A retelling of the events at Inaba, 2011, from the point of view of a young man who should be taking this a bit more seriously. Starts off following the game's events, then gradually adds AU elements as the story progresses, with character appearances from other Persona games down the line. Crossposted from SB/AO3.
Yu Narukami's Uncanny Fable (Persona 4)
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Chapter 1: A Life Turned Upside Down
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
Crossposting to SV. AO3 version here, SB version here. Will update daily until caught up to the AO3 version.
If you're reading this, then one of two things have happened: Either I'm dead and this tale has been revealed as part of my will, or hopefully things are now at a point where the secrets we keep are now public knowledge. After all, the truth must be set free, and the earlier we face it the better our lives will be.
This is the story of a young man, once living an ordinary life, is now faced with extraordinary circumstances and must now carve a new path and seek the truth.
Of course, that young man is me, Yu Narukami.
(To my children: spoiler alert, this is also the story of how I met your mother.)
So my story begins way, way back in 2011. It was a mostly normal year, for the most part, save for the fact that my parents would be heading overseas for a year starting in April on Kirijo Group business.
(Yes, I know it's almost an irony of cosmic proportions that my folks worked for Mitsuru-san's company at the time, making it easier for her group to keep tabs on me, but I digress.)
So since I was already too old to be brought with them, lest I interrupt my quality education under the auspice of the Japanese school system, and too young to be a truly emancipated youth, I was to attend my second year of high school at Yasogami High School, far from the city, while living with my uncle who hadn't seen me since I was a baby in diapers. The alternative was sending me to Mikage-cho, with my dad's cousin, but due to Inaba being a quieter place and my mom overruling my dad, I was gonna spend a year in the countryside.
(Note to children: Don't try and get into a fight with someone who's changed your diaper as a baby. They have all the leverage.)
My parents left on their trip early in April, so I pretty much had a few days to myself before I had to leave for Inaba, which I promptly spent on things like getting in reps with my bass guitar, reading mystery novels, and sorting my model collection.
The day before I had to leave for Inaba, though, I had a rather strange dream. I was sitting within a limousine upholstered in blue velvet, with a bar of sorts to my left and a sofa seating two people across me. One was a woman dressed in blue, matching the decor of the limo, with platinum blonde hair and yellow, nearly cat-like eyes. The other looked more elfin than human, especially with the rather bug-eyed look, pointed ears, and a rather long nose.
However, his grotesque appearance betrayed a gentle voice. "Welcome to the Velvet Room", said the man who introduced himself as Igor. He proceeded to do a tarot reading for me, depicting a great disaster and mystery that I would encounter, and that I had a year to get to the bottom of it.
I thought nothing of the strange dream after I woke, thinking it the result of me having had some food that didn't agree with my stomach. (Of course, events would prove me wrong soon after, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
So the day when I had to go to Inaba finally came. It was a Monday, April 11th.
I headed to the train station, mostly ignoring the stuff appearing on the TV screens, including an ad for Quelorie Magic featuring a bikini-clad girl around my age, and some stuff about a love triangle involving a city councillor, his enka singer wife, and the television announcer who drove a wedge between them. Little did I know both would be very important things in the year to come, but how was I supposed to know?
Then I got on the train. Pretty long trip, and the weird dream I had earlier made me a bit tired as well. So I nodded off, and the dream that came to me was even stranger. In it, a woman who looked oddly familiar looked like she was fighting for her life with an unknown assailant, whose face or figure I could never quite pin down.
Next thing I know, I was stirring, and as the announcement for Yasoinaba station came along I got off the train, with the few belongings I didn't leave home in my bag or already sent ahead of myself.
Yasoinaba station looked a bit run-down, but clean otherwise. There wasn't a lot of people waiting outside the station, so I pretty much figured out that the man in the grey shirt, red tie, and with a five o clock shadow was my uncle, Ryotaro Dojima. A young girl hid behind him, likely his daughter. We made our introductions, and that day I met Nanako Dojima, the best little sister anyone could ever have.
My uncle and Nanako headed to the car, but before I could join them I was accosted by a young woman around my age, whose dress looked more at home in the streets of Tokyo than a sleepy town like Inaba. Thanking her for her help with a slip of paper I had inadvertently dropped, I went on and joined my family.
Uncle Ryotaro needed to fill up his car and Nanako needed to use the restroom, so we stopped at the gas station at the corner of the shopping district. The attendant made some remarks about how nothing important happened in this part of the world, and as they offered some spots as a part-time attendant they shook my hand.
Right at that very moment I was stricken by the worst headache in my life.
My uncle and cousin looked me over, clearly concerned that I might be falling ill with something, but the headache had subsided pretty quickly and I said that I merely needed some fresh air. So I took a brief walk around the shopping district, noticing the same girl from earlier that day hanging around as well, and two siblings bickering over some kind of dessert that the sister ate that she wasn't supposed to.
We got back into Uncle Ryotaro's car, and it was almost sunset when we got home.
Dinner that night was sushi take-out; my uncle's cooking skills were non-existent and Nanako's were largely restricted to fried eggs and toast. In the midst of the meal Uncle Ryotaro had to leave for work-related reasons; I found out there and then that he was a detective for the local police. Now alone with Nanako, the young girl went and changed channels until reaching the one thing that gave her solace: the admittedly catchy jingle of the Junes department store.
Here was a latchkey kid even younger than I was, singing along to an ode to mass commercialism so that she wouldn't feel lonely at home.
With dinner done we cleaned up, and with my energy reserves largely depleted I went to bed.
That night I had another strange dream. Was it the sushi this time? I was in the middle of a foggy void, stretching as far as the eye could see, with the floor being made of some weird red tiles. I had a sword in hand, somehow, and I proceeded along a corridor before encountering a mysterious voice, taunting me to reach the truth. There was a figure right in front of me, obscured by the fog, that I managed to get a couple of hits in before it scampered off, and soon enough I woke up.
It appeared that my year at Inaba would be anything but ordinary.
The very next day was my first day at Yasogami High. I walked with Nanako part of the way, with us splitting at the Samegawa Riverbank, as her elementary school was in the other direction.
The trip was not too long, not too short, but proved to be less boring than I had anticipated. A young man on a wobbling bike lost his balance and crashed into a garbage bin, managing to eventually extricate himself. If the people at school were as interesting or off-kilter like him, then my second year of high school would be anything but humdrum. (Of course, in hindsight, that was pretty much tempting fate.)
I found myself in class 2-2, headed by a middle-aged man with a yee yee ass haircut and the biggest overbite this side of Donkey from Shrek. I looked around for some familiar or notable faces, and I saw Garbage Bin Boy from earlier as well as a couple of young ladies who somehow flouted the dress code by dressing in a green jacket and red sweater over their uniforms respectively. Not that I'm one to talk, given than I had my gakuran top left unbuttoned and the collar popped during that year.
So there was an empty seat right next to Green Jacket Girl, and after Morooka used my urban life as a way to caution overly hormonal students, a message came over the PA system asking all teachers to report to the faculty room. So class 2-2 was suddenly left with no teacher overseeing them, and as with every body of students without a watcher is wont to do, the class suddenly started talking things over.
Garbage Bin Boy (who introduced himself as Yosuke Hanamura) made a show of returning a DVD for a film named Trial of the Dragon to Green Jacket Girl (named Chie Satonaka), who unsurprisingly was pissed that Yosuke had wrecked her favorite DVD - which likely happened when the boy crashed into that garbage bin. Chie, for her part, was best friends with Red Sweater Girl (named Yukiko Amagi), who seemed to be the local school hottie - with people coining the term Amagi Challenge referring to her habit of shutting down suitors to the point where I suspected she never had a boyfriend.
Some time later King Moron, aka Morooka, returned and told us students to leave school and head home ASAP. Wondering just what was going on, I left Yasogami with my new acquaintances Chie and Yukiko, whereupon the girl in red was accosted by a soulless-looking guy from another school. She promptly rejected his advances, as I expected - I doubted the Amagi Challenge would be successfully surmounted.
En route home we passed by a street closed off by police tape, and I ran into my uncle who refused to give details beyond finding a dead body. While we were discussing, however, a man dressed in a suit (likely another detective) looked green to the gills and promptly vomited at the curbside, looking squeamish at the crime scene. I learned his name was Adachi from my uncle, who berated the younger man's unprofessional action.
The girls and I eventually split off, as well, as they wanted to check out some stuff while I headed home.
That evening's news revealed some info about the crime scene. It appeared that the dead body belonged to a Mayumi Yamano, a news reporter involved in an affair with a councilman named Taro Namatame, married to a Misuzu Hiiragi. I wasn't really one for celebrity gossip, but the fact that Ms Yamano met an untimely end rankled me nevertheless. I comforted Nanako by singing the Junes theme song with her (six year olds shouldn't really be watching the nightly news, just so you know) and went to bed.
Thankfully, that night was rather quiet, which made the coming days easier to cope with.
----
If you're reading this, then one of two things have happened: Either I'm dead and this tale has been revealed as part of my will, or hopefully things are now at a point where the secrets we keep are now public knowledge. After all, the truth must be set free, and the earlier we face it the better our lives will be.
This is the story of a young man, once living an ordinary life, is now faced with extraordinary circumstances and must now carve a new path and seek the truth.
Of course, that young man is me, Yu Narukami.
(To my children: spoiler alert, this is also the story of how I met your mother.)
----
So my story begins way, way back in 2011. It was a mostly normal year, for the most part, save for the fact that my parents would be heading overseas for a year starting in April on Kirijo Group business.
(Yes, I know it's almost an irony of cosmic proportions that my folks worked for Mitsuru-san's company at the time, making it easier for her group to keep tabs on me, but I digress.)
So since I was already too old to be brought with them, lest I interrupt my quality education under the auspice of the Japanese school system, and too young to be a truly emancipated youth, I was to attend my second year of high school at Yasogami High School, far from the city, while living with my uncle who hadn't seen me since I was a baby in diapers. The alternative was sending me to Mikage-cho, with my dad's cousin, but due to Inaba being a quieter place and my mom overruling my dad, I was gonna spend a year in the countryside.
(Note to children: Don't try and get into a fight with someone who's changed your diaper as a baby. They have all the leverage.)
My parents left on their trip early in April, so I pretty much had a few days to myself before I had to leave for Inaba, which I promptly spent on things like getting in reps with my bass guitar, reading mystery novels, and sorting my model collection.
The day before I had to leave for Inaba, though, I had a rather strange dream. I was sitting within a limousine upholstered in blue velvet, with a bar of sorts to my left and a sofa seating two people across me. One was a woman dressed in blue, matching the decor of the limo, with platinum blonde hair and yellow, nearly cat-like eyes. The other looked more elfin than human, especially with the rather bug-eyed look, pointed ears, and a rather long nose.
However, his grotesque appearance betrayed a gentle voice. "Welcome to the Velvet Room", said the man who introduced himself as Igor. He proceeded to do a tarot reading for me, depicting a great disaster and mystery that I would encounter, and that I had a year to get to the bottom of it.
I thought nothing of the strange dream after I woke, thinking it the result of me having had some food that didn't agree with my stomach. (Of course, events would prove me wrong soon after, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
So the day when I had to go to Inaba finally came. It was a Monday, April 11th.
I headed to the train station, mostly ignoring the stuff appearing on the TV screens, including an ad for Quelorie Magic featuring a bikini-clad girl around my age, and some stuff about a love triangle involving a city councillor, his enka singer wife, and the television announcer who drove a wedge between them. Little did I know both would be very important things in the year to come, but how was I supposed to know?
Then I got on the train. Pretty long trip, and the weird dream I had earlier made me a bit tired as well. So I nodded off, and the dream that came to me was even stranger. In it, a woman who looked oddly familiar looked like she was fighting for her life with an unknown assailant, whose face or figure I could never quite pin down.
Next thing I know, I was stirring, and as the announcement for Yasoinaba station came along I got off the train, with the few belongings I didn't leave home in my bag or already sent ahead of myself.
Yasoinaba station looked a bit run-down, but clean otherwise. There wasn't a lot of people waiting outside the station, so I pretty much figured out that the man in the grey shirt, red tie, and with a five o clock shadow was my uncle, Ryotaro Dojima. A young girl hid behind him, likely his daughter. We made our introductions, and that day I met Nanako Dojima, the best little sister anyone could ever have.
My uncle and Nanako headed to the car, but before I could join them I was accosted by a young woman around my age, whose dress looked more at home in the streets of Tokyo than a sleepy town like Inaba. Thanking her for her help with a slip of paper I had inadvertently dropped, I went on and joined my family.
Uncle Ryotaro needed to fill up his car and Nanako needed to use the restroom, so we stopped at the gas station at the corner of the shopping district. The attendant made some remarks about how nothing important happened in this part of the world, and as they offered some spots as a part-time attendant they shook my hand.
Right at that very moment I was stricken by the worst headache in my life.
My uncle and cousin looked me over, clearly concerned that I might be falling ill with something, but the headache had subsided pretty quickly and I said that I merely needed some fresh air. So I took a brief walk around the shopping district, noticing the same girl from earlier that day hanging around as well, and two siblings bickering over some kind of dessert that the sister ate that she wasn't supposed to.
We got back into Uncle Ryotaro's car, and it was almost sunset when we got home.
Dinner that night was sushi take-out; my uncle's cooking skills were non-existent and Nanako's were largely restricted to fried eggs and toast. In the midst of the meal Uncle Ryotaro had to leave for work-related reasons; I found out there and then that he was a detective for the local police. Now alone with Nanako, the young girl went and changed channels until reaching the one thing that gave her solace: the admittedly catchy jingle of the Junes department store.
Here was a latchkey kid even younger than I was, singing along to an ode to mass commercialism so that she wouldn't feel lonely at home.
With dinner done we cleaned up, and with my energy reserves largely depleted I went to bed.
That night I had another strange dream. Was it the sushi this time? I was in the middle of a foggy void, stretching as far as the eye could see, with the floor being made of some weird red tiles. I had a sword in hand, somehow, and I proceeded along a corridor before encountering a mysterious voice, taunting me to reach the truth. There was a figure right in front of me, obscured by the fog, that I managed to get a couple of hits in before it scampered off, and soon enough I woke up.
It appeared that my year at Inaba would be anything but ordinary.
The very next day was my first day at Yasogami High. I walked with Nanako part of the way, with us splitting at the Samegawa Riverbank, as her elementary school was in the other direction.
The trip was not too long, not too short, but proved to be less boring than I had anticipated. A young man on a wobbling bike lost his balance and crashed into a garbage bin, managing to eventually extricate himself. If the people at school were as interesting or off-kilter like him, then my second year of high school would be anything but humdrum. (Of course, in hindsight, that was pretty much tempting fate.)
I found myself in class 2-2, headed by a middle-aged man with a yee yee ass haircut and the biggest overbite this side of Donkey from Shrek. I looked around for some familiar or notable faces, and I saw Garbage Bin Boy from earlier as well as a couple of young ladies who somehow flouted the dress code by dressing in a green jacket and red sweater over their uniforms respectively. Not that I'm one to talk, given than I had my gakuran top left unbuttoned and the collar popped during that year.
So there was an empty seat right next to Green Jacket Girl, and after Morooka used my urban life as a way to caution overly hormonal students, a message came over the PA system asking all teachers to report to the faculty room. So class 2-2 was suddenly left with no teacher overseeing them, and as with every body of students without a watcher is wont to do, the class suddenly started talking things over.
Garbage Bin Boy (who introduced himself as Yosuke Hanamura) made a show of returning a DVD for a film named Trial of the Dragon to Green Jacket Girl (named Chie Satonaka), who unsurprisingly was pissed that Yosuke had wrecked her favorite DVD - which likely happened when the boy crashed into that garbage bin. Chie, for her part, was best friends with Red Sweater Girl (named Yukiko Amagi), who seemed to be the local school hottie - with people coining the term Amagi Challenge referring to her habit of shutting down suitors to the point where I suspected she never had a boyfriend.
Some time later King Moron, aka Morooka, returned and told us students to leave school and head home ASAP. Wondering just what was going on, I left Yasogami with my new acquaintances Chie and Yukiko, whereupon the girl in red was accosted by a soulless-looking guy from another school. She promptly rejected his advances, as I expected - I doubted the Amagi Challenge would be successfully surmounted.
En route home we passed by a street closed off by police tape, and I ran into my uncle who refused to give details beyond finding a dead body. While we were discussing, however, a man dressed in a suit (likely another detective) looked green to the gills and promptly vomited at the curbside, looking squeamish at the crime scene. I learned his name was Adachi from my uncle, who berated the younger man's unprofessional action.
The girls and I eventually split off, as well, as they wanted to check out some stuff while I headed home.
That evening's news revealed some info about the crime scene. It appeared that the dead body belonged to a Mayumi Yamano, a news reporter involved in an affair with a councilman named Taro Namatame, married to a Misuzu Hiiragi. I wasn't really one for celebrity gossip, but the fact that Ms Yamano met an untimely end rankled me nevertheless. I comforted Nanako by singing the Junes theme song with her (six year olds shouldn't really be watching the nightly news, just so you know) and went to bed.
Thankfully, that night was rather quiet, which made the coming days easier to cope with.
Chapter 2: Televisions Don't Work That Way! ...Do They?
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
Wednesday the 13th (doesn't have the same ring as Friday the 13th) came along. I found Yosuke crashed into another garbage bin again - I think they have a thing for him. Of course, I helped him, as one of the people I was en route to befriending here in this small town. Yosuke explained that Ms Yamano, the victim from the crime scene the day before, was found hanging from a television antenna. Now, I'm certainly not kinkshaming anyone, but I certainly want no part of getting hung from an antenna or water tower or something.
King Moron took the opportunity to berate us during homeroom, using his moral concerns to upbraid us for the crime of being adolescent men and women. Even so, I could tell the man was at least a competent teacher, if an abrasive one at that. Couldn't be worse than that guy who threw pieces of chalk at students from a school in Tokyo, no?
Given that we were in the boonies, the local produce and livestock was certainly a highlight of the place, and that included grilled steak - the beef industry having somehow found a home in Yasoinaba. Yosuke offered to treat me to a place he knew we could get it on the cheap, and just as I was about to say yes Chie inserted herself and Yukiko into the conversation, using the fact that Yosuke had to make amends for the broken DVD as her leverage.
(Side note: would it surprise anyone if I told you Yosuke and Chie would get hitched? I was best man and Yukiko was the maid of honor, if anyone's asking.)
Thankfully for Yosuke's wallet Yukiko declined, citing her obligations at the family inn; between her traditionally beautiful looks and being the heiress to the local tourist attraction, it was no wonder the Amagi Challenge was a thing. So it was us three who headed up to Junes, whereupon the headphones-wearing boy treated us to some steak. It wasn't the only steak place in town, as I would discover, but given that Yosuke was the son of the manager (and was a part-time employee himself), this wasn't all that surprising. Yosuke, for his part, was a city boy like I was, having moved to Inaba just six months prior due to his dad becoming manager of this place.
In between Chie wolfing down strips of marinated meat we ran into an upperclassman of ours, Saki Konishi, who happened to also be working part-time at Junes, and the girl I remembered bickering with her younger brother on my first day in town. Yosuke clearly carried a torch for her, and sadly for Yosuke Saki-senpai wasn't into him the same way. I didn't want to burst my friend's bubble, however, and Chie wanted to cheer him up by bringing up a local legend known as the Midnight Channel.
Supposedly, if you watched a switched off television on a rainy night just as the clock struck twelve, you would be able to see the image of your future soulmate. I filed it in my mind as a (sub)urban legend, but given how things were progressing in my so far less than a week stay at Inaba, I knew I had to try it sometime. Plus what did I know? Maybe I might end up with someone famous.
(At least I can't tempt fate at this point, knowing what I know now.)
Dinner was a lonely affair with Nanako and I having some stuff I brought over from Junes, when Uncle Ryotaro arrived and proceeded to get chewed out by his young daughter. The three of us watched the news, with the facts about the Yamano affair repeated, when a somewhat familiar face appeared as an interviewee. Her face and voice were obscured, but the semblance to someone I knew was apparent. It appeared that the young lady was the one who found Yamano's body, and was therefore important as a witness.
I waited as the clock ticked down to midnight. Leaving my television off, the stormy night provided an eerie atmosphere as I watched the TV. Static interspersed with images of a young woman in distress appeared before my very eyes, and my head suddenly hurt as I heard the words
clearly reverberate within my skull. On a whim, I touched my television screen, and the most shocking part was that it rippled like the surface of a still pond. My hand went through the TV, and I was suddenly being pulled by something! Flailing around for a bit, whatever it was that caught me suddenly let me go and led to me banging my head on my work table. I'm surprised that didn't cause any further damage, and some may attribute my words to that head injury, but I guess that doesn't matter now.
The next morning Chie forced herself under my umbrella, apparently having broken hers due to her habit of LARPing the kung fu movies she loves to watch. At school we met Sofue-sensei, who was enough of an Egyptophile to the point she wore a pharaoh's headdress every darn day.
After classes wrapped up for the day, Yosuke came up to me, worried about something. Realizing it might have something to do with the Midnight Channel, I let him talk it out, his worry for Saki-senpai at the forefront of his mind. Chie came over to join us, but not Yukiko; her duties at the inn taking her free time away from her. The three of us then discussed what we had seen on the Midnight Channel, with the kung fu girl shocked that her apparent soulmate was a girl. (Not that it matters much, mind you, and as later events would show, that wasn't a surprising fact in the end.) I reported my getting halfway sucked into my TV, and my new friends wanted me to test it out at a larger TV, to see if I could fit all the way through.
