- Spirit: Ugh...w-what!?
- Aria: The games end here.
- Spirit: W-what... is this!?
- Spirit: She never said... that you'd be so cunning, so devious!
- Spirit: To try and trick a spirit...
- Spirit: Just what is your deal!?
- Reed: ...Who is this she you're talking about?
- Spirit: G-ghh!
- Spirit: It is nothing that concerns you!
--/-->
- Spirit: Stay back, or, or...
- Aria: Or what? You'll attack me again?
- Aria: Do you really want to die so soon?
- Spirit: Uuuh...!
- Spirit: A DISGRACE, a disgrace I'll be, if I give up!
- Spirit: Don't think you've won just yet!
- Spirit: It doesn't matter if anything happens to me...
- Spirit: Even if you kill me, it changes nothing!
- Spirit: The others will finish the job in my place!
Aria: Kill it.
- Aria: So be it, then.
- Reed: Wait, Aria!
--/-->
- Reed: Hold on.
- Reed: Don't kill her.
- Aria: Huh...?
Reed: Reconsider.
- Reed: ...You.
- Reed: I don't have many reasons to believe what you've said about Nino.
- Reed: But I won't completely deny your words, either.
- Spirit: A-are you... letting me live?
- Reed: ...
They all don't believe me.
It's like reality itself decided to bend, just to deny me.
Soon, they will all regret not listening.
It's like reality itself decided to bend, just to deny me.
Soon, they will all regret not listening.
Illusion: Fall.
- Reed: Consider it an exchange for being more amicable than the average spirit.
- Spirit: So my... m-my death...
- Spirit: I... I won't die here...?
- Reed: Only as long as you don't dare attack us again.
- Aria: What!? Reed... are you really thinking of letting it go, just like that?
- Aria: It's a malicious spirit, you know!
- Aria: And it hurt you so badly...!
- Reed: If that's what it takes to change their minds about targeting us,
- Reed: Then yes, I'm willing to try.
- Aria: But...
- Spirit: Human, you're saying...
- Spirit: You want a truce?
- Reed: That would be ideal.
- Reed: I would spare you, if it's going to end this whole mess.
- Spirit: ...What... a strange fellow you are.
- Spirit: So that means, despite my warnings,
- Spirit: You will also still try to find your dangerous companion.
--/-->
- Reed: Look.
- Reed: I will keep your warning to me in mind. But...
- Reed: I've never abandoned a human in this world before,
- Reed: And I'm not about to ruin a long track record.
- Reed: I won't disregard what you said completely,
- Reed: But I'm still going to do things here my way.
- Reed: So, I don't want a truce only with you,
- Reed: I want a truce with all of your buddies coming after us, too.
- Reed: If Nino really is acting out with unjustified violence against your kind,
- Reed: Then we'll be the ones who stop him. Not any of you.
- Reed: And if my choice to go after him puts me in any danger,
- Reed: Then I'll be the one to deal with it.
- Reed: Basically, you all have to stay the fuck out of this,
- Reed: While we find him, take him back, and keep him reeeal far away from you.
- Reed: Wouldn't that help all of us now?
- Spirit: ...
Spirit: Think about it carefully.
Master, something strange has happened.
It must be the first time, yes, the very first...
It must be the first time, yes, the very first...
That someone is willing to hear us out, if only partially.
To be honest, I did not have any hopes in these people.
And yet, that one has surprised me so.
And yet, that one has surprised me so.
I may yet have one more ally than I thought in this wretched world.
Oh, master...
What would you do in this situation?
What would you choose?
I often think myself less wise than you. However...
My little instincts, the leftovers from my former life, do fear death so. Just as every bone of a mortal seeks survival, so does this barely-bond form.
You know, I seem to recall serving in some sort of army...
And I never truly accepted that risking our lives was honorable, unlike my colleagues did. I pictured many deaths for myself, and for us all, but I could never accept any of them as something truly glorious, not for any cause imaginable.
If there is a definite answer for all of my questions, then I do not yet possess it. However, right now...
I know what I must do.
- Spirit: ...Very well.
- Spirit: At least you're making the choice to follow him with awareness now,
- Spirit: Even if you don't entirely believe me.
- Spirit: But, what about this vicious girl, then?
- Spirit: You don't seem to be on board with your partner here.
- Aria: ...O-of course not! I don't trust you one bit!
- Aria: Make one suspicious move, and your head's gonna fly!
