabe down and promises not to get in the way anymore. Meanwhile, Tsugumi decides to meet with Sumire and settle the matter with Shougo once and for all. She basically tells Sumire she should be allowed to be free and do what she wants just as she has with the help of her own companions. She tells her she wants to stay with Shougo by any means and doesn’t want her to marry him no matter what. But regardless she still wants Sumire to find her own happiness. This finally gets Sumire to give up and back off on the marriage but tells Tsugumi that his mother may still not agree with their marriage.
After this, Tsugumi and the rest of Fukuro make plans to try and catch Sasabe once and for all. Tsugumi decides to meet with Sasabe in the park and Shougo cheers her on, saying he believes in her, before she leaves. So Tsugumi essentially tells Sasabe in the park that she suspects him and pretends by saying she saw someone at the shrine who looked like him. She asks to see him again tomorrow and leaves. After she leaves though she feels as though she’s being followed and says it aloud thinking Fukuro will follow suit. She goes to the shrine where the murders happen and Sasabe greets her there. She tells him about her classmate, Michiko, and Sasabe pretends he doesn’t know her.
Suddenly, it starts to rain and thunderstorm so Tsugumi tries to leave and refuses to be driven home by him. Sasabe gets angry that she doesn’t trust him and grabs her saying he wants to talk more. She tries to push him away but he again gets more aggressive and starts chasing her as she runs into the forest. Apparently the rest of Fukuro are being distracted by some men of his to keep them away. With no other options, Tsugumi slashes Sasabe with her knife but unfortunately he manages to pin her down like she’d seen in her dreams. He tells her he’s sick of being humiliated by people of “class” and if they’re all dead they can’t reject him like they always have.
But just before he can do anything, Shougo appears with a gun in hand. He tells him to stfu about his whiny crap since all he ever wanted was a woman that was just a decoration for him rather than someone he actually cared about. Just as she tries to make him surrender, Sasabe tries to make a run for it but ends up getting crushed by a tree after lightning hits it. Tsugumj falls unconscious after hearing Michiko’s voice thanking her and leaves her body for good.
When Tsugumi wakes up Shougo is next to her completely worried about her and immediately hugs her. He’s finally able to touch her like normal so after much prying and reassuring (this blushing boi 😂) Tsugumi manages to finally get him to make love to her 👀. In the epilogue, Tsugumi encounters someone named Ren who’s with the actress Aisa and Shougo gets jelly lmao.
Thoughts: Shougo is such a cutie and has always been my 2nd fave for good reason. His route was actually pretty interesting albeit dark in terms of what was going on. I didn’t expect Tsugumi to legit get possessed by a spirit lol. Unfortunately because of that whole ordeal there wasn’t as much romance as I feel like there could’ve been. I think that was really just overall in the entire game but Shougo’s scenes always make me smile because he’s just such a fumbling tsun sometimes (which I adore). Shougo really changed as a character (he was a sexist douche at first) so I really like how they incorporated that. Anyway, please give me a FD with more scenes with this megane. Pls…….
Rui (Sakurai Takahiro) Tsugumi continues her work as usual and Rui is very busy with school over the summer. Tsugumi even visits Shouko to have a sort of girls tea party woth her friend, Koruri. They make plans to see a famous actress that dresses like a guy (and popular among women) named Kiriai Ren. So the following day Tsugumi meets Rui and tells him her plans for the night. After seeing the performance, Koruri encounter Rui and Tsugumi introduces him. She then asks if there’s someone he may have looked like (refering to Shouko aka his real mother) and Rui lies and says no one. Koruri then leaves to go back to work and Rui walks home with Tsugumi.
Rui apologizes for lying but believes its for the best to not have the info of his real parents public. He’s talked to Shouko a few times already, but doesn’t really know what to talk about and believes they shouldn’t get too close anyway because he doesn’t want their relationship public. Rui then mentions the summer festival and tells her not to forget that it’s tomorrow. Tsugumi says she planned to wear her yukata and Rui says he’ll wear one too (that was made by his adopted mother). He gets a taxi for her and gives her a quick kiss before sending her off and wishing her a good night.
During work, Tsugumi keeps hearing rumors about ‘Kagutsuchi’ (the book burning cult Rui ran) but Rui told her he’s not involved anymore so hopes that he’s telling the truth. That night, Tsugumi meets with Rui in yukata form as planned. He gets so excited to see her wearing it he immediately hugs her 😊. She gets all shy and he apologizes but he just couldnt help himself lol. Rui is wearing a yukata too so she can’t help but stare because he is (hawt) stunning. So they head to the festival where Tsugumi reveals its actually her first festival and Rui is all glad that he could experience with her first.
At the festival they encounter Hitaki and his english teacher. He introduces himself as Hans and talks to Rui for a bit. He basically tells him to embrace his youth and spend as much as time with his lover as he can lol. After he leaves, Rui tells Tsugumi its always been his dream to go to summer festival with his lover lmao so he’s super happy he could go with her 😊. So they buy cotton candy and eat it together while Rui gives her random trivia on the name in different countries lol. They start making out after this and end up back at Rui’s place and they have some after festy love making.
