u/Husbandaru

Why is Nozomi Karua? It’s something that you answer with another question.

Where do I start exactly?

Well it’ll take some time to explain, but answer is because Nozomi is operating on multiple thematic levels.

1. ⁠You ARE Karua. Playing through this game and the other routes, we get bopped in the head repeatedly about how Nozomi is not Karua, yet Takumi in many instances accepts Nozomi as she is, but always carries a lingering doubt in his mind.

Karua is a hyper idealized depiction of a young woman. She’s thoughtful, idealistic, curious, caring, artistic, pouty and most all, of course she’s pretty. The perfect idea of a girl, for the long dead dream of the nuclear family.

Nozomi puts walls up around herself, is in need of proper parental figures, longs for the warmth and approval of a mother figure (ideally hers), she’s responsible, attentive, goofy. Nozomi, is ACTUALLY perfect. Nozomi is Karua.

You see, this mix of flaws and positive attributes, makes Nozomi real. Because her flaws are the true source of her perfection.

Imperfections can be very bad, but we have to understand that imperfections aren’t always going to be bad. In fact in most cases they aren’t. Because imperfections are things that we can work on, which Nozomi does.

Nozomi’s imperfections make her the character that we love.

2. Can you taste the Ice Cream? This is what Bojack Horseman asks his mother before leaving her in a dumpy home. The relationship between those two characters had always been negative, yet in those moments he chose to comfort her.

Keyword ‘chose’

Why is this important? Well we have to understand that he didn’t have to do any of that. Especially considering their relationship. Yet, he stays for a few seconds, just to feed her s bunch of lies. Comforting lies, but lies all the same.

Lies are generally not seen as a good things and are well documented to be socially destructive. Despite the value we place on the truth, lies always seem to be much more powerful because we can directly influence them into what we want them to be.

Only in rare and extreme instances can lies be beneficial. Which leads to my final point.

3. The Girl of the Game: this has always been a staple of fiction, especially any that involve an epic adventure, that is widely associated with the male fantasy. Getting to know someone, going through adversity with them can be a powerful way to develop feelings for them. Now usually you don’t want to break away from these tropes too much, unless you’re the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Lars Von Trier, David Cronenberg, Gus Van Sant, Quintin Tarantino, John Waters, Wes Anderson, Sam Peckinpah, Kazutaka Koda— oh wait, >!thats the asshole who killed Kaede!!<

Nozomi, is never the girl of the game, the game makes a clear distinction between her and Karua. Yet, she chooses to be Karua. She chooses to be the girl of the game. This is why the scene at the end of second scenario is so good. Nozomi didn’t have to pretend to be Karua, but she chose to do it anyway. Unlike Bojack she chose to do it for a friend who just gave everything to end this conflict. He was dying in her arms, naturally as the hero of the game, she decided to give him a proper hero’s send off by becoming the girl of the game.

Now think how many characters ever got to choose what role they would be in their respective story? The answer is not many, at least not this subtly.

This is the reason why I rarely call Nozomi, by her Kodaka given name. I always call her Karua.

Sorry for the rambling parts. I don’t feel like rewriting it or having some language model touch it up.

I used generic sounds in garageband to make it. But mostly played the keys on the Korg Prologue 16 synthesizer.

I just named the song Daryl Hannah since it's based on the 1980s.

Artist: Scallywags

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 & 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12 - Story Branch

I know latin American television is not something that is covered by RLM, but I watched reruns of this show with my grandmother recently and I was reminded how utterly disturbing this show was.

Guys, I’m not joking when I say that this show…

Okay, firstly this show did reenactments of stories from letters that were sent to the studio. It was structured as an anthology series some times with guest stars, but it generally features a lot of the same actors in different roles. It was a bit B rated in some episodes and others had higher budgets.

Some of the stories were like really cute and romantic, like two elderly people who fell in love again. A woman who found her long lost child, a struggling couple who manage to get their kid into college.

But then, I am not joking with you. There were episodes that featured some of the most horrific violence I have ever seen on a daytime television show.

Honestly this was a show, where someone getting shot to death was the most tame thing to could happen to them.

There were episodes where characters of varying in age literally got dismembered, molested, had acid thrown own their faces, stabbed with various house hold items, eyes gouged out, bled to death in a botched abortion. You name it, if there was a violent method for someone to die theres a chance it happened in this show.