Of course, this was where Yosuke's Prince of Junes status came in. The electronics section at the department store had some TVs for sale, and the small consumer base plus a disdain for Junes' usurping of local businesses meant that places like the electronics section rarely saw traffic.
So there I was, awaiting the moment of truth. Was that thing about getting sucked into a TV just a delusion on my end, or was it something real?
I put my hand in front of the large display unit, and found myself wide-eyed as my hand went into the television, with Yosuke and Chie as witnesses. Soon I found myself halfway stuck, and as the two were scrambling around needing to pee and clearly scared out of her mind respectively, they crashed into me, sending the three of us into the television.
What we saw was a rather surreal sight. We were in what looked to be a weird TV sound stage, but instead of a normal TV studio the place was covered in a yellow fog as far as the eye could see. The worrying part was that we couldn't see a way out, as the way we entered didn't seem to be there.
We walked around, looking for an exit, with the yellow fog hindering our sight. Soon enough, however, we happened upon what looked like a bedroom, a large window letting in pale yellow light. But it was the rest of the room that unnerved me - the walls were covered in defaced posters of a woman in a kimono, with yellow and red paint splattered as well. A noose hung from the ceiling, made of a red rope, while a chair stood ominously nearby. It felt like looking at the suicide scene of a jilted lover. Of course, just as the three of us were frightened at the sights, Yosuke's call of nature crept up on him, and his desire to relieve himself seemed to take precedence in his mind before anything else.
We made our way back to the soundstage, distressed at the horrifying sights we had just seen, when a strange, round figure began to approach us! As it got closer, its appearance became clearer: it was essentially a bear mascot.
And the strangest part of all was that said bear mascot talked, and not in the way people in mascot suits do - the bear's face smiled and contorted as it spoke to us, rather uncannily. After explaining our presence, the bear began to complain about people being thrown into its world, and that it would help us find a way out. The strange bear managed to somehow produce a stack of smaller TVs out of nowhere, and pushed us out, back into the real world.
When we had gotten out it was time for a flash sale on dinner items - we had spent a fair amount of time inside the TV, then. We recognized the defaced pictures as resembling those of Misuzu Hiiragi, whose album was stocked at the Junes electronics store, meaning that room we had seen had some relation to the Yamano affair.
That evening, we sat around the low table watching television over bowls of ramen for dinner. Uncle Ryotaro asked me about Saki-senpai - who not only appeared to be the witness to Ms Yamano's body, but also didn't go to school that day. No wonder Yosuke was worried. The news did bring one more tidbit of info, however - Yamano was staying at the Amagi Inn, where Yukiko was. Things began to look more and more entangled...
Friday arrived, and things were looking more ominous. I overheard two students gossiping about police presence, and when I arrived at school I was ushered into the school auditorium for an assembly. An assembly this early into the term felt foreboding, and the strange knot I had in my guts was constricting even further as my premonitions feared the worst.
Saki Konishi had been found, dead.
King Moron took the opportunity to berate us during homeroom, using his moral concerns to upbraid us for the crime of being adolescent men and women. Even so, I could tell the man was at least a competent teacher, if an abrasive one at that. Couldn't be worse than that guy who threw pieces of chalk at students from a school in Tokyo, no?
Given that we were in the boonies, the local produce and livestock was certainly a highlight of the place, and that included grilled steak - the beef industry having somehow found a home in Yasoinaba. Yosuke offered to treat me to a place he knew we could get it on the cheap, and just as I was about to say yes Chie inserted herself and Yukiko into the conversation, using the fact that Yosuke had to make amends for the broken DVD as her leverage.
(Side note: would it surprise anyone if I told you Yosuke and Chie would get hitched? I was best man and Yukiko was the maid of honor, if anyone's asking.)
Thankfully for Yosuke's wallet Yukiko declined, citing her obligations at the family inn; between her traditionally beautiful looks and being the heiress to the local tourist attraction, it was no wonder the Amagi Challenge was a thing. So it was us three who headed up to Junes, whereupon the headphones-wearing boy treated us to some steak. It wasn't the only steak place in town, as I would discover, but given that Yosuke was the son of the manager (and was a part-time employee himself), this wasn't all that surprising. Yosuke, for his part, was a city boy like I was, having moved to Inaba just six months prior due to his dad becoming manager of this place.
In between Chie wolfing down strips of marinated meat we ran into an upperclassman of ours, Saki Konishi, who happened to also be working part-time at Junes, and the girl I remembered bickering with her younger brother on my first day in town. Yosuke clearly carried a torch for her, and sadly for Yosuke Saki-senpai wasn't into him the same way. I didn't want to burst my friend's bubble, however, and Chie wanted to cheer him up by bringing up a local legend known as the Midnight Channel.
Supposedly, if you watched a switched off television on a rainy night just as the clock struck twelve, you would be able to see the image of your future soulmate. I filed it in my mind as a (sub)urban legend, but given how things were progressing in my so far less than a week stay at Inaba, I knew I had to try it sometime. Plus what did I know? Maybe I might end up with someone famous.
(At least I can't tempt fate at this point, knowing what I know now.)
Dinner was a lonely affair with Nanako and I having some stuff I brought over from Junes, when Uncle Ryotaro arrived and proceeded to get chewed out by his young daughter. The three of us watched the news, with the facts about the Yamano affair repeated, when a somewhat familiar face appeared as an interviewee. Her face and voice were obscured, but the semblance to someone I knew was apparent. It appeared that the young lady was the one who found Yamano's body, and was therefore important as a witness.
I waited as the clock ticked down to midnight. Leaving my television off, the stormy night provided an eerie atmosphere as I watched the TV. Static interspersed with images of a young woman in distress appeared before my very eyes, and my head suddenly hurt as I heard the words
"I am thou, thou art I"
clearly reverberate within my skull. On a whim, I touched my television screen, and the most shocking part was that it rippled like the surface of a still pond. My hand went through the TV, and I was suddenly being pulled by something! Flailing around for a bit, whatever it was that caught me suddenly let me go and led to me banging my head on my work table. I'm surprised that didn't cause any further damage, and some may attribute my words to that head injury, but I guess that doesn't matter now.
The next morning Chie forced herself under my umbrella, apparently having broken hers due to her habit of LARPing the kung fu movies she loves to watch. At school we met Sofue-sensei, who was enough of an Egyptophile to the point she wore a pharaoh's headdress every darn day.
After classes wrapped up for the day, Yosuke came up to me, worried about something. Realizing it might have something to do with the Midnight Channel, I let him talk it out, his worry for Saki-senpai at the forefront of his mind. Chie came over to join us, but not Yukiko; her duties at the inn taking her free time away from her. The three of us then discussed what we had seen on the Midnight Channel, with the kung fu girl shocked that her apparent soulmate was a girl. (Not that it matters much, mind you, and as later events would show, that wasn't a surprising fact in the end.) I reported my getting halfway sucked into my TV, and my new friends wanted me to test it out at a larger TV, to see if I could fit all the way through.
Of course, this was where Yosuke's Prince of Junes status came in. The electronics section at the department store had some TVs for sale, and the small consumer base plus a disdain for Junes' usurping of local businesses meant that places like the electronics section rarely saw traffic.
So there I was, awaiting the moment of truth. Was that thing about getting sucked into a TV just a delusion on my end, or was it something real?
I put my hand in front of the large display unit, and found myself wide-eyed as my hand went into the television, with Yosuke and Chie as witnesses. Soon I found myself halfway stuck, and as the two were scrambling around needing to pee and clearly scared out of her mind respectively, they crashed into me, sending the three of us into the television.
What we saw was a rather surreal sight. We were in what looked to be a weird TV sound stage, but instead of a normal TV studio the place was covered in a yellow fog as far as the eye could see. The worrying part was that we couldn't see a way out, as the way we entered didn't seem to be there.
We walked around, looking for an exit, with the yellow fog hindering our sight. Soon enough, however, we happened upon what looked like a bedroom, a large window letting in pale yellow light. But it was the rest of the room that unnerved me - the walls were covered in defaced posters of a woman in a kimono, with yellow and red paint splattered as well. A noose hung from the ceiling, made of a red rope, while a chair stood ominously nearby. It felt like looking at the suicide scene of a jilted lover. Of course, just as the three of us were frightened at the sights, Yosuke's call of nature crept up on him, and his desire to relieve himself seemed to take precedence in his mind before anything else.
We made our way back to the soundstage, distressed at the horrifying sights we had just seen, when a strange, round figure began to approach us! As it got closer, its appearance became clearer: it was essentially a bear mascot.
And the strangest part of all was that said bear mascot talked, and not in the way people in mascot suits do - the bear's face smiled and contorted as it spoke to us, rather uncannily. After explaining our presence, the bear began to complain about people being thrown into its world, and that it would help us find a way out. The strange bear managed to somehow produce a stack of smaller TVs out of nowhere, and pushed us out, back into the real world.
When we had gotten out it was time for a flash sale on dinner items - we had spent a fair amount of time inside the TV, then. We recognized the defaced pictures as resembling those of Misuzu Hiiragi, whose album was stocked at the Junes electronics store, meaning that room we had seen had some relation to the Yamano affair.
That evening, we sat around the low table watching television over bowls of ramen for dinner. Uncle Ryotaro asked me about Saki-senpai - who not only appeared to be the witness to Ms Yamano's body, but also didn't go to school that day. No wonder Yosuke was worried. The news did bring one more tidbit of info, however - Yamano was staying at the Amagi Inn, where Yukiko was. Things began to look more and more entangled...
Friday arrived, and things were looking more ominous. I overheard two students gossiping about police presence, and when I arrived at school I was ushered into the school auditorium for an assembly. An assembly this early into the term felt foreboding, and the strange knot I had in my guts was constricting even further as my premonitions feared the worst.
Saki Konishi had been found, dead.
Chapter 3: Japan Daddy and Disco Frog
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
I had half expected that Yosuke would be devastated, reduced to a blubbering wreck by the news of his crush's demise. But my newfound friend had more mettle in him than I assumed, and after the assembly we gathered alongside Chie where he made a bold proposal.
Due to the fact that Saki-senpai was found in a similar manner to Ms Yamano, and the rumors of people being thrown into the TV, Yosuke proposed using my magic TV crossing powers to get into the TV World and investigate what might have happened. While I had my apprehensions, I certainly wasn't the type of person to leave a friend hanging, especially if they were going through a really rough patch.
So off to Junes we went, following in Yosuke's direction. By the time we had arrived at the electronics section, the boy was waiting for us with a golf club and a long rope. The plan was that Yosuke was to be tethered with the rope, with Chie staying in the real world and make sure we never got lost, and I would be armed with the club in case something dire happened.
An oft-cited adage is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. The moment we had made it back into the TV World, the rope tethering Yosuke had snapped, leaving Chie in an awkward position (thankfully, no one saw it fit to ask a 16 year old girl what she was doing with a rope in Junes' electronics section). Thankfully, however, entering the same TV as our last trip meant that we ended back in the same soundstage covered by yellow fog. All that was then needed was someone to guide us, like that odd bear.
Speaking of the devil, the ursine mascot met us, promptly accused us of throwing people into the TV, but Yosuke and I quickly dispelled his assumptions, pointing out that we never threw those people in and that someone else might have done it.
The bear remained skeptical, and soon he and Yosuke got into a bit of a quarrel, to the point where my classmate and friend threatened to rip off the mascot's head, and so he did.
The bear mascot was an empty, dark void.
Thankfully, however, cooler heads prevailed, and the bear proposed to help us find the culprit, whoever that may be. The words of a long-nosed man in a suit echoed to me, and I realized that this was our best lead in a nascent investigation. Plus, helping people out always worked out in the end for me thus far - why ruin my own streak?
At that point, we made formal introductions, with the mascot making himself known as Teddie (a rather on-the-nose name, if you ask me, and even moreso when he told me his Japanese name. Imagine naming your dog, "Dog".) Teddie then produced two pairs of eyeglasses from somewhere (either hammerspace or the endless void within his mascot suit, you decide), and gave them to the two of us.
Upon wearing them, it felt like the fog had by and large lifted, and now we could see further than our own noses. Teddie proposed to be our guide and moral support as well, which was as well given that he was essentially an empty suit who would get torn up in a real fight at that point.
(Further events would make him even better over time, but again I'm getting ahead of myself.)
Teddie then led us two to a weird facsimile of the Shopping District, with the buildings tinged yellow, the sky an odd amalgam of red and black, and most shops unable to be interacted with. Eventually Yosuke and I came upon a shop labeled "Konishi Liquors"; this must have been the family business Saki-senpai's family ran.
But as we approached the red-and-black entryway of the store we were ambushed by black goops with masks! Shadows! The goopy masks then coalesced themselves into striped orbs adorned with a mouth and a really long tongue. Rather icky, if you ask me.
And while Yosuke and Teddie were caught unawares by this incursion of nightmarish creatures, a voice came into my mind, speaking itself into existence.
A card adorned with a white and black mask appeared in my right hand, and as if operating on instinct my mind went on autopilot, eager to reveal the true self. The other side was empty at first, yet as a light shone from the empty face a word came unbidden to my mind.
A smile made its way to my face as I crushed the card and blue flames erupted around it, and before I saw it I felt an oddly familiar presence behind me. What looked like an android from a science fiction movie, but dressed in a long black trenchcoat with the Imperial chrysanthemums on its shoulders, wielding a naginata came in and stood at my beck and call. Izanagi, came its name to my mind, being the namesake of the founding god of Japan. The storytelling part of my mind asked where Izanami was, but Izanagi's silence rendered that a moot point.
(Of course, as events almost a year later proved, that wasn't a bad question to ask.)
So there I stood, blocking off the two Shadows from Yosuke and Teddie, wielding a golf club and having Izanagi at my side. Teddie then told me that Shadows, just like people, are good at some things and bad at others, meaning that they had strengths and weaknesses too. The mental link I had with Izanagi showed that the Persona had a basic electricity spell at its disposal, so I did not hesitate to use it.
"Izanagi, Zio!" I cried out, summoning another card and crushing it in my palm. The trenchcoat-clad deity complied, shocking one of the floating tongues and sending it to the ground. With it downed, I then took the opportunity to shock the other one, downing it as well and giving me a chance to strike one with the golf club. Eventually, however, both Shadows got up, and clearly weren't happy with my tricks, but I could tell they had little energy left. So after fending off their attacks, I repeated my strategy once more, flooring them with casts of Zio and following up with my club.
The two shadows that had threatened us then dissipated, opening the path and impressing Teddie to the point where he called me Sensei, despite the fact that I wasn't interested in a teaching career, and never will be. Of course, Yosuke wasn't happy at that, but soon our attentions were diverted to some disembodied voices.
Voices that showed displeasure at Junes' encroachment on small town life, with the voices even disapproving of Saki-senpai's choice to work at the department store. Now motivated, Yosuke and I entered the Shadow Liquor store.
More voices came, berating Saki-senpai for her employment at Junes, presumably from her father. And now Yosuke was rather concerned, seeing a side of his Senpai that he never wanted to hear. That she thought he was a real pain in the ass (her words, not mine). Even disdaining my friend for acting like a simp and basically ruining her life.
The strong façade my friend had built up was crumbling, and it did not get better when the two of us saw a doppelganger of Yosuke at the corner of the store.
The other Yosuke (who looked like he had yellow eyes) continued taunting our Yosuke, in particular pinning down his insecurities at being a directionless city boy who desperately looked for a purpose in life and friends to share life experiences with. In short, the boy just wanted to be special and he was denying everything!
Shadow Yosuke kept needling my friend until he reached his breaking point. "Screw that! I don't know you! You can't be me, you son of a bitch!"
And there it went, the first time I saw someone deny their shadow self, giving me (and eventually my friends) a much harder time than if they had accepted it. But let me be clear on this: accepting your Shadow is no trivial matter of simply saying "yeah, I'm you". They are, after all, the deepest, darkest parts of us we don't want to accept, and distorted beyond recognition and acceptance.
At that declaration of denial, Shadow Yosuke began to mutate, turning into some weird frog-centaur thing with a long scarf around its humanoid neck. "I am a shadow... The true self", said the Shadow, and my arduous fight with it began.
The Shadow let out a strong wind, knocking me down, and I realized that Izanagi gave me a weakness to wind (just as it logically gave me resistance to electricity). I had to plan around that, before Shadow Yosuke could make mincemeat of me. Thankfully, however, the Shadow wasted its momentum by laughing maniacally, giving me time and space to get back up and continue the fight.
A thought came quickly to me - if it used wind attacks, and if electricity and wind were polar opposites on the elemental chart, then that meant my own electric attacks would be its weak point. "Zio!", I cried out, summoning Izanagi to shock the Shadow and exhausting me a bit more. As I expected, however, the shock was enough to down the centaur-frog, giving me an opening to attack it once more. Of course, Shadow Yosuke managed to get back up soon after, but this time I was more ready for its attacks. At one point, it began guarding, and Teddie gave me a heads-up that this meant electric attacks wouldn't phase it as much, so I decided to bide my time until it lowered its guard.
The cycle between Izanagi and I on one side and Shadow Yosuke eventually ended when after stunning it with a lightning strike I gave it a good clubbing on the head. The Shadow was weakened, returned to its mimicry of my friend, who was still denying that he and the Shadow were one and the same. I gave him a knowing smile, however - "you're still you, Yosuke" - and as Yosuke sighed, he finally accepted his Shadow, and another marvelous thing happened.
The Shadow had metamorphosed again, this time looking similar to the centaur-frog I fought just minutes ago, but basically looking like 70s John Travolta mixed with a ninja mixed with, well, a frog. "Jiraiya", my friend said, awakening to his very own Persona.
Teddie had a bit of a tidbit for us as we were leaving, however - Shadows being drawn to humans who they then would attack explained why Yamano and Saki-senpai died after being thrown into the TV, and why they were then found after a foggy night.
Teddie felt lonely just as we were to cross back to the real world, but I promised to him there and then that we would return, eventually. Of course, this paled in comparison to the reaction we got when we returned.
A tearful, despondent Chie bawled her eyes out at the sight of us returning - and promptly chewed us out for leaving her all alone, wrangling several steaks from us as penance. (Can you believe that girl's one of Inaba's up and coming officers now? I'd have been incredulous at the time, certainly).
On the way home I passed by Samegawa Flood Plain when I saw a young woman in a pink kimono. Approaching her, I immediately recognized her as Yukiko, Chie's friend, who wasn't in school earlier (and caused her friend some bit of worry). She explained to me that the inn was rather busy that day, causing her to miss school due to running the inn in place of her ill mother.
The evening news that Nanako and I watched focused on Saki-senpai's demise, and the angle of it being related to a serial killer. My cousin was despondent at her father not being around, and as she dragooned me into chores we watched as the focus shifted to the Amagi Inn, focusing on the fact that Yukiko had taken up managing the inn.
Dread pooled in my gut. If my theory about the victims being people who had appeared on TV recently (with Yamano appearing as part of the love triangle, and Saki-senpai appearing due to her discovering the former's body) was correct,
then that meant Yukiko Amagi, my classmate, was a dead girl walking.
Due to the fact that Saki-senpai was found in a similar manner to Ms Yamano, and the rumors of people being thrown into the TV, Yosuke proposed using my magic TV crossing powers to get into the TV World and investigate what might have happened. While I had my apprehensions, I certainly wasn't the type of person to leave a friend hanging, especially if they were going through a really rough patch.
So off to Junes we went, following in Yosuke's direction. By the time we had arrived at the electronics section, the boy was waiting for us with a golf club and a long rope. The plan was that Yosuke was to be tethered with the rope, with Chie staying in the real world and make sure we never got lost, and I would be armed with the club in case something dire happened.
An oft-cited adage is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. The moment we had made it back into the TV World, the rope tethering Yosuke had snapped, leaving Chie in an awkward position (thankfully, no one saw it fit to ask a 16 year old girl what she was doing with a rope in Junes' electronics section). Thankfully, however, entering the same TV as our last trip meant that we ended back in the same soundstage covered by yellow fog. All that was then needed was someone to guide us, like that odd bear.
Speaking of the devil, the ursine mascot met us, promptly accused us of throwing people into the TV, but Yosuke and I quickly dispelled his assumptions, pointing out that we never threw those people in and that someone else might have done it.
The bear remained skeptical, and soon he and Yosuke got into a bit of a quarrel, to the point where my classmate and friend threatened to rip off the mascot's head, and so he did.
The bear mascot was an empty, dark void.
Thankfully, however, cooler heads prevailed, and the bear proposed to help us find the culprit, whoever that may be. The words of a long-nosed man in a suit echoed to me, and I realized that this was our best lead in a nascent investigation. Plus, helping people out always worked out in the end for me thus far - why ruin my own streak?
At that point, we made formal introductions, with the mascot making himself known as Teddie (a rather on-the-nose name, if you ask me, and even moreso when he told me his Japanese name. Imagine naming your dog, "Dog".) Teddie then produced two pairs of eyeglasses from somewhere (either hammerspace or the endless void within his mascot suit, you decide), and gave them to the two of us.
Upon wearing them, it felt like the fog had by and large lifted, and now we could see further than our own noses. Teddie proposed to be our guide and moral support as well, which was as well given that he was essentially an empty suit who would get torn up in a real fight at that point.
(Further events would make him even better over time, but again I'm getting ahead of myself.)
