Yuuya’s already off and getting stuff done! We’d better move along, too.
Right.
Yuuya does seem pretty professional sometimes.
He even had a real gun during that time at Christmas… maybe he really is with the FBI or something…?
I’m opening the door.
Are you ready?
Bring it on!
I was gonna go to bed here but it appears I can’t save. Another time, I suppose.
“The Lying Picture Book.”
Once, there was an Okosan.
There was something the Okosan wanted to find, no matter what.
So he ran to the ends of the earth.
The Okosan was very fast.
He could run anywhere.
He ran everywhere.
At the end of the earth, there was a giant hole in the ground.
The Okosan fell into the hole.
No one remembers the Okosan now.
Poor Okosan.
Poor Okosan.
Cooooooo!
(Okosan is the pudding god!
Okosan is the god of Mount Pudding!)
Okosan!
Hostage confirmed!
Moving to secure!
Okosan, let’s get out of here.
Okay?
COOOOOOO!
Okosan used WING ATTACK!
It’s super effective!
Ow! Ow! Okosan, that hurts!
Calm down and listen to me!
Cooooooo!
(Okosan is not Okosan!
Okosan is the God of Mount Pudding!)
You’re not being a particularly benevolent god either way.
Yeah, Okosan!
A god has to listen to the voices of the downtrodden common people!
Coo?!
(R-really?!)
Yes.
Cooooo…!
(Unnnnnggg… in that case, Okosan will listen for three centimetres!)
Okosan, this pudding isn’t real!
You have to kiss it goodbye and come back to reality!
Cooooooo!
(Silence!)
So three centimetres is about ten seconds?
Looks like it.
Okosan, calm down!
This crummy thing isn’t the pudding you’ve been searching for all these years!
Cooooo!
(Pudding is pudding!
What does Hiyoko know about pudding?!)
The music stops.
I don’t know anything about pudding!
Er…
Think about it, Okosan! Is the pudding you seek something I could understand?!
Of course not! It’s something beyond and above, something completely outside my comprehension!
!!!
Whenever you talk about pudding it’s like it’s the meaning of the universe, or final secret of the earth, or some sort of cult deity!
No matter how hard you’ve tried to explain it, I just don’t get it.
I still don’t know what the pudding you’re looking for is!But I do understand that it’s not something you can find just like that!
Coooo!
(Of course not! The Pudding is an amazing treasure!)
Doesn’t this strike you as odd, then?
How could you have found that amazing treasure without doing anything?
Coo…?!
What have you been training for all these years?
Haven’t you been training so that you can find the pudding which sleeps forgotten at the end of the earth?!You couldn’t possibly find a treasure like that this easily!
It’s a trap, Okosan!
A fake!You have to remember, Okosan! Remember the pudding you seek!
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Coo!
Coo!
And before we know it, we’re standing in a room just like the one where we started.
Was everything we saw in here before just an illusion created by The King?
Probably, yes.
He was hoping to hold us back.
Cooooooooo!
(Okosan has remembered!)
Coooooooo!
(True Pudding is the universe itself!
But it cannot be found in this universe!
It is infinite!)
I… don’t think I follow.
Don’t worry, I don’t either!
Coo, coooo!
(Okosan must return to the Earth and seek The True Pudding!)
The wall… cracked!?
We must be breaking the shell, like the Migrant said.
Oh, I get it!
When someone starts thinking “I want to go home”, the egg cracks a little?
It doesn’t look like it will crack any more, though. And we probably couldn’t break it by hand… we’ll need to keep going forward.
Coooooo!
(Okosan is going home!)
Okosan disappears with a zoooom.
Okosan, wai…!
Okosan gallops off into the darkness, snorting and cooing with excitement.
Well… he can probably take care of himself just fine.
Probably.
My eyes are getting used to the darkness again, and I can make out another door opposite from where we came in.
Who will we find in the next room?
“The Uneclosed Picture Book.”
Once, there was a chrysalis.
The chrysalis was all alone.
It didn’t know how to grow up, so it stayed a chrysalis forever.
One day, a butterfly came along.
The butterfly said, “let’s be friends!”
“I can show you how to become a beautiful butterfly like me.”
The lonely chrysalis was happy.
Because it wasn’t alone anymore.
But… its friend the butterfly disappeared soon after.
The lonely chrysalis was alone again.
It didn’t know where to go anymore.
It didn’t know what it wanted to do anymore.
The lonely chrysalis shrank, and hardened.
Nothing will ever come out of it now.
Poor chrysalis.
Poor chrysalis.
Merry Christmas!!!
It’s the Christmas Junkies!
And here I was expecting some emotionally-charged, heart-wrenching scene.
You shouldn’t judge by appearances.
Maybe these creatures have some sort of deep internal conflict as well.