When Rui falls asleep, Tsugumi is about to leave since she works in the morning. Rui stops her and asks her to stay. She asks if he’s really okay since he’s seemed saddened lately and he tells her he’s fine but doesnt know the next time he’ll be able to touch her again. So she decides to stay the night with him. When she wakes up, he makes her breakfast early in the morning. She then leaves to go back to the apartment since she works and encounters Shizuru who tells her about a suspicious person entering a bookstore late at night. During her patrol, she finds out Yano’s bookstore was robbed by a imitator “Kagutsuchi” member.
Tsugumi wants to investigate it since there have been multiple incidents and one night both her and Rui wait outside the bookstore for the perp to arrive. They end up encountering him and he tells them he expected them to show and wants to ask a favor. That favor being to kill Shiginuma Takashi and reveals he is actually not in prison and paid someone to stay in prison for him while he roams about freely. Ren is very persistent about it and Rui tells him to at least tell then who he is. He then reveals himself to be Kiriai Ren; the very same actor they know of. Rui again refuses to partake in his murder schemes and leaves.
Rui immediately goes to Shouko and demands to know why she kept the fact about Takashi hidden. She tells them she wasn’t trying to deceive them but Takashi is now a ghost of his past self and cannot be killed now. Rui leaves pissed off and says he cant believe he trusted her. Tsugumi tries to ask more questions, but unfortunately she doesn’t know much more than what they know. Tsugumi asks if she can try and contact him for her but Shouko can’t guarantee he’ll answer. Meanwhile, Tsugumi meets with Ren and he shows her a maremono that he was forced to write by Takashi. Tsugumi sees a very pretty aura with it and he implies that Takashi can see auras as well. They both give each other their contact info and Tsugumi decides to take it with her.
Right after this, Tsugumi encounters Takashi much to her surprise lol. He tells her he’s not going to kill her nor is he going to take the book that Ren gave her. He just wanted her to admire the beauty of the maremono thats created through “despair”. Tsugumi demands he leaves Ren alone but he says she’s become a useful toy. Tsugumi tells him that Ren is a person and doesn’t want to be associated with him. Nevertheless, he won’t let Ren free unless he gets something better in return. Tsugumi lets everyone know Takashi is alive and suddenly gets a phone call from Ren. He tells Tsugumi he was attacked so asks to stay at their apartment for a while. He tells everyone to treat him as male though (I guess this is supposed to be a trans character then so I’ll refer to Ren as a “he”).
Tsugumi goes over to Rui’s place to explain the situation about both Ren and Takashi. He then makes out with her and asks if she’ll stay with him at his place instead of living at the apartment. Tsugumi is hesitant about it so she says she’ll think about it. Later on she finds out some girls at the bookstore know about Ren but tell them to keep it a secret and that whatever is going on isn’t out of malicious intent. She then encounters Rui at the library and he apologizes for suddenly asking her to move in with her and will take things more slow for her. Rui also finds out Tsugumi had been secretly studying medical stuff since she was interested in what Rui did which made him really happy.
That night, Ren asks to eat taiyaki with Tsugumi and they chat casually for a bit until Tsugumi brings up Takashi. She asks what’s really going on and what happened with him but he won’t say anything. Tsugumi begs him to let them handle the situation but he emphasizes that Takashi won’t easily be taken down and wants to do things of his own accord. He then flirts with Tsugumi and she tells him she’s only dedicated to Rui lol. Tsugumi tries to persuade him to let her try and clear the “despair” he’s feeling since if she does that, he’ll no longer be any use to Takashi. Nevertheless, he leaves before telling her he has a sickness that can never be cured and thanks her for being genuinely worried for him (I should note that every time Tsugumi brings up he’s initially female it makes him uncomfortable).
Tsugumi agains tells Rui of the situation and he starts to say how things would probably better for all of them (including Shouko) if Takashi was dead. Tsugumi, thinking he has considerations of killing him, reminds him his hands are meant for healing not killing (which is what she told him before). Nevertheless, Tsugumi feels a distance between her and Rui because he seems lonely and won’t open up about it. Rui himself says he feels there are things even Tsugumi doesn’t know about him even though he most definitely loves her. That night, Tsugumi again encounters Ren imitating Kagutsuchi and asks him to stop already but he refuses to listen and tells her not even a god could rid her despair.
Even Rui starts to go out at night dressed in his Kagutsuchi clothes. So Tsugumi decides to finally go to Shouko and ask her how she feels about Takashi. Apparently she still has feelings for him and claims she hasn’t been abused by him and always showered by gifts. Shouko goes on about how she feels like Rui hates her sinve whenever they had met they don’t talk much but Tsugumi tells her that Rui has been worried about both her and Ren in regards to Takashi. So she tells Tsugumi she’ll try and speak with him. So Tsugumi tries to find Ren and Rui at night but encounters the same stalker guy before, Sasabe, trying to attack Ren.
Rui immediately stops him and tells him to stay away from Ren or he’ll get the police involved. After he leaves, Ren again tries to convince Rui to help him kill Takashi but he refuses. Suddenly Takashi appears as if he was being called making Ren furious. He immediately tries to stab him before Rui stops him. Takashi then rambles on how Ren’s despair is beautiful and knows full well he can’t be touched by the police and doesn’t intend to be taken down either. He also reveals Souko being his mother which surprises Ren who didn’t know. In the end he leaves with Ren unable to touch him. As they ride a taxi back to the apartment, Ren tells them to forget about killing Takashi and apologizes for involving them.
