Chapter 21: I Am Not Thou, Thou Art Not I
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
On the way to Junes on the first of August I passed by the shopping district. Marie was waiting for me right outside the entrance to the Velvet Room, and with a nod accompanied me to the food court.
With all of us assembled, we then entered the TV World, where I showed everyone the picture of Kubo I had gotten. Yosuke immediately recognized him as the same guy we saw on the Midnight Channel, and Chie grew wide-eyed as she recognized him as well from a different place. Kubo was the guy who had hit on Yukiko way back in April, Chie confirmed, and now I realized why the boy was so familiar. The funny thing was that Yukiko didn't even recognize him, likely because she wasn't aware that she hadd rejected Kubo in the first place. Not only was he pathetic enough to try the Amagi Challenge without even befriending my heiress friend, he was also pathetic enough to not be remembered by the girl he was asking out. Rise had also recognized him, as he had visited Marukyu Tofu and bothered her by asking her about the biker gangs around town. Kanji then added that might have been the reason he was kidnapped as well, due to him fighting off said biker gangs. Apparently, he was also making commentary on the Yamano affair, stating how women who cheat on their husbands should be executed (the fact that it was Namatame who cheated on his wife didn't get to the guy, for some reason).
With all of those facts under review, I asked Rise to look for Kubo within the TV World, assuming that she'd do a better job of it than Teddie's nose since Himiko had dedicated navigation powers. After a couple of minutes scanning the area, Rise found the boy's location, and guided us to what looked like another castle, but this time decorated in a retro game fashion. The words "Start Game" and "Continue" hung in the air ominously, right in front of the entrance. His dungeon took the form of a video game, likely because Kubo thought this was all a game to him.
I decided to bring along Kanji, Teddie and Marie as my frontline this time around, as Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko would then bring up the rear with Rise. I also wanted to see what our newest recruit brought to the table, and with that handled we entered the dungeon, which called itself Void Quest.
As expected we got a view of the Kubo boy's inner thoughts, which manifested as archaic video game dialogue. We then forged on, making sure to get the jump on any Shadows that appeared around us.
Marie's talents were a lot like Yukiko's, with nuclear and psychic attacks in place of fire and curse, and with status ailments in place of healing abilities. Her magic didn't hit as strong as Yukiko's, but she still harder with her magic than anyone else's. In melee combat, she swung the bag slung around her like a bludgeon, and to my surprise it worked nearly as well as Teddie's bear claws. "Ame-no-Uzume! Mapsio!" cried out my green-eyed friend as she tore into the minds of a couple of Shadows. That left them reeling enough for me to signal an All-Out Attack, which Rise managed to boost.
We continued on to the next floor, and Kubo's thoughts made Shadow Teddie look like a big, fluffy teddy bear. (Well, he technically was, but you get what I mean.) Given the context of his words and him being knocked down, I wondered if an abusive household was what managed to create this twisted mind. On to the third floor, and his thoughts turned to a good night's sleep that not even police cars woke him up. Were those the same police cars that drove around town the night Yamano died...?
As we were getting a bit winded we decided to take a break, so I used a Goho-M to warp back to the soundstage and get some recovery via fox. I then got the Class 2-2 members of the IT to join me, after I paid a brief visit to the Velvet Room (when somehow Marie came in and saw me reading another one of her poems) and worked with Igor and Margaret to fuse a few more Personae. With that pitstop over and done with we returned to Void Quest; our progress thus far being enough to allow Rise to guide us to the third floor.
The third floor proved to be our biggest challenge yet. Not to mention that we then encountered several dead ends, which were frustrating at first until I figured out that the corridors with fountains at their ends would warp us to another section of the floor. Rise was watching us, keeping track of the floor's layout, allowing us to make an impromptu map of the place which eventually led us to the next floor.
The fourth floor's walls and floor were tinged a rather sick green, and Kubo's sick thoughts followed suit. It depicted him and Yamano as combatants in an old school RPG, with Kubo winning and seemingly gaining stats from it. The odd part to me, however, was that he thought of Yamano as "female announcer". Wouldn't he have known the name of the woman he presumably killed, at that? Something wasn't adding up.
