[LP CYOA] Spiral

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I like Murano like this. He's our comic relief.

 

[Tigranes]

CBB

Although this hospital is different from before, the previous trend was that we have a certain amount of time before things go to fuck and we run out of time. We might as well try and get whatever gamechanging information, and it is the Seika connection via Uehara that is the most promising (other than Ei) that we've gained today.

Murano will be a danger either way, since his constant thudding (and the existence of teh choice) shows he may not be permanently incapacitated. The problem is that if we bring him along he will impair our mobility - and our silence / ability to hide.

It might be better to speak up about Kayano to prepare for her eventual return, but I doubt we'd be very successful. This group has largely shown itself to be not particularly loyal, and we have shown ourselves to be not particularly good at wordly persuasion. Better to earn sufficient cooperation from key players like Uehara through our actions, like we have thus far.

 

[treave]

The Nurse’s Identity

The administration office is a large, dusty room filled with desks and cabinets. It looks, for all intents and purposes, similar to a modern office, except that there is not a computer on each of the desks: there are only two ancient computers, set aside reverently in a place of their own. You work to set up a barrier with Amanozaki’s help – you would like to be able to search in peace without getting interrupted by ghosts for once. The others had been uneasy about leaving Murano behind, bound, in the lobby, but they were equally uneasy with the alternative of taking him along.

“What did we need to look for again, Leader?” asks Sawada.

“Any files to do with nurses… take all of those out,” you say. After some thought, you add, “Anything to do with the names Maeda or Shinohara as well.” When you mention those names, you can feel Uehara staring at you from across the room.

Sawada arches his eyebrows quizzically. “Why those in particular?”

“They’re… in charge, I think. Maeda is the director of the old hospital, and Shinohara is the director of the new one, so… they’re probably related to this somehow,” you say lamely.

“That’s a pretty vague connection, Leader. But okay, if you say so. Let’s do this, guys!” He moves off cheerfully, herding the others to start the search.

***

The pages of the employee files you have been flipping through for the past hour or so are beginning to blur together. You pinch the bridge of your nose and adjust your slipping spectacles. You can already hear sounds of grumbling from the others; to them, this is nothing more than a futile search.

These files are pretty boring for reading material. Wouldn’t you rather be reading me instead?

Would there even be any point to that? You toss one file to the side and open another.

You’re so mean, Acchan!

This time, the file falls open at the picture of a pretty young girl sporting a demure smile, with her hair bound in two braids. You have never seen this person before, but something about her demeanor strikes you as familiar. Paying closer attention to her file, you begin to read carefully, noting certain things that stand out to you from the details of her employment here.

Name: Kayano Kagusa.

D.O.B: 1953/03/03

Start of Employment: 1974/09/01

Details:

Interviewer’s notes: Bright and cheerful girl. Shows the mental strength required for nursing, we will benefit from having her at Kaimei. A recommended hire. (Aug ’74)

Director Maeda requests for her transfer to the paediatrics ward. (Dec ’74)

Employee assigned to work with patient [K01831]. (Jan ’75)

Employee has suffered a nervous break-down. Director Maeda requests for an in-house transfer to psychiatric ward. Will still be formally employed with us. Dr. Shinohara will speak to her relatives in private. (Jun ’75)

Employment officially terminated. Refer to patient casefile [K13134] (Feb ’79)

Could this be…

“I was just trying to help, Shiba-san!” shouts Kozaka, causing you to look up.

“Look, you’re just getting in the way, Kozaka.” Shiba seems annoyed, scratching her head. “I was going through the files just fine with Yuu-san. A third person won’t make things go any quicker. I’m sure there’s a lot of other files for you to read, right? Go on now.” She makes a shooing motion with her hand, as if dismissing a puppy.

“Touma-kun, Tsukimi-san, it’s not anything worth arguing about,” chuckles Sakimura awkwardly. “Look, Touma-kun, you can take over for me. I was thinking… maybe Uehara needs some help.” He glances over at Uehara as he says that last sentence: she was buried nose-deep in the files earlier on, but her attention has been drawn away by the argument breaking out amongst her friends.

“I’m just fine by myself, Sakimura,” she calls out. “What is the problem?”

“Well, if Kozaka wants something to do, he can go help Uehara, right?” says Shiba quickly.

Kozaka bristles, his short frame trembling as he stares at Shiba. He pulls at his collar angrily. “Why don’t you just come right out and say it? You like Yuuki-kun, right? You just want to be by his side, right? I know all about those letters you didn’t send!”