After that, Tsugumi is so fed up with Rui not giving her the time of day to express how he’s feeling, she locks him in the library and demands he talk to her. In the end, Rui convinces her to make love there and they say its their little “secret” they can share together. He claims that brings their bond closer and ao Tsugumi agrees to it. Afterwords she pissed at him though lmao. She then suggests they can connect with each ither by helping Ren and promise to meet each other the next day. So Tsugumi and Rui they decide to watch Ren’s actions the next night. As they do, they find him meeting Takashi and he demands to get more books from him. But he immediately says he’s going to kill him this time and takes out a knife.
But before he can do anything, Rui and Tsugumi chase him away. Ren then decides to finally reveal his secret and the cause of his despair. They go to Tsugumi’s room and he explains that his real name is Sumire Kiriai. But his mind has always been that of a man. He loathed having a woman’s body (getting a period and such which I never thought would be mentioned in an otome game). Anyway, he kept being told to get married and have a child already by the time he was 16 so he got so angry he burned off his own breasts; leaving a scare on his chest. In the end, he was introduced to acting by a popular actress named Aisa. There, he could continue to act as a man as he pleased.
However, he was invited to a party where he met Takashi. He ended up gaining interest in him and raped him not even caring about the fact he had a giant scare on his chest and liked the despair he felt. It was then Ren started to write maremono and was told by his parents that he needs to get married by 20 or They’d send him to an insane asylum. Rui and Tsugumi thinks its ridiculous and tell him they don’t think he’s strange at all. Rui even mentions hearing about a woman patient who wanted surgery to become a man. He thanks them and says he feels as if the despair he’s had has gone since they accepted him.
Next day, Tsugumi gets word from Shouko that Takashi wants to meet at night and to bring Ren. They don’t find Shouko there, but just Takashi. Tsugumi immediately tells him to free Ren but continues to ignore their demands. Ren then appears and tells him he wants to be free now that he’s been encouraged by Tsugumi and Rui. And since Takashi won’t listen, he decides he’ll take him down himself so he won’t reveal his secret to tarnish his family name and tries to stab him again. Takashi dodges him of course but when Rui gets in the way, Ren stabs him by accident. Thankfully its minor so Tsugumi manages to give him first aid.
Suddenly Shouko appears and stop it all by announcing to Takashi that she’s pregnant with his child. Meaning she finally has an heir to his bloodline like he had always wanted. She also reveals herself that Rui is indeed her child (via being raped by Mozuyama) and didnt want to dirty their family name by revealing it. She also apologizes to Rui for not being there for him and only wishes for him to be happy. So she asks Takashi to search for “hope” instead of “despair” all the time and manages to convince him somehow and things are all good again.
After that, Rui reveals to Tsugumi in his room that his secret all along was just that he was jealous of Tsugumi living with all the members of Fukuro as her life stayed unchanged while he stayed a boring student ever since Kagutsuchi disbanded. So basically, Rui felt like a loser and that their connection wasn’t there I guess since Kagutsuchi is what brought them together. But of course Tsugumi tells him he’s wrong and that she wanted to stay with him regardless of him being a student or whatever. So the next morning Tsugumi wakes up to Rui making pancakes. She’s naked (since they obvs did it) and cant find her clothes since Rui was washing them and puts a sheet over her while gawking at the pancakes Rui made lmao.
In the epilogue, Shouko is getting ready to go to Europe with Takashi. Rui finally calls her “mom” so she starts crying and says she’s always wanted to have him call her that. After she departs, Ren tells them he’ll be going to Shanghai with Aisa and studying acting. In addition, Shouko talked to her family so she’ll be able to live as “himself”.
Rui and Tsugumi then visit a church where Rui puts a veil on Tsugumi’s head and asks her to marry him in which she obviously says yesss.
Thoughts: This was probably one of the most unique plots I’ve ever encountered in an otome game because it legit involved a transman character (hence why I refered to Ren as a “he”). I don’t know if this is what Otomate intended but they actually put in a character that has the struggles of feeling like a man in a woman’s body. Even in one of the diary letters Ren states that he “feels like a man trapped in a woman’s body”. I’m pretty sure this is usually how trans people actually feel. Not to mention the torment and suffering seemed really genuine for the character. I’m actually surprised Otomate incorporated this into the story. Even though they referred to Ren as a female for a while, it makes sense that Tsugumi or anyone else for that matter didn’t truly understand how Ren felt until he finally revealed his past and made it clear he is male. The support from both Rui and Tsugumi was really nice though; especially when saying that Ren is not strange for feeling that way. Ren even mentioned his parents wanted to put him in a mental hospital and I think in this time period that sort of thing would most likely be condemned (especially in a Taisho era Japan for that matter) so reactions like that may not seem strange (esp for someone in a rich family who are all about their rank). Anyway, I just really liked how Ren was as a character. I think he probably was somewhat attracted to Tsugumi too.