On we went, and we found ourselves at the fifth floor, where Kubo's memory of his encounter with Saki-senpai echoed in the air. The fact, again, that he called Saki-senpai, the second victim, as the "corpse discoverer" disquieted me. So not only did he think their lives were worthless, but that he even refused to dignify them with their names? No question: Mitsuo Kubo was a pathetic, pitiful young man.
Moving further within Void Quest, and the screwed up psyche of Kubo continued to roil and rage in the aether. Still we soldiered on, fighting off various Shadows as we also attempted to make sense of the madman. On the seventh floor, at an intersection I found myself battling a brief spell of dizziness which confused my bearings; I had to be called out by Rise for following the wrong path towards the stairs to the next level. We fought a hand-like Shadow near the end, which seemed to glow with a strange power, and we had managed to dispose of it with Chie's Rampage and my own Yamata-no-Orochi's Mabufula.
Then on the eighth floor, we heard something that was more crucial than we thought at first. Kubo's mind re-enacted his encounter with Morooka, and how he felt murdering our homeroom teacher made him feel better and cool. Wait a moment, I thought. How come he referred to Morooka by name and not Yamano or Saki-senpai? I had a developing hypothesis about that, but I wanted to get to Kubo and get the information out of him, even if it meant beating up his Shadow, or if worse came to worst, Mitsuo Kubo himself.
My hypothesis was that Kubo had indeed killed King Moron himself, but not Yamano or Saki-senpai, and that he was taking credit for the murders of the latter two for an unknown as of yet reason. Assuming this were indeed the case, then Kubo killed Morooka in order to gain some clout, and people would then assume he killed the two women victims as well. It was twisted reasoning, but it made the most sense based on our evidence; King Moron didn't fit the pattern of the other TV World victims by not appearing on a TV show, and while his body was found similarly there were probably some inconsistencies left unknown as of the moment.
After a long and arduous climb we had reached Void Quest's "Endgame". We then knew Kubo was on the other side of the door, and when it opened, I saw a glimpse of two young men with one sitting in front of a TV and a game console, then a brief flash of light.
I was somehow already back in the real world, and we were meeting at Junes with the case already wrapped up. Yukiko then begged off to leave, citing commitments at her family inn. I thought nothing of it, then felt as if time was moving much faster until when I came to, it was September already. Yosuke and I were standing in front of Marukyu Tofu, with Rise having moved out of town and the shop having closed, and her number somehow not working. Next thing I knew it was October, and I was walking down the Shopping District, and I overheard Kanji and Naoki-kun at Aiya, and somehow something told me they wouldn't appreciate me barging in. I passed by where the Velvet Room door was, and the wall showed only smooth stone, without even a hint of blue. I then found myself standing outside the library, seeing Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kou, and Daisuke all together, but again I felt as if I couldn't bother them even if it was exam season.
Time blitzed by again, and it was mid-November all of a sudden. Chie had begged off meeting at Junes, and so did Yukiko. Yosuke approached me, asking me if no one was coming that day, and even he begged off, citing that he was actually working at the place and that he had to think about the future, like his entrance exams.
That night, a feeling crept up within me; I genuinely felt alone now that the case had been solved and that everyone had come back to their daily lives. Which then made me confront an awful truth regarding myself: What would I do once the case was over and done with? Was I only surrounding myself with the Investigation Team because it gave me a sense of purpose? I felt in the same basket as Yosuke did months earlier, when we talked it over, so if even he was over his lack of direction, what did it say about me?
Then as midnight came, I tried touching the TV screen in my room. It came off solid, and somehow I couldn't put my hand into the TV. Did the case being solved mean my powers were already null and void? At that point, I heard a deep voice, saying it had nothing, which belonged to a giant floating baby surrounded by strange runes around its head. It had the same energy I felt from a Shadow, so if it were really a Shadow, then what was it doing in the real world? And if this weren't the real world, then what was actually happening? All the same, as my mind continued to war with itself over this existential crisis, the Shadow baby began to goad me, telling me that friendship was an illusion. I tried summoning my Persona, but the card fizzled in my hand and rendered my power useless. For the first time in my stay in Inaba, I began to feel genuine fear. And then the Shadow said something that shook me further: "You are just like me." If this Shadow was who I thought it was, then... was I really that much like Mitsuo Kubo?
