surgeworks

07 - June 2 | Table of Contents | 09 - July 2
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Alternate Title: Love Hurts

Some warning, guys: child abuse and statutory rape (or at least, an inappropriate teacher-student relationship) are both mentioned in this post.

Last time, we went through a lot as June rose, topped out, and fell. Fuuka joined the team as support, Mitsuru rejoined the battle, and Yukari asked Fuuka for help researching Kirijo Group. We met a cool dog; Creepy Boy—I mean Pharos—wouldn’t leave us alone, and Junpei broke our hearts way too damn much. This time, it’s Tartarus and a Full Moon Shadow again.

But first, some more day-to-day stuff.

July 1^st is a week away from the full moon. We spend this afternoon with Rio.

The gym’s empty except for us again. We take a break and get hydrated, when Kenji comes along again. He asks if we’re the only ones here, Rio’s answer is suitably sarcastic (yes), and Kenji gets pissy over it. He’s looking for the club advisor, Ms. Kanou, and when Rio replies that she’s never here, he says of course a sophisticated woman like her wouldn’t spend time on children’s games. Rio rightfully gets pretty pissed, and these two quickly run out of patience with each other. We get a little involved and Kenji’s blurting out makes it clear that Ms. Kanou might be having a bit of an inappropriate relationship with a student—or at least, taking advantage of this idiot’s infatuation with older women to go to the movies and get food. Rio asks why he likes her, and Kenji offers the most BS explanation to the tune of ‘love doesn’t have anything to do with logic and reason, it just happens’. He of course wants us to keep what’s going on a secret.

This shit’s creepy as hell.

Rio questions his ideas on love as he leaves, looking at him as he walks away. Oh, Rio….not Kenji, right? Say it isn’t him. Curiously, there isn’t a rank-up here, so let’s go home.

The dorm doesn’t have much to say that evening. So, we go play the quiz game at the arcade.

7/2. We spend time with Junpei today, for our final rank up.

Tender Feeling plays as we go to the ramen shop and eat. Voice acting!

“So, um. Ugh, I’m no good at this… Where do I start?”

> “Start what?” (oh please.)
> “Going to confess your love?” (PLEASE, JUNPEI….)

“Wha—N-No!”

DAMN IT.

“Uhh, well… I had something serious to talk about. I want you to have this. I never had much I was that attached to, but I always held onto this for some reason.”

> You obtained Pig Key Holder.

“I used to keep my house keys on that. ...Thing is, I never wanted to go home. So, when it turned out I was gonna get to live at the dorm, you wouldn’t believe how happy I was.”

WHOA WHOA, DON’T BREAK ME LIKE THIS, SLOW DOWN.

“I thought after that… I could turn my back on it all. So I kept this keychain and house keys stashed away, since I figured I’d never have to use ‘em again. But after a while… I didn’t like the way I was trying to avoid stuff. I knew the problem wasn’t gonna go away just ‘cause I wouldn’t look at it… and that I was lame for ever thinking so… …That’s why I dug these out. I plan to go see my dad, too. Then again, I’m still kinda chicken… If you hold onto these for me, it’ll be like you’ve got my back for it… That way, I’d have the guts to see him.”

Someone hold me, tears are actually coming down my face, I don’t know if I can handle this.

> Junpei’s hands are trembling.
> You can tell that it took all the courage he had to tell you this…

“Hey, listen… You can talk to me too, if anything’s bothering you, all right? And I’m not saying so because I wanna be the guy people turn to. It’s just, you don’t have to do everything yourself. You and the rest of the gang were there for me, and I’m here for you the same way. Don’t forget that… Okay?”

I WON’T, JUNPEI. I PROMISE. EVEN IF YOU GO AND END UP IN A TERRIBLE RED STRING ROMANCE AND NEARLY COST US EVERYTHING.

> You sense strong affection from Junpei…
> You sense a bond with Junpei…

RANK UP! MAX rank! We get another Magician card cut-in, as we’re informed that we can now fuse the ultimate form of the Magician Arcana! Having forged a bond that can’t be broken, we can now fuse Surt, the Inferno God!

“You know, I’m glad I got this power. And it’s not because it makes me kinda like a superhero or anything. It always bugged me, that weakness I knew was there inside… But I feel like I can change. And I think that if it wasn’t for you and the rest, I wouldn’t have that feeling, even with this power. Or worse, I mighta done the wrong things with it… So… Thanks.”