You thought characters in the first few episodes of Game of Thrones had no plot armor? Just wait till you watch this show.

There was an episode where a kid gets kidnapped by organ traffickers and has his eyes ripped out.

A girl who stabs her friend in the throat with a pair of scissors because her friend realized she wasn’t a lesbian and she didn’t want to get caught.

Another episode where a guy gets drunk, gets goaded by his friends to go hack his wife to death with a machete.

One episode where a guy sells his sister in prostitution and then solicits her services at the brothel.

This girl that gets impregnated by her uncle and dies in a back alley abortion only for her body to be dumped in a river.

The thing about some of the violence in the show is that very often they would show it. They would show the bloody result of the violence. Obviously they never showed any of the sexual violence, but they had no problem dollying away or showing shadows while the actors scream bloody murder.

This show was so unpredictable in what would gonna happen per episode that it was genuinely traumatizing watching it as a kid.

I remember in high school, there was a day off I brought my gf to hang out and the show came on. She didn’t speak Spanish at all, but I told she was in for a ride.

We watched an episode where a dude would repeatedly physically and verbally abuse his wife and commit marital rape against her, while their daughter is in ear shot. At one point he was playing cards with his friends and his wife is cooking he decides to impress them by dragging her off to his bedroom and SA her again. He leaves his daughter in the living room with his two friends to which they abuse her and he hears the screaming, he rushes out with his wife to stop them only for two men shoot both of them death and run off. But like the camera just holds on both of them in agony, just enough to not let you process what just happened till after it concluded. Like it could cut to reaction shots of the kid watching her parents be killed.

The episode following it had an old lady poison her son’s newborn because he was born with dark skin and suspected that his wife cheated; since the child had no European features. Only for them to receive a letter from the hospital saying that the child was his.

She was in complete shock, she was utterly terrified by what she had just scene on the screen. That this was a show that aired regularly on television.

Honestly if you guys ever want to watch an anthology show, that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions I recommend this show.

"Pregunta paisano? Quieres morir!? My favorite line from the movie, I've been waiting to use it."

Artist: Scallywags

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 & 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12 - Story Branch

Bro, this show would air on local TV in Southern Arizona and sometimes when I didn't go to school, I'd just watch it.

Some of the things that happened in this show ranged from like really cute and wholesome, to some of the most of obscene violence that was so traumatizing, I still think about it to this day.

I remember one where a lady stabs her friend with a pair of scissors in the throat.

Another, where this woman kills her friend and her boyfriend with a .357 4 Barrel Derringer.

One episode where this guy hacks his wife to death with a machete.

Another one where this dude gouges his wife's eyes out.

Another episode where this lady beats up her mom to steal her necklace to pawn it off.

One where this dude, shot his wife, his daughter and himself at a convenient store.

This show was like Game of Thrones, in the sense that I didn't know who was going to live or die in the show.

The show could follow a character and have them be killed in the most brutal ways imaginable. Part of what made the show, so traumatizing is more often than not they ACTUALLY showed the people being killed off in these insane ways.

I remember watching this show with my High School gf, she didn't speak Spanish at all.

There was an episode where this guy goes to commit marital rape while he's playing cards with his friends, meanwhile his two pals molest his daughter. When the husband hears the screaming, he rushes to try and stop them only for the two dudes to shoot both the kid's parents to death. The camera just holds on both of them dying in this horrific way in front of their child.

My gf was shocked that this show was on regular daytime television.

I'm gonna put this on pause for a bit, since it needs more original art for the endings and social scenes.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 & 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Cindy and Hiruko spent most of the next day inside an empty classroom, turning it into something livable.

Desks had been pushed aside, stacked neatly along the walls. In their place mats, blankets, anything soft they could find. Windows were cleaned enough to let light in. The harshness of the Academy had been dulled, just a little.

It was deliberate and it was placed far from the lab.

Far from the sounds neither of them wanted the children to hear.

Cindy stepped back, hands on her hips, scanning the room. It wasn’t perfect; but it was something.

“Darumi’s doing a good job keeping them busy,” she said, mostly to fill the silence.

Hiruko didn’t look up from what she was adjusting.

“Quite.”

One word.