Aside from Ren, this route itself was really great. Rui finally got closure from Shouko and it was so sweet to see them finally bond. Even though Rui was kinda bothering me in this route a bit for being so dodgy I kinda get how he’d feel lonely with Tsugumi living with her man harem that her apartment while he studied all day lmao. I think the weirdest part of this route though was the ending. Shouko just randomly appearing to say “I’m pregnant” and make everything better seemed kinda like a cop out in resolving the issue. But I guess Takashi must’ve had feelings for Shouko (even though I don’t see how she could love a rapist asshole but ok) but I don’t really get how that excuses him for everything else he’s done. Basically he gets a get out of jail free card even though he’s committed crimes like… wtf? Oh well, at least the ending was cute. Good for Shouko.
Hisui (CV: Oosaka Ryouta) Its peaceful again and Hisui is looking forward to going to the summer festival with Tsugumi. That night she sees her butler speaking with a man named Hanz who is Hitaki’s english teacher. After that, she runs into another Chinese foreigner whom she helps find a cafe and he leaves after thanking her. She then runs into Hisui and they go home together to make teru teru bozu since its looking like its going to rain during the festival. When they do, Hisui makes a comment how Tsugumi seemingly lived like a princess before and to him, she is one.
He gets super embarrassed by saying this but Tsugumi tells him she’s embarrassed but glad. Suddenly, Shizuru appears and teases Hisui (saying like oh maybe its better if it does rain since you could cuddle and remove ur wet clothes lmaooo). Hisui dies of embarrassment and tell Shizuru to please stop talking 😂. After he leaves, Hisui admits he knows he’s childish but he’ll do his best to catch up. But Tsugumi tells him he’s fine the way he is and so he thanks her and tells her goodnight. Tsugumi thinks about how Hisui is clearly self-conscious of his child-like appearance and wonders what she can do to help.
The next day after Tsugumi’s patrol she finds out there was a call for Hisui from a foreigner. Everyone suspects it could be his father but Hisui has doubts and feels like its just a coincidence. After he leaves, Tsugumi goes to talk with Hisui about it privately. He tells her his mother didn’t talk much about his father but said he may be alive somewhere. He doesn’t want to have false hope so he’d rather keep his expectations low. So the next day is the summer festival and Tsugumi greets Hisui in her yukata while he’s wearing one as well. He feels like it doesn’t suit him and suggests changing but Tsugumi tells him NOPE and makes sure he wears it since he was so excited to when he invited her. He then gives her a hair ornament as a gift and kisses her. He tells her he loves her and asks if they can continue this after the festival lol.
At the festival, Hisui decides for them to eat candy apples first so he goes to buy it while telling Tsugumi to wait. During this time she encounters Hitaki and his english teacher, Hanz, who greets her in english. Hitaki knows she’s dating Hisui so he pouts and bitches about it until Hanz tells him to chill and respect her new lover. After they leave, Hisui comes back but but the both of them get harrassed by a drunk guy who mistakes Hisui as a girl. Hisui leaves and tells the guy to stfu while telling Tsugumi it doesn’t bother him because Tsugumi told him that his eyes are beautiful 😊. After they get back they finish where they left off and they make sweet passionate lurve. Tsugumi also reasures him about his appearance and that he fell in love with him anyway so whether he looks young or as he says a girl it doesn’t matter because she loves him for him 😍.
During Tsugumi’s patrol, Hisui surprises her for fun lol. They go to Kuina’s shop where they encounter Rui selling some of his kaleidoscopes. Suddenly the same Chinese guy that Tsugumi met comes in and tries his hardest to convince Tsugumi to go out for lunch for him for helping him the other day. They all intrude except Hisui who keeps quiet and after Tsugumi tells him she’s working, he leaves. Rui tells Hisui he should’ve spoken up since he was obviously interested in Tsugumi. Kuina says he’s not an ordinary customer and that his name is Rei Sekka and is part of some underground Chinese facility that sells opium and possibly could be selling it in Japan now. So he tells them to be careful and hopefully they don’t become enemies.
So the foreigner from before contacts Hisui again but even though he’s curious, he’s not sure he wants to meet him. After that, Hisui and Tsugumi visit the shrine and put their feet in a lake. Hisui talks about how he wants to meet his father but also doesn’t because his mother never mentioned him and he has no idea what to expect. Tsugumi convinces Hisui that it’ll be okay and she believes he should meet this person who could potentially be his father. Hisui also apologizes for not stepping in when the foreign guy asked her out but he felt like he was similar to him when he mentioned how he was a lonely foreigner. But that being said he wants her to himself and doesn’t want her to get invited places by other men. 👀
So the next day they hear that Sekka is on the move in his illegal business so to be wary of any occurances since they heard from previous maremono blackmarket auctioneers as well. After Tsugumi finishes her work she’s invited out by Hitaki’s english teacher Hanz for dinner to chat. He tells her he’s helping Hitaki for free since he believes teaching english is for the good of the country and hopes for Tsugumi to learn as well. After that, Tsugumi finds Hisui depressed again after he comes home and asks not to be disturbed. The next day she starts to learn more about an incident related to Sekka and how his whole opium selling for war weapons came about.
