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gren-arlio · 21 days ago

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This is what the people wanted. You ask, I'll try my best to give. Welcome to Episode 15 of Waku Puyo Extras, Super Schezo Edition. I've been waiting for this.

(I saved this for this exact moment.)

Hey guys, Gren here, and welcome to Episode 15 of Waku Puyo Extras, this time a pinned edition for the time being. A post this long deserves some limelight, you know? This took me so, SO many months to write...

If you want the Google Doc version of this (Has more photos), you can find it here.

And here:

I've been doing this stuff for about a year now, and the poll from about...August of 2024... told me to do this exact thing, and thus, I'll do this exact thing: Schezo and his many, MANY friendships throughout the entire series. My apologies for such a long wait, not only is this post pretty long... I kinda began college as well, so I have less time on my hands than usual, but alas. I post like one to three times a month anyways. I should change that someday. This is far and away my longest project ever.

This entire thing will cover Schezo's friendships and encounters throughout the series, and I do want to mention his meaningful friendships, people who can properly interact with the guy and talk to, and actually have stuff to TALK about, while also mentioning some characters that have moments with him, while not exactly having a big dynamic. Imagine this as both looking back at history and me explaining what I think about it.

Oh, and don't treat my words as absolute. This is a guy merely mentioning stuff he knows about and whatnot. I'm not the Be All End All. As well, this stuff also has my personal opinion in it. If my opinion of a character clashes with yours, I'm sorry.

Also, and this'll become more apparent throughout the work itself, I CANNOT COVER EVERY GAME AND POSSIBLE INTERACTION. Not only will that absolutely execute me, but not every interaction is meaningful or has something funny to it. I'm sorry to the Puyo Puyo Chronicle fans that realize that their game isn't talked about as much as… let's say Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, but going through everything will be a herculean task I won't be able to do. My apologies. As well, there could be a mistake here and there, there’s so much to cover that I’m bound to flub something up. Human nature, after all.

This also covers Puzzle Pop, so major spoilers for that.

With that, I hope you enjoy. This is...a super long post. This is for sure gonna be pinned until I finish Arle's Route. Jesus Christ, this took...too many months. Blame college, finals, and a whooooooole lot of essay writing.

Dear God, why did I do this, he's like my 5th favorite character, lmao

---- So where do we begin with the guy?

Amazing question. Honestly, for those who ain't gonna read the entire thing, and I don't blame you, there's going to be so much stuff to read that you'd probably die from boredom, but here's some characters that'll be covered throughout this entire post:

This'll be broken down into sections, since there's going to be many, MANY characters covered (Much to my hands dismay of typing all of this), so I'm going to sorta make a table of contents for this stuff. I'll try to keep this clean. No promises though.

And I'll just mention here, I know I write a lot about Waku Puyo, but all of this post will be about the games as a whole, not JUST Waku Puyo, so...heads up on that.

Well, Here's a table of contents for people who want to see a specific dynamic (or what's in store) :

Compile Characters:

Arle & Carbuncle

Rulue (And Minotauros by proxy)

Satan (Woah, the ARS...)

Lagnus Bisashi

Witch

Draco

Serilly

The Kikimora's

Suketoudara

Honey Bee (Mostly a manga thing.)

Incubus/Succubus

Skeleton-T

Doppelganger Schezo (Waku Puyo spoilers but like... it's a 26 year old Japanese exclusive game.)

Runelord

SEGA Characters:

Ringo And Ecolo

Amitie

Klug and Sig

Lemres

Now...that's a lot of characters, isn't it? About 20 or so named ones that are relevant to this, not including miscellaneous stuff. Just letting you know once again, I CANNOT COVER EVERYTHING. There's way too much. As well, each entry will cover as many notable interactions they had throughout the series, and then at the end of each entry, covering any differences throughout, and I’ll explain what I think each dynamic is as a whole at the end, and what I personally think of their dynamic. There’s a lot to cover, but this thing is already going to be long enough. But I think a good place to start is the man himself.

Who IS Schezo Wegey?

(Ah. This guy.)

Schezo, someone who's written to be sometimes a joke, sometimes serious, whatever it is, it attracts people. What can I say about this guy that probably hasn't already been said? Probably not much, but I can sure as hell recant stuff.

The guy's a gifted person, no doubt about that. In most terms of the word, he's a prodigy at what he does, a talented mage who usually knows what he's doing with his magic. However, most people know him for his major slip ups in wording, his innuendos are basically his legacy at this point. From the simple eras of "I want you!" to whatever in the world he's saying to people in Puzzle Pop, it's what people know him for inside and outside the community. I mean, do we need to mention how we was in Puyo Puyo Tetris?

This was probably most of our introduction to the guy, and it for sure left a mark on most of us. Sure as hell did for me. Now look at me, writing this because people asked.

Besides that, he's quite the loner, preferring to be by himself rather than being with a group of people, though he's not against talking to people. How else would he have friends? He does strive to become stronger, though back then, he used to do it by just taking other people's magic and tries to take Arle's all the time, but alas, nowadays he just sorta trains, which I thinks alludes to the point that he's trying to make his own power for the most part.

He's usually blunt, being pretty serious about most things he talks about. I mean, most of the time people run into the guy, he's doing his own thing and asks what in the WORLD do they want from him now, which can lead into teasing from close friends. Though usually, he's not opposed to working with others if the cause is big enough. Think wanting to beat up Satan with Arle in Puyo 20th Anniversary, or working with Arle in Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2. Or if you want to go even further back, when him, Arle, and Rulue team up against the Phantom God in Chaotic Final Exam. Granted that ended with him making a realm by himself and then him getting zapped by something, get called presumed dead, and then we're told he was just sent to the start of the dungeon with no memory of the current events...so I'd say the threat was pretty big, yeah.

I say usually because Madou Saturn continues to be the odd one out. He's lazy, doesn't want to help people, and is more of a legit pervert who sometimes messes up his words than... a man who messes up his words all the time, but has a totally well-mannered meaning...for the most part. He does get better at the last third of the game though, when he DOES properly join you.

Despite all this apparently aloofness and whatnot, I think he's by a good margin the most bullied and teased dude in the entire series, probably next to Satan. With everything mentioned + his pretty mixed wording when he gets excited, it becomes stupid easy to tease him. Arle and Rulue do it on an almost weekly basis, Witch follows in his steps in some games (and we're told to think she might be more serious about what she's saying than Schezo,) Satan and him insult each other all the time, list goes on. Despite the demeanor, the dude is very likely to get bullied. And do I even need to mention how ANYONE and EVERYONE can/will call him a pervert? He really can't catch a break no matter how hard he really tries.

But as we know, he's not just a blunt man who fumbles his wording every so often. As history has shown us, he loves cute animals as a whole. Tenori Zoh in Madou Monogatari: Tower of the Magician (TOTM), Onion Pixie and Dongurigaeru from SEGA Puyo are three examples. Even powerful people can't resist cute creatures.

Schezo is a character that’s best for getting beaten down, or somehow having the odds stacked against him, yet still persists through. Yeah, he’s seen as a joke to most of his friends and rivals, but there’s no joking matter when it comes to his skills and talents. He’s already strong on his own, yet even then, while trying to get others' powers to fuel his own, he’s already quite talented. It’s just that in Puyo, that… won’t exactly get you far.

Now with all of that info...Lets talk about his friendships and interactions with others. You may have noticed that I didn't bring up the games much, and that's due to all of that going into these entries. Trust me, it'll make sense later. Now, we start with...

Arle & Carbuncle:

(The benefits of this stuff being based off, what, 30 years of history? I can use many-a-photos from different eras.)

The protagonist of Compile, the main face of the series, what other things do I really need to describe Arle? Probably a whole lot more, but we don't have to worry about all of that, we're talking FRIENDSHIPS here, folks. Dynamics, if you will.

On Arle's end, she's an energetic gal who's always up for an adventure, but also just gets thrown into a lot of stuff just because said adventure is always going to end and be something wild. She always has that darn Carbuncle guy around her at all times, too. Witty, sarcastic at times, jokes around a bit, honestly I like her character. She's probably my favorite of the A girls, then it's probably Ringo. Despite what I've stated, yes, she does in fact have friends, and is a pretty kind person overall. She's willing to help someone if they really need it, but oftentimes she's seen as a more whimsical and carefree person than anything. Modern games tend to make her more of a straight-man to the cast than usual, often being the voice of reason compared to most of the lunatics in the series, Schezo being no different, but much less insane. Doesn't mean she herself isn't silly, far from it.

It's pretty clear from throughout the games that...it differs quite a bit, but there's underlying elements that stay the same. Stuff like Schezo wanting to take Arle's latent magical abilities, Arle teasing Schezo over his fumbles, that sorta stuff, that's been consistent for like 20 years at this point. However, the interactions they have throughout the series at least demonstrate that they're good friends. He cares for Arle, he just doesn't want to say it. However, modern games has Schezo just wanting some peace and quiet in his life, and Arle oftentimes just running into him by chance at this point. They're willing to work together too if the job demands it. Here, he proves that he's actually a pretty smart guy.

With Carbuncle... He's a very jolly fellow. As for being the original pet of Satan that's now gone to Arle, Carbuncle kinda just brings along some sorta hijinks due to the amount of random circumstances. And with Schezo hating Satan and trying to get Arle's magic... I mean, my point should stand, right?

COMPILE:

We can skip over Madou 2 for the most part, since there's not exactly much to cover besides it being the originator of Schezo being called a pervert, as well as his famous PC98 decapitation screen (Which is treated more like a gag than anything. PC98 was odd.)

However, he WAS still a villain in a way for Madou 2. I will say that. But we can instead talk about games that I DO have knowledge in, as well as how the dynamics are. Starting with...Madou Saturn.

Now, some of us know that Schezo's writing in the game ranges from genuinely great to some of the worst we've seen. IMO, he's alright, some parts don't make sense, but others work just fine. I enjoy the aspect of him being sorta a gray ground for most of the game, before turning to your side when there's absolutely no other choice, it's nice that he does that. And in this game, Arle does try to go to Schezo for help, since...you know, the world is kinda in the midst of danger because of course it is, and Schezo just kinda declines it all. He sees it all as a waste of time, something he shouldn't be concerning himself over for a majority of the game.

The acts of heroicness she sometimes sees him do, or giving tips/advice to Arle, isn't even Schezo himself doing it for the most part, if any part, but rather Lagnus taking control of his body for limited periods of time. Since he's a pure dark mage and Lagnus can only withstand his magic for so long. So his acts of goodness is from a completely different person who's controlling his body, but Arle still sees it as Schezo being odd for quite a good bit of the game.

(And even then, he still doesn't care as much as Arle, Rulue, and Lagnus does. Or at the very least, doesn't care/know much about how bad it can truly be.)

He only learns to give a damn after he realizes that maybe this Yoggus thing WILL end the world as he knows it, and maybe he should actually help Arle, Rulue, and Lagnus (Who we'll get to later). He's selfish, leaving problems to be solved by other people because simply put, why should he care? It doesn't concern him. It's not his problem. He only grows to care because he realizes that it COULD affect him, and then he finally decides to help. He doesn't care much, if at all about Arle, and Arle kinda just sees him as a jerk who's willing to help when it's needed, but is happy when he finally caves in. Though she WAS confused throughout due to Lagnus shenanigans, so there's that.

But that's just one real outing of the guy. He's not always going to be like this. Lets be real, there's many, MANY other games where he's notable or at least is vastly different compared to this game. In Puyo SUN, while they don't work together, they do have a common goal: Stop Satan's hooliganry with the sun because it's NOT going well for everyone else, have you seen the horrors that Draco had to go through? Sure, Arle and Schezo still fight, but at least they had a common goal. In Arle's Travel Log, he takes the role of the leader of the Shinsengumi, you can read up on it here. (Made by yours truly.) In Game Gear Madou, he keeps appearing more and more tired before he just falls down and collapses. He's willing to help when the time comes down to it like in Saturn/Chaotic Final Exam. So he's not ALL gloom and doom.

Here's Waku Puyo:

How about we look at the game I always talk about? Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, a game that...well, if you follow me around, probably know. Arle and Schezo are there for different reasons; Arle to just play around and have fun, Schezo to regain his lost magic after the Space-Time Crystal took almost all of it to become Doppelganger Schezo. Their first interaction, before the game even starts, has Schezo wondering why she's even here, while Arle merely asks why he's going alone. They're there for different reasons, yet somehow met up in this amusement park. Schezo briefly mentions the fact that if you do all the attractions, you'll get a "Great Magical Item", before simply leaving Arle be and entering the park.

A majority of the time Schezo meets Arle, there's no real animosity with them, with more or less the banter we expect from them, what with Arle teasing him for small stuff, and Schezo getting upset at it because he finds it annoying. Or even just some silly stuff. A notable example is when Schezo sees Arle, and goes deep into thought about why he always has trouble with women, realizing why he has this trouble, says he's ready to take Arle's magic, and BAM. Carbuncle shoots him with a beam, shocking Arle. Stuff like that happens in this game.

When the Ultimate Tower is finally rises after collecting every orb (as well as doing every single route and completing the Satan boss fight...Yikes.), there's quite a good amount of dialog to go around with many of the Compile cast I plan to cover, but Arle's proves to be an interesting one. They run into each other once again, but Arle is still clueless about what exactly Schezo is looking for. He tries to explain but stops himself midway through, and Arle calls it out and asks why. Agitated, Schezo merely leaves, realizing he doesn't want to waste time.

But the second talk is much more interesting. Schezo asks Arle why she even WANTS the treasure, and she replies by saying: "I'm not here for the treasure, I'm just here to have fun." And this...really annoys Schezo, even more so when she jokingly says that maybe she'll search as well. He coldly tells her that he doesn't care for her anymore, and now ARLE is annoyed at Schezo, saying something's been off about him the entire time.

Schezo, annoyed as well, mentions that he's here to find his lost self (the magic), and doesn't need to be nagged by a girl who's merely here to have fun and play around. Both annoyed, she leaves, calling Schezo a massive jerk, before Schezo realizes that he came off as harsh. Alone, he apologies to Arle, trying to say something, but realizing it's fruitless. The end of the game, after PuyoPuyo Land literally BLOWS UP due to Doppelganger Schezo, Schezo seemingly is relived that Arle and the others are okay, and Arle says that he's not really a pervert. Just a...really, really weird guy who blew up the park that she wanted to play around in more. After Schezo calls Carbuncle annoying after arguing with Rulue AND Satan, all three of them chase the guy down after he says he has no time to deal with stuff like this, shouting what's going on in pure confusion.

Here, he doesn't hate Arle, merely finding her a little annoying at times. He has enough empathy to care about how she feels near the end of the game, at least after he yells at her for just being there to play. Arle on the other hand...is here to play, and gets annoyed when Schezo blows up the entire park. But she doesn't HATE him, rather just seeing him as odd. This is even reflected upon in Arle's route (Which as of writing this, I've yet to finish writing up.) where Arle merely sees Schezo as odd, wondering why he's even at Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, though jokes about the fact that he might be there to pick up women.

SEGA Era:

Now that we finally reached the SEGA era after...god knows how many paragraphs of info (And a whole lot more that I'm missing, Yon, BOX...I'm just trying to include stuff that has a lot to cover).

A good place to begin would be, well, 15th Anniversary, where they finally see each other again after god knows how long. I am skipping Minna because...it's just kinda Arle being a douche to Schezo. But 15th is just a reunion for the guys, since he was absent from the Fever games and she made it in. And truth be told, in Arle's route at least she's happy to see him, even IF it's Schezo. She even asks him to repeat his classic "I want you" line for old times sake. It's kinda just...nice.

Lets just say in Schezo's story, "Cafe Au Lait" really is a delicacy.

(I love how so many of the image quality range from pretty decent to abysmal. Welcome to Tumblr.)

Fast forward to 20th Anniversary, the dynamic is more or less back to what it was beforehand. No real animosity, just teasing on Arle end. much to Schezo's annoyance. They do sort of team up to figure out what Satan's up to in both their routes and in the final story, once again showing that level of trust towards each other underneath the bickering. This sorta stuff continues throughout most of the other games; Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 has them team up to help save Rulue, and even tells her that Satan isn't even the enemy this time. Sure, she doesn't believe him at first, but he's pretty confident in his assumption and is right on it too.

Schezo also appears again as an illusion during some training arc for the A Girls and Tetra crew, alongside Satan and Rulue as well. Here, Schezo says that they're basically rivals, and beats Satan and Rulue in Rock Paper Scissors, truly rocking their world. Just a fun little convo.

Puyo Tetris 2 does the same thing but adds so much more to the dynamic, it's very fun. Schezo meets Arle and realizes that Schezo himself is just... well, himself, rather than possessed like everyone else. With the classic banter and Schezo telling people he's legit trying to get better at wording, he accompanies Arle throughout a bit of the story. After saving Witch, he tells her that he did in fact meet Marle, and that she was strong, but he was stronger, yet felt like she held back. She probably did. He even continues to accompany her since Marle is doing something awful: Ruining his quiet time.

Even when encountering Rulue, he maintains an air of respect, which is insane. And when the entire team has to do some sorta challenges before meeting Squares, Schezo and Arle have to fight again for said challenge, with Schezo adamantly saying they're rivals and Arle... saying otherwise, much to his shock and sadness. Progress. Finally.

God, Tetris 2 was such a good step in the right direction...

Puzzle Pop also helps with their dynamic so much more. Arle runs into Schezo while everyone is in the Dream World created by Meena, and while talking, Schezo was able to deduce a good amount of the story: Someone for sure asked for some power by another person, but because of said power, nobody is really able to leave either, surprising Arle, as she forgot he can legit be really smart and catch onto things easily. He’s even doing better on catching HIMSELF from his innuendos. She also accuses him of being someone else, as per the plot of the game, but he’s the real deal, and decides to tag along with her since he can help.

