yuvlian
65 lines
18 KiB
JSON
65 lines
18 KiB
JSON
{
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"dataList": [
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{
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"id": 9556,
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"codeName": "T-01-14-11",
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"name": "Will You Play?",
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"clue": "Clue",
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"storyList": [
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{
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"level": 1,
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"story": "You know how, in kindergartens or daycares, there are always those kids who sit in a corner and play on their own?\n\nYeah, those wallflowery kids who, even though they're so easy to miss, but, um, for some reason... they still keep popping up out of the corner of your eye.\n\n... The kids you start to feel bad for if you go too long without chatting them up.\n\nYou know, clothes a size too big for their bodies, hair all mussed up, and ragged plushies dirty with handprints from being carried around for too long.\n\nThey're who she reminds me of.\n\nAh. right. Miss Faust did tell us not to feel too much sympathy for Abnormalities...\n\nAnyways... Unlike the time we encountered her in the Mirror Dungeons, she's surrounded by Peccatula that have assumed the appearance of the Middle gang.\n\nI'm not gonna lie, their presence bothers me... but they're staying still even as the kid comes toward us, asking us to play together...\n\nWell, we should be able to get through this again, right? We just need to let her win a game of rock-paper-scissors like we do in the Mirror Dungeons.\n\nShe never hurt us as long as she \"won,\" if you know what I mean.\n\nI think I can handle this on my own. I mean, I just need to let her win, right? Can't be too hard.\n\nUh... Guys...? She wants to play tag this time.\n\nThat's new, isn't it? Playing something that's not rock-paper-scissors.\n\nMaybe she picked it because everyone can join in?\n\nHmmmm. I hope it'll be the same as before—play the game she wants, let her win, and move on without anything happening.\n\n→ Ah, young Sinclair? Pray tell, what be this game of \"Playing Tag?\"\n\n→ It's, uh... Okay, so the point of the game is that you need to run away from whoever gets tagged as \"it.\" Once you get tagged by \"it,\" you become the next \"it.\"\n\n→ Thou sayest that 'tis a game in which one must flee from \"it\"?! Hmmm... Yet I fail to see the method in this madness; prithee, wilt thou elaborate why the game is \"Playing Tag,\" when in truth, it appeareth to be a game in which one avoideth the eponymous \"tag\"? Verily, I say that its name must be amended to \"Evading Tag!\"\n\n→ Oh bollocks, not those purple sods again... I ain't looking forward to their \"Ooh, we're so loyal, we're gonna avenge the family\" shite the moment we give one of 'em a well-deserved wallop.\n\n→ The stuffed doll nullifies any attacks targeting the Abnormality's Core. While the risk is certainly non-negligible, the most reasonable course of action is to prioritize the suppression of the stuffed doll or the Peccatula."
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},
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{
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"level": 2,
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"story": "Phew...\n\nThat... was the <i>worst</i> game of tag I've ever played.\n\nThere's the Middle Peccatula screaming about Vengeance and grudges like they're the real deal, charging us nonstop and barely giving us room to breathe...\n\nAnd as the game went on, more and more enemies got marked as \"it,\" the stuffed toy crushed Yi Sang into a puddle of red pulp...\n\nAnd when Don Quixote Corroded and snared everyone with those thorns...\n\nUgh. I don't even want to think about it.\n\n... Anyways, the whole fight so far hasn't just been a long game of tag.\n\nThe kid keeps challenging us to play rock-paper-scissors even as we try to survive against the Peccatula.\n\nMiss Outis or Ishmael would usually be the ones to step up when things got hectic...\n\nAh, looks like Miss Rodya's handling it this time.\n\nI guess she and I are the only ones who still have enough fingers to play \"paper...\"\n\nBut since I'm in charge of the observation log... that leaves just her.\n\nStill, I think we're in luck. Miss Rodya's always been excellent in these games—\n\nHuh?\n\nWh— Hey, wait...!\n\n(The paper is crusted brown with layers of dried blood, and the bottom part has been snipped off with what appears to have been a giant pair of scissors. It is impossible to read the rest of this entry.)\n\n→ Miss Rodya... Did you <i>really</i> have to win that...?\n\n→ Oh c'mon~ I still bagged that win, didn't I? Listen, the point is—\n\n→ Previous encounters with the Abnormality suggest that the method of dealing with the entity in question could be categorized as \"negligibly easy.\"\n\n→ Oi, Lass... You had <i>one</i> job—show her your open palm. How'd you manage to muck that up?\n\n→ Oh, uh... O-of course I knew that! But ya gotta understand, guys. When I've already got the game face on, I just can't help but reach for the winning hand, y'know? Call it muscle memory~\n\n→ And for your reward, you got chopped right down the middle just as you were celebrating that \"win.\"\n\n→ Perhaps I should've stepped up, even if it meant that I'd have had to make the difficult request to the Executive Manager to rewind me."
