GRAND EPILOGUE: 09/16/2031, 09:16 --heading straight for Rokumei Park.   ♪ BGM: Double Bible (Instrumental Arrange) ♫ But as the chaos in the world calmed down, we took the opportunity to finally return to Rokumei City. And besides, today's the first anniversary of that girl's death. Visiting her grave is another reason we came here.  Mmm, the weather sure is nice, huh~...Yuuri blissfully smiles as she squints her eyes. Mashiro, Salyu, and Mom respond.  It sure is peaceful here. Hard to believe what happened a year ago, isn't it~ I agree... It's been so peaceful lately that it's a little boring, though. You sure are tough, Yui. If you've got that much energy to spare, then I'd like you to help out with my work. I've spent three sleepless nights already with all this back and forth negotiation with the ESP Bureau. It's really tiring. I'm getting too old for this... I'm sorry, Mom... We'll all help out together. Of course. I'll help out with the cooking and stuff too~ I-I'll help out somehow too! Oh my, I was just joking. You kids need to go to school. I'm working hard so that you kids can live like normal kids, after all. ...I see.I really think she's a great mom. She's such a loving, capable, and strong person, and to be honest, I'm proud to be her son. --But I can't stay under her wing forever. {Yuuri. Mashiro. Salyu. Let's help Mom out even if she insists we don't.} {Of course!} {Sure thing.} Mmm.We exchange those words with a smile.  Yuuri murmurs as we walk down the road to Rokumei Cemetery. Still, this place sure brings me back... Yeah... it has been about 10 years since you've walked here, right, Yuuri? Yes. Say, Hikorin, do you remember what I said when we reunited in LABO a year ago? I do. You said you wanted us all to walk in this park again together, right? Yeah... I'm so glad my wish was granted...Mashiro and the others smile as Yuuri's eyes begin to water. ...We can walk here as much as we want now, Yuuri. Yes. I'll walk with you as much as you'd like. ...Right.I nod at those words too. --The girls seem to be happy that we came back to this city.  It's the city that Mashiro loves, the city Salyu found where she belonged, and the city where Yuuri wanted to walk freely. The city we lived in, and the city we've finally returned to. We can choose our destination with our own free will. Some may take that privilege for granted-- But it truly is a blessing. ...Say, guys. What is it? We're alive, aren't we? We took back freedom with our own hands, didn't we? Mmm. It sounds moving when you say it seriously like that. ...True. You all did well to come back alive... It's thanks to the nine of us, and you too, Dr. Tenkawa.Yes. Most of all, it's thanks to ''him''. Not that I'll ever say it, though. It's embarrassing. My feelings about him still haven't changed. He's a partner I feel grateful to, and he deserves my respect, but-- we're completely different, all the way from our heights to our ideologies. We can't even reach mutual understanding. As that thought crosses my mind, Yuuri suddenly smiles. Well, no, actually... It might not have been just us. Huh?As we look at her in confusion, Yuuri looks off into the distance. Guys, don't you remember? Back then, inside LABO, about ten minutes before the bomb exploded... There was that intense flashback, remember? Yeah. There's no way I could forget that. That was so mysterious, huh? I wonder what that was? In any case, it was a lifesaver. It coincidentally revealed an escape method. Actually, that might not have been a coincidence.Mom nods at Yuuri's proposition. I've heard about the matter from Yuuri. She said that BC used in the past came back in a particular sequence, correct? Y-yeah. Furthermore, there was meaningful information in that sequence, meaning... Some sort of 'consciousness' was possibly born within LABO at that time. A consciousness? Actually, Yuuri and I were trying to perform that sort of experiment that day. An experiment to see if the stagnation and accumulation of information energy emitted with BC could create a consciousness. In other words, an experiment to create a spirit. A spirit... Do you think one was made, Mom? Well, it's hard to tell at this point. We can't verify it either. Good point... But you know, Hikorin, I think-- I felt there really was something within LABO back then.Tips posted:TIP: Matryoshka I think it had been drifting in LABO ever since the WX particle amplifier was activated at 6 AM. I think that at first, it was just an empty spirit without a will of its own, unable to do anything but observe the events happening there. But as it received our BC little by little, it took in the information stored within. And after it was full to the brim with information