While wondering who could be the culprit of this whole dream world nonsense, they have an idea of who it could be… Rulue. Kinda. Schezo devises the Rulue Finding Plan, and makes Arle say some embarrassing nonsense about Satan for her to appear instantly. The oldest tricks in the books never fail anyone.

After ALL of that, Schezo wonders something that Arle feared: What if Carbuncle himself is the culprit of all of this? Now it’s just a theory for Schezo, but it never hurts to wonder and ask. And Arle does the investigation herself into if Carby is guilty or not, and jury comes out… and he’s innocent.

They even run into Ecolo for this thing… but I’ll save that up for Ecolo himself. After some things I’ll mention in that part of this entire thing, Arle says he’s not the culprit, but he is in a way, and after everything, Schezo heads off on his own accord, mostly to get intel on his own and he doesn’t like groups. Which Arle is fine with, and even knows he’ll be OK.

Carbuncle Section:

As Arle is always seen with Carbuncle, while there's not too much to discuss, I do want to mention that Schezo sometimes takes curiosity in Carbuncle, or Carbuncle decides to act silly and goofy and completely ruin or question his day overall. What do I mean by this, I hear you ask?

Well this is the only time I'll really mention it, the Puyo SUN shorts had a funny little thing between them. Schezo falls asleep because he's just one tired guy, and when he wakes up, he can't exactly find his sword, and looks all over for it. Arle walks on by and wonders what Schezo is looking for, and he makes an excuse to run away. Arle looks at Carbuncle, and while she's brushing it off, she sees the Dark Sword shaped object inside of Carbuncle, and is understandably confused.

And another funny little instance is Carbuncle just casually shooting a laser at Schezo in Waku Puyo. In one interaction, Schezo wonders what's wrong with everything whenever he's around, and sees Arle minding her business, and comes to the conclusion... His problem is Women. But he's still gonna try and take her power because of course he is. And when he tries... well, Carbuncle blasts a laser at him, basically taking him out of commission. Arle tells Carby off for that, though 2nd guesses herself because... well, it's Schezo. I like that this creature ruins Schezo's day in two different occasions.

In 20th Anniversary and even Puzzle Pop, it's less Carbuncle being up to some silly nonsense and more... Schezo wondering why he and Arle aren't together. They're always together, so them being distant makes Schezo somewhat concerned for Arle's safety, though despite that, he tends to think Arle is alright because... It's Arle, she usually is.

So, what's the TLDR? Basically, they ARE good friends in Puyo, just more of a case of "Friends who show their friendship via insulting each other" sorta look. They'll never say they care for each other, but their actions do indeed prove it. In Madou, it's a mixed bag. Sometimes they're allies for the same cause (mostly if Schezo HAS to do something), or they just DESPISE each other just because. Nothing really in the middle unless it's something like Waku Puyo, SUN, Yon, that sorta deal.

The dynamic throughout the Compile changes so much yet stays similar at it's core that it's honestly impressive to see. Take Madou Saturn, where Arle doesn't really like Schezo and vice versa, but she still goes to him for help, even if it's because of Lagnus. But in Waku Puyo, she doesn't mind the guy because of a partial mutual respect for each other. Yet in both times, it's still very similar to most of their dynamics in general. I like it at times, and hate it others mostly because there's times where Schezo is just...really unreasonable or annoying for no good reason.

SEGA Puyo is a whole different can of worms and I love it for that. They're willing to go beyond the fact that they're friends, and are willing to help out if the time is needed, showing legit concern for their friends and helping them out if needed. He's sincere enough to accompany Arle throughout part of the story, and while there's a one-sided rivalry like usual, it's not the focal point, and GOD I love that. Hell, he cares for her a lot deep down, take the Drama CD where she begins to lose her memories, and Schezo is genuinely concerned. However, Puzzle Pop probably has my favorite dynamic of them in current time, as they can actually work together very well, and bounce off of each other’s personality pretty easily. It’s genuinely amazing how well they do together.

With Carbuncle? It’s mostly just that dude confusing the hell outta Schezo, and Schezo taking Carbuncle being alone as an ominous sign that Arle is absolutely somewhere else, or at the very least, close by. There’s not… that much for us to discuss between these two.

----

Rulue (And Minotauros IG):

(It never hit me how often this pose was used back then.)

As we finally wrap up Arle's stuff, (Fun fact! That took a month to write because of college) we walk right into another woman Schezo finds himself around quite often that has...a lot to cover. I'm truly living the dream here. The R of the ARS, she also has quite a good bit to cover considering she was also a protag for quite a while... until, ya know, she got sidelined pretty badly. But alas, what can we do?

Rulue herself is a headstrong person, confident in her own abilities, to the point of possible arrogance. She's always trying to one-up Arle, and be better than her because she REALLY loves Satan, who likes Arle in a nostalgic sense rather than a romantical sense. She's no slouch though, she's known as the Fighting Queen for a reason, and consistently holds her own against people like Arle and Schezo, and even then, she and Schezo train.

Lets start with the basics: They respect each other in terms of power, and are at times pretty friendly to each other, but man they argue a lot. And I mean a lot. Waku Puyo, they argue about any menial thing while Minotauros is there for the ride, Puyo SUN, Schezo gets mad at the insinuation of Rulue saying he likes men, 15th Anniversary they argue about Satan, Puyo Tetris 1 they argue about Satan, Madou Saturn, they argue about Schezo being super unhelpful and lazy about the situation, need I go on? Most of it IS Satan related, though. It's a duality of man moment, Schezo's been hating this dudes guts for God knows how long, and Rulue has been loving Satan for...well, God knows how long. Schezo doesn't understand the appeal of Satan (Neither do I) and Rulue thinks the exact opposite, remember the PPT1 cutscene where she just RAMBLES about him?

Good times. I remember seeing this cutscene for the very first time and it cemented my thought of the PPT Dub being STUPID good.

It's not always this, however. A good friendship may be signified about the dumb arguments you can get into, but the moments where you do in fact get along. They train with each other in the light novels, Schezo doesn't really have any ill will against Rulue besides the whole Satan thing, the whole reason why the scene even occurs is because Arle mentions that Rulue has been acting super odd and blames Satan, and Schezo basically goes "Well damn. Satan isn't the issue, but this woman sure is." and goes to help her out. There's an element of kindness in there hidden between the 10 Satan arguments. Trust me, I'll explain more in later sections.

I kind of went over Schezo's actions during the Arle section in Madou Saturn, and well, Rulue sorta feels the same way as Arle about the whole thing, just add on a few insults here and there and a lot of "Man he's annoying" into the mix, and boom, you have their dynamic during that entire game.

COMPILE:

This section itself will be fairly smaller compared to others because despite being the R and the S of the team, there's not too many moments of them working together or talking much in a relevant manner. Things like that matter, y'see. If I wanted to mention something like Madou Sugoroku (Do they even interact in that game?) they have to have at least a relevant or interesting conversation, which sadly isn't the case sometimes.

However, it's not all gloom and doom at the very least, because by then I talk a bit more about Madou Saturn, since Rulue actually plays a key part in the game, being one of the protags after all. To get into the cow meat and bones of this, she hates Schezo. REALLY hates Schezo in this game. Since he never wants to help people out, let alone the two girls who cause him the most annoy the absolute hell out of him, there's a good reason why he never wants to do anything with them in the game at least. However, when the Yogs start invading and people are getting possessed, this man DOES NOT care at all, and just finds everything to be annoying as all hell.

I'm happy to say he at least tries to turn over a new leaf near the tail end of the game. However, truth be told, he doesn't really want to help, but since it could result in their world going buh-bye, he kinda doesn't have much of a choice. And even THEN, Rulue doesn't like this guy at all. And neither does most of the community. The dynamic here... if I can call it one, is one of malice and hatred tbh, they don't really respect each other, and will take any opportunity to insult and bring each other down, and then Arle and Lagnus have to pick up the mess. Well, mostly the mess Schezo makes everywhere he goes.

And with that, we gotta mention ooooone other thing before we got into Waku Puyo. SUN. It's a fairly short thing to note but we may as well, since it's a little funny. In Schezo's storyline, they do run into each other when Rulue is sunbathing and Schezo is out to get Satan for his misdeeds. Rulue mentions why he's not into her, and Schezo states that he doesn't really care about that sorta things. This in turn, makes Rulue think he doesn't like women, but rather...something else, much to Schezo's anger and clearing up the misunderstanding. Just a funny little moment in the mainline series.

Waku Puyo :

You're gonna hear this game quite a lot because well...it's what I cover most of the time, really. My bad, bros. As of the time of writing this, I haven't gotten anywhere near Rulue's story (Yeah Arle's story...has been on hiatus for quite some time now, thanks college...) but we do have interactions with them during Schezo's story. And well, it's more or less the same.

Rulue is there to get the prize for being every attraction, Schezo is there to reclaim his lost powers. Once they see each other, it's almost on sight, as they start insulting each other, making Rulue call Minotauros to beat Schezo, and he retreats. This happens I believe two to three times. This is one of those games where they just HATE each other, seemingly, no ounce of respect in sight. Even near the end of the game, Rulue doesn't really pay much mind to the guy UNTIL the park gets blown up, and as such, gets mad at him for ruining her chances of getting magic to beat Arle.

Oh yea Mino too:

However, we CAN talk about what happens when Minotauros is around. In all seriousness, Schezo at the very start doesn't like him as much as he doesn't like Rulue, calling him all sorts of insults throughout his journey. However, late into the game, Schezo feels pity for the guy not because they get along, but because Minotauros is a victim of workplace abuse from Rulue. He still insults Mino, but he does indeed feel bad/pity for the dude. Shame they basically never interact again after this game. And I'd feel bad too if I had to be the worker of Rulue and she treated me like that. OSHA would have a field day with her.

Their dynamic can best be described as “Orders are orders and you’re insulting my boss”, sorta deal. Minotauros is just doing his job, and when Rulue tells him to attack, he attacks. It’s kinda as simple as that.

SEGA Era:

As Mino fades into dust during current times (We'll see him again, hopefully), Rulue and Schezo still very much bicker and argue as much as they used to. Thankfully, with an undertone of respect rather than just seemingly pure spite. As stated prior, they do interact in Rulue's story in 20th Anniversary, and while I think Schezo's isn't anything overly noteworthy, I do want to note Rulue's side of things.

This is where some of the respect comes from, besides 15th Anniversary where Schezo oddly wishes Rulue good luck on her Satan endeavors. Here, Schezo does note that in a world of magic, Rulue can absolutely hold her own with just martial arts, but he too would be scared as hell to deal with her the way Satan does. Sure, she gets livid at the statement, but he was trying to be at least a LITTLE respectful to her.

(Granted, this IS the DS translation and this is as high quality as it'll go [480p], but I just prefer the line so much more than the Wii one. And I just sorta prefer DS 20th compared to Wii 20th. The Wii one says "I, too, would be terrified to meddle with someone like that." btw.)

As we already mentioned PPT, PPT2 had them at least interact a little more in general, as the game actually had solid writing compared to the last two games. While it's not too much, Schezo does point out that Rulue might actually just be being herself for once, and explains off screen what the situation's about, adding on that Satan might know a thing or two (Spoiler: He does), and Rulue is already on board with the idea of getting him. Schezo, not even shocked that the word Satan triggered neurons in her brain, continues to help Arle track down Marle.

And in the side chapters, Schezo laments about training, as he felt like he could've been stronger before this entire ordeal. Rulue shares the sentiment, and they both spar just to get better. Schezo wins this spar because we're playing as him, and Rulue says she can do this all day, no Captain America, but Schezo says there's better things to do now at the moment and dips, leaving her a bit frustrated if anything.

Puzzle Pop sort of has them talking to each other once more, even if it’s because Arle and Schezo tag along in Arle’s story as mentioned prior. However, he also appears in Rulue’s storyline, where long story short, she’s trying to find her beloved Satan, while also somewhat trying to figure out what’s going on. Running into Schezo, she seriously sticks to the bit of loving Satan a lot, while also annoying Schezo to no end, and after asking what he wants in romance, he replies with “Considerable, muscular strength.” when he really means powerful people. He doesn’t care about romance, really. After Rulue says they can’t be compatible, Schezo just asks her for a battle, and loses. Rulue rubs it in, saying that beating him wouldn’t really lead to anything, and runs off, leaving Schezo not only with a loss, but realizing he lost to a girl who’s too into the bit.

What I do like about SEGA compared to Compile is their willingness to actually make advancements to the dynamic these two have. Magical vs Physical is a tale as old as time, and these two have been bickering for quite some time now, but it's honestly great to see that they do in fact get along. Tetris 2 and Puzzle Pop were major steps in the right direction, and it’s a pleasure to see, I like when my characters have more than one gimmick to their interactions. Coming from the guy who goes through Waku Puyo Dungeon a lot, it's very much the opposite there. So seeing them respect each other in THIS day and age? We love to see it.

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Satan:

(You know, this has been an amazing amalgamation of images throughout the series.)

The two biggest haters towards each other, you love to see it. Satan has always been a character I've had mixed feelings on, but never truly hated. I like the guy, so don't get it twisted at all. The mutual hatred between these two can't be understated, I think they've been opps longer than some of us (Myself included) have been alive, it's next level. I think there's been a whole four instances where they worked together.

Let's quickly talk about Satan himself. He's the biggest guyfail in the world to say the very least. He's powerful, probably the strongest character in the series, and always has ways to create things and places just because he can. PuyoPuyo Land, The dimension thing in PPT1, Moving the DAMN SUN, stuff like that he's able to do just because. However, instead of being a textbook evil guy, he just wants the attention of Arle and Carbuncle. And because of that, not only are they always at odds, but so is Schezo.

Both want something from Arle; Schezo wants her power to become stronger (at least back then), Satan wants her to be his fiancé back then, or take Carbuncle, or just doing it for the love of the game, there's several interpretations of it. But there's always one thing in common: They HATE each other.

COMPILE:

No, Waku Puyo won't get its own section.

The Compile stuff isn't exactly as deep as some people want it or make it out to be, sadly. This series was never about being super in depth and whatnot, but we still try anyways because we love the series that much. The beef has been generational, to say the least. Hating someone from the day you met them is a sort of talent I need in my life.

Now, why do they hate each other so much? Amazing question, it's because of Arle. They both want her for something and that goes against each others ideals, and boom, beef. Just add on that Satan is a cheeky bastard and Schezo hates the idea that Satan is a thing, and bam, you have generational hate right there.

Now, lets take Puyo SUN, I've mentioned this funny little game a few times already, more than I ever have in this entire blog alone. Fascinating, innit? Satan enlarges the sun and brings it closer, and while this SHOULD spell the end of humanity because of how gravity and space works, Puyo characters are simply better than that. But they still hate the heat, and I do as well. Lets cut straight to it, Satan gets a bald spot from Schezo.

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies. Being bald a gateway to the worst roasts you'll ever hear, next to being short. After the entire journey, this is what he does.

This sorta hatred towards each other is continued onto the other games, lets take Waku Puyo for example. In here, Satan makes his appearance more as a ominous voice, but Schezo doesn't take it seriously at all, straight up saying that the voice has to be one ugly dude if he can't show himself, which Satan takes pretty clear offense to. This sorta activity is basically their entire banter throughout the game, up until when Satan reveals himself and says he has NO idea what the Ultimate Tower (Basically the endgame) is, but in classic Satan fashion of "Yeah I know! It's...uh... well, just know that I know." Something interesting does happen though. Before Schezo enters the tower, Satan wishes him good luck and to not get overconfident, as that'll be his downfall. Schezo, understandably, is very confused about his talk, and mentions if he's gone mad. Satan denies the claim, just saying that he felt like saying that. Even when they hate each others guts, there's a small, VERY small air of respect for the guy.

SEGA Era:

For being two of the most popular male characters in the series, I can only really find a handful of moments where they interact in any meaningful manner. They don't really interact at all in 15th Anniversary or even Puyo 7, they finally talk to each other in 20th. And how does that happen? In both Arle and Schezo's stories (Since they're basically connected), they go after Satan. Why? For Arle, she feels like he's up to no good. For Schezo, he just wants to beat him up. Duality of man.

And well, they sorta do just that, with Schezo's story making him sense Ecolo, much to the blobs surprise. You guys think Schezo can sense energy like Dragon Ball people sense ki. They also interact in the final story, where it's mostly just Schezo not trusting a thing Satan is doing, and isn't having any sort of his nonsense, before telling Arle that he and possibly Ecolo might be up to something. One notable thing I like to mention about the final story in 20th is when Arle fights Satan, he uses her battle theme, but when Schezo steps up to the plate, it goes into Satan's theme instead. It's just a nice little thing to note.

One thing I like about this whole dynamic is how little it changes, besides some very few instances. These two straight up don't like each other much, if at all, and are not afraid to really mention it to each other. Spiteful haters, the lot of them. But damn it, they're really good at it.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 does change it a tiny bit, but nothing super noteworthy. During the whole "Three girls are possessed for some reason" Plotline, Arle once again blames Satan for the whole debacle, and Satan runs away crying. Schezo tells her later on that Satan for ONCE IN THEIR LIVES isn't the main culprit, but rather some unknown entity that they don't know. Arle is more surprised than anything, but at least Schezo knows that Satan isn't always at fault. He just usually is.

And because he’s seemingly always at fault, that’s mostly his story mode in Puzzle Pop. Ecolo just kinda tags along with him because why the hell not, and because Schezo notices that Satan and him are talking and near each other again, they HAVE to be up to no good. Satan is annoyed that nobody believes that he’s the culprit, and fight’s Schezo because of it, and wins because it’s his story.

