Banri Settsu/Duel of Wilderness

Invitation to Mystery Tour

Backstage Stories

Part 1Part 2Part 3

Izumi	The fishmonger in the shopping district should be having a bargain sale now…
Banri	Oh, if it isn’t Director-chan.
Izumi	Oh, hey Banri-kun. On your way home from school?
Banri	Yep. What about you, Director-chan? Shoppin’ for dinner?
Izumi	Uh-huh. I’m on my way to the shopping district.
Banri	Let me help carry your stuff, then. I’m free anyway.
Izumi	For real? Thanks. I’ll be counting on you, then.
Seller	Thank you for shopping! Here’s your change and a raffle ticket. You can draw the lottery over there, so please give it a try if you like.
	There are plenty of splendid prizes you can get!
Izumi	Heh, a raffle, huh.
Banri	That’s the place, right?
Izumi	Oh, look, Banri-kun! They have invitation tickets to a mystery tour.
Banri	Wow, ain’t that wonderful? Get that, Director-chan.
Izumi	Huh!? No way, I don’t think we can get it that easy…
Banri	It’s not like they only have one of those, anyway. Maybe you’ll get lucky?
Izumi	No, I still think you have better luck than me, Banri-kun. You should draw them.
Banri	Hmm, fine then. I’ll go get the good one quick.
	*bell rings*
Lottery Staff	Jackpot! You got invitation tickets to the mystery tour! Congratulations!
Banri	Oh.
Izumi	Eeeh, seriously!? That’s awesome, Banri-kun!
Lottery Staff	Here are the tickets. I hope you have a great time.
Banri	Sweet. Let’s go together, Director-chan.
Izumi	It sure seems fun, but… isn’t it better to invite Chikage-san? This is a mystery-solving tour; I feel like you’ll have more fun with him than me.
	Besides, I may end up dragging you down…
Banri	Oh come on, don’t be silly. …Looks like I got three tickets, anyway.
Izumi	Eh, really? In that case, I wanna go!
Banri	Nice. I’ll tell Chikage-san once we’re back home.
Chikage	I’m back.
Izumi	Welcome back, Chikage-san.
Banri	We’ve been waitin’ for you.
Chikage	Me? What for?
Banri	I’ve got this mystery tour tickets through lottery at the shopping district. And since I have three of them, won’t you come along?
Chikage	Heh, I expected no less from you, getting that kind of thing through lottery.
Banri	That doesn’t feel like a compliment at all.
Chikage	Haha, I’m truly complimenting you. Putting that aside, the day of the tour is…
	Oh, I think I can go if it’s on that day.
Izumi	Seriously? That’s great to hear!
Banri	A'ight it’s settled then. The three of us will go.
Izumi	Yup! I look forward to it!