- Reed: I'm probably asking too much by wanting you to agree to this, aren't I.
- Aria: Reed, what are you even thinking!?
- Aria: Letting a spirit go, when we know for a fact it wants us dead, is just...
- Reed: No. Killing us isn't her original goal.
- Aria: ...What?
- Reed: She was willing to talk amicably for a while,
- Reed: And only wanted to lead us out of this world, at first.
- Reed: But I was definitely the one who provoked her into a fight.
- Reed: That's on me.
- Aria: Huh...
- Reed: And, Aria... you heard what she said.
- Reed: "The others will finish the job".
- Reed: So as long as they have a reason to not want us here,
- Reed: More of them will keep getting in our way.
- Reed: So I want to make their original purpose for coming after us void, if I can.
- Reed: It's better if we don't have to go through more of these contrived tricks,
- Reed: That's honestly all I'm thinking.
- Aria: ...
- Reed: In fact, that could have been the case for the previous spirits, too.
- Reed: Did they all just want us to leave this world... like you, too?
- Spirit: ...Hm.
- Spirit: I didn't expect you to figure this much out.
- Aria: Huh!? Are you saying...
- Aria: They weren't lying about leading us to a rift?
- Reed: Possibly so. If I had to guess,
- Reed: Their master instructed them to "make us leave".
- Spirit: That is... what we tried to do, yes.
- Spirit: Each of my fellows, in their own ways, with their own tricks,
- Spirit: Just wanted to make you leave.
- Spirit: Whether by earning your trust, or by threatening you.
- Spirit: We weren't supposed to start a fight,
- Spirit: But only fight back when necessary.
Aria: Consider.
- Aria: ...
- Aria: I still... don't believe you.
- Aria: I don't really have a way to verify anything you say.
- Aria: But, fine. I'm willing to consider this, for my friend's sake.
- Aria: However, if... if you or any other spirit dare do anything against any of my friends again, I won't hesitate to make the perpetrators pay for it!
- Aria: And I really won't hold anything back next time!
- Spirit: ...I understand your fury.
- Spirit: That won't happen again.
- Spirit: At least, not from me.
- Spirit: By now, I truly don't wish to see more of us suffer either.
- Spirit: Survival is... the more important choice at this point, isn't it...?
- Spirit: So if you really will let me go, I will tell everyone else not to hinder you.
- Spirit: But, whether they really go along with it or not is up to them.
- Reed: ...So we'd have to take our chances with that.
- Aria: That's not very assuring!
- Spirit: Ah... well, that is...
- Spirit: If you act only in retaliation, then I can accept that.
- Spirit: But, don't harm any spirits that do not provoke you.
- Spirit: That really is... the best I can do for a truce.
- Reed: No. There's something else you can offer in addition.
- Reed: We have questions that need answering.
Reed: Ask the spirit who it's "master" is. Perhaps they're the "she" it was talking about?
Aria: Ask if it knows where Nino and Mei are. You may not have an exact location, but maybe it can point you in the right direction.
POV: Cut to Nino and Mei before Reed and Aria can ask any questions.
Reed: Ask why Nino would be the cause of your death.
Good Cop: Tell us everything.
Bad Cop: Tell me *everything*.
If all the spirits were trying to make them leave, then that means that the Yuness spirit likely could have brought Mei back to the Overworld, and that she lost her chance to go home.
-
Aria: Why were the spirits trying to make you leave instead of killing you outright?
Reed: Where are Nino and Meimona?
Reed: Does it know anything about the professor?
It attempted to weaken her through targeting her insecurities and then attempted to harm her physically, it was likely going to attempt to kill her.
It didn’t get aggressive until after it was clear she wasn’t going to follow it. The other spirits were acting in the same way, only turning attacking after they were found out. This spirit (Thorns) explicitly states as such:
NVM, I checked, you're right.
Aria: You understand the risks involved in dealing with spirits. You are skilled at combatting them. Just ask them a question, and proceed from there. Ask them if they hurt other people, of any kind, for whatever reasons spirits do. Even if they are sentient, they could present potential threats. If you believe there is a consistent danger from this spirit or others, to your friends or others, finish the fight.
cant wait for the next update
Aria: Ask if they know any spirits from near the forest you first found Nino. Maybe one will have seen five before Nino found her.
Reed: Ask if they need to be stronger, if spirits stopped attacking in general, could they live happy lives, alongside monsters.