Live A Hero Midsummer Hero Festival Episode 2

The next day, things tune in over at the Hero City Summer Festival's specially built battle stadium, where all the hero offices and branch offices in Orient City compete to see which agency is the strongest in the O-1 Hero Grand Prix. Maculata is up on stage and laughs about how she sees the match ending and flexes with her ultimate on a no name trainee hero. The announcer calls the game, saying Creative Brain wins 100 victory points for winning the fight. Combined with the 76 points she gained on the audience ratings scale, her agency now has 576 points total. The announcer then asks that everyone give both contestants a round of applause.

 

Scene then shifts to UEHA Japan's waiting room in the stadium where you and the others are watching Maculata's match on screen. Barrel is impressed by Maculata's skillful, charming battle style, and you agree that she was cool and amazing, and/or ask how the matches are formatted. Gammei is present as he tells Barrel to not get too excited, then tells him he's drinking Furlong's drink. Barrel apologizes for this in surprise, but Furlong says it's fine and that he's too nervous to care about his drink anyway. Barrel advises Furlong to not get himself too worked up, then suggests that he should pretend the audience is made up of fire instead of people. Furlong reacts by wondering if he can put everyone out before damage spreads, so Gammei tells Barrel to not make Furlong any more tense. Also the correct Japanese way of dealing with nerves in public situations is to pretend they're all pumpkins.

 

Gammei then turns to you and asks how you're holding up for your first participation in the Grand Prix. You either admit to being nervous, say you're actually doing relatively okay, or ignore the question to stare at Gammei in his casual clothes. In A, Gammei laughs and says there's no need to be so stiff. And not to parrot Barrel or anything, but he advises you to pretend the audience is all pumpkins. In B, Gammei is mildly impressed you have more guts than he thought you would, but that's a good thing. In C, Gammei is embarrassed at you checking him out and a little mad you aren't nervous at all, so he tells you to focus on the match.

 

Anyways, Okitaka laughs about how young people are lively as always, then talks to you about how fun the event is. There's one more match after this one before it's UEHA's turn to go out, so he tells you to be ready. Victom pipes up to suggest that the rules get explained to you before then, which Okitaka realizes he should do, so he says he'll do that in order.

Okitaka starts explaining that the competition is round-robin style until the fourth day, at which point the format switches over to a tournament. So for the first phase every team will be competing to earn points for those four days, then there'll be an intermission day for a break. The top eight scoring teams will be the ones who make it into the tourney. During the round-robin phase, each match consists of two battles that are one on one duels. Each of those battles gets the team points, of which there are two kinds. The first is the 100 victory points for winning the battle itself, and the other is the ratings points the audience members watching live and over streams influence with their own reactions to each hero's performance. Both totals get added to the team's count.

Furlong says that the rules change every year, but this year is placing greater emphasis on entertainment for the scoring. Ratings scores used to be less weighted than they are now. Okitaka says it's tricky how the ratings points have no cap to them, but that's how it goes when it's directly based on audience reception. Barrel points out that the bit where it's possible to lose a match but gain tons of audience sympathy or win a match but lose points due to negative reception hasn't changed, so the plan to win and win over the crowd is the same this year too.

Okitaka says that is true, noting that you guys won't know how the score priority changing will really work out until the results are in. In which case, you guys may as well make the first battle a test run to see how that goes. Gammei recaps that once all the points are counted on the last day, it'll shift to a tournament format. The tournament will be a 4v4 battle per match, though the rough part will be in how many points you guys can score before then. You either say you get it, say you only sort of get it, or struggle to keep up. B and C get an extra line of Okitaka telling you to relax. The rules will be explained every time a match happens, so you can just remember the general setup.

Anyways, Okitaka tells you the heroes UEHA is putting up is Victom, Gammei, Barrel, and Furlong. The plan is to have Barrel and Furlong fight in the first and second days, and Victom and Gammei on the third and fourth days. Okitaka asks you to handle operations for Barrel and Victom, as Gammei and Furlong will be handled by another UEHA Operator Space Zooming it in. You notice that Okitaka isn't included in the battle line-up anywhere and ask about it. He's taken aback at the question, then answers he won't be in since he's more a leader. He also admits to getting a bit rusty since he hasn't been out in front much since becoming Commander. You accept the answer and/or think on it, and Gammei stands by quietly.

