Let’s Blog: Ar Tonelico III – #12: Star-Crossed Lovers

I’ve renumbered the blog entries as well as merged a few of them. They don’t correspond exactly to the PVs anymore, meaning I can put them in order and not have weird point-five entries. (This one would have been 14.25 or something.) Note the index on the right, which links to the Nicovideos.

This entry covers the cutscene after having searched around Tokoshie Canopy for Finnel.

Spoilers, as usual.

After going into a couple locations in town to look for Finnel (restaurant, inn, Dive Shop) you’ll see a cutscene outside where the group meets up again, and Saki complains that Finnel’s nowhere to be found. Aoto wonders if she left town, and asks Tatsumi to look after Saki for a bit before heading off on his own.

Without returning control to the player, Aoto runs a short distance along Fallen Heaven Road to find Finnel standing on a hilltop. He calls to get her attention, and tells her everyone was searching for her. “You were worried?” replies Finnel. “Of course we were, since you went off on a walk without telling anyone,” says Aoto.

Finnel seems about to apologize, but then bursts out angrily that she’s not a child and doesn’t need everyone to look after her.

Aoto drops the subject, and asks what Finnel is doing out here. She replies that she just wanted to stargaze for a while, and asks him if he’s heard of the ancient method of fortune-telling from the stars, called “Hoshimeguri” (星巡り). If you know someone’s true name and the month of their birth, you can divine their luck, fate in love, and so forth. Aoto remarks “Huh, so you had a refined interest like that,” annoying Finnel with his choice of words.

She points to a star and identifies it as the Hokushousei (北翔星, something like ‘north-flying star’), the brightest star in the sky, which is the place from which Hoshimeguri begins. She then asks Aoto when he was born, and he replies it was in the twelfth month of the year.

Finnel says that long ago, the twelfth month was known as “Suzunomiya” (珠洲の宮). She was born in the third month, which was “Soutentei” (蒼天帝). She explains that the month in which one was born determines the direction one proceeds, and the length of their name determines the amount they measure to find their ‘fated star’. If the ‘fated stars’ are compatible with one another, than it’s a prophecy of love.

Aoto remarks that she has a surprising amount of knowledge, and Finnel says that since longs ago, whenever she was troubled or in pain, she would gaze at the stars. Aoto walks up beside her on the hill, and also gazes at them for a moment. He says that the stars certainly are beautiful… but everyone is worried about her, and they should go back.

Finnel stops him, having one last thing to say. “Um… Aoto… y-you… know… true…” she stammers (a clumsy rendition in English of what I took as Finnel attempting to ask Aoto’s true name, but Aoto understanding as her trying to confess the truth about something.) He replies, “Is it about Soma?”, causing her to gasp. “He’s you, isn’t he?” Aoto says. Finnel runs closer, and begs him desperately not to tell anyone.

Aoto asks her, “What are you hiding, Finnel? I’m half in doubt, and don’t really understand anything… please tell me.” She quietly replies, “A month ago, I lived in Clusternia… I don’t understand why I’m like this, but there’s another me inside me, that isn’t me…” Aoto grasps that she has a similar condition to Saki’s, and asks her why she attacked them as Soma, but she doesn’t know.

Aoto replies, “Why? You’re Soma, aren’t you?”, causing her to shout tearfully, “It’s not as if I like this body!… I don’t enjoy killing people! I don’t enjoy causing trouble for you!” She explains that she has no control over herself at those times, and her conscious will has nothing to do with it.

“I’m scared…” continues Finnel. “I’m always so scared… I’ve never told anyone, but time after time… I’ve thought that I wanted to die…” Aoto apologizes, and tells her she doesn’t need to say anything more. He says that whenever she’s tired of thinking about it herself, she can ask him to watch the stars together with her.

Aoto continues that he was surprised when she confessed she’s from Clusternia, but isn’t worried about it. “And being a waitress by day and an assassin by night… it sounds kinda like that weekly feature on Teremo, ‘The Killer Maid’…” he continues flippantly. Finnel interrupts him quietly. “Stay with me…” she says. “I don’t want to be alone and scared and in pain again… Please, Aoto… will you stay with me? Forever and ever?”

Somewhat awkwardly, Aoto replies that he will. “But, you have to be my… my servant,” he adds, shocking Finnel. After complaining a bit, she eventually agrees to it when Aoto seems to be serious. “Are you sure you aren’t just saying what I want to hear?” asks Aoto. “Ugh… n, not at all, Master!!” replies Finnel.

Aoto chuckes and says, “In return, I’ll try to figure out what Soma’s objective is.” He says that regardless of what happens or what’s inside her, they’ll look for clues together. “Oh, and that ‘servant’ business was half a joke.” “H-half?!” stammers Finnel.

Aoto says they should be getting back, but Finnel stops him one more time. “I want to… do Hoshimeguri with you…” she says. Aoto explains awkwardly that people usually only tell their true names to their family or life partner. Finnel mutters “…I… I see… and you can’t see as many stars from here as you can on the Tower, so I guess we wouldn’t be able to do it properly anyway…”

For a third time Aoto says that everyone’s worried and they should return to town. Finnel tells him to go ahead; she needs a little more time alone to collect her thoughts. As she watches him leave, she murmurs “Life… partner, huh…?”

Despite still not getting all the way through the current PV, I need to stop here to consult a more fluent friend on what exactly is going on in the next part of the cutscene.

Tags: ar tonelico, ar tonelico 3, gust, jrpg