Working my way thru CxM Unlimited and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about all of it, but especially Shiraishi’s route!!

First part is logistic gripes and questions, and romance/plot stuff is at the bottom:

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So, am I wrong or is Unlimited set roughly a year and six months after the original game? It’s hard for me to conceive of *how long* Hoshino’s relationships with the LIs have been so far. Enomoto route spoiler: I may have misunderstood but Enomoto’s route has them marrying after officially dating for 3-4 months? how’s that?? All routes i’ve played so far take place in the Spring. CxM obviously took place in December, and everyone in-game refers to the X-day incidents as “last year” but it seems like they could be referring to like, the end of last last year.

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(Kazuki is drinking age in at least some routes in Unlimited, which in Japan is 20, so maybe it’s been two years...? He’s apparently a Scorpio)

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MY QUESTION IS: If this is true, Hoshino is back on the force FOUR MONTHS after her memories were sparked at the office xmas party? After an entire year of amnesiac convalescence? OR, she hadn’t seen Shiraishi in what seems like a Calendar year. Sad!! Someone who paid more attention than me please help me straighten this out??

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•ADONIS was formed out of a religious cult, they took children from cult members and possibly orphanges(?) to groom them into pawns right? I’m super unclear as to the timeline of all this. It strikes me as odd that Zero and Rei would be such ultimate figures of authority to Shiraishi, considering he is older than both of them.

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I’m probably getting some numbers wrong but based on their ages he wouldn’t have started receiving direct orders and punishments etc. til like.. in CxM Zero is 23 and Shiraishi is 29, having been deep undercover in the outside world for 10 years. I thought that Zero didn’t make his X-day plans with Rei until they were both like 12-14?? At which point Shiraishi would’ve already been 20 and in the real world? CONFUSED.. how did Zero become this like voice of power and control at such a super young age, who was bossing and controlling Shiraishi before him...? I imagined he wasnt in that much contact w Adonis while undercover.

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•NO mention of Shu Kurose being “Tachibana Chisato”, someone they have both met before. Does the prologue count for nothing?? I feel like they basically made him two seperate characters. How would Hoshino not remember he was the same person who threatened her? How would Shiraishi not remember meeting him and being suspicious of him being an Adonis member? Obvi we the audience know but for the characters it seems unmentioned and unclear.

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**~~~LOVEY/CHARACTER STUFF~~~**

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•From the accidental sleepover scene in his route in the first game, we know that Shiraishi knows what sex is lol and definitely has some type of desire, he was teasing MC about being sad nothing happened between them. I understand he’s grieving and continually deprogramming, been through SO MUCH during his incarceration, but how fluffy the route is in general really stands at odds to all the other moments in which he is confident, agressive, or badass. (￣^￣)ゞ

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He’s my fav so I was really hoping for moooore steam.. the repressed drive of a traumatized and relatively innocent person is definitely a force to be reckoned with.. the only spicy contact they have is in the text-only After Story, where they bring up the Possibility of future intimacy, and Shiraishi is portrayed as super duper innocent and fragile. Poor baby. I wanted better for my cult-raised PTSD angel... he’s for sure traumatized and gotta be sensitive but him and MC have both been daydreaming about being together the whole time he’s been locked up, I find it hard to believe they would be able to keep their hands off each other while locked in a room alone, surveilled or not.

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•ALSO... let the man go.... the person he murdered was a political figure *true* but also a violent cult leader.. and Kageyuki FULLY snitched and informed on MANY people and things necessary to stop Adonis... I feel like even in the States realistically at that point he would get immunity and be free, or at least only on probation after all that. Let him be a person!!

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i’m still so happy i got to play it, it breaks my heart how much he was willing to deny himself the one thing he truly wants over and over again and that’s why his current situation is so complicated; and the ending with him volunteering is some of the most beautiful and precious character development ever. I love Shiraishi 💚

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*unrelated to this route but another gripe: minor spoiler on something i caught on yanagi’s route - When you run into Enomoto in Yanagi Epilogue Ch 2 it’s LITERALLY HIS BIRTHDAY. I remembered because it’s also my birthday lol. There’s no mention of it whatsoever, it’s just a cute scene where Hoshino makes him super jealous talking innocently about all the lovey dovey things she does with Yanagi. Omg. Poor dude. This has to be developer oversight cuz that’s just cruuuuel