Cindy nodded slightly, letting it sit. She grabbed another chair, dragging it into position, aligning it with the others.

For a while, the only sounds were movement. Wood scraping. Fabric shifting. Quiet, controlled breathing.

They were both tired.

Not just from lack of sleep, but from everything else.

Cindy glanced toward the doorway, where faint echoes of children’s voices could be heard somewhere down the hall, lighter than anything they’d heard the night before.

“…At least they’re not crying,” she muttered.

Hiruko paused for a second at that, then resumed what she was doing.

The room was nearly finished now.

But it still lacked something.

A craftsman’s touch.

Cindy exhaled softly.

“Tsubasa would’ve had this done in half the time,” she said.

That got a reaction.

Hiruko’s hands slowed.

“She’s been… distant,” Hiruko replied.

“Yeah,” Cindy said. “Not just with me.”

They both knew why.

Takumi had given Cindy operational freedom.

And Tsubasa had seen what Cindy did with it.

Cindy leaned against one of the desks, crossing her arms.

“I don’t blame her,” she admitted.

Hiruko didn’t reply to that, mostly because she couldn’t blame Tsubasa either.

They heard the scream before they saw anyone.

It tore through the hallway, sharp, raw, louder than the others had been. Loud enough that Cindy was sure the whole Academy had heard it.

She froze in the classroom doorway.

“Jesus,” she muttered. “What are those two doing up there?”

Hiruko looked toward the hall, expression tightening.

Cindy set down the box she’d been carrying and straightened.

“Take a break for now,” she said. “I’ll talk to Nozomi and Yugamu.”

She left before Hiruko could answer.

The closer Cindy got to the bio lab, the heavier the air felt. The screaming had quieted by then, faded into something low and broken behind the sealed door. When she reached it, she didn’t knock. She slid it open.

Inside, the lab was a mess of instruments, samples, stained cloth, and open containers. Nozomi and Yugamu stood over a workbench, analyzing something suspended in a vial, mixing it carefully with other prepared substances. Their focus was intense, too intense.

Cindy’s gaze shifted past them.

The captured commander lay restrained nearby, exhausted into something close to sleep. His body was marked with bruises, cuts, and needle punctures. Whether he was unconscious or simply too drained to react, Cindy couldn’t immediately tell.

Her face hardened.

“The fuck was all that?”

Nozomi turned toward her. Sweat glistened across her forehead, and her composure looked thinner than usual.

“Ah, he didn’t take well to the last dose we gave him,” she said, voice strained. “I… I think this might be getting to be a bit much. This whole process has been… messy.”

Yugamu cut in, almost offended by the framing.

“Well, it was never going to be easy,” he said. “But it has been exciting, productive even.”

Cindy’s eyes flicked to him.

Yugamu lifted the vial slightly, admiring it.

“I think this countermeasure will serve us beautifully.”

Nozomi looked less convinced. She folded her arms, then began explaining before Cindy could press further.

“From what we’ve gathered, from the children and from the commander; the Futurans don’t eat meat. Not at all. Their meals are almost entirely plant-based, supplemented with specific nutrient compounds.”

She glanced uneasily at the vial.

“What we’re developing wouldn’t need to attack them directly in the usual way. It could interfere with how their bodies process certain fortified nutrients in their food supply. Make them sick from what’s supposed to sustain them.”

Cindy absorbed that quietly.

Nozomi’s expression tightened.

“If deployed broadly, it could disable a large portion of their population without needing a direct assault.”

Cindy shook her head at the idea.

“No,” she said. “We don’t need to do that much.”

Her eyes moved from the vial to the restrained commander.

“As long as it affects V’ehxness.”

Nozomi looked visibly relieved.

Yugamu, less so.

Cindy rubbed the bridge of her nose, exhaustion creeping back in despite herself.

“And we need to build a more soundproof room,” she added. “Immediately.”

She stepped back from the workbench.

“Thanks for the report.”

The door slid open before she could leave.

Takemaru stormed in, fury written across his face. Takumi followed close behind him, one hand raised as if he’d been trying to stop him the entire way there.

“Takemaru, wait!”

Takemaru ignored him completely, marching straight toward Cindy.

“What the hell kind of freakshow are you running here!?” he snapped.

Cindy stopped directly in front of him, meeting his anger without blinking.

