Case 0 Lunatics
case#0:lunatics is the first case of the Transmitter story of The Silver Case and the first chapter of the game as a whole. The chapter serves as a continuation of the events of Moonlight Syndrome and an introduction to the setting of Ward 24, the characters of the Republic task force, and the gameplay of The Silver Case.
Description
As befitting being case number zero, lunatics is more of an opening or introduction than a proper beginning to the story. Although it does feature exposition, much of the standard features of a case (such as a wider period of time, investigations with the Heinous Crimes Unit, and scenes that take place in the protagonist Akira's apartment) are not present, making case#1:decoyman more of a standard first case. Instead, all of lunatics takes place at or around the Cauliflower building in the course of a single night.
lunatics' puzzle system, in which a computer panel must be used to decode passwords, is unique to it; unlike the other cases, which have very few puzzles, the player is expected to solve several of these computer puzzles in order to proceed. lunatics is also notable for focusing on characters from Moonlight Syndrome despite the Twilight Syndrome series not being a Grasshopper Manufacture property. As such, the player is not formally introduced to these characters in any way; unless the player is aware of Moonlight Syndrome beforehand, they will not realize that they are any more than random criminals.
Summary
The case opens with a brief description of Ward 24, a special administrative region of Kanto. Home to 100,000 people, it is a city that has been divided into five Areas. Economic disparity is high, with four-fifths of the population classified as poor. However, the main source of tension in Ward 24 is the division between those who can easily access information and those who cannot. Crime is on the rise, information about them is disseminated through the media, and mayor Kaoru Hachisuka enters his fifth term.
A division of the Police Department known as the Heinous Crimes Unit, led by Shinji Kotobuki, exists specifically to eradicate "transmittable crimes". One night, Tetsugoro Kusabi, an HC Unit agent known as "the man who arrested Kamui" due to his actions in the case known as the Silver Case, was driving home.
Friday, January 29, 1999, 11:32PM
Tetsugoro Kusabi drives along a long stretch of road in Area E3 by a river. He complains about the music on the radio, but expresses confusion at how long the road is, apparently having thought it to be shorter. As he continues to drive, he suddenly gets a bad feeling, before seeing somebody standing in front of him on the road. He slams on the brakes to see who it is, and sees a young man standing right in the middle of the road carrying a severed head.
As Tetsu squints to make out the details of what he's holding, he notices the man, Ryo, pull out a gun and point it at him. Tetsu just barely dodges his head to the side in time to miss the bullet when Ryo pulls the trigger. Ryo disappears, but Tetsu decides to track him down. He turns on the police radio and calls back to the 24 Precinct. Chizuru Hachisuka picks up. Tetsu asks if Sumio Kodai is present, but Chizuru informs him that Sumio already left. Tetsu relays the situation and tells Chizuru to call in the closest units available. She manages to contact Republic, a special forces team led by a man Tetsu knows, Daigo Natsume. Tetsu continues driving, and Chizuru manages to pinpoint where Ryo fled to: a railroad satellite building named Cauliflower. He heads to the scene.
More information is given about Ward 24. It is described how Mayor Hachisuka implemented anti-conflict government reforms that distributed the city's departments among the remnants of two factions, TRO and CCO. Of these factions, however, the Department of Security was divided into two: the Police Department and the Security Department. The former, which contains the HC Unit, was given to the former TRO, while the latter, which contains Republic, was given to the former CCO. Republic was established to compete with the HC Unit, and Daigo Natsume, a Regional Investigation Unit investigator who was involved with the Silver Case along with Kusabi and Kotobuki, was given the position of commander. He then scouted three recruits: Kenichi Sakamoto, Haruhiko Inomata, and Akira. Now, they begin their first real mission.
Saturday, January 30, 1999, 12:15AM
Republic's van is driving along the same road, en route to the Cauliflower building. Commander Daigo Natsume briefs his three recruits by describing the situation so far. He says that he had wanted this mission to be kept under wraps, and tells them not to make contact with Tetsu if they don't have to. His instructions for the mission are to locate the target, Ryo, lead him to the roof, and dispose of him. Sakamoto and Inomata ask a few brief questions to understand their task, and they drive onward.
In the back of the van, Sakamoto and Inomata talk among themselves. Inomata seems to be in a panic over the mission. Sakamoto tries to calm him down, but admits that he's scared, himself. He remarks on their memories of training, and recalls that it was the first time Akira, who is sitting by them silently, fired real bullets. But Sakamoto recounts that he had fired bullets before, back when he was in a crime syndicate. He was assigned by his syndicate to assassinate Tsubaki, but he fired recklessly and missed every shot. Police officers surrounded him, including Daigo Natsume, who chose him to be a part of Republic. He says that Akira and Inomata were picked up in some similar way, and the van drives on as he affirms their loyalty to the commander.
12:29AM
Kusabi pulls up next to Cauliflower in his car, ahead of Republic. They pull up shortly thereafter. Natsume continues to brief his soldiers, saying that he will instruct them over the radio as they move in. After they enter, he talks with Tetsu. They remark on their pasts, and the jobs they've found themselves in. Tetsu refers to the soldiers of Republic as the next generation, and asks Natsume how his daughter, Sakura Natsume, is doing. Daigo says that Sakura will be graduating college this year. Sakamoto interrupts over the radio, and Natsume returns to commanding. Tetsu vows to back them up as well.
