Dearly❤beloveD (Week 3, Day 2)

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or character details follow.

Week 3, Day 2
Title	Dearly❤beloveD
Protagonists	Rindo Fret Nagi Beat Shoka
In-Game Description	Another day goes by as the Plague Noise continues to spread throughout Shibuya. Worried by Shiba’s plan, Shoka seeks out Ayano, only to discover her dear friend has taken the Noise inside her own body in a desperate attempt to bring Shoka back to her.
Objective	Sudden Death: Defeat Shiba Miyakaze / Help Ayano Kamachi
Previous day	SuDDeN DeaTH
Next day	re:START

Dearly❤beloveD is a day in NEO: The World Ends with You.

Synopsis

Shoka Sakurane asks the Twisters to help her Reaper friend Ayano Kamachi who is infected with Plague Noise. When they meet her, even a Dive cannot manage the level of Noise infection, and Rindo is forced to use Replay to ensure that Shoka is prepared to erase her dearest friend. As Ayano is erased, it's revealed that she voluntarily absorbed a lethal level of Plague Noise herself in an attempt to have Shoka return to help her in order to persuade her to rejoin the Reapers.

Plot

Rindo has a vision of Nagi Usui and Shoka Sakurane screaming as if in danger. When he awakes, Shoka tells him that the Reverb is leaving people soul-dead throughout the city and the sky is showing closer and closer signs of an Inversion. She also says that she has recieved a message from Ayano Kamachi claiming that she has become infected with Reverb. The Twisters are shocked that Shiba would attack a Shinjuku Reaper with Plague Noise, and Shoka asks if they could try to help Ayano as a favour to her, which they agree to.

After meeting up with Hishima Sakazuki again and chasing a Support Reaper through several spots around the city, the Twisters eventually meet Ayano in Miyashita Park. She explains that she voluntarily absorbed Noise to encourage Shoka to meet her, and tries to pursuade Shoka to rejoin the Reapers to start a new life. Shoka encourages Negi to use Dive and they do so, learning several of Ayano's memories, in which she helped mentor Shoka when she first became a Reaper after winning the game, promised to mediate with Shiba and keep her safe. She then mentions a change in Tsugumi Matsunae's personality, a "him" who keeps talking about destruction, and a promise to keep Shoka safe and "make him pay". At that point, the Plague Noise start to overwhelm Ayano and the Dive exits. Shoka begs Negi to attempt to Dive a second time, but she is unable to do so, saying that the Noise is deafening. Ayano apparently attacks Shoka before Replay activates.

Going back in time, Rindo revisits the day's conversations with Shoka, learning about her background and the Shinjuku Reapers, and that Shiba was involved in erasing Shinjuku but many of the Reapers did not agree with this, but were forced to go with his orders. He is able to convince Shoka that it may be necessary to directly fight Ayano, and they return to the park where they do fight Ayano's noise form. Winning the fight clears the Plague Noise briefly, and Shoka briefly embraces Ayano who calls her "my darling" as she is erased.

Kaichi "Susukichi" Susuki arrives, claiming that he intended to help protect Ayano, but is glad that he's been able to see her again briefly and states that no-one could have survived the level of Noise infection she absorbed; that she must have been willing to do anything to reunite with Shoka. He then tells them that while they have been doing this, Plague Noise have flooded the city, and even erasing them by Diving will not remove the Reverb they caused.

The afterpiece shows that the effects of Reverb have been noticed in the RG, and named "Shibuya Syndrome".

Walkthrough

There are multiple possible routes which will work to persuade Shoka. What follows is the "perfect route", which will net the player one reward per scene. Rewards will only be received the first time the player achieves the perfect route for a scene.

• How to fight her
• If they're practically family
• If they helped each other out
• Say we might be too late

• If Ayano did something to him
• If they trusted each other
• Assure her I'm here for her
• "I've got your back."

• If they came to destroy Shibuya
• If they like it here
• If she never adjusted
• What makes the city special

• When she became a Reaper
• What happens after becoming one
• Her favorite thing about the city
• "I'm here for you."

• "You know what I want to say"
• "I know you don't want to fight"
• "It's up to you how we handle this"
• "I'm on your side"

Noise

For Ayano's Noise form, see Iris Cantus.

Notes

• The day's title, "Dearly Beloved", is most likely a reference to a popular music piece in the Kingdom Hearts series. Previously, there was also a Kingdom Hearts reference with the option of "simple and clean" on one of the past days.
  • This only applies in the English version, as the Japanese version calls this day "Butterflies, Flowers", so it is likely it is just the English localizers having some fun with inserting Kingdom Hearts references.
• Susukichi uses another Reversi term - "making a loud move", which refers to a move which offers the opponent a large number of responses.
• You will gain the City Walker achievement on this Day, since it is impossible to visit Miyashita Park any earlier, and impossible to reach this day without having visiting everywhere else.