Part 5: 04/21/09 - 04/24/09
Today is a very important day...
Want To Be Close / Time
Yeah, why?
Man, I knew it. I heard from Junpei that you're pretty close with Yukari-san. ...What's up with that? 
There's a morning assembly, so we better hurry.
Next, we'll hear a word from the Student Council.
Thank you.
Well... I guess she IS the most popular girl in school.
You can say that again! There's like some kinda aura around her...
Yeah, I try not to think about that.
It is my firm belief that each of us must accept the responsibility of bettering our school. However, change cannot occur without sustained effort and an unprecedented level of commitment. That is why we must restructure our daily lives to accommodate this lofty goal.
...To imagine a bold new future without losing sight of the realities around you. That is the key. I am certain that many of you have your own visions of the future... For us to reap the full benefits of our education, your participation, ideas, and enthusiasm are essential. Thank you.
So... Do you have any idea what she just said?
Sort of.
Sure didn't sound like somethin' a high-schooler would say... If it was anyone else, we'd be laughin' our asses off.
...You know what? I'm tired of these textbooks. I just went over this novel in the last class. I've got a great poem we can cover instead. Close your textbooks, everyone, and listen...
All right, Kenji, you'd better not be sleeping back there! You should be ashamed of yourself, taking a nap while I pour my heart into reading this poem! For that, you get another essay along with your regular assignment tonight! I'll expect a slice of cake when you turn it in, too! And don't cheap out with the store-bought stuff like last time!
This is nice and all, but what makes today so important?
This train be off the rails at long last! We've finally got the freedom to do whatever we want during downtime. Hurray!
...There's not much we can do today, though. That'll very quickly change, but we'll deal with that when we can. Same with looking around the school proper. For now, let's just leave and see what we find.
And what we find... is a cutscene. Great.
Where!? ...Oh, there he is!
......
I didn't use to talk to him much, but now I've got a good excuse.
I know he's the captain of the boxing team, but... Who woulda thought he'd be such a chick magnet!?
I mean, come on! You don't even see girls flock like that on TV! I wonder where they're going...
Normally I'd truncate this and combine the latter 2 into one image like before, but that heart icon over Junpei's head is kind of hilarious I dunno.
I want the two of you to meet me at Paulownia Mall. You know where it is, right? I'll be at the police station. See ya there. Th-The police station? You mean, we're not hangin' out with your friends...? Who, these girls? 
Anyway, I'm gonna head out. ...Don't keep me waiting.
...Oh well, let's go.> Akihiko asked you to meet him at the Paulownia Mall police station...
> You decide to head over there...
Fortunately, we're not forced there immediately so we can do something else first.
Namely, talk to this guy. We'll probably be seeing him around a lot. Call it a bit of a hunch, there.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
We could try and do other things, but we're sort of not allowed (...free time...) and it's a good idea to get this out of the way quicker anyway.
Paulownia Mall 
Oh, these are the guys I was talking about earlier.
I was waiting for you guys. This is Officer Kurosawa. He helps keep our squad well-equipped. And, this is from Ikutsuki-san... R-Really!? Sweet!
You can't fight something empty-handed, so find something you like. Officer Kurosawa has connections...
But, these things still cost money.
Of course they do. Nothing in life is free. I realize that. Well, I'll see you later. Thanks again.
My job is to maintain peace in this city, regardless of the circumstances. I'm just an ordinary police officer, but it doesn't take a genius to know something strange is going on here. I'm only doing what I think is right.So, Kurosawa here runs the Weapon/Armor store out of the Police Station.
We can buy an upgrade for anyone/everyone if we have the funds but thats 9600 Yen for the weapons alone and we'd have 8000 flat if I didn't buy soda so...
Instead, I'm just not gonna buy anything right now. They're all upgrades across the board, sure, but we can get anything he sells for free in Tartarus and we can find BETTER stuff in general too.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
I'm gonna take off, since I'm in a bad mood now... Later.> Junpei has left.
So, NOW we have actual real free time. Finally.
Since we're already here, we might as well look around the mall a bit first.
Since Kurosawa won't sell accessories, we need to find somewhere else to buy them. Fortunately that's next door! I do appreciate here how the HP/SP increases are proportional and not what they do in later games when it's just "oh this thing gives you a whole 10 points of SP!" or whatever.
That said the other stat boosters are just +1 and that's real bad so whatever.
...Honestly, for the most part I kind of forget that the actual stores in the mall exist after a while.
Speaking of forgetting, every shopkeeper has normal dialogue too but it's not exciting or anything. Kurosawa just tells us his "store" is only open during the day, for example.
I guess since we're going clockwise, we'll finish off that way too. Gonna make a note of this to come back in about 2 months when it's open.
...So, basically, there's no point to shopping at the Pharmacy when it's not a Saturday. Gotcha.
Being a Pharmacy, it sells restoratives... and hoity-toity cat food.
I dunno, I just love that this is here and it describes the cat food as being snobbish.
Nothing else in the mall worth our time right now (sadly
For sensible reasons, it drops us off at the train station but that's not why we're here!
No, off-screen to the south-west we can find a path to the strip mall here. We've seen it twice already so we have an idea of what's out here. I'm sure we'll see what's in all these stores later but for now..
I feel like grabbing a cheap and easy snack. It's only 400 yen so the Chairman's paid for this already, if you think about it.
It's weird because it doesn't have octopus in it. At all. I would think that means it isn't even takoyaki but I guess I'm wrong.
Moving swiftly on, we'll head over to the other station. This is a small area with one important thing in it.
This guy right here.
It shows movies on a bit of a rotation with each one increasing a social stat. This is our first chance to boost Courage and it only costs 1500 yen!
It does use up our afternoon free time but that's okay. There's not really much else we COULD do with it anyway.
More important is that since right now our Charm and Academics are at 4 and our Courage is at 0 it might seem like it has a bit of catching up to do.
It's already done so. The movie theatre is a pretty nice bonus for social stats since it IS a +4 gain. It's just... not actually worth using outside of the really early stuff because we have better things to spend time on soon enough.
Iwatodai Dorm
Regarding our exploration of Tartarus... Akihiko