Teddie then led us two to a weird facsimile of the Shopping District, with the buildings tinged yellow, the sky an odd amalgam of red and black, and most shops unable to be interacted with. Eventually Yosuke and I came upon a shop labeled "Konishi Liquors"; this must have been the family business Saki-senpai's family ran.
But as we approached the red-and-black entryway of the store we were ambushed by black goops with masks! Shadows! The goopy masks then coalesced themselves into striped orbs adorned with a mouth and a really long tongue. Rather icky, if you ask me.
And while Yosuke and Teddie were caught unawares by this incursion of nightmarish creatures, a voice came into my mind, speaking itself into existence.
A card adorned with a white and black mask appeared in my right hand, and as if operating on instinct my mind went on autopilot, eager to reveal the true self. The other side was empty at first, yet as a light shone from the empty face a word came unbidden to my mind.
"Per-"
"So-"
"NA."
"So-"
"NA."
A smile made its way to my face as I crushed the card and blue flames erupted around it, and before I saw it I felt an oddly familiar presence behind me. What looked like an android from a science fiction movie, but dressed in a long black trenchcoat with the Imperial chrysanthemums on its shoulders, wielding a naginata came in and stood at my beck and call. Izanagi, came its name to my mind, being the namesake of the founding god of Japan. The storytelling part of my mind asked where Izanami was, but Izanagi's silence rendered that a moot point.
(Of course, as events almost a year later proved, that wasn't a bad question to ask.)
So there I stood, blocking off the two Shadows from Yosuke and Teddie, wielding a golf club and having Izanagi at my side. Teddie then told me that Shadows, just like people, are good at some things and bad at others, meaning that they had strengths and weaknesses too. The mental link I had with Izanagi showed that the Persona had a basic electricity spell at its disposal, so I did not hesitate to use it.
"Izanagi, Zio!" I cried out, summoning another card and crushing it in my palm. The trenchcoat-clad deity complied, shocking one of the floating tongues and sending it to the ground. With it downed, I then took the opportunity to shock the other one, downing it as well and giving me a chance to strike one with the golf club. Eventually, however, both Shadows got up, and clearly weren't happy with my tricks, but I could tell they had little energy left. So after fending off their attacks, I repeated my strategy once more, flooring them with casts of Zio and following up with my club.
The two shadows that had threatened us then dissipated, opening the path and impressing Teddie to the point where he called me Sensei, despite the fact that I wasn't interested in a teaching career, and never will be. Of course, Yosuke wasn't happy at that, but soon our attentions were diverted to some disembodied voices.
Voices that showed displeasure at Junes' encroachment on small town life, with the voices even disapproving of Saki-senpai's choice to work at the department store. Now motivated, Yosuke and I entered the Shadow Liquor store.
More voices came, berating Saki-senpai for her employment at Junes, presumably from her father. And now Yosuke was rather concerned, seeing a side of his Senpai that he never wanted to hear. That she thought he was a real pain in the ass (her words, not mine). Even disdaining my friend for acting like a simp and basically ruining her life.
The strong façade my friend had built up was crumbling, and it did not get better when the two of us saw a doppelganger of Yosuke at the corner of the store.
The other Yosuke (who looked like he had yellow eyes) continued taunting our Yosuke, in particular pinning down his insecurities at being a directionless city boy who desperately looked for a purpose in life and friends to share life experiences with. In short, the boy just wanted to be special and he was denying everything!
Shadow Yosuke kept needling my friend until he reached his breaking point. "Screw that! I don't know you! You can't be me, you son of a bitch!"
And there it went, the first time I saw someone deny their shadow self, giving me (and eventually my friends) a much harder time than if they had accepted it. But let me be clear on this: accepting your Shadow is no trivial matter of simply saying "yeah, I'm you". They are, after all, the deepest, darkest parts of us we don't want to accept, and distorted beyond recognition and acceptance.
At that declaration of denial, Shadow Yosuke began to mutate, turning into some weird frog-centaur thing with a long scarf around its humanoid neck. "I am a shadow... The true self", said the Shadow, and my arduous fight with it began.
The Shadow let out a strong wind, knocking me down, and I realized that Izanagi gave me a weakness to wind (just as it logically gave me resistance to electricity). I had to plan around that, before Shadow Yosuke could make mincemeat of me. Thankfully, however, the Shadow wasted its momentum by laughing maniacally, giving me time and space to get back up and continue the fight.
A thought came quickly to me - if it used wind attacks, and if electricity and wind were polar opposites on the elemental chart, then that meant my own electric attacks would be its weak point. "Zio!", I cried out, summoning Izanagi to shock the Shadow and exhausting me a bit more. As I expected, however, the shock was enough to down the centaur-frog, giving me an opening to attack it once more. Of course, Shadow Yosuke managed to get back up soon after, but this time I was more ready for its attacks. At one point, it began guarding, and Teddie gave me a heads-up that this meant electric attacks wouldn't phase it as much, so I decided to bide my time until it lowered its guard.
The cycle between Izanagi and I on one side and Shadow Yosuke eventually ended when after stunning it with a lightning strike I gave it a good clubbing on the head. The Shadow was weakened, returned to its mimicry of my friend, who was still denying that he and the Shadow were one and the same. I gave him a knowing smile, however - "you're still you, Yosuke" - and as Yosuke sighed, he finally accepted his Shadow, and another marvelous thing happened.
The Shadow had metamorphosed again, this time looking similar to the centaur-frog I fought just minutes ago, but basically looking like 70s John Travolta mixed with a ninja mixed with, well, a frog. "Jiraiya", my friend said, awakening to his very own Persona.
Teddie had a bit of a tidbit for us as we were leaving, however - Shadows being drawn to humans who they then would attack explained why Yamano and Saki-senpai died after being thrown into the TV, and why they were then found after a foggy night.
Teddie felt lonely just as we were to cross back to the real world, but I promised to him there and then that we would return, eventually. Of course, this paled in comparison to the reaction we got when we returned.
A tearful, despondent Chie bawled her eyes out at the sight of us returning - and promptly chewed us out for leaving her all alone, wrangling several steaks from us as penance. (Can you believe that girl's one of Inaba's up and coming officers now? I'd have been incredulous at the time, certainly).
----
On the way home I passed by Samegawa Flood Plain when I saw a young woman in a pink kimono. Approaching her, I immediately recognized her as Yukiko, Chie's friend, who wasn't in school earlier (and caused her friend some bit of worry). She explained to me that the inn was rather busy that day, causing her to miss school due to running the inn in place of her ill mother.
The evening news that Nanako and I watched focused on Saki-senpai's demise, and the angle of it being related to a serial killer. My cousin was despondent at her father not being around, and as she dragooned me into chores we watched as the focus shifted to the Amagi Inn, focusing on the fact that Yukiko had taken up managing the inn.
Dread pooled in my gut. If my theory about the victims being people who had appeared on TV recently (with Yamano appearing as part of the love triangle, and Saki-senpai appearing due to her discovering the former's body) was correct,
then that meant Yukiko Amagi, my classmate, was a dead girl walking.
Chapter 4: Yes, Your Princess Is In This Castle
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
I waited for midnight with bated breath, hoping that my assumption for the worst wasn't realized. After watching a news report on heavy fog expected to flare up during the year, the clock struck midnight, and I watched on the deactivated TV screen to see what would happen next.
Alas, it was a girl in a kimono, and while the image was blurry I had a horrifying realization at who it could be. I did have to try one thing, however - if I could get into the TV then I should be able to get to them, right? My hand went through, as expected, but the image disappeared, as the reflection in a still pool of water is disturbed by anything that touches it.
I went to bed, fretting, and went into a dream in a very familiar room. Igor greeted me, and after pleasantries Igor and Margaret both notified me that I would become a formal guest of the Velvet Room. This meant that I had the advantage of securing their services for the coming year, which I will get to later. In addition, I apparently was a Wild Card, a person with infinite potential which included the ability to use Personae of various kinds. Kind of like a blank tile in Scrabble or the joker card in a card game. (Speaking of Jokers... well, I have a story about that. But it's too soon to tell at this point.) In addition, the bonds I'd form with various people would strengthen the Personae I acquired during my journey, in what I'd describe as "animé power of friendship" stuff. (And I would definitely need every little bit of it.)
The next day was Saturday, which meant mornings at school and the rest of the day to ourselves. Yosuke approached me on the way to school, having seen the Midnight Channel as well; he wasn't sure who it was, and I didn't want to share my suspicion yet lest I be proven wrong. Apparently he had gained the power to go into the TV by himself too, which may be a perk of those of us with the Persona ability. The trust Yosuke showed in me then flashed into my mind the image of a card, with the number I on it. The Magician, said the voice in my head as I formed the first of my "Social Links".
Arriving at school, Chie approached us, asking if Yosuke or I saw Yukiko. Neither of us had seen her either, and the tomboy's attempts at contacting her friend were futile up to this morning - Yukiko said she would be at school, but neither hide nor hair of the heiress appeared at Yasogami. Chie tried calling her again one more time, and this time, Yukiko finally answered - it appeared at work at the inn kept her from attending school today. We all exhaled in relief afterwards - yet the knot of trepidation in my gut never really uncoiled, either.
Nonetheless we still went to Junes, hoping to assuage our worries about Yukiko. Yosuke and Chie flanked the big TV we used, trying to make sure no shoppers saw what we were doing, and so I inserted my hand into the television.
At that moment I felt a strong bite on my fingers, and for a second thought I'd see a bloody stump of a hand when I withdrew it. Chie asked me if I was all right, and I deadpanned, "I might be dying.", even as I realized my hand was intact, if a bit red from the bite marks. There was only one possible candidate for who could have bitten my hand, so we went and asked Teddie like we were communicating across a wall.
Teddie reported there was nothing of note going on in the TV World at that moment, so we decided to adjourn our meeting, with Chie agreeing to walk with Yukiko to school on Monday and Yosuke exchanging phone numbers with me as part of our investigation.
It was evening when I got home, with Nanako watching a quiz show on TV. After a quick dinner with her, combining what was left in the fridge and some stuff I picked up at Junes, I went back to my room to observe what was on the Midnight Channel.
As the clock struck midnight, I went to watch my TV and see what was up. Shockingly, a very clear image of a young woman in a long, pink dress appeared, as if hosting some kind of Japanese knockoff of The Bachelorette (reality TV isn't as popular here in Japan as it is in the West, for various reasons, so don't ask how I know that). The girl was clearly Yukiko, but she was acting very differently from the little I knew of her. For one, this Yukiko was very, very forward, even gesturing towards her chest and pelvis, as if she were looking for someone to be her "Prince Charming" using what wiles she had. Certainly a far cry from the demure, reserved heiress I knew! I got a call from Yosuke, asking me if I saw what he presumably saw as well. We agreed to meet up at Junes tomorrow morning, and Yosuke told me of a plan he'd thought up that would get us in trouble for sure.
I pinched the bridge of my nose at his suggestion, and told him in no uncertain terms not to bring weapons altogether to Junes, let alone brandish them if he could help it.
The next morning was Sunday, my first day off from school. I met with Yosuke at the food court, and thankfully he followed my advice not to bring any weapons lest we bring the ire of the Inaba police force upon ourselves. We did, however, come across Detective Adachi, who let slip to us that Yukiko's parents called in to the police station that they couldn't find their daughter, and that the force had its hands full with the recent murders. Why a detective was so cavalier about revealing information to otherwise uninvolved youngsters like us was beyond me at the time.
Chie then met up with us, confirming that Yukiko did disappear from her place, after spending the last few days working in place of her mother who was stressed out due to the Yamano affair. I brought up Yosuke's oh-so-brilliant idea from last night. Chie looked like a lightbulb lit up within her head, and dragged me and my buddy off to a shop at the Shopping District that looked like a cross between an antiques store an a blacksmith. A balding, redheaded man with a headband eyed the three of us over, and as Yosuke and I looked for weapons and body armor for use in the TV World Chie told us she would be joining us on our next trip. Part of me wanted to dissuade her, knowing that she did not have a Persona to protect her in the other world, but the other part of me saw the determination she had to rescue her best friend. So eventually we relented and let her join us, on the condition that she remain behind us as Yosuke and I would be the ones to fight off the Shadows.
Eventually we picked up a replica katana for myself, a pair of short blades for Yosuke (his Persona was a ninja, after all), and Chie's martial arts expertise (inasmuch as re-enacting kung fu movies counted as expertise) meant that we got her a pair of very sturdy shoes. I paid old man Daidara (the proprietor and chief craftsman of the shop) for the weapons, thanking the fact that I had managed to save a significant amount of my allowance for this.
As we returned to Junes to go after Yukiko I saw a blue door manifest on a wall right next to Daidara's, which I realized must be an entrance to the Velvet Room. Looking around to see if anyone else noticed it - no one did - I went and entered it, and I was back within the interior of a familiar blue limo.
Igor sat in his usual spot, as did Margaret. There was a new figure, however, and I recognized her as the young woman who I had seen a couple of times after arriving at Inaba. The long nosed man explained to me the art of fusing Personae, which apparently involved taking two or more of them and turning them into totally new Personae, with the powers of the "ingredients" among them. Margaret then added that she would help keep track of Personae I created or encountered in the grimoire she kept, and the other girl (introduced to me as Marie) told me about how she could keep "skill cards" that contained powers that Personae could use, which she could sell back to me for cold, hard yen. Wondering just why people in another dimension had need of real life money, I gazed at Igor, who winked at me with a look that said "don't think about it too hard".
Going back to Junes, we dressed up in our school outfits, ostensibly because it was easier to hide our weapons in them. That was rather flawed logic - Chie's footwear for the most part wasn't conspicuous, and Yosuke could probably hide his knives within his clothing, but I'm pretty sure a school uniform can't really hide the sword I'm using. But somehow, it worked, meaning no one really gave us a look over to see if we had concealed weapons.
Entering the TV World, we encountered Teddie, and formally introduced him to Chie. The bear had managed to sniff out more or less where Yukiko was - which, based on what the Midnight Channel showed, looked like a castle of some sort. Yosuke grilled Teddie, asking if he was the one filming the show Yukiko put on, which the bear denied, pointing out that only he and Shadows were around within the TV World. Chie also pointed out how OOC her best friend was, which made the whole situation even more bizarre. And then Teddie asked a question that felt innocent, but would have some big consequences for his future attitude. Had I known what he'd become, perhaps I'd have put my foot down when he asked what "scoring with a hot stud" meant.
At that moment, however, Chie's impulse to rescue her best friend got the better of her, and she rushed into the castle, throwing away our plan to keep her away from the Shadows. I gave Yosuke a knowing look, and soon we chased after the green-clad girl.
Teddie handed us a handful of strange packages - telling me that they would be useful in restoring our energy within the TV World. Given how using Izanagi had drained me, and the fact that Shadows fought back, we accepted them, knowing how necessary they were gonna be.
The inside of the castle reminded me of pictures of the palace of Versailles in France, with high ceilings, ornate walls and curtains colored red, like Yukiko's favorite color. Shadows still lurked the corridors, but we now had an easier time of it, as we had two Persona users on our side now. It appeared Yosuke had inherited his Shadow's preference for wind attacks - "Jiraiya, Garu!", he cried out, hitting a fish-like Shadow and sending it to the ground - and he was also willing to listen to whatever combat strategies I cooked up. This was our first time working as a team, but we worked pretty well together, all told.
Getting our enemies downed, however, gave me an idea. "Yosuke, with me! All-Out Attack!" I gave him the signal and we hit the Shadows as hard and fast as possible, not letting up. Eventually, they dissipated, and a couple of Shadows left shining cards in their wake. I gave these cards a look-see - a few of them appeared to depict odd creatures like an Imp wielding a torch (Ukobach, the name came to my mind), an angel in definitely not-kid-friendly bondage gear (Angel, somehow named), and a fairy in a leotard (Pixie, it called itself). Realizing the potential they had, and that as a Wild Card I could switch between them as the need arose, I kept a few in reserve.
Eventually, after clearing away Shadows and nabbing some nice loot, we found ourselves at a staircase, leading to the next floor. The architecture of the place didn't make sense, with what I could tell of the second floor layout being a wholly different beast than the first floor. Opening the door at the start of the second floor, we found Chie looking up at the ceiling.
Hearing Yukiko's voice, I realized it was a lot like the time Yosuke and I overheard Saki-senpai's voice, reflecting her inner thoughts. It appeared that Yukiko thought of her friend as one of the most precious things to her, to the point where it felt that the red-clad girl had a crush on Chie. (If it weren't for Chie getting together with my best friend, the two girls would have looked like a cute couple, too. Not that I mind either way.)
Then Chie's Shadow appeared, mocking her for her friendship with Yukiko. The Shadow pointed out Chie's perceived inadequacies, particularly in the admirer department, and how she had suppressed feelings of superiority over Yukiko. Chie continued to vehemently deny her Shadow, however, (to my chagrin), and Shadow Chie got to the point where she claimed that she was using Yukiko as a way to gain popularity by association.
"Shut up! You're..." began the tomboy.
"Chie, no!" Yosuke attempted to intervene.
"You're not me!" Chie cried out in anguish.
(Ah, shit, here we go again.)
Shadow Chie laughed, and turned herself into a whip-wielding dominatrix clad in what appeared to be a leather banana, whilst sitting on a throne of what appeared to be images of female Yasogami students. Was this how she truly felt? I turned to Yosuke, and grit ourselves for a long battle ahead.
Alas, it was a girl in a kimono, and while the image was blurry I had a horrifying realization at who it could be. I did have to try one thing, however - if I could get into the TV then I should be able to get to them, right? My hand went through, as expected, but the image disappeared, as the reflection in a still pool of water is disturbed by anything that touches it.
I went to bed, fretting, and went into a dream in a very familiar room. Igor greeted me, and after pleasantries Igor and Margaret both notified me that I would become a formal guest of the Velvet Room. This meant that I had the advantage of securing their services for the coming year, which I will get to later. In addition, I apparently was a Wild Card, a person with infinite potential which included the ability to use Personae of various kinds. Kind of like a blank tile in Scrabble or the joker card in a card game. (Speaking of Jokers... well, I have a story about that. But it's too soon to tell at this point.) In addition, the bonds I'd form with various people would strengthen the Personae I acquired during my journey, in what I'd describe as "animé power of friendship" stuff. (And I would definitely need every little bit of it.)
The next day was Saturday, which meant mornings at school and the rest of the day to ourselves. Yosuke approached me on the way to school, having seen the Midnight Channel as well; he wasn't sure who it was, and I didn't want to share my suspicion yet lest I be proven wrong. Apparently he had gained the power to go into the TV by himself too, which may be a perk of those of us with the Persona ability. The trust Yosuke showed in me then flashed into my mind the image of a card, with the number I on it. The Magician, said the voice in my head as I formed the first of my "Social Links".
Arriving at school, Chie approached us, asking if Yosuke or I saw Yukiko. Neither of us had seen her either, and the tomboy's attempts at contacting her friend were futile up to this morning - Yukiko said she would be at school, but neither hide nor hair of the heiress appeared at Yasogami. Chie tried calling her again one more time, and this time, Yukiko finally answered - it appeared at work at the inn kept her from attending school today. We all exhaled in relief afterwards - yet the knot of trepidation in my gut never really uncoiled, either.
Nonetheless we still went to Junes, hoping to assuage our worries about Yukiko. Yosuke and Chie flanked the big TV we used, trying to make sure no shoppers saw what we were doing, and so I inserted my hand into the television.
At that moment I felt a strong bite on my fingers, and for a second thought I'd see a bloody stump of a hand when I withdrew it. Chie asked me if I was all right, and I deadpanned, "I might be dying.", even as I realized my hand was intact, if a bit red from the bite marks. There was only one possible candidate for who could have bitten my hand, so we went and asked Teddie like we were communicating across a wall.
Teddie reported there was nothing of note going on in the TV World at that moment, so we decided to adjourn our meeting, with Chie agreeing to walk with Yukiko to school on Monday and Yosuke exchanging phone numbers with me as part of our investigation.
It was evening when I got home, with Nanako watching a quiz show on TV. After a quick dinner with her, combining what was left in the fridge and some stuff I picked up at Junes, I went back to my room to observe what was on the Midnight Channel.
As the clock struck midnight, I went to watch my TV and see what was up. Shockingly, a very clear image of a young woman in a long, pink dress appeared, as if hosting some kind of Japanese knockoff of The Bachelorette (reality TV isn't as popular here in Japan as it is in the West, for various reasons, so don't ask how I know that). The girl was clearly Yukiko, but she was acting very differently from the little I knew of her. For one, this Yukiko was very, very forward, even gesturing towards her chest and pelvis, as if she were looking for someone to be her "Prince Charming" using what wiles she had. Certainly a far cry from the demure, reserved heiress I knew! I got a call from Yosuke, asking me if I saw what he presumably saw as well. We agreed to meet up at Junes tomorrow morning, and Yosuke told me of a plan he'd thought up that would get us in trouble for sure.
I pinched the bridge of my nose at his suggestion, and told him in no uncertain terms not to bring weapons altogether to Junes, let alone brandish them if he could help it.
----
The next morning was Sunday, my first day off from school. I met with Yosuke at the food court, and thankfully he followed my advice not to bring any weapons lest we bring the ire of the Inaba police force upon ourselves. We did, however, come across Detective Adachi, who let slip to us that Yukiko's parents called in to the police station that they couldn't find their daughter, and that the force had its hands full with the recent murders. Why a detective was so cavalier about revealing information to otherwise uninvolved youngsters like us was beyond me at the time.