And after all of that, he then says that he hopes Schezo has a nice time in the Puyo Underworld for a false allegation, which he… is more surprised that he was wrong rather than going to hell. I’m serious when I say Schezo seemingly didn’t even mind the fact that he had the high possibility of literally going to hell, he’s more surprised that he was wrong about his thoughts, since he was right at first, then somehow twisted it into being wrong again. And I just love the fact that he was more surprised at that, it’s actually peak comedy that he cares more about his accusation falling flat than literally anything else. But with the allegations cleared, Satan tells him to move aside, as he’s actually trying to figure out what is even going on, and is NOT the culprit of this entire thing.

I like that in here, while it’s kinda clear they still don’t really like each other, Schezo can actually admit when he’s wrong in something, and Satan can actually argue back against the guy. Most of the time it devolves into insults, and while the banter is still there in classic fashion, I enjoy the mixups.

So what did we gather? These two guys hate each other lol But really, their arguing and mutual dislike for each other is painfully apparent throughout the series, but at the very least, even Schezo has limits of how much he blames Satan for things, such as Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2. Sometimes you can only blame the Prince of the Puyo Underworld so much before it falls flat at least once.

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Lagnus Bishasi:

(Come on, it's super fitting. Also Lagnus there is spelt Sungal. lol.)

Ah, Lagnus/Ragnus/Sungal, where do I begin with you? You're such an interesting character; A joke in Puyo, the real deal in Madou Saturn and whatever Kenji Oda was cooking back then with the novels. But alas, we're here to talk about the guy, and how he's a pretty interesting contrast to Schezo. This stuff will mostly just cover COMPILE, since they barely, if ever interact in SEGA Era stuff. And hey, some prefer it that way, others don't.

If we quickly go over Lagnus, he's a traditional hero in every sense of the word, only cranked up to 11 for the sake of comedy. Cares for justice, wants to stop evil, talks about level ups and exp, that entire thing. It's been like that since SUN. He's trying his best. However, if we move over to Madou Saturn for a second, he's still a traditional hero, but in a much more down-to-earth sense. He feels like a legit RPG character for once, and that's because he IS in one. However in every iteration, he's cursed by something to randomly convert into a 10 year old. (He's usually 17.)

Lagnus can easily be seen as the antithesis of Schezo in a plentitude of ways: Their armor, their types of spells, personality, sense of heroicness/justice, interactions with other people, the list does indeed go on for quite a good period of time. But unlike a few of my friends, I am NOT the biggest Lagnus fan in the world, I'm somewhere in the top 20 at least.

They do first interact in SUN, where Lagnus is just the butt of a joke like he's kinda supposed to in Puyo. He tries to attack Schezo, he dodges, Lagnus falls and turns into a kid. Quite simple.

But continuing with the antithesis claim, the series (at least back then) sorta set them up as such, but it's not really TOLD, per-se. It's just a connect-the-dots sorta thing, which is fine. Compared to Schezo's aloofness, Lagnus actually does actually talk to people, least in Madou Saturn, and holds great respect for people like Arle and Rulue during the events of the game. Lagnus is a Light Warrior who's immune to dark spells in his game, compared to Schezo being called the Dark Mage, Schezo cares about himself while Lagnus cares about justice and dishing it out in spades, stuff like that. And compared to Schezo in Saturn, Arle and Rulue actually like to talk to Lagnus compared to the bum Schezo.

And how can we talk about these two without mentioning that during the events of Saturn.

For those unaware, in the start of the game, Lagnus is put into a crystal by I believe Satan just to preserve his damn body, so Lagnus sorta wanders around as a spirit, and notably, possesses Schezo for periods of time. He can't do it all the time because of the darkness that comes with being Schezo, but whenever he's able to, he tries his best to help Arle and crew, and occasionally find clues about things himself. However, Schezo is none the wiser about the stuff Lagnus does, and when Lagnus is eventually kicked out, Schezo has little idea what even happened, 90% of the time being annoyed that he just ends up someplace else.

When Lagnus gets his body back and reverts to a kid due to the little power he has, when lore dumping the entirety of the game to the ARS, Schezo is just straight up annoyed that Lagnus even did the possession things to begin with, and I kinda understand to an extent. But it's clear as day he doesn't like Lagnus, and does resort to insulting him sometimes, but Lagnus actually has a backbone and is able to clap back with his own insults. And yet after everything, Schezo at least understands the danger at hand and FINALLY is willing to help Arle/Rulue/Lagnus out. And then doesn't join the final boss because you're only allowed 3 party members and Lagnus joins instead at full power. Because yeah, it actually DOES make sense. They really are polar opposites.

I'd also take this opportunity to talk about the Waku Puyo Manga, but they don't really interact much there. Lagnus tries to fight Schezo, he stumbles on a rock, gets pressed because dude, not a good idea, and gets insulted. Really, it's that simple.

Lagnus himself actually has a lot of moments in the manga, but it's not exactly pertained to him with Schezo, more inner conflicts and having a bad case of "3 people in 1" Syndrome, and it's interesting. Yeah the manga basically got canceled after he almost wrapped up his own story, but alas. We gotta ball anyways.

Despite being quite literally a joke in any Puyo game ever, it's kinda amazing that the one game that's not Puyo related is actually the one where he gets the most respect because he's in the genre he's actually supposed to be in. They're supposed to kinda be antithesis to one another, but once again, never said, just kinda shown without saying all to much. At least Arle respected both at some point.

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Witch:

(Well boys. We are back to where we started.)

Once again, we loop back to this girl who seemingly is the face of my entire blog, how fun. Wonder how boring it gets hearing the same info from me over and over again at times, but alas, we gotta do what we gotta do. (Also they're like 2 of my favorite characters in the series so it's kinda easy to yap.)

Lets talk about Witch. Confident in her skills, rival to a few characters, and a master of making potions that are completely worthless. She can make real ones just fine, but she just finds making them boring. She's one mischievous gal herself, often trying to become a better witch in general, as well as to get better at making potions. Not only that, compared to even most of the cast, she's a pretty hyperactive girl herself, always laughing and just being a bit too silly for our own good. Which makes sense to an extent, she's like 13-15 in most games.

Witch and Schezo's dynamic...really ranges for some reason, which is kinda funny since everyone we've covered has been a protagonist in a large scale game, or is the main (or major) antagonist in said games with Satan's case. Witch...is a side character. She's never really the big boss of anything, or the protag in anything major. I say major because I AM counting things like PuyOlympics and the Comet Summoner, but they're not...y'know. Waku Puyo or Saturn scale in terms of the game. But she's still a protag.

COMPILE:

The first place I want to start at is actually Tower of the Magician. Thank god I'm partially versed in that game due to other Extra Episodes. You can find the big write up here.

At first, Witch legit thought Schezo was an illusion created by her grandmother for the exam, before she realized he was the real deal and had his own motives to be there. In a way, the dynamic shifts to one where they bicker almost like siblings, what with them arguing, but Schezo still solving the puzzles inside of the tower so Witch can go on through just because he's there for HIS reason, and is helping her on accident.

When the game progresses, and Witch is slowly more and more concerned for her grandmother due to story events, Schezo does have the chance to brush her off like he always does, but instead, does try to help her out. He tries to calm her down, and near the final floor, they walk as a duo to make sure everything goes well. And when Witch sees Wish, she bolts, with Schezo being confused if anything.

When the game gets to the end, Wish (her grandma) is possessed by Dark Matter, and a defeated Witch gives Schezo HER magic to help him fight Dark Matter. Schezo takes it, wins against Dark Matter and a possessed Wish, saving her. Interestingly, he gives the magic back and asks if Wish is OK, and Witch says she's fine.

But he's there for HIS motive: To take her energy and become stronger. And he has the perfect chance to, Wish even allows him to if he wanted it that badly. Yet with all that, he doesn't do it because he wants to take it properly, AND because Dark Matter took so much from her to begin with. Fight her at full power, sorta deal. And then never does. (oh yea witch also fails the exam ig)

(He does say "I'm giving back your magic because I don't want to damage my own!!", least that's how I read it, since their types of magic are so different.) But seriously, this game is such an outlier for the dynamic, yet I love it so much. Schezo doesn't exactly care much for Witch herself, and neither does Witch to him, but when the ideals collide, they do team up, at least for a bit. I think the fact that Witch gave Schezo her magic to become stronger means at the very least, desperate times will call for desperate measures, but I love that Schezo gives the magic BACK to her. He had a clear choice to keep it, but because he didn't get it through the means he wants, he just...gives it back. While he does kinda give a BS excuse, it's a nice moment for the two.

...And then we get to every other game.

Where do I even begin with these two? We can start with Puyo SUN at the very least, where the whole thing saying "I want you!" and other innuendos kinda came from. With this, simple misunderstanding, she wants his clothes, nothing too serious about that in the world of Puyo, yeah? I wish I was right but I'm so fucking wrong.

If we fast forward allllll the way to Madou Saturn, she's basically just being herself until Kikimora mentions Schezo without naming him after Arle and Co. save Kiki from Yoggus Smoke. Witch takes an interest in the person she described, and Rulue says to not get her hopes up, since Schezo is a known perv. Yet this only fuels her curiosity. All to say when they finally meet if she can touch him. And I'm trying to save images, but imagine Schezo looking pissed the hell off that someone even said that.

PuyOlympics is the same dance to an extent. To save MORE images and time, just take a gander at the time I actually covered the game. But otherwise: Witch teases Schezo all about his clothing and robe, saying he looks like a perv with it on, so he takes it off to wear the proper uniform. Much to his surprise, Witch goes on about how he looks really nice, before just shouting that he's one handsome fellow, and he runs away while she chases him. Classic behavior.

However, there comes points that are a bit more interesting to note, one of them being from Serilly’s Happy Birthday, a Disc Station game that’s incredibly text heavy. Think about it like Princess Maker, if you will. I actually wrote about this game a while ago if you’re curious about that, even if it’s shorter than most of my stuff I tend to write about. One of the key things to point out is that Schezo is acting funky because of some curse, and saying “I want you” to… 100 girls, and doing so will remove the curse. Yeah, that’s his curse. Quite the horrific one, if I say so myself.

Because of this, Schezo asked her to make a charm to make any girl fall for him to get rid of the stupid thing, but she declines that offer and instead tries to make a potion with Serilly to help fix Schezo. This is mostly the start of Witch’s “Confidant” with Serilly, as her story is mostly about helping the guy out alongside other things that aren’t important to this thing, fun time though.

Witch isn’t all that impressed with Schezo in this one, calling him creepy because of this entire thing and getting upset that he was even saying this stuff to her and Serilly, but really, she’s thankful that he’s going back to normal at least sometime. See? She cares for him, sorta. I like that she even considered doing that, as more often than not, she’d probably just leave him be, but for once she intervened and helped not only Schezo, but also Serilly. It’s a nice sight to see. It’s something that we don’t see her do very often, and because we do see it for once, it’s a breath of fresh air, and even having her get development with Serilly of all people is incredibly interesting.

And now we get into the game that made my entire blog.

Wooo Waku Puyo yeaaaaa:

Even I get a little tired of talking about the same events over and over again and expecting different results, the guy from Far Cry 3 told me so, after all. But honestly just to recap some of the events that go down JUST to save time, energy, and my damn sanity:

We'll start with something I haven't exactly covered much, a small interaction between the two and Incubus inside the area where Kikimora works. Basically, they're there to teach you how to fuse items, and they kinda make it into a duo show of them playing along and just having a good time. While Schezo is confused by it, they do get their point across, it's cute. And here we go again with the stuff I've covered for a while now.

Witch's entire gig is to get this guys clothes. When they first meet, she's the boss of the Horror House, and he's confused about her wanting "It", up to the point of saying he's never really met someone who acts the way she does, up until Witch says it's the clothes, and she'll get them even if she has to rip them.

Nothing happens until the end of the game, where Schezo can check in with almost every character with lines. I will say that the interesting fact is that Witch appears where the major and main characters are, the front of the Ultimate Tower. So that's neat.

In the first situation, Witch says she wants to tag along with Schezo to get the magical item that the tower has, and Schezo declines, since he works solo, usually. But she insists and says she'll do her absolute best, to which Schezo tells her that she doesn't have to try at all, because she's NOT coming.

The second situation has her giggling to herself after Schezo asks her why she's so desperate for the clothing he has, and she just replies that she wants them. That's it. Nothing more to the story. Grindset tbh Schezo says that he has no good women near him at any times, and Witch just sorta laughs it off, saying that he'll take off his robes eventually. He then asks himself (or us depending on how you read the text), if she's more of a pervert than he's made out to be.

And a final interaction was about Schezo getting Witch's Meteor Grimoire, and she spots him with it, but gets to her usual business. Schezo says he's not stripping for the love of the game, and she says roughly: "I want the book but the clothes would also be a nice extra." They trade books, since she for some reason has Schezo's Areiado Grimoire, and bam. There we go.

Worlds scariest teenage year old girl for a white haired man to go through.

SEGA Puyo:

Now that we've basically covered what we've covered a thousand times in the past and probably future, we can discuss things I probably HAVEN'T talked about. These two have a handful of interactions throughout SEGA Puyo, but not as much as Compile did throughout the years. The most notable of the bunch mostly being from Witch's storyline in 20th Anniversary, as well as Puyo Tetris 2. I've covered the Tetris 2 one as a joke but alas.

20th Anniversary doesn't exactly have Schezo interact with Witch, more vise versa than anything. She's trying to make a potion, a one her grandmother made once (Wish canon bros truuuuust), and one of the ingredients she needs is a bit of hair from... well, lets just say Schezo of all people. After mostly taunting and having their classic back and fourth bickering from the classic duo of IDIOTS, a Puyo battle emerges and Witch wins, while also quickly taking a bit of his hair to boot. Curiously, I believe this is the only ingredient that doesn't have to be swapped out.

And Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 has mostly her being possessed by Marle and reawakening the Ghost of Compile Past, where now she's the one doing the crazy ass innuendos, as well as wanting to have "Fun" for basically eternally. Not only does Schezo show legit concern for her as well as clear up a misunderstanding for Arle, they do in fact save her and make sure that she's alright, and lines her story up with others who had a similar fate.

However, we do see what happened beforehand, and how it all went down. What with Witch helping Marle, and then her feeling some sort of restlessness after the fact. After seeing Schezo, he notes that he saw some sorta girl and she challenged her to a battle, and basically no diffed her. The word "Battle" runs through her mind like a simulation, and she asks Schezo for battle out of the blue.

After winning, she basically wants more battling, and doesn't want to leave Schezo alone now because she wants to keep battling him and having fun. Queue the whole "If you're not coming to me, I'll just come to you" line and a whole lot of "Thank God I have my headphones on right now..."

(Getting footage and rehearing this stuff is...quite the ride.) Oh, and during what's basically the filler arc of PPT2, the whole pageant thing goes down, shoutout to Maguro for making it fun and also keeping the situation under control Witch's nominates Schezo for the "Most Handsome" side of things, citing that his name means "The Gorgeous Adonis that Defies the Gods." HOW IN THE WORLD she knew that is anyone's guess, but it was funny nevertheless.

She even appears in Schezo’s story in Puzzle Pop as the first opponent he faces. Schezo is pretty much talking to himself about Meena and her powers, and realizes that if someone takes her powers, he’ll be much stronger than ever before. But before he can reach that thought, he’s stopped by Witch, who simply greets him, and he already sounds tired of her. When asking her about what’s going on and about Meena, Witch at first brushes it off, saying that even if this situation is as odd as it is, she’s still going to enjoy every minute of it.

However, she’s not all jokes and laughs, as she does mention that her spellbook does mention something about The Dream Guide (Meena), and when Schezo asks for more details, she holds the info hostage for a Puyo battle that she loses. According to her GRANDMOTHER (Wish is real and IN the house), The Dream Guide has the ability to see into someone’s heart and also their desires…and that’s all she mostly wrote. However, Witch suggests to try and find more old books about the topic, which Schezo thinks is a good idea…and runs into Klug for that. We’ll get there when we get there.

What is all jokes and laughs is her side story. It’s her being the world's worst seller of the worlds most “Wait these actually sound nice” potions that always goes wrong, and Schezo was the last of the buyers. He instantly shuts down the idea of him getting a potion from her, as she’s nothing but trouble and mischief, but suddenly changes his tone when Witch mentions an Anti-Misunderstanding potion that he takes. I mean it works, but Schezo is now meowing, and is pretty mad at Witch. After she wins and he returns to normal, she tries to sell another potion, but Schezo swings his sword, furious with her as she runs away, and HE chases HER instead. Oh, Compile Witch, you WISH that was you.

So what do these things mean? Well, while there's nothing of particular note for the 20th Anniversary thing that we haven't covered already, I do like that in the modern games, Schezo actually doesn't mind Witch's company all too much, and shows direct concern for her over getting possessed by Marle, and even though they still bicker...a lot, there's still that underlying amount of respect, concern, and overall bullying that we like to see from these two. I do find it kinda funny that in PPT2, it just feels like Compile but much better at times, and I absolutely love that. Teaser gets teased, vice versa happens, it’s peak comedy. And nowadays, I kinda enjoy that Schezo just sorta sees her as a “Week. RUINED.” sort of gal. While she can easily provide pretty nice info to help him, take Puzzle Pop for example. She also really likes to annoy him to death, such as 20th Anni and kinda sorta Puyo Tetris 2. And it’s still amazing, to be honest.

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Draco Centauros:

(Ignore that the name is Doraco. Old works be like that, thanks Disc Station.)

With a character that has a lot of work for them because they're always near the damn dude, we now have... someone who's kinda the opposite of that. Despite being in the same series and knowing each other (kinda sorta) for years at this point, we don't actually have many interactions with these two goofballs. Which to me, is kinda surprising, I thought there would be more than I thought. It's kinda unfortunate, but Draco just happens to be the unfortunate one.