That night, Tsugumi asks to speak with Hisui so he asks to go to her room. After a long silence he tells her he met with his father and his name is Johan. Apparently while living in Shanghai there was an explosion and he was suspected to be the criminal. But when he was finally proven innocent and the charges were dropped he came back tp Japan but only to find his wife was gone. He eventually found out where Hisui was and now he wants Hisui to come stay with him in the Netherlands to be the father he never was. He tells her he refused of course because he wants to stay with her and Fukuro. But Tsugumi tells him she believes he should think about it even while thinking to herself she doesn’t want him to go.
So the following day Hisui pretends everything’s fine with his father. Meanwhile, Tsugumi encounters Sekka again who basically tells her he threatened the guy who tried to kill him during the shooting. He tried to invite Tsugumi for dinner but she refused saying she had a boyfriend. She tells this to Hisui while they go to a cafe together and he promises to be there with her the next time he comes. She then brings up his father again and he goes to her room to talk about it. He starts to get angsty and kisses Tsugumi. He tells her he won’t be able to kiss her anymore if he leaves and Tsugumi agrees she doesn’t want that. He tells her he loves her and doesn’t want to leave her side.
The next day Tsugumi and Hisui encounter Sekka on their patrol. He shows them some of Hisui’s father’s hair in an envelope (lol whut) and is holding him hostage. He demands for Hisui to bring him Mozuyama’s diary and wants Hisui to join him as well since he believes they’d get along with them both being half foreign. So after that he leaves and Hisui is in a slump of depression because of this situation. Eventually the rest of Fukuro finds out and they help to try and search for Sekka and Hisui’s father. Unfortunately, they’re not able to pinpoint their locations and Hisui starts wearing himself out.
During a stormy night Hisui decides to go outside and uses his power to summon flames. He tells Tsugumi that his power has brought nothing but misfortune to him. Tsugumi tells him to go instead but he acts like a broken doll so Tsugumi grabs him by the hand and drags him to her room to dry him off. He starts crying about how childish he is and how he’s causing trouble for everyone with this situation. He also feels like crap cause be doesn’t feel a connection with his father and doesn’t want to feel like he’s abandoning him. He tells her he just wants to stay with her but all he can think about is her father. So Tsugumi decides its time to comfort her boo and hugs him saying she’ll sleep with him then and comforts him. She tells him he should consider going to the Netherlands with his father and will wait for him no matter what and that her feelings for him won’t change. So they sleep together and she sings him sleep.
After that Tsugumi hears from Kuina that originally Hisui’s mother had to pose as Johan’s wife but ended up falling in love for real. And after the explosion happened on the ship, it was believed that he had died. But Hisui’s mother believed he was still alive. This leads them to think that he was saved by Sekka’s group and worked under him in Shanghai. Hisui doesn’t want to believe he was lying and Tsugumi encourages him and says she should meet him first before making assumptions. So after that, Shougo invites Hisui to his room to drink tea and eat rice crackers. Hisui apologizes for lying before and tells him the truth about how his father wants him to go to the Netherlands with him. Shougo is super tsun about it but basically admits he’d miss him if he left since he finds Hisui to be the easiest to talk to. He manages to cheer him up though and thanks him.
After that Tsugumi encounters Hanz at the bookstore and he invites her for dinner again. She brings up how she’s looking for someone and when she says the name “Johan” his demeanour completely changes. He tells her that man died years ago and tells her to forget about him before leaving. Tsugumi tells this to Tokimiya but keeps it hidden from Hisui for now. After that, Hisui and Tsugumi encounter Sekka who kills his people in front of them like its nothing and leaves until they meet again. Meanwhile, Tsugumi investigates Hanz even further and meets him at his home. He essentially admits he’s Hisui’s father but refuses to meet him and tells her that Johan has died long ago. Tsugumi believes he’s Hisui’s actual father.
That night, she meets with Hisui who tells her he wants to stay in Japan because he believes its the place where he belongs with Fukuro. Tsugumi then takes this opportunity to tell Hisui about Hanz whom she believes is his father. Hisui is shocked that he may actually be alive and can meet him so he starts crying in Tsugumi’s arms. 😭 the next day, the injured (but not dead) fake dad is thrown at their apartment with a letter in his pocket. The letter is from Sekka and states he has Hisui’s real father and to meet him tonight. Tsugumi is suddenly overcome with guilt because she realizes that he was following her that day she met with Hanz which is how he found out about him. Hisui reassures her though that they’ll rescue him no matter what.
So Tokimiya creates a fake Mosuyama diary for them to give to Sekka in exchange for Hanz. They head to his hideout and Sekka shows them that Hanz is alive. But of course, the trade doesn’t go smoothly and Sekka says he’ll return Hanz after or Hisui can join him and he’ll let him go right away. Hisui doesn’t choose so Sekka throws a knife at Tsugumi’s leg. This pisses off Hisui so he finally uses his flames and tells Sekka he won’t kill him, but make him endure the same pain. Sekka then starts to talk about how his first kill was a friend after being locked up forced to fight and kill children his age.
He tells Hisui he was destined to kill since the day he was born and has nothing left. Tsugumi realizes that he’s indeed jealous of Hisui who has so mucn after being born from a prostitute and a foreign man. So Sekka finally admits all he wants is for Hisui to kill so he can be more like him. So Hisui agrees to kill him and asks if he has any last words. Sekka admits he wishes someone woulf call him a friend one last time and so Hisui does before “killing” him. Hisui doesnt actually kill Sekka but makes it look like he does so their Chinese group thinks that he’s dead and leaves him.