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},
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{
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"level": 3,
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"story": "When I was a kid, there was this boy in the neighborhood I used to play with pretty often.\n\nEven though I was pretty small among my peers, I was bigger than him.\n\nHe was way younger than I am, you see.\n\nSo... Whenever we played games together, I'd always end up winning. Soccer... racing... you name it.\n\nBut there was that strange pang in my heart as I watched him drag his feet back home. I won, but... it didn't feel like I did.\n\nSomething told me that it wasn't that he was sad because playtime was over, but because he didn't get to have fun.\n\nMight've just been me, though.\n\nForget about being good at the games; I don't think he even knew the rules of the games we played.\n\nLike, the ball would bounce off him in dodgeball, but he'd pretend not to notice and expect me to do the same. And whenever we played board games, he'd quietly move his piece an extra square, thinking I wasn't watching.\n\nAnyway, because he kept insisting that he didn't get hit, or hadn't broken any rules, all the angry excuses... I felt like I had to really teach him a lesson. I mean, I was around that age too, you know, kids being kids.\n\nGotta admit it's a bit... embarrassing to talk about it now.\n\nThen there was this one day where I got so sick of his schtick that I decided to just let him have his way.\n\nI didn't call a foul even though I saw him sneakily score a goal with his hands in a soccer match, and even let him take the win on some of those games.\n\nThat day might've been the most fun I'd ever had. The rules didn't make any sense, the results of the game were all over the place, but still.\n\nMaybe that's why this kid gives up her stuffed toy in exchange for letting her win rock-paper-scissors.\n\nAfter all, the point of playing isn't winning, but having fun, right?\n\n→ A sentiment detached from the battle at hand, but I, too, would like to share a youthful recollection of my fellows. Not a single toy did we have, yet even by a game so simple as chasing one another's shadow did we forget the worldly woes and frolic. By the time even twilight shrank and the sky tinted dark blue, victors and losers were altogether forgotten, only memories of joyful hours lingering.\n\n→ Hehe, I remember little Xichun pouting and throwing a fit whenever we didn't go along with her.\n\n→ Oh, hey, that reminds me—remember that cute teddy bear we fought last time? The one that gave us that biiiiig hug after we played with it? Gosh, sinking into all that soft, cushiony fluff felt sooo nice... Too bad this one doesn't have that, huh~?\n\n→ Honestly, guys, I'm starting to think this whole \"playing along\" thing's wearing me out more than fighting her head-on... At least as someone who's giving the directions.\n\n→ Heh. Like I said: S.C.A.N. the kids. That's the way.\n\n→ She says \"Soothing, Coaxing, and Nurturing the kids\" is the way..."
