Thus far, we’ve read Zero’s heartbreaking backstory and taken a look at Five’s greed that knows no bounds, in Square Enix’s ongoing Drakengard 3 mini-novel series depicting the pasts of its Utautai sisters. In the latest installment, we get a look at Four’s past. While she is considered a more reserved character, she shows a bit of her dark side in the story.
Four — Family Portrait
“Five! It was Five, right? The person that just left these clothes here. Put them away!” snarled Four, as she expressed her dislike towards her sister’s slobbish manners.
Four and the others had been traveling and have rented a place to stay, and Four believed that the proper conduct was to leave it in perfect condition by the time they depart. Messes were simply outrageous.
Even so, Five treated the room as her own. She would leave her clothes lying around, and make a mess with her food. “Five… you’re such a troublesome child,” Four sighed.
In addition to taking care of the cleaning up, Four also had to sew clothes. Rather, if she let that klutz Five do it, she’d only prick her finger with the needle and raise a fuss. In the end, Four thought of all the trouble she would have to put up with, and decided that it was often best to just take care of things herself.
As she spread the clothing out to check for any further damage that needed fixing, Four noticed strands of hair on the floor. “You, too, Three?”
This was a terrible habit of her other sister’s, Three, who would sit around and cut her hair, only to leave her strands about as litter. It was true that her hair grew much faster than what was considered normal, but Four still couldn’t help but feel that her sister only did these things for the sake of amusing herself.
Four felt that it wasn’t just Three’s hobbies that were… different. Rather, she felt that her sister was also different as a person herself. Very different. She belonged to a whole other class of eccentricity. Then, just as Four was thinking of her sister, she heard a sound—snip, snip—behind her back.
“Three, your hair is all over th—” Four began, in an attempt to scold her sister.
“What’s up?” replied Three, continuing to snip away at her hair regardless. Four had trouble scolding Three. If it were Five, she’d easily be able to yell at her and tell her to pick it up.
“Three, I don’t think you should be cutting your hair while walking,” said Four calmy.
“…Why?” asked Three.
“Why… well, aren’t scissors considered cutting tools? You could hurt yourself.”
“…I’m fine,” Three responded, still cutting her hair. It seemed as though her sister’s words were pointless. Four even tried getting her to clean her mess up; but alas, Three just fell asleep, instead. Three had the prettiest face of them all, in Four’s opinion, which she thought was a waste, when you considered her eccentric personality, and the absurd amount she slept. Four felt that if she was blessed with her sister’s appearances, she wouldn’t put them to waste. She wouldn’t be anywhere near as slovenly, nor would she waste her days sleeping.
After covering Three so she wouldn’t catch a cold, Four cleaned up the scattered hair, and put away Five’s clothes, feeling as though she’d gotten the short end of the stick. While Three was so peculiar, she’d given up on her, she considered Five to be the youngest and most spoiled of her sisters. This was why she did her best to scold her when she could.
Four assumed that prior to the birth of Five, she, too, had been a spoiled brat at one point, although she had no recollection of this. It hadn’t taken long for her to become “older sister Four,” followed by always being told by the adults to simply have more patience, as she was the older one.
As Five walked back in, Four gave her a proper telling off, regarding the mess of clothes she’d left behind. Five kept denying that the clothes were hers, but Four wasn’t buying it, and informed her that it was fine for the time being, but that she needed to be more careful the next time. This went on for a short while, until the tomboy-like Two appeared.
“Sorry Four-chan! Those were mine.”
Two acted like a young boy, but for some reason, Four found something cute about this behaviour. “But Two, aren’t these Five’s clothes?” she asked. The clothes weren’t marked with names or anything, but Four more or less knew which clothes belonged to whom.
“Yeah, well, they used to be Five’s,” Two replied. She was an honest girl who’d never tell a lie.
“Those clothes were too tight around my chest and weren’t as comfortable anymore,” Five boasted sticking her chest out. This annoyed Four. She felt Five should have a little more shame than that. A child boasting about her large breasts? Besides, didn’t they say that girls with large breasts were slow-witted?
