With a warmer climate and more open layout, it looks more inviting than Narshe, but is otherwise a fairly similar town. 1-20 "Kids Run Through the City" plays.

Just ahead of the party is someone clad in black from head to toe. The mysterious person enters the pub. 1-11 "Shadow" plays inside, as long as the stranger is there. The party finds him at the bar with a large dog, and tries talking to him...

The ninja, as he appears to be, makes no response, but Edgar drags Lock aside.

The NA version throws in an extraneous bit about money, and leaves out the part about his true self that suggests he might not be as inhuman as he seems.

If the party tries interacting with the dog....

The NA version is less accurate, but it deserves points for style.

The party leaves him alone, explores the town, stocks up on supplies, and heads northeast toward the Returner Headquarters. On they way there, they notice an isolated house, and step inside to investigate. "Kids Run Through the City" plays here too. No one is home, but things keep drawing Edgar's attention....

あいつ doesn't translate well. It's more or less "he/she" with a bit of a discourteous edge to it. Unforutnately, English doesn't have a good gender-neutral pronoun for people ("it" is just too rude). Anyhow, I get the impression looking at this scene again that you're intended to think he's referring to a woman that he's been involved with until he actually says "Mash", or even until he says "man" later if you weren't paying attention to names earlier.

When they exit, an old man is standing by the house. Edgar tries talking to him.

This guy's speech is strongly accented, so it's rather difficult to make out at times, but I think I've got it now.... On the other hand, it's an excuse to use a lame hickish accent. Something I'm honestly not very good at.

Edgar has a line in the ROM that fits here, but isn't used anywhere that I can find.

1-9 "Colts Mountain" plays here. As the party navigates through the system of caves and mountain trails, it seems as though they're being followed. When they've nearly reached the far end of the pass, someone blocks the exit.

There's a line in the ROM that fits here but isn't used in either version...

Maybe it's just as well; the NA version especially is far too confrontational....

Boss battle! Vargas starts with two burly bears tanking for him, but none of them have any particularly dangerous or interesting attacks. When next hit after having taken at least 720 total damage, Vargas starts yelling again.

"Off with ya now" isn't half as badass as the original line.

A familiar-looking muscular young man jumps into the fray.... 1-14 "The Unforgiven" plays for the rest of the battle.

連風燕略拳 means something more or less like wind combo swallow-catching fist... martial arts moves in all kanji never translate cleanly.

A fierce wind blows Tina, Lock, and Edgar away. Mash manages to brace himself well enough to stay in the fight.

終死拳 approximately translates to "final death fist". "Finality Fist" if you're going for style points.

"ora" = something you yell when fighting. No real meaning.

Mash's special combat ability is unleashing various extreme martial arts skills, chosen by inputting specific button sequences, sort of like in a fighting game, but generally less complicated. He gradually learns more as his experience increases; refer to his character entry for details.

For now, Mash uses Bakuretsu Ken (the left, right, left skill) against Vargas (or the tutorial gets more insistent if Vargas is hit after at least 1232 total damage).

Vargas is finished, leaving everyone else free to talk, and, of course, that's exactly what they do.

Going by the JP version, it seems that Lock has never met Mash before.

じいや (jiiya) means an old male servant. The female equivalent, ばあや (baaya) can be translated as "old maid" or "wet nurse".