tl;dr

• Misora's breakdown is well presented.
• Made even better by the fact that the story didn't dance around what happened.
• Misora did achieve her goal of making Lily more assertive, though in a way different than you might think.

• Easy. Both because it's summer and the characters here are too insane to think about using uncommon words. Except for Lily, but even she isn't that bad here.
• Nephi showed up...but it wasn't that bad.

• Just some extra fluff. I made an entirely new section here because I want to talk about how I figured things out here.

The Story Itself

You know how previous summer stories I discussed here always had some kind of twist? This time, the twist IS the story. Let's cut to the chase, you're already aware of the scene where Misora shot herself in the head, right? Can I just gush about how good it is?

My first thought was that she was probably just trying to get attention. After all, it's only magic that she's shooting herself with. However, the story has already shown how powerful that magic is earlier in the story.

"If that hit someone, it'd probably hurt really bad."

"Holy shit."

She really hated the feeling of being appreciated that much. Wow.

Cue the characters reacting to this supposed suicide. The story doesn't even bother trying to "soften" it up. You might think the story might try to cover it up by saying shit like "oh no, I can't believe she'd try to take her own life", but nope.

First guy is literally saying "did she just shoot herself in the head!?", the mom elf's うぅっ, is really underselling her reaction. The voice clip of this is the sound of her (almost) puking. Nea is trying to put up a bold front, but even she isn't sure Misora is still alive. Kariza is understandably not that shaken, but even he was left wondering if he had missed anything that may hint on this suicide attempt. Lily didn't say anything until Nea checked on Misora, she said she was relieved, probably because she decided to ignore Nea's たぶん.

Then, Nightmare came, the gang ran away, and they start discussing on what the hell just happened. After some discussion, the group eventually pieced together that Nea may be behind this somehow. Nea transformed into her slime form to stay silent. Lily then proceeds to press on Nea.

• let's not use force here
• no, maybe we should. she's staying silent for a reason. who're you working with?

It's too bad Misora was unconscious so she couldn't witness this. Things only started to calm down when Ranpha contacted Nea with communication magic, everyone hears it, and Nea started to explain everything.

Here, it's explained that Misora is under effect of a tool that "suppresses her urge of destruction", while this is where I'd complain about the game trying to soften the story when it previously had no problem about going about "oh no she shot herself!", I don't think this "destruction" here is talking about herself. There's also mentions of Rage Legion, which I think has something to do with that, but I haven't started catching up on arc 2 so I can't really say much here.

You could argue that the use of some convenient tool undermines Nea's and Ranpha's efforts trying to snap Misora back, but you could also argue that Misora is that so far gone, using this tool is their only way forward. Goes both ways here.

Difficulty

As I said, easy. 969/985 (98%) comprehension. Well...that's pretty much all I have to say here. There's nothing I completely blank out on here either. Also, the line count doesn't include the little stories you get after fixing one photo in the minigame section. It's a bit too scattered for me to organize it in a way that would make sense and easy to count in my sheet. I would spend more time editing my sheet than reading, so I just skimmed through it.

About Nephi...I went "oh shit" when she showed up. I had an absolute hellish time reading the previous main story update. Nephi was already hard enough, but the story really HAD to make her the one spearheading the princess council and you know how politics make shit hard. (at least for me)

Er, getting a bit off topic here. At least her role here is pretty simple, she just handed over that tool I mentioned to Nea and Ranpha and that was it.

Summer Photo Fix

This was a bit more fun than expected, I just wanted to look up the solutions and read what comes out of it, but I tried it once and just decided to go all the way through.

How this works is that you're supposed to click on one of the empty spots in the photo and read the small conversation on the right. This convo usually outright mentions who's supposed to be there, and may mention another if the normal and secret solutions are that of different people. (or things)

• First spot outright mentions Nea with a smug expression.
• Second spot outright mentions Misora and Penkoporin.
• Lily comments that she couldn't make a dent on her shaved us.

From here, just fill the blank spots corresponding to the characters mentioned. When a spot only mentions one character, that's usually your cue to pick the same character with a different expression for the secret solution.

• First spot mentions that Nea is riding a surfboard that matches her color palette. Also mentions Kuuka.
• Second spot mentions that Misora is glad to find one that matches hers as well. Nea is confused because she didn't see any purple surfboards in the store. Lily mentions that Misora might be riding something that isn't a surfboard.
• Lily outright mentions that she can't surf in the third spot.

From here, just follow the hints, find something that looks remotely ridable that isn't a surfboard, and swap Lily's expression for the secret solution.

• Misora outright says that the first spot is filled with "her friend who's skilled at singing." Should be obvious who it is.
• Second spot mentions something "floaty". Really shitty hint, even the characters lampshade on this.
• Third spot mentions "something delicious", and also a UFO.

This is one of the two photos that I had to look up the solution for. The hell was I supposed to figure out that it was a bird that's "floaty", and that it was Yukari for the second spot's secret solution? The rest are pretty obvious.

• First spot outright mentions Misora, and that she may be using her weapon.
• Second spot outright mentions Ranpha cheering on Misora.
• Same goes for Lily for the third spot.
• Fourth spot outright mentions watermelon and Kyaru.

Finding the secret solution is easier here because it's a 50/50 whether you pick the umbrella or the hammer for the first spot's normal solution. Both can be used to smash watermelon, I guess?

• First spot mentions Misora being a little tired.
• Second spot mentions they're making soup
• Third spot mentions Nea roasting marshmallows.
• Fourth spot mentions Lily using the fire to warm her hand.

They outright spelled out the solution for the normal one. Didn't really catch anything for the secret solution, so I just picked the most absurd thing there (Ninon burning herself) and swapped the others' expressions accordingly.

• First spot mentions Lily, and that she's blushing.
• Nea outright mentions that she's on the second spot
• Third spot mentions "something rabbitlike" for the secret solution. I guess you're supposed to use common sense and figure that the octopus is the most likely monster to appear in the sea.
• Fourth spot mentions Misora, and the word butt. This reveals what Nea's pose in the photo is supposed to be.

Normal solution was easy enough, but I had to look up what was the secret one since I was only getting the Penkoporin one right. Although, I immediately realized that the slimes in the options correspond to the characters here. The red slime is there because Lily is blushing, the yellow one because that's just Nea, and the purple slime because Misora's hair is also purple.

• First spot mentions that Misora is blowing on something.
• Second spot mentions that Kishi-kun is holding something yellow, or that it's something that can fly
• Third spot mentions that Lily is holding the same thing as Kishi-kun, also mentions something that can fly.
• Fourth spot mentions that Ranpha is holding something that helps her "hear the sound of the seas"

Only the first spot is for the normal solution is hard here, because why would someone blow on a water bottle? Also, I don't think the 1st and 4th spot's solutions was hinted, but there are 2 cups on the options, so...

That's all for this blogpost. See you on the next one.

Me and the bros syncing up.