Chikage	I see, so this train will be the game venue.
Izumi	Wow, this place sure has a great atmosphere.
Banri	I never knew the scale would be this big, given it was merely a lottery prize. This is better than I’ve expected.
Chikage	Same. Look forward to the game.
Staff	Thank you for riding with us. I shall explain the rules of the game immediately.
	First of all, we will not the disclose where this train is heading.
	Please find out our destination based on the hints that we have scattered inside the train.
Izumi	I see…
Staff	Incidentally, we have provided five options to choose from. Teams who know the answer are required to pick an answer within the options.
	In addition, it’s possible to drop out of the game midway.
Banri	Drop out of the game, huh… Never knew there’s such an option.
Chikage	It’s more rewarding if they don’t have that kind of option.
Izumi	(Looks like we have different opinion on this one. While I think it’s kind of them to set up that choice, they feel the opposite…)
Staff	Without further ado, let’s begin solving the mystery during this tour!
Chikage	First thing first, let’s find the hints scattered in this train.
Banri	Yeah. Once we’re done collecting them, we’ll focus on solving the riddle.
Izumi	I suppose they put the hints in places that are hard to find… Will I be able to find them?
Banri	Not really, sometimes they will also leave them at places that are easy to spot for beginners.
	Director-chan, wanna go find them with me first?
Izumi	I’ll take you up on that, then. Thanks.
Banri	Sure thing.
Chikage	Alright, I’ll be looking on my own. See you later.
Banri	Yep.
Banri	Director-chan, have you found any hints?
Izumi	…Ah! Found it!
	You’re right, Banri-kun. There are quite a few hints that are put in noticeable places.
Banri	Told you so.
Izumi	Hmm… I think we’ve pretty much gotten all the hints here.
Banri	Nah, I feel like there’s still more. Surprisingly enough, that’s usually the case with this kind of game.
Izumi	Hm? Like on the armchair or something?
Banri	Yep, or even in the back… see?
Izumi	Wow! You really found it!
CHOICE 1: "I expected no less from Banri-kun…!" [+] Izumi I expected no less from Banri-kun…! Banri It ain’t that big of a deal. But well, bein’ praised by Director-chan like this doesn’t feel that bad. Your eyes were sparklin’ with excitement when I found the hints. Izumi …Do I look childish? Banri Not at all; it’s actually the opposite. You look freakin’ cute. Izumi ! Don’t, Don’t tease me! Banri I’m not, though.
CHOICE 2: "I didn’t notice it at all." [+] Izumi I didn’t notice it at all. How did you know it? Banri You just need to get used to this kind of thing, and there’s also tips and the likes. I play escape games now and then, so I can somehow tell when things look out of place. Izumi I see. I know you may be used to this but still, I think you look really cool when you find things quickly. Banri Never would have I thought Director-chan would praise me directly like this… Izumi Are you embarrassed? Banri Not really.
Announcer	To all participants, we will distribute lunches after this. Please go back to your seats.
Izumi	Oh, an announcement.
Banri	A'ight, let’s go back for now.
Chikage	Hey. How’s the hint searching going?
Banri	We found quite a lot.
Chikage	I also found some. Let’s show each other what we got.
Izumi	These are… buildings and landscapes.
Banri	Is it like the surrounding of our destination?
Chikage	Most likely.
Izumi	I see…
Staff	Here’s your lunch boxes.
Banri	Thx.
Izumi	Thank you so much!
Chikage	Thank you.
Izumi	Fufu. Having lunch in the train sure is the best.
Banri	I know, right. Oh, this is pretty delish.
Izumi	True, it’s yummy! Even the side dishes look cute!
Chikage	If Kazunari were here, I bet he would take lots of pics and be like, “Dude, this is gonna go viral on IG!”
Banri	I’m stuffed.
Izumi	That was really delicious!
Chikage	I enjoyed the meal.
	...
	By the way, there’s another place I want to check… Can you two go with me next?
Izumi	? I don’t mind…

Chikage	Over here.
Passenger A	I dropped out.
Passenger B	Dude, you’re a total open book!
Izumi	…!? That person just now said he’d drop out, does that mean we’ll be dropping out if we go ahe–.
Chikage	We’ll be fine.
Banri	If Chikage-san says so, then we’ll be fine.
Chikage	…And so we’ve finally arrived at the last car.
Staff	Ooh! The three of you were the first ones to come here among all the passengers!
Izumi	Eh?
Staff	Please take this hint!
Chikage	Thank you.
Izumi	Uhm, what’s the meaning of this?
Chikage	The truth is, I found this on the bottom of my lunch box: “If you bring your two partners to the last car, you will find the greatest hint.”
	“However, you’ll get dropped out if they find it out.”
Izumi	Eh!?
Chikage	It’s also written here that trying to hide the fact that your partners find out about the hint is pointless.
	I suppose they always check the participants’ action.
Izumi	Is that so… That means, the participants from before dropped out because of this.
Banri	Yeah.
Chikage	I have a feeling Banri has figured it out, so I’m glad you didn’t say it out loud.
Banri	I thought you were hiding something, Chikage-san. But since it didn’t seem like you were gonna talk about it, I figured I should just keep quiet and follow you.
Izumi	(These two are apparently more in sync than I imagined.)
Chikage	Now then, the hint we just received is…
Izumi	A photo of a bunch of stores.
Chikage	This is… pretty much the answer.
Izumi	Eh?
Banri	Out of the five choices here, the answer is steam locomotives station platform.
Staff	We have arrived at our destination! Congratulations to the teams who answered correctly!
Izumi	Wow, you’re right…! This platform here has surely become a hot topic lately.
	But how could you two guess it right away just from seeing the last hint?
Banri	Director-chan, take a look at the other side.
Izumi	You mean the street across this platform? …Oh! They’re the same buildings in the photo…!
Chikage	This line of stores have been featured a lot on web articles and TV. I guess they used this as a hint since they attracted people’s attention.
Banri	Though it’s a disadvantageous hint for people who tend to get confused like you, Director-chan.
Izumi	Ugh… I’ve seen this platform on TV before, but I think I’ve never seen those stores…
Banri	Well, things like don’t matter as long as someone gets it.
Izumi	But I’ll work harder to help you a little bit more in case something happens next time.
Banri	Now you’ve done and said it. Shall we go play an escape game together next time?
	I’ll look forward to your active role.

Nids