A New Year's Challenge
- Related Event: A Clawful Caper/December 2019
- Release Date: December 31, 2019
- Featured Characters: Taro, Emma, Joe
Dialogue
the first sunrise of the year from its peak.
I had to get the inside scoop on his motivation.
Taro: I'm trying to make a wish. See, my father once told me a story...
Taro: He said that if I watch the year's first sunrise from a place close to the sun, I'll be blessed with the fortune to achieve my goals!
Taro: I'll do anything to become a first-rate samurai—so up a mountain I go!
make his fateful ascent. The place he'd set his
sights was hardly the highest peak of Kleifheim,
but it was good enough for him.
Taro: *pant* A pox on this precipitous peak... *wheeze*
Taro
Emma: We've only just begun to hike! We have to reach the summit before dawn, and you CAN do it!
Emma
Taro: How do you have so much energy?
Emma: I'm sure you'd have more if you weren't wearing all that heavy armor.
Joe: Seriously. I can't pretend to be an expert on samurai logic...
Joe: ...but you'd be way better-equipped to make the climb if you shed all those extra pounds you're carrying around.
Joe
Taro: This armor is an extension of my being! I'd sooner die than cast it aside!
Taro: I also feel like there must be an easier way to scale this mountain... Is this really the designated path?
Joe: You kidding? I'd never take the easy way up. We're on maximum difficulty here, friend! We're gonna EARN this sunrise!
Taro: WHAT?! I'm not here to thrill-seek!
Emma: But overcoming so much hardship on the trek up will make the sunrise that much more beautiful when you see it!
Taro: Why are you agreeing with him? ...Not that I necessarily disagree.
Taro: All right! I will prove that I am mightier than some mountain! Let's do this!
Taro: Urgh... Argh...
Emma: Come on, Taro! But watch your footing— if you slip and fall, it's game over!
Taro: I know! Rgh... Urrrgh!
Fiend: RAAAAAAAGH!
Taro: A fiend?! And it's huge!
Joe: Of course it is. Haven't you ever heard the saying? "The bigger the mountain, the bigger the—"
Emma: "—ants!" Er, fiends! Yeah, that one!
Taro: Please stop talking and help me fight it!
they rose to the challenge time and again.
Joe: The water level here's really high.
Emma: But not TOO high! Caulk your wagons, boys, because we're fording this river!
Taro: GAH! Cold! My armor's so heavy! Brrrrrrrr...
Taro: *pant* *pant* I can't...move...
Emma: What's wrong, Taro?! Talk to u—
at that moment? I simply had to know.
Taro: I wanted to go back to Hinomoto. That was all I could think.
Taro: But then, out of the darkness in my heart...arose a sudden burst of passion.
Taro: The desire to see the sun rise, and to win its blessings, exploded within me, pulling me to my feet!
Taro: Oh!
Joe: Welcome back.
Emma: Phew! We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off!
Taro: Ha ha. I'm sorry for worrying you.
Taro: But I'm okay now. I WILL reach the peak before dawn! Samurai's honor!
Emma: That's the spirit! I'll be cheering you on the whole way there!
Joe: Heh. Then let's get a move on, shall we?
Taro & Emma: YEAH!
Joe: We made it. There's the summit.
Taro: Whoa!
Emma: Look, Taro! The rising sun is so beautiful!
Taro: Aha ha... We made it... We made it to the mountain's peak, kissed by the rising sun!
Taro: ...Wait, this is no time to get sentimental! I need to start praying!
Taro: (O rising sun, grant me your blessings! May this be the year I become a first-rate samurai!)
Taro: Aaand done. Hm? Aren't you two going to pray?
Joe: Heh. I'll let you have all the good fortune.
Taro: I-I see. What about you, Emma?
Emma: I'm good! I only came here to support you. Besides...
Emma: I plan on praying to Apollo when I get back anyway!
Taro: ...Apollo?
Emma: He's the guardian of the town where I work. People call him an avatar of the sun.
Emma: If you go and greet him, you get the sun's blessing! I do it every year!
Taro: An avatar of the sun? The sun's blessing?!
Joe: Heh. That sounds just like what Taro here was after.
Emma: Hee hee. That's not all! He's even been known to personally come and visit warriors who train really hard!
Taro: HE DOES?!
Joe: Heh heh... Sounds like there was a much easier way for you to get the sun's blessings after all, Taro!
Taro: Somebody... Say it isn't so...!
Emma: Oh, but it IS so! I get loads of energy from Apollo every single year!
Taro: Seriously?! Everything I endured... All my passion... What was it even for?
Joe: The doom and gloom's a bit much, pal. We had some real thrills—isn't that its own reward?
Taro: MAYBE FOR YOU! NOT FOR ME!
making the hike again next year.
Taro: Well... Next year...
Taro: I'll go and see Apollo instead!
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