surgeworks

28 – Finale Part III | Table of Contents | 30 – The Answer 1
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Alternate Title: The End

Chris: The calendar is shown skipping forward to March 3^rd, Memories of the School being replaced by Time, the theme that played at the school in beginning of the game.

Junpei walks up to greet us. It’s still pretty cold, but we’re on time as ever. The year’s nearly over, he says, and we’re practically seniors now. Just one more year of high school, and he wonders if anything interesting will happen.

> “I’m sure it will.”
> “Probably not.”

He hopes so, he says. But, looking at the current seniors makes him apprehensive; it seems like all they ever do is study. He wonders if that’ll be us next year, too, and he mentions he feels like he’s forgetting something.

…?

Tristram: Hoo boy, here we go… I have a lot to say about this final little plot ‘twist’ but it can wait until a better moment.

Empyrea: Then I’ll start and say that this short part where they forget the year they’ve been through together always struck me as kind of...an odd choice. It just felt kind of tacked on. But I will admit part of this is probably because Persona 2 used a similar thing.

Chris: There’s a girl looking at us, he notices. Blond, blue-eyed, cute. He wonders why he never noticed her before. Yukari strolls up in time to comment that she lives in the same dorm as us. He’s stunned, and asks her name, but she doesn’t know, to which he responds by asking why she’s giving him a hard time. Then he waves it all off as the crazy time of year where traffic in and out of the dorms is on the rise. He asks if she heard the news—Akihiko’s moving out. Yukari says she knows who he is, but hasn’t really talked to him.

……?

She remarks that Mitsuru (“Kirijo-senpai”) is graduating and moving out, too. Her living there is also news to Junpei. Yukari’s attention is drawn towards the girl from before, and she calls out to her, hesitantly asking if something’s wrong. The girl awkwardly answers that nothing is wrong before running off in a hurry. Junpei remarks that she looks depressed, and then perks up as he wonders if she’s interested in him. Yukari shuts him down.

………Whoa.

Junpei tries to bring her attention to something, but says “nevermind” before he can say what it is that’s bothering him. She presses him, and he asks if she remembers how they became friends. She doesn’t really have an answer—it’s not like they’re best friends or anything, so it just…kind of happened? Junpei agrees, but she does say that it’s weird now that she thinks about it. She doesn’t know why, though. She tries to talk about that girl that went off, but the first bell rings, and they’ve gotta run.

> The days go by peacefully, without incident.

We’re given control, and we talk to Junpei, who offers to take us to Hagakure Ramen and makes me fear that I’ve started something I shouldn’t have without saving. Memories of the School starts up again as he says he never imagined he’d become such good friends with us when we first transferred here. Says he thought girls were a special kind of being or something.

Empyrea: Thanks for reminding me why I didn’t like you so much, Junpei.

He says he wanted us to rely on him, and he tried to act cool, and we understood him even when he didn’t know how to explain himself. He says he understands us now too, and wants us to let him know if we’re ever going through hard times. He’ll always “rush to our rescue” even if we’re in different classes come senior year. Guess he remembers something vague about our year together. He gets a sly smile on his face, saying that apparently all the new teachers arriving in April are female. Apparently, Kenji was so excited about it that Junpei couldn’t stand being around him. Well, that doesn’t matter to him—he’s got a girl he cares about.

…?

Tristram: They just couldn’t let us have one last nice friendly conversation with Junpei, could they? They had to keep dragging attention back to Chidori and their not-even-remotely-romantic ‘romance’. I’m not even angry any more, just disgusted.

It really took them all the way to Persona 5 to perfect the ‘kinda stupid but amazing best friend’ trope. Which is ridiculous when you think about how well the original Persona managed to bring life to their characters whilst having the bare minimum of time to develop them.

Empyrea: As someone who had played Persona 1, that gives me mixed feelings. I mean, come on, change of directors aside, how did that happen? Still, I’d argue that what I saw of Ryuji wasn’t all that good, but I do agree he’s better than his predecessors.

Chris: As if to calm our raised eyebrow, he asks himself, confused, if it’s not us—he did have someone else, didn’t he? He quickly covers himself and insists he’s not lying, he has a girl. But he’s still confused. He then wonders if he’s forgetting something really important, and his mood gets too down to take us for ramen.

Damn it.

We talk to Yukari next, who wants to take us up to the roof, where in contrast to Junpei and the guys, upbeat music plays. She has a favor to ask, though she’s embarrassed about it. She wants us to...meet her mom? She just promised to visit her, but she’s still nervous. She’s afraid that even if she does see her, she might end up saying something nasty and end up hurting her. So, she’d like us to be there with her to do it.

“I want to tell her that you’re… my best friend…”

*raised eyebrow* hello, transplanted text. But hey, we’re game. Anything to help. The arrangement’s made for spring break, and she wonders what new students might room in the dorm with us. After all, we never interacted all that much with Akihiko and Mitsuru, right? She runs off.

Tristram: For all that I dislike Yukari in general, and want to explode over some top-grade stupid they make her do in The Answer, this scene is really sweet. She’s starting to move on again after a long period of clinging to her trauma, and she trusts us enough to help her make it happen.

Empyrea: I like this better in the FeMC version, but they definitely should’ve changed it up a bit. That said, this part is why I’m more forgiving of Yukari in the Answer than other people. See, I always viewed this as her not really moving on but changing her safety net. Not short after she started moving past one trauma with the MC’s help, another has to suddenly hit her. That couldn’t be easy for anyone, especially just a year after the fact.