So back at the apartment, Hans finally wakes up and meets Hisui for the first time. He tells them about the incident 17 years ago with the explosion and says because of that accident he had temporary memory loss. Unfortunately it was too late once he regained his memories. And so with him pegged as a criminal (with no proof at the time), he knew trying to see Hiwa (his wife) would mean endangering her or his child’s life. So he decided to toss his old identity and moved to the states for a while until coming back to Japan to where he met Hitaki. He then shows him an earing that his wife left him and Hisui grabs the same one that she left him. Hisui tells Hanz about what happened with his mother and how Mozuyama killed her with his experimenting. He starts crying and apologizes, asking to be forsaken for leaving her behind. He tells him that his mother said she believed he was alive somewhere. Just as he’s about to leave, Hisui tells stops him and hugs him. Hisui starts crying and says he thought he wouldve been fine to forget about him if he was actually a bad person but now he’s willing to forgive his father as long as he visits his mother’s grave and forgives her there. Hans starts crying as well and says in english that Hisui is his precious son.
In the epilogue, Hisui receives a postcard from Sekka from some place overseas. Meanwhile, Hans decides to help teach Hisui and Tsugumi english. Hisui invites Shougo to learn as well and calls him his “friend” which totally makes Shougo blush. After that, Hisui make sweet love and vow to always be together.
Thoughts: Okay all routes aside HERE IS THE BEST ROUTE. I actually did it second because I couldn’t contain my thirst for this boy. If it isn’t obvious already, Hisui is my fave because he’s a precious innocent angel that deserves to be protected. Why can’t we just have more characters like him…? Honestly, I just feel bad for this poor baby half the time because he shits on himself so much. He lacks courage and always says he wants to be more masculine like Hayato because he’s always looked feminine. I don’t get a shit though this baby can stay a baby and I’ll still love him forever. Anyway, the plot was actually super relevant to Hisui’s story in general because it had to do with him finding his father aka Hanz (who clearly looks like him so it was pretty easy to figure out). This is actually the only route I felt like crying because seeing Hisui reunite with his father was so heartwarming 😭. It also felt like Hisui got the best balance of romance + plot. He’s just too precious for this world……… honestly the most innocent of all of Fukuro and still he manages to stay that way. I mean, yes I am bias because he’s my fave but I think anyone would enjoy this route honestly. AND HIS EXTRA SCENARIO YES PLSSSSSSSSSSSSS
[*foams at the mouth* y y e s ……………. . 本当にありがとうございました。]
Secret Route [Yano Kirihiko] (CV: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu) It starts off a year after the events of Nabari’s arrest. Tsugumi rejects Hayato’s feelings and instead wants to focus her on her work as part of Fukuro rather than be in a relationship. So while they’re all cleaning the shrine Hayato suggests they all go to the summer festival together. So while on duty Tsugumi goes to the shop that is now run by Yano Kirihiko who has a sort of “phobia” of maremono. He hands her a Japanese book and asks if its a maremono. However, instead Tsugumi finds its blank with a black lily in it. Yano claims that the editor of that book is unknown and hides his face when he publishes his books. Tsugumi tells Fukuro about this and Akira mentions the book is a story about revenge. In addition, the black lily also has the symbolism of “revenge” as well. So Tsugumi and Akira take the book from the shop to investigate it just in case.
So on the day of the festival, everyone dresses up in their yukata and complement Tsugumi in hers. Albeit Shougo and Akira have to be forced to compliment her by Shizuru and Hisui 😂. But unfortunately the fun falls short when they discover a woman’s dead body in the woods. Apparently she was strangled and had a black lily in her mouth (similar to the killings Sasagoi did) but there was no maremono present. They investigate further based on the invoice location of where the blank book was bought but to no avail. So they continue to go on patrols as usual while investigations come up dry. Tsugumi is also invited by Koruri to see Kiriai Ren to perform on stage.
The following day, Tsugumi visits Nabari in prison for clues to the incident. When she does, he tells her he’s doing well and the flames from his past no longer haunt him. In addition, he no longer creates maremono when he writes books and draws instead for the sake of keeping his mental stability. After that, Tsugumi visits Kuina’s shop and he flirts with her like usual. He even makes her raise her hands in the air and binds her hands together lmao. Tsugumi flips her lid and he teases her some more since he knows she’s single and still in the job mingle lol. Next day there’s another incident where a girl is murdered so Tsugumi prepares for investigations again.
Both Tsugumi and Hisui question some girls that would be classmates and one reveals that they remember the victim speaking with someone who looked like a student from Teito University. Meanwhile, Rui finds them to tell them another incident happened. But this time a girl and boy student committed suicide together like in Utsufune’s book. In addition, 5 other people committed suicide in the same way and they were all fans of Utsufune’s books. However, no maremono was present which means there’s no direct influence from it. However, Rui informs them that these students that committed suicide were in some sort of Utsufune cult called ‘Sabato’. Rui makes plans of joining the meeting to spy on them.