Okitaka coughs and tries to move things along, saying things should be fine since you get along with your assigned partners. Barrel cheers about being teamed up with you, saying he'll do his best and that you guys should aim for the championship belt. You respond by wishing him good luck, say you're happy to fight together with him, or comment on how motivated he is. In A, Barrel enthusiastically says he's getting fired up all of a sudden. In B, Barrel is surprised and wonders if this means his feelings got through to you. He's happy about it, but also feeling embarrassed about it too. In C, Barrel says of course he is since it's his beloved summer, his beloved competition, and...something he decides to backtrack from saying aloud.

Victom just stands there saying nothing, so you either awkwardly talk to him and exchange formalities, or ask if he's mad at you. In the former, he seems surprised you talked to him but politely and stoically responds back. In the latter, he's surprised you think so and denies being mad. Either way Furlong speaks up to apologize and tells you Victom's never been into these events. Victom calls character assassination and says when he's working for UEHA, he fights even if there aren't lives on the line. Since he's here, he'll fight. That's all there is to it. Okitaka sighs about how stubborn and straight-laced Victom is, at which point the PA system tells you guys the field has been set up and asks you to head out the East-3 gate. Okitaka prompts everyone to get psyched since it's go time, saying this year is the year they show UEHA's real strength. Barrel, Furlong, Gammei call back, as go you as you try to fire the team up. Victom however just stands there silently, as usual.

Title card pops up, and this episode is called Fierce! The Passionate Policeman

Time passes to the point you and UEHA get to the battle ring in the center of the stadium, which is a giant square that spans 100 m in every direction from the center. The event MC announces that this is going to be the fourth match up of the day, UEHA Japan vs Independent Heroes, and both sides' heroes have arrived. The stands are filled, and the crowd's cheering is loud enough to make you shake.

You either are taken aback at the amount of people out there and get nervous, or you start getting excited. Gammei notes that there's like 30k people up there, which is a lot for the first day of the battle event. Victom says there's 150k people already waiting for the livestream to start, so they can't put up a bad showing here, which causes Furlong to start worrying about how he'll do. Okitaka suggests Barrel go first since he's raring to go, then says he's counting on the two of you. Barrel agrees and says he'll do his best. You either firmly agree or are taken aback at how quickly things are going. Barrel turns to you, saying you guys should win this for sure before running off breathing hard through his nose towards the stage. Okitaka prompts you to get going too, asking you to give direct commands to Barrel. You acknowledge the instructions and go, asking Barrel to wait for you as you trail after him.

Once you get to the stage, Barrel is looking wide-eyed at his opponent. You ask what's wrong when you catch up, then look at where Barrel is looking to find Gomeisa standing on the other side. Gomeisa is surprised to see you two, but then cheers up saying he's glad to be competing with people he knows. You either react in shock at seeing Gomeisa or remember that he did mention being in the Grand Prix earlier, and Barrel asks if Gomeisa actually understands what he's getting himself into. Gomeisa answers that he does, saying he loves festivals and dancing. He also mentions being told he can dance there as much as he likes, so he invites you guys to have fun with him.

Barrel is taken aback at how Gomeisa seems to be here for something different than what you guys are. He's held back a bit up to this point, but now he decides to go all out even if it is Gomeisa he's up against. Barrel asks you to transform him, so you move to comply. Once he's suited up he yells about getting into this. Gomeisa follows up with his own transformation, noting that you guys look ready and saying it's time to dance together. The event MC notes both sides have transformed, then announces the start of the episode battle. More happens afterwards.

After the battle, the story tunes back in midway to Gomeisa saying summer is the season for trees and flowers to be bright and lively, then asking that everyone stops fighting and dance together. As he dances, motes of light float and flutter and surround Barrel before shaping themselves into leaves. Barrel's will to fight starts to weaken as though he were lying in the shade of foliage a gentle breeze is blowing through, and Gomeisa's visually impressive technique draws in all of the audience's attention as they all cheer.