Chris: We talk to Akihiko next. Memories of the School starts up again as he takes us (no intro text either, we’re just there—damn boi) to the school garden with the persimmon tree. He says it’s been a while since he last saw us at school like this.

> “You’re right.”
> “What’re you doing here?”

Nothing much he says, just taking one of his last chances to look around the school.

“It might’ve felt like forever at the time, but now it seems that those years went by in a flash…”

All he did was box for three years. As if realizing how odd that sounds, something comes over him and he asks himself if that’s really all he did. After a minute, he says no, and he remembers that we had some good times together. He says that he’s going to leave the dorm soon, but it won’t change that he’ll always be our “senpai”. And if anything happens to us, he wants a call—he’ll race to our side. But, something is still making him uneasy. He asks if we remember Shinji.

Shinjiro: You damn well better remember me. Aki, get your shit together!

Chris: He was supposed to graduate with Akihiko, but then that “incident” happened. Imagine what you’d have looked like getting your cap and gown, Shinji.

Shinjiro: *bluntly* I regret missing the experience, but I’m pretty happy with the way I’m finishing my classes. It’s embarrassing, finishing high school for my diploma by screenshare.

Tristram: It could be a lot worse; the education board of my state back in the early 2000s put me through some real hell because god forbid someone need to be hospitalized right before final exams. Don’t worry, I know who put them up to it and she paid for her bullshit.

Empyrea: Good for you; sucks for her. And she deserved it!

Chris: Akihiko says he still can’t force himself to accept what happened to him, even to this day, and lets us be.

We talk to Mitsuru next, who drags us to the student council room to discuss “business” with upbeat music. Typical of her, she wants to discuss exams and exam results. And this spring, she’ll officially be a university student. So, this will be her last chance to see the school like this. She doesn’t have much time today, she says, as the members of the family are gathering for a briefing session. Despite the Kirijo Group looking strong at the moment, the reality is that it’s precarious and it could all collapse on them at any moment. She seems tired as she thinks about this.

> “Don’t work too much…”
> “Any way I can help?”

As a matter of fact, there is, and it’s something only we can do. Who else is going to help her relax when she inevitably exhausts herself?

Soon, she’ll be leaving the dorm. She’s been packing up her things, and everything she touches has memories attached: a book, a picture, a piece of clothing, and so forth. Her senior year went by so quickly, despite being so full, once we arrived, and she wonders what would’ve become of her without us strolling along. Would she have accepted that marriage with that colossal dickhead? Or would she have driven away on her motorcycle and never come back? But, no use dwelling on it. She’s got work to do. And she’s going to put forth 100%, just like she said she would. She invites us to visit the Kirijo head family sometime for tea. Hey, our relationship doesn’t end just because of graduation, right? Then, it’s almost time for her to leave. She’ll be too late getting back to the dorm tonight to visit with us, but maybe this weekend? She says her goodbyes and leaves.

Shinjiro: You know, before we move on to the next visit, is there any way to tell if you remember anything?

Chris: Apparently, we don’t, since bringing up the pause screen just takes us to the options, without any hint of any Personas or items.

Tristram: Feels like a good point to bring up my first of two major, major gripes with this ending! Everyone forgetting was what Ryoji promised us would happen if we didn’t fight Nyx! We would forget, and carry on, and when the final day came everyone would just stop. But we fought Nyx, and we kicked her ass, and we did what needed doing, and somehow that… means everyone loses their memory anyway? Even after everything we did? Even though we were the entire flippin’ Universe for a minute there, never mind how fucking stupid that was! We controlled reality! We would never want this to happen!

Man, fuck this game. How the hell did I decide to keep playing this series after this mess?

Empyrea: Actually, us forgetting is what he promised would happen if we kill him. Checks out to me, ‘cause Nyx never manifested, not quite. Yukari even made a point to call out that Nyx Avatar looked like Ryoji and he confirmed that somewhat. So, yeah, we still killed Ryoji, more or less.

Chris: Try and power through, Tris, we’re almost done. We talk to Fuuka next. She has something to ask us, and takes us to the faculty office hallway. Mr. Ekoda is there, and asks what she’s doing outside the office, and she stammers as she says she wants to start a tech club. He groans and asks why she’s so troublesome, the dick. It’s already March, can’t she at least wait until April? She says she really wants to start it right now, and she’ll do her best to find members, but he raises an eyebrow that she doesn’t even have any yet and says that it’s thus not worth discussing. You need at least five members to start a club.

…? Didn’t this chick just start the cooking club on her own? I don’t remember seeing any other members in there.

Tristram: EXCUSE ME HOW IS THIS MAN STILL A TEACHER?! This is the fucker who tried to cover up Fuuka’s disappearance because it would make the school look bad! I legit forgot he turned up again here and now I’m raging all over again!

Empyrea: In light of Persona 5, at least he’s not Kamoshida. That doesn’t make his attempt to cover up Fuuka’s disappearance any less infuriating, though. And well, she answers that in a sec—

Chris: He walks off, leaving her disappointed. She could just make it an unauthorized club—like the cooking club, she says, answering my question—and asks if we’d join. Hell yeah!

Empyrea: Yup, there it is.