Within Cauliflower, Akira, Sakamoto and Inomata have entered the first floor. Natsume instructs them on movement positions over the radio. He yells at Inomata for moving recklessly, and once he's got Sakamoto and Inomata in position, he instructs Akira - the player - on how to move around in the game world. He tells him to investigate a plate up ahead, but when he examines it, it seems to not be of any use. Sakamoto finds a lightswitch and turns it on. Akira is instructed to investigate a nearby control panel, but Inomata sees someone on a higher floor and decides on his own to ascend the building. Natsume allows him to do it, but implies that it's his own fault if he dies due to recklessness.
Akira examines the control panel, and finds it to be a computer terminal that can decode codes. He also finds an issue of Comic Beam on the ground that advertises a model named Sayaka Baian. Finding nothing else of interest, Akira ascends to the second floor himself. Natsume says that he's no longer able to pinpoint Inomata due to a device blocking his tracking technology. Natsume tells Sakamoto to go and find Inomata to back him up. Akira finds the doors on the second floor to be locked with codes, but by using the control panel's decoding system, he is able to unlock them. In one room, he finds a Handy Panel, a portable version of the control panel. In the other, he and Sakamoto find a girl.
This girl, Rumi Toba, is sitting on the ground, saying something about someone named Mika. Sakamoto assesses her and finds her to be mostly unharmed, but Rumi just panics. Sakamoto is unable to calm her down, so they decide to move on to the third floor. They find Inomata, who has been shot in the shoulder. He's unable to move his arm, so Sakamoto relieves him and sends him out of the building. He tells him to pick up the survivor girl they found on the way down. Inomata tells Akira about Ryo, saying that he's acting like he's enjoying the risk of death, and requesting Akira to kill him.
In another room, Akira and Sakamoto find a corpse of a young woman. Sakamoto vows to kill Ryo for this, but when they try to unlock the door leading higher up, they find that the system of the codes has been tampered with. Sakamoto tries to call Inomata to ask him to take a look at the control panel, but is met only with silence. He takes matters into his own hands, telling Akira to stay there. As he descends, he calls Akira and tells him that he can't find Inomata or Rumi; they've both vanished. When he reaches the bottom, he restores the code system, but finds that the code to the door has been changed. They eventually successfully guess that it has changed to the name of the model from the comic magazine: Sayaka Baian.
Akira goes through the door and out onto the roof of the Cauliflower building, with the full moon overhead behind some clouds. Natsume calls him on the radio and warns him that he is unable to pinpoint Ryo. Akira explores the roof and finds a ladder leading up into a small room. There, he runs into Rumi, who is holding a head and panicking for help. Natsume advises Akira not to bother with them because Ryo is hiding nearby. Akira descends the ladder and circles around the roof again, and the clouds pass away from in front of the moon. Ryo appears, clicking his gun and pointing it straight at Akira.
Ryo screams incoherently about killing Akira, having killed other people, and protecting Mika. Natsume shouts at Akira to shoot his gun, but he doesn't move and Ryo continues to babble, this time saying that he doesn't want to do this and asking for help himself. As he screams, he is suddenly shot by Kusabi, who walks onto the scene. Sakamoto appears as well, asking Kusabi not to get involved due to it not falling under his jurisdiction. They argue as Ryo lies on the ground dying. Natsume arrives to clear up the conflict and tells off Sakamoto for questioning someone like Kusabi.
Kusabi changes the conversation and singles out Akira, calling him "the one that looks like a chinchilla". He asks him why he didn't fire at Ryo before, warning him that he can get killed hesitating like that. He goes on to decry criminals like Ryo, and shoots his body five more times. Only after doing so, he asks Sakamoto if he even knows why they're killing him. Unsatisfied with the answer of "he's a killer", Kusabi says that they dispose of them to stop them from spreading crime like a virus.
He goes to leave, when Ryo re-appears as an apparition, continuing to babble nonsensically. Kusabi shouts that this is a demon brought on by Ryo's criminal power. He asks Akira if he can shoot him, but instead, another person shoots - Rumi Toba, sitting on the sidelines with the head in her lap and Ryo's gun in her hand. Rumi yells at the detectives to leave them alone. Sakamoto points his gun at her forehead as she speaks, its laser sight slowly coming into focus. Rumi continues to ask for help while admitting that she killed a woman, seemingly the corpse found earlier. She then screams that she'll kill everyone, before going back into strange babbling, this time saying that with the sound of bells, they will be reborn along with Kamui, the god of chaos.
After she is shot, Tetsu muses on Kamui, having seemingly understood her words.
Trivia
- The song referenced on the end card, Vanishing Point by New Order, has lyrics that refer to the kind of twisted teenage relationships that are key to both lunatics and Moonlight Syndrome. They also refer to a "sleeping demon", which is similar to how Kamui is spoken of by Rumi and Kusabi.
- In the HD version of the game, a second issue of Comic Beam has been added to the roof of Cauliflower, this time being a real one featuring Kurayami Dance. Although it has no use in gameplay, collecting both issues will grant the player an achievement.
- A partial version of this case was released for free as a demo for the HD version of the game. This version of the case ends when Akira is stepping out onto the roof. Save files from the demo can be used in the full game.
| The Silver Case | |||||||
| Transmitter | case#0:lunatics · case#1:decoyman · case#2:spectrum · case#3:parade · case#4:kamuidrome · case#5:lifecut · case#!:danwa · case#25:whiteout prologue | ||||||
| Placebo | report*1:YUME · report*2:HANA · report*3:TSUKI · report*4:AI · report*5:HIKARI · report*6:YAMI | ||||||
| Extra material | Pre-Lunatics · placebo prequel · case#4.5:face | ||||||