Part 9: Crazed Manga Artists Attract Eaters

I approach the item in question and extract the data. But someone's coming!! We hide. IT'S FREAKING ZAXON. AM I RIGHT AGAIN?!

Either way... we get discovered. By a freaking SNEEZE of all things. SERIOUSLY?! However... we get saved by Yuugo AGAIN. This guy seems to show up at the best of times... but... it's starting to get suspicious. This doesn't really help us though. Because Jimiken reappears again. OH GOD. NOT AGAIN. YOUR NOT A ROCK STAR. QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU ARE ONE. I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE SELLING A LOT OF CDS.

*sighs* Things get... weird afterwards. Yuugo is suspicious of why Zaxon is there as well as Jimiken. But Jimiken turns the same question on Yuugo as well. Why are all of these people here? We're not really given an answer. Because we're forced into yet another fight with Jimiken. Yet another harsh fight that had to be won with item abuse. But win I did.

Jimiken again claims he had weak Digimon. Is that really it? Or is it you? Perhaps I'm just too good?

Either way they all run like cowards. Yeah you better run. Yuugo says he's established an escape method for us so we make our quick exit as well. Back at the agency we take a look at the files. Next to the researcher that Yuuko had us first look into, there was another. Akemi Suedou. HIM AGAIN. YEP. HE'S OFFICIALLY SUSPICIOUS NOW. Apparently he was the 'genius' behind the entirety of EDEN. Whoa. Kamishiro continues to look like a corrupted company. Matayoshi says he'll handle things from here. He's an experienced detective so he should be okay. Hopefully.

Either way we move on to another case. Shockingly, from the police woman that confronted us after the Shinjuku Underground labyrinth. Makiko Date who is apparently a part of the Cyber Crimes Division. This... is awkward... Kyoko ends up leaving us alone for us to speak. GEE THANKS.

Date threatens to arrest us (Gee how nice...) before eventually delving into the case at hand. Apparently... a lot of people have been going missing at Akihabara and it's caused a stir but it's not an official case so Date wants our help. She doesn't want us informing Matayoshi though and seems to think she's allowed to use Matayoshi's 'secret weapon' if he's allowed to use it. When did we become a secret weapon?

Either way... this woman is seriously obsessed with arresting us. We haven't done anything wrong. It just looks like we have. Either way we make our way to Akihabara to investigate. Some weird nerd claims he has info for us but won't give it to us unless we confess his love to someone for him. NOT AGAIN. WHAT IS WITH THIS STUFF?! Not that we have a choice...

When we do so we are told by the woman in question that he's actually a stalker. So we do the only logical thing. We go back to him and threaten him until he talks. Apparently there may be a connection between the disappearances and the Comimani forum on EDEN. So we're off to there next. However, no one there seems to know anything. Except for one girl. Who doesn't want to talk there because she seems to think the culprit is one of the members. She tells us to meet her in the real world to talk there. Well... I guess better safe then sorry?

Before we leave though... we run into Arata again. What's he doing here? He asks us the same thing as we try to not tell him but he bugs us again until we do. Then, all of a sudden, he decides to help us out. Uh... thanks? I'm pretty sure this guy is a comic/manga fan now though. He has his own sides he doesn't like to show.

We go back to the real world and meet with the informant who claims the disappearances began after someone posted an original manga to the forum. But not all of the comments were nice. Yep. Looks like those that left negative comments are the ones who went missing. That's a little drastic isn't it?

Either way when we go back to the agency Arata is there using the computer and locates the data that was seemingly gone from the forum. It happens to be in Kowloon, which isn't really surprising. We get an ominous scene with our informant and then we're off. In Kowloon we find another code to crack that leads to us finding a Digimon (Wisemon) that attacks us. Well then...

Not too difficult a battle. Especially with Arata as a guest character. Either way it runs before we can capture it. We head back to Akihabara only to find... OH GOODIE. ANOTHER .HACK LIKE AREA.

When we find this, we also find multiple people inside as well, including our informant. It also looks like Arata knows her. She seems to be alive, thank god, but unresponsive. We quickly realize that there is likely another Eater around. Which is confirmed when we run into Akemi Suedou yet again. He only confirms our susicions and assures that everything will return to normal if the Eater is defeated. Well... there's not much choice and we have to clearly do this anyway. We can't confront Akemi here... but... soon...

We run around and find another sphere like in the Shinjuku Underground. We get thrown into a fight with a GoldNumemon (seriously?) and take it out to unlock another area.

We advance... and... well...

Looks like the girl that was claiming to be stalked was actually the culprit. Arata knows her as well. Nishino is her name apparently. She was the one making the manga and 'punishing' the ones leaving negative comments. She wants Arata's praise as well. Obsessive much? Arata does the only logical thing. He tells her that he isn't laughing. She assumes he's giving negative comments as well... and... the same Wisemon from before. But this time... it's MUCH bigger. As well as harder. A harsh fight ensues that I somehow survive. Champions and yet I'm still struggling. Ugh... well... I guess all that matters is that I won.

Are we done? lolnope.

An Eater shows up. OF COURSE. RIGHT ON CUE. It eats Nishino's data (OH CRAP) and we fight it. Another annoying battle but I'm able to come out victorious. Things return to normal and all the missing people return and regain consciousness as well. Except Nishino. Who contracted EDEN Syndrome thanks to the Eater. Not... good...

Arata seems to think that the Eaters are eating the consciousness of people which is causing them to go into the EDEN Syndrome comatose states. But defeating the Eater doesn't seem to return them to normal. So is there really no cure for EDEN Syndrome? If so... we're... quite screwed considering we're an EDEN Syndrome patient that is somehow still walking around.

Let's hope this isn't the case. That was basically all I did though.

Next time...

Is there really no cure for EDEN Syndrome? Let's hope not. We start doing side cases again. What ridiculousness will we face this time? We will face more Eaters?

Time will tell...