A refreshed Natsuko wakes up after three straight days of rest, and learns that Luke is a hell of a cook. Luke tries to learn more about her and her powers, but when Natsuko tries to use her pegbar to summon her desk, it neither glows nor talks to her; I suspect the need must be dire for that to happen. Natsuko trips and falls on top of Luke just as Unio enters, leading him to believe the gremlin girl is trying to eat his best friend.
Natsuko joins Luke, Unio, Memmeln and QJ for a meeting with the very buff and pink handlebar-mustachioed mayor, as well as the old green crone Baobab, who shocks the Nine Soldiers when she suggests Natsuko join their ranks. Unio in particular can’t believe it, even though Natsuko did just save all their lives and the city just three days ago.
For her part, Natsuko isn’t any more interested in joining than Unio is in accepting her. As she demonstrates when she quickly draws the flying voids that will threaten the city soon, she’s an artist, not a hero. That said, she has no idea how to return to her own world, so in the meantime she’ll have to stay in this one, and so vows to protect … her supply of food.
Becoming a Nine Soldier means having free reign at the nearby tavern. There Natsuko meets Naomi, who shares the name, general appearance, and behavior of her president back at the studio. As she wonders what other people from the real world are here in different guises, she pauses her drinking of delicious (and free) milk beer, remembers the deadline-strewn hell she once inhabited, and asks herself: Does she really want to return there?
Natsuko ran back out to the desert to pray to whatever god would listen that she doesn’t want to grow to hate A Tale of Perishing due to spending too much time there, particularly when she knows all the bad shit that’s going to hit the fan. But things don’t have to unfold the way they did in the movie. When the aerial Void mothership arrives and spews hundreds of flying voids at the city and its all-important crops, the Nine Soldiers defend it, and wait for Natsuko to unlock her powers.
As I expected, her pegbar only glows and speaks to her when it’s time for her to save the day. It also informs her that she can’t draw the same thing twice: “no stock footage.” After racking her brain for the proper response to a swarm of aerial foes, it finally dawns on her, and she gets to drawing. She ends up animating an Itano Circus—a swarm of homing missiles that take out both the mothership and all its children in style.
After drawing three days worth of work in less than a minute, Natsuko once again passes out for three days, unable to celebrate another great victory. But she wakes up happy and refreshed, and is treated to another delicious breakfast by Luke. Little does she know that he had her front hair bound in up so that he can see her face, including the ones she makes while enjoying his food. He still doesn’t know what to make of this stranger from a mysterious land, but it’s clear she’s growing on him.
