So as I mentioned last time, I was introduced recently to this new character, Crow, only like the second other named character met thus far in the entire game. I've just completed the section of the game that focuses on him, and the ending was, well... It was everything I could have hoped for.

At the beginning of this "chapter", Crow steals Seto's locket. Most of what happens in between is just sort of time-wasting, but also character-building. It builds Crow up as a big jerk, is what it does. He taunts Seto repeatedly, and is really mean about not giving him his locket back, leading him on wild goose chase after wild goose chase, through challenge after challenge. Seto pursues him through more shit than I would have tolerated, that's for sure. And through all of that shit I kept thinking:

God damn, I want to kiss this boy.

He's just so cute. He's clearly some kind of cat-boy, given his eyes and teeth. He's also got an awesome sense of dress that, for lack of a better way to describes it, gives him the air of, um... someone into people of his own gender? Especially that hat. And normally that kind of thing is actually a turn-off for me (I don't find stereotypical "flaming" qualities attractive at all), but on him, oh man, it just works. And his personality... Being the kind of jerk that he's being is just part of the charm, the same as a tsundere's frown. And I had a guess within me that he was really just putting up some kind of front anyway, and that soon enough he'd prove to be an ally, just hiding his true feelings under some veneer.

Lo and behold, on that long journey chasing after Crow, Seto comes upon a book in an underground area, called "Pirate Isle" (or "Shounen Kaizoku no Boken" in the Japanese voice-over). Funny story: At this point, I actually turned the game off because it was getting to be bedtime, and I knew what was going to happen: that the book would prove very revealing about Crow's personality, and build that first plank in the bridge of empathy toward him from the player.

And it did. The next session -- this session -- I was treated to a little story that made it clear that what Crow had been doing all along was only try to make a friend the only way he knew how, from the example in the book, in which two boys, one a pirate, become friends after the pirate-boy is a jerk to the newcomer to the isle. The hint -- which Seto points out, unsubtly but suitably to the style of the game -- is the dialogue, which Crow used line-for-line in his first encounter with Seto.

That's not even where the magic happened. After that, a short trek through some more underground, and then a sorry excuse for a boss fight, Seto catches up to Crow back at the fairground where this all has taken place, where Crow is waiting for him up on the central box of a Ferris wheel. Seto climbs up, and while taunting him Crow accidentally slips, dropping (more like flinging) the locket right into Seto's hand and falling down, down, down into the merry-go-round far below with a terrible crash.

Crow had showcased superhuman leaping and landing ability up to this point, but something like that? Given what happened last chapter, it didn't take long for me to realize he might well and truly have died. Is that what the theme of this game is going to be, I wondered? That everyone poor, lonely Seto meets has to leave him like this? When I went to him at the merry-go-round and Crow remained silent and still for what seemed far too long in the ensuing cutscene, something like that was what was going through my head, in a wordless form.

My relief when he spoke again moments later made me smile.

After that was the bonding scene I'd been expecting since probably as far back as first meeting him, and I got more than I bargained for. There was the expected stuff, of course. They sat on a bench-like thing together, shared a little bit of history, Crow showed Seto his keepsake (a photo, with Crow and some old man whose identity isn't explained but who is wearing a lab coat, suggesting to me that Crow is some kind of lab creation) and they shared their respective goals (Crow to find the place in the photo, Seto to find the silver-haired girl he encountered once briefly much earlier in the game). During their interaction, I felt the heat of their closeness -- not because it was intended, but because that's just who I am. There were no closeups of close hands, no blushes or fumbled words (I'm referring to Q here, obviously). It's just that they were two cute boys bonding, or more importantly, one cute boy I couldn't help but think about as I watched him, and the boy who was my avatar in the game, and I thought, wordlessly, again, about how much I wanted a kiss from that boy.

And then he kissed me.

I couldn't believe my eyes. My jaw dropped. This thing that I wanted to see that was just one of my typical flights of fancy that happens when I see two cute boys bonding... It actually happened! And it wasn't anything quick -- it lingered, long enough for its essence to really sink in, that sense of two sets of soft lips meeting and resting together gently, transferring that vital intangible essence between two people in a mutual exchange, forming a connection.... It felt like an eternity. I remember just staring for what felt like several seconds, in such complete shock.

Seto echoed that shock moments later, of course, falling back suddenly in appropriately exaggerated surprise. (All dialogue reproduced imperfectly from memory.)

"W-w-w-what was that?!" Seto stammered.

"A kiss. Because that's what friends do," Crow said. He touched his lips. "I read that somewhere."

"B-b-b-but that was my first kiss! My first kiss ever!"

"Then I guess that makes me your number one buddy, doesn't it." He extended his hand to help him up.

This game... This game was made for me.