Chie then met up with us, confirming that Yukiko did disappear from her place, after spending the last few days working in place of her mother who was stressed out due to the Yamano affair. I brought up Yosuke's oh-so-brilliant idea from last night. Chie looked like a lightbulb lit up within her head, and dragged me and my buddy off to a shop at the Shopping District that looked like a cross between an antiques store an a blacksmith. A balding, redheaded man with a headband eyed the three of us over, and as Yosuke and I looked for weapons and body armor for use in the TV World Chie told us she would be joining us on our next trip. Part of me wanted to dissuade her, knowing that she did not have a Persona to protect her in the other world, but the other part of me saw the determination she had to rescue her best friend. So eventually we relented and let her join us, on the condition that she remain behind us as Yosuke and I would be the ones to fight off the Shadows.
Eventually we picked up a replica katana for myself, a pair of short blades for Yosuke (his Persona was a ninja, after all), and Chie's martial arts expertise (inasmuch as re-enacting kung fu movies counted as expertise) meant that we got her a pair of very sturdy shoes. I paid old man Daidara (the proprietor and chief craftsman of the shop) for the weapons, thanking the fact that I had managed to save a significant amount of my allowance for this.
As we returned to Junes to go after Yukiko I saw a blue door manifest on a wall right next to Daidara's, which I realized must be an entrance to the Velvet Room. Looking around to see if anyone else noticed it - no one did - I went and entered it, and I was back within the interior of a familiar blue limo.
Igor sat in his usual spot, as did Margaret. There was a new figure, however, and I recognized her as the young woman who I had seen a couple of times after arriving at Inaba. The long nosed man explained to me the art of fusing Personae, which apparently involved taking two or more of them and turning them into totally new Personae, with the powers of the "ingredients" among them. Margaret then added that she would help keep track of Personae I created or encountered in the grimoire she kept, and the other girl (introduced to me as Marie) told me about how she could keep "skill cards" that contained powers that Personae could use, which she could sell back to me for cold, hard yen. Wondering just why people in another dimension had need of real life money, I gazed at Igor, who winked at me with a look that said "don't think about it too hard".
Going back to Junes, we dressed up in our school outfits, ostensibly because it was easier to hide our weapons in them. That was rather flawed logic - Chie's footwear for the most part wasn't conspicuous, and Yosuke could probably hide his knives within his clothing, but I'm pretty sure a school uniform can't really hide the sword I'm using. But somehow, it worked, meaning no one really gave us a look over to see if we had concealed weapons.
Entering the TV World, we encountered Teddie, and formally introduced him to Chie. The bear had managed to sniff out more or less where Yukiko was - which, based on what the Midnight Channel showed, looked like a castle of some sort. Yosuke grilled Teddie, asking if he was the one filming the show Yukiko put on, which the bear denied, pointing out that only he and Shadows were around within the TV World. Chie also pointed out how OOC her best friend was, which made the whole situation even more bizarre. And then Teddie asked a question that felt innocent, but would have some big consequences for his future attitude. Had I known what he'd become, perhaps I'd have put my foot down when he asked what "scoring with a hot stud" meant.
At that moment, however, Chie's impulse to rescue her best friend got the better of her, and she rushed into the castle, throwing away our plan to keep her away from the Shadows. I gave Yosuke a knowing look, and soon we chased after the green-clad girl.
Teddie handed us a handful of strange packages - telling me that they would be useful in restoring our energy within the TV World. Given how using Izanagi had drained me, and the fact that Shadows fought back, we accepted them, knowing how necessary they were gonna be.
The inside of the castle reminded me of pictures of the palace of Versailles in France, with high ceilings, ornate walls and curtains colored red, like Yukiko's favorite color. Shadows still lurked the corridors, but we now had an easier time of it, as we had two Persona users on our side now. It appeared Yosuke had inherited his Shadow's preference for wind attacks - "Jiraiya, Garu!", he cried out, hitting a fish-like Shadow and sending it to the ground - and he was also willing to listen to whatever combat strategies I cooked up. This was our first time working as a team, but we worked pretty well together, all told.
Getting our enemies downed, however, gave me an idea. "Yosuke, with me! All-Out Attack!" I gave him the signal and we hit the Shadows as hard and fast as possible, not letting up. Eventually, they dissipated, and a couple of Shadows left shining cards in their wake. I gave these cards a look-see - a few of them appeared to depict odd creatures like an Imp wielding a torch (Ukobach, the name came to my mind), an angel in definitely not-kid-friendly bondage gear (Angel, somehow named), and a fairy in a leotard (Pixie, it called itself). Realizing the potential they had, and that as a Wild Card I could switch between them as the need arose, I kept a few in reserve.
Eventually, after clearing away Shadows and nabbing some nice loot, we found ourselves at a staircase, leading to the next floor. The architecture of the place didn't make sense, with what I could tell of the second floor layout being a wholly different beast than the first floor. Opening the door at the start of the second floor, we found Chie looking up at the ceiling.
Hearing Yukiko's voice, I realized it was a lot like the time Yosuke and I overheard Saki-senpai's voice, reflecting her inner thoughts. It appeared that Yukiko thought of her friend as one of the most precious things to her, to the point where it felt that the red-clad girl had a crush on Chie. (If it weren't for Chie getting together with my best friend, the two girls would have looked like a cute couple, too. Not that I mind either way.)
Then Chie's Shadow appeared, mocking her for her friendship with Yukiko. The Shadow pointed out Chie's perceived inadequacies, particularly in the admirer department, and how she had suppressed feelings of superiority over Yukiko. Chie continued to vehemently deny her Shadow, however, (to my chagrin), and Shadow Chie got to the point where she claimed that she was using Yukiko as a way to gain popularity by association.
"Shut up! You're..." began the tomboy.
"Chie, no!" Yosuke attempted to intervene.
"You're not me!" Chie cried out in anguish.
(Ah, shit, here we go again.)
Shadow Chie laughed, and turned herself into a whip-wielding dominatrix clad in what appeared to be a leather banana, whilst sitting on a throne of what appeared to be images of female Yasogami students. Was this how she truly felt? I turned to Yosuke, and grit ourselves for a long battle ahead.
Chapter 5: Frosty Samurai and Featherman Hot Pink
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
I had assumed that since Yosuke and I outnumbered Shadow Chie two to one that it would be much easier than the time I went against Shadow Yosuke one-on-one.
Boy, was I proven wrong.
Our strategy for fights thus far had been to play trial-and-error with the weaknesses of Shadows, using Yosuke's wind abilities and my Wild Card powers to cover the other elements. Teddie would be able to keep those in mind and remind me which Shadows were weak to which attacks, and thus far it worked for the most part. If either of us took significant injuries, we could heal ourselves up as well.
I began the battle against the dominatrix Shadow with an exploratory attack. "Ukobach, Agi!" I summoned the torch-carrying imp, which casted a small fireball that hit Shadow Chie for some damage, but not enough to make a significant dent. "Yosuke, you're up!" I called out to my partner. "I'm counting on you. Persona!" Yosuke cried out, summoning Jiraiya and casting a wind spell that knocked the Shadow down. Recognizing our chance, the two of us went into an All-Out Attack, hitting Shadow Chie as hard as we could until she rose back up.
This went on for quite a while, using Yosuke and Angel's ability to heal ourselves up, until the dominatrix glowed green for a brief moment. I didn't quite catch on to what had happened, until Yosuke's Garu spell basically fizzled out and didn't knock Shadow Chie down as I had expected. The mistress then glared at me, and knowing what was to come next, I grit my teeth and held my guard. That was just as well, as she hit me with a really nasty blow that bruised my arms and would have probably been worse had I not braced for the strike.
I looked at my partner and motioned for him to guard, just as the dominatrix sent out a burst of lightning that struck us both. I had managed to switch to Izanagi right there and then to protect against it, but I was more worried for Jiraiya's weakness to electric attacks. Yosuke's defensive stance prevented anything worse from happening, though, but we were pretty beat up at that point.
Teddie, however, told me right at that moment that the aura around Shadow Chie seemed to have subsided, and I told Yosuke to strike on my mark. I had switched back to Pixie at that point, and the two of us readied our wind spells. "Persona!" cried out the two of us, as Pixie and Jiraiya summoned up gusts of wind that grew stronger as they melded together, leaving the domme Shadow on her last legs. "All-Out Attack!", we roared in unison, hitting the Shadow with my sword and Yosuke's blades as hard as we could. With a scream, Shadow Chie was then defeated.
With her Shadow trounced, we rushed over to Chie, checking if she was all right. I knew that the only way to truly get rid of a Shadow was for the original to accept it - so I stood back, Yosuke telling her that he went through the same thing, and the two of us watched as Shadow Chie nodded and became a samurai lady wearing Bruce Lee's yellow track suit from Game of Death. "Tomoe", the tomboy said as she gained her own Persona. Letting Chie come to terms with her feelings for her friend, we took a break, seeing how the green-clad girl looked exhausted and needed to recover her strength. Discretion was the better part of valor, after all.
Teddie also told us that Yukiko would still be safe as long as the weather wasn't foggy in the real world, as Shadows only attacked people whenever it was foggy on our side. That meant we had a few days to rest, regroup, and prepare for the rest of Yukiko's Castle.
On our way back, Chie complained about her headache, and I realized that it was because she wasn't wearing the glasses Yosuke and I were. Thankfully, Teddie had us covered, and gave her a pair of her own to wear. The glasses fit her perfectly and made her look cute, I have to admit. (I can imagine Yosuke butting in and saying "You mean cuter, partner!" right about now, actually. Still blows my mind those two got together after all their little quarrels.)
Now there were three (four, counting the bear mascot) of us, and Yosuke admitting he wasn't the leader type, Chie being the newbie, and Teddie being, well, Teddie, pretty much put me in the leader spot by default. I once again got the feeling I had when I talked with Yosuke on the way to school a few days prior, with a card depicting a vagabond, a dog, and the number 0. "The Fool", a voice spoke within my mind. I even had a name for our small band of amateur sleuths and rescuers: The Investigation Team.
That evening, I dug into dinner with Uncle Ryotaro and Nanako. I noted the weather would be sunny for a few more days, meaning we had a grace period before Yukiko would be lost to us for good. Just as I headed to my room, however, Nanako told me to go get the phone, and on the other side of the line was King Moron, who told me to pick up my gym uniform and that he would be waiting at the gas station. I aske my uncle if I could go out, given that it was already dark and all, telling him about what Morooka had for me.
I then headed back home after getting my jersey, having had the most eventful week of my life... thus far.
The next morning at school, Yosuke was worried about Chie, especially given that she had just awoken to her Persona and was likely still tired. Those worries were thankfully unfounded as she arrived at school, and thanked us for helping her. She even noticed how I didn't have to face the same thing Yosuke and she did, attributing it to my open personality.
(Of course, that would be proven very, very wrong eventually, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.)
I then asked for Chie's number, at which the tomboy went very pink. Upon clarifying that it was for our Investigation Team business, however, her blush subsided and we exchanged numbers, making sure Yosuke got hers as well. As we formally welcomed Chie to the Investigation Team, another card with the number VII projected itself into my mind's eye. "The Chariot", said the same voice once more.
(So lest we forget, we have The Fool for our Investigation Team, The Magician for Yosuke, and The Chariot for Chie.)
So classes begun that day, and I learned that Kondo-sensei doubled as both gym and English teacher - mostly because he spent time in the United States. He was an ordinary teacher for the most part, however.
After classes ended that Monday, I took the time to visit the shopping district as preparation for our attempt to rescue Yukiko. We had already visited Daidara for equipment, so I went a few stores away to a general store with run-down gashapon machines outside and a matronly woman inside. Shiroku-san apparently operated the store at day and turned it into an izakaya at night, but I decided that stocking up on medicinal items for the TV World was what I needed at that moment. As for where I got the money, though? I checked my savings account and noticed it was several yen more than I had before withdrawing money for my trip to Inaba. It wasn't the monthly stipend I got from my parents, since it was only mid-April and my next one wouldn't be due until May, and they forwarded the money to Uncle Ryotaro during my stay in Inaba anyway. That was when it hit me - somehow, fighting Shadows in the TV World gave me money!
I also stopped by the Velvet Room, where I took advantage of Igor's ability to fuse Personae into more powerful variations. Ukobach and Pixie became Cu Sith, a dog-like creature from Celtic myth, and I managed to have it cover multiple elements as well. Somehow, I also knew Margaret would have some answers to why Shadows dropped money, and she explained that it was a matter of perception - since people perceived that defeating enemies in video games and suchlike yielded loot, then Shadows would somehow pay out money in yen. As to why the money went only to my account instead of being distributed amongst me and my friends, I still have no idea. Might be Wild Card privileges, I dunno.
With that done, however, I decided that rescuing Yukiko was our top priority, despite the fact that we had a few more days of buffer time. After all, even if she weren't attacked by Shadows there and then, there was also the fact that she might starve or dehydrate herself, despite the fact that time didn't pass the same way in the TV World as it does in ours.
So I called up Yosuke and Chie, told them to assemble at the Junes food court, and we would them rescue the heiress from her castle. Teddie guided us to the castle, and would bring up the rear while our trio began the ascent.
With the medicines from Shiroku-san in stock, I decided to change up my tactics. If we needed to heal up injuries, using the medicines took priority over healing from Personae abilities, preferring instead to reserve our mental strength for elemental attacks.
I also learned from this foray that Chie's abilities were focused on ice attacks. "Tomoe, Bufu!" the tomboy cried out, hitting a Burning Beetle Shadow and knocking it down. However, her magical attacks weren't as strong as mine or Yosuke's, but she made up for it by somehow hitting enemies harder with the shoes she had on her feet, dealing more damage with kicks than my sword or Yosuke's blades.
Either way, it was a long and arduous trip up the castle, where we even got lost a few times and encountered foes like a formidable knight in armor, which protected Yukiko's Shadow before she ran off once more further into her own castle.
We continued further in, and while we were feeling the effects of fatigue the medicines I had prepared kept us hale and hearty. We needed every bit of energy, and on the way even encountered a strange kind of golden Shadow that resembled a hand wearing a mask where the wrist would be and with a tuxedo-like decor on the back of the hand. Cornering these Golden Hands was tricky, but once we did they proved to be able to make our Personae much stronger and my bank account several yen richer.
Eventually the four of us reached the top of the castle, where Yukiko (the real one that is) was still clad in the kimono I found her with some days ago, and her Shadow, the one in the princess gown, confronting her. Shadow Yukiko mentioned how she was looking for princes, and found three, which was strange, because there was me, and then Yosuke, so who was the third one? Probably not Teddie, so that left...
Oh, she then mentioned Chie as a strong prince. The two girls were radiating big "they were roommates" energy at that point, and somehow I still find it surprising they didn't end up together. Ah, oh well, I'm no Cupid for sure.
Shadow Yukiko continued needling her real counterpart with her insecurities, about feeling burdened to take over as eventual manager of the Amagi Inn, and that she wanted to leave Inaba and pursue a career in the big city. So that's why she was looking for "studs", then - she could use falling into a relationship as an excuse to elope and leave the inn behind.
Of course, the raven-haired lady was in vehement denial.
"No! You're not me!" I heard my third Shadow denial in not even two weeks, so I braced for yet another tough fight, but at least I had two allies (plus the bear) at my side.
Shadow Yukiko then transformed into a harpy/phoenix hybrid monster, being a woman-faced red bird ensconced within a cage with an open door. 'Twas emblematic of her being a prisoner of her own responsibilities, but the open door showed that it was all in her head - all she needed was to decide on her own.
But on to the battle. I figured, since the Shadow was red and sent jets of fire at us, then it was likely weak to Ice - so I switched to Apsaras and sent out one Bufu after another, and indicated to Chie to follow suit. It was enough to knock the bird Shadow down, using the chance to deliver All-Out Attacks. Yosuke's part was to stick to his knives and reserve his energy for healing. After a while, not unlike Chie's Shadow, Shadow Yukiko glowed white, and I switched to Orobas, anticipating her fire attacks, and signaled Chie to start guarding as I knew our ice attacks would be less effective for a bit. Shadow Yukiko then also summoned a "prince" Shadow that, I realized, would make this fight rather ugly if left untouched, so I switched ran through my options and tried Izanagi's Zio. Thankfully, that worked, so the three of us focused our attentions on the prince until it ran off, angering the bird Shadow.
By that time, however, the white aura around Shadow Yukiko had vanished, so back to Apsaras it was with Chie alongside me. It took a few more blows, but the three of us had managed to subdue the caged bird Shadow.
We then came over to the real Yukiko, who like Yosuke and Chie before her was still rather reluctant to accept her Shadow. But with Chie's confession that she wasn't as strong as she looked and Yukiko coming to terms with the fact that she did want to leave Inaba on some level, the gown-wearing Shadow then transformed into a Persona.
Yukiko's Persona took on the form of what looked like a ranger from Featherman in pink, but with wings that looked like pom-poms, giving it the overall look of a bird-like cheerleader. "Konohana-Sakuya", came the name from Yukiko's lips. Teddie then formally introduced himself, and asked who could have thrown Yukiko into the TV. She didn't know, of course - which meant that whoever was throwing people into the TV was able to subdue them and make sure they never got wind of who the culprit was. At least he was sure it wasn't us throwing people into the TV now.
And soon we ran into a rather small issue. The fact that Shadow Yukiko was rather... forward in her search for hot studs got to Teddie, and the bear mascot started hitting on her. (The worst - or best, depending on your temperament - part about this is that he'd only get worse as time progressed.) Finally, however, we were able to get Yukiko out of the TV, but her exhaustion meant that she'd have to recuperate for some time before returning to school.
With that part out of the way, though, I had then expected a return to a more mundane student life. I'd have a taste of that over the next few days, thankfully, as life in Inaba proved to be more extraordinary than not as events would show.
Boy, was I proven wrong.
Our strategy for fights thus far had been to play trial-and-error with the weaknesses of Shadows, using Yosuke's wind abilities and my Wild Card powers to cover the other elements. Teddie would be able to keep those in mind and remind me which Shadows were weak to which attacks, and thus far it worked for the most part. If either of us took significant injuries, we could heal ourselves up as well.
I began the battle against the dominatrix Shadow with an exploratory attack. "Ukobach, Agi!" I summoned the torch-carrying imp, which casted a small fireball that hit Shadow Chie for some damage, but not enough to make a significant dent. "Yosuke, you're up!" I called out to my partner. "I'm counting on you. Persona!" Yosuke cried out, summoning Jiraiya and casting a wind spell that knocked the Shadow down. Recognizing our chance, the two of us went into an All-Out Attack, hitting Shadow Chie as hard as we could until she rose back up.
This went on for quite a while, using Yosuke and Angel's ability to heal ourselves up, until the dominatrix glowed green for a brief moment. I didn't quite catch on to what had happened, until Yosuke's Garu spell basically fizzled out and didn't knock Shadow Chie down as I had expected. The mistress then glared at me, and knowing what was to come next, I grit my teeth and held my guard. That was just as well, as she hit me with a really nasty blow that bruised my arms and would have probably been worse had I not braced for the strike.
I looked at my partner and motioned for him to guard, just as the dominatrix sent out a burst of lightning that struck us both. I had managed to switch to Izanagi right there and then to protect against it, but I was more worried for Jiraiya's weakness to electric attacks. Yosuke's defensive stance prevented anything worse from happening, though, but we were pretty beat up at that point.
Teddie, however, told me right at that moment that the aura around Shadow Chie seemed to have subsided, and I told Yosuke to strike on my mark. I had switched back to Pixie at that point, and the two of us readied our wind spells. "Persona!" cried out the two of us, as Pixie and Jiraiya summoned up gusts of wind that grew stronger as they melded together, leaving the domme Shadow on her last legs. "All-Out Attack!", we roared in unison, hitting the Shadow with my sword and Yosuke's blades as hard as we could. With a scream, Shadow Chie was then defeated.
With her Shadow trounced, we rushed over to Chie, checking if she was all right. I knew that the only way to truly get rid of a Shadow was for the original to accept it - so I stood back, Yosuke telling her that he went through the same thing, and the two of us watched as Shadow Chie nodded and became a samurai lady wearing Bruce Lee's yellow track suit from Game of Death. "Tomoe", the tomboy said as she gained her own Persona. Letting Chie come to terms with her feelings for her friend, we took a break, seeing how the green-clad girl looked exhausted and needed to recover her strength. Discretion was the better part of valor, after all.
Teddie also told us that Yukiko would still be safe as long as the weather wasn't foggy in the real world, as Shadows only attacked people whenever it was foggy on our side. That meant we had a few days to rest, regroup, and prepare for the rest of Yukiko's Castle.
On our way back, Chie complained about her headache, and I realized that it was because she wasn't wearing the glasses Yosuke and I were. Thankfully, Teddie had us covered, and gave her a pair of her own to wear. The glasses fit her perfectly and made her look cute, I have to admit. (I can imagine Yosuke butting in and saying "You mean cuter, partner!" right about now, actually. Still blows my mind those two got together after all their little quarrels.)
Now there were three (four, counting the bear mascot) of us, and Yosuke admitting he wasn't the leader type, Chie being the newbie, and Teddie being, well, Teddie, pretty much put me in the leader spot by default. I once again got the feeling I had when I talked with Yosuke on the way to school a few days prior, with a card depicting a vagabond, a dog, and the number 0. "The Fool", a voice spoke within my mind. I even had a name for our small band of amateur sleuths and rescuers: The Investigation Team.
