Nuruko

"Kyu, Kyu!"

Nuruko is a Mysterious Apoptosis Being.

Biography
After chasing White Rabbit through the first Tartarus, the party comes to a stop at a doorway she went through. Sonya tries to open it, to no avail. Ilias tells her that it can't be opened through brute strength or magical power. It is a doorway to another dimension entirely, and only a select few beings can use them. Luka is one of them. The party goes through the doorway and enters what is another dimension of space-time entirely.

The man standing by the door tells them it's Remina before apoptosis takes over. If you try talking to the city girl near the home, she will turn into a Shesta. Ilias gives an explanation of the apoptosis effect; "It's called the apoptosis effect, a mutation phenomenon caused by unordered space-time itself. It acts as an immune system of this twisted spacetime, so to speak. It mutates organisms from its environment to repel foreign invaders."

If the party enters the nearby home, they'll hear rummaging from the back of the room, where they find Nuruko munching on a box of apples. If Luka disturbs her, she attacks them. After the fight, she calms down. In the room, there is also a note saying, "EXPERIMENT FAILED". Nuruko was likely the one being experimented on.

If you leave, then re-enter the room and talk to Nuruko again, you can recruit her. Sonya can somehow understand her and renames her from, ??? to Nuruko, taking after Yamatati language.

She could be a sealed form of Hiruko. Nuruko and Hiruko sound very similar. But this is unlikely as both Tamamo and Alice retained most of their character traits in their sealed form. Outside of the jacket, they bear no similarities. And if she were Apoptosis, then there would be no going back to being a Sixth Ancestor. Being sealed and becoming Apoptosis are two different things.

She could simply be Nuruko. But she may have encountered Marcellus travelling through the Tartarus; they became friends, but Marcellus had to leave her. This would explain why she follows Luka around in the Pocket Castle. She thinks he's Marcellus. They are after all, very similar. This one seems more likely, but that doesn't mean Nuruko and Hiruko aren't somehow connected.

Monsterpedia Entry
Translation Pending

Attacks

 * Attack-
 * Tentacle Dance-
 * Tentacle Carress (M)-
 * Tentacle Caress (F)-
 * Soul Sucking Tentacles (M)-
 * Tentacle Restraint-
 * Soul Sucking Tentacles (F)-

Strategy
She's a member of the Apoptosis race, but would have most likely been a Scylla before becoming an Apoptosis, judging from how she looks and her stats. Scylla's hit hard but go down easily. Her Soul Sucking Tentacle provides her with sustain, so don't let that happen unless you want the fight to drag. She isn't a very hard fight. Her damage is just high, so try bringing some of your tankier party members into the battle. Monsters with high evasion chance work just as well.

Hit her with lightning attacks and she'll go down even faster. She is immune to bio and sonic attacks.

Evaluation
Translation pending.

World Interactions

 * If you bring Nuruko, Sylph and Gnome to the grave where you meet Gnome, you will get a special scene with them, unlocking an achievement while doing so.

Trivia

 * Sonya is the only one who can understand her.
 * She was named by Sonya. Her name comes from the combination of the words Slimey (Nuru in Japanese) and Ko (Child in Japanese).
 * While not in party, Nuruko will try to follow the player (in the home she was found, in the castle and in any camp scene) as long as they are close enough to her. Be careful not to put yourself in a dead end while she follows you, as you could get potentially stuck because of her blocking your way (while you can escape using a Harpy Feather or similar for the first two possibilities, it is impossible to escape from the camp scene, so make sure to save beforehand).
 * Nuruko's tentacles may have been partly inspired by the tentacles of Desco from Disgaea 4 considering the similarities in their color and pattern and the fact that Arekishi has drawn Desco before in volume 6 of his hentai series "Sandwich".