(Gonna stop copy-pasting here, or Atlus might kick my ass). Then he gives a small chuckle, with a blush, and makes fun of himself for being so sentimental, and invites us to eat more.

Guys, I love this. I really do. If I’d played vanilla Persona 3 before P3P, or the male route, I’d probably have never realized what a real affection I’d have for Junpei by the end of his social link. This idiot, this goofball who never takes anything seriously and pervs every five minutes, who I probably consider the weakest character in this damn story, actually has me crying. And it has me crying all the more because I know this doesn’t last.

Of all the Social Links in the FemC’s route, I think Junpei’s is the strongest. Junpei is probably the most self-aware of the cast next to Yukari, especially when it comes to his own attitude and weaknesses, and despite his attributing his new outlook to us, does most of the work of self-discovery and change himself. He’s sweet, considerate, and a lot of emphasis is put on making him a great friend—which is frankly what makes him such a very desirable character for a love interest. I attribute extra positives to his Social Link in that it lacks the weaknesses of others. Junpei manages to make me feel very sorry for him without having had a family member die tragically—his dad’s just a piece of shit, something far more relatable a facet of his character to a great many more players than Traumatic Orphan Syndrome.

I really enjoy the new parts of Junpei’s character that came with his Social Link that P3P introduced. I do really wish that more of him—especially down the line—had been changed to reflect the character he is now instead of the one he was in 2006, but as with anything in this game, you’ll have to wait for my explanation on why.

I believe it’s now evening. No one at the dorm has anything new to say, so we go hang out with Tanaka. His lesson is titled ‘the smaller the dog, the louder its bark’, and I am reminded forcefully of people who shouldn’t be in politics. Apparently, Tanaka’s been selling cameras that can see through people’s clothing, which I would immediately hate him for if it wasn’t immediately made clear that they’re obviously fake and don’t work and people actually fall for it. He rudely tells us to watch our weight and our attitude, since he might want us as a face for a program someday. RANK UP! His next threat should we break our promise involves sending a lot of pizzas our way. Hey man, sounds good to me.

7/3. A girl gossips to her friend about how her recent boyfriend wanted to take her to Shirakawa Boulevard, which is apparently quite a seedy place for couples. Mr. Ekoda, who is alive and not fired, talks about an author named Murasaki Shikibu, who may or may not have been a shared pen name for the authors of Genji Monogatari. And she’s apparently printed on the 2,000-yen bill. He asks Junpei how her achievement is recognized worldwide. The answer is the Global Heritage Pavilion.

We spend time with Yukari after school. She takes us to the strip mall, declaring the burger joint to be too fattening, and the sweets shop as well. While she chats about losing weight, a car comes careening her way down the street. Damn, people just drive crazy at this place. We pull her out of the way, and the screen goes black, actually worrying us for a second. She turns to us, and it turns out we skinned our palms getting her off the street. She suddenly gets aggravated, asking why we helped and what we were going to do if we died. Naturally, we ask if we were supposed to just let her be made into a pancake. She’s frustrated, feeling death coming a little too close to someone important to her yet another time. She’s rough about it, but this is her way of showing affection. RANK UP!

Speaking of rough affection, shadows attacking horny couples is the subject at the dorm. According to Junpei, they’re jealous. Speaking of other rough affections, it’s time for Buddhist monks. Tonight’s the Tower Social Link!

Remember that monk at Club Escapade we checked up on a while back? He’s still there! He won’t talk ‘til he has booze, so we hit up the bartender. Said bartender can tell we’re underage, but lets up when we mention the dude upstairs. He wants a favor, so while he makes the guy’s drink, we’re to go take orders. There’s four orders to take and they’ll change to try to confuse us, but we get them all right. So the monk has a brandy delivered up to him.

We go up and let him know we mentioned him, and he’s apparently impressed. In exchange for his drink, he pretends to be our parent so we don’t get booted out, and invites us to sit with him. He chats with us about adulthood and gets pretty cynical, but seems to think we’re not ‘on the wrong track’ yet. He says he’ll have us thrown out next time we come in here…but he’s smiling. Tower Social Link, boom! We made a friend of a differing generation this time. After that, we head back.

7/4. Today’s business is with Fuuka. She seems nervous.