Sakimura actually looks genuinely surprised, and he glances over at Uehara to see her reaction. Shiba, on the other hand, flushes red, and shouts back, “Shut up, stupid Kozaka!”

“You don’t have a chance anyway, because Yuu-kun likes Uehara!”

Now it is Sakimura’s turn to blush. “What… what are you saying, Touma-kun?” He stumbles over his words. “I mean… I…”

“Well, does Shizuka like him back, then? That’s what’s important, right?” asks Shiba.

“Is this really the time for this?” groans the maid from her seat where she has clearly not been contributing to the search at all, but she is summarily ignored by the students.

“Oh boy,” sighs Sawada.

Uehara seems lost, caught in the sudden storm of teenage drama. “I…”

Oh, just go and spank those brats already, Acchan!

***

A. You enter the argument on Kozaka’s side. You sympathize with his plight. Plus, he’s getting agitated, and calming him down would be easier if he thinks you’re an ally.

B. You enter the argument on Shiba’s side. Kozaka’s just being annoying at this point, and getting in the way of the investigation for a silly reason.

C. You try to calm both sides down. This is not the time for petty arguments. Surely the drama can be swept under a rug until everyone is safely out of the hospital?

D. You show them all who is the boss around here. If you have to end up dealing out some corporal punishment, so be it.

E. You ask Sawada to interfere. He’s better at the soft approach than you are, after all.

F. You leave them alone and go back to your search. Uehara should be the one to handle her friends.

G. This is absurd. Enough is enough. You knock yourself out. Maybe the other guy has a better way to handle this.

 

[treave]

Kayano Kagusa's Employment File

***

Spoiler

Name: Kayano Kagusa.

D.O.B: 1953/03/03

Start of Employment: 1974/09/01

Details:

Interviewer’s notes: Bright and cheerful girl. Shows the mental strength required for nursing, we will benefit from having her at Kaimei. A recommended hire. (Aug ’74)

Director Maeda requests for her transfer to the paediatrics ward. (Dec ’74)

Employee assigned to work with patient [K01831]. (Jan ’75)

Employee has suffered a nervous break-down. Director Maeda requests for an in-house transfer to psychiatric ward. Will still be formally employed with us. Dr. Shinohara will speak to her relatives in private. (Jun ’75)

Employment officially terminated. Refer to patient casefile [K13134] (Feb ’79)

***

The old, faded picture at the top of the file shows a pretty young girl with twin braids and a demure smile. She looks to be in her early twenties or late teens, at the most.

 

[Nevill]

Wow. They kept her in a psychiatric ward for 4 years before she died (or was killed, which is more likely). God knows what they did to her to transform her into this:

Pool ghost - SLIMY WATERY TIER

Interestingly enough, Ikei does not have a psychiatric ward. That was something that was not rebuilt, or was repurposed during the 2010 construction. Somehow I feel that it might be connected to Research Ward 169.

treave, does the location of the Sakaguchi mansion as seen in the photos correspond to the one of the main hospital building? Or is it irrelevant which one was which?

Siding against Kozaka is going to make things worse. Uehara, being just 17, might not know how to handle these things (and whether she wants it or not, she is a part of the drama). Sweeping it under the rug is undesireable - the cat is out of the bag and everyone becomes more jealous and restless by the minute. We've never commented on Sakimura's behavior and the guy tries to dick us over at any available opportunity. Imagine that with 3 more people. And I don't think we have the authority to silence them.

That only leaves Sawada and Kozaka to turn to. Since I don't want to pick a side (how would it even look like? what exactly do we have to add to the conversation?), I guess I'll go with E.

Hopefully Mr. Clueless either fixes the situation or gives them someone to be angry at together.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

D

 

[treave]

treave, does the location of the Sakaguchi mansion as seen in the photos correspond to the one of the main hospital building? Or is it irrelevant which one was which?

You can't really tell the exact location relative to the hospital buildings from the photos, but as far as mansions go it was on the large side.

(how would it even look like? what exactly do we have to add to the conversation?)

Your life experiences as a senpai!

Hm... that reminds me. I suppose I'll give the option to pass the buck to Seiji-chan, since he's definitely more experienced in love matters.

 

[Baltika9]

Give them the D.

 

[Nevill]

Your life experiences as a senpai!