Chris: She’s happy to hear it, and talks about how she used to hide how much she loved electronics, since it felt strange with her being a girl and all, but she brings up those headphones we’re wearing, and says how happy it made her to make them. And she wants to make everyone happy with the things she makes, this time with things she’s definitely great at making. Then, she pauses. She kept saying “everyone”, but who was she really talking about? Her mind can’t remember their faces, even though thinking about them makes her feel warm and fuzzy. She dismisses it, though, and says we’re welcome to come to both cooking club and tech club next year, and for now, she has to go find members and put up posters, so she takes her leave.

We check the entrance to the school, and Ken’s waiting for us. He says it was kind of weird coming to the high school campus alone. He came to drop off something that Akihiko forgot, but he’s glad he found us. According to him, Akihiko might not look it, but he can be forgetful sometimes. On that note, he asks if we remember someone named Shinjiro, who stayed at our dorm for a little while. He never had a chance to talk with him, he says, but every time he thinks about him, he feels pain and sadness, and something else, something important missing. He feels like he needs to do something, but he doesn’t know what. He dismisses this though, and asks if we want to do anything over spring break. It’s been a while since he could enjoy one, and he tells us, as if it’s the first time, that his mom died in an accident. But he won’t cry anymore, since he has us. He thanks us for not treating him like a kid, and for enabling him to live with his head held high. Now awkward, he runs off.

Tristram: Y’know, if he wasn’t a damned romance option, I’d say Ken really got a good boost to his character in this version of the game. Which should tell you how absolutely two-dimensional he is in the male storyline, yeesh.

Empyrea: P4U apparently improved him, but from what I can see, it’s more on the physical department, heh.

Chris: I’m not so impressed either way, to be honest.

We find Hidetoshi while walking out into the hall. He says he’s going to quit the student council, in that he just won’t apply next year. That cigarette business gave him a lot to think about, but rather than quitting in disgrace, he wants to think about the country and its direction. In fact, he wants to become a teacher! He waits for us to laugh, but we don’t. He says he’ll do his best, and thanks us for the help along the way. He has something else to tell us, but can’t bring himself to do it, and says he’ll tell us one day when he’s more “worthy”. He lets on that even he didn’t know what the real meaning behind it was when he said he’d protect us, hinting that he’s gone and fallen. He says goodbye after.

Tristram: I’m gonna say it, and y’all can laugh, I don’t care. Hidetoshi is tied with Bebe and Akinari for my favourite Social Link in the game. I’ve written fanfics where he’s a teacher who specializes in helping teens who’d otherwise be fucked over by the system not being made for people who aren’t neurotypical.

Empyrea: No laughing here. We’re pretty much in the same boat and all. But, eh, I don’t trust Atlus in the slightest to pull off something like that thing with Hidetoshi. I mean, look at Persona 5. That sounds like a really heartwarming premise for a fic, though!

Chris: Up near the clubs, we find Mr. Ono. He has a letter for us from Andre Laurent Jean Geraux, aka Bebe.

Tristram: Speaking of Bebe!

Chris: We go up to the roof to read it.

“ ‘ello, Chris-sama. Zis eez Bebe.”

> Bebe’s halting words line the pages…
> You can picture Bebe’s smiling face…

Hard not to when he somehow wrote his own speaking accent into hiragana! But continuing:

“Ze kanji eez difficult for me, so I’m sorry zis eez all in ze ‘iragana. I learned a lot in Japan, but Bebe eez still not zat good. I write zis with a dictionary. Bebe showed Uncle ze kimono. ‘E ‘ad much praise for it. ‘E say zat Japan eez a great country. Bebe eez so ‘appy to ‘ear zis. So I tell Uncle zat I want to go back to ze Japan. I tell ‘im many times. He say, ‘Okay!’”

> You can sense Bebe’s joy through his words…

“But Bebe decided not to go back. I’m sorry, Chris-sama. I said I’d come back, but zis is a lie. Bebe didn’t know. My aunt wasn’t ze only one who ‘elped me study abroad. Uncle, relatives, neighbors… many people ‘elped. Zey all wanted me to go back. Zey said, ‘We will pay for it’. But my uncle is sad zat my aunt died. Bebe cannot enjoy Japan while Uncle is in grief. Bebe cannot take everyone’s money for ‘is own fun. Learning about Japan can be done in France, too. Zat’s why Bebe will stay in France. When Bebe is strong enough on ‘is own, zen I will come to Japan again.”

> Bebe’s handwriting has left an impression on the paper. He seems very determined…

“Bebe zought about ‘ow fun it is to make clothes with Chris-sama, and entered ze school of fashion. I made a clothes for ze school contest. Bebe won first prize! I named zese clothes that won first place. Chris… A very wonderful name. It eez a name Bebe likes. Japan and France, Chris-sama and Bebe. Zey are far apart. But I will always be close. Even if you can’t see me, zat will not change. Every day was fun. A lot. Even if you do bad zings, even if you become famous, even if you get married… my feelings, zey do not change. Bebe will always love Chris-sama. Aishiteru.

To my dear Chris-sama.

Bebe.”

> The words near the end are smeared…

*tearing up* Awwwww.

Tristram: *holds out a box of tissues* Bebe is perfect. This letter is perfect. I love him so much.

Empyrea: *grabs a tissue* Shoot, man... I forgot how touching that letter was.