When we get in, Fuuka explains her problem with cooking. It’s not that she can’t do it right, but that while she’s making food, she starts thinking it’s not going to come out right anyway. She says she seems to be bad at imagining things in a positive way. Given the option to be supportive, rather than assure her of her invaluable Persona, (since that might remind her of her comparatively small battle contribution), we remind her that she’s great with machines. Though, she claims it to be something she can’t be proud of. She speculates that she became good with machines due to watching her dad work, which was him taking apart and repairing broken musical equipment. And since the Kirijo Group is all they’ll ever need for tech support, she says she wants to find something only she can do, and we agree to help her find it. We make some cookies, wherein we help Fuuka.

> You somehow defended the dough from all of Fuuka’s attempts to deviate from the recipe.
> All the cookies survived.

She’s excited, even if we helped, and we RANK UP!

That night, we play the quiz game at the arcade, utterly breaking us at under 1,000 yen.

On 7/5, Rio calls, and this time we actually go out with her. She takes us to the cafe for some cake, and brings up us living in the dorm with Akihiko. Apparently a girl was whining to Rio about how it isn’t fair, and Rio is just wondering why she doesn’t tell Akihiko how she feels, if she likes him that much. We try to politely tell her that that’s a lovely shade of black, teapot, but it doesn’t work. So we just give her a knit rabbit we made with Bebe, making up the difference in points.

Tonight is Tartarus night! Finally! And even better, the clock doesn’t cost as much today!

Last time we were here, we had just gotten to the top of Arqa, but we unlocked new floors with the defeat of the Empress and Emperor, and we have Mitsuru now. We also have enough people that some will have to be left out of the party. With Yukari at level 16, Mitsuru at 18, and the others at 17, we take Yukari first, then the others. We also accept three requests—Snake Scales, Bronze Figurines, and the third old document. We also have two people we need to rescue from here, so we have a lot to do.

Upon getting past floor 40, it’s unfortunately not a new block, just the second half of Arqa. Still, stronger enemies, more experience. Yukari immediately puts a huge strain on our SP by being so damn fragile. And as for Fuuka, I must say she’s grating. She never shuts up, period.

Bad Game Design: 28

Seriously. This is the second re-release of a game in which people had already complained about this, in addition to Persona 4 already being out and people complaining about it in that game, too. There was no reason not to fix Fuuka’s grating, constant voice-overs. They could’ve at least removed the lines where Fuuka tells you how many enemies there are—because, you know, we’re not blind and don’t need our hands held. So, a point for each game this wasn’t fixed in. Mitsuru also never shut up, but she at least was more tolerable due to sounding like a watchful and concerned teacher keeping an eye on a new student.

We’re informed when we get to floor 45 that a person is there, whom we rescue, and the same for someone on floor 51. We fuse Hua Po, Mokoi, and High Pixie, the latter of whom mutates Holy Arrow into Growth 2, fuck yeah. When we take Akihiko and Junpei, we do a lot better—all three of us have weapons from Theo which do a lot of damage and inflict great status ailments with a high success rate. In fact, we rarely had to use our Personas. The Beam Naginata (which resembles the one used by Tomoe in Persona 4) and the Spiked Bat cause panic and fear, which make it hard for enemies to fight back and turn half the hits against them into criticals, and Jack’s Gloves cause Charm, which is great when used on enemies.

Not so pleasant when used on us, though. We have our first experience with some truly nasty enemies who actively use the Charm ailment. First are the Snakes. One will charm and the other will use a very strong attack. The other are the Books. These come in groups of three, and will spam Spirit Drain and Marin Karin. While the accuracy is low on ailments, you are virtually guaranteed to be hit with it sooner or later when facing the attack being aimed at you three times for every one of your turns, and Spirit Drain of course makes it difficult to fight back.

Mitsuru is definitely ahead of the game when it comes to the others. For one thing, she starts at level 18 and has Mabufu, and the others don’t get their ma-spells until their early or mid twenties.

The first miniboss is on floor 47, and it’s three Golden Beetles. The next one on floor 59 is the Intrepid Knight, which Fuuka informs us is an Emperor.

Arcana Believe It: 19

It drains wind and has Dia, Mind Charge and Magarula and fucking Garudyne, which is very very bad. Do you know how bad Mind Charged Magarulas and Garudynes are this early in the game?! They hit very hard. But, it’s vulnerable to Charm, which is good. We reach a dead end at floor 64. We find the third old document there and take it back to Theo for 50,000 yen, which is great.