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}
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]
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},
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{
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"id": 9569,
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"codeName": "F-02-14-23",
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"name": "Yinglong",
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"clue": "Clue",
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"storyList": [
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{
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"level": 1,
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"story": "To think that the clouds veiling the skies above were never clouds at all, but the pure-white scales of a great Dragon...\n\nTraveling with Dante, I've had the chance to see so many marvelous sights, but...\n\n... I never once imagined that I would come face-to-face with a Dragon like the ones I heard about when I was little.\n\nBut... with the noble Dragon staying so far up in the sky, attacking it will be rather hard, won't it?\n\nIt's not impossibly distant, so as long as we continue patiently, I'm sure the fight will eventually come to an end—wait, isn't that...\n\nIt took a bit of time, but luckily, I think I came up with a decent idea, everyone!\n\nEvery so often, the Dragon would let out a great roar and lift its head high toward the sky.\n\nAnd when that happens, red stakes would come falling down from the sky, almost as if heavenly retribution were raining down on us...\n\nTurns out, the stakes could be sent right back to it if deflected at just the right moment.\n\nFuhu. I must say, I'm glad things seem to be off to a smooth start!\n\n→ I keep tellin' ya, don't I? Every. Single. Time~! Saying stuff like that's gonna jinx the whole thing!\n\n→ Huh... didn't seem like we took that much damage from where I was standing. What happened up front?\n\n→ Well... There was this scale on its neck, pointing upside down. Figured it might be a weak point, so I took a swing at it.\n\n→ And when I did, every stake that'd been floating up in the sky just started coming down at us like a loose cannon...\n\n→ We cannot rule out the possibility that the scale was indeed a weak point. It's worth noting that the dragon reacted rather violently once we attacked it and left it with fewer wedges—which noticeably weakened the target's subsequent offense.\n\n→ Where both advantage and disadvantage are present, the decision rests with the Manager."
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},
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{
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"level": 2,
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"story": "When the noble Dragon suddenly rose straight into the sky, I really did think it was going to fly off just like that...\n\nBut my, I never expected it to swallow us down in one gulp!\n\nAfter what happened at the Great Lake, I suppose this makes the second time we've ended up inside a gigantic monster, doesn't it?\n\nFuhu. I'm glad we don't seem to have landed in the stomach this time~\n\nThinking back, maybe the Dragon thought we were bad people because we kept refusing to accept its divine punishment.\n\nIn every story I know, the dragons on high always seem to loathe the wicked.\n\nIf so, could that crimson jade over there... have been something bad in the noble Dragon's eyes?\n\n→ G. or B., it's got an ominous aura. Best cut the damn thing down.\n\n→ Well... Just one look at the bloody thing, and I can tell it's made for proper smashin', lads. It'd be daft not to put it in bits.\n\n→ H-hang on! Both of you, please just hold on a second! M-maybe it's something we're supposed to keep from getting smashed...\n\n→ We still have to deal with the Peccatula in front of us, so... Let's just leave it alone for now, guys. Won't be too late to bust it up when we notice it doing something weird."
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},
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{
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"level": 3,
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"story": "We cut off the Dragon's head and stabbed its body, but it still didn't die.\n\nWe tried attacking all at once, just as Heathcliff suggested...\n\nAnd following Outis's strategy, even tried cauterizing the parts we cut off...\n\n... but nothing we did seemed to work!\n\nAnd then, all of a sudden... I noticed the wedge embedded in the noble Dragon's body.\n\nWhen we'd been outside before we were swallowed, the Dragon didn't have any huge stakes driven into its body.\n\nSo I asked Dante, who'd remained outside the whole time without getting swallowed along with us.\n\nDante said it was an enormous wedge that came down from the layer of the heavens even higher than the one the Dragon had been floating in.\n\nOnce I heard that, I began to understand, just a little.\n\nYou know, when the Dragon directs its gaze up toward the heavens, it may seem angry at first glance, but look a little closer and you can tell its eyes are actually really, really sad.\n\nPerhaps the Dragon isn't even allowed to die even if it wanted to.\n\nAt least not before Heaven's decree is canceled... not before the wedge is removed.\n\n→ ... Looks like Hong Lu guessed right.\n\n→ Mhm! Soon as we smashed all the stakes, it went away just like that~ Didn't even look back. No regrets, nothing clingy, just went <i>fwoosh</i>~"
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}
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]
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},
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{
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"id": 9567,
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"codeName": "O-03-14-03",
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"name": "Butterfly of Entangled Lives",
