All righty, last time we were headed to the colosseum to win the tournament.
Looks colosseumy.
Inside, we take a slight detour to check out the hall of fame.
Inside, we see statues of previous champions. Akira Ootomo, who was small and fast. King Muscle, who was proud of his physique and renowned for his good luck. Gou Mifune, who was known for always being fair, earning himself the nickname True Samurai.
Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas Tank, a hardy fighter rumored to have triple the MAG of a normal person. Feather Adonis, known as the strongest warrior to fight in the colosseum, famous for his battle to the death with Killer Fox. Who's next?
The Hero!! The first ever champion, said to have the ability to control demons. This guy sounds familiar!
Onward. The colosseum guy greets us (well, kinda), telling Okamoto to make sure we don't die too quickly, or the audience will riot. Okamoto is a little more optimistic, he thinks we can win for sure.
Time for the main event! The contenders are...
Red Bear and Hawk! READY! GO!
The arena here is just a small dungeon with random battles and equipment upgrades for every slot, including our first gun. Yay. When we're ready, there's a door in the center that leads to the the encounter with Red Bear.
You're...
Ahh, another one of these! He's quite similar to you... his strength is nearly the same as yours. His name is Daleth.
Red Bear mad 'cause we're not listening to him.
He congratulates us for getting his far, acknowledging our strength. And our impending death.
I don't think it quite went as he planned, 'cause we beat him in one turn.
Just one more win... and I could have been champion. I could have gone to the Center...
Well, nobody told us about winners being able to go to the Center. Actually, what's the Center? Huh.
VICTORY
Okamoto moves into Haneda's place, and informs us that as champion, we'll get to meet the Madam (all while drooling over her).
Just then, a visitor appears. She says she's Hiroko, a resident of the Center. Apparently, an accident occurred and a little boy disappeared. She doesn't think it's an accident, though, but an event orchestrated by two scientists, Hanada and and Mekata. She's been trying to find them, and has discovered that Hanada might be hiding in Madam's place. It turns out that the champion can take one guest along to meet the Madam, and Hiroko insists it be her.
As it should happen, just then, a man from the Madam's place comes and gives us an invitation. Neat. But we're not going there yet...
Now that Okamoto is rich, and we won the tournament for him, he no longer blocks our entry to the casino.
The games here are your standard casino fare, slot machines and such, but there's one game that is extremely easy to win, called Big & Small. All you have to do is guess whether the next number will be big or small, and if you're right, you get a chance to double your winnings, or cash out and claim a prize. For some reason, I have never failed at getting the first 5 stars, it almost seems rigged, and at that point, you're sitting on at least 600 coins. This time, I managed, to get all the way to the last star and got a really powerful weapon for Hiroko and over 10,000 coins. It didn't matter, though, since with those coins, I was able to purchase an even more powerful whip for her, and new guns, and a new weapon for Hawk. Armed to the teeth, it's time to move on.
Before going to see the Madam, I head into the slums, because there's a cathedral of shadows here. There's also an interesting NPC who says that rumor has it that macca is produced in the demon world by a subordinate of Lucifer named Lucifuge. That's weird. The Mesians, warriors of god, using the underworld to make money? What's that all about?
Now it's time to hit up Madam.
Inside is a weird room with a curtain, and a flashback. "She is yours" what
Anyway, her name is Beth. And apparently she's ours. what
Back in real life, the curtain moves to reveal a screen, and Madam shows up. She's the governess of Valhalla, placed there by Center officials. Valhalla has become successful and peaceful due to the casinos and the colosseum, and people can live happily without conflict.
This is the Center, the core of Tokyo Millennium. They don't quite rule the same way as Madam does, and they have every intent on making things even worse for their citizens. Madam doesn't intend to follow suit, though.
However, something has happened that is causing Madam trouble, and she wants our help with it. You see, she hired a scientist and he was working at her estate, but he ran away. He plans to open a portal to the demon world and summon demons! His name? Hanada.
*record scratch* Isn't that the person Hiroko is looking for? Of course we'll help!
She then offers her "pet" to us. It's Cerberus! Hey buddy, long time no see.
He's not so happy, though, about working with such weak humans. Oh well.
Let's go find Hanada! We'll start with the slums.
In the deepest, most slummy part of the slums, we find Hanada. He explains that he left Madam's service because he felt too restricted, and a scientist needs Free Rein to experiment and destroy the world. Indeed, his unrestricted experiments have made him able to open a tunnel right into the demon world. Woo-hoo.
He then performs his ritual using some dolls. It's a success! Kinda. A tunnel does indeed open to the demon world, but when he commands Mercerius to attack us, he gets killed instead. And then we have a boss.
A really, really easy one, because Cerberus hits like a truck.
After the battle we take the dolls, and discover that the entrance to the demon world is one-way and demons are spewing forth into our world. Rats.