energy-- Mr. Spirit was finally born with a will of its own. Born? And then what? You see, I get the feeling Mr. Spirit was the one who helped us out in the end. Mr. Spirit found an escape route and tried to convey it to us... So you mean that's what the flashback was? Yes. I mean, Mr. Spirit doesn't have a way to convey its will to us on its own, does it? So instead, it pieced together all the important information it had to point out the escape route for us, I guess-... Yuuri, you're such a romanticist. Not that I have a problem with that or anything. I still think it was just a coincidence. I can't comment on it either way. Not until we run a reproducible experiment, that is. Aww~Yuuri sulks at how none of them agree with her. She looks at me as if to ask me to back her up. ...Hey, Hikorin, what do you think? Don't you feel like someone helped us out back then?I answer the question with a smile. Yeah. Of course I do. Really? Good grief. Natsuhiko, you always agree with Yuuri. Good grief. Good grief indeed. No, no, no, I've always been thinking that. It really did feel like someone helped us out back then. Is that so? Well, let's just leave it at that, I guess.Everyone smiles once Mashiro says that. I smile too as I secretly think to myself. --I do agree with Yuuri's opinion for the most part, but there's actually one part I disagree with:  ♪ BGM: Rondo Carrousel (Music Box) ♫ Weren't we helped out way before that...? When I think about it, whenever I had to make an important judgment call whether to trust someone or to doubt them... It felt like some kind of vague ''feeling'' was pushing me from behind. Well, if I talked about it out loud, I don't think anyone would understand, so I'll just keep it to myself for now. ... But still, guys. Hmm? If Mr. Spirit really was born... Then where do you think it went? Hmm, well, assuming it did get born... LABO did get blown up back then... So would it have disappeared in the explosion? Well, the BC particle energy did decay. No, maybe-- Maybe once the insulators were destroyed, it left LABO and now it's drifting about somewhere. --Prof. Tsubakiyama once said in a lecture... That all bodies of energy mix upon contact. So even if the BC particle energy did decay, that doesn't mean it disappeared completely. So perhaps it was released from LABO's dark facility and spread to all corners of the world. Though if that were the case, then I guess the spirit's consciousness would start fading too. It'll probably never try to speak to us again. After all, for its nine hours of existence, it used quite unreliable communication.  ...But it still left us with something precious. What that newborn spirit conveyed to us-- --was a ''will'' that desired to connect people together. The wish to share minds and walk side by side.  It will remain in the minds of those I came in contact with. My wish will never be lost-- It will stay with you, forever.  And there we go. That is the ''Grand End (or what I call the ''true ending'') for Route Double, and therefore also for the game, Root Double. That is the end of this story. ...however, we're not quite done yet. Think back. Way back. Like, way, *way* back. Like, way, *way*, *WAY* back. As in ''literally the first paragraph of the LP'' back. TheMcD posted:Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition - henceforth referred to as ''Root Double'' - is a visual novel by Regista. The original version was released on XBox 360 and PC in 2012, then the game got an updated rerelease on PS3 and the PS Vita called the Xtend Edition with extra content. However, all of this was Japan-only. Then, a campaign on Kickstarter was launched to bring the game to the English-speaking world, it reached its goal of 135.000$, and Root Double found its way to Steam in April of 2016. Did you ever wonder what exactly this ''extra content'' is? Well, I'm not 100% sure myself - there's some small things in the main game that were added or changed with the Xtend Edition, from what I can tell, but that's not the major part.   The major part is this. The ''Xtend Episode'' - extra scenes for every main character that don't particularly connect in any way. Now, some of these extra scenes are just retreads of what we've seen in the RAM parts, but other scenes are completely original and have stuff that we wouldn't get to see otherwise.  And here's our playing log, now that we've finished the main game. All CGs, all the music, and all the endings. The scenes remaining are a bit high, given that a fair share of the scenes are stuff we've pretty much already seen, just with an ''Xe:'' at the front. So, next time, we're going to start looking at the Xtend Episode.
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