Suddenly, Shadow Kubo had grasped me in its arms, and was ready to crush the life out of me. At that point I felt the story of Yu Narukami, transfer student was at its end, when I then heard a familiar voice telling me to grab their hand. So I reached up, reached up with all my strength, and I felt a comforting sensation of being pulled out. It was Yosuke's genial smile that greeted me as he pulled me out of whatever that trap with the baby was, and I thanked my friend for rescuing me. When he and Jiraiya had safely returned, I saw what was going on: my friends had summoned their Personae and were fighting off the Shadow Baby, which was surrounded by cubes that formed an armor around it in the shape of a video game warrior.
That was when it hit me: I was not like Mitsuo Kubo, because I was not alone. I had a group of true friends, who through thick and thin, would stick together and help each other in their lives. Marie, even if she were new to our group, was blasting apart the armor cubes with her nuclear blasts. Teddie helped keep everyone healthy and froze the blocks, allowing Kanji to crush them alongside his Take-Mikazuchi. Rise continued scanning the battlefield and pinpointing Shadow Mitsuo's blocks, even as they continued regenerating.
That left the three friends I met first when I came to Inaba. Yosuke had saved me, and continued smiling at me even as Jiraiya bombarded the foe with a strong wind. But the biggest turning point was with Chie and Yukiko, who I was worried would take my friendzoning them badly. But it turned out not to be the case, in fact, a miracle happened which made me realize how our bond of friendship had grown.
Chie's Tomoe and Yukiko's Konohana-Sakuya had retreated, and I wondered what was going on. Then the two girls closed their eyes, opened them, and I distinctly heard their voice reverberate as if they were one with the Sea of Souls.
"Come, Suzuka-Gongen!" "I am thou! Amaterasu!"
The Personae of my lady friends had awakened to new power. Chie's Persona now wore full samurai armor around itself, and now wielded a Darth Maul-esque double-bladed lightsaber instead of its naginata. Yukiko's Persona was no longer a bird-like woman clad in pink, but was now a womanly silhouette of pure light, wielding a katana and its scabbard, while retaining the wings it had in its previous state.
"Persona! Heat Wave!" "Go forth! Agidyne!"
The two girls' awakened Personae blasted away the remaining blocks that protected Shadow Kubo, leaving the infantile Shadow behind. It was then that I stepped up, eager to finish the job.
First, I began with Yamata-no-Orochi, casting a strong Garula that knocked it off-balance. I then switched to Dis, letting the Norse spirit goddess burn it with a Maragion. Ose then came forth from my soul, getting in an Atom Smasher before I withdrew it back. I then summoned Dominion, the angel letting out a strong Makouga, bathing Shadow Kubo in strong light. Which then left me with a new Persona I had just fused, and my oldest friend. "Black Frost!" I cried out, sending a Bufula, and then "Izanagi!" I called out, having my most treasured Persona deal the final blow with a Megido.
And just like that, it was over and done with. Mitsuo Kubo would face the music and pay for the crimes he did. But before that, we watched him, and the boy was confused as to what was happening. I explained to him what he had been doing inside the TV, and let him face his Shadow, fully expecting him to earn a Persona and somehow either making him a bigger threat, or find a way to atone for his sins.
But shockingly, that didn't happen. Instead, Mitsuo claimed credit for all of the crimes, even if I got the feeling he killed neither Yamano nor Saki-senpai; I did pin him for Morooka, however. As he cackled madly, what was left of Shadow Kubo disappeared into the aether, leaving us stumped as to what had happened.
We escorted the insensate, laughing mad Kubo out of the TV, and we began our interrogation of the young man, but he could provide no concrete answers besides that he did it. Mitsuo continued spouting nihilist nonsense, and cited nothing as to his motives, which pissed off Kanji enough for my kohai to lift Kubo by the collar, and told him that he would pay for his crimes. As we contacted the police, however, I saw a boy with frizzy dark hair, around sixth grade or so, staring at us in awe.
The boy then asked us how'd we get out of the TV, and I realized we had a pretty major issue on our hands. So against better judgement, and knowing that lying would make things worse, I decided to tell him the truth.
Surprisingly, he took it all in stride, and realizing we had a bit of a fanboy on our hands, I asked his name out of curiosity.
"My name? It's Ren", he said. "Ren Amamiya."
With all of us assembled, we then entered the TV World, where I showed everyone the picture of Kubo I had gotten. Yosuke immediately recognized him as the same guy we saw on the Midnight Channel, and Chie grew wide-eyed as she recognized him as well from a different place. Kubo was the guy who had hit on Yukiko way back in April, Chie confirmed, and now I realized why the boy was so familiar. The funny thing was that Yukiko didn't even recognize him, likely because she wasn't aware that she hadd rejected Kubo in the first place. Not only was he pathetic enough to try the Amagi Challenge without even befriending my heiress friend, he was also pathetic enough to not be remembered by the girl he was asking out. Rise had also recognized him, as he had visited Marukyu Tofu and bothered her by asking her about the biker gangs around town. Kanji then added that might have been the reason he was kidnapped as well, due to him fighting off said biker gangs. Apparently, he was also making commentary on the Yamano affair, stating how women who cheat on their husbands should be executed (the fact that it was Namatame who cheated on his wife didn't get to the guy, for some reason).
With all of those facts under review, I asked Rise to look for Kubo within the TV World, assuming that she'd do a better job of it than Teddie's nose since Himiko had dedicated navigation powers. After a couple of minutes scanning the area, Rise found the boy's location, and guided us to what looked like another castle, but this time decorated in a retro game fashion. The words "Start Game" and "Continue" hung in the air ominously, right in front of the entrance. His dungeon took the form of a video game, likely because Kubo thought this was all a game to him.
I decided to bring along Kanji, Teddie and Marie as my frontline this time around, as Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko would then bring up the rear with Rise. I also wanted to see what our newest recruit brought to the table, and with that handled we entered the dungeon, which called itself Void Quest.
As expected we got a view of the Kubo boy's inner thoughts, which manifested as archaic video game dialogue. We then forged on, making sure to get the jump on any Shadows that appeared around us.
Marie's talents were a lot like Yukiko's, with nuclear and psychic attacks in place of fire and curse, and with status ailments in place of healing abilities. Her magic didn't hit as strong as Yukiko's, but she still harder with her magic than anyone else's. In melee combat, she swung the bag slung around her like a bludgeon, and to my surprise it worked nearly as well as Teddie's bear claws. "Ame-no-Uzume! Mapsio!" cried out my green-eyed friend as she tore into the minds of a couple of Shadows. That left them reeling enough for me to signal an All-Out Attack, which Rise managed to boost.
We continued on to the next floor, and Kubo's thoughts made Shadow Teddie look like a big, fluffy teddy bear. (Well, he technically was, but you get what I mean.) Given the context of his words and him being knocked down, I wondered if an abusive household was what managed to create this twisted mind. On to the third floor, and his thoughts turned to a good night's sleep that not even police cars woke him up. Were those the same police cars that drove around town the night Yamano died...?
As we were getting a bit winded we decided to take a break, so I used a Goho-M to warp back to the soundstage and get some recovery via fox. I then got the Class 2-2 members of the IT to join me, after I paid a brief visit to the Velvet Room (when somehow Marie came in and saw me reading another one of her poems) and worked with Igor and Margaret to fuse a few more Personae. With that pitstop over and done with we returned to Void Quest; our progress thus far being enough to allow Rise to guide us to the third floor.
The third floor proved to be our biggest challenge yet. Not to mention that we then encountered several dead ends, which were frustrating at first until I figured out that the corridors with fountains at their ends would warp us to another section of the floor. Rise was watching us, keeping track of the floor's layout, allowing us to make an impromptu map of the place which eventually led us to the next floor.
The fourth floor's walls and floor were tinged a rather sick green, and Kubo's sick thoughts followed suit. It depicted him and Yamano as combatants in an old school RPG, with Kubo winning and seemingly gaining stats from it. The odd part to me, however, was that he thought of Yamano as "female announcer". Wouldn't he have known the name of the woman he presumably killed, at that? Something wasn't adding up.
On we went, and we found ourselves at the fifth floor, where Kubo's memory of his encounter with Saki-senpai echoed in the air. The fact, again, that he called Saki-senpai, the second victim, as the "corpse discoverer" disquieted me. So not only did he think their lives were worthless, but that he even refused to dignify them with their names? No question: Mitsuo Kubo was a pathetic, pitiful young man.