You mean, driving our potential love interests to suicide? Could work, I guess.

Hm... that reminds me. I suppose I'll give the option to pass the buck to Seiji-chan, since he's definitely more experienced in love matters.
[...]
G. This is absurd. Enough is enough. You knock yourself out. Maybe the other guy has a better way to handle this.

I imagine we do it by headdesking ourselves into unconsciousness?

 

[treave]

Yep.

 

[Nevill]

Hmm. Rereading the updates, I have made an interesting observation. Ever since our imprisonment, Amanozaki dropped honorifics when addressing or referring to us. Is she getting closer to her inner Kansai self, or is it the testament to our pimping skill that she feels a sense of friendly familiarity even though we just met?

Looks like she is the only one who still holds a positive opinion of us. Except for maybe Sawada, but I don't know if it is genuine with him.

Uehara is known to drop them from time to time, too, but with her it clearly is a passive-aggressive gesture of "I don't have to treat you with respect". Same with Maeda, though for different reasons.

 

[Kz3r0]

D

 

[treave]

Uehara is known to drop them from time to time, too, but with her it clearly is a passive-aggressive gesture of "I don't have to treat you with respect".

A clear hint you should step into the drama and claim that Uehara likes you and that Sakimura has no chance. That should calm them down.

 

[Azira]

Oh! How could I pass this up?!?

G

No way that'll turn sour.

 

[Nevill]

A clear hint you should step into the drama and claim that Uehara likes you and that Sakimura has no chance. That should calm them down.

She is just tsundere for us, like Maeda. They all are. The sooner they become aware of their repressed feelings, the better.

We should tell them that Shiba is into us as well. She must be, after we rescued her in the previous life.

Oh! How could I pass this up?!?

Oh wow, this will turn into G vs D, isn't it? I can't see Kipeci and Lambchop passing this one up, either, they are Seiji's number one fans.

 

[Kipeci]

It's gotta be G. Let's call in the expert to sort out these love troubles!

 

[oscar]

E

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

G - Should be interesting. Besides, maybe letting the other guy out every once in a while will help us forge some sort of working relationship with him and this is the perfect sort of innocuous situation to try it out with.

Not to mention the fact that he can probably sort through these files and make sense of the relevant info a lot faster than we can...

Oh wow, this will turn into G vs D, isn't it? I can't see Kipeci and Lambchop passing this one up, either, they are Seiji's main fans.

He is the hero of the LP after all.

 

[Nevill]

Not to mention the fact that he can probably sort through these files and make sense of the relevant info a lot faster than we can...

We've got the references to the files in the basement room. There is no need to sort anything out.

I am withholding further speculation on the nature of the Nurse and her potential relationship with Kayano Rina, as all the hypotheses I can come up with are royally fucked up. It's better to read what really happened there.

He is the hero of the LP after all.

Nah, he is just some asshole who causes timeskips whenever we catch a shut-eye. Which makes him as bad as the pool ghost.

It's a shame the previous loop format didn't work out, I liked it more than a continuous one that we have now, but, man, those seemingly random timeskips were rage-inducing.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Nah, he is just some asshole who causes timeskips whenever we catch a shut-eye. Which makes him as bad as the pool ghost.

It's a shame the previous loop format didn't work out, I liked it more than a continuous one that we have now, but, man, those seemingly random timeskips were rage-inducing.

Yeah, but look at it from his perspective: he's got some sort of goal we don't understand and we keep screwing it up. Now, that's rage inducing.

We have no idea what his goal is or who he really is at this point. I say it's worth letting our inner A-hole out if it gives us a little more insight into the man. Call it an experiment.

 

[Jester]

G> D

 

[Nevill]

Experiments are usually done in a controlled environment. I bet this whole adventure started as an experiment gone awry (perhaps with our assistance).

I don't want to give this guy we have no clue about full control over our body. He can solve our problems in his own way, right, but what if he decides to stay? What if his goals and ours are mutually exclusive?

I'd prefer to start small - with developing some means of communication between us - and, first and foremost, be conscious while we are swapping in and out. Only when we find out more about him I might give him a chance to prove himself, but not the other way around.

On that note, E>D. Heh, it's hardass vs smartass vs kickass all over again. :D

 

[Grimgravy]

E>F

 

[treave]

Current tally:

D - 3
E - 3
G - 4

Post-flip:

D - 4
E - 2
G - 4

 

[oscar]

>F