LogFAQs > #880435596

And everything goes staticky, then red, then black.

"Does my present live up to your expectations, Zarathustra?"

The above is in red text in the VN. How odd...

And thus starts chapter 1 (or ends, not sure): "L'enfant de la punition". The child of punishment.

We cut to Ren and Kasumi arriving at his house. Instead of making bad dirty jokes, I'll just note that they don't seem freaked out about OMG A GHOST, which stands out as off. Like, I could see maybe Kasumi not seeing the ghost but...

...Man it just hit me

Kasumi's clothes remind me so much of pajamas

CAN'T UNSEE

Anyway, this conversation is normal. WAY too normal. The hell happened to the ghost sighting? Are Ren's memories fucked up or something? It's very suspicious at this point.

...And then I find out Kasumi fucking made a hole in the wall and put in a special door to sneak into Ren's bedroom wtffffffff

This officially raises my waifu danger sense from just silly jokes to 'yandere flags activated', seriously. Who the hell does that?!

"Kasumi and I had moved into this apartment together when we enrolled at our current school..."

Man the jokes are just too easy, it's not even a challenge to make 'em anymore

Oh, so Shirou laid down the precedent. 'ok'

That makes it a bit more acceptable, dialing down the yandere flags then. That dude makes things weird and fuckin' knocking down a wall with a hammer seems like something in his wheelhouse.

After some more banter, Kasumi bids her adieu. D'aww, and Ren starts thinking about whether he deserves the way she cleaned his room (and Shirou's) while he was away so it wouldn't get dusty. That's cute. And then, it's bedtime for him too. But not before finally looking back on the ghost he saw - he thinks it's a hallucination. So apparently Kasumi didn't see it, or he didn't say a peep about it. OK then.

And then, static. And more redtext. And then, the story of the 'princess of the guillotine', told to Zarathustra by someone named Cagliostro. To make a long story short, most men are mediocre, doomed to be nothing more than irrelevant - but some stand out, some are born greater, and the common man cannot understand this. One such special being was a woman, who was perfect, who was other, who was never to experience love. Her perfection touched Cagliostro's heart, and gave him a purpose - to lead her soul to salvation, by evoking the Day of Wrath that would sunder the universe.

And that's as far as the story gets, before it's rudely interrupted by crashing waves. Ren finds himself at a beach, a beach he doesn't know, frozen in time. And he understands that it's beyond the ravages of time, without anyone telling him, and he loves this place, loves the fact it will never change. He looks at it, and much like Shirou before him, is assaulted by a sense of déja vú. But he loves it. He wishes it would last forever. He loves the fact he knows what happens, here, and with that foreknowledge, he can extend this moment infinitely. His ideal world is...

"Knowing everything in advance."

And we're back to the static and the redtext. Ze timelines, zey are merging!

Not just that...we see the ghost girl again, and this time present here, in the flesh. And Ren is captivated by her, just like Cagliostro was. She is pure. She is immaculate. She is perfect in his eyes.

(Brief aside: Something I haven't mentioned is the beauty of these descriptions I'm reading right now. The music is good, but what really is making this scene is how poetic the words are. I'm very impressed by Dies so far.)

A burst of static interrupts all the awe and wonder. Something feels off now...but what?

And then, the static dissolves, and her words become clear.
---

Shine on, you crazy diamond.