Moving further within Void Quest, and the screwed up psyche of Kubo continued to roil and rage in the aether. Still we soldiered on, fighting off various Shadows as we also attempted to make sense of the madman. On the seventh floor, at an intersection I found myself battling a brief spell of dizziness which confused my bearings; I had to be called out by Rise for following the wrong path towards the stairs to the next level. We fought a hand-like Shadow near the end, which seemed to glow with a strange power, and we had managed to dispose of it with Chie's Rampage and my own Yamata-no-Orochi's Mabufula.
Then on the eighth floor, we heard something that was more crucial than we thought at first. Kubo's mind re-enacted his encounter with Morooka, and how he felt murdering our homeroom teacher made him feel better and cool. Wait a moment, I thought. How come he referred to Morooka by name and not Yamano or Saki-senpai? I had a developing hypothesis about that, but I wanted to get to Kubo and get the information out of him, even if it meant beating up his Shadow, or if worse came to worst, Mitsuo Kubo himself.
My hypothesis was that Kubo had indeed killed King Moron himself, but not Yamano or Saki-senpai, and that he was taking credit for the murders of the latter two for an unknown as of yet reason. Assuming this were indeed the case, then Kubo killed Morooka in order to gain some clout, and people would then assume he killed the two women victims as well. It was twisted reasoning, but it made the most sense based on our evidence; King Moron didn't fit the pattern of the other TV World victims by not appearing on a TV show, and while his body was found similarly there were probably some inconsistencies left unknown as of the moment.
After a long and arduous climb we had reached Void Quest's "Endgame". We then knew Kubo was on the other side of the door, and when it opened, I saw a glimpse of two young men with one sitting in front of a TV and a game console, then a brief flash of light.
----
I was somehow already back in the real world, and we were meeting at Junes with the case already wrapped up. Yukiko then begged off to leave, citing commitments at her family inn. I thought nothing of it, then felt as if time was moving much faster until when I came to, it was September already. Yosuke and I were standing in front of Marukyu Tofu, with Rise having moved out of town and the shop having closed, and her number somehow not working. Next thing I knew it was October, and I was walking down the Shopping District, and I overheard Kanji and Naoki-kun at Aiya, and somehow something told me they wouldn't appreciate me barging in. I passed by where the Velvet Room door was, and the wall showed only smooth stone, without even a hint of blue. I then found myself standing outside the library, seeing Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kou, and Daisuke all together, but again I felt as if I couldn't bother them even if it was exam season.
Time blitzed by again, and it was mid-November all of a sudden. Chie had begged off meeting at Junes, and so did Yukiko. Yosuke approached me, asking me if no one was coming that day, and even he begged off, citing that he was actually working at the place and that he had to think about the future, like his entrance exams.
That night, a feeling crept up within me; I genuinely felt alone now that the case had been solved and that everyone had come back to their daily lives. Which then made me confront an awful truth regarding myself: What would I do once the case was over and done with? Was I only surrounding myself with the Investigation Team because it gave me a sense of purpose? I felt in the same basket as Yosuke did months earlier, when we talked it over, so if even he was over his lack of direction, what did it say about me?
Then as midnight came, I tried touching the TV screen in my room. It came off solid, and somehow I couldn't put my hand into the TV. Did the case being solved mean my powers were already null and void? At that point, I heard a deep voice, saying it had nothing, which belonged to a giant floating baby surrounded by strange runes around its head. It had the same energy I felt from a Shadow, so if it were really a Shadow, then what was it doing in the real world? And if this weren't the real world, then what was actually happening? All the same, as my mind continued to war with itself over this existential crisis, the Shadow baby began to goad me, telling me that friendship was an illusion. I tried summoning my Persona, but the card fizzled in my hand and rendered my power useless. For the first time in my stay in Inaba, I began to feel genuine fear. And then the Shadow said something that shook me further: "You are just like me." If this Shadow was who I thought it was, then... was I really that much like Mitsuo Kubo?