“What were you going to do to him exactly?” she asked. “Absorb him?”

Takemaru’s expression twisted with disgust.

“At least he wouldn’t go out like this!” he shot back. “You don’t even have the respect to give them a proper death.”

The lab went quiet.

Nozomi looked down.

Yugamu said nothing, for once.

Cindy’s face remained still, but her eyes hardened.

“A proper death?” she repeated.

Takemaru stepped closer. “Yeah. A clean one. Not strapped to a table while you cut him apart for whatever sick plan you’ve got next.”

Cindy glanced back at the commander, then returned her attention to Takemaru.

“You think killing him cleanly makes this better?”

Takemaru’s anger didn’t cool.

If anything, it sharpened.

“You know something?” he snapped. “There’s nothing I hate more than someone who can justify any kind of shitty thing they do to other people!”

Cindy didn’t raise her voice.

“Would you like me more if I spelled out every intention I have?” she replied evenly. “You should be thankful you’re getting any information at all.”

That only made it worse.

Takemaru stepped closer, jaw tight.

“If this is what you do to people in public,” he said, gesturing toward the restrained commander, “I don’t even want to think about what you’d do to them in private.”

The room went still. Cindy held his gaze. Then, quietly.

“You’re right.”

That wasn’t what he expected.

She didn’t break eye contact.

“If you saw everything,” Cindy said, voice flat, “I’d have to mummify you.”

The room went dead silent.

Takemaru’s face twisted with rage.

“Is that a threat, bitch?” he snapped, stepping toward her. “You think you can talk that kind of shit to me?”

Takumi moved before either of them could do something they couldn’t take back. He forced himself between them, one hand raised toward Takemaru, the other angled toward Cindy.

“Please, you two! Not now!”

Cindy didn’t move. Takemaru looked ready to shove straight through him.

“Takemaru, please,” Takumi continued, his voice strained. “Just… you have to trust…” He swallowed. “You have to trust her.”

Takemaru stared at him like he’d just said something obscene.

“Trust her?”

His gaze flicked over Takumi, then back to Cindy, sharp with disgust.

“I don’t know what kind of deal this bitch is giving you,” Takemaru said, “but she better be really tight down there to be worth it!.”

Nozomi’s face flushed pale red.

“What!?” she shouted.

Takumi went almost white.

“N-no! That’s not!”

Takemaru didn’t let him finish.

“Whatever she gave you,” he said, voice lower now, colder, “you better understand it’s costing you more than you realize.”

Cindy didn’t really react to his comment. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

“Careful,” she said.

Takemaru laughed bitterly.

“Oh, now I should be careful?”

Takemaru’s fists clenched.

Takumi stepped back into his line of sight.

“Enough,” Takumi said, firmer this time. “We’re not doing this here.”

For a moment, it looked like Takemaru might argue.

Then he looked past them at the commander strapped to the table. The bruises. The needle marks. The lab instruments.

His rage didn’t fade.

It just found somewhere deeper to sit.

He turned toward the door.

“This place is starting to smell like the people we’re fighting,” he muttered.

Then he stormed out. No one followed him.

Takumi stood still, breathing hard, his face still flushed with humiliation and anger. Nozomi looked away, jaw tight. Yugamu returned his attention to the samples as if nothing had happened, but even he seemed quieter.

Cindy watched the door for a long moment.

Then she looked at Takumi.

“You shouldn’t have said trust,” she said.

Takumi blinked.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t tell people to trust me,” Cindy said. “Not unless you’re prepared to explain why.”

Takumi thought on it for a second.

“Just think on it more. Common, I got more information about Karua.” She replied.

Takumi seemed to visibly light up at the mention of his childhood friend.

The two left and with him following after her.

Cindy spoke the moment she noticed her.

“Tsubasa,” she said mildly. “What are you doing in the war room?”

Tsubasa stopped short. “Oh, uh. I remember I dropped a notebook. I needed to find it.” She gestured vaguely behind her. “But I should really get back to the workshop.”

Cindy sighed, slow and disappointed, like something hadn’t gone the way she expected.

“Is there something wrong?” Tsubasa asked, hesitant now.

“Something wrong with what?” Cindy replied.

She popped a peanut into her mouth as she spoke, half-choking on it for a second before swallowing hard; never breaking eye contact.