Barrel tries to resist as he says his power is weakening, but you encourage him to push through it and push back. Barrel resolves himself to win with a brilliant finish, so he can't let himself lose his edge here. Barrel lowers the hammer of both his guns and readies himself, yelling that he's as hot as the summer and won't be stopped by something at this level. He then shoots in every direction, and the bullets destroy the leaves with intense flames. Gomeisa is taken aback at this turn of events, and Barrel says it's the end of the match as he launches his ultimate move at him, firing enough bullets to destroy Gomeisa's weapon. A heat haze forms from the heat coming from Barrel's bullets, which then reflects the light of Gomeisa's suit cancelling out.

Gomeisa cries a little, sadly noting how strong Barrel is. You cheer that you guys have won since Gomeisa's hero mode has cut out, and the announcer calls it in for UEHA's victory and the 100 points that go with it. The audience erupts into cheers, and Barrel is thrilled that he managed to pull through. You congratulate Barrel, but Victom tells you to slow down since the ratings points haven't been added yet. Barrel stops as he remembers, though he has doubts it'll make a huge difference.

The announcer starts going over the ratings scores, noting with surprise that UEHA gets 59 while Independent Heroes gets 178. The team is shocked, Barrel most of all, and the announcer says it's a surprise comeback with a nearly tripled amount of points for Independent Heroes. Gomeisa is surprised and starts thanking the audience, and you get around to expressing your own shock at this.

Furlong says that this does happen sometimes as this system is set up to give a chance to heroes who aren't specialized in attacking. Okitaka says he wasn't expecting the change to the score weight would have this big an impact, so you guys will need to keep in mind the need to play to the audience and show them something impressive. He's pretty sure you guys can win the straight up fight parts of the formula, but the entertainment bit will be trickier to do well in. Gammei thinks on the final score of the round being 159 to 178, which is still not too big a difference but still vexing. Barrel is depressed that he got outdone 3 to 1 on the ratings side and wonders if he really didn't do that great aesthetically, so you try to apologize and cheer him up.

Okitaka also tries cheering Barrel up claiming some responsibility for not advising him on how to handle the change in the scoring rules. He then tells Barrel it's time to come down from the stage so the arena staff can get it ready for the next battle of the day, and Barrel looks conflicted as he steps down while the crowd now starts cheering for Gomeisa.

Time passes as the UEHA party heads over to the side stage during the preparatory field setup interval, and Barrel sighs as he sits down on a bench. His ears are drooping, and he's clearly dejected as he takes a drink. Furlong tries cheering him up by pointing out how hard he fought and how cool he looked. Barrel thanks him, though he's still not over getting almost three times less the ratings points Gomeisa did.

You sympathize with Barrel but wonder why there's such a big difference and say you don't get the scoring rubric. Okitaka agrees, saying at this point you'd have to ask the audience directly about it since it's linked to them. He then hands you a tablet, prompting you to look at it to come up with ideas. The tablet itself has a bunch of social media posts lined up on it in a search result.

You ask if the posts are the audience's thoughts on the match that just happened, which Okitaka confirms. It's a real time feed of posts from the audience, so you guys will have to look it over to think of ways to get ideas for scoring better on ratings points. There's probably gonna be some harsh posts, but skimming through things should be fine. Barrel gets up and asks that you let him see it too. He concedes that Gomeisa made a good show, but he's still bothered by his performance.

You agree to show him and ask that he not hang off you so much, so Barrel settles for putting his chin on your shoulder as you both start poking through the live feed. One guy calls Barrel cool and wants to go gun crazy like him. Another says they enjoyed watching Barrel fight and says he's hot. A third person cheers Barrel on. You note that there's a lot of positivity going on for Barrel and that he's got a lot of fans, causing him to laugh bashfully. Gammei however tells him to stop smiling like that because it creeps him out.