We also bring 3 Snake Scales to Theo, receiving 46,000 yen for those. While at the Velvet Room, we fuse Sati, which thanks to our Max Rank with Junpei, levels out all its skills and gets us Diarama. Now that we’re high enough level, we fuse her into Queen Mab, then fuse her with Valkyrie and Ares for an Orthrus with Dodge Slash. Incidentally, Queen Mab learns Dodge Strike and Dodge Pierce, so we can load all three physical dodges onto Orthrus along with fulfilling the request and getting Yukari’s winter outfit. We also create an Oumitsunu at level 33 and complete another request, receiving the tool needed to create Nata Taishi as a reward. We also accept a request to bring Theo medicine, since we’ll be tired tomorrow.

We also make it to level 30, and thus can store 12 Personas now. Fuuka gains Third Eye, which lets us know if an attack will work before we’ve used it—but we have to scan first, so a fat lot of good that is. We then go back home.

7/6. Junpei reminds us that tomorrow is the full moon boss. We visit the clinic and receive some of Edogawa’s liquid hate, but we refuse to drink it. We take it to Theo, who drinks it even though he can tell it’s probably poisonous. He promises to make a more effective medicine for us later, and gives us a recovery item in the meantime. We also go to Officer Kurosawa for rewards for the people we rescued—a Recarm skill card, 40,000 yen, and some armor. When we return to Edogawa, he’s offended and tosses some actual medicine at us, which we pocket. We spend time with Rio after school.

Rio’s at practice, but she’s...depressed. She heard Kenji and Ms. Kanou when walking by another room, and they ‘seem to be getting along great’. Bleh. She asks hesitantly if we think they’re going to date, remarking correctly that that can’t work out, and he’s being toyed with. Rio’s angry with him for choosing that life, but sounds more like she’s upset he didn’t choose her, which she fesses up to almost immediately, and starts to cry. Rio doesn’t like this side of herself, and hates herself for feeling so upset and resenting him so much. When she asks what’s wrong, we finally smack her with a newspaper and let her know she’s in love with Kenji (pathetic). She doesn’t deny it, but kicks herself for taking so long to realize it. When told it’s not too late, she insists it is, not only because he’s involved with someone else, but because Kenji doesn’t even give her a second glance. We give her a hug, and RANK UP. But, she can’t practice like this, and goes home, letting us know to act like this didn’t happen tomorrow.

That night, Junpei and Akihiko are excited. We take some Yawn-B-Gone, and then study. I suppose we could’ve drank some before talking to Edogawa, but I already saved, so too late.

7/7. We head straight to the dorm after school for Fuuka’s first real experience sensing out Full Moon Shadows, and then get a Dark Hour cut-in. Unlike Mitsuru’s Penthesilea, Lucia is fully capable of sensing things outside of Tartarus.

According to her, the next boss is waiting in a building on Shirakawa Boulevard—two guesses which. The location does not go unnoticed by Ikutsuki, Mitsuru, or Junpei, eyebrows-a-waggling on that last one. Yukari isn’t sure she wants to go, which Junpei teases her about, sparking her fury—she thus wants in on the operation this time.

She also asks who’s taking the lead, and Mitsuru agrees that there’s no real reason to change leaders this far in.

The setup for this operation is kind of special. You only get to choose two, since Yukari insists on coming. You’ll end up with a unique scene later on—it defaults to Akihiko if you’ve got him and Junpei in the group, but you’ll get Junpei if it’s him and Mitsuru. Akihiko and Junpei are equally useful here—both electricity and fire attacks are found in the upcoming battles, although Mitsuru and Yukari are both liabilities due to their weaknesses. We pick Junpei and Mitsuru.

We then head over to Shirakawa Love Hotel, where fun music plays and there is funky lighting. We’re informed that the target is on the third floor, so we head up there, fighting some shadows on the way. Locating the largest room, we enter it, finding the Heirophant sitting inside.

It’s absolutely odd, though more flat-out weird than the derpy-looking Empress and Emperor. Fuuka of course informs us of its Arcana before we fight it.