That evening, I dug into dinner with Uncle Ryotaro and Nanako. I noted the weather would be sunny for a few more days, meaning we had a grace period before Yukiko would be lost to us for good. Just as I headed to my room, however, Nanako told me to go get the phone, and on the other side of the line was King Moron, who told me to pick up my gym uniform and that he would be waiting at the gas station. I aske my uncle if I could go out, given that it was already dark and all, telling him about what Morooka had for me.
I then headed back home after getting my jersey, having had the most eventful week of my life... thus far.
----
The next morning at school, Yosuke was worried about Chie, especially given that she had just awoken to her Persona and was likely still tired. Those worries were thankfully unfounded as she arrived at school, and thanked us for helping her. She even noticed how I didn't have to face the same thing Yosuke and she did, attributing it to my open personality.
(Of course, that would be proven very, very wrong eventually, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.)
I then asked for Chie's number, at which the tomboy went very pink. Upon clarifying that it was for our Investigation Team business, however, her blush subsided and we exchanged numbers, making sure Yosuke got hers as well. As we formally welcomed Chie to the Investigation Team, another card with the number VII projected itself into my mind's eye. "The Chariot", said the same voice once more.
(So lest we forget, we have The Fool for our Investigation Team, The Magician for Yosuke, and The Chariot for Chie.)
So classes begun that day, and I learned that Kondo-sensei doubled as both gym and English teacher - mostly because he spent time in the United States. He was an ordinary teacher for the most part, however.
After classes ended that Monday, I took the time to visit the shopping district as preparation for our attempt to rescue Yukiko. We had already visited Daidara for equipment, so I went a few stores away to a general store with run-down gashapon machines outside and a matronly woman inside. Shiroku-san apparently operated the store at day and turned it into an izakaya at night, but I decided that stocking up on medicinal items for the TV World was what I needed at that moment. As for where I got the money, though? I checked my savings account and noticed it was several yen more than I had before withdrawing money for my trip to Inaba. It wasn't the monthly stipend I got from my parents, since it was only mid-April and my next one wouldn't be due until May, and they forwarded the money to Uncle Ryotaro during my stay in Inaba anyway. That was when it hit me - somehow, fighting Shadows in the TV World gave me money!
I also stopped by the Velvet Room, where I took advantage of Igor's ability to fuse Personae into more powerful variations. Ukobach and Pixie became Cu Sith, a dog-like creature from Celtic myth, and I managed to have it cover multiple elements as well. Somehow, I also knew Margaret would have some answers to why Shadows dropped money, and she explained that it was a matter of perception - since people perceived that defeating enemies in video games and suchlike yielded loot, then Shadows would somehow pay out money in yen. As to why the money went only to my account instead of being distributed amongst me and my friends, I still have no idea. Might be Wild Card privileges, I dunno.
With that done, however, I decided that rescuing Yukiko was our top priority, despite the fact that we had a few more days of buffer time. After all, even if she weren't attacked by Shadows there and then, there was also the fact that she might starve or dehydrate herself, despite the fact that time didn't pass the same way in the TV World as it does in ours.
So I called up Yosuke and Chie, told them to assemble at the Junes food court, and we would them rescue the heiress from her castle. Teddie guided us to the castle, and would bring up the rear while our trio began the ascent.
With the medicines from Shiroku-san in stock, I decided to change up my tactics. If we needed to heal up injuries, using the medicines took priority over healing from Personae abilities, preferring instead to reserve our mental strength for elemental attacks.
I also learned from this foray that Chie's abilities were focused on ice attacks. "Tomoe, Bufu!" the tomboy cried out, hitting a Burning Beetle Shadow and knocking it down. However, her magical attacks weren't as strong as mine or Yosuke's, but she made up for it by somehow hitting enemies harder with the shoes she had on her feet, dealing more damage with kicks than my sword or Yosuke's blades.
Either way, it was a long and arduous trip up the castle, where we even got lost a few times and encountered foes like a formidable knight in armor, which protected Yukiko's Shadow before she ran off once more further into her own castle.
We continued further in, and while we were feeling the effects of fatigue the medicines I had prepared kept us hale and hearty. We needed every bit of energy, and on the way even encountered a strange kind of golden Shadow that resembled a hand wearing a mask where the wrist would be and with a tuxedo-like decor on the back of the hand. Cornering these Golden Hands was tricky, but once we did they proved to be able to make our Personae much stronger and my bank account several yen richer.
Eventually the four of us reached the top of the castle, where Yukiko (the real one that is) was still clad in the kimono I found her with some days ago, and her Shadow, the one in the princess gown, confronting her. Shadow Yukiko mentioned how she was looking for princes, and found three, which was strange, because there was me, and then Yosuke, so who was the third one? Probably not Teddie, so that left...
Oh, she then mentioned Chie as a strong prince. The two girls were radiating big "they were roommates" energy at that point, and somehow I still find it surprising they didn't end up together. Ah, oh well, I'm no Cupid for sure.
Shadow Yukiko continued needling her real counterpart with her insecurities, about feeling burdened to take over as eventual manager of the Amagi Inn, and that she wanted to leave Inaba and pursue a career in the big city. So that's why she was looking for "studs", then - she could use falling into a relationship as an excuse to elope and leave the inn behind.
Of course, the raven-haired lady was in vehement denial.
"No! You're not me!" I heard my third Shadow denial in not even two weeks, so I braced for yet another tough fight, but at least I had two allies (plus the bear) at my side.
Shadow Yukiko then transformed into a harpy/phoenix hybrid monster, being a woman-faced red bird ensconced within a cage with an open door. 'Twas emblematic of her being a prisoner of her own responsibilities, but the open door showed that it was all in her head - all she needed was to decide on her own.
But on to the battle. I figured, since the Shadow was red and sent jets of fire at us, then it was likely weak to Ice - so I switched to Apsaras and sent out one Bufu after another, and indicated to Chie to follow suit. It was enough to knock the bird Shadow down, using the chance to deliver All-Out Attacks. Yosuke's part was to stick to his knives and reserve his energy for healing. After a while, not unlike Chie's Shadow, Shadow Yukiko glowed white, and I switched to Orobas, anticipating her fire attacks, and signaled Chie to start guarding as I knew our ice attacks would be less effective for a bit. Shadow Yukiko then also summoned a "prince" Shadow that, I realized, would make this fight rather ugly if left untouched, so I switched ran through my options and tried Izanagi's Zio. Thankfully, that worked, so the three of us focused our attentions on the prince until it ran off, angering the bird Shadow.
By that time, however, the white aura around Shadow Yukiko had vanished, so back to Apsaras it was with Chie alongside me. It took a few more blows, but the three of us had managed to subdue the caged bird Shadow.
We then came over to the real Yukiko, who like Yosuke and Chie before her was still rather reluctant to accept her Shadow. But with Chie's confession that she wasn't as strong as she looked and Yukiko coming to terms with the fact that she did want to leave Inaba on some level, the gown-wearing Shadow then transformed into a Persona.
Yukiko's Persona took on the form of what looked like a ranger from Featherman in pink, but with wings that looked like pom-poms, giving it the overall look of a bird-like cheerleader. "Konohana-Sakuya", came the name from Yukiko's lips. Teddie then formally introduced himself, and asked who could have thrown Yukiko into the TV. She didn't know, of course - which meant that whoever was throwing people into the TV was able to subdue them and make sure they never got wind of who the culprit was. At least he was sure it wasn't us throwing people into the TV now.
And soon we ran into a rather small issue. The fact that Shadow Yukiko was rather... forward in her search for hot studs got to Teddie, and the bear mascot started hitting on her. (The worst - or best, depending on your temperament - part about this is that he'd only get worse as time progressed.) Finally, however, we were able to get Yukiko out of the TV, but her exhaustion meant that she'd have to recuperate for some time before returning to school.
With that part out of the way, though, I had then expected a return to a more mundane student life. I'd have a taste of that over the next few days, thankfully, as life in Inaba proved to be more extraordinary than not as events would show.
Chapter 6: Building Bonds And Creating Connections
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
Changes are slowly, but surely coming. You might have noticed that we've avoided the bit where Yosuke waves around weapons at Junes like a dummy.
Anyhow, Chapter 6!
----
Tuesday came and the first thing that morning I got after getting dressed was a phone call from Margaret. The caller ID read "unknown number", and I still don't get how the Velvet Room interacts with regular cell networks. Maybe it's cognition magic? Anyhow, she told me about how interacting with people and forming bonds was just as important to my journey as was going through dungeons in the TV World. Apparently making completing these Social Links would earn me something magical.
So interact with various people while not off gallivanting in a world inside a television defeating monsters borne of the human psyche. Got it.
On the way to school, I couldn't help but fall behind two guys in my year, one shorter than me in the standard Yasogami uniform and having dark, somehow bluish, hair, and the other a taller brunet in the gym tracksuit. Overhearing their talk about the school clubs opening up membership and other stuff like a new female manager for the teams, and a creature that lived at the local shrine, I couldn't help but feel these would be important in the days to come. Chie had also mentioned to us the night before through the phone that Yukiko would be recuperating for a couple of weeks, after her exhausting kidnapping, and unknown to most, her time in the TV World and awakening her Persona. That meant, then, I had two weeks to do other stuff, like making new friends, establishing student life at Yasogami, and taking steps to becoming Inaba's local Renaissance Man.
Class was relatively humdrum, as well, and I figured might as well ask King Moron for some advice on the clubs here at Yasogami High. The man may be an abrasive jerkwad, but he was definitely one of the less kooky teachers I had that year, as odd as it may sound. Shame about what happened to him, though. The gist of it was that Yasogami supported two sports teams at the time (though they've been adding more as of late, as Inaba has grown in both population and prosperity) and I could pick between the basketball and football clubs, and as for the cultural clubs I could pick between the drama and music clubs.
Since I was more skilled with an orange ball than a white-and-black one, and the fact that I didn't bring my bass with me to Inaba, I decided to join the basketball and drama clubs instead.
First off, a trip to the basketball court. Kondo-sensei introduced me to the basketball team, who were led by the same blue-haired guy from that morning. I had wanted to show off my moves - including my near-perfect corner three and sweet pull-up J, but I was told to watch the team go through their sets instead.
Blue-haired Boy showed off his skills, between a tight handle and a lethal floater this guy was clearly a pretty good high school point guard. He'd need a growth spurt to make it to the pros, but otherwise his skill set was tight. The basketball club had just almost wrapped up their practice when Tracksuit Guy from earlier came in, and soon Kou Ichijo (he of the implausibly blue hair) and Daisuke Nagase (he of the tracksuit) came into my lives. Another card came to my mind, depicting a woman and a lion with the number XI at the bottom. "Strength", the now-familiar voice came to my mind there and then.
(On a side note: Kou wouldn't be the last person I met with somehow natural blue hair. Ai confirmed to me his hair really was blue, but I'd rather not let Kou know I learned that from her.)
It was almost sundown when we wrapped up that day, so I walked home part of the way with my new athletic friends.
Nanako welcomed me back - Uncle Ryotaro definitely still busy with cop work. I used the evening to study after a quick dinner with my cousin, and not having the stress of the Midnight Channel certainly helped my focus.
----
Wednesday came, and it was more of the same. Hosoi-sensei was our Classical Literature teacher, and he somehow was nuttier than Sofue-sensei and her pharaoh garb, as he wore a hand-puppet of himself that I bet houses his real brain - the human is just a meat puppet. Yosuke got called up on the spot, and murmuring the answer to him, I felt our friendship improve a little bit.
The time for school came and went, and instead of hanging out with my Investigation Team friends or my athletic buds, I went on a whim to the shopping district, where the Velvet Room's siren call had me looking in. All three were in attendance, and after I looked through my fusion options - nothing too exciting at this point, though - Margaret asked a favor of me, to take Marie outside and have her interact with the outside world.
Whether it was foreknowledge of her future role or the fact that I sometimes have a hard time saying "no", I was then dragooned into walking a girl straight out of a manga through the sleepy streets of Inaba. First we went to Souzai Daigaku, a local street food place, where in the midst of munching on steak skewers Marie asked me why they called it steak and not "fsteak". (She wouldn't be alone calling it that, by the way - Chie does that from time to time too!). I was frankly stumped for an answer, but I pointed out that "fsteak" sounds odd to people not used to it. Yosuke ran into us and helped make sure things weren't that awkward, and treated us to some more helpings of "fsteak" as well.
Then we climbed the hill overlooking town, and I overheard her making some poetry on the fly. After sating her appetite for the view, she wanted to see more places, and just before we got someplace else, yet another card appeared in my mind's eye. This time, it was gold, depicted an Egyptian god of some sort, and had the number XX on it. "Aeon", said the voice once more to me. That was odd - from what I knew, the XX card was Judgement, so maybe this was from another deck I wasn't aware of. Either way, that was two bonds formed within a day, bringing me to five total.
----
Thursday came, and class proved to be rather plain for once. On a whim, I decided to spend time with Yosuke that day. I could feel Orobas thrumming as I realized its Arcana, the Magician, matched that of Yosuke's and could help improve our bond faster. Don't ask me the details of how that works - apparently it's still the same animé power of friendship magic that powers most of my Wild Card stuff.
So anyhow, Yosuke and I spent some time at Souzai Daigaku, and if the shopkeepr ever thought it strange that the two of us had snacks there two days in a row, they never really showed it. He bristled when a local housewife came along and did what housewives in small towns do best: passive-aggressive judging. Yosuke was, to an extent, the local whipping boy - new kid in town, plus the baggage of being the son of the local Junes manager and therefore The Plague That Was Killing Local Business.
That evening, Uncle Ryotaro came in and brought along Adachi for dinner. Adachi told us that the police couldn't get any leads on who kidnapped Yukiko, after which my uncle predictably berated him for disclosing case information to people not in the clear. At the time, I thought he was just being helpful, if bumbling, but now we knew better.
Friday was similarly hum-drum, and after reading a tip online on TaP Soda somehow giving people bursts of mental energy, I decided to stock up on some for trips to the TV World. How I was able to fit those cans within a small bag on our forays still boggles my mind to this day. I then ran into Yosuke, and since neither of us had much to do got on the train to Okina, which was the closest thing to urban life either of us had since moving to this place. Once again, I could feel my bond with the Prince of Junes improve. I spent the evening reading up on more books about Manliness, and soon enough another day came and went.
The next few days came as a blur, during which I managed to win a spot as starting shooting guard for the basketball club - if anyone mentions the Killer Backcourt of 2011 in Inaba, look for me or Kou - and I watched as Yosuke handled some Karens-in-the-making by pointing out they were shirking their already part-time work a bit too much.
Monday the 25th came, and I decided to put another feather in my Yasogami cap by joining the drama club. They looked to be a generally enthusiastic sort - if dominated by the ladies - and a short-haired girl wearing her hair with clips was bossing even the club president. Scary, I thought, and that was with a feisty tomboy as one of my new friends in this town. I could see where she was coming from, though - Mr Club President was clearly more engrossed in simping for his not-quite-girlfriend Mi-tan over interpretations of drama works. Hair Clip Girl introduced herself as Yumi Ozawa. Yumi subjected me to rigorous one-on-one practice for our roles (no, not that way! And if you're reading this, Rise, it was definitely just that!) and then I could feel the familiar thrum of yet another Social Link opening. "The Sun", the card announced itself as the familiar face of Le Soleil and the number XIX made itself known to me.
The days came by in a blur after that episode with Yumi, during which Chie made me her sparring partner, I took my first jab at the Aiya Mega Beef Bowl Challenge (and had to shell out a whopping 3000 yen), and Yumi's near-maniacal dedication to the drama club spooked me. Our role, incidentally, was as husband and wife (no, Rise, it was only for a play!)
Before I knew it, however, Golden Week was upon us, and the next chapter of our wonderful tale would begin.
Chapter 7: The Fourth Musketeer, And A Not-So-Golden Week
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
Have a new chapter on me.
Showa Day came on the 29th - a Friday - and I decided to spend the day attempting the Mega Beef Bowl challenge once more, given that it was raining. Instead of the middle-aged proprietor manning the store, however, I found a blue-haired girl I recognized from my class, Aika. Usually she spent her time outside school running deliveries for her family shop, so seeing her behind the counter was a surprising deal. Alas, seeing a familiar face did little to improve my performance - though it was still better than my maiden attempt. Feeling sheepish, I handed over the 3000 yen to Aika and called it a day.
I spent that evening watching the news with my uncle and cousin Nanako, and I made a mental note about the next day being foggy. With Yukiko safe and sound and the Midnight Channel quiet since we rescued her, I felt I could relax on that front - though watching it tonight was of importance, as someone might have been thrown into the TV again.
Golden Week had just begun, and the stretch of three days off mid-week looked enticing, and even Uncle Ryotaro pointed out that if things were light at the police department then the three of us could have a family outing together. Naturally, Nanako volunteered to go to Junes, given that it really was her favorite place in her admittedly small world. My uncle didn't force me to go with them, but all the same told me to consider taking the trip with them.
I sighed in relief as I watched the Midnight Channel that night, and found naught but static.
The next day came, the end of April. I found Yukiko waiting for me at the school gate, finally having recovered from her ordeal. I told her I was glad to see her again, and the two of us headed to class together.
Our first class of the day was with Yamada-sensei, whose sweater vest and grey hair made him look like a giant dweeb (Not that I, a guy who's had a similar hair color since childhood and always pops his collars, can talk.) His speech reminded me a bit of an overgrown Yosuke, however - making comments about cute girls a third his age made me make a mental reminder to reign in my friend's wannabe Casanova behavior. Yamada-sensei was already a bit sketchy, and I didn't want Yosuke to end up like him, or worse, like that disgraced volleyball coach who made headlines some years ago. Of course, he asked me a question about Martian geography that I thankfully got right, so at least I wasn't on his shit list (if he even had one like King Moron).
The three members of the Investigation Team (Chie, Yosuke, and I) then met up at the rooftop, where Yukiko met us and gave Chie her own bowl of ramen. While watching our friends slurp down the tasty noodles, we asked Yukiko her version of events, hoping that the time off had cleared her head and given us some leads. However, it seems that time had only worsened her recollection of events, with one exception - she remembered that whoever it was that abducted her rang the doorbell of the inn, meaning it was certainly someone rather daring. It would also have to be someone relatively inconspicuous, given that whoever was at the inn at the time didn't realize something was off until Yukiko was gone.
It was then I realized that the inn heiress could prove to be a valuable ally in our investigation. After all, she was the only other person we knew who had a Persona apart from us three, and she was already good friends with Chie, so I decided to formally welcome her into the Investigation Team, feeling that familiar thrum from The Fool as well.
As our first act as a quartet, we went through what we knew of the case thus far. The most obvious clue was that all of them were in Inaba at the time of their abduction. Another one was that all three victims thus far, Yukiko included, were female. The third one was that all had appeared on television before they appeared on the Midnight Channel - Yamano was involved in that love triangle which received news coverage, Saki-senpai was the witness to Yamano's body, and Yukiko was interviewed due to Yamano staying at the Amagi Inn prior to her death. As we didn't have any lead on who the kidnapper and/or murderer was, our best bet was to check the Midnight Channel on who the next victim would be, who then in turn would likely have appeared on regular TV first.
The fact that Yosuke and I owed the girls steak for slurping down their bowls of ramen was worth it, mind you.
So there we were, sitting at the Junes food court - which had become a sort-of HQ, given its proximity to our TV portal - when Detective Adachi found us, and given that he couldn't shut his mouth like my uncle or other detectives did, we asked him for any leads on the case in a totally innocuous way. He told us what he knew of the case, and the fact that he was still so blasé about giving teenagers info about real crimes was still pinging my gut feelings. That said, he was a cop giving away info on unsolved cases to us, and we were still kinda naïve about the whole thing, so we took his word for it.
To formally welcome Yukiko into the Investigation Team, the four of us decided to enter the TV World, where Teddie welcome us and gave Yukiko her fog glasses... which turned out to be a pair of Groucho glasses! Somehow Yukiko found the whole thing rather amusing, and the façade of prim and proper model student the heiress gave off gained a crack in it, as Yukiko got into one of those long bouts of laughter we came to know and love. After getting it out of her system, Teddie gave her the real pair of fog glasses meant for her, with red frames as befitting her favorite color.
That evening Uncle Ryotaro let us know that, contingent on his availability, that the three of us could go on a trip as a family, even likely going out of Inaba. Nanako was ecstatic - seeing her dad at home was already an uncommon event for her, so getting to spend time with my uncle on a vacation would put her over the moon, Junes or not.
May began on a Sunday, and I decided to spend the day with a friend, finding Marie right outside the door to the Velvet Room. Chie decided to tag along with us, and we found ourselves at Junes, going through the electronics section (where Marie showed some interest in the TVs) and ending our time together at the food court, where we helped ourselves to some grilled steak. The steak at Junes wasn't as good as the stores at the shopping district, but it was nice all the same, plus I managed to pay Chie back for what I owed her in terms of steaks.
The next day was Monday, our last school day before Golden Week proper began. King Moron's philosophy lesson was surprisingly interesting, where I learned that Pythagoras was more than just a mathematician - it appeared he was also a philosopher of some sort. We took Yukiko on a test run within the TV that day, curious to what Konohana-Sakuya's powers were and what the heiress' fighting style was, in contrast to my swordfighting and Yosuke and Chie LARPing as a ninja and martial artist respectively.