Two explained that she got carried away and put the clothes on forcefully, which resulted in the tear. This wasn’t a rare occurrence, as Two didn’t know her own brute strength. Four found it rather amusing that the kindest of the sisters also happened to be the most destructive. Giving her back her sewn clothes amazed Two, who was impressed by her sister’s work. “Four-chan, I love you!” Two exclaimed gleefully. “I’m going to wear it right away.”
“Yay! It fits perfectly!” she said, spinning around in circles. Two, who was Four’s older sister, felt much more like a younger sibling to her instead.
As Two happily proceeded to show her clothes off to her other sister, One, Five approached Four. “So… Four.”
Four had a bad feeling about this.
“So, I didn’t lie after all, did I?” asked Five.
“Yes, I misunderstood” replied Four.
“And Four, treating me like some kind of criminal… you’re terrible. Do you know how much it hurts?” Five continued, teasingly.
Five continued teasing Four in this manner, but eventually took it a little too far, when she poked fun at her flat chest.
“Flat-sister-Four can’t do things like this, can she?” Five teased, groping her own breasts mockingly.
“Well, I’m sorry for being flat!” Four retorted. “Who would touch those anyway? You’re an eyesore, so just get out of here! And knock it off with that nonsense! You’re just a kid and here you are, acting like some lewd whore! And you know what? All your nutrition is just going to your breasts, so you’re just about as stupid as a cow! You’re an idiot! Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
“Oh, Four, you’re so scary!”
“Shut up! Cow girl! Go eat some hay!” Four yelled, throwing the nearest object she could find at her sister. To top it off, Five managed to dodge it, which annoyed her even further.
“I Hate it! Hate it! I hate everyone! All of them!” Four expressed in frustration. “I’m not as cute as Two, nor pretty as Three, and I’m flat-chested to boot, unlike Five! I hate it! I hate my own face! I hate my body! I’m not pretty, nor cute. Just a plain, ordinary, boring face. My limbs are practically sticks, my hair is messy, and what I hate more than anything else, are these disgusting nails of mine.”
Four’s hysterics continued. “If I leave them, they’ll keep growing and the tips will curl, and they’ll break and get caught on everything. I don’t need these nails. I just want to peel everything off and throw it all away. These hands, legs, face, I don’t need any of it. I don’t need myself.”
“Myself? Wrong! You’re the one that isn’t needed! You useless lowly girl! Going around dangling your meat like that, you’re not worth anything! just go die! You too, you muscle-brained girl, die! You too, crazy scissor-girl… you can die, too! Just because you have a pretty face? Who do you think you are? Want me to peel it off? I’ll peel it and shred it to pieces, and smash it up. Ahahaha! This if fun. Oh, this is fun. Oh, this… is fun…”
Before she realized it, the entire room was a mess. And Three had remained asleep throughout the entire episode. And Five had taken her leave ages ago.
“I’m such an idiot… I should hurry up and clean this mess,” said Four.
Just then, a familiar voice rang out.
“Anyone here?”
It was her older sister, One.
“Oh, perfect. Come help me, Four. Should we wake Three up?”
One was the smartest and most responsible of the sisters. She wasn’t as cute as Two, nor as pretty as Three, but she expressed herself with intelligence. Four had made it her goal to become just like One. She might not be able to change her face, but she could gain the knowledge to become like her. And One was flat-chested, too.
As it turned out, One needed help with a cart she’d gotten got from a farmhouse. She had brought it to pack their belongings when they would proceed to their next destination. As Four timidly volunteered to help, her older sister expressed her gratitude in thanks.
…Huh?
Before she knew it, One was no longer there. Nor was the cart, or the home they had rented. Instead, Four was in her usual bed.
“I guess it was all a dream…” Four said to herself. She was no longer a child, or traveling. Everything had changed.
She wished she could change time to when the five sisters had traveled together. She wished she could’ve dreamt a little longer. Of a little further back, when the strongest, most beautiful, most loved, and longed for, Zero, was around.
“I still love Zero. We’re sisters, and family. I still believe that one day, the gentle Zero from before, will return, and we’ll all live together again,” Four thought to herself. “We’ll definitely live happily, once again. Even if some of us might be missing.”
Drakengard 3 is slated for release on October 31 for PlayStation 3.
Published: Aug 2, 2013 06:51 pm