Arcana Believe It: 20

It’s immune to lightning and has no weaknesses, so we use Rebellion to raise everyone’s—yes, everyone’s, which is a pleasant surprise—critical chance and then beat it up with All-Out Attacks. Since our weapons are so overpowered and I’m so overleveled, the first one promptly takes out most of its health. The Heirophant answers by using “Prophecy of Ruin”, which is a fear skill. This is bad news, since, it being a unique skill, I’m guessing there’s a special dangerous move behind it that affects anyone who’s afraid. Said move is really nasty, but we don’t have to experience it yet here. He goes down quickly enough, and Yukari, Mitsuru, and Junpei level up, Yukari gaining Magaru (finally) and Mitsuru gaining Bufula.

But we’re not done just yet. How do we know? Well, because we passed a lot of doors Fuuka told us to ignore on our way here, and it wouldn’t make sense to put them there if they weren’t important. But that’s not all—we’re also given control after the Heirophant Battle instead of getting a scene wherein we go to the next day, so something’s up.

Junpei, who was all fired up to be important this round, is seemingly angry at himself. When we try the door, it won’t move—we’re locked in. Fuuka chimes in to alarmingly say she senses a shadow in this room, but not the one we just beat. Yet, the room is empty, so where’s it hiding?

Not in the bathroom, I’d say, we can see into those very clearly through the wall-length windows. Well, we investigate things until we find the mirror, and something’s odd—our reflections don’t show up in it. On taking a look, we’re whited out.

???

We appear to be in another room when we wake up. Our mind is foggy, and we don’t remember why we’re here or how we got here. We hear the shower running, until it stops. A weird, shadow-y voice speaks to us. “Embrace your desire”, it says, claiming to be our inner voice and telling us to ‘enjoy the moment’, along with some other complicated stuff about future and fantasy. Pleasure, bliss, it starts to sound a tad lustful.

> Your mind is fraught with temptation…

I should mention that we are given many choices to the tune of ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’. I’ve been agreeing so far, but it doesn’t matter—we’re the hero, after all. We can only proceed once we’ve chosen to resist. Just then, someone comes out of the shower! Is it Yukari or Mitsuru for some fun lesbian action? Nope, they’re in another room with that, and we have Junpei. Again, we do not get to see this in 3D like in vanilla P3, but I won’t complain because these characters are still underage.

He’s…still wearing his hat. It’s backwards. Something is wrong with that picture—turn it back around, dummy. He comes to his senses just before anything eyebrow-waggle-y happens, and the poor boy is very distressed. He does admit to it being “pretty sweet” while blushing, but agrees that he shouldn’t push his luck. Just then, Fuuka rings in, finally able to get through to us. We’ve been separated, with the Shadow interfering with our thoughts—it’s still in the same room we fought the Heirophant in. She tries to contact Junpei, who flirts with us a little before retracting it. According to Fuuka, the Shadow’s power is blanketing the whole building.

Upon being given control, Junpei won’t say much when spoken to. Unless you go back into the room and inspect the bathroom, where he gets annoyed. The mirror holds our reflection now, by the way. We make our way up a floor, where we find Mitsuru and Yukari. When asked how they are, Mitsuru hurriedly says nothing happened, and we’re thus suspicious. It should be noted that the implications of this—lesbian action—were inverted with Junpei and Akihiko in the Male MC route if you chose them, since you default to Yukari, who doesn’t leave your party. Wish I coulda been a fly on that wall.

Our party reunited, Fuuka chimes in to inform us she’s figured it out—it’s the mirrors, and she wants us to try breaking them. We enter a random room, where we find another mirror that shows our reflection, and try breaking it. We’re promptly whited out again and returned to a hotel room alone with Junpei again. Though our mind gets fuzzy, Fuuka puts a stop to it before anything happens.

If I think about what’s happened, the Shadow’s layered a second reality over our own that’s accessible through the mirrors. Breaking one shatters that reality, returning you to the real one. Maybe? It’s fun to think about. We do find a mirror without a reflection, and try breaking that one. This one works, and we weaken whatever seal the Shadow is keeping on the room it’s in. One more should do the trick.

We do so, and enter the furthest room. In it, we find the Lovers Shadow—a colossal gelatinous heart with jelly wings in a spiked golden cage—or, if you prefer, spiked golden bondage gear. Inside are a Mars and Venus symbol floating around—damn heteronormative Shadow. The partner it stuck you with—Junpei in our case—will express their fury.

This Shadow isn’t any harder than the Heirophant. Less so in fact, since it wastes its turns using woefully inaccurate Charm spells. Although if it does charm us, we’ll want Yukari around for it. It does use Maragilao, which is a bit of a bitch on Mitsuru—and us, since we were using King Frost. When it actually does charm someone, it’s Junpei, who can’t heal, so it’s not like it got the best results out of its attacks.

We do want to watch out though—like the Heirophant, this one has a unique follow-up move, called Heartbreaker. It does pretty good damage, and very large damage to anyone inflicted with Charm, and nearly kills him. Fittingly enough, he’s the one who finally slays it, with a critical hit. It gives out a large chunk of EXP, allowing Yukari to learn Media.

With that done, we meet outside the hotel. Congratulations are handed out to Fuuka for helping our fight. Our Fool Link RANKS UP! Akihiko and Mitsuru leave, giving Fuuka an opening to mention to Yukari that she found something out that she’ll share later. Yukari’s happy, and cites that second-years have saved the day this time, although Junpei isn’t quite so bubbly.

This dude is suddenly very pissy, asking us aggressively why we’re ‘trying so hard’.

> “I’m not, though.” (Kinda true, but only because I’m ten levels too high.)
> “Worried about me?” (Doubt it, but I’ll fake it like that.)
> “I’m compensating for you.” (Wow. He deserves it, but that’s dickish.)

Our answer pacifies him a bit, but he’s still sullen. Yukari snips at him, and he storms off, so she wonders what’s ‘up HIS butt’, and I shall refrain from making inappropriate jokes—still underage.

We leave, but our progress has been watched. Evil Shirtless Jesus Lookalike has noise to make, complimenting us on our exterminations, and our progress in Tartarus, so apparently we’ve been under his eye for some time. Emotionless Gothic Lolita does not say anything. He asks Evil Nerd whether we’re enemies, but he, ‘Jin’ just says they should ask their ‘buddy’, who according to ESJL, shares their ‘fate’.

Villainous Cancer: 04

Why? Because when we’re confronted with two huge and indiscriminately hostile monsters, these people actually have to ponder about whether taking it out is a thing that should be allowed to continue. That’s just idiotic, but it’s there so we know they’re eeeeeevil. We might not have picked up on the first hints, I guess. It doesn’t get a Calm Down point, because that actually does let us know something—there’s another member of their group, or at least someone they know in similar circumstances to theirs. Doesn’t mean this scene couldn’t have been cut without getting the same result, though.

7/8. On the way to school, we hear that finals are coming up, and afterwards is summer break and vacations. Finals start next Tuesday, so just under a week. Ms. Toriumi asks us about an incorrect sentence involving a comma splice, the answer to which is obviously the one with the comma in it.

That day, we check Theo’s requests. The new and untaken ones are:

Create Black Frost (we can’t yet).
Buy him a platinum watch.
Get him a Bronze Medal from a golden shadow (we can do that now)
Retrieve the fourth old document.
Get 3 Greasy Gears from Wild Drives.
Get 5 Relic Fragments from Creation Relics.
Find him some funky school music to listen to.
Bring him an Onimaru Kunitsuna sword.
Brind him a Homunculus.
Feed a cat.

We can buy the platinum watch from Kurosawa, so we go do that and bring it back for Mitsuru’s summer outfit. We can’t buy a homunculus due to not having any sapphires, but we can get some in Tartarus. As for the cat food, we buy 5 orders from the pharmacy. Pretty sure you need to feed it multiple times—it’s at the Iwatodai Station outskirts, and we feed it once today. Our next Tartarus visit isn’t due for another damn month, sadly, so we can’t accept any of those. Thankfully, the 8/4 deadline is our only chance to miss them, although the 8/4 due date is pushing it.

We then go to student council. Alarming music is playing when we get there, and Hidan is acting like a smug interrogating asshole, and most confoundingly accusing the (female) council vice president of being the one who was smoking in the boys’ bathroom. Predictably, everyone gets fed up with his crap and leaves. Though we want to tell him to quit being a dick, the ‘right’ response is to agree with him. He is still convinced that any dissent just can’t be helped—blamed on him. RANK UP!

At the dorm, Fuuka and Yukari have to talk, so no Tartarus. Junpei is still a little sore. The incident at the love hotel the night before is on the news. Though it’s true we broke the mirrors, we can’t account for the reports of theft. We head out to play the quiz game at the arcade.

7/9. Mr. Ono talks about the Heian and Kyo eras (I think) which I foolishly skip past before he announces it’ll be on the exam. He then asks us ‘which law served as the foundation for the development of feudalism’, and the answer is the Konden Einen Shizaihou. Junpei is still a dick after class. We feed the cat again, then accept the ‘funky school music’ request from Theo. We find it in the PA room, the ‘Gekkoukan Boogie’, recently discovered by stricken students. He informs us that ‘Gekkou’ means ‘moonlight’—of course it does—and describes its lyrics. He gives us our own summer clothes, telling us not to ask how he got them. It has the same stats as the winter clothes, but this one gives 30 HP instead of 30 SP. We hang out with Saori.

There’s not much traffic today, and Saori’s having fun listening to us chat. A student walks in, and it’s a smug-looking boy. Saori refers to him as Takaoka. He asks her out to karaoke later, and she soooooorta says yes? Almost as if she doesn’t know she’s being asked on a date. They agree to go out after she’s done at the library. We mention that they’re, uh, getting along well, although Saori says she barely knows him. We point out that she’s being a bit of a doormat, and she just laughs. She then gives us a bit of depressing commentary, in that she doesn’t have any opinions of her own and would much rather follow someone else’s lead than take control of her own self, and that if someone needed her, she’d love them with everything she had. She then asks if she’s wrong to think that. While we disagree about being a sheep, we can understand loving someone who’d express needing us. We RANK UP, and she heads off.

That evening at the dorm, Theo calls, letting us know Yabbashah block is now open—though we won’t get to enjoy it for some time. Mitsuru reminds us to study for exams and Junpei is still salty. We head out to the mall and, since we’ll need a Tower Persona soon, get one of those. After that, we spend time with Mr. Tanaka.

Though he valiantly tries to get in the spirit to teach us about swindling, he can’t concentrate. His mind’s on some employee of his, who was doing pretty well. But he didn’t meet his sales quota, so Tanaka docked his pay, resulting in this employee losing confidence and not coming to work. We ask what he’s doing now, not that Tanaka cares—he’s mailed him a dismissal notice and is heavily annoyed about the money wasted training him. All about the money with this guy—which we point out. Tanaka just smiles and says money won’t betray him like Sad-Sack Employee did. He exposits a little about growing up with no money before offering us a position as a model. We RANK UP.

7/10. Edogawa is teaching again, this time about magical medieval Europe. He asks us what the study of Jewish texts is, the answer to which is Kabbalah. We spend time with Akihiko after school.

He takes us to the burger joint, which is unusually crowded. Before Akihiko can comment on it, there’s a shriek from a crying child, who begins wailing to his mother about what he wants. It’s annoying, and we ask Akihiko if we might should go somewhere else, but he doesn’t seem to have even been bothered by it. That kid’s mother gets embarrassed and leaves, and Akihiko smiles and says the kid was full of energy, and that, since he was a child, we shouldn’t hold it against him that he acts like one. Looks like someone’s good with kids.

Man, I wish I could be this tolerant of screaming children. He’s right though. Backstory time!

Tender Feeling plays as Akihiko asks if we think he’s strange. We have the options of, roughly phrased, ‘yah’, ‘nah’, and ‘muah’, the latter being a lovers flag, but as we don’t need it, we pick number 2. Apparently, he’s been told he’s strange before. Way back when, he says, they’d call him strange because he didn’t have parents.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 20

Of course he’s an orphan.

Not only that, but he lived in an orphanage, and morphed into his driven self today to show the bullies how wrong they were. We also learn that he had a sister, who is also long gone.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 21

He remembers that we, too, have no parents, and feels bad.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 22

Akihiko stops mid-backtrack, saying he thinks he told us because we’d understand. Yeah man, that traumatic backstory bonding is what I live for. Well, most of the time. Not this time. RANK UP!

We head back, apparently without eating anything.

At the dorm, nothing happens. We go to Club Escapade to hang out with the monk.

He puts up some weak token resistance against kids in a bar before inviting us to sit down. When grilled on what we’re doing here, we talk back, which impresses him. He mentions though, that there needs to be at least some respect afforded to him, so we ask what we should call him. He introduces himself as Mutatsu, initiating the RANK UP. He sends us off.