Well, we did find out that they have a tragic backstory…
Miru, Kaku, we need to get out of here!
If we stay here too long, we won’t be able to go home anymore!
M-Merry Christmas?!
(Whaaaat?!)
This place is called the Holiday Star, but it’s not Christmas, is it?
If we don’t get out of here, we’ll never be able to celebrate Christmas again!
Merry Christmas!!!
(Shock! Times ten to the sixth!)
…I suppose that’s an expression of surprise?
They do appear to be moved.
Merry Christmas!
(That would be bad! Really bad!)Merry Christmas!
(Miru and Kaku want to start preparing for next Christmas!
ZZZZOOM!)
The two of them run off into the darkness.
That was… a lot easier than Okosan.
But there aren’t any cracks in the shell.
There must still be someone here.
I guess so.
We just went through this plain corridor a little while ago, anyway.
I already know who we’ll find through that door.
Enormous enemy is approaching!
Keep your dignity, Nageki!
I’m already dead, so I think I’ll be safe no matter what, but… do be careful, Miss Tosaka.
Comin’ through!
Huh?
There’s no reply. It’s just a kitchen.
Miss Tosaka, watch out!
What? What?!
What happened?!
Nageki slams into me from behind.
I go rolling across the floor.
Nageki! And I thought you were such a gentleman!
I’m as surprised as you are.
Complain to whoever attached that thing to the ceiling.
…?
A gigantic bear trap is lying on the floor where I stood a moment ago.
Did that fall from the ceiling?
Oh… do forgive me.
It appears to have fallen a little more slowly than I calculated for.
Do not fear, I will use more exact measurements next time.
What do you mean “do not fear”, you peoplecidal partridge proprietor?!
And you’re supposed to lay bear traps on the ground, anyway!
Hanging it from the ceiling? Really?!
I swear, kids these days can’t do anything right!
I was planning to modify it such that it would seize the victim’s head and then lift them back up to the ceiling…
It would help with desanguinization you see.
…I see you weren’t planning to close, after all.
My neck hurts just thinking about it!
Fluffy heretic chef!
I mean, Doctor Iwamine!
Your dark fantasy affectations end now!You’ve noticed too, right?
This place isn’t normal!
We’ve been shut in.If we stay here for too long, we’ll —
Enter a persistent vegetative state?
What, you mean he already knows?
I read a report on a similar phenomenon, where a number of people shared a dream… a few years ago, now.
I suspect we are under the effects of something not unlike mass hypnosis, caused by the eclipse.
…if that is not the case, you should not be here.
…?
I was just idly wondering how directly involved with Nageki the Doctor was before the accident that killed him, hehehh
Well, at least we don’t have to explain it to you.
Let’s escape together, Doctor!
No, thank you.
Rejected at the speed of light!
Are you more comfortable here, then?
Hmm…. who knows?
I haven’t even been here for half a day, I haven’t quite decided yet.
But didn’t you say yourself that you’re one of those sad people who only love research, Doctor?
Your brains will rot and drip out your ears if you stay in this eternal holiday kingdom with its happy-go-lucky King!
It is as you say– if I have my fill of research, I cannot complain.
The term ‘vegetative’… is not entirely accurate.
The brain relinquishes control of the body and sinks into a state of pure, unadulterated thought.
Is this not so?
Umm…
Yuuya did say our brains were disconnected from our bodies, so… I guess so?
To cast away all functions but conscious thought… what a pure state of being!
It fascinates me.
B-b-but!
Do you really want to stay in this dream forever, Doctor?
Since when were you the dreamy type?
Dreams are not such rigid things as you seem to think.
The activity of the brain is no different while dreaming than while waking.
But there isn’t anything here to use for your favourite diabolical experiments!
No… we cannot be so sure about that.
The King of this star seems to have absorbed the knowledge and experiences of all who have washed ashore here and blended them into a being capable of conscious action, after all.
You’ve lost me!
To put it another way, the birds on this star hold within themselves the capability to replay any number of past events.
This star is practically overflowing with material for study.
Have no worries there.…this isn’t the sort of thing that happens every day, after all.
Since I have the chance to experience it, I want to stay and take advantage of it.
Are you really sure about that, sir?
No matter what you study, no matter what you discover, you’ll never be able to announce it to the world.
I seek knowledge, and knowledge alone.
I am not doing this for someone else’s sake, or for some earthly goal.Given the chance to engage in unadulterated thought without outside disturbance, I am happy to accept it.
Go on ahead.
We have nothing more to talk about.
The shell cracked!
Well, it did crack, but…
It looks a little… sub-par.
Those cracks must be from Miru and Kaku.
Probably…
We don’t have much time, so we’ll go rescue the others!
Please reconsider while we’re gone, Doctor.
Well… we shall see.
Hohoho.
This is no time for “hohoho”, fluffetic!