Let me put this in simple terms by explaining her character. Draco is an idiot. A very big idiot. Ok but really, she's not the wisest person out there, oftentimes just being whimsical and carefree. Or just trying to find beauty pageants to go to because why not. She's not exactly a slouch when it comes to terms of combat itself, but we all know her infamous AI at this point and how she can't rotate. Fun, huh? Despite that, Draco usually means well. She's not exactly a jerk to anyone, she's just being herself and being the best she can be. Which lets be real, that's the best we can ask her to do. I'm very proud of her.

Truth be told, there's not much to cover with Draco besides three things. Which is sorta unfortunate, for how much these two have been in the same game together, they never really talk to each other… ever. For example: Madou Saturn doesn’t really have them interacting with each other at all, she talks to Jan of all characters more than Schezo, because they DON’T talk to each other.

Waku Puyo:

Yes, I get to mention this game for the 1000th time. Shame on me for choosing this game as the game of my choice to comb over with a fine brush. Draco herself appears as a boss in the game, being one of the few bosses that we actually see throughout most of the series, which is very nice. Schezo needs tickets to get into Fire Mountain, the place where she "Works", and halts him from progressing any further. Schezo says that he does in fact have the tickets without really showing her, and she just...believes it. Yeah, I'm serious.

Then after that, she's the boss for the dungeon. Draco mentions how she's surprised Schezo got that far, and if he's ready for "It". This in turn surprises Schezo, since he never really hears this stuff and asks her what she means, only to hear her say "Well, a battle!", to Schezo's surprise... again. He calls himself stupid for thinking it was anything BUT that. Schezo can run into her again after beating the dungeon, and she's training for the next person who comes over, as well as Schezo if he ever comes back, which surprises Schezo, as he at least semi-respects the fact that she trains. Also, fun fact. She can drag Schezo into training because of side quests inside of the game itself. Fun little thing.

Like everyone so far in Waku Puyo, you can meet her in Endgame as well, mostly just more casual banter between the two. Schezo runs into her, and notes that he's always so moody and gloomy, and that he should have more pep in his step to woo women. Schezo says he doesn't care about that, and Draco assumes that he likes guys, which he adamantly denies. She then says he's "Girl-conscious", like an incubus would, confusing the hell out of Schezo, as he wonders what cruel things he did to be called one.

And with their final talk, Draco asks why Schezo returned, and wonders if it was because of her, which Schezo bluntly says no to. This hurts The Gao's feeling, and tells him straight up that he does have a pretty face and is popular with girls, but doesn't understand girls at all. All Schezo understood was that he's popular, confusing and shocking him.

Draco's an idiot, yes, she's a kindhearted idiot. Here, Schezo doesn't actually mind her much, mostly keeping it neutral with her, as well as just accepting that she's kinda stupid. Not only that, Draco's willing to ask Schezo silly questions just because she wants to, and does in fact feel like he COULD be a better person and would woo people... if he just wasn't an asshole to people at times. They don't even interact in Saturn.

SEGAAAAAAAA... Man... :

As we approach the SEGA Era stuff of things again, we run into a major problem. Draco and Schezo interact twice, and it's such a nothingburger for the most part. Here, the dynamic they have changes quite a lot, to the point where it's not Schezo just thinking she's stupid but doesn't mind her that much, he just straight up doesn't like Draco at this point.

A prime example is in Puyo 20th Anniversary in Draco’s story. Her story is all about trying to find some sorta clothing that’ll make her even prettier, and ruining everyone’s days in the meantime and making them incredibly mad at her. Schezo is one of those characters that gets their day ruined by… Ruining his supply of running water that he’s had for apparently a while, years even, and battles Draco over said water supply getting ruined.

After he loses, Draco somehow slips on the water and falls out of the cave, into a flower field. I can’t even make this up. It’s pure comedy and I’ll be there no matter what, but a real interaction wouldn’t hurt that much. I love these two, and I do want to see what else they can do together.

Even in Puyo Chronicles, yes, the game I've barely mentioned throughout this write up, has that as the dynamic. He doesn't like her, and she just doesn't mind much, if at all. It’s genuinely really unfortunate that it stays the exact same as it was in 20th Anniversary, though you can partially blame the writing of the game itself. It had a rough cycle, apparently there was no real writing director, so it was apparently pretty difficult to even make something happen. The games development as a whole seemed sorta rough, but we really dunno much about it as a whole, unfortunately. And the two don’t even interact in Puzzle Pop, which is kinda depressing. But at least they had some interactions.

Yeah...that's about it for SEGA stuff. Personally, I prefer what they were going for in Waku Puyo, mostly because there was actually a bit of stuff going on between the two rather than just Schezo hating the girl more than she usually does. It's... interesting, I guess, but sadly there's not a lot to cover between these two. Maybe in Quest, they talk more, but that’s a whole other can that’ll take forever to open.

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Serilly:

(I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO USE THESE)

If you told me about 3 years ago that these two even spoke in a legitimate manner, I wouldn't believe you at all, there's no way that they do...right? Well, she's here for a reason, and that reason is Waku Puyo, where a lot of interesting things happens between the two. And frankly, I'm for it, Serilly needs more people to talk to. Ironically, this is really the ONLY game they speak in, which is very...interesting.

So, what goes on in the game? And well, the manga too but it's a retelling of the event I'll be mentioning with some extra details here and there. Still will covering it though.

Serilly herself is quite the sad, pathetic creature, but I love her to bits anyways. Shy and afraid of almost anything, she's quite the crybaby and oftentimes avoid people because of a rumor going around that eating people like her can grant stuff like immortality and whatnot. So she has a REASON to basically be a soaking wet cat who cannot fight back. However, when she does make a friend or two, she's usually just happy that they don't really hate her or don't mind her company for the most part.

At least in the game, Schezo runs into her before entering Water Paradise, the dungeon she's the boss of. It's mostly just banter with Suketoudara, but they leave, with Schezo being mostly unamused.

When he gets to the final floor, they... don't even fight. Well, inn Schezo's story at least, she's the main boss of the place and you do fight her in Arle and Rulue's routes.

Instead, she seemingly thinks Schezo's there to bully her, and that he's put in quite a lot of effort into doing so, AKA going through the tower. Schezo, however, says that if she doesn't want to fight or stand in his way, why would he call her an enemy? Yet Serilly takes this as him wanting to be her friend, which he says no to at first, leaving her confused as to what he wants. The player is then given an option to be her friend or not.

It actually doesn't matter what you even say in this situation, there'll be slight differences in a few text boxes but the general thing stays the exact same.

Serilly continues to be hard on herself, to the point of crying a lot about it. Schezo, mostly annoyed that she's doing that, tells her to stop being so damn hard on herself for little reason. He mentions that there's two paths in life she can take: The one she's currently on, where she'll accomplish nothing besides moping around and being upset, or follow a path he's on, where despite many problems and adversities, he can still move on with his head high.

This surprises Serilly quite a good bit, and yet Schezo still continues with one more thing; If she can try to follow the path he's taking, he'll actually try to be her friend. Or well, at least he SAYS that, if he believes it is another ordeal...kinda. But Serilly agrees to it completely for the chance of a new friend, and thanks him.

For a character that hasn't spoken much, if at all to Schezo until this, it's a lot. Schezo somewhat being willing to be friends with someone to help her be a better person isn't something we saw, if ever saw, in the games. He even admits that she's not really an enemy or threat. Meanwhile, Serilly is going through her own moment of having someone not hate her, which is nice.

Now, like with a couple of characters (I think almost all) I've mentioned, the end of the game has some moments that I'd like to cover. Schezo runs back into Serilly, and she's really happy to see him again, asking if he's here for her, which he gets flustered with. Realizing the situation, and well... his rep, he asks if Serilly is afraid of him still, and she promptly says no, as they're friends. On the other hand, Schezo is having an internal crisis, wondering how much he's changed as a person since losing his powers at the start of the game.

(He's basically saying "I've... changed since I lost my powers... Do I have to get even stronger to regain the me I've lost?" It looks odd because of my god awful editing skills, as well as Serilly hitting us with a "...?" as well.)

Serilly, understandably confused by the situation, tells him the advice he told her, and says that maybe he's thinking backwards, and that's not the Schezo she knows. This kinda surprises him, and she apologizes foe sounding harsh, yet Schezo admits that she's right, and thanks her.

And in their final talk, Serilly goes to Schezo to mention that he seems more distant than usual, like the person she knew is going away slowly as she begins to cry. Schezo reaffirms her, saying that he's right here, and that he won't be vanishing anytime soon, and tells her to stop crying, as it'll get her nowhere. A realization hits him, basically saying that he of all people, telling a girl to not cry? Something HAS truly changed about him.

That moment is why I love this game so much. The series before always shown Schezo to be kinda aloof, not really caring much about what others think of him, and saying what he wants to say. Yet here he is, concerned over a girl's emotions, and telling her to stop crying not from annoyance, but almost as a friend, and that shakes him to his core. Not only that, but him seemingly having a minor crisis about himself and Serilly being the one to get him to stop thinking about it, that's something we never see again. And Schezo doesn't go all tsundere either and say that he didn't need the help, no, he just straight up thanks her for everything.

Manga:

The Waku Puyo manga covers the same beats as the game, but is still different enough to talk about. Here, Serilly was brought to being the “boss” of the area mostly because she assumed Satan was her friend, and she was willing to do what a friend wanted her to do because… let's be real, she doesn't really have friends. And the scary part is, she was ready to stay there for as long as it took for Satan to do his stuff because she was under the assumption that they were friends. At least, that’s the background before she meets Schezo and Honey Bee.

Obviously, Schezo’s here to get the orb and Serilly is defending it, but even he can tell she’s not really hostile. Honey Bee thinks otherwise, and both ask for the blue orb, and with weapons in hand, they do ask her for her, but she gets terrified for obvious reasons. Bee tries to threaten her, and Schezo smacks Bee aside as well as giving her his sword to not scare off Serilly, and it works somehow, though of course, it doesn’t work COMPLETELY.

It’s here that Serilly mentions that Satan made her do this because they’re friends and everything I said above, but Schezo is calling her out on Satan not being a friend, because he believes friends shouldn’t do that at all. He thinks Satan is a fake friend, telling her to do this because of course he can. Serilly does mention that Satan is her only real friend (Ignoring the Suketoudara in the room), and genuinely feels hopeless that she’ll never have friends.

That’s when Schezo does his thing of telling Serilly what a friend really is, and even Bee is agreeing with him, seemingly being as serious as she can be for once in her life. This leads to Serilly wondering if they want to be friends, which Schezo embarrassingly agrees to. Suketoudara walks in, sees this hooliganry, and that brings the page of Schezo saving Serilly after she saves him from getting drowned, doing the cliche look away when they see each other and Schezo carrying her like a princess, all that good stuff, and even gives Schezo the key to the blue orb because… well, he did a lot. The final scene has Serilly ask if Schezo will ever visit her again, to which he replies that he’ll think about it when what he’s doing is all done.

I like the manga. If you want more panels, look at when I covered this for the first time, if you want. What I love so much about their dynamic is how different it is compared to what we’re used to from Schezo himself. We’ve always seen him as an aloof guy who cares mostly about himself, and himself only, and Serilly in a way directly clashes with that ideology because she struggles so hard to even care about herself. She’s always worried about what might happen to her, how she might be unable to make real friends, list goes on. And in a moment of need for Serilly, Schezo is willing to lay down his often cold demeanor and even admit that she’s not really an enemy if she doesn’t want to fight him, and talk some genuine sense into her. And the best part, it actually WORKS. Serilly slowly but surely becomes more and more confident in herself, and when they meet again, the roles are swapped.

Now SCHEZO is the one having the doubts about himself (considering how much he’s changed throughout the story), and when talking to Serilly about him always going to be there for her, he realizes that he’s changed, and wonders if he’ll ever become the person he once was again. And with the info he gave Serilly, she spits it back in her own way, which hits Schezo pretty hard, and realizes that moping around and being concerned about who he is was never his style. It’s genuinely amazing, and I’d say it’s one of the best we’ve seen from the guy. It helps that he’s also genuine with Serilly, something we don’t always see from the guy.

And after that entire thing and how peak Waku Puyo writing can really be, we spiral back into Serilly's Happy Birthday, I noted in Witch's section that they do in fact interact, if only because Schezo is cursed. Here, Serilly is genuinely scared of the guy because in this version, they dunno each other and he's just randomly hitting on her, while Serilly herself is clueless to the entire curse thing until Witch steps in to help her. With these things, I do want to mention that they could've gone this route because it's Schezo, of course they'd go the comedic route. BUT THEY DIDN'T, THANK GOD.

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The Kikimoras:

(I wonder who really cared about these two for the longest time. But hey, now I'm one of those... I dunno, ten Kikimora fans globally.)

And now we've reached the section that surprises me the most. The Kikimoras weren't ever really on my radar for such a long time before I even got into Waku Puyo, I used to think Black Kikimora was just a really bad card in Quest and nothing more until I began to look into this game. I combined their pages since not only does it save me time, but they both only have Waku Puyo to really talk about. Oh, and because they're both Kikimora's. That too... they had their own game, fun fact. I did a write up a looong time ago... It's not good nowadays but hey, it was a start.

The Kikimora's are characters... people don't really think about much. And I don't blame them, they're usually people that people look once at and leave it as such, a relic of old times. Her personality revolved around cleaning, whole lot of cleaning, and hating dirtiness and whatnot. Black Kikimora (Who I'll refer to as Biki) is supposed to be the antithesis of her, who makes things more or less dirty for the love of the game. One thing is for sure, Kikimora is stupid strong... and hates being called old. However in Waku Puyo (and Saturn for Kikimora), they have more personality then ever before, mostly Kiki. The original Kikimora is much more supportive, acting more or less as a guide for people, helping out whenever she can, which oftentimes isn't a lot. She's much more outgoing than Biki, who's much more reserved until provoked or insulted, where she starts yelling and insults people. However, if anything, Kikimora can be emotional as well... which I'll get into.

Waku Puyo: Kikimora

This is really the only game worth mentioning for the two being together, since Saturn is just her mentioning what Schezo looked like and telling Arle and crew where he went. Nothing more to it.

A majority of the talks between the two...or three really, comes from the Information Booth and the Horror House, since Biki is mostly there as a midboss. We'll start with Kikimora, since she has much more.

As stated earlier, Schezo runs into her in the Information Booth, a place that basically serves as the way to... well, get info about the game, it's mechanics, etc, as well as side quests and random character interactions that are a little charming. Schezo at the start asks Kikimora all sort of questions about PuyoPuyo Land, and while she tries her best to answer the questions, she notes that she can only do so much as a mere usher of the place, and apologizes for the fact that she's unable to answer everything. This in turn makes Schezo call her useless, which greatly... hurts her, as she legit feels upset that she wasn't able to help, and apologizes. Schezo then retracts his statement, saying he was talking about something else, and to chin up, as she forgives him. Schezo though, wonders why he's even apologizing, as he thinks he's in the right.

Throughout the course of the game, Schezo slowly but surely warms up to Kikimora as a person, though he's still harsh at the start. However, Kiki still comes to him for help, such as dealing with Succubus and her nonsensical fliers, and starts to cry as she's unable to answer Schezo's question of "You're the Usher. Shouldn't YOU know this stuff?" He tells her to stop crying at least, and that he'll help, but he does in fact want to see Succubus. As he does and beats her up, she's thankful Schezo took care of the issue, and gives him tickets while leaving. On the other side, Schezo doesn't recall doing something to help Kiki to warrant a thanks.

As the game progresses, they warm up to each other, even shooting a joke here and there, as well as Kikimora congratulating Schezo on specific occasions. Sure, she tells the info to others because that's her job, but she still at least doesn't mind Schezo's harshness and is very, very nice to him, and even he can give the feelings back. While it may be professional, at least they're on semi-good terms. Kiki is just somehow to make Schezo treat her with just a biiiit more respect than he usually does with everyone else. Kudos to her.

----

Waku Puyo: Black Kikimora

As we reach the other side of the Kikimoras, we get very different interactions compared to what we just talked about not even a paragraph ago. As stated prior, Biki is much more reserved than Kiki, never really initiating a convo, and if she's ever IN a convo, she tries to keep it brief, or speak just stays quiet until she gets prompted to talk. Of course, she's not always like that, she can talk properly just fine, but she prefers not to. However, compared to Kikimora, Biki is a lot more short tempered, and oddly has great hearing for absolutely no reason. When she hears someone insult them, she WILL yell back at them, shocking them to their core at times, notably Schezo.

Schezo and Biki can run into each other while doing tutorial stuff for the game itself. Here, Biki is shown as a willingly reserved person, but when its time to help Schezo, she barely does, shrugs it off, and leaves him to learn by himself. And when Schezo barely makes it out of there, she's somewhat surprised, but admits the tutorial for that is done and leaves it at that. Schezo, annoyed, decides to insult how she looks under his breath, saying she's kinda ugly compared to others, and in turn, gets smacked pretty hard with a broom as she yells right back at him, shocking Schezo that she even heard that.

Their next interactions aren't exactly the most dissectible or noteworthy, but it's the Kiki's, they need anything they could get from this. When Schezo tries to enter the Horror House, Biki could be there, just kinda looking around for no real reason, and as Schezo asks if he can, she doesn't really pay him any mind, and says that yeah, he could enter if he really wants. She doesn't care about this man at all. And finally, at the end of the game before the Ultimate Tower, they can have two talks with each other. One is Schezo being confused about Biki's... everything, and once again insulting her under his breath, to the same results. Apparently she has a nickname because of her good hearing, but I kinda sorta dunno what to call it. Back then it was "Hells Ears" but honestly, maybe she's just good at hearing. And then the final talk they have is... less of a talk and more of a "Who talks first" contest, which Schezo wins and Biki gets mad at. It's such a trivial thing, but I like that even Biki can have a small bit of fun despite the fact that she's mostly quiet until provoked.