Chris: We talk to Rio next. She takes us to the gym, where she is the first girl so far for whom Memories of the School plays, and where she stares at the volleyball court nostalgically. She says that she didn’t have any fun on the team before we arrived, and that the game was painful and she tended to blame the other team members when things didn’t go her way. She resented everyone for what she perceived as pulling her down, but what was really her own failures. But now, it’s different—she has a goal, and she can enjoy getting there. No longer is volleyball something to occupy her time—when career counseling came up, she proudly said she wants it to be her way into college. She wants to get a 4-year scholarship, and play after she graduates. She could even go to the Olympics. Well, she didn’t say that part to the counselor, but she was thinking it. In the past, she’d have rathered not have a dream at all than have one that’ll fall through in the end, but she’s not afraid of that anymore. She learned how to be strong and seek out what she wants, and for that she thanks us. She also wanted to tell us this before she left, since she’ll be leaving for a college training camp soon. We wish her luck, and she’s on her way.

Tristram: Oh Rio… You had so much potential. It’s just a pity that it feels a whole lot like they didn’t know what to do with you so defaulted to ‘bossy and can’t do romance’.

Empyrea: I haven’t played P3P in a good long while, and I do not remember her at all. Take that how you will.

Chris: Before we leave school, we talk to one innocuous girl in homeroom.

“Did you hear? Y’know, about Shinjiro-senpai! That guy who got caught up in some kind of shooting… He’s been in a coma for months! I heard he woke up! Oh gawd, what if he comes back to school…? I’m scared!”

Shinjiro: *insulted* Well, fuck you, too.

Tristram: Seriously, what an asshole! You want me to dump a bucket of ice water on her, Shinji?

Empyrea: It’s okay, it’s just a nameless NPC, Shinji. On the bright side, at least you actually survived here.

Chris:

> “Tell me more!”
> “Is that true!?”

She heard it from a doctor at her hospital. According to him, something in his breast pocket absorbed a bullet, and that’s what saved him. But, it’ll be a while before he gets out, though, being weak after such a long sleep.

Shinjiro: *waves from the hospital bed he’s still in* Of course, you knew this for a while. Still though, nice to hear it out loud.

Chris:

> ……
> Shinjiro-senpai is…!

With nothing else to check at school, we head over to the Paulownia Mall, and of course the first thing we check is the back alley with the blue glow. But the blue glow is just from a lamp now, and there’s no blue door awaiting us. Just a blank wall.

Tristram: Not being able to see Theo again (or Elizabeth if you’re playing Minato) really hits harder then you’d think. They’ve been a rock through the whole game and suddenly they’re just. Gone.

Having said which, later games and spin-offs have made it canon that they left the Velvet Room to find a way to help you so at least we eventually got some closure on that one.

Chris: Attempting to go to Shinshoudo Antiques, the pharmacy, or the police station just tells us there’s nothing to do there. The healing meditative shop is closed today. Chagall Cafe is too crowded right now, as is Mandragora’s karaoke bar. We can’t play the game either. However, we do hear from the gossiping hens about how the Nyxist cult is gone, as are all traces of Apathy Syndrome. We also find the bartender of Club Escapade standing outside his premises.

He recognizes us as the girl who used to talk to the monk upstairs. Mutatsu called the place earlier trying to reach us, and Mr. Bartender passes on a message he had for us. Not wanting to rely on memory, he wrote it down, and goes into the bar to get it for us. Mutatsu said:

“I found my wife and son. My son’s a good-for-nothing punk, and my wife is frigid as usual… That witch… What? Hey, shut up! I’m on the phone! A lot’s happened, but I apologized a thousand times, and everything’s back to normal now. I guess you could say we’re back in love with each other. I realized… Rather than holding onto my pride… I needed to suck it up and apologize. Thanks to you, Chris… Take care, kid. ‘Til we meet again.”

That’s quite a long and precise transcript you wrote, Mr. Bartender. He reports that no contact info was left, but he’s sure we’ll meet Mutatsu again soon. He invites us to stop by for a drink sometime once we’re twenty-one.

Tristram: Mutatsu, you were kind of a giant tool, but I’m glad you’re getting your life together. I hope you and your wife have happy lives.

Empyrea: Now this dude, I remember. And like Tris, I hope he’s doing well with his family.

Chris: That, and there’s a regular who was hanging around who apparently wants to talk to someone. So, we go in, and find the only person there sitting over a drink.

> A man in his thirties is drinking by himself.

“Hm…? Lookin’ for someone to chat with? Alright, tell me.. have you ever had a dream where you’re falling?”

We say we don’t know.

(this and the next picture taken from Fienne, as Chris Caine did not play this conversation)

“Well, most dreams you forget once you wake up. The thing is… I heard a rumor that if you don’t wake up before you hit bottom, you die…”

He continues on like that for a while, apologizing for talking too much about spooky rumors. He comments on us and our young life, and love life, saying he envies us. He’s got a girlfriend, he says, but he’s “screwed” if things keep going the way they are. He ain’t the marrying kind. Then he admits that he cheated on her. And may have made someone pregnant. He asks if it’s an unforgivable sin to cheat on someone, or just human nature.

Again, we say we don’t know. He continues on like that, apologizing again and contemplating life when he was young versus life now.

This isn’t a Social Link person, despite him talking for quite a bit longer than some. He doesn’t have a portrait this time, (well, he didn’t when I played it just now, but reportedly he did for others), and he was an early-bird cameo of Vincent, protagonist of Catherine, a game by the Persona team (that is to say, Hashino) that came out after this one. Considering what I know of it…yikes.