On 7/11, Junpei finally decides to try unwedging the stick from betwixt his ass cheeks, awkwardly asking us if we’ve been studying, though it doesn’t last. In class, Mr. Ono is excited to talk about Taira no Masakado—we pay attention this time, because that’s a Persona we can have. We’re asked what title Masakado claimed for himself in the war. The answer is ‘Imperial Prince’, but the other two choices are so blatantly wrong we’d know even without a guide. After class, we get a text from Akihiko—Ikutsuki’s meeting with us tonight. We go feed the cat, then hang out with Maiko. She is crying when we get there.

Sobbing, Maiko mentions her dad, and slams into us for the child-crying-into-stomach routine. She says her dad hit her, and we immediately want to slug the sorry son of a bitch. We agree that that’s mean, and Maiko says that she asked the real reason they were getting a divorce. They told her she was too young to understand, but she kept asking and her dad lashed out, which her mom promptly blamed her for. Distressed, Maiko thinks they don’t love her anymore and wouldn’t even miss her if she was gone, which we respond isn’t true. In a disastrous turn of events (in which we RANK UP anyway), Maiko decides to see if her parents really love her by running away, reasoning that they’ll look for her if they do, and trusts us to keep that a secret.

We go back to the dorm, where the scene starts out with Mitsuru finishing her report of the latest full moon to Ikutsuki. He responds that it’s not all bad news, but before he can continue, Yukari interrupts. She wants to say something before they move on—and that’s to ask what Mitsuru’s been hiding. In a deduction that an eight-year-old could have come to by this point, Yukari reasons that the Dark Hour and Tartarus are connected to the explosive accident ten years ago.

Mitsuru admits that she knows something, and Yukari continues that the large number of students who failed to attend school ten years ago shortly before the explosion all collapsed and had to be hospitalized. She pressures Mitsuru, who says she never tried to hide anything, it just never seemed relevant. She then comes clean about Kirijo’s involvement.

She starts by saying research has postulated that affectation of time and space is among the many abilities of the shadows. Kirijo group was trying to use them and obtain power they shouldn’t have. Fourteen years prior, a man called Kouetsu Kirijo, Mitsuru’s grandfather, became obsessed with this line of thinking and pulled together a research team. During the final stage of the experiment, they lost control of the shadows’ power, causing an explosion, as well as disrupting the entire world’s nature, causing the Dark Hour’s occurrence and the rise of Tartarus.

Mitsuru continues that the giant mass of shadows they’d collected split into several large ones and dispersed, which are the Full Moon Shadows. Tartarus is where they conducted the experiments. The students who collapsed? Just test subjects. Gekkoukan High School was a farm for them.

….And there we have why the Bad Game Design point was awarded earlier. We find out the source of the Full Moon shadows—Kirijo Group’s big ball of them imploding—but as for what they want, why they attack, and even why they actually appear on full moons only is never made clear. What’s more, Kirijo Group was apparently able to obtain shadows before the Dark Hour existed, yet as far as we’re able to observe, they never appear at any other time. Just where did they get them? Their hall closets? They could’ve been confined to the Dark Hour along with Tartarus as a result of the experiment, but that’s never brought up and still doesn’t explain why no one heard of the shadows before then.

Yukari is furious that we’ve been cleaning up Kirijo Group’s sick mess this whole time. Akihiko doesn’t escape her verbal lashings either, being accused of not giving a shit so long as he gets to fight. Mitsuru apologizes for withholding this info, but her top priority was getting more Persona-users into SEES. She insists that only Persona-users can fight the shadows.

….So how did Kirijo Group capture and contain so many of them? Were they all Persona-users? And how did they get that power? How did we?

Never explained. Nor do guns ever stop working on shadows.

Bad Game Design: 29

Ikutsuki mediates, calming Yukari down. He also says that the twelve Full Moon Shadows are the cause of everything, saying Tartarus and the Dark Hour will vanish if they’re defeated, merely saying there’s ‘evidence to support it’. He also wants us to try to reach Tartarus’ peak.

Implications are laid out during the scene, but only after it ends can we talk to Ikutsuki. The details are as follows: there really was a big ball of shadows, far stronger than any of the twelve. The public was vicious on the Kirijo Group and one man in particular, which Ikutsuki refers to as a ‘victim’ despite him being a heartless experimenter—also, Mitsuru was one of the experimented. That being how she got her Persona.

Alright, back to the game. Or not, since it’s about time we ended the post. Next time, we’ll do finals, go on vacation, and meet one of the more infuriating characters.

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