While it's not exactly a lot compared to the others, I'm glad that they even get some sorta dynamic with Schezo. What with his aloofness and attitude problems clashing with their professionalism and Biki's temper problem, it's just a breath of fresh air because we never see these two really interact again. Though that's because we never really see much Kikimora related stuff after these games.

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Suketoudara:

(I think this might be the one time I'll like...properly talk about him.)

This is the one section I was kinda dreading as the months went by, not because I think this section was going to be tough to write... more because I'm just not exactly the biggest fan of Suketoudara myself, he's always just been a whatever character to me. Sorry Suke fans, I'll be trying to make this a bit more brief than most.

Lets begin with Suke's character, as we do with everyone else on this list. He's usually a carefree sort of person, mostly doing his own thing while everything else is going on. Once a side character, always a side character, I suppose. Though the main thing about Suke that we all know besides the way he plays Puyo... is his love for dancing. The guy loves to dance, and is very confident about it, and gets pretty upset when someone insults his form of dance... Schezo and Arle being the most vocal about it, at the very least. However, an aspect I'll touch on is his crush on Serilly, which is never really felt back. Trust me, it'll be important later.

COMPILE:

Despite the fact that these two have been in the same games for years on end at this point, they don't exactly have many, if any meaningful interactions. It's probably because there wasn't too many times we could even play as Schezo, or COMPILE always doing some crazy shit, but who knows?

The main one I'll be covering is Waku Puyo, because Schezo actually talks about the guy and we can make a Waku Puyo manga thing as well alongside it. It's not that much but it's something. Similar to Serilly, he's met at Water Paradise, where he serves mostly as a midboss than anything, but Schezo does in fact see him talking to Serilly beforehand, mostly trying to make her feel happier about herself, as Schezo questions what the hells going on and realizes he's allowed to enter the place. (Side note: I've called these places all sorts of names; Dungeons, Labyrinths, Palaces, Zones... I know they're called Dungeons but still)

The talk these two have is much more simple than almost anything I've covered so far. Suketoudara is dancing, and Schezo calls it stupid and pretty distracting. Suke asks Schezo to tell that again THREE MORE TIMES as he does so, until he's fed up and says "Alright can we just fight now!?" and then threatens to turn him into food. That's kinda it. The manga kinda goes into deeper detail, adding that Serilly isn't exactly known for being a dangerous person... or even a threat, so he tells Schezo that after defeat.

They do run into each other again near the end of the game, like almost every other character. It's once again Suke dancing and wanting to teach Schezo HOW to dance... but he just finds him annoying and leaves. And the second interaction, Suke gets mad at Schezo for knowing where Serilly is but not telling him, getting Suke mad and storms off to find her... leaving Schezo to ask what the hell did he do.

Here, it's just simple how much Schezo does not care for this guy at all. As Suke is more hyperactive than most and talks a whole lot more ALONGSIDE the dancing, Schezo just finds him... annoying at best. I don't think there's a single person who even respects Suke besides Serilly. It doesn't help that (At least in the manga), Serilly seems to like Schezo more. Quite comedic.

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SEGAAAAAAAA:

Ah, the beauty of SEGA right now is that they only talk like... once ever. And that's in 15th Anniversary, where now it's Schezo being the joke as he always has been. Not so fun when you're on the other side, huh? But yes, in 15th Anniversary, they do meet in Suke's story, and Suke is honestly quite surprised that Schezo's even here, but at least he recognizes someone. Suke actually teases Schezo at his inability to dance compared to him, and Schezo says he can dance, and will prove it with a Puyo battle... and that's it. No, seriously... that's like everything noteworthy. I genuinely wish I was kidding but there's really nothing else.

What I appreciate is that Suketoudara at least maintains his air of carefreeness about the entire situation. Sure, he may be in a different world, but he's going to at least have a good time here before anything else. And I guess bullying Schezo is something anyone can do, even the fish.

-----

Honey Bee:

(...Why is she plot relevant in the manga...)

As we begin to border near the more niche characters of COMPILE, we reach Honey Bee, a character I'm 95% certain nobody would give a damn about if it wasn't for the manga. And because of that, we'll cover her... little personality that we can go off of, and then explain the manga because that's the only time she's ever been relevant in her almost 25+ years of being in this series. Nobody is saying that she's their favorite character in the series unironically. This is also the section where documenting gets shorter and shorter because there's less and less to talk about. Sad, IK.

Honey Bee... is a character, alright. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed despite her two stingers, and uh... I'll be real there's like nothing to talk about with her.

I apologize to all Honey Bee fans, she could very much be your GOAT, the one you cheer for whenever she appears, have her cards in Quest, all that. I like her a lot, but there's not much to go with. She likes to sting people and watches samurai movies. That's basically her character. At least until we get into the manga.

While we have to admit it's not really canon and whatnot, it's really fun to talk about, and also gives some extra stuff to characters, notably Incubus, Lagnus, and the woman of this section... Honey Bee.

Schezo runs into her when he's trying to get some orb at a different dungeon compared to Arle and Rulue, and runs into... well, Honey Bee. At first, they straight up hate each other, before Honey Bee decides that he's actually quite pretty up close, and...tags along with him for the rest of the time. I don't really agree with her, but when the guy's etymology for his name literally says he's pretty, then I guess you can go ahead.

Truth be told, while she's there quite often, she doesn't exactly amount to that much at the end of the day. She's mostly comic relief for Schezo, who kinda needs it because he was supposed to go on a solo journey, and she also really doesn't like when girls (or incubus) talk to him. She's delusional enough to think they're in a relationship, so that's fun. This is more often shown when she's talking to Serilly, where Schezo has to knock her out several times just to talk to Serilly and calm her down, but she does comply with such things, such as taking Schezo's sword at his command to make Serilly ease up. So she's not all that worthless. She even tries to help Schezo bandage up a wound... to no success.

She does in fact do something when Schezo gets possessed by Incubus' magic, and tries to get help... but the manga never finishes up because it only had three volumes. Sad, but what can we really do about it? She REALLY hates Incubus though, since he's always up in her business. Speaking of Incubus...

---

Incubus (And Succubus too):

(You know, I was planning on using the WWPPD manga pages, but realized that I probably shouldn't risk Succubus' pages because I don't think it'd be... right. I'll put it on the Google Doc version.)

Ah, these two, those low level personas you get just because they're low leveled, but they help with the first boss so you can't hate on them too much. I'm not exactly a huge fan of either, but I can understand the appeal at the very least. I've just never been apart of it. This would be the case if this was Persona, but it's not.

Now to explain these two characters can be pretty simple compared to most I've covered already. There's a lot more than say... I dunno, Honey Bee, or The Kikimoras, but it'll pale compared to anyone who's really worthwhile in this long ass post. I wish I could get paid for this, but what can we do? Incubus and Succubus, as their name implies, are... an incubus and and succubus, people who allure others with their charm, only to (usually) take something from them, their stuff, their life, their soul, whatever the writers feel like doing in that set moment. However, since we really can't have that in Puyo, they're much more comedic compared to what I just mentioned. Incubus just wants to impress women with his charm (failing to do so many times).

Succubus wants to charm men, though we only really see this with Schezo and on an off-chance, Arle. They're still not really good people, but you can only do so much with such characters in such a series. You can only go so far, too.

Incubus:

To begin I feel like we should talk about the Tenori Zoh in the room: Tower of the Magician. Glad to bring up this game again, if only briefly. Incubus appears and is attempting to flirt with Witch and to give her Tenori Zoh as a gift to be with him, something that she's not on board with. Schezo comes by and Incubus takes it as Schezo trying HIS luck to do something, when he's just trying to scale the dang tower, and fights him over Witch. He loses and runs away, and for the spoils of his victory, Schezo claims Tenori Zoh for himself, which he seems quite proud of and also fond of. Here, Incubus doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than to be another Jobber for Schezo to beat, but he's trying his best.

For Waku Puyo, the extent of how much Incubus and Schezo interact mostly varies... on if you're reading a manga or if you decide to play the game. God, good luck with that. But really, both Waku Puyo in the manga and the games are vastly different, as Incubus can range from a guy Schezo can fight and talk to just because why not, or a major villain inside of the manga because we really needed all that Incubus stuff, totally. Same with Honey Bee.

Incubus in the game version of Waku Puyo isn't anything too special on his own, but he does do something neat with Witch. Synthesizing, or Fusion as I like to call it, is a pretty big element of the game, and it's really good for getting better gear for later on during the game. Incubus and Witch do in fact talk to Schezo (and I believe Arle and Rulue in their own routes) about said mechanic, and helps elaborate on it much more. They're basically a walking tutorial for the guy, but the main difference is how they act towards Schezo. In it, they put on a much more theatrical role... just because, and it makes Schezo wonder why they're even doing it. But it's helpful nevertheless.

The other interaction they can have is inside dungeons as a boss, however it's nothing all that special, as it's just Incubus being mad that Schezo is there for the orbs that are needed to get through the game, and Schezo wants them, so they fight. It's really boring. The REAL fun begins is during the Waku Puyo manga, where he's a pretty big antagonist for Schezo, constantly trying to "seduce" him (in reality, mind control the guy and take everything from him), and Schezo just fighting back and saying no every time because he doesn't really swing that way. However, the possession finally works, we see Schezo terrorize some people, Bee goes to get help... and then the manga never got finished. Here, Schezo hates him, like everything else on this planet. But I think it's one of the few times he and Bee can come to the agreement that this person is not only ANNOYING, but also sucks to be around. And hey, he's doing his job but that doesn't mean I can't hate him, because I DO hate him in this manga, and probably in general. But that's neither here or there.

Through every interaction in Waku Puyo, one thing is clear, least for the games. They hate each other. Like they really do not like each other at all. Not only because Schezo is a man, but Incubus is just a really petty person in general. He was also searching for the orbs, and Schezo has a majority of them, so Incubus just plans to hog one just because. You can’t really hate that hard on a man who’s willing to hate that much. In the manga… I mean he’s pretty calculating, but man, did Incubus really need that many pages for himself?

Succubus:

Succubus on the other hand... I still don't like much, but only a bit better than Incubus. She goes after Schezo more often than not in media that we've seen mostly because he's the main playable guy most of the time, and there's also the fact that her job is to literally seduce men. Y'know, that sorta stuff.

I think one of her most well known versions of her is the way she is in Madou Saturn, which I can't really say much for Incubus in terms of interactions with Schezo. Schezo, possessed by Lagnus during this time, is is getting whipped by Succubus for the usual, becoming a servant for her as she kidnapped the males in a village for said thing (and also because of a friendly competition with Incubus.), before Lagnus has to let go of the body, awakening Schezo. Man is in PAIN, screaming that this stuff hurts like hell, while Arle and Rulue wonder why Schezo went from somewhat heroic to a screaming baby. I also just want to add Harpy was brought along for this ride forcibly by Rulue. One of the few times I'll feel bad for her. But alas, because of Arle and crew's save, she fights them and tells them about Incubus as well. There's not exactly much to say but it's for sure something.

Waku Puyo on the other hand is much more comedic than anything. During Schezo's route, she puts up fliers about her services all across the amusement park because... well, how else is she going to do her job? Kikimora tells Schezo and he goes off to the races because he wants to meet Succubus, you can take a guess as to why. (Schezo never really thinks THAT ahead in this game to be fair). Meeting up with her, Succubus wonders if he's there to become her servant, which Schezo just kinda says no to because he doesn't serve anyone but himself, and she gets pretty upset at that since to her, he's a handsome man, she should have said handsome man because it's her moral right. Schezo isn't one to fight about who deserves what, because he deserves his magic to be back after getting stolen, and as such, he doesn't care.

They can run into each other again at the Battle Tower, where Succubus decides that she's not going to sell her business in a random amusement park, but to be an usher for the tower... I mean a career choice is always alright. Here, there's not much to discuss as she's more-or-less the blurb you're required to read to understand the Battle Tower, but she does ask why Schezo wanted to meet her again, to which he says that he's not here for her, he promises that much. Succubus then laughs and says he's easy to tease, which is true. He is the second most bullyable man in the series next to Satan for the cast.

It's sorta what you expect from a Succubus, them trying to seduce men and getting mad when the men resist. And Schezo apparently is really good at resisting them, but she can still find room to just troll the guy at least a little bit. Man, ANYONE can bully this guy.

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Skeleton-T:

(Once the coolest dude ever, forever the coolest dude ever.)

Skeleton-T, oh this goofy guy. He's been with us since the very start at this point, and has sadly faded away into someone that not as many people remember, despite the fact that he's a pretty funny skeleton. We had two skeletons take over Tumblr a few years back, so it isn't anything that special, though. But Skeleton-T really is a real one. I personally really like the guy despite the fairly minimal roles he's usually played throughout the series.

How do I explain THIS funny skeleton, I hear you ask. I'm glad the voices that don't exist have asked such a question, and I'll be very happy to answer... Skeleton-T is just a really chill skeleton who likes tea. He offers it to people often, and gets mad when they say no to it, which plays a key role in uh... every single thing he does ever. Other than that, he's pretty chill, even if he gets a grand total of one customer a day. And I like that about him. So what does he even do relating to Schezo? ...It's Waku Puyo, what'd you expect? Something NEW? If only.

Skeleton-T and Schezo... I mean Schezo doesn't actually hate the guy, really. He can find him annoying with the tea thing, but he's never really mad at the guy, all things considered. He's the first boss of the game, as expected with most of the encounters with Skeleton-T, where he asks Schezo if he wants a cup of tea. If Schezo declines, he does in fact get mad at you and the boss begins, though clicking yes I believe leads to a different result. After this fight, Skeleton-T can be seen just kinda wandering PuyoPuyo Land, having a fun time just doing what he wants... until he gets kicked outta some store because of Succubus.

Yeah, when Succubus begins posting her fliers all over the place, Skeleton-T kinda sorta got kicked outta the store he was working at, though I like to pretend that it was a Subway and his sandwich was just that ass, but besides the jokes, he does in fact tell Schezo that some woman (Succubus) kinda threw him out of his store, and Schezo wonders if Skeleton-T was just slacking off if anything, considering he doesn't seem like that sort of person. Either way, Schezo's not really mad at the guy, he was just wondering deep down if Skeleton-T is either a slacker or he legit got booted outta a store. Which he sadly did, that DAMN Succubus ruining a man's 9-5...

Schezo can run into Skeleton-T sometimes in the dungeon's he explores, and oftentimes heals your HP and MP if you sit down and actually drink his tea alongside him. One notable instance can be in the Horror House, where he mentions that for once, he had another customer, a blonde girl who laughed quite often, and Schezo realizes that his two biggest enemies (Arle and Rulue) do in fact, NOT have blonde hair, so he wonders who's the mystery person in this case. I wonder as well...

Schezo runs into him one more time when the Ultimate Tower emerges, where Skeleton-T is freaking out because not ONLY did a tower appear outta nowhere, but even his tea spilled... quite the sad fate, and one fate that leaves Schezo confused at where his priorities really land. And their last talk mostly has Skeleton-T mention that Schezo should sit down and relax a bit with some tea, to which Schezo jokes that the guys brain as well as tea gotta just be green at this point. Skeleton-T takes this as Schezo asking for green tea, which he stops for a bit and wonders for a bit, with Schezo internally saying "...I was joking."

The thing is when it comes to this funny little guy is that his interactions will always involve tea. Talks with Arle, Schezo, even Ringo when he appeared with two other random dudes in Puyo 7 involve tea, it's who he is. But what I like is that the guy here is just... kinda casual about it until someone says no. Granted, Schezo is neutral with the guy and is frankly wondering where the hell his priorities are, but he can sit down every so often and be his only customer, if only because you're playing as Schezo. Go support the local tea business, man.

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Doppelganger Schezo:

(I just really like these lines. And there's not many good Doppel Schezo images to begin because he's niche.)

Doppelganger Schezo, Doppelganger Arle, Lilith, what do these three even have in common? Besides the fact that they're the perfect characters to create headcanons with because they don't even do much, Doppelganger Schezo strikes to me as more interesting of the entire bunch, as there's actually something to him in this game, and I really like what they went with in Schezo's route, it's genuinely something that's really fun to discuss with a grand total of... what, four people? So I get to share this with the class, which is going to be very fun.

So who IS Doppelganger Schezo, where did he come from? It's a good place to start, considering that I'll discuss his personality later. To begin, he's what is called "The Space-Time Crystal", the actual "prize" of PuyoPuyo Land, he's what the entire crew is searching for the entire game, might I add. How he came to be was actually quite simple; Schezo was exploring a labyrinth that always changed its layout when he left the place, so every time would take longer and longer because he'd never know what the layout will be. After finally reaching the crystal, it begins to talk to him, and begins to sap him of all his energy, as Schezo himself before the game properly begins is actually impressively strong. Schezo runs out, conserving what little energy he has left, and is the reason why he starts off weak to begin with. He's THE reason Schezo goes to the place to begin with, to restore his lost powers.

Throughout the entire game, Doppelganger Schezo lurks in the shadows, as we never see his full design until the very end of the game after all three characters have beaten Satan... which is a very tall task in of itself. In this time, he constantly berates Schezo in a menacing and foreboding tone, but is surprised when Schezo does in fact continue on through the dungeons and getting stronger. He's even surprised when Schezo beats Satan.

Finally seeing his full design, Schezo realizes that the voice taunting him was none other than a clone of himself. And it's everything that Schezo was back at the start of the game: Arrogant, confident, a man who will mock you because he knows he's stronger than you. He's proud to take Schezo's magic, taunting him about that fact, stating he wonders who siphoned his magic with a cheeky smirk, before Schezo begins to think about how he knows that his powers got taken. The lines you see him saying are (at least how I interpret and write it):

"Really? The so called "Dark Mage" is going to "defeat" me, of all people? Are you going to go all out, or is that "Dark Mage" nothing but a bluff?"