Tristram: Oh boy, Catherine. Let me tell you, finding that asshole in the game did not improve my overall feelings. Long story short, in the original release you:

stay loyal to your girlfriend but fuck up and she leaves you (and becomes successful and happy thank god)
stay loyal to your girlfriend and marry her even though you don’t want to
cheat on your girlfriend and get cursed for all eternity
cheat on your girlfriend and become a demon (no seriously)

And then the ‘Full Body’ release added a trans girl third option who turns out to be, no fucking joke, an angel whose body is piloted by a multitude of tiny green aliens.

Oh yes and the whole thing was written by the same Hashino who gave us this clusterfuck, and no I have not and am never going to forgive him for being a sexist transphobic PIG!

Empyrea: In short, this dude friggin’ sucks and they should find someone else to write their games.

Chris: Hashino’s a sexist and basic as hell, to give the most gentle summary. There’s nothing else for us in the mall or the station, so we head to the strip mall. Bunkichi and Mitsuko are hanging around outside. They’re cheerful, saying we’ve grown over the last year, and Bunkichi’s thinking about having Bookworms remodeled. There’s also news about the persimmon tree-rather than cut it down, the school’s decided to have it moved to another field, and replanted on a hill where the whole campus can be seen. Mitsuko is delighted that her son can still watch over the school and its students. He lets slip that she couldn’t stop crying when she heard. They intend to support Gekkoukan and its students however they can, and tell us to take care.

We don’t find Koromaru until we head to the shrine, naturally. He nuzzles us with his nose, and we pet him. We sit for a while with him, as he doesn’t seem to want to move from the shrine.

Tristram: Best dog, Koro-chan. Best dog, goodest boy.

Chris: Also, there is a man next to the jungle gym. He gets a portrait when we speak to him, revealing himself as Maiko’s dad. He recognizes us, and introduces himself. He awkwardly asks us to walk with him for takoyaki, and we go with him. It’s a bit odd with him talking normally, despite his one and only portrait being the one from the very...distressed search scene from his daughter’s Social Link, but we’ll ignore it.

When he sees this place, he remembers all the times he came here with Maiko, and it’s also the place she fled to when running away from home. She’s a good daughter, such a great child he sometimes wonders if she’s his—in a ‘man, my kid is so great’ way, not a ‘did my wife cheat on me’ way. He got a letter from her, in which she talks about her new life with her mom, and says she’s made a lot of friends. Details include: she’s in charge of the rabbits at her new school, and has to get up early to clean their cages; they yelled at her for forgetting her P.E. uniform (dude, she’s like seven or eight! She can’t seriously be required to wear a uniform in P.E. already, right?); she forgot her homework and had to copy a friend’s, causing him to comment on her forgetfulness.

“Oh, and she did so well at her recorder test, that she was asked to perform in front of everyone.”

She goes on to say how she plays at the park right by the school each day with her friends, and how her mom is doing well. They’re having a lot of fun. He seems a little down as he notes that having fun “sounds nice”. He comes home to a big empty house each day now, and the rooms seem too big without them. Yep, that’s divorce for ya. He wonders if his daughter feels the same way about their house, sans a dad. He regrets putting his kid through so much over his own problems, and feels terrible. Of course, we’re in the letter too, and he notes that she seems very fond of us.

“I love Chris. I hope we can become family for real.”

Maiko’s dad seems uneasy, and hesitantly stammers out…a request for a date. *dryly* Damn, the things a guy will do for his kid, I suppose. He specifies that it’d only be after we were eighteen, of course (fucking thank you for that much at least, Atlus, but that’s still gross). He quickly gets more embarrassed than he can handle and tells us to forget what he said before running off.

Tristram: Seriously, it’s literally the end of the game and Hashino keeps being gross. Fuck’s sake, buddy, we’re friends with your child!

Empyrea: Incidentally, if you’re playing as the male MC, Maiko instead says she wants to marry you. The dad then says something along the lines of not letting you marry his kid that easy. He does add it’s in the future, but yeeesh. Maiko, I understand, but no wonder Maiko’s mom divorced this dude.

Chris: The last person at the shrine is a middle-aged lady who we haven’t seen before, but who has a portrait.

She asks if there’s any chance our name is Chris, and indeed it is. She introduces herself as Akinari’s mother, Mrs. Kamiki, and asks us to sit down for a minute to talk. Today is a special day, she says. Living with Determination starts up, and she calls it quite the coincidence to see us today. Today, you see, is Akinari’s birthday. He’d be 20 if he was still around.

“Only nineteen years… It wasn’t long enough.”

He was almost an adult, but never made it there. She herself is greatly healthy, but the doctors detected his genetic disease at his birth, and knew he wouldn’t last. Every day, she’d wonder if he’d still be around tomorrow, and blamed herself for what he inherited. But he said something to her, near the end.

“ ‘I’m sorry to have brought so much pain into your life, Mother. I’m glad to have been given life. I’m glad to have been your son. Thank you so much for the life you have given me…’ ”

She’s in awe that he suffered so much, and yet said that to her. But her son brought her a lot of joy, too.

“Holding his warm body in my arms just after he was born… Those tiny hands… That first smile… Hearing him breathe easily at night… Every day I gave thanks for him being alive… Every day, I found new joy in him.”