It turned out that Yukiko used hand fans in combat, and was in many ways her best friend's polar opposite in a fight: her physical attacks were the weakest among us four, but her magic abilities exceeded the rest of us, barring my more magically oriented Personae. She had access to fire magic - "Maragi!", came her cry, scorching a whole group of enemies at once - and was also by far our best healer, lightening the load Yosuke and I had in terms of keeping us hale and hearty. We ended our trial run by coming across a king-like Shadow where Shadow Yukiko fought us, and the fight was enough of a challenge with its deadly rampages, but we did pull through and got ourselves a nice fan for Yukiko for our troubles.
That night brought some sad news. Uncle Ryotaro called us from the police station, stating that some last-minute workload meant that we wouldn't have our family outing together. Nanako looked crestfallen, which tugged at my heart, and I needed a way to salvage the situation. Between that and midterms beginning next week right after Golden Week, I had to plan my next moves carefully, and that was before taking into account Investigation Team business. So that evening, with no kidnappings or murders in the news, I decided to study instead.
The next day was the start of the holidays, Constitution Day. Chie called on us, telling us that she and Yukiko were spending the day together. Since I had nothing planned, and Operation Cheer Up Nanako was a-go, I asked if she could come along, to which Chie replied in the affirmative. We then decided to go to Junes, so that we could get Yosuke in on the fun as well. The five of us (Nanako included) spent some time around the department store, and we spent lunch time at the food court, where Nanako marveled at the choices of food available, keeping in mind that I was the only person in our household with above average cooking skills. Chie asked her how the food compared to her mom's cooking - to which my cousin replied that her mother passed away some time ago. (Oh, so that was why Aunt Chisato wasn't around. Not that I really knew her, though.)
Operation Cheer Up Nanako did have a silver lining to it, despite the morose turn our day at Junes went - Nanako was indeed happier by the time we got home, and another Social Link had formed in my mind. "Justice", the voice said as I saw a pair of scales and the number VIII.
Day 2 of the holidays came - Nature Day (and Star Wars Day to some people out there). I spent the day as Chie's punching bag again, but with Nanako dropping by and letting Chie play the Cool Big Sis... until a bug appeared. (Seems that the tomboy had a girly streak of her own then.)
The three-day holiday came to a close with Children's Day. Ironically, that was the holiday I spent with Nanako the least - instead opting to drop by Tatsuhime Shrine, remembering the rumors I overheard about a strange creature living there. A fox with a red scarf and an ema around its neck appeared to me, and the ema had a leaf attached to it. The leaf smelled of herbs, and after the fox gave me a look I took the leaf and the fox went off, disappearing to who knew where. Just at that point an old man with creaky knees came by, saw the leaf I had, and asked if he could take the leaf for pain relief. I gave it to him, and the feeling of helping another citizen of Inaba made me glad, and the stirrings of yet another bond formed went into my mind. "The Hermit", rang the familiar voice as a lamp, an eye and the number IX flashed in my head. Still feels surreal forming a deeper than normal bond with an animal, of all things.
The weekend ended on a higher note, as Uncle Ryotaro came home and got us gifts for Children's Day, even if at sixteen going on seventeen I was bit too old for it. Nanako got a cute shirt with a platypus on it, and I got some nice swimming trunks, perfect for a beach trip. (Spoiler alert: I did go to the beach later that year.)
Man, Inaba was proving to be a crazy and bizarre town, though noisy isn't quite an apt description for it.
----
Showa Day came on the 29th - a Friday - and I decided to spend the day attempting the Mega Beef Bowl challenge once more, given that it was raining. Instead of the middle-aged proprietor manning the store, however, I found a blue-haired girl I recognized from my class, Aika. Usually she spent her time outside school running deliveries for her family shop, so seeing her behind the counter was a surprising deal. Alas, seeing a familiar face did little to improve my performance - though it was still better than my maiden attempt. Feeling sheepish, I handed over the 3000 yen to Aika and called it a day.
I spent that evening watching the news with my uncle and cousin Nanako, and I made a mental note about the next day being foggy. With Yukiko safe and sound and the Midnight Channel quiet since we rescued her, I felt I could relax on that front - though watching it tonight was of importance, as someone might have been thrown into the TV again.
Golden Week had just begun, and the stretch of three days off mid-week looked enticing, and even Uncle Ryotaro pointed out that if things were light at the police department then the three of us could have a family outing together. Naturally, Nanako volunteered to go to Junes, given that it really was her favorite place in her admittedly small world. My uncle didn't force me to go with them, but all the same told me to consider taking the trip with them.
I sighed in relief as I watched the Midnight Channel that night, and found naught but static.
The next day came, the end of April. I found Yukiko waiting for me at the school gate, finally having recovered from her ordeal. I told her I was glad to see her again, and the two of us headed to class together.
Our first class of the day was with Yamada-sensei, whose sweater vest and grey hair made him look like a giant dweeb (Not that I, a guy who's had a similar hair color since childhood and always pops his collars, can talk.) His speech reminded me a bit of an overgrown Yosuke, however - making comments about cute girls a third his age made me make a mental reminder to reign in my friend's wannabe Casanova behavior. Yamada-sensei was already a bit sketchy, and I didn't want Yosuke to end up like him, or worse, like that disgraced volleyball coach who made headlines some years ago. Of course, he asked me a question about Martian geography that I thankfully got right, so at least I wasn't on his shit list (if he even had one like King Moron).
The three members of the Investigation Team (Chie, Yosuke, and I) then met up at the rooftop, where Yukiko met us and gave Chie her own bowl of ramen. While watching our friends slurp down the tasty noodles, we asked Yukiko her version of events, hoping that the time off had cleared her head and given us some leads. However, it seems that time had only worsened her recollection of events, with one exception - she remembered that whoever it was that abducted her rang the doorbell of the inn, meaning it was certainly someone rather daring. It would also have to be someone relatively inconspicuous, given that whoever was at the inn at the time didn't realize something was off until Yukiko was gone.
It was then I realized that the inn heiress could prove to be a valuable ally in our investigation. After all, she was the only other person we knew who had a Persona apart from us three, and she was already good friends with Chie, so I decided to formally welcome her into the Investigation Team, feeling that familiar thrum from The Fool as well.
As our first act as a quartet, we went through what we knew of the case thus far. The most obvious clue was that all of them were in Inaba at the time of their abduction. Another one was that all three victims thus far, Yukiko included, were female. The third one was that all had appeared on television before they appeared on the Midnight Channel - Yamano was involved in that love triangle which received news coverage, Saki-senpai was the witness to Yamano's body, and Yukiko was interviewed due to Yamano staying at the Amagi Inn prior to her death. As we didn't have any lead on who the kidnapper and/or murderer was, our best bet was to check the Midnight Channel on who the next victim would be, who then in turn would likely have appeared on regular TV first.
The fact that Yosuke and I owed the girls steak for slurping down their bowls of ramen was worth it, mind you.
So there we were, sitting at the Junes food court - which had become a sort-of HQ, given its proximity to our TV portal - when Detective Adachi found us, and given that he couldn't shut his mouth like my uncle or other detectives did, we asked him for any leads on the case in a totally innocuous way. He told us what he knew of the case, and the fact that he was still so blasé about giving teenagers info about real crimes was still pinging my gut feelings. That said, he was a cop giving away info on unsolved cases to us, and we were still kinda naïve about the whole thing, so we took his word for it.
To formally welcome Yukiko into the Investigation Team, the four of us decided to enter the TV World, where Teddie welcome us and gave Yukiko her fog glasses... which turned out to be a pair of Groucho glasses! Somehow Yukiko found the whole thing rather amusing, and the façade of prim and proper model student the heiress gave off gained a crack in it, as Yukiko got into one of those long bouts of laughter we came to know and love. After getting it out of her system, Teddie gave her the real pair of fog glasses meant for her, with red frames as befitting her favorite color.
That evening Uncle Ryotaro let us know that, contingent on his availability, that the three of us could go on a trip as a family, even likely going out of Inaba. Nanako was ecstatic - seeing her dad at home was already an uncommon event for her, so getting to spend time with my uncle on a vacation would put her over the moon, Junes or not.
----
May began on a Sunday, and I decided to spend the day with a friend, finding Marie right outside the door to the Velvet Room. Chie decided to tag along with us, and we found ourselves at Junes, going through the electronics section (where Marie showed some interest in the TVs) and ending our time together at the food court, where we helped ourselves to some grilled steak. The steak at Junes wasn't as good as the stores at the shopping district, but it was nice all the same, plus I managed to pay Chie back for what I owed her in terms of steaks.
The next day was Monday, our last school day before Golden Week proper began. King Moron's philosophy lesson was surprisingly interesting, where I learned that Pythagoras was more than just a mathematician - it appeared he was also a philosopher of some sort. We took Yukiko on a test run within the TV that day, curious to what Konohana-Sakuya's powers were and what the heiress' fighting style was, in contrast to my swordfighting and Yosuke and Chie LARPing as a ninja and martial artist respectively.
It turned out that Yukiko used hand fans in combat, and was in many ways her best friend's polar opposite in a fight: her physical attacks were the weakest among us four, but her magic abilities exceeded the rest of us, barring my more magically oriented Personae. She had access to fire magic - "Maragi!", came her cry, scorching a whole group of enemies at once - and was also by far our best healer, lightening the load Yosuke and I had in terms of keeping us hale and hearty. We ended our trial run by coming across a king-like Shadow where Shadow Yukiko fought us, and the fight was enough of a challenge with its deadly rampages, but we did pull through and got ourselves a nice fan for Yukiko for our troubles.
That night brought some sad news. Uncle Ryotaro called us from the police station, stating that some last-minute workload meant that we wouldn't have our family outing together. Nanako looked crestfallen, which tugged at my heart, and I needed a way to salvage the situation. Between that and midterms beginning next week right after Golden Week, I had to plan my next moves carefully, and that was before taking into account Investigation Team business. So that evening, with no kidnappings or murders in the news, I decided to study instead.
The next day was the start of the holidays, Constitution Day. Chie called on us, telling us that she and Yukiko were spending the day together. Since I had nothing planned, and Operation Cheer Up Nanako was a-go, I asked if she could come along, to which Chie replied in the affirmative. We then decided to go to Junes, so that we could get Yosuke in on the fun as well. The five of us (Nanako included) spent some time around the department store, and we spent lunch time at the food court, where Nanako marveled at the choices of food available, keeping in mind that I was the only person in our household with above average cooking skills. Chie asked her how the food compared to her mom's cooking - to which my cousin replied that her mother passed away some time ago. (Oh, so that was why Aunt Chisato wasn't around. Not that I really knew her, though.)
Operation Cheer Up Nanako did have a silver lining to it, despite the morose turn our day at Junes went - Nanako was indeed happier by the time we got home, and another Social Link had formed in my mind. "Justice", the voice said as I saw a pair of scales and the number VIII.
Day 2 of the holidays came - Nature Day (and Star Wars Day to some people out there). I spent the day as Chie's punching bag again, but with Nanako dropping by and letting Chie play the Cool Big Sis... until a bug appeared. (Seems that the tomboy had a girly streak of her own then.)
The three-day holiday came to a close with Children's Day. Ironically, that was the holiday I spent with Nanako the least - instead opting to drop by Tatsuhime Shrine, remembering the rumors I overheard about a strange creature living there. A fox with a red scarf and an ema around its neck appeared to me, and the ema had a leaf attached to it. The leaf smelled of herbs, and after the fox gave me a look I took the leaf and the fox went off, disappearing to who knew where. Just at that point an old man with creaky knees came by, saw the leaf I had, and asked if he could take the leaf for pain relief. I gave it to him, and the feeling of helping another citizen of Inaba made me glad, and the stirrings of yet another bond formed went into my mind. "The Hermit", rang the familiar voice as a lamp, an eye and the number IX flashed in my head. Still feels surreal forming a deeper than normal bond with an animal, of all things.
The weekend ended on a higher note, as Uncle Ryotaro came home and got us gifts for Children's Day, even if at sixteen going on seventeen I was bit too old for it. Nanako got a cute shirt with a platypus on it, and I got some nice swimming trunks, perfect for a beach trip. (Spoiler alert: I did go to the beach later that year.)
Man, Inaba was proving to be a crazy and bizarre town, though noisy isn't quite an apt description for it.
Chapter 8: (Aiya)yayayaya
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
Two more school days before our midterms started on Monday, with Friday being largely uneventful outside of Yukiko slapping Yosuke in the face after the latter asked for private lessons with the studious girl. Now, granted, I knew he really meant that, but the Amagi Challenge making Yukiko wary of guys talking to her combined with my friend's uncanny ability to make anything sound like an innuendo really earned him that slap.
On a whim I decided to take a look at part-time jobs to fill my time with, as ill-timed as it was due to exams approaching. Given my academic performance I could cut myself some slack anyway, plus, there was a chance of more Social Links to be had. I decided on a daycare job that I'd need to take the bus for, so I went, got on the bus at the stop in the Shopping District, and found myself at the daycare.
As expected, the children were a handful. Playing along with them certainly helped, though, and they came to see me as the "weird caretaker who's fun anyway". One of the kids in particular, Yuuta, remained behind as the other children were picked up by their parents or guardians at the end of the day, and I learned why. A woman, not much older than me, approached Yuuta, and the boy went and ran away from her. I learned from the supervisor that the woman was Yuuta's stepmother, and that was why the boy, who normally was sociable and energetic, did a 180 around the young woman. (Spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending, though!)
That evening, I found Uncle Ryotaro at the Western-style table, a rarity these days. I took the rare chance of getting to talk with him, and the two of us decided to talk about things like school, my friends, and the fact that I seemed to be awfully close to the events around town. Nanako came in, thinking her dad was bullying me, but I understood - she thought my uncle was rather overbearing on me, but I realized that it was just his detective self coming to the forefront. And as I expected, yet another card, this time with a bishop's hat and the number V on it, appeared in my mind. "The Hierophant", the voice rang in my head again.
The next day was a rather stormy day, and I learned that Chie was a bit keraunophobic - that is, she feared thunder and lightning. Yosuke, being Mr I Keep Putting My Foot Inside My Mouth Whenever I Talk, managed to irk the green-clad martial artist, to the point where I wasn't surprised when I learned that the storm had knocked out the power across town, Junes included, and compromised Yosuke's chance at a bonus to help him save for a motorbike. Guess he really was weak to electricity then.
After dropping by Aiya for another try at the Beef Bowl Challenge (and spending 60% of my paycheck from the daycare after failing again), I decided to go home and spend some time with Nanako, who had taken to calling me Big Bro.
Sunday arrived, and I spent time with Yosuke, who even accompanied me to my room... and promptly asked where I kept my own stash of literature of ill repute. (Never change, Yosuke, never change.) I told him I don't really keep any, and despite my reputation as a chick magnet I had never even asked out a girl, let alone kissed one at that point. I prefer to think of myself as a one-woman man, anyway - and spoiler alert, I'd find that woman within that year.
That evening I was reminded that it was Mother's Day by Nanako, of all people. Since my own mother was working overseas and Nanako's mom was, well, gone, she didn't know what to do with the Mother's Day gift she made. So I decided to take on a chance and told her to put the flowers on the family altar instead, as a way to honor Aunt Chisato.
I spent the rest of the evening cramming in some last-minute studying for the midterms, realizing I had a good grasp on the subject matter.
Monday to Thursday were spent on the midterms, which I was fairly sure were not difficult, and by Thursday afternoon the four of us had gathered to compare notes on how we felt we did. The thing about examination systems around the world is that they reward a certain kind of intelligence, placing emphasis on memorization and reasoning, while disfavoring others. I noticed that while Yukiko and I tended to excel within the standard framework, Yosuke (who was a more intuitive thinker who also frankly didn't apply himself at school) and Chie (who was more of a kinesthetic learner, given how quickly she picked up martial arts moves) were less suited to the standard teaching style. They weren't dumb, just that the school system wasn't built to make the most out of their unique talents.
That day I did overhear about some scuffle between biker gangs that happened around this time. Totally nothing worth noting, hehe. Apparently a first-year student from Yasogami was already making a name for himself since middle school, getting into fights with the biker gangs and all. That kid must have been big and strong for his age, given that he was barely in his teens but was still getting into fights with grown men... and apparently winning.
With exams over, I decided to put academics on the back burner and went to basketball practice with Kou instead. In particular the two of us worked on our chemistry, knowing when he would pass and me teaching him where my sweet spots on the floor were. After practice Daisuke came over, and the three of us talked about balls, with Kou making it sound less innocent than it really was. (We were teenage boys, of course, who have a habit of making everything sound less innocent.)
The next day, after school, I went to Junes, whereupon I chanced upon Adachi at Junes, slacking off and shirking detective work. On the off chance he was a Social Link, I decided to hang out with him, despite the fact that indulging someone in their worst habits was a Bad Idea for the most part. Anyhow, Adachi took the opportunity to whine about his reassignment to Inaba, given that he apparently had nobody else to serve as a sounding board, and I was proven right when a clownlike figure with the number 0 appeared in my head again. "The Jester", it said to me.
The fact that Adachi's Arcana was a variation of the Arcana of our Investigation Team spooked me, but I excused it as him being a bumbling police detective in contrast with us as amateur investigators.
That evening a news report came on about the biker gangs, and a young man telling the news crews to screw off. Apparently, the boy, named Kanji Tatsumi, was well known to the Inaba police for fighting off gangs since middle school, meaning that rumor I heard the day before was right on the money.
The next day, the Investigation Team agreed to watch the Midnight Channel, given that the weather was acting up again and the Tatsumi boy receiving news attention likely meant he might be the next target. Sure enough, the Midnight Channel showed an silhouette... of a tall man (or boy). I had a hunch our biker gang beater was involved, but we had no way to make sure of it for now.
Sunday came, and the weather was kind enough to let us meet at the food court and discuss our next move. We realized that the pattern of the victims being all women didn't hold, given that the silhouette was clearly that of a guy, so we filed that away as a red herring. Yukiko also pointed out that since the image was still faint, it meant that whoever the next victim wasn't thrown into the TV yet.
That evening, the image was a bit clearer, showing off a swaggering man dressed up like a delinquent. That really meant Tatsumi was our big lead then.
Yosuke then called, and in typical Yosuke fashion, asked me if I preferred Chie or Yukiko. I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't think of my female friends that way.
The next day Yukiko briefed us on what she knew about the Tatsumi boy. His family ran a textiles shop located right next to the shrine, and the reason she was familiar with him was that the Inn was one of their customers - understandably so, since someone had to have created all the kimonos the staff wore. With that in min, the four of us went to Tatsumi Textiles to glean some information.
We found Tatsumi-san chatting with a rather short kid, with blue hair (there it is again!) and wearing a blue coat and hat that matched their hair color. The kid was an investigator of some sort, based on what I heard from the discussion the two were having. That being said, our leads from the textiles shop were frankly thin - the only thing they had in common was a scarf Yamano wore, which admittedly wasn't much to go on.
It was as we left the shop that things took an interesting turn. The blue kid from earlier was speaking to Kanji, and the latter was getting flustered, because a young kid much smaller than he seemed to be showing interest in him. Now I've got no problem with that (and it was something I had to show Yosuke as well, but that's a story for another time), but if you're in a rather traditional society like Japan the prospect of having someone of the same sex show interest in you can be rather shocking at best.
(Of course, not all things are as they appear, but again I'm getting ahead of myself).
Either way, the four of us, acting as the Investigation Team, decided to stake out Kanji the next day.
Our stakeout started at Yasogami the following day, with Yosuke giving me some updates on what he was doing, and as we saw him leave the school grounds we saw Little Boy Blue run into him again. The two walked off with each other, and we still needed to know what was going on.
I chose to split our team into pairs, with the more active duo of Yosuke and Chie in pursuit, while Yukiko and I would hang back and eventually wait near the textiles shop. Yosuke volunteered all to quickly to act like he and Chie were on a date, which quite frankly should have shown me their mutual chemistry. (The fact that Chie was shouting his idea down without outright refusing it was another sign.)
As I expected, I unlocked another Social Link, rather belatedly, after having my first talk with Yukiko alone. "The Priestess", said the voice I had come to anticipate, with a card depicting a robed woman and the number II. I then asked for her contact info as part of our investigation.
Eventually the two lovebirds (Yosuke and Chie, that is) found their way to us at the textiles shop, with their search for Kanji having gone south. Then the punk himself showed up, made some threatening gestures at us, with our relief coming from Aika coming in clutch and delivering food to us, even as we were running away from the textile heir.
That evening Yukiko called me to report Kanji was missing! This wasn't good news. I then watched the Midnight Channel, and to my non-surprise, something came up.
I wasn't expecting a steamy bathhouse to appear, however, and soon our punk boy appeared, dressed in but a bath towel and acting very much the opposite of his usual self, not unlike Yukiko.
Shadow Kanji was so flamboyant that he put the Village People and Freddie Mercury combined to shame. Yosuke called me, even more flustered than I was, and I joked about giving him a copy of the bathhouse video. My friend grew even more flustered, but it pretty much confirmed what we knew.
Kanji Tatsumi was now inside the TV, and only the four of us could save him.
On a whim I decided to take a look at part-time jobs to fill my time with, as ill-timed as it was due to exams approaching. Given my academic performance I could cut myself some slack anyway, plus, there was a chance of more Social Links to be had. I decided on a daycare job that I'd need to take the bus for, so I went, got on the bus at the stop in the Shopping District, and found myself at the daycare.
As expected, the children were a handful. Playing along with them certainly helped, though, and they came to see me as the "weird caretaker who's fun anyway". One of the kids in particular, Yuuta, remained behind as the other children were picked up by their parents or guardians at the end of the day, and I learned why. A woman, not much older than me, approached Yuuta, and the boy went and ran away from her. I learned from the supervisor that the woman was Yuuta's stepmother, and that was why the boy, who normally was sociable and energetic, did a 180 around the young woman. (Spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending, though!)
That evening, I found Uncle Ryotaro at the Western-style table, a rarity these days. I took the rare chance of getting to talk with him, and the two of us decided to talk about things like school, my friends, and the fact that I seemed to be awfully close to the events around town. Nanako came in, thinking her dad was bullying me, but I understood - she thought my uncle was rather overbearing on me, but I realized that it was just his detective self coming to the forefront. And as I expected, yet another card, this time with a bishop's hat and the number V on it, appeared in my mind. "The Hierophant", the voice rang in my head again.
The next day was a rather stormy day, and I learned that Chie was a bit keraunophobic - that is, she feared thunder and lightning. Yosuke, being Mr I Keep Putting My Foot Inside My Mouth Whenever I Talk, managed to irk the green-clad martial artist, to the point where I wasn't surprised when I learned that the storm had knocked out the power across town, Junes included, and compromised Yosuke's chance at a bonus to help him save for a motorbike. Guess he really was weak to electricity then.
After dropping by Aiya for another try at the Beef Bowl Challenge (and spending 60% of my paycheck from the daycare after failing again), I decided to go home and spend some time with Nanako, who had taken to calling me Big Bro.
Sunday arrived, and I spent time with Yosuke, who even accompanied me to my room... and promptly asked where I kept my own stash of literature of ill repute. (Never change, Yosuke, never change.) I told him I don't really keep any, and despite my reputation as a chick magnet I had never even asked out a girl, let alone kissed one at that point. I prefer to think of myself as a one-woman man, anyway - and spoiler alert, I'd find that woman within that year.
That evening I was reminded that it was Mother's Day by Nanako, of all people. Since my own mother was working overseas and Nanako's mom was, well, gone, she didn't know what to do with the Mother's Day gift she made. So I decided to take on a chance and told her to put the flowers on the family altar instead, as a way to honor Aunt Chisato.
I spent the rest of the evening cramming in some last-minute studying for the midterms, realizing I had a good grasp on the subject matter.
----
Monday to Thursday were spent on the midterms, which I was fairly sure were not difficult, and by Thursday afternoon the four of us had gathered to compare notes on how we felt we did. The thing about examination systems around the world is that they reward a certain kind of intelligence, placing emphasis on memorization and reasoning, while disfavoring others. I noticed that while Yukiko and I tended to excel within the standard framework, Yosuke (who was a more intuitive thinker who also frankly didn't apply himself at school) and Chie (who was more of a kinesthetic learner, given how quickly she picked up martial arts moves) were less suited to the standard teaching style. They weren't dumb, just that the school system wasn't built to make the most out of their unique talents.
That day I did overhear about some scuffle between biker gangs that happened around this time. Totally nothing worth noting, hehe. Apparently a first-year student from Yasogami was already making a name for himself since middle school, getting into fights with the biker gangs and all. That kid must have been big and strong for his age, given that he was barely in his teens but was still getting into fights with grown men... and apparently winning.
With exams over, I decided to put academics on the back burner and went to basketball practice with Kou instead. In particular the two of us worked on our chemistry, knowing when he would pass and me teaching him where my sweet spots on the floor were. After practice Daisuke came over, and the three of us talked about balls, with Kou making it sound less innocent than it really was. (We were teenage boys, of course, who have a habit of making everything sound less innocent.)
The next day, after school, I went to Junes, whereupon I chanced upon Adachi at Junes, slacking off and shirking detective work. On the off chance he was a Social Link, I decided to hang out with him, despite the fact that indulging someone in their worst habits was a Bad Idea for the most part. Anyhow, Adachi took the opportunity to whine about his reassignment to Inaba, given that he apparently had nobody else to serve as a sounding board, and I was proven right when a clownlike figure with the number 0 appeared in my head again. "The Jester", it said to me.
The fact that Adachi's Arcana was a variation of the Arcana of our Investigation Team spooked me, but I excused it as him being a bumbling police detective in contrast with us as amateur investigators.
That evening a news report came on about the biker gangs, and a young man telling the news crews to screw off. Apparently, the boy, named Kanji Tatsumi, was well known to the Inaba police for fighting off gangs since middle school, meaning that rumor I heard the day before was right on the money.
The next day, the Investigation Team agreed to watch the Midnight Channel, given that the weather was acting up again and the Tatsumi boy receiving news attention likely meant he might be the next target. Sure enough, the Midnight Channel showed an silhouette... of a tall man (or boy). I had a hunch our biker gang beater was involved, but we had no way to make sure of it for now.
Sunday came, and the weather was kind enough to let us meet at the food court and discuss our next move. We realized that the pattern of the victims being all women didn't hold, given that the silhouette was clearly that of a guy, so we filed that away as a red herring. Yukiko also pointed out that since the image was still faint, it meant that whoever the next victim wasn't thrown into the TV yet.
That evening, the image was a bit clearer, showing off a swaggering man dressed up like a delinquent. That really meant Tatsumi was our big lead then.
Yosuke then called, and in typical Yosuke fashion, asked me if I preferred Chie or Yukiko. I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't think of my female friends that way.
The next day Yukiko briefed us on what she knew about the Tatsumi boy. His family ran a textiles shop located right next to the shrine, and the reason she was familiar with him was that the Inn was one of their customers - understandably so, since someone had to have created all the kimonos the staff wore. With that in min, the four of us went to Tatsumi Textiles to glean some information.
We found Tatsumi-san chatting with a rather short kid, with blue hair (there it is again!) and wearing a blue coat and hat that matched their hair color. The kid was an investigator of some sort, based on what I heard from the discussion the two were having. That being said, our leads from the textiles shop were frankly thin - the only thing they had in common was a scarf Yamano wore, which admittedly wasn't much to go on.
It was as we left the shop that things took an interesting turn. The blue kid from earlier was speaking to Kanji, and the latter was getting flustered, because a young kid much smaller than he seemed to be showing interest in him. Now I've got no problem with that (and it was something I had to show Yosuke as well, but that's a story for another time), but if you're in a rather traditional society like Japan the prospect of having someone of the same sex show interest in you can be rather shocking at best.
(Of course, not all things are as they appear, but again I'm getting ahead of myself).
----
Either way, the four of us, acting as the Investigation Team, decided to stake out Kanji the next day.
Our stakeout started at Yasogami the following day, with Yosuke giving me some updates on what he was doing, and as we saw him leave the school grounds we saw Little Boy Blue run into him again. The two walked off with each other, and we still needed to know what was going on.
I chose to split our team into pairs, with the more active duo of Yosuke and Chie in pursuit, while Yukiko and I would hang back and eventually wait near the textiles shop. Yosuke volunteered all to quickly to act like he and Chie were on a date, which quite frankly should have shown me their mutual chemistry. (The fact that Chie was shouting his idea down without outright refusing it was another sign.)
As I expected, I unlocked another Social Link, rather belatedly, after having my first talk with Yukiko alone. "The Priestess", said the voice I had come to anticipate, with a card depicting a robed woman and the number II. I then asked for her contact info as part of our investigation.
Eventually the two lovebirds (Yosuke and Chie, that is) found their way to us at the textiles shop, with their search for Kanji having gone south. Then the punk himself showed up, made some threatening gestures at us, with our relief coming from Aika coming in clutch and delivering food to us, even as we were running away from the textile heir.
That evening Yukiko called me to report Kanji was missing! This wasn't good news. I then watched the Midnight Channel, and to my non-surprise, something came up.
I wasn't expecting a steamy bathhouse to appear, however, and soon our punk boy appeared, dressed in but a bath towel and acting very much the opposite of his usual self, not unlike Yukiko.
Shadow Kanji was so flamboyant that he put the Village People and Freddie Mercury combined to shame. Yosuke called me, even more flustered than I was, and I joked about giving him a copy of the bathhouse video. My friend grew even more flustered, but it pretty much confirmed what we knew.
Kanji Tatsumi was now inside the TV, and only the four of us could save him.
Chapter 9: The Thunderous Skullbot
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
The next morning, we discussed our findings, even as we tried to get the image of Kanji Tatsumi in a bath towel out of our heads. So based on what we had seen so far, whatever happens in the Midnight Channel is based on the mind of the person thrown within the TV World - for instance, Yukiko's deep-seated desire to find a prince and whisk her away from Inaba manifested a Destinyland-style castle as backdrop for a Bachelorette-style show, while whatever hang-ups Kanji had created a steamy bathhouse and a Shadow that was likely causing the town's more conservative folks much consternation.
We then went into the TV World, eager to get to Kanji's bathhouse, and asked Teddie if he could guide us there. However, it seemed that we needed a clue of sorts before Teddie could sniff out his dungeon, and unlike with Yukiko where Chie's close friendship made looking for the former girl's castle easy, the four of us knew less about the delinquent than we did the heiress. So we then did what an investigation team is supposed to do: look for clues!
My first stop was at Tatsumi Textiles, where I asked Kanji's mother about him, trying to gain insight on him, his personality, and whatever hang-ups he might have. She told me about the small boy, presumably the same kid who we saw hanging around the punk, and asking around the shopping district led me to Junes, where someone of that description might fit. Asking around at Junes gave me a lead on the blue kid, but they would be back tomorrow.
I decided to spend the rest of the day playing genie for the town, and making my vulpine friend happier as a result. That evening, Nanako and I had a talk, where she called me big bro, which made me realize she was the little sister I never had.
The results from the midterms were in, and to my relief my grades were in the top 10 of the entire second year! My school friends were impressed at my performance, and I decided to celebrate the occasion... by visiting the Velvet Room. Call it a hunch. Once there, I found Margaret all by her lonesome, and she formally introduced herself to me, calling it fate that we would meet this way. An image of a royal woman in a dress and crown, with the number III appeared in my head. "The Empress", said the voice once more.
After that, Margaret told me to present to her Personae that fit special parameters, encouraging me to experiment with fusions and suchlike, which would then deepen our bond the same way my playing wish-granter deepened my bond with the fox.
I did drop back in shortly after my one on one meeting with Margaret (it was pretty innocuous by the way, Rise), and I found Igor at his usual spot, and Marie not there... but I did find a scrap of paper with a nice, if quaint poem, that the dark-haired girl promptly snatched away from me. Definitely a Type A tsundere, that Marie. I took the time to do some fusions and suchlike, preparing my Personae for the gauntlet ahead.
Remembering I still had to conduct an investigation, however, I dropped by Junes as my previous lead suggested, and indeed I found Little Boy Blue at the department store, where he told me that he called Kanji an odd person (poor choice of words there, kid), which may indicate some sort of complex. What complex would there be to make a super masculine man's shadow act as campy as Liberace anyway?
I did get a feeling, however, that it would suffice for Teddie to help us find Kanji. So I called up the rest of the team, and lo and behold, the fox from the shrine decided to tag with us too. It brought a brace of herbs around its neck, and - believe it or not - would give us herbs in exchange for money. Not only was the fox somehow sapient, it also had a grasp of money. Then again, if its goal was to aid in the upkeep of Tatsuhime Shrine...
So we went back into the TV World, and after relaying my findings to Teddie, the bear was somehow able to find the bathhouse, which as expected of a place was really steamy and muggy. A part of me wished we had found the place in summer, that way we'd head in with our summer uniforms and suffer the humidity less.
So we head into the bathhouse and begin tearing our way through the dungeon. During one of our fights with the Shadows, a pretty cool thing happened: We had just managed to finish up an All-Out Attack, which still wasn't enough to bring down all the enemies. Seeing this, Chie and Yukiko teamed up, their Personae creating a powerful attack that summoned twin dragons to finish what we started. I wondered if Yosuke and I could do something similar (spoiler alert: he can, but not with me. As to whom he does that dual attack with, I won't spoil you!)
A few levels in, and we managed to encounter Shadow Kanji in the flesh(?) for the first time, where he spouted some stereotypically flamboyant lines, and left us at the mercy of the Shadows by retreating further within the bathhouse. I could see Yosuke getting increasingly uncomfortable with the homoeroticism on display - was he so adversely affected by a conservative upbringing, or was there something else to it? (Even today, I still can't tell.)
We then ran into a Hulk Hogan like Shadow that was accompanying Shadow Kanji, and this one was a fair bit stronger than the rest. However, with us four and Teddie's guidance (which was less and less reliable at this point, might have been due to the steam), we were able to bring the guy down.
Eventually we reached the top, with Shadow Kanji cornered and having nowhere to run. The homoerotic Shadow was involved in a mutual staredown with his regular self, and we watched as the Shadow continued to goad the young punk. Apparently, the reason Shadow Kanji was so flamboyant was because Kanji found girls intimidating, because they were unwilling to accept his hobbies of sewing and crafts, deeming it unmanly. Which may also have explained his tough guy façade, but how did that translate into acting very campily? I had a sneaking suspicion his encounter with Little Boy Blue might have compounded his already confused sexuality, leading us to Flaming Shadow Wearing But a Bath Towel.
Alas, we were unable to prevent the real Kanji from denying his Shadow, and for the fourth time I watched as a Shadow metamorphosed into another monster from the depths of the human psyche. Shadow Kanji's mutant form was that of his human upper half, connected to a top heavy body builder with a collar of roses, carrying two Mars symbols in its arms. (Not too subtle are we, Shadow?) The Shadow was flanked by two equally homoerotic bodybuilders, and the trio reminded me of some Aztec vampires made famous by a certain manga. I glanced at Yosuke to see how he felt after seeing so much homoerotic imagery, and I wasn't surprised at my friend looking a bit green.
But he looked fine enough for the fight, so off we went! First off, I noticed that one of the lackeys (let's just call him Nice Guy) was weak to ice attacks as Teddie noted, so we decided to focus on him first, using Tomoe's Bufus and my Jack Frost's Bufulas. I gave Yukiko and Yosuke the directive to focus on healing us as this happened, and I as Nice Guy glowed white we decided to turn our attention to Tough Guy, who appeared to be weak to fire attacks. Yukiko then went on the offensive, while I switched to Eligor and began to follow suit with my own fire spells.
Once we had weakened Tough Guy enough, I noticed Nice Guy's white wall had dissipated, so back to Jack Frost and Chie on offense we went, and as Nice Guy fell that swung the battle more in our favor. But Shadow Kanji wasn't having any of it, and very nearly tossed Yukiko into a wall. While greatly hurt, she was still standing, so I had Yosuke help her while Chie and I turned our attention back to Tough Guy.
Once Yukiko was back on her feet we coordinated our fire spells together. "Agilao!" cried the both of us, as a searing flame snuffed out what power Tough Guy had. Four against one, we thought we had it in the bag, but Shadow Kanji had one, or two, more tricks up its sleeve.
The first was a rather skeevy whisper that made the already sick Yosuke even sicker, and even I had to admit it was rather nauseating. I handed a pre-blended Dokudami Tea to my friend, and both of us needed the pick me up. However, we had failed to notice Shadow Kanji riling up the girls, putting them in a blind rage that made their attacks hit harder but left them more vulnerable as well.
I switched back to Izanagi, assuming that if the supporting Shadows were weak to fire and ice, then electricity would then do the trick. To my surprise, Shadow Kanji actually healed from the spell, so Zio magic was no-go. Instead, I switched to a key Persona I had ready for this fight: Rakshasa. Rakshasa's resistance to physical attacks allowed me to get back up on my feet easier, and as the girls' rage wore down we managed to finally coordinate attacks and come out victorious against the bathhouse Shadow.
To my surprise, Shadow Kanji still looked at his original self, with the latter wondering if there was something wrong with their Shadow. Shadow Kanji, however, was stopped from gloating when, in a totally shocking (but not surprising) move the real Kanji punched his shadow. The teen punk did this shortly after his Shadow stated that original Kanji and the two of us (that is, Yosuke and I) were, to paraphrase, boyfriend material.
Kanji punching his Shadow, strangely enough, counted as acceptance, and the large, musclebound man that was his Shadow's monster form shifted, creating a black robot with a cartoony skeleton on its front, holding a thunderbolt in its hand. "Take-Mikazuchi", said the young punk as he his Persona manifested for the first time. Unfortunately, his ordeal in the TV World made him weak by the time we got back to the real world. Once he was A-OK, then we'd talk it over and see if we had gotten any new leads from our kidnapper.
Fighting those totally-not-Pillar Men was a handful, however, and some parts of me saw what was not meant to be seen.
We then went into the TV World, eager to get to Kanji's bathhouse, and asked Teddie if he could guide us there. However, it seemed that we needed a clue of sorts before Teddie could sniff out his dungeon, and unlike with Yukiko where Chie's close friendship made looking for the former girl's castle easy, the four of us knew less about the delinquent than we did the heiress. So we then did what an investigation team is supposed to do: look for clues!
My first stop was at Tatsumi Textiles, where I asked Kanji's mother about him, trying to gain insight on him, his personality, and whatever hang-ups he might have. She told me about the small boy, presumably the same kid who we saw hanging around the punk, and asking around the shopping district led me to Junes, where someone of that description might fit. Asking around at Junes gave me a lead on the blue kid, but they would be back tomorrow.
I decided to spend the rest of the day playing genie for the town, and making my vulpine friend happier as a result. That evening, Nanako and I had a talk, where she called me big bro, which made me realize she was the little sister I never had.
----
The results from the midterms were in, and to my relief my grades were in the top 10 of the entire second year! My school friends were impressed at my performance, and I decided to celebrate the occasion... by visiting the Velvet Room. Call it a hunch. Once there, I found Margaret all by her lonesome, and she formally introduced herself to me, calling it fate that we would meet this way. An image of a royal woman in a dress and crown, with the number III appeared in my head. "The Empress", said the voice once more.
After that, Margaret told me to present to her Personae that fit special parameters, encouraging me to experiment with fusions and suchlike, which would then deepen our bond the same way my playing wish-granter deepened my bond with the fox.
I did drop back in shortly after my one on one meeting with Margaret (it was pretty innocuous by the way, Rise), and I found Igor at his usual spot, and Marie not there... but I did find a scrap of paper with a nice, if quaint poem, that the dark-haired girl promptly snatched away from me. Definitely a Type A tsundere, that Marie. I took the time to do some fusions and suchlike, preparing my Personae for the gauntlet ahead.
Remembering I still had to conduct an investigation, however, I dropped by Junes as my previous lead suggested, and indeed I found Little Boy Blue at the department store, where he told me that he called Kanji an odd person (poor choice of words there, kid), which may indicate some sort of complex. What complex would there be to make a super masculine man's shadow act as campy as Liberace anyway?
I did get a feeling, however, that it would suffice for Teddie to help us find Kanji. So I called up the rest of the team, and lo and behold, the fox from the shrine decided to tag with us too. It brought a brace of herbs around its neck, and - believe it or not - would give us herbs in exchange for money. Not only was the fox somehow sapient, it also had a grasp of money. Then again, if its goal was to aid in the upkeep of Tatsuhime Shrine...
So we went back into the TV World, and after relaying my findings to Teddie, the bear was somehow able to find the bathhouse, which as expected of a place was really steamy and muggy. A part of me wished we had found the place in summer, that way we'd head in with our summer uniforms and suffer the humidity less.
So we head into the bathhouse and begin tearing our way through the dungeon. During one of our fights with the Shadows, a pretty cool thing happened: We had just managed to finish up an All-Out Attack, which still wasn't enough to bring down all the enemies. Seeing this, Chie and Yukiko teamed up, their Personae creating a powerful attack that summoned twin dragons to finish what we started. I wondered if Yosuke and I could do something similar (spoiler alert: he can, but not with me. As to whom he does that dual attack with, I won't spoil you!)
A few levels in, and we managed to encounter Shadow Kanji in the flesh(?) for the first time, where he spouted some stereotypically flamboyant lines, and left us at the mercy of the Shadows by retreating further within the bathhouse. I could see Yosuke getting increasingly uncomfortable with the homoeroticism on display - was he so adversely affected by a conservative upbringing, or was there something else to it? (Even today, I still can't tell.)
We then ran into a Hulk Hogan like Shadow that was accompanying Shadow Kanji, and this one was a fair bit stronger than the rest. However, with us four and Teddie's guidance (which was less and less reliable at this point, might have been due to the steam), we were able to bring the guy down.
Eventually we reached the top, with Shadow Kanji cornered and having nowhere to run. The homoerotic Shadow was involved in a mutual staredown with his regular self, and we watched as the Shadow continued to goad the young punk. Apparently, the reason Shadow Kanji was so flamboyant was because Kanji found girls intimidating, because they were unwilling to accept his hobbies of sewing and crafts, deeming it unmanly. Which may also have explained his tough guy façade, but how did that translate into acting very campily? I had a sneaking suspicion his encounter with Little Boy Blue might have compounded his already confused sexuality, leading us to Flaming Shadow Wearing But a Bath Towel.