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"clue": "Clue",
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"storyList": [
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{
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"level": 1,
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"story": "The being held semblance... to a pupa enwound in rubescent thread, or else a fetus folded into itself, crouched in the posture as though its nativity precluded.\n\nThe filaments, convoluted past disentanglement, had agglomerated into a globular pellicle...\n\nAnd through that enclosed interior, scarlet threads meandered like blood vessels.\n\nAs the only immediately apprehensible truth was its outward integument, wholly woven of thread...\n\nI shall herein endeavor to consign to writing the inexpressible sensations that befell us as we sought to sunder those strands.\n\nTo my own perception, it was as though I had bisected a moment already forfeited to the irretrievable past.\n\nMiss Ryōshū later recalled that it was akin to piercing a scene whose advent still lay sealed in futurity.\n\nWhat Heathcliff described was akin to crushing, in this present locus, a butterfly whose being belonged to the now.\n\nAnd thereafter, it simply took wing toward some indeterminate distance—\n\nNeither hatched nor undergone metamorphosis; it merely stirred its meager wings to depart.\n\n→ Oho! Did ye behold it?! No sooner had we smote the great wyrm than the pupa did manifest anew!\n\n→ The target disappeared with a spark of flame upon the elimination of the red threads. While there were no significant losses warranting a report, Executive Manager, I advise we maintain full vigilance.\n\n→ Oho! Did ye behold it?! No sooner had we slain Young Hohenheim than the pupa did manifest anew!\n\n→ \"S-slain\" Mister Hohenheim...? I mean, I guess that's what we did, but... it's not like we <i>actually</i> killed Mister Hohenheim...\n\n→ Phrasing the outcome as \"slaying Hohenheim\" does not deviate from the observable result. Faust determines that no correction is necessary.\n\n→ Uh... Frau Faust. Sounds like you're getting just a tad bit personal there.\n\n→ Oho! Did ye behold it?!\n(The rest of the entry is missing. The page appears to have been cleanly sliced off from this point.)"
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},
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{
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"level": 2,
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"story": "By means of diminutive wings, the butterfly appears to have departed to a remote distance.\n\nAt first, past the shadow of the dragon fallen earthward, the butterfly fluttered those small wings, as though making trial of an appendage insufficient for flight.\n\nThereafter, from beyond Young Hohenheim's refraction, it disclosed itself again.\n\nThe final revelation of its form was from behind the figure of Rien, the Index Nursefather of the House of Spiders—its wings in full bloom, the shape of its flutters transient as though through time:\n\nAt one juncture, the fervency of iron made incandescent within a crucible...\n\nAt another, the pellucidity of glass that renounced all reflection for transparency...\n\nThen, in yet another instant, a ferruginous red, akin to a weapon left to molder in disuse.\n\nIt would seem now that the butterfly does not exchange one locus for another.\n\nWe believed we had observed it in accordance with time's succession...\n\nYet with every severing of those crimson threads, time does not conduct that thing onward, but instead passes it askance.\n\n→ The actions taken by the Sinners who faced the Abnormality appear to be exerting an influence on later battles in some way.\n\n→ Ugghh... This is seriously giving me the creeps... Dante, should we try changing something? Maybe our Identities or weapons?\n\n→ Change what, exactly? Ain't like we can tell what'll come of it right this second, innit? Better fight 'em head-on instead of faffing about doing things different.\n\n→ Yeah. Let's stick to what we've been doing, like Heathcliff said."
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{
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"level": 3,
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"story": "Because present existence, in its proper and primordial state, remains moored to but a singular time, we bestow names upon those disparate points in the stream.\n\nYet that butterfly... It appears that all that it was, is, and will be has been twisted together into a single entanglement.\n\nIf life be but a thread, then that one is a strand over-spooled, coiled and re-coiled beyond measure.\n\nThere is a commonality shared by such lives.\n\nThe more one refuses to face them, the more they burgeon; unattended, they swallow life itself and the world entire at last.\n\nThere are recollections which remain unrisen, though one may dredge the years in reverse.\n\nAnd there are recollections which remain unforgotten, though one may spend those same years turning resolutely away from them.\n\nThe more I turn my eyes toward the past, the more the past shall consume me in conflagration.\n\nThe more I turn my eyes toward the present, the more the present shall hew me away, coldly and keenly.\n\nThe more I turn my eyes toward the future, the more the future shall rust, abrading away my very usefulness.\n\nThey had not vanished. Rather, in places unseen, they must have continued to twist and entangle upon themselves.\n\n→ To disclose my reflection upon the matter, this Railway turns in samsaric recurrence upon the same locus.\n\n→ Thus... if we are returned to the beginning, the vestiges left upon past, future, and present shall, in turn, assume different forms."
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]
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}
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]
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}
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