And now, she’s alone, with nothing she can do. But he gave her so much. So much, in fact, that she feels she has to keep on going, and looking straight ahead. She’s going to live her life for him, and do all the things that he could never do. She wants to have so many stories to tell him, about all that she’s done and experienced.

“On that day… when we meet again, on the other side. If I didn’t have that to look forward to… I don’t know how I could go on.”

That reminds her that when her son’s condition worsened, he started writing a “fable”. But she never found his notebook when cleaning out his room. She recalls that he’d said he was going to show it to us first, when he finished. She asked why not her first, and he just laughed and said she’d be second. She thinks that he must not have been able to finish the story.

We correct her, saying that it was finished and that he gave the notebook to us.

> You explained how you received the notebook from Akinari, and that you heard the entire story from him…

She says that that was her only regret, and that it was awful to think that he hadn’t been able to finish it. However, she wants us to hold onto the notebook, saying it’s what Akinari would’ve wanted. She’ll wait for him to tell it to her himself, when she sees him again. Hey, another thing to look forward to.

> Mrs. Kamiki stood up quietly…

She’s glad we were finally able to meet, and thanks us. She gives us one piece of advice, from an old lady to a young one, which is to take care of the ones dearest to us. If we wait until their time has come, and we’re clinging to their cold bodies, she says, then it’s too late. Everyone who’s born will die someday.

(I mean, I’m not mad at it, but I still have to give it this…)

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 85

It doesn’t take a grand gesture, she says, no big production. Just, if you love someone, let them know it.

“We all go through life with the same struggles, the same heartbreak… We should be able to prop each other up with the same love and kindness as well… I’m sure you have something precious you can share with people… Always remember that…”

> Mrs. Kamiki left without looking back…

Shinjiro: *looking away to hide his tears*

Chris: *openly crying*

Well damn Atlus, you didn’t have to spring that on me.

Tristram: *straight up sobbing* According to Persona 4 and 5, at some point Akinari’s mother did get the notebook because the fable of the pink alligator is a very popular children’s book.

Why couldn’t all the writing in this game be this good?!

Empyrea: Because a broken clock is only correct twice a day? *goes into a moment of silence for Akinari*

Chris: Only one place left to go, and that’s the dorm. We go in, and are immediately greeted with a scene telling us about a newscast. It’s a special report on the Amazing Commodities Corp., of the “Tanaka’s Amazing Commodities” program. Apparently, Mr. Tanaka’s failed to account for some expenditures and it’s cost him some unpleasant media attention. The newscast goes live to a field reporter in the head office, who is one of many journalists gathered there. Apparently, Tanaka’s going to be coming out soon to make a statement.

The unaccounted expenditure sparked a huge look into the finances, and some are speculating about tax evasion. A commentator derides that that much is hardly a question—it is Tanaka they’re talking about, and he goes into how Tanaka would do terrible things for money, has never given a dime to charity, and is truly a man of greed no matter how rich he gets. The newscaster is a bit taken aback by all the vitriol, saying he’s surely not all that bad, and something happens on the scene. President Tanaka’s come out, so they switch back to the field reporter.

Tanaka has a microphone, and starts singing his own damn commercial jingle.

“Hiii, everyone! Amazing Commodities is here for you year-round, rain or shine! We have a monopoly on the cheapest, highest-quality goods! Our customers’ ecstatic screams cause noise pollution! Our stocks rise so high they’re a hazard to birds, and we make losers every day out of people who don’t buy! We’re the only miracle left in this sad, desolate world! That’s the Amazing Commodities guarantee! We look forward to your business!”

Then he gets in his car and drives off.

Tristram: He’s a scumbag but this is absolutely hilarious.

Chris: The commentator berates the field reporter for being too stunned to get a comment or question in, but the newscaster interrupts, as they’ve got a fax coming in. One from President Tanaka himself, as it happens. It reads like so:

“Hiii! This is Tanaka, the best friend your pocketbook ever had! And what’s in my pocketbook is my own business. It’s not my company’s money—so what’s it to them how I use it? But let me make one thing clear: I’m not ashamed of a single thing! My conscience is clear, dear viewers—so buy my products, guilt-free! Amazing Commodities, here for you year-round, rain or shine! Buy now or drown in bitter tears! Bye-bye!”

The newscaster, left equally stunned, concludes that he never had any intention of fessing up his use of funds. The commentator bitterly accuses him of toying with the common man’s emotions, but before he can get into too much of a rant, the newscaster runs roughshod over him and ends the special report with the hand-wave that they can only hope the funds went to humanitarian purposes. Over in the stock market report, guess who’s skyrocketing on the events that just played out?

Shinjiro: A Musk he was not after all, huh?

Chris: …unrealistic, but true.

Shinjiro: It’s gotta be said that that’s a badass way to go out. Even if he’s covering up the whole charity donation, at least he’s proud of it now instead of ashamed of it like he was at the end of the Link.

Tristram: He still has the Tanaka’s Amazing Commodities tv show in Persona 4, and in Persona 5 the company’s gone online and dubiously legal.

Empyrea: I really wish they just changed it because that just makes it feel like the Social Link didn’t happen.

Chris:

> All is quiet.
> It doesn’t seem like the others have returned yet.
> They all must be enjoying the peaceful evening…
> …
> …Even though you’ve just returned from school…
> …you are feeling very tired.
> You should go to sleep early tonight.