Meanwhile, Tsugumi goes to the theater to meet Koruri and watch Kiriai Ren perform there. Unfortunately, rather than perform, Ren also commits suicide like the past victims right on stage by taking poison. After this incident, Hayato and Tsugumi sit in a small crevice of the abandoned house where the cult meeting will take place so they can hide and listen. When they do, Rui appears and is introduced as a new member. The author, Utsufune, also appears with a hooded cloak on, hiding his face. He talks about freeing souls from the corrupted world (blablahblah) and the same things in his book which reflect the suicides. But it also reveals that they did them of their own free will as a sort of proud sacrifice.
A few days later they find out Sasabe supposedly killed himself by lighting himself on fire and leaving a will that said he murdered the girls and then himself to compensate. Yano was already suspected from being a witness but this is confirmed when he gives Tsugumi a drugged caramel and kidnaps her. She wakes up blindfolded as Yano explains his personality was a farce and tells her about his younger brother that died. He committed suicide 5 years ago after admitting to a crime he didn’t commit thanks to Nabari and the maremono he wrote. He starts ro rant and yell at her to give his little brother back all the while cutting up Tsugumi’s clothes while she’s bound. He tells her he’ll come for her later and then drugs her again and brings her back to the apartment unconscious.
When she wakes up she’s surrounded by everyone in Fukuro asking if she’s okay. She reveals to everyone that Yano was the one to kidnap her and mentions the incident with his brother which Hayato and Tokimiya had suspicions it was about that incident. After the prime minister (Shougo’s dad) arrives, the incident is explained how 5 years ago Yano’s younger brother was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and then committed suicide thanks to Nabari’s maremono. He also was good at acting (he wanted to act in a play while his brother wrote one) which his where his ‘scared of maremono’ act came from. So the prime mimister asks them to protect the country because the police is useless against him lol.
After this, an incident happens with Hitaki where he’s almost kidnapped by Yano. Apparently he disguised himself as Hanz and tried to pick Hitaki from Violin class. Hitaki knew something was off though and ran away. When he did, a car almost hit him and he used his telekinesis power (similar to Hisui’s fire power) to throw the car away from him. Apparently he awoke to this power after moving a pencil that fell from his desk. But he was afraid to tell Tsugumi because he didn’t want her to think he was a monster and made her promise she wouldn’t hate him if he told her. Of course she tells him she still loves him no matter what and when he asks who attacked him, she tells him about Yano and how Nabari was the reason for his death. This makes Hitaki angry at Nabari and wishes he’d died so none of the events he caused could have ever occured. But Tsugumi still has mixed feelings about him and can’t bring herself to completely hate him.
The next day Tsugumi tells everyone about what Hitaki told them and how he has this telekinesis power. Taro also comes by to check up on Hitaki and Tsugumi notices his button came undone and sewed it back for him (super cute scene I hope he gets a route if there’s another FD). After that, Taro tells some of the past cult members to stop having meetings at the abandoned house or they could be arrested for trespassing. Meanwhile, Hitaki explains in detail about his power and starts crying about how he’s a monster. Hisui tries to reassure him he’s not by showing his power, but he runs off crying saying he doesn’t understand.
A few days later more deaths occur and one night Rui is shot by Yano most likely and Hayato and the rest of Fukuro chase after him to no avail. Meanwhile, Tsugumi treats Rui’s wounds and he jokes about now that she’s seen him shirtless he should become her husband lol. But anyway there’s still no clies to where Yano is so they comtinue to search. Next day Tsugumi finds out Nabari collapsed due to a heat stroke and is okay but wants to see her. When she visits him, he asks what happened and Tsugumi lies saying its all good. But Nabari overheard the situation from some guards and starts hitting the wall with his fist until it bleeds. He continues to apologize saying he knows its all his fault and wants to be punished for it. But Tsugumi manages to talk him out of his dark thoughts and tells him to continue to live so he can repent for his sins.
One day, Aisa and Ren appear (Ren apparently didn’t actually kill himself) to warn Fukuro that Yano is planning a sort of mass suicide. Aisa is also the one who was acting as Yano’s lover to the cult while working under him and finding information. One day she hurries to Fukuro to report that the special day was moved up. Shougo already received word and was invited to this special sacrament knowing full well its a trap. So on that said day Hayato and the others stay in hiding while they wait for the cult to arrive at the abandoned house. When they do, Shougo is greeted by the rest of the cult and Yano as well. He tells Shougo to drink his special poisoned wine so that with his death, all the other people he brainwashed will follow suit and also kill themselves.
Shougo hesitates and Yano reveals he already knows Hayato is hiding and threatens to shoot him. But Shougo pulls a fast one and shoots Yano in the arm giving rime for Hayato to jump out and try and attack. Unfortunately, Yano gets away again and manages to shoot Taro who’s then taken away by Rui to be tended to. After the mission failure, Yano pretends to be Hayato and separates Tsugumi from Hisui. He tries to lure her away but she immediately figures out its Yano in disguise. When she does, he knocks her out and she wakes up chained up in his shop. He has a burn scar on his body from trying to kill himself the same way his brother died (but backed out in the end) and used make up to cover it up.
He then tells Tsugumi he intends to use her as a sort of sacrifice to liberate her soul. And so he calls it, tainting her pure soul black with sin (has to do with his book making a white lily into a black lily). He claims she is a saint and asks her to die with him so they can go meet his younger brother (lol u crayzay) and takes her to a stage where he calls all her friends there. After they arrive, he already poured oil on Tsugumi and has her bound. He tells them he’s going burn her and himself in front of them. Hayato tells him he’s gonna save Tsugumi anyway but Yano gets pissed and shoots him. As if it couldn’t get any weirder, Hitaki suddenly shows up and threatens to drop the theater lighting on top of Yano.
Everyone tries to stop him but he does it anyway and manages to hit him. But before he can finish him Tsugumi tells Hitaki to stop and talks to Yano herself. She basically tells him to free himself from this “revenge” spree and says she’ll definitely see his new work if he ever goes up on stage someday. She cuts off his feather decoration on his cloak and says that he is no longer Utsufune. So (because Tsugumi has magically villian persuading powers lmao) Yano finally gives up and tells them where to find the guy who was going to set up a bomb.
In the epilogue, Nabari is still drawing pretty pictures and even draws someone similar looking to Tsugumi. Meanwhile, Tsugumi works normally with Fukuro (aka her harem).
Thoughts: Ngl I wasn’t sure where this route was going until it finally went somewhere. It felt kind of out of place in terms of the rest of the plot tbh. I guess because it was a sudden thing with not really any hints towards it. Yeah this Yano guy seemed to look too ikemen-ish to be just a random sub character but I think he only hinted his revenge thing in one route. I think maybe what I liked best out of this route was the fact Tsugumi was all “I’m single and i dont need no man” and clearly her entire character had really grown and I liked to see her show such a strong side. I mean, yea its pretty generic for her to talk the villain out of being a bad guy but it definitely says a lot for her character. ITS NO WONDER IN THIS ROUTE SHE ENDS UP WITH HER HAREM. Actually all the guys got a single scene with her in this route all intuiting they all like her. Speaking of, both Yuina and Taro got their own sort of CGs/scenes as well. Maybe hinting at them getting a route in another FD? Hmmm. Anyway, I didn’t care much for Yano because he was honestly too random. I also don’t get why the hell Hitaki suddenly had telekinesis powers. This game tries really hard to make Hitaki relevant but I just don’t care about this annoying otouto……
Story – Surprisingly, I enjoyed the story more this time around because it felt like it was adding to an unfinished plot. A lot of the routes in the first game felt like it had pieces of the plot so it was really scattered altogether. This game actually adds to what the first game didn’t have and really give more depth to each character (for the most part). Even being a FD, it gave a decent amount of plot + romance in between. Although I will say that some routes had more romance than others. The maremono also weren’t really that relevant in the story this time around. It more involved the sub characters and the main character’s own development.
Characters – The main cast is all the same but the biggest change in character was Tsugumi. She was written very well in this game and actually took action a lot of the time. Her change in demeanor and character is very apparent especially for the sake of showing her growth. She herself even mentions in the game that she is no longer the naive girl in her mansion. There are also a bunch of new characters in this game that it was hard to keep trap of them all. The best written sub character in my opinion was Ren because he felt like a realistic character in terms of his struggles (of wanting to be a man, ect.).
Visuals/System – The interface is essentially the same on both the menu and in-game (except for the textbox being more oval). I think most (if not all) of the CGs were pretty consistent in quality and I honestly have no complaints about any of them. There was also this cute cinematic movie with voiced dialogue over the Alice in Wonderland pictures which was really cute.
Music – The opening actually sounded pretty similar to the first game and I really liked it. Definitely set the right tone for the game. As for BGM, most of it was the same aside from a few dramatic tracks.
Final Thoughts: Even though it took me forever to finally finish this game, I overall really enjoyed it. It felt like a good sequel to the original game and was actually quite long. I actually didn’t expect this game to legit feel like an actual sequel (some FDs are shorter than others). My biggest gripe would probably be that it didn’t have as much romance as I was expecting. Due to the fact they added quite a bit of plot to this game, I didn’t realize it would be more of a sequel. This game also has a thing for making the bad guy turn “good” which is cute in retrospect but realistically I don’t think everyone would be able to forgive some of these characters. That being said, there wasn’t huge closure on everyone’s routes keeping it pretty open ended for another game. I think Otomate probably did this on purpose because Nil Admirari is actually super popular in Japan. I am like 95% sure this game will get another fandisk announcement this Otomate Party. If C:R can get 3 FDs I don’t see why this game won’t. It’s pretty obvious (based on the fact it already got a switch port and got an anime so quickly after the game’s release) Otomate probably wants to milk this franchise dry. The anime wasn’t too bad either, but the end certainly nudged at the possibility of a continuation. Not sure if they’d adapt an otomate game for a season 2 though. Anyway, this game + the original is coming out on Switch in September. I think its definitely worth it if you haven’t played this series before. I’m not sure if this series will ever get localized here though. IFI seems to be doing everything except otome games and Aksys can’t be bothered to localize something too “risque” or the FBI will come after them.
Otome Adventures 
I really like akira and rui’s route. Disappointed in hayato. Maybe its because my expectation in him is so high