He's every negative Schezo has. Yet how does that relate to Schezo himself? It's because he's the way to show how much Schezo has grown throughout the entire game. The Doppelganger we see is nothing more than someone trying to be Schezo's past self, and we know through the course of the game that Schezo has grown as a person, whether he likes to admit it or not. He's willing to talk more to people, help them out if he wants to, and even support people when they need some help. He grows to care at least a bit for Kikimora, telling her to not cry and apologizes for his mistakes, becomes friends with Serilly and eases to her greatly, adding on that he's willing to help her if she truly needs it. He takes the precautions Satan says seriously, he feels bad for yelling at Arle. These moments show that yes, Schezo himself has grown greatly as a person (even if he thinks he's going insane), not to mention becoming even stronger as a whole. And Doppelganger Schezo represents what he was before, and something he must finally overcome.

And he does so after a hard-fought battle. Doppelganger Schezo begins to collapse, his body being unable to maintain itself, the tower, all of PuyoPuyo Land. He admits that he's nothing but a clone, someone replicating Schezo, as Schezo himself realizes that the voice in that labyrinth he was at was none other than Doppel, and that he's the one who stole his powers. As Schezo says it's time to regain his old powers back, Doppelganger Schezo stops him, saying that there's no need for such limited power, as Schezo has shattered his own limits and has become even stronger, siphoning him wouldn't do any favors. As the amusement park begins to collapse, Doppel admits that everything will be gone, including him, and with one final sendoff and smirk, teleports everyone who was in the amusement park away, while he and the entire place explode.

As Schezo wakes up again, realizing everything is gone, he realizes that Doppelganger Schezo was more than just a clone, but his old self. The old self that he beat on his own, on his own merit and powers HE gained for himself. As Arle, Satan, and Rulue show up to ask if he's OK, Schezo is surprised at the fact that Doppelganger Schezo even did such a thing for everyone, yet can't help but feel an underlying respect for him.

I love these scenes, as we see everything the game was pushing for Schezo's route, his growth as a person and as a fighter. No matter what, Doppelganger Schezo was just that; A doppelganger who was able to steal someone's abilities, yet that person worked back up to the top to break their limits. He's such a fascinating character, and I'm surprised there's even this much to talk about. Do NOT ask how he's back in Puyo Puyo Box though, I cannot answer that question.

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Runelord:

(Wooo, yeah this guy...)

Runelord. GOD I do not like him at all, he's supposed to be important for Schezo's story and whatnot, but I swear it feels like the most nothing thing despite it being genuinely important. But alas, he's important and I have to talk about him, despite all my rage.

So who is this guy, anyways? Truth be told, there's like three versions of him because why not via the novels, so it's kinda conflicting. In the game he's in though, he's a 200 year old mage who was sealed away by a great hero. That hero is implied to be Lagnus, I believe, but don't take my word for that. He tries to find the next user of the Dark Sword, or better known as Schezo's Sword. Y'see where this is going?

He's ONLY in Madou S, and is the final boss of the route. Throughout the game, he tries to make a then 14 year old Schezo become the next Dark Mage, though Schezo keeps declining and resisting the urge to say yes. He's on a field trip after all. However, at the end of the game, Schezo succumbs to the temptation, and well. We know what he becomes throughout the series.

...That's kinda it for the guy. There's tons of other lore questions that we're bound to ask, but that involves going into True Madou Monogatari, which isn't... canon, at all. I remember when we all thought it was until we learned by the actual people who knew the series that no, it wasn't canon and was just a cool name. Yet that's why people think Lilith is super interesting, so there's that. But seriously, there's not too much to cover with him, besides the fact that he's the reason Schezo holds the sword he does.

It's IMPORTANT, no doubt, but he's a one-off enemy in a game, even Count makes more appearances compared to this guy. There's really not that much.

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Ringo and Ecolo:

(As of writing this section, it's February 13th. I began this on August 22nd.)

Ah, Ringo. Only the third A Girl that gets shafted more often than I like to imagine, second being Atari due to her little circumstance of being in a Japanese only game, and then Ally… who’s been shafted ever since her inception, she’s not even a real thing in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, but rather just some side mission where she says she loves Marle and the himejoshi’s went wild. (As did most of the fanbase.) And Ecolo, that guy sure exists. Yeah.

But I’m getting off track, we’re talking about Ringo here… as well as Ecolo but alas, there brings a problem… there’s not exactly much TO mention, sadly. Schezo didn’t exist in SEGA Puyo until Puyo 7 decided to bring him back from the dead right after he went missing… and then nothing with him because he’s not really all too plot relevant. We're reaching the segments where some entries will be decently long, and then others (like these two) will become dreadfully short. These two will become dreadfully short.

So to describe these two folks, Ringo and Ecolo, those two people. Ringo herself is the most down-to-earth person in the main cast, as she's basically what we get when we throw in a teenage girl who's too into mathematics into the world of Puyo, and she does her job decently well. She's the one that plays almost everything straight... and Ecolo is the exact opposite of that. He's always the one randomly causing issues, or if there's a problem, he probably knows because... Deus-Ex Machina's idk. (It's in reality because he travels space a lot and can see a lot, but prefers to do chaotic nonsense for the love of the game.)

Ringo's interaction only really extends up to Puyo 7 and 20th Anni, where he's one of the first people she runs into during the third act, The World Wonders arc as I like to call it, where she has to travel across the world to find every wonder, which included Egypt. WHY Schezo was teleported to Egypt is my own guess, but we don't gotta worry about that, just know that his cape is top tier now. What matters is that he's hungry, very hungry for being stranded in the middle of Egypt out of literally nowhere, and asks for Ringo's apple, but phrases it as him wanting her, the classic blunder. Ringo, understandably concerned, fights him off, and he just leaves in anger because he couldn't get the apple. Little did he know though, that was all he was going to do the entire story. Quite fun.

Ringo also appears in Schezo's story, when he's trying to find Satan and kick his ass just because he's really upset at the guy. Ringo throws the pervert allegations directly at him without him saying anything crazy to her, so much so that both he and Arle herself have to mention that it's JUST the power Arle has, not even Arle herself. Ringo doesn't really care, as she finds the guy as a whole weird as hell, they fight, and she leaves, calling the guy a pervert again. Schezo then hates the fact that all he is considered to some is just that; Some random ass pervert.

There's not really a major dynamic to talk about with these two, it's mostly just Ringo seeing this guy as a massive freak, but also apparently one of Arle's friends by 20th anniversary, while also still thinking that he's just one big freak. Schezo doesn't really seem to like her much, either. Ecolo's section is even shorter. In 20th, he just senses Ecolo after the end of is story and Ecolo is impressed. However, during the final story, Schezo does appear to fight Satan, and then notify to both Arle and Ringo that he senses that something bad is going to happen considering that Satan and Ecolo are planning something together, which for our A Duo, spells big trouble.

In Puzzle Pop, there's more interactions at the very least. In Arle's story route, Arle and Schezo do run into Ecolo, who was also dragged into this entire dream world, and blame him for the whole dimension thing, because who wouldn't blame someone who can cross through spacetime easily? Ecolo does mention that he could try and leave, but it's not something he can casually do, and acts clueless about knowing about Meena, before Arle and Schezo fight him. After the fight, it turns out that (of course), Ecolo knows everything about who the culprit is, laughs it off, and tells the two to rendezvous with their friends.

Now why did I even focus on these people despite the fact they have next to nothing on them? Good question, it's because it really goes to show how little these Suzuran people get in terms of interaction with others not really named Ringo. I WISH they interacted more, but they tend to be much more comfortable making each era of games talk to only said era of games, and don't really expand beyond that. But Puzzle Pop changing that makes me at least a bit more content with that. But alas, we gotta make do with what we have.

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Amitie:

(I got two images left, I gotta make these count.)

Here is the other A Girl, the second one in line to the now FIVE we have, and Ally still forever gets shafted no matter how hard we try. It's just the rules of the land that Ally will never ever get anything remotely cool despite it always being so dang close. I like Amitie nowadays, though she took quite some time to get used to, but eventually I got used to the bundle of energy and stupidity that she is and can also be sometimes. But that's fine.

What do we really know about Amitie as a whole? Well, we've known her for well over 20 years at this point (the game came out in 2003, I wasn't even a concept when it dropped), but she's been pretty consistent throughout the series. She's incredibly energetic and upbeat, always having some sorta positive attitude about things as a whole, and aspires to be a great magician. She's been reminding us of that for said 20 years, by the way. Yeah she can be pretty clueless about some more deeper stuff, but her heart is always in the right place. Now how does this relate to Schezo Wegey, who's kinda the exact opposite of what I just mentioned? I'm glad I asked myself, because they interact about three times in the entire series. Which is more than Ringo, ain't that a bit unfortunate.

The first time they talk is in 15th Anni, where Schezo is actually the last fight of Amitie's story, so that's fun. AND he has a good theme to boot. But besides that, Amitie doesn't really recognize Schezo at all, and neither does he, since he's from a completely different place than her. However, something he does notice is Amitie's red Puyo cap, and mentions that it has some latent powers, and that she doesn't really see it, before asking for her (cap). Amitie, understandably, is freaked out by this, and calls him a weirdo, before he has to clarify that he meant the cap, not her, yet he's still called a weirdo. Such is the whims of fate. They then again talk in Puyo 7, where it's actually kinda more or less the same thing, where he talks about wanting Amitie's power (and hat), before she very obviously freaks out and calls him out. Not really much to discuss here to begin with, since it's kinda the same talk in two different games. Schezo is still pretty keen when it comes to latent powers and what can go on, but he still sucks at wording everything that he does or say, ergo, he's always going to fail. Amitie on the other hand, is concerned that some dude with a sword and white hair is asking for her (cap), which is understandable, I'd be scared as hell too.

The final time they really... interact is during the DLC chapter of Puyo Puyo Tetris, where she's in the way of Schezo, who's pursuing Sig for his hand, and attempts to fend off Schezo to the best of her ability. However, because he's the playable character and not her, she loses, and accidentally tells Schezo where Sig might be, while he heads off. A rookie mistake by her, if I say so myself.

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Sig and Klug:

(I'm REALLY running outta images, man. But hey, this has both of them, Schezo, AND Satan for the love of the game.)

These two are going to be talked about in a joint entry for a couple of reasons. The first one being that I can condense these sort of things a lot easier, as when characters have a bit less to talk about, I can simply combine some entries to make my writing shorter, more condense, the three miles. Learned that one in college...

The second and more important reason is because they're often paired together in terms of talking, and they do have some things in common with each other and Schezo as a whole, so I think it'd be fitting to at least discuss them together. At the very least, Klug has more interesting things than Sig in that aspect. And third of all... Puyo Puyo Tetris.

But ANYWHO, Sig and Klug. I like these guys, they're pretty decent to me, which is a fall off for Sig because when I first got into the series he was my favorite, then fell out when PPT1/2 dropped because it turns out that he felt a bit stale for me. Klug has always been someone I liked though, at least. But lets explain these folks.

Sig himself is a very... spacey sorta person. He seems aware of the things around him, but never tends to care much in general, or tends to never understand the gravity of it because he's off in his own little world doing his own thing, usually being collecting insects because he likes them so much. (Is there a lore reason why Sig collects bugs? Is he stupid?) He does things at his own pace, if you will. However, the main claim to fame besides this is his left arm, which is a very distinct red, seemingly corrupted by SOMETHING. Because of that, he has latent powers inside of them, something that's been explored quite a bit when it comes to how it works. If anything, it seems like more of a curse than anything, but he doesn't mind it at all for the most part. Sure that arm can lead into horrors beyond all comprehension, but it's fine, he'll survive.

However, his hand can indeed cause problems, such as... uh, the entirety of Puzzle Pop as a whole. Because Sig was willing to work with Meena mostly because they considered each other friends, the spirit of the hand got to him and he became much more cold and ruthless compared to what he usually is, which is...the exact opposite of that.

When it comes to Klug, there's actually quite a lot of similarities with him and Schezo. The constant need to get better at what they do, both being users of dark magic (kinda sorta), the fact they're annoyed by the titular A girl and have a massive rivalry with the R girl, them both being cursed in some way or form (Possessed Klug is rearing his stupid head), there's actually quite a good bit. Klug himself is pretty different compared to Schezo. A guy who is actually pretty mid by himself, the most average joe to ever average in the Puyo World. As such, he works himself to the bone to be the top of his class, and as such, uses the book he has to make himself stronger... even if the book is actually holding a spirit that can possess him and take over his body. But sometimes we gotta take calculated risks to get better, even if the results end up with you no longer having control of your body. Happens to the best of us.

(Mostly) Klug:

For Klug standalone, there is two interaction, Puzzle Pop as well as 20th Anniversary. In Schezo's story, Klug runs into the cave that Schezo resides in, mostly there for the crystals that apparently give more power to his magic, while Schezo tells him to leave his cave, and since Klug refuses, a battle happens that he loses and runs away from, making Schezo more annoyed than anything.

For Sig and Klug together, the main moment everyone points to is the DLC chapter for Schezo in Tetris 1, where Schezo chases around Sig for his hand and latent powers, and Sig... well, he finds him to be a freak, and runs away from the guy. Meanwhile with Klug, when Schezo runs into him, he's yelling at his book to shut up. Schezo, confused as one should be, tells him to move aside and asks why bro is yelling at a book, and Klug notes that ever since Sig ran by, his book has been chattering, before realizing that the voices are back (The spirit itself). He begins to yell at the book, telling it all the evil things he will do to it... such as leaving it in the bathroom, and creasing the pages on the upper-right corners. The sheer horrors of what Akuma will have to do for that book, and also that spirit itself.

After Schezo helps with the book, Klug asks why he even wants to approach Sig, since he's running from... well, Schezo. He replies with the classic "I just want to examine him all over!" line, and Klug glosses through that before realizing The Implications and runs off as well.

Their interaction in Puzzle Pop is slightly different, with Klug realizing that the book that he holds has a lot of latent power, and Schezo was looking for Klug BECAUSE of that book, and asks him to hand it over because he thinks it'll have knowledge about Meena. As expected, Klug is NOT gonna give the book, as he states that it's quite literally one with him, and fights Schezo to defend the book. After Klug's loss, when Schezo asks again for the book, Klug hits the classic "There's a UFO in the sky" and Schezo falls for the trick as he runs.

What do I gather from these talks? Despite the parallels that are given, Schezo is mostly annoyed by Klug if anything, and vise versa, the feeling is mutual. There's a slight comedy in figuring out that Schezo is beefing with a literal schoolboy over a book on TWO different occasion, and the other was because he was annoying Schezo's quiet time. Like I stated prior, the parallel's are kinda there, but we know deep down they won't do much with them. I like both, I really do, and I'm hoping for a little more between them another time.

Sig:

The main discussion point people want to talk about is Sig, and it's kinda obvious as to why, they're probably the two most popular characters in the Western fandom, and still pretty damn popular in Japan. The entire Chapter 9 story happens because of the fact that Schezo wants to examine Sig's hand and learn about it and gets it power. As such, Sig runs away from him for the entire chapter and Schezo goes by several people he knows and considers his friends (or for the case of Lemres, someone he just knows).At the end of the story, Schezo finally gets to Sig, and states that Sig's hand is now his and to give it to him, and a battle ensues. After Sig loses, we see him in the saddest state we've seen him be in ever, as he realizes that he has to leave all of his bug friends on his hand (Side note, imagine how awful that'd feel for so many people), and when Schezo realizes it, he calls off the entire search.

This entire thing was the basis of the story summed up into a single paragraph. If you're looking at this paper and expecting me to psychoanalyze Chapter 9 for what it holds when deep down it's a comedy chapter, you'd be half-right. For people like Klug, I do it because it's their ONLY interaction together. But Sig has another one in Puzzle Pop, which is more interesting.

Schezo in his own story spends the entire time chasing around Meena, this time to figure out what's going on and to take her powers, sound familiar? While doing so, he runs into many illusions of his friends for his desire to fight powerful opponents, but he finally catches up to Meena. Just as he's about to take her powers, Sig appears outta nowhere and tells Schezo to back off, which confuses him. The Sig he's hearing is much more aggressive and fierce than the one he knows, and this Sig doesn't want Schezo to interfere with anything that he and Meena are planning.

After fighting Schezo, Meena escapes and Sig laughs it off, saying he has no further business with Schezo, leaving as he does so. Schezo then deduces that what Lemres told him (I'll explain in the next entry) was true, and that Sig is most likely the culprit in this entire problem they're in, as well as seeming much stronger than he ever seemed, and realizes he has to dig deeper to truly get to understanding this entire thing.

What's so interesting about this is the fact that Schezo interacts with two completely different Sigs, the one that we see in Puyo Tetris that doesn't like him at all and runs away from him and doesn't like him at all, and the much more confrontational Sig that we see in Puzzle Pop. Schezo reacts in completely different ways too, from his confident self to realizing Sig is just kinda an innocent kid in Tetris, to being surprised that Sig would defend Meena and realize that he's most likely the culprit of the game, taking the situation more seriously than he ever has beforehand. I'm glad it's strayed away from wanting Sig's latent power and the normal wacky hijinks that always happens with these two into something that could be a lot more interesting to just look at, and I'm grateful that it's moving elsewhere.

-----

Lemres:

(Saving him for last because he's my personal fave. Schezo is...my 5th favorite.)

Lemres, this guy is pretty much my favorite character in the series despite my blog being all about old Compile nonsense as well as some Quest stuff here and there. Despite me being... well, the guy that mentions Waku Puyo a ton, I do hold a very soft spot for Fever and Suzuran, because I like a lotta things about Puyo, not just one era. And way to end it with a popular character, huh?