Furlong seems to be reading along too and says there's no clues as to why Barrel lost out on the ratings scale, even though he has a lot of devoted fans. Victom however spots something and directs your attention to it. Those comments talk about how Barrel creating a heat haze in the middle of summer made them uncomfortable, which made Gomeisa look more appealing with his cooler visuals by comparison. And while him going trigger happy was fun to watch, it also made a guy want ice cream all of a sudden.

You go oh as you pick up that people think Barrel comes off as uncomfortably hot, and Okitaka sighs as he says that probably would be off-putting to people when it's summertime. Gomeisa having more cool-themed visuals drawing in more votes makes more sense in that light. Barrel is taken aback at this since he can only fight with guns, and he asks if anyone's written anything that would give him ideas on what to actually do instead. Gammei tells him that the audience can't help with that, and Okitaka sympathizes but agrees that you guys have to be the ones to think of something. Barrel reluctantly concedes the point, and you think out loud to yourself about possible ideas.

The PA system clocks on to announce the stage has been set, so heroes and Operators participating in the second match are being asked to make their way over. Okitaka prompts Furlong to get going, wishing him luck and asking him to do his best to get the audience's attention. Furlong answers affirmatively, then psyches himself up by muttering under his breath that he can do this as he turns to head out.

Okitaka informs you guys that the other Operator is ready to go over space Zoom, so Furlong nods and tells Barrel to watch him work hard enough to make up for his surprise loss. Barrel is touched by this, and you either comment on how bold Furlong got all of a sudden, note that he's totally different from how he was seconds ago, or sigh over how cool he is. Victom just sighs wishing Furlong would be like this all the time, and Okitaka looks up Furlong's slated opponent. He's impressed by the guy being pretty accomplished, about equal to Furlong's. They've also got a decent amount of experience with urban battling, though in terms of matchups it's bad luck for them. Okitaka probably won't need to get involved himself. You ask him what he means, but Okitaka just tells you to wait and see since you'll probably understand right away.

Time passes to the start of the fourth matchup battle starting, and Furlong's opponent takes the initiative. The guy yells loudly about how he won't hold back against an UEHA hero, then charges up his fire power against the firefighter hero. You go 'oh' at that as the mob hero creates a fire cannon with his power, then fires that at Furlong. There's enough of it to completely cover him, but Furlong keeps calm and pulls the trigger on his hose. Water energy splashes around, extinguishing the flames out in seconds. The other hero is somehow surprised by this but attempts to keep the momentum going, though Furlong declares he'll never be beaten by fire as he opens up his water valve to its strongest setting and shoots the guy off the stage. Furlong adds some spins to his movements as well, making the water spiral out and create a rainbow from the drops.

Barrel is amazed by the rainbow, and Okitaka says Furlong came up with a great idea. Furlong moves to finish the match by launching his ultimate move, blasting a jet stream of water at the other hero that causes his transformation to come undone. The other hero falls to his knees, and Furlong poses as he puts his hose away. The announcer calls it in for UEHA for 100 victory points, then reads off the ratings points next. UEHA gets an additional 125 points, and Western Izu Pyrotechnics gets 43.

You comment that in a fight between a firefighter and a pyrotechnician, of course the firefighter wins. Gammei compliments Furlong for blowing the other dude away in points. Victom says that when Furlong's in hero mode, he's got the drive and bearing of a veteran firefighter, so of course he won this battle. Gammei is surprised as he asks why Victom seems so proud of Furlong, so Victom backtracks and denies that he is.

Furlong waves to the crowd cheering like crazy over him, and Barrel stares at him as he gets an idea about water guns being beautiful and refreshing, so maybe he could do something like that. You notice Barrel talking to himself and ask him about it, so he says it's nothing in surprise. He does admit thinking it'd be nice to do things like Furlong did, and Furlong comes back at this point back in civilian mode. He immediately exhales like he's been holding his breath and says he was scared, and Barrel congratulates him with a hug saying he was cool. Furlong mildly freaks out in concern asking him to stop before he gets too wet, and your phone faintly glows after Barrel runs over to him. The window informs you of finding a new path for Ba---- at the weakest connection level, and the episode ends as you curiously look at it.