Suddenly, Shadow Kubo had grasped me in its arms, and was ready to crush the life out of me. At that point I felt the story of Yu Narukami, transfer student was at its end, when I then heard a familiar voice telling me to grab their hand. So I reached up, reached up with all my strength, and I felt a comforting sensation of being pulled out. It was Yosuke's genial smile that greeted me as he pulled me out of whatever that trap with the baby was, and I thanked my friend for rescuing me. When he and Jiraiya had safely returned, I saw what was going on: my friends had summoned their Personae and were fighting off the Shadow Baby, which was surrounded by cubes that formed an armor around it in the shape of a video game warrior.
That was when it hit me: I was not like Mitsuo Kubo, because I was not alone. I had a group of true friends, who through thick and thin, would stick together and help each other in their lives. Marie, even if she were new to our group, was blasting apart the armor cubes with her nuclear blasts. Teddie helped keep everyone healthy and froze the blocks, allowing Kanji to crush them alongside his Take-Mikazuchi. Rise continued scanning the battlefield and pinpointing Shadow Mitsuo's blocks, even as they continued regenerating.
That left the three friends I met first when I came to Inaba. Yosuke had saved me, and continued smiling at me even as Jiraiya bombarded the foe with a strong wind. But the biggest turning point was with Chie and Yukiko, who I was worried would take my friendzoning them badly. But it turned out not to be the case, in fact, a miracle happened which made me realize how our bond of friendship had grown.
Chie's Tomoe and Yukiko's Konohana-Sakuya had retreated, and I wondered what was going on. Then the two girls closed their eyes, opened them, and I distinctly heard their voice reverberate as if they were one with the Sea of Souls.
"Come, Suzuka-Gongen!" "I am thou! Amaterasu!"
The Personae of my lady friends had awakened to new power. Chie's Persona now wore full samurai armor around itself, and now wielded a Darth Maul-esque double-bladed lightsaber instead of its naginata. Yukiko's Persona was no longer a bird-like woman clad in pink, but was now a womanly silhouette of pure light, wielding a katana and its scabbard, while retaining the wings it had in its previous state.
"Persona! Heat Wave!" "Go forth! Agidyne!"
The two girls' awakened Personae blasted away the remaining blocks that protected Shadow Kubo, leaving the infantile Shadow behind. It was then that I stepped up, eager to finish the job.
First, I began with Yamata-no-Orochi, casting a strong Garula that knocked it off-balance. I then switched to Dis, letting the Norse spirit goddess burn it with a Maragion. Ose then came forth from my soul, getting in an Atom Smasher before I withdrew it back. I then summoned Dominion, the angel letting out a strong Makouga, bathing Shadow Kubo in strong light. Which then left me with a new Persona I had just fused, and my oldest friend. "Black Frost!" I cried out, sending a Bufula, and then "Izanagi!" I called out, having my most treasured Persona deal the final blow with a Megido.
----
And just like that, it was over and done with. Mitsuo Kubo would face the music and pay for the crimes he did. But before that, we watched him, and the boy was confused as to what was happening. I explained to him what he had been doing inside the TV, and let him face his Shadow, fully expecting him to earn a Persona and somehow either making him a bigger threat, or find a way to atone for his sins.
But shockingly, that didn't happen. Instead, Mitsuo claimed credit for all of the crimes, even if I got the feeling he killed neither Yamano nor Saki-senpai; I did pin him for Morooka, however. As he cackled madly, what was left of Shadow Kubo disappeared into the aether, leaving us stumped as to what had happened.
We escorted the insensate, laughing mad Kubo out of the TV, and we began our interrogation of the young man, but he could provide no concrete answers besides that he did it. Mitsuo continued spouting nihilist nonsense, and cited nothing as to his motives, which pissed off Kanji enough for my kohai to lift Kubo by the collar, and told him that he would pay for his crimes. As we contacted the police, however, I saw a boy with frizzy dark hair, around sixth grade or so, staring at us in awe.
The boy then asked us how'd we get out of the TV, and I realized we had a pretty major issue on our hands. So against better judgement, and knowing that lying would make things worse, I decided to tell him the truth.
Surprisingly, he took it all in stride, and realizing we had a bit of a fanboy on our hands, I asked his name out of curiosity.
"My name? It's Ren", he said. "Ren Amamiya."