The guy has his fans, I'm one of them, and many insane fans, I am not one of them. But the appeal for the guy is very much there, he's a very chill person with a lot of mystery around him and surprising lore. Y'know, the stuff about him first being a dark mage, but since he didn't like it and his parents forced him to do be such things, he ran away from home and became a Comet Warlock. He's a prodigy in that aspect, and is insanely respected by Klug and Feli... to maybe concerning degrees. His magic runs on sweets, ergo, why he always has so many and is good at making them. There's quite a good bit we dunno about the guy, and that draws people in. And the parts we do know draw more people in. And that's why he's so beloved. Kinda funny that he shares a Voice Actor with Sig (Ben Diskin), who's also incredibly popular.

But enough about the guy. You've reached so far in this thing, I may as well give you one last hurrah with this stuff.

The first time these two ever meet is in Schezo's story of 15th Anniversary. Lemres was told to be the light by Feli, and Schezo must be an assassin of darkness...in his very first fight. When they meet, Schezo realizes that this is the fabled Lemres that she was talking about, and Lemres notes that he's a dark mage off a bit of sensing it as a Comet Warlock. As Schezo boasts that Feli fought admirably, Lemres tells him that he's not going to get any candy since he bullied Feli... which makes Schezo think that Lemres himself is a perv. Lemres takes this rather casually, saying he's never been called that before, and even says he doesn't swing that way to Schezo after he asked him to be his desire, before Schezo clarifies he meant Lemres's power, not Lemres himself. I really like how casual Lemres is about all of this, most people freak out or call Schezo a pervert, but he just shrugs it off and wonders about why he was called one for offering candy. Then again, if most people offer free candy, there might be a bit more to that deal.

Their next interactions is actually in Lemres's storyline in 20th Anniversary. Throughout the entire thing, Lemres has been out of energy because he hasn't been having enough sweets, and most things have not been working well at all. He passed out from salt, and almost passed out again from exhaustion, he was going through the wringer. He randomly stumbles into Schezo's cave and realizes that he SOMEHOW baked an entire cake for himself. Lemres, delusional, jumps Schezo because of that. After he wins, he comments that the cake was alright, but nowhere good as his, yet thanks him and leaves. Compared to the last interaction... I mean we're dealing with a Lemres with exhaustion, the interaction is much more deliberately comedic. That's not to say the 15th Anni talk wasn't, but in a way, it was more subdued, and even flipped the script a bit of Schezo asking Lemres the question instead, and him replying back pretty casually all things considered. I'm not really a big fan of the interaction personally, but I don't think it's bad.

What I DO think isn't a good interaction (IMO) is their talk in Puyo Puyo Tetris, least on Schezo's end. Once again, we run back to Chapter 9, where Schezo is running for Sig and runs into Lemres, who's "Just taking a stroll". They exchange names via their titles, and Schezo thinks Lemres is hiding something from him. On the other hand, Lemres offers him a lollipop just because he seems angry, and they fight due to Schezo's being a bit too angry and him needing some manners. (Oh and the insert whatever you like innuendo is there too ig.)

After the fight, Lemres casually admits that he hopes he delayed Schezo long enough, and that it'd be pretty bad if he and Sig crossed paths...even if it was in a dream. This confuses the hell outta Schezo, who wants answers, but Lemres strolls away, asking for another battle when he wakes up. Schezo just wonders what he meant by a dream, and that if it was the case, everyone else would also be asleep, including Lemres. And they're not sleeping together for sure.

Despite what I said about me not really liking this interaction much, again, it's only really for the Schezo side. He's just agitated and kinda out there to yell and throw out an innuendo, while Lemres just kinda stalls and asks him if he wants a lollipop, least for the first part. The second part does interest me a bit though, what with Lemres saying all that dream nonsense, refuses to elaborate, and just leaves after saying he'd like to battle again sometime. The guy is both confusing and a troll and I'm all for it.

After the fight, Schezo begrudgingly tells Lemres a theory he has: Sure it could very much be Satan or Ecolo up to no good again, but what if it's not them for once? He notes that this sort of power shouldn't be possible by just Meena, so she must've had help from someone. Noting the kid with the red hand (Sig), he finishes his theory and leaves after Lemres asks if he wants candy again. Connecting the dots, Lemres decides to seek out Sig.

What I like about this interaction so much is that Lemres constantly plays the straight man to Schezo's typical antics, though this time, they're both playing it straight. Schezo doesn't trust Lemres, who really just wants answers for what's going on, and they play the roles really damn well. Also helps that they're both smart in-lore, and Schezo continues to prove that Puzzle Pop is his best SEGA outing ever.

With Schezo's story, it's very different due to the fact that it's somewhat similar to Puyo Tetris 1's interaction. Lemres this time is stalling for Meena, mostly because if we want to go off of his story, Meena isn't actually all that dangerous, plus Schezo tends to get physical with people he tries to get. Sound familiar? Schezo takes this as Lemres working for Meena when in reality he just doesn't want Schezo to actually hurt Meena. However, something I do want to mention is Lemres mentioning the whole “Never run into Sig, even if it's a dream” thing. In Puzzle Pop, they kinda ARE in a dream, a collective one at the least. Now I doubt that SEGA was actually planning to make Puzzle Pop and then tie into that little interaction they had together, because that'd be some Aizen level foreshadowing. And as much as I love Puyo, I doubt it's one of those series with foreshadowing like THAT.

Yet as stated prior, the way these two act towards each other has people on their knees for more. The laid-back, almost suspicious and mysterious demeanor of Lemres compared to the usually more brash Schezo, they clash very well for being opposites of one another in terms of skill sets. They're both smart guys, they both understand the situations they're thrown in (save for 20th anni), and despite Schezo often seeing Lemres as some sorta roadblock that always seems to stand in his way, he still respects the guys talent and title, they do only call each other by their titles. That’s kinda sick.

-----

Conclusion.

So, after all of that text, all that lore dumping, talking about dynamics, who each character is and how they interact with Schezo, what did we learn? Well, what I hope I taught you is that the dynamics of a character can shift so heavily within almost 30-ish years of being a thing. For a personality that's stay relatively the same since his inception, Schezo is a pretty layered character, and his interactions with everyone he meets can be so different, so unique. That by in part is also because the characters he interacts with are also incredibly interesting in their own right, and seeing each of them bounce off one another is really fun.

Schezo at his core is an aloof swordsman who's actually quite smart, even with a major tendency to flub his words and make people assume he's a perv. And look where that went. I covered many characters in this, and there's STILL some I'm probably missing that are either too short to cover or the like. (Characters such as Sasori Man come to mind, alongside others like maybe Feli.) Yet here we are, about 26K words into this, at the very end of this all. Even comedy can have layers, and Puyo is no different. At it's core it's a silly "Blob go pop" game, but there's actually quite a lot to uncover underneath that surface. From the genuinely nice talks he can have with Serilly, to the rivalry between Arle and Rulue, to the parallels like Lagnus and Klug, to flipping his role on his head with Lemres and Witch, there's was quite a lot to mention...and quite a bit I missed. After all, I can only do so much. I didn't even mention some games such as Chronicle or Quest much, that'd still be quite the herculean task. But I do genuinely hope this at least made you learn something new, and that's a win in my books.

And Thanks.

With that, I'm also here to say thanks. Thank you for reading all of this, or at the very least, skimming through some parts to what interested you, I do want to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone.

I also want to give my heartfelt thanks to my friends, the people who proofread this, who helped me get information I otherwise would've missed, the people who cheered me on despite the fact there were in fact a couple of times I just wanted to quit this because of the length... I have quite a list of people I want to thank for everything. Just on Tumblr, at least:

I want to thank specifically:

@kirstenonic05, basically my coworker and the person who helped me get so damn far to begin with.

@dremyink06, For helping me get some vital info for characters such as Lagnus.

@enfoe-afiend, @somegalnamedristet, @sbaily, @therealprincesalde, @redamity I'm listing them all at once because not only did they help with quite a lot of editing, but they also helped cheered me on when it was getting kinda tiring to write.

And...a whole lot more people who don't have Tumblr's or I'm unsure have them, but are still very much my friends nevertheless. There are quite a lot of you, y'know. Thank you all. This was in no way in hell a solo project, and you made this project a lot more enjoyable than it could've been. I may have missed a few things, or even messed up a detail, but I hope that this work can help people learn more about... my 5th favorite character in the series. My Tumblr followers and other voters really said "Make the long ass document about Schezo", and I sure as hell did. And it only took 1 and a half college semesters. Thanks for tuning in. Have a nice day. Adios for now.

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klugami · 1 year ago

Text

Amitie the idol?! New conflict. I’m done. Anyways I wish I had a boyfriend but more Klugami soon. Or not. It took like half a year for this one hehe

Isolation.

For a city with such a colorful cast, everyone blurs into the same shade of brown. Browns, purples, reds. No matter what you do, you’re just another hat in a crowd. Embracing yourself might be fun, but in the end, you’re still a nobody. Faceless, perhaps. Why pretend you exist? Occupy your niche, pretend it’s all fine. Aren’t you happier like this?

Why do you want to be unique so badly? Is it truly unique, or do you just want to feel loved? Do you even want to be loved, or are you so desperate to have acknowledgment? To be something more than one brick in the Great Wall of society.

Perhaps.

Sig looked at the window, from behind the counter. Orange lights, a sight that he’s grown tired of. In the past few weeks, or maybe it was months, it feels like he’s seen Klug less and less. Raffina told him that this was normal, but… no, it’s probably fine.

Besides him, Raffina and Lidelle seemed to be more consistent customers. They’d chat about the happenings, usually that nothing new happened. Amitie was usually there too, but today she was not. Sig never talked to any of them outside of orders, anyway.

He still comes by, every now and again, though he’s grown a bit stranger over time. Now, Sig always felt that Klug was kind of the hiding type, but it feels like whatever Klug was hiding got bigger. But at the same time, he smiles more. Was it genuine or not? Sig didn’t know.

As the door chimed, Sig immediately looked to see who came in. Disappointingly, it was not one of his friends, but rather a papergirl. This is odd, Sig thinks, as usually letters are delivered straight to his home. “Is it urgent?” He asked, now looking at the bread he had for sale.

“No, no!” Ally tried to explain. “I’m not here to deliver anything. Ooh, but your bread looks super good! I insist, Mister Sig! I want to make a purchase!” She looks at many loaves of bread, pointing out each one’s qualities to her like “oh! It’s so cute!” Or “I really like that bug!”

Ally fawned over all the bread, before lightly smacking herself to remain focused. “Ok! I’ll have.. whatever’s cheapest!” She decides.

Sig looked behind him, then grabbed a loaf of bread. The plainest one he had, as per Ally’s request for something cheap. At least he wasn’t parting with something more extravagant.

“Here it is. 5 silver coins.” He recites, putting the bread in Ally’s hands. “I thought you had letters to deliver?” Sig said, offhandedly, as he went to go bake a replacement loaf.

“There’s no need to worry! I’m off today!” Ally said, as she sat herself down to eat her bread. Though before she could even get started, the door swung open again, seeming out of breath

“Puff… Baker! Baker! I’ll have the usual!”

Amitie waved from the door, upon seeing everyone present. “Oh! Raffina, and Lidelle! The whole gang’s here!” She grinned, as she scuttled to the front. “Y’know, I didn’t expect everyone here! Usually we’re all too busy to meet up!”

Lidelle turned over, excited to hear Amitie’s voice. “Oh! Ami! I-It’s been a while since we’ve talked… you’re alone this time. W-What happened to Klug?” She asked.

As Amitie waited at the counter for her usual order, she contemplated what she was going to see. “Well uh— how do I put it.. I haven’t the foggiest clue what happened to him!”

“He’s dead?!” Lidelle gasped.

“What? No, of course not!” Amitie reassured her. “But like… he’s been all cooped up in his house, and he won’t answer the door. I don’t think he’s left it since we talked about the thing..”

“The thing?” Raffina asked, now also invested in the conversation. “Amitie, what on Earth is the ‘thing?’”

Since she was going to be here awhile, Amitie sat down near Lidelle and Raffina. “So, like, the short of it is that we were at his place talking but all of a sudden, he got mopey. And then he told me I should leave and that we—“

“But why were you hanging out together? No, why were you at his house? What happened before this?” Raffina interrupts, suspicious. “What was so important that you had to tell him something at his place?”

“Well, I should probably explain the rest of what happened before. Okay?” Amitie said, as she leaned back on her chair, nearly falling, but that’s per usual with Amitie.

…

So like, before we talked about it, it was actually really normal! I had actually gotten a meeting with a company! Like, a real idol company! The actual meeting was super nerve-wracking though, because there was this tall mysterious type!

I remember giving them a demo of one of my songs, and some long questions, but only one I really remember! “Why do you sing?” He asked me, his aura actually freaking me out. “What inspires you to perform?” Well, that question was the most important to me.

Really, I knew this answer already! But it was the only answer that I knew! From the get-go! “I perform to make people happy! To make the world I live in better, even if it’s just one person who smiles!” I told him, pep and all! And I think this was the ticket, because I got a card after!

The interviewer even seemed to be smiling, but I couldn’t tell. “We’ll arrange for an audition. We can talk further on the phone.”

I was stoked! It was absolutely incredible that I could have a chance! And of course, the first thing I had to do was tell Klug about it. But as I got up to leave, they told me something else.

A few things, actually, but most important was that they’d end up… taking me to another city. One that was far, like, somewhere I don’t know the name of.

It’s scary, right? I think it is…

But, this is something important, still, so I had to tell Klug! After all, he’s my closest friend—

…

“Aren’t you two..?” Lidelle interrupted. “I-I thought you guys were.. and… did you two…?”

“Well, yeah, we are dating, but that doesn’t make him not my friend! This story isn’t about us splitting!…I hope.” Amitie explained, before returning to the story.

…

After all, he’s my closest friend, and I can’t just leave him in the dark of such an important decision! Now, I know his schedule like the back of my hand, so that day, at that time, he’d be at the top of the hill that overlooks the clo—

…

“Clock? Klug? The same Klug who adores exhaust pipes?” Raffina interrupted immediately after.

Amitie frowned, but ignored that entirely.

…

The Hill that overlooks the clock tower! It’s actually a really nice place! That’s where we hung out and made advertisements. And he was still there, probably drawing the same clock tower again. I could probably look at him draw for a while, super mesmerizing!

Well, I wasn’t there to go just admire, I was there to talk! So I tapped him on the shoulder, which surely got his attention. “Hey, Klug! I’ve got the best news of my life today! I need to tell you!” I told him, loud and clear.

“Is it something that you have to spend money on?” Klug retorted, as per usual. Sometimes we end up spending a bit of money on shopping, but I don’t know why he said that like I do it DAILY! It’s kind of rude of him to speak like I do it often.

Well, anyway, I tell him “What makes you think that? What I’ve got to tell you is something so important that…” And then, I had the perfect idea! “Oh! Actually, let’s go somewhere!” I said, as I grabbed both of his hands, which is probably why he was in a sour mood later, as it ruined his canvas or whatever.

I mean… maybe if I told him then… then he wouldn’t be so…

Whatever! That’s not the point right now, right now I’m just telling what happened, and what happened was that I took him all around the Primp District! I took him to the train station, then I took him to the restaurant we ate at, even this very bakery! It was like.. like hitting him with all the good memories so that I could soften the blow!

Because, like… well!

What was I talking about? Oh, right! So, it was at one of these places that I decided to tell him about what happened! I forgot where exactly, but I basically just told him something like “I have wonderful news!! I’m going to be a real singer! For real!”

And he wasn’t shocked or anything. If anything, he seemed happy for me! “That’s… that’s really great, Amitie!” He said. “Your dream is coming true before your eyes. That’s amazing!”

“Yeah! Yeah it’s all great! I’m thinking about packing soon, cuz there’s gonna be a LOT of train rides! That’s traveling! Isn’t that exciting?” I said, and it was then that his happiness got kind of … sad.

He didn’t say anything that seemed envious or anything. He just went “Oh. Well then, if that’s what you must do for your dream, then you should go for it.” And “But if it’s hell, it’s what you wanted after all.” Actually, maybe that last one was a bit envious. Whatever he felt, he left for a bit. I didn’t see him until—

….

“Your order’s ready” Sig called out, and Amitie stopped her story.

“Ooh! Delish!” She chirped, as she took a large bite out of one of the loaves given to her. It seemed whatever sadness she had reminiscing was going to be buried under delicious bread.

Raffina watched as Amitie had stuffed herself full of bread. That story seemed kind of…unfinished. “None of this mentions the…‘thing’ you two talked about though…” Raffina thought aloud.

“Well— uhm—“ Amitie stammered, but swallowed her words. “It’s actually—“

“And if there’s no mention of the ‘thing’…” Ally finished her plain loaf, adjusted her bag strap, and clapped her hands together. “Which means that we should go and ask for the other half of the story!” She chimed in, happily. “These two happy lovey-dovey friends…we have to fix this!”

Raffina didn’t share the sentiment, but it.. was sort of her job to keep peace. This sort of falls under that. Technically. Maybe it’s a thinly veiled excuse to verbally attack Klug. “Well… if it’ll help us figure out what’s wrong with that guy...” She reluctantly agreed, to Ally’s cheer.

“Wonderful! This story is so exciting, my heart may burst!” Ally cheered, as she went to the door with Raffina. “Miss Amitie! We’ll be off! We’re going to find out what exactly happened”

“U..uhm… Good Luck, Guys!” Amitie wasn’t too sure why they were talking about this. But if it meant things’ll get better, then it was fine. Right?

The most obvious place to look would be his house, of course. Ally knocked on it, but there was no answer at all. She knocked again, but no answer. “Phew.. there’s no response. He really is cooped there, how lonely…” Ally lamented with a frown.

But while Ally was knocking, Raffina had managed to open a window.. Well, it wasn’t really that hard. Especially for someone like Raffina. “Don’t give up so quickly, look! Damn it, a door lock isn’t going to stop anyone if you leave your windows open. Come on, we have a talk to have.”

