Tokyo Necro Ilia and Kiriri route - What? Echika is what? Wait, what?

I just finished Ilya and Kiriri's routes in Tokyo Necro, and boy, I don't even know where to start writing this post because of how many twists and counter-twists the series delivered in such a short period of time. I feel like we're not done with the surprises, considering there are two more routes to go before the true end.

The first route I went through was Ilia's, and it was a "classic" route with a crescendo of stronger enemies, some violence, a fake death that pulled at my heartstrings, and the final match against the arch-enemy of the series, Milgram, the necromancer who seems to be at the center of everything.

The ending was sad, with Ilia dying and Souun going on with his life while remembering her. He chose not to resurrect her as a living dead so as not to repeat the mistakes of his father. I felt like, "Oh, this must be a bad ending for Ilia because her true end happens in the true ending, so they couldn't give her a happy resolution here." It seemed clear to me: all the other routes would be normal...

Happy end for Echika and Kiriri, hopefully they can reach the same in the true route as they deserve it.

That was obvious to fail, Kiriri was too trusting of people around her while Hokoyasu was a total mastermind.

I was severely underestimating Nitroplus here, because the Aso Kiriri route was a complete trainwreck. The main point that differentiates the two routes is that Souun dies in the first encounter against Milgram, but somehow "survives" (aka is transformed into a Hi-Fi living dead by an unknown party).

From there, it's all downhill: Ryoko gets kidnapped and transformed into a living dead by the Laboratory, then sent to bomb the utopian city built by Sophia Kawarazaki, the CEO of Empire Energy Corp. Milgram attacks the city, massacring big chunks of the population and causing it to fall. Ryoko is killed by Tokitaka, Milgram is defeated by Souun, and things seem to be heading toward the ending when...

The Military Police enter the scene and kidnap Sophia, while Souun becomes their puppet and starts taking control over the city. It turns out the ones who turned Souun into a living dead were the Military Police all along. I was shocked because Echika's dad, Kibanohara Hokoyasu, was portrayed as a stern guy, but not as an evil mastermind in the first route.

Sorry Kiriri, but I think we're past handcuffs here. Things are so dramatic we need a complete cleanup of society after what I learned...

Echika and Kiriri looks great together as a yuri couple, shame they only get a small date at the end for us to see their relationship.

Things get murky from here, with Souun starting to hunt his old teammates under orders from Hokoyasu. He first kills Tokitaka, who lost his will to live after losing Ryoko. Then he tries to kill Gijou Mitsumi (my favorite heroine, by the way), but she manages to escape to inform Echika about it.

I didn't pay attention at the time and thought, "Oh, they want to give him a proper burial," when Souun brought Tokitaka back with him. Nope, absolutely nope: turns out THE ENTIRE MILITARY POLICE has been transformed into living dead. Everyone, including poor Nagisa Kazuma, a minor heroine.

From here, Echika allies with Mitsumi and Olga to attack the Military Police and free her love, Kiriri, in a huge battle sequence ending with the defeat of Hokoyasu and peace being restored in the city. I thought it was hilarious when I saw Sophia, Mitsumi, Ilia, and Kiriri eating and living in Echika's house. It gave some sort of relief from the absurd trainwreck killing most of the main cast.

The pieces of information they give us about the past is interesting because the whole mess all started there. Including the whole living dead thing.

The team at the end of the second route is interesting, I love seeing Sophia there as a friendly character after all the trouble she went through.

Among the many pieces of information given, the bombshell was that Echika is Souun's half-sister through an interesting and honestly surprising connection. I won't go in depth talking about it, but my mind was blown when it was revealed because they played with us very well, always hinting at the person Hokoyasu loved, but never naming them.

Now I really don't know what to expect from the two remaining routes: one for Mitsumi and one for Con Su. I'm starting to get a better picture of the whole web of interconnections between characters both in the present and in the past (in the era of Souun and Echika's fathers), but there are still a few missing pieces, especially the mysterious AI, Substance-Concept...

As a final note, I want to say thanks to Mitsumi, because she was like a cockroach in both routes. She "died" once in the first route and twice in the second route, both times turning out to be alive and well later. The girl's got guts, and I hope she gets her happy ending in all the remaining routes too...