Alas, we were unable to prevent the real Kanji from denying his Shadow, and for the fourth time I watched as a Shadow metamorphosed into another monster from the depths of the human psyche. Shadow Kanji's mutant form was that of his human upper half, connected to a top heavy body builder with a collar of roses, carrying two Mars symbols in its arms. (Not too subtle are we, Shadow?) The Shadow was flanked by two equally homoerotic bodybuilders, and the trio reminded me of some Aztec vampires made famous by a certain manga. I glanced at Yosuke to see how he felt after seeing so much homoerotic imagery, and I wasn't surprised at my friend looking a bit green.
But he looked fine enough for the fight, so off we went! First off, I noticed that one of the lackeys (let's just call him Nice Guy) was weak to ice attacks as Teddie noted, so we decided to focus on him first, using Tomoe's Bufus and my Jack Frost's Bufulas. I gave Yukiko and Yosuke the directive to focus on healing us as this happened, and I as Nice Guy glowed white we decided to turn our attention to Tough Guy, who appeared to be weak to fire attacks. Yukiko then went on the offensive, while I switched to Eligor and began to follow suit with my own fire spells.
Once we had weakened Tough Guy enough, I noticed Nice Guy's white wall had dissipated, so back to Jack Frost and Chie on offense we went, and as Nice Guy fell that swung the battle more in our favor. But Shadow Kanji wasn't having any of it, and very nearly tossed Yukiko into a wall. While greatly hurt, she was still standing, so I had Yosuke help her while Chie and I turned our attention back to Tough Guy.
Once Yukiko was back on her feet we coordinated our fire spells together. "Agilao!" cried the both of us, as a searing flame snuffed out what power Tough Guy had. Four against one, we thought we had it in the bag, but Shadow Kanji had one, or two, more tricks up its sleeve.
The first was a rather skeevy whisper that made the already sick Yosuke even sicker, and even I had to admit it was rather nauseating. I handed a pre-blended Dokudami Tea to my friend, and both of us needed the pick me up. However, we had failed to notice Shadow Kanji riling up the girls, putting them in a blind rage that made their attacks hit harder but left them more vulnerable as well.
I switched back to Izanagi, assuming that if the supporting Shadows were weak to fire and ice, then electricity would then do the trick. To my surprise, Shadow Kanji actually healed from the spell, so Zio magic was no-go. Instead, I switched to a key Persona I had ready for this fight: Rakshasa. Rakshasa's resistance to physical attacks allowed me to get back up on my feet easier, and as the girls' rage wore down we managed to finally coordinate attacks and come out victorious against the bathhouse Shadow.
To my surprise, Shadow Kanji still looked at his original self, with the latter wondering if there was something wrong with their Shadow. Shadow Kanji, however, was stopped from gloating when, in a totally shocking (but not surprising) move the real Kanji punched his shadow. The teen punk did this shortly after his Shadow stated that original Kanji and the two of us (that is, Yosuke and I) were, to paraphrase, boyfriend material.
Kanji punching his Shadow, strangely enough, counted as acceptance, and the large, musclebound man that was his Shadow's monster form shifted, creating a black robot with a cartoony skeleton on its front, holding a thunderbolt in its hand. "Take-Mikazuchi", said the young punk as he his Persona manifested for the first time. Unfortunately, his ordeal in the TV World made him weak by the time we got back to the real world. Once he was A-OK, then we'd talk it over and see if we had gotten any new leads from our kidnapper.
Fighting those totally-not-Pillar Men was a handful, however, and some parts of me saw what was not meant to be seen.
Chapter 10: The Priestess' Woes, And A Party Of Five
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
I picked up some stuff for dinner at Junes, primarily because our sojourn into the TV left little time for me to cook, and to provide me an alibi in case my uncle got too suspicious about Kanji's rescue. Which just so happened to be the very thing we were discussing at dinner.
I put on my best acting skills, thanking Yumi and the Drama Club for helping me hone them, as I made neutral responses about his fortuitous rescue and tried my utmost to deflect attention away from myself. He did ask me why I was around Tatsumi Textiles around the time Kanji was kidnapped, to which I replied that I was there as a friend of Yukiko, whose family inn had business with the textile shop (which admittedly was true, to an extent).
I did get a dream that night, however. It seemed I was invited back into the Velvet Room for a night, whereupon Igor and Margaret made some cryptic comments about this reality not being exactly the same as they had predicted. This was the first and only time I was experiencing something like this, so I left the two extra-dimensional beings to whatever strange crap they thought of.
It's not like this year was gonna get any more bizarre, anyway.
Classes the next day were uneventful, and a combination of waiting for Kanji's recovery, my wallet crying out after splurging on provisions for the TV World, and my gut feeling about another Social Link made me return to the day care job. So I then spent my afternoon getting dragged around by little kids again. 'Twas worth it though - not just for the 5000 yen, but also because Eri-san opened up to me after coming to pick up Yuuta-kun, where she shared the fact that she was so darn distant with a stepson she's only been with for six months. A card depicting various things like a cup and a bird appeared in my mind, decorated with the number XIV. "Temperance", the voice said once more.
The next day classes were boring again and I talked to Eri-san again, and I felt the thrum of Temperance as Nigi Mitama resonated within my head.
Sunday morning came, and I found Nanako sitting at the table, with a small seedling in front of her. It seemed that as a school project they were to grow a plant, and given that we had little precious space to do so... Hm. Was the yard beside the house good for a garden? Whoever it was that had set aside gardening tools, I thank you, for giving me and my family some healthy vegetables to last us the year.
I spent the rest of my Sunday with Yukiko, whose Shadow revealing her desire to leave Inaba and start a different career set the heiress on a warpath. She had dropped by the bookstore at the Shopping District to read up on career options, and I wondered if her parents knew, to which she said no. (Unsurprising.) I felt my bond with her deepen, though.
The next day King Moron (dis)graced us with his presence once more, and class proceeded as usual plus his rant about a certain delinquent student. Boring. I did spend the day with Adachi, who used my presence to complain about his shitty work-life balance. (Understandable, though.) We did run into an old lady who seemed to have taken a shine to the bumbling cop, though, who wanted to bring him some nimono, all because he and her son shared a name. (Still less strange than Shiroku-san's favorite fish and Akihiko-san sharing a name, though.)
The next day I spent more time with Yukiko, where we went shopping for groceries at Junes. The heiress to the Amagi Inn wanted to learn how to cook, of course - an innkeeper who can't cook is like a racecar driver who can't drive, or a thief who can't pick locks... you get the picture. She then asked if I wanted to be her taste tester, which I agreed to as her friend. (I would come to regret this decision in the days ahead.)
The next day, Yukiko presented to me her attempt at cooking a meal. Frankly, it didn't smell like what I thought food should smell, and as a competent cook myself I know food can come in various odors and flavors too. So why did this smell like some eldritch horror from the stars beyond time? I tried to couch my displeasure in nicer terms, but my disappointed friend looked sad. I did tell her that there was room for improvement, however, and all she needed was more practice! (Practice, however, doesn't account for a skewed palate, sadly.) Nanako dropped by, and she told Yukiko that she looked forward to Yukiko's improved cooking as well.
Thursday arrived, which was my seventeenth birthday. Yay for me, I guess? It was a normal school day, however, insofar as "waiting for the killer to strike and the last victim to recover" was normal. Sofue-sensei's history lesson was rather fun, though - I learned that the pyramids weren't built by slaves, but by paid laborers, which were evidenced by attendance logs. (Between that and cat veneration, I'm not so sure modern society and Ancient Egypt were that different.)
I spent after school at Junes with Yukiko, with me serving once more as impromptu career advisor. Two punks came in and made some not so nice comments to my friend, and I learned that they were from a disreputable TV show covering the Amagi Inn in an unsavory way.
That evening, I did get a sweet birthday slash midterm exam reward from Uncle Ryotaro - some spending money. Which was a fair amount - my bank account certainly appreciated the boost, even if what I did with it was to spend it on weirdly-flavored sodas or whatever Tanaka had for sale on his sketchy TV shopping program.
Of course, my uncle just had to ruin it a teeny bit by turning on his Investigator mode while I was trying to bond with him. It did work, though - Anzu thrummed happily in my mind as we discussed the night away.
The next day after school I ran into Eri-san again, who mentioned that she and her husband (Yuuta-kun's dad) got married, then he left for China on a business trip soon after. (It's not what you think, though - she was still happy with her hubby and as far as I know they're still together, and all she needed was a platonic friend who could listen to her woes as a stepmother. Seriously, why does everyone think I'm some kind of Casanova just because I have quite a few female friends?)
Saturday came, and I became Chie's sparring partner again. We met an old acquaintance of her from middle school named Takeshi, who had some history with my martial artist friend. Apparently he wasn't a fan of her exuberant attitude and desire to do good, so he called her names and suchlike. I told the punk to buzz off, and it turns out the jackass was simping for Yukiko and wanted to try the Amagi Challenge again. Chie's insecurity about being the best friend of the town's popular girl came up again, and somehow I managed to defuse it with a well-timed joke. Chie's a great girl - she just didn't realize it at the time.
Evening came and Uncle Ryotaro went into Investigator Mode again, which made my little sis call him out for neglecting her. Shrugging, I turned back to my detective uncle, who then used the chance to show how he was pretty terrible at the whole "getting along with kids" thing.
Speaking of Tanaka, I went and got a nice pair of off-brand shoes that Sunday for Chie. I had hoped she'd like them enough for use in the TV World. (Spoilers: she did.) I then spent the weekend with my athlete friends, and I did notice how Kou got flustered when Chie saw us in front of the bookstore. (If my tomboy friend were just a bit more observant, she'd have realized she was by no means unpopular; it was just that she wasn't seeing it the way I did, to be fair.)
The days passed by, and I spent them either with Chie or with my fellow athletes, dining at Aiya and getting ever closer to that elusive Beef Bowl Challenge, or even learning Shiroku-san had a rainy day sale. June had just arrived, and Kanji's recovery was soon on the horizon.
On the fourth of June, I checked the Midnight Channel as fog enveloped Inaba. To my relief, no one was on the TV.
The next day, I learned that you could catch insects at the shrine if you had a bug-catching net and that there were some cases of extortion and bullying by teenagers in the area. I knew right away it wasn't Kanji, given that while he was (and still is, kinda) a punk, he wasn't the type of guy to shake down people for money, either. Chie was with me, however, and vowed to do something about those bullies if she could. (And that, kids, is how one of the Inaba PD's rising stars got her motivation to be in law enforcement.)
That evening I went to the shrine on a hunch, and found a strange lady in a white kimono, who asked me for fish. I did have some and gave a fish to her, but something about her really felt off. But not in a bad way. The rest of the evening was spent talking to my cute little sis Nanako.
Monday, June 6th, arrived, and Kanji joined us on the rooftop, healthy as he can be. Of course, we then used the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions, like what was his deal with Little Boy Blue (apparently Kanji didn't know much about the kid) and the first-year was coming to terms with the possibility that maybe he wasn't into girls. (Not a problem, mind you.) Kanji went on further to explain that as the heir to a textile shop his early life was filled with stuff about fabrics and handicrafts, but since people aren't used to a guy, especially one as big and strong as my kohai, talking about these things they began to ostracize him, causing Kanji to become a punk as a reaction. I did find his devil-may-care attitude cool though, and that was the seed of my admiration for my new friend.
However, his recollection of events during and after his abduction were as foggy as Yukiko's, but I cottoned on to one thing: whoever the killer was, it had to be someone big and strong enough to overpower Kanji, even if he used something like chloroform to subdue his victims.
With that, I chose to welcome Kanji Tatsumi to the Investigation Team, where his brawn and Take-Mikazuchi would be a great asset to our cause. Naturally, this meant a stop at the Junes food court where we briefed the first-year delinquent on the situation as he tucked in some steak (he was under the notion that someone was literally beating people to death with a TV). Kanji's intimidating air also helped scare off some kibitzers sitting next to us, letting us discuss without inconvenient bystanders.
At that point we chose to review our leads, including a chart of enka album sales (Misuzu Hiiragi wasn't someone we had dismissed at that point), a list of TV announcers (where Yamano placed somewhere in the middle), and most tellingly, a list of TV programs and people who appeared on them. My belief that the victims were all folks who appeared on TV appeared to hold water, then.
Kanji's initiation then culminated with us entering the TV World with him in tow, where we introduced him to Teddie and vice-versa. Kanji got pranked with the Groucho glasses this time, causing Yukiko to go into one of her patented laughing fits again. (I can almost hear someone say it's an endearing character trait, too.) Unamused, our new recruit yeeted the funny glasses and got his real pair, a pair of aviator shades.
With Kanji Tatsumi on our side, I genuinely felt we had the edge with whatever tricks the killer would try in this town. Little did I know what we were getting into at that point.
I put on my best acting skills, thanking Yumi and the Drama Club for helping me hone them, as I made neutral responses about his fortuitous rescue and tried my utmost to deflect attention away from myself. He did ask me why I was around Tatsumi Textiles around the time Kanji was kidnapped, to which I replied that I was there as a friend of Yukiko, whose family inn had business with the textile shop (which admittedly was true, to an extent).
I did get a dream that night, however. It seemed I was invited back into the Velvet Room for a night, whereupon Igor and Margaret made some cryptic comments about this reality not being exactly the same as they had predicted. This was the first and only time I was experiencing something like this, so I left the two extra-dimensional beings to whatever strange crap they thought of.
It's not like this year was gonna get any more bizarre, anyway.
----
Classes the next day were uneventful, and a combination of waiting for Kanji's recovery, my wallet crying out after splurging on provisions for the TV World, and my gut feeling about another Social Link made me return to the day care job. So I then spent my afternoon getting dragged around by little kids again. 'Twas worth it though - not just for the 5000 yen, but also because Eri-san opened up to me after coming to pick up Yuuta-kun, where she shared the fact that she was so darn distant with a stepson she's only been with for six months. A card depicting various things like a cup and a bird appeared in my mind, decorated with the number XIV. "Temperance", the voice said once more.
The next day classes were boring again and I talked to Eri-san again, and I felt the thrum of Temperance as Nigi Mitama resonated within my head.
Sunday morning came, and I found Nanako sitting at the table, with a small seedling in front of her. It seemed that as a school project they were to grow a plant, and given that we had little precious space to do so... Hm. Was the yard beside the house good for a garden? Whoever it was that had set aside gardening tools, I thank you, for giving me and my family some healthy vegetables to last us the year.
I spent the rest of my Sunday with Yukiko, whose Shadow revealing her desire to leave Inaba and start a different career set the heiress on a warpath. She had dropped by the bookstore at the Shopping District to read up on career options, and I wondered if her parents knew, to which she said no. (Unsurprising.) I felt my bond with her deepen, though.
The next day King Moron (dis)graced us with his presence once more, and class proceeded as usual plus his rant about a certain delinquent student. Boring. I did spend the day with Adachi, who used my presence to complain about his shitty work-life balance. (Understandable, though.) We did run into an old lady who seemed to have taken a shine to the bumbling cop, though, who wanted to bring him some nimono, all because he and her son shared a name. (Still less strange than Shiroku-san's favorite fish and Akihiko-san sharing a name, though.)
The next day I spent more time with Yukiko, where we went shopping for groceries at Junes. The heiress to the Amagi Inn wanted to learn how to cook, of course - an innkeeper who can't cook is like a racecar driver who can't drive, or a thief who can't pick locks... you get the picture. She then asked if I wanted to be her taste tester, which I agreed to as her friend. (I would come to regret this decision in the days ahead.)
The next day, Yukiko presented to me her attempt at cooking a meal. Frankly, it didn't smell like what I thought food should smell, and as a competent cook myself I know food can come in various odors and flavors too. So why did this smell like some eldritch horror from the stars beyond time? I tried to couch my displeasure in nicer terms, but my disappointed friend looked sad. I did tell her that there was room for improvement, however, and all she needed was more practice! (Practice, however, doesn't account for a skewed palate, sadly.) Nanako dropped by, and she told Yukiko that she looked forward to Yukiko's improved cooking as well.
----
Thursday arrived, which was my seventeenth birthday. Yay for me, I guess? It was a normal school day, however, insofar as "waiting for the killer to strike and the last victim to recover" was normal. Sofue-sensei's history lesson was rather fun, though - I learned that the pyramids weren't built by slaves, but by paid laborers, which were evidenced by attendance logs. (Between that and cat veneration, I'm not so sure modern society and Ancient Egypt were that different.)
I spent after school at Junes with Yukiko, with me serving once more as impromptu career advisor. Two punks came in and made some not so nice comments to my friend, and I learned that they were from a disreputable TV show covering the Amagi Inn in an unsavory way.
That evening, I did get a sweet birthday slash midterm exam reward from Uncle Ryotaro - some spending money. Which was a fair amount - my bank account certainly appreciated the boost, even if what I did with it was to spend it on weirdly-flavored sodas or whatever Tanaka had for sale on his sketchy TV shopping program.
Of course, my uncle just had to ruin it a teeny bit by turning on his Investigator mode while I was trying to bond with him. It did work, though - Anzu thrummed happily in my mind as we discussed the night away.
The next day after school I ran into Eri-san again, who mentioned that she and her husband (Yuuta-kun's dad) got married, then he left for China on a business trip soon after. (It's not what you think, though - she was still happy with her hubby and as far as I know they're still together, and all she needed was a platonic friend who could listen to her woes as a stepmother. Seriously, why does everyone think I'm some kind of Casanova just because I have quite a few female friends?)
Saturday came, and I became Chie's sparring partner again. We met an old acquaintance of her from middle school named Takeshi, who had some history with my martial artist friend. Apparently he wasn't a fan of her exuberant attitude and desire to do good, so he called her names and suchlike. I told the punk to buzz off, and it turns out the jackass was simping for Yukiko and wanted to try the Amagi Challenge again. Chie's insecurity about being the best friend of the town's popular girl came up again, and somehow I managed to defuse it with a well-timed joke. Chie's a great girl - she just didn't realize it at the time.
Evening came and Uncle Ryotaro went into Investigator Mode again, which made my little sis call him out for neglecting her. Shrugging, I turned back to my detective uncle, who then used the chance to show how he was pretty terrible at the whole "getting along with kids" thing.
Speaking of Tanaka, I went and got a nice pair of off-brand shoes that Sunday for Chie. I had hoped she'd like them enough for use in the TV World. (Spoilers: she did.) I then spent the weekend with my athlete friends, and I did notice how Kou got flustered when Chie saw us in front of the bookstore. (If my tomboy friend were just a bit more observant, she'd have realized she was by no means unpopular; it was just that she wasn't seeing it the way I did, to be fair.)
The days passed by, and I spent them either with Chie or with my fellow athletes, dining at Aiya and getting ever closer to that elusive Beef Bowl Challenge, or even learning Shiroku-san had a rainy day sale. June had just arrived, and Kanji's recovery was soon on the horizon.
On the fourth of June, I checked the Midnight Channel as fog enveloped Inaba. To my relief, no one was on the TV.
----
The next day, I learned that you could catch insects at the shrine if you had a bug-catching net and that there were some cases of extortion and bullying by teenagers in the area. I knew right away it wasn't Kanji, given that while he was (and still is, kinda) a punk, he wasn't the type of guy to shake down people for money, either. Chie was with me, however, and vowed to do something about those bullies if she could. (And that, kids, is how one of the Inaba PD's rising stars got her motivation to be in law enforcement.)
That evening I went to the shrine on a hunch, and found a strange lady in a white kimono, who asked me for fish. I did have some and gave a fish to her, but something about her really felt off. But not in a bad way. The rest of the evening was spent talking to my cute little sis Nanako.
Monday, June 6th, arrived, and Kanji joined us on the rooftop, healthy as he can be. Of course, we then used the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions, like what was his deal with Little Boy Blue (apparently Kanji didn't know much about the kid) and the first-year was coming to terms with the possibility that maybe he wasn't into girls. (Not a problem, mind you.) Kanji went on further to explain that as the heir to a textile shop his early life was filled with stuff about fabrics and handicrafts, but since people aren't used to a guy, especially one as big and strong as my kohai, talking about these things they began to ostracize him, causing Kanji to become a punk as a reaction. I did find his devil-may-care attitude cool though, and that was the seed of my admiration for my new friend.
However, his recollection of events during and after his abduction were as foggy as Yukiko's, but I cottoned on to one thing: whoever the killer was, it had to be someone big and strong enough to overpower Kanji, even if he used something like chloroform to subdue his victims.
With that, I chose to welcome Kanji Tatsumi to the Investigation Team, where his brawn and Take-Mikazuchi would be a great asset to our cause. Naturally, this meant a stop at the Junes food court where we briefed the first-year delinquent on the situation as he tucked in some steak (he was under the notion that someone was literally beating people to death with a TV). Kanji's intimidating air also helped scare off some kibitzers sitting next to us, letting us discuss without inconvenient bystanders.
At that point we chose to review our leads, including a chart of enka album sales (Misuzu Hiiragi wasn't someone we had dismissed at that point), a list of TV announcers (where Yamano placed somewhere in the middle), and most tellingly, a list of TV programs and people who appeared on them. My belief that the victims were all folks who appeared on TV appeared to hold water, then.
Kanji's initiation then culminated with us entering the TV World with him in tow, where we introduced him to Teddie and vice-versa. Kanji got pranked with the Groucho glasses this time, causing Yukiko to go into one of her patented laughing fits again. (I can almost hear someone say it's an endearing character trait, too.) Unamused, our new recruit yeeted the funny glasses and got his real pair, a pair of aviator shades.
With Kanji Tatsumi on our side, I genuinely felt we had the edge with whatever tricks the killer would try in this town. Little did I know what we were getting into at that point.