The two girls climbed into the house through the window, only to find Klug was sitting there, idly, almost lost in thought. Ally tiptoed over, and waved her hand in front of his face. As expected, he made no comment nor even reaction.

“…it’s so scary..” Ally whispered, as she retracted her hand. “It’s like he’s devoid of anything…Mister Klug, can you even hear us?” She asked, tilting her head slightly. “You’re ok, right? …Right…?”

Klug blinked, then looked straight at Ally, then Raffina, then at the open door. “…Ah. Salutations, Raffina, Orange Hair Girl.” He mumbled. “You broke into my house… Is there an evacuation notice?”

“Of course there is no- have you really sunk so low as to be unaware of what’s outside?” Raffina gasped, in disbelief. “No, we’re here on the grounds of where in the hell were you for the past few weeks! Locking yourself in your home is a safety hazard, as well!”

He sighed, now falling onto the ground. “You worry too much. I suppose Amitie sent you on this little quest. I’d tell you to tell her I’m alright, but it wouldn’t matter.” Klug said, his voice with a pinch of regret.

Struggling, Ally tried to pull him upright, but this only resulted in her dropping him on the ground a few times, so she left him as is. “Amitie actually told us you were locked here, but she never sent us on a fetch quest. We actually came here to find out why you’re so sad and lonely!”

Hearing that, Klug stood up, and tried to walk elsewhere, but Ally stopped him. “No! You can’t keep hiding, we’re here to help you! It’s for love’s sake!” She assured, almost shaking him.

“If I tell you what happened will you two leave me alone?” Klug asked, to the two of them nodding yes, almost rhythmically. It wasn’t the answer Klug wanted, but he wasn’t a guy who’d go against word. “..Alright, alright, so.” He sat down.

…

This couldn’t have been any more than a few weeks or a month ago, so it’s still fresh in my mind. Amitie must’ve told you that she had landed some sort of acting gig, and that’s true.

I don’t actually mind her pursuing her career, but her immediately saying that she was leaving town did make me feel sad. If it was Raffina, I wouldn’t really care that much, but having to say goodbye to Amitie for a bit was actually disheartening, to say the least.

After the conversation ended, I chose to mull it over, maybe pick up something to make it easier on me. So, I chose to take to what made me the most clear minded— painting.

You surely must know that I enjoy putting what’s in my thoughts and in my eyes onto a canvas, and that’s precisely what would save me from mental confusion! I sat down, propped my canvas against myself, and took to still life drawing.

And it was while illustrating one of the most beautiful lamps I’ve laid eyes on that I was finally thinking— Why should I have to say goodbye to Amitie? Surely, someone as simple-minded as her would likely realize that leaving Primp won’t be as cracked up as she thought! Hm.. that sounds more like something you’d say, Raffina.

Regardless, the gentle orange glow that the light gave off was just enough for me to get my thoughts in order. At first, I thought of going with her, though if I left Primp District, who would be here to preserve its rich culture? I couldn’t do that. So I thought about keeping Amitie here, though I couldn’t go out and just marry her. Thus! I settled on the idea of convincing her.

With what money I had, I knew I’d be able to give her some sort of big reason to stay. I even planned out a day and everything! No, it was a week! A week that I’d finish off with a grand hot air balloon ride, a so perfectly Amitie-like activity!

…

“Ahh! A week of just the two of you!” Ally gushed, her eyes practically full of hearts. “That’s so romantic!”

Klug froze in his storytelling, and held his head down, as if disappointed, or even upset. “… … I guess it was romantic.” He finally continued. “But you came here to figure out why I’m ’sad and lonely’, correct? Let’s skip ahead.”

…

The sixth day is when things went downhill. I decided to close the day off with a sleepover, something that Amitie and I haven’t done in a while. That, and it would have been a good way to wake her up early for the balloon trip. Getting her to agree to staying over was easy, no surprise there.

Of course, now you two are here, and if you glance at the couch, you’ll notice I even moved the cushions around. Yes, Amitie was to sleep there, but she never did, because we never got to sleep in the first place.

In fact, we spent almost all night just.. talking. I was hoping she’d try to practice her dancing — preferably, not around any of my valuables. But within an hour, she was seemingly already tired, and she mumbled about how she was excited about her new “totally-amazing extra-wicked new life” or whatnot.

Yes, it was then I decided to reveal my plan, and so I got up and told her that she should come with me to the living area. And it was… THERE, that everything was to fall apart! Oh, the minute I started talking about how much I would miss her… the girl would interrupt. I remember it well. Saying things like “Ooh, but imagine how many people I’d meet outta town!” And the like..

Eventually, she told me the worst of it— it wasn’t simply leaving for a bit, but that she might never see Primp District again. She’d never be back.

“But, But Amitie! To leave Primp District forever?! Doesn’t that sound hasty?” I cried out, now in a desperate plea to change her mind. “I only just finally got to see you again, and you’re going to leave me and the others…”

“I’m not a kid! I want to go after my dream, I can’t standby.. I can’t just say no! I wish I could be here forever!” Amitie yelled. Her yelling was so.. abnormal. She almost never did that. “But I wanted this for years! I can’t back out now!”

It was a whole thing. It felt like a betrayal, even.

I think she knew I was upset, and she tried to comfort me. She gave me a hug. She held my hands. She left a kiss on my left cheek. She apologized about having the outburst. “I didn’t mean to hurt you” and “I could’ve said it better!” But if she was so worried about me, why was she willing to leave so suddenly?

I couldn’t convince her to stay, I realized, and so it was pointless to continue! “No, it’s nothing for you to be concerned about!” I told her, regaining my composure! “Well, I doubt you have time for tomorrow, so how about you go home?”

And she stammered! Amitie stammered, like she usually does, but it wasn’t her usual tripping over her own words— she sounded kind of.. shocked. And that was strange. She babbled about something, but I can’t recall. And after that, I told her again to leave, and she did.

Hm.. come to think of it. I wished she’d stay. But, as she so clearly has her life figured out, I can’t hold her back! But.. but I..

…

“Alright, alright! Hold it.” Raffina interrupts, though this wasn’t so much an interruption and more an after-examination. “You’re saying that.. the reason you’re upset.. is because Amitie’s successful? That’s a pathetic reason, isn’t it? Do you really want her to stay or do you just want someone to like you!” She crossed her arms, as if restraining herself.

Klug stared upwards, the faint light reflecting off of his glasses. He didn’t have an answer, nor did he want to know the answer. “I wish she’d stay. Or at least, I’d wish—“

His line of thought was interrupted as Raffina (now free of her self imposed restraints) picked him up off the floor and held him up as if he was an easily throwable plush doll.

“Kch. You’re so annoying, sometimes! You wouldn’t be here, and you would’ve been happy, if you just.. spoke up!! You’re the furthest thing from perfect I know, stop trying to be that, because it’s PISSING me off!” Raffina shouted, before running out of steam. She dropped him, took a breath, and simply unlocked the door, and left.

Ally, meanwhile, stayed a little longer. She dusted off her dress, went towards the door, but paused. Looking back at Klug, even if he’s dazed, he really does look pathetic. Not even in a sad way. He just looks so lonely. “…I promise you that we’ll fix everything! For the sake of love.” She told him, under her breath.

Ally went scrambling back to the bakery, Raffina’s (unwilling) hand in tow, and bursted the doors open. “Alright, Baker! Miss Lidelle! Miss Amitie! I have a—“ She stopped midway, upon realizing that Amitie is missing. “Ah. Miss Lidelle, any idea where Amitie is?” She asked.

Lidelle turned her head towards the door, then back to Ally. “Uhm.. Ami said she had to catch a train tomorrow, so she, uhm, she went to her house…” She answered. “Do you want her for anything? It’s really late..”

Ally then grabbed Lidelle’s sleeve, pulled her out of her chair, and bolted out the door again. “Alright, alright! Let’s go after her then!” She announced, now with a party of 3 (and Sig, who followed after.)

The 3+1 of them had scrambled to Amitie’s house, though none of them really knew what Ally was planning. Ally knocked on the door with a simplistic rhythm, and a mere two seconds after, the door opened.

“Oh! Raffina, Lidelle, and Sig! What’re you guys doing here!… and uh— what’s your name again? I forgot..” Amitie chirped, with a wide grin. Her smile faded as she saw the determined face Ally was making.

“Miss Amitie, I have a plan to get Klug out of the house! It’s going to need you, so forgive me for bothering you, but come with us!” Ally told her, extending her hand for Amitie to take.

Seeing as Amitie valued her friends, it was an easy choice. She took Ally’s hand, and gave an affirming nod. “Alright! Let’s do it, then!” She agreed.

The 5 of them, now complete, had begun the march to Klug’s house again, though none of them knew the plan at all. In fact, when they arrived, Raffina nearly opened the first floor window again, before Ally stopped her.

“We can’t break and enter again! That’ll just make him worse!” Ally scolded, before she turned to Amitie. “Miss Amitie, which window would he be near at this time?” She asked.

“How would I know that! He could be anywhere! Uhm.. it’s uh.. it’s night right now, so he might be going to sleep, which would be…” Amitie looked around the outside of the house, before pointing at a higher window. “That one!” She exclaimed.

The five of them looked at the general height of the window. It’s not exactly too high, but it wasn’t gonna be reachable with just a short hop.

But Ally had a look in her eye, as if she expected it. “Perfect-o… so! Here’s my plan. We all stack up on top of each-other, having Miss Amitie knock on the window as if she’s an angel from heaven.. surely, this’ll allow them to reconcile..”

Sig kept looking at the window. “…and if Glasses doesn’t open the window?” He mentions, taking a bite out of snack food he brought.

“Then we’ll try a different window! And again. And again! That’s the power of Love, Mister Sig!” Ally assured, with a wink. “Miss Raffina, I want you to pick me up, as high as you can! After I pick up Miss Amitie!”

“Doesn’t this idea sound a bit foolish?! Ally, you can’t possibly be serious— we have better hopes of having Amitie just knock on the door!” Raffina argued, as she effortlessly lifted Ally upwards (who was, herself, struggling with Amitie)

But Ally just giggled at the retort. “That’s why Miss Lidelle and Mister Sig will be on standby, in case something happens. Like a human ladder!” She explained, as she wobbled slightly. “Ok.. Miss Amitie, can you reach the window?”

Amitie reached her hands to the windowsill, grasping on for dear life, and pushed her face against the window to make a knock. “I’ve knocked on the window, but I can hardly hold on!” She exclaimed, her hands trembling.

She peered through the window, and while Klug was there, he seemed out of it. Just sitting in the middle of the room. Not sleeping. Just.. nothing. Was it a depressive spiral? She knew he got mopey sometimes. But that just meant she had to try harder.

Trying her hardest to still her movements, she knocked on the window again, and again. And again. But it felt like he couldn’t hear her. If a knock wasn’t going to do it, she had to try something else.

“… Everyone, time and time again, can feel that they’re all sad and hopeless.” She sang, trying to project her voice as loud as she could. Amitie wasn’t really the best singer, but she knew that he couldn’t ignore it.

Seeing as Klug perked his head up to the window, it just meant Amitie had to keep going. “It’ll be fine! Let’s cheer ourselves up!” She continued, now smiling. Even if she wasn’t believing in her smile, it’s what a true idol would do.

And it’s a true idol’s job to make others smile, too.

Klug looked out the window, and was somewhat shocked to see that Amitie was literally right there. “How on.. How on Earth are.. Amitie, get down from there, you’ll fall.” He told her, pointing downwards.

“Let me inside! I want to talk with you! About— uhm.. What was the plan, Ally?” Amitie asked, looking at Ally. As the window was opened (nearly smacking Amitie in the face), Amitie never got a response from Ally, who simply just smiled.

Just the two of them now, Amitie thought. She.. didn’t actually know what to say. The few times she was at his house, she had friends with her. And the time she was alone, it only resulted in her getting kicked out.

“So, why are you here? Don’t you have a magical fantastical job to do?” Klug remarked, moving stuff around to appear tidier. “I thought you had to leave. I thought you were gone, even.”

Amitie gulped in nervousness. She was trying to think of what to say. “Uhm.. uh.. I leave tomorrow, actually.. but— but that’s why I’m here today! I’m here to— I’m here to at least see you one last time for a long time!” She finally decided, trying her best to remain positive and chipper.

Throwing away empty paint bottles, Klug tried not to look at Amitie. “You know, I’d rather you have not come back here. It hurts me too much to look at you.” He told her, now walking away. “I’ll let you out the house, just—“

“But— but I don’t want to leave!” Amitie called out, freezing Klug’s movement. “Believe me, I wish— I wish I could see you and follow my dream.. but— but I’m not…”

She stopped talking. She said something like this last time. That resulted in a fight.

“I really wish I could see you when I leave. I wish you and Raffina and Sig and Lidelle would all follow me.. but, you guys also have dreams.” She explained, starting to cry. “And.. and that means I gotta go places. And I gotta say goodbyes… but that just means you can focus on your dream too, Right?”

Sniffling turned to sobbing, to Amitie loudly crying. She was the emotional type, still, even now. “I’m.. I’m sorry! I’m so.. I’m so sorry!” She kept repeating. “I’d miss you, and everyone, and Primp… but.. but..”

At this point, Klug turned around. Watching and listening to Amitie wailing was hurting him. Hearing her say what she was saying was breaking him. He still, of course, was her friend. And the best thing he could do as her friend was to give her a hug, like last time.

The simple act of a warm embrace wouldn’t make Amitie stop crying, but the acceptance of her speech was comfort, too.

“If it’s your dream, you should go for it. Don’t.. don’t worry about me or the others.” Klug told her. “I don’t want you to worry, and I’m sure we can still keep in touch. I’m pretty sure a mailwoman even visited my house earlier, we can send eachother mail. Weekly.”

A loud sniffle, and Amitie stopped crying as much. “Re-really? Would you promise every week?” She asked.

“I promise.” Klug affirmed, wiping away one of Amitie’s tears with a swipe of a finger. “So you leave tomorrow, huh… you better get to sleep then. Do you want to— uhm, stay over? I live closer to the train station anyway.” He offered.

Amitie flushed red, but she tried to steady herself to be calm. “I’d.. I’d like that, I think. We never finished the last one… but I’m tired already.. I’ll see myself downstairs.”

“No, no, you need to rest easy, you can just take the bed here. I’ll sleep on the couch.” Klug insisted, pointing. “You could- er.. you could borrow a shirt from the dresser, so you don’t mess up your own clothes! I’ll get out now, even.”

Closing the door behind him, Klug went downstairs, and simply sat on the floor. He still kind of wanted Amitie to stay forever, but just knowing she’ll speak to him every week is fine enough.

He wanted to go back and tell her something else, but he couldn’t bring himself to go upstairs. Not right now anyway. He stared upwards at the ceiling, thinking about the time he had spent outside, not just with Amitie, but with the others.

Wanting to thank her, Klug went upstairs, and gently opened the room door, cracking it open to make sure Amitie wasn’t busy. Turns out she already was out like a light. Delicate and smiling, as she usually is when awake.

“Ah, Amitie… Thank you, for everything. I love you.” Klug told her. Gently brushing her bangs out of her way, he lightly kissed her on the forehead. It was the least he could do. The littlest of a last memory before she went on to the rest of her life.

The smell of baked goods filled the air, and the world was still as bland as ever. But this time in the bakery, it was lively. Raffina and Lidelle were here, of course, and just a few minutes ago, Klug came by for an order.

“You know why I need plain bread! I can’t use a loafy bug as my model!” Klug argued, frustrated. “Sig, I’ll pay you extra, I just need a standard loaf!”

Sig blinked flatly. “There’s only bugs here. If you want bread, you go somewhere else.” He answered, tired. “Do you ever even eat the bread you order? Food waste.”

Slamming his hands onto the counter, Klug gave up. “Damn! You’re so difficult, refusing the customer won’t give you any money!” He told Sig, before his frustration melted away. “…but, I guess I’ll have the one that looks like a ladybird.”

“Coming up.” Sig said, leaving for his work. Mild banter like that was usual, and while it did annoy the customers, Sig didn’t really mind that much. Klug’s his friend, and he’s just ok with the fact that he’s actually here.

And then, suddenly, the door opened with the chime of a bell. Curly haired and red all over, it was an exhausted paperwoman. “Excuse me, excuse me!” Ally called out. “Is this a Mister Klug here?”

Klug turned around, his eyes lighting up. “Oh. Letter. It must be from Amitie.” He remarked, as Ally handed the letter over. “..She sure writes fast. I wonder if it’ll even be legible. Raffina, Lidelle, you should come listen too.”

Confirming his hypothesis, the words themselves were scratchy, but at the very least, they were readable.

“ ‘Hello from the distant land of Lyla! It’s Amitie! It’s really great here, though there’s not a lot of people. I’ve been kind of busy preparing for the audition. It actually went super well! I got to write a contract and everything♥︎ I’m gonna try my best on my first album, and I’ll invite you live to my first concert! Isn’t that exciting? Best wishes, Amitie!’ “

“It seems like Ami’s got her life together…” Lidelle commented, in awe. “We should go see her soon, maybe we can surprise her..!”

Klug put the letter down, and shook his head. “I want her to focus on her career right now. We’ve still got lives too, Lidelle.” He said. “I’ll write her back after I finish my next masterpiece, I’ll even invite her back here for when she’s free! We can even pay for her train ticket.”

Sig came back, ladybird bread in hand. ”Alright. Got your ladybird. 7 bronze coins.” He informed Klug, who paid nearly immediately. “Oh. Ami sent you a letter, huh? Is she doing ok?”

“…Yeah. She’s doing alright.” Klug nodded. “I think that her dream is finally coming true.”

#klug puyo puyo #puyo puyo #amitie puyo puyo #クルアミ #24manzaishipping #klugami #kuruami writing #ok #raffina puyo puyo #ally puyo puyo #the others aren’t important but Lidelle and Sig are here #puyo puyo steam city

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