“With… anything?” Tsubasa said, taking a small step back.

Cindy groaned softly, rubbing her forehead. “Is that what you’re asking me? If there’s something wrong?”

“Oh. I- I didn’t mean anything by it,” Tsubasa added quickly.

Cindy tilted her head and repeated it back to her, voice flat, mocking without raising volume.

“Didn’t mean nothin’.”

Tsubasa swallowed. “Well… I should really get going.”

“You already said that,” Cindy replied.

“What?” Tsubasa’s voice wavered.

Cindy exhaled again, longer this time.

“You don’t know what you’re doing right now, do you?” she asked.

Tsubasa frowned, confused and frightened. “W-what?”

“I said. You don’t know what you’re doing right now?”

Silence stretched between them. The hum of the monitors filled the room, suddenly too loud.

Tsubasa hesitated. “I’m just-”

“What’s the most you’ve ever gambled before?” Cindy asked.

The question landed wrong. Out of place. Tsubasa looked away instinctively, as if something cold had settled over her shoulders.

“I… what are you talking about?”

Cindy watched her carefully.

“What you’re doing,” she said. “Right now.”

She leaned in just slightly.

“You’d better hope you didn’t gamble wrong.”

Silence.

Takumi had let her grill Tsubasa enough.

It’s Your Future

“There is no need to be so paranoid Cindy. Tsubasa tends to be a bit forgetful at times.”

She looked away.

“Very well Takumi. Very well.”

Letting out the air in her lungs for another breath she eyed Tsubasa.

“Go on Tsubasa.”

Cindy watched Tsubasa leave.

“Keep a close eye on the others Takumi.”

She then entered the war room.

“I’ll tell you about Karua later tonight. I just realized there’s something I need to deal with.”

That night, Takumi stood with Nozomi beside one of the hallway windows, the Academy quiet around them.

Outside, the grounds were dark, lit only by the faint glow of security lights and the distant burn of the eternal flame. Neither of them had spoken for a while. The conversation had circled the same point again and again, Cindy, her mission, and why Nozomi had chosen to help her at all.

Takumi’s voice was low.

“I just don’t understand how you can work with her after everything.”

Nozomi looked out the window, arms folded. “Because I don’t think she’s wrong about everything.”

“That doesn’t make her right.”

“No,” Nozomi said quietly. “It doesn’t.”

Nozomi repeatedly dodged the question as to why she was helping her at all.

Before Takumi could answer, a scream tore through the corridor. It was fast, but half through there was pure silence.

A silence so sudden it felt unnatural.

Takumi ran first.

Nozomi followed close behind him, her face already pale. Their footsteps thundered down the hall, around the corner, toward the courtyard doors.

Then Takumi saw it.

Light bleeding through the crack beneath the doors.

His body slowed before his mind did.

A wave of dread washed over him, cold and total. His breath caught. Every step closer made the hairs along his arms rise. Behind the door, he heard something wet and broken.

Choking.  Someone drowning in their own blood. Takumi pushed the doors open.

And his worst fear was waiting inside.

Tsubasa lay on the courtyard floor, one hand clamped desperately against the deep gash in her neck. Blood covered her class armor, running between her fingers no matter how hard she pressed. Her legs kicked weakly against the grass, her eyes wide and terrified.

Nozomi was already moving.

“Tsubasa!”

She dropped to her knees beside her, hands glowing as she tried to force healing into a wound that was spilling life faster than she could catch it.

Takumi’s mind snapped in every direction at once.

The Revive-O-Matic.

Where was the Revive-O-Matic?

His eyes darted across the courtyard, searching for anything, anyone.

Then he saw the cage.

Cindy stood beside it in full class armor, her weapon drawn, one hand gripping Eito by the collar and holding him up like he weighed nothing. Eito’s feet dragged against the ground, his hands clawing at her wrist, face twisted with panic and fury.

On the grass beneath him lay an infuser.

Cindy’s blue eyes shifted toward Takumi.

“Good,” she said. “You’re here.”

Takumi couldn’t move.

Nozomi’s voice cracked behind him as she worked over Tsubasa.

“Takumi! Help me!”

But Takumi’s eyes stayed locked on the infuser.

Then on Eito. Then Cindy.

And all at once, he understood enough to be terrified of the rest. More than anything, he understood it was time to make another decision.