Amiguchi: This was pretty much just Amiguchi's PoV of Yakushiji shooting him. What was new though was after when he flew 2 km above the city and ended in space. Strengthens the space station theory!
Shinonome: Found Takamiya who reminded Shinonome of the time she shot and apparently killed Ida after finding the logs Ida left above wanting to revive Kisaragi and planning to reset the world to do so. Really interested in that shift that Shinonome, Takamiya, and Ida returned from at the beginning of the flashback! I assume that'll be on Takamiya's end once I can lift the lock on her story.
Then it was time to fight a few more battles to unlock
Ogata: Aww yeah, hyped for the return to this. Wasted a bit of time looking for Kurabe before noticing Shinonome had appeared. Following them on to the train and found them passed out and Ida saying the pills they were taking was poison. This was actually where I first got suspicious of this world's nature because I had just seen Shinonome shoot Ida. Got confirmation that it was indeed Okino running the loops here and chasing him led to the reveal that this whole loop is in Ogata's head as Okino is forcing him to dig up the information out of his own head. Well, that also answers my question about how the time loops involved here were so out of line with the other established rules of time shifting elsewhere. Back in and Kurabe finally reappears and is in full Izumi mode and we learn that Minami of all people has the key - I admit I didn't see that coming. He tells Ogata to keep this from Okino because Izumi's totally got this and Okino will probably do very bad things to Minami if he learns she has the key. Once more into the loop and Kurabe is back to normal and hands us a note from Izumi telling us which train and car to board so we do... to find Yakushiji. Peak LMFAO at Yakushiji's "[My contact's] a cat, so..." and "He's a talking cat trying to save the world." Fluffy the GOAT. This... also strengthens my theory that Fluffy might be another instance of 426 given Izumi and Fluffy seem to have arranged this. Anyway, looks like Yakushiji shoots Ogata in the real world and then alters the program but the story is locked so the presumed escape will come later.
Hijiyama: Haven't been with him since his prologue and given his direct involvement with Ogata's situation this seemed like the natural next place to visit. A bunch of trolling from Okino and the "reveal" that it was Yakushiji who introduced Hijiyama to yakisoba pan. lol at the music swell there and how he only knows her as "Yakisoba Pan Angel." This also leads right into how she contacted Ogata above because she shoots him too lol. Will really lol if the power of yakisoba pan proves stronger than Fluffy's magic gun and allows him to truly regain the memory of being shot and potentially disrupting Fluffy's plan.
Anyway, stopped there and next up will be Miura and then I think a bunch of fights because I don't believe I'll be able to lift any more locks without fighting like 10 battles.
Overall: I think the "sides" in this game are a bit clearer now. Ida wanted to reset this world so he can transplant future!Kisaragi's memories into the next iteration of her and avoid the whole android dilemma thing (Meaning Future Shinonome's sabotage that apparently created the endless loop came prior to this and that betrayal by Ida she refers to is something else). Izumi and Morimura had dodged at least once cycle with Sector 0 but Morimura died somewhere along the line per Fuyusaka's story so it's probably just Izumi left from a previous cycle (though maybe Ida did too before he got shot by Shinonome there). Izumi/426 I think is looking to break the cycle of loops and earn freedom for the cast. Fluffy... is either an instance of 426 or... possibly Universal Control and decided that he's just gonna see what happens. If he is UC that explains how he keeps tampering with memories, both of Kurabe and just generally by turning Sentinel events into gas explosions and stuff for the public. If Fluffy isn't UC then I'm not sure yet, the first few suspectsthat came to mind have pretty good alibis IMO.
Still think I'm missing critical pieces because a few things don't fit to my liking (Inaba in particular) still but I feel a bit more confident in this than most of my previous guesses.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?