Not much else we can do. Trying to leave the dorm just reiterates that, and no one else is here to talk to. There’s not even any music. We go to bed early.

3/4. But, there’s nothing new, and we’ve already talked to everyone we can talk to, so… early bed again. When we get to the dorm, there’s a reminder that Senior Graduation Day is tomorrow, but for now, we can barely keep our eyes open and are exhausted.

Shinjiro: *uneasy*

Chris: Bed it is.

3/5. It’s Senior Graduation Day, and we wake up in our room. There’s a knock on the door, and Aigis asks to come in. She says she’s so happy to see us again, though she’s sorry to show up so suddenly. She really needs to talk to us.

Tristram: *slow, deep breaths* Here we go. The ultimate insult to everyone who played this game (that isn’t The Answer) begins.

Empyrea: *grabs popcorn*

> “Talk about what?” (Who are you and why are you in my room? Tempting, but…)
> “Me too.” (Let’s not bother.)

Chris: She remembers everything, despite everyone else forgetting. It seems the victory over Nyx really did wipe out our memories.

> “I’m glad you remember.” (I mean, I guess.)
> “Don’t cry.” (I don’t need a reminder.)

She was afraid that, upon her remembering, we might be whisked away somewhere, like at the last battle.

> “Don’t worry.” (I ain’t no liar.)
> “……” (Welp.)

She also remembers that Graduation Day is today. Woops though, the ceremony’s already begun. She says the weather outside is nice, and asks if we remember the promise we made. We need to go there and wait for the others. We can enjoy the view of the peaceful city.

> Meanwhile, Gekkoukan High School auditorium…

The goodbyes to and from the seniors are being said. The valedictorian—Mitsuru, of course—is due to give a speech. She gets up on the podium and calls back to when she was there at the beginning of the year, and talked about seizing opportunities. Now, with her father having passed away due to sudden illness…

…Sudden illness?

Mitsuru stops midway into her speech, crowd members noting how odd that is. And then it happens.

Akihiko stands up in the crowd, and it’s all coming back to him. Yukari, too, is suddenly remembering. Fuuka and Junpei follow suit, and back on stage, Mitsuru says out loud that she remembers. She says that upon her father’s death, she was set adrift in life, but she has no intention of running any longer. She’s going to face the future head on, in memory of her father’s will. She calls herself resolved and free from doubt and hesitation, because…

…because she has such amazing friends. The others of SEES brighten up, and she continues with her speech, saying we swore to each other to never lose hope, no matter what tomorrow would bring. Then she leaps off the damn stage, running to join those friends.

Tristram: Fuck yeah, Mitsuru.

Empyrea: Best girl forever!

Shinji: *mouth held open, but closes it and smiles* Takeba joins her and says that they remember everything, and Mitsuru runs off with them. A faculty member tries to stop them, sayin’ they’re in the middle of the ceremony, but they don’t pay him any mind.

Chris: Memories of the School is playing, this time without accompanying drum beats.

> Meanwhile, on the roof of the high school…
> The warm sunlight and gentle wind feels good on your resting body…
> Aigis is sitting close to where you’re lying…

“The wind feels so nice. This is my first time experiencing spring. But, this season will eventually pass… After fighting alongside you, and facing the world’s end… I finally began to understand…what it means to live…”

How profound.

Tristram: Oh piss off, Aigis. You have changed, yeah, but you’re still an intolerable pain in my ass.

Empyrea: And this turns out she doesn’t quite understand yet. That’s not until the end of the Answer. Like with Yukari, Aigis’ resolution here is dependent on the MC.

“Thinking for yourself… Not running away… Accepting the inevitable… All things eventually come to an end… Every living thing will one day disappear… Only by accepting this can one discover what they truly want… What the meaning of their life will be…”

Chris: Please stop hurting those ellipses like that.

“I understand now why I was so tormented by my lack of strength. Protecting others became more than just an order I had to obey. I wanted to do it for my own reasons… I realized this once I decided to try and prevent the Fall. When I thought I might never see you again, something else became clear to me—what I wanted most.”

Thank you.

“And so, I made up my mind. I decided that I would continue to protect you. I want to be your strength. I know I’m not the only one who can do this… but that’s okay.”

You’re also not the only one we could be spending our final moments of life with.

Tristram: *turning red*

Empyrea: *pats Tris on the back, to no effect*

“My life will be worth living if it’s for this reason… Thank you…”

Chris: Her voice sounds so very human, complete with sobs and breathy human noises.

> “Don’t cry.”
> “It’ll be okay.”

“You’re right. What am I doing? I understand now, so I should be happy…”

Just then, we hear a familiar voice ring out. Junpei has arrived, and Aigis turns to him and everyone else. She says to us that she’s realized she has friends as well. She also says that we don’t have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of. And she’s going to keep on living, so that she can protect us.

> Aigis is smiling gently…
> The gentle spring sunlight warms your body.
> The cheering you hear from afar, the slightly chill wind…
> This is the world you and your friends protected…
> You feel a little sleepy…

“Thank you for everything… You are tired, aren’t you? You can close your eyes. I’ll always remain here by your side.”

Tristram: We don’t want you there!

Empyrea: Sadly, not even the movie version fixes this glaring issue.

> You can hear footsteps and several familiar voices drawing near…

“The others will be here soon…”

> The bright sunlight and Aigis’ voice softly overlap…
> You’re getting sleepier…
> Your eyelids feel heavy…

> Close your eyes
> ……

Chris: The screen fades to white, but we hear Aigis’ voice one last time:

“Don’t worry. I’ll always protect you.”

The credits begin to roll, accompanied by silhouettes of SEES and their Personas and the last song of the game, Kimi no Kioku, or, “Memories of You”.

*the picture fades to white, then the white fades back out to reveal Shinjiro, recently released from the hospital, laid out on a couch, holding a smartphone*

Chris: Hope this isn’t too big a contradiction to how you imagined it, Shinji.

Shinjiro: S’okay. I’m down for women or men, so you’re cool.

Chris: I’m glad. We’re finally done. The game’s over, and we don’t have to deal with it anymore.

Shinjiro: Yeah…

Chris: Something wrong?

Shinjiro: You have an app here called “Velvet Room”…

Chris: Don’t delete that. They help fund the Surge app. This shit’s expensive.

Shinjiro: *smiling despite himself* Alright, alright. You don’t suppose I could, ah, use this smartphone to talk to the others, do you?

Chris: Any time you like. Scan your thumbprint on the Surge icon and it’ll bring up your contacts. Just don’t run the bill up flirting with Akihiko.

Shinjiro: *squinting* Shut up, dick. And you’re not done recapping yet. This is s’posed to be a special scene between us two, anyway, so that’s what I wanna think about that right now.

Chris: Well, here’s your chance. You’re right, this is supposed to be a special scene between us two. It isn’t, though. Your thoughts on this game’s final fuck you to us, and ours to it?

Shinjiro: I mean, it’s all really sweet, but… What the hell kind of ending is that? You go and make the main character give their own life for their friends, and that’d be sad enough, but you go back on it and give the main character a few days of playable epilogue before…I guess they die for real, so they can become the seal. And the friends they made don’t even get to see it.

Chris: In fact, they arrive just barely too late, with you dying right before they get to the scene with their cheerful selves. Which would be sort of poetic, if cruel. Except that it’s not all of your friends you die before seeing: it’s all of your friends, except one. Atlus has decided you get to spend your final moments with just one of your trusted friends, and the others can just fucking be disappointed. And that friend is goddamn Aigis.

Shinjiro: You don’t get to keep the promise you made, by the way—to meet up after graduation with your friends and celebrate Nyx’s defeat. Just as they get their memories back and are ready to celebrate love and life, you’re dead the second they get there. Aigis had to have her special moment, so SEES as a whole is robbed of it.

Empyrea: The Answer wants to have a word with you, then. Sure, it’s Metis who says it, but it wasn’t even questioned or even treated as speculation.

Chris: You don’t get to choose, either. Your final moments are with Aigis, whether you like it or not. Exclusive to P3P, on a new game plus, you can choose from the people you’ve Linked with or romanced to spend your last moments with—including Shinji here, if you saved him—but that’s new game plus only. To earn that, you have to go through the whole game once and sit through Aigis soaking up her spotlight. Thus, it’s pretty clear what Atlus consider the real ending, and that’s Aigis getting shoved in at a crucial moment to the expense of everyone else.

Tristram: Oh, and it gets even worse than that! You need to be on a second playthrough, yes, and it needs to be a second ‘true’ ending playthrough so it won’t work if you decided to kill Ryoji to see what happens, and if you make a single solitary fucking comment wrong then it’ll default to her anyway. It took me FOUR RUNS to get Shinjiro’s ending because I killed Ryoji, then made a wrong comment, then made another wrong comment… Oh and the fandom STILL isn’t 100% sure on what those comments are!

Empyrea: That...explains why I had to give it a couple of runs.

Chris: Let it all out. Get it all out there.

Tristram: Fuck this scene, fuck you Aigis for being such an intolerable character, fuck you Ryoji for being so very detestable and fucking me over, and fuck you eternally Hashino for being a truly disgusting, vain, creeper of an author and finishing the game with the character pretty much everyone hates instead of letting us see our friends before we die. Fuck. You.

Empyrea: I love this game, flaws and everything, but I still disliked its ending. My sister and I used to headcanon that the MC is fine and really just needed a long rest but was fine later (even if she played the intro of the Answer first by accident). But, come on, at least let us choose who to spend our final moments with!

Except they can’t, ‘cause Aigis is the real protagonist of Persona 3, so of course she has to be here! It may not be confirmed by any source, but I’ll die on that hill.

Chris: This is the moment where I decided we needed an Aigis count. Because of all the moments to fuck up and let her shine over everyone else, it had to be this one, didn’t it? And for that final slap in the face, I am awarding her a point for every SEES member she screwed over, or rather, that Atlus screwed over for her. Plus a point for the broken promise.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 60

Shinjiro: Plus a DEATH point, seeing as you’ve now had to die twice.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 86

Chris: Which is also another dumb Jesus parallel, what with dying for mankind, coming back for a little while, and then ascending.

But man, I really do want to include your version of the “final moments” scene, but on top of making this post longer than it already is, I really don’t want to have to play through the whole damn game again for it. I’ll comment on it next post, which is where we start the Answer.

We’re asked if we want to save our data to a new game. We do, and I’ll be doing hard mode, but you won’t be around for that. Next time you see a P3P spork post, I’ll be doing analysis and final thoughts, where rest assured, there will be more criticisms. Thanks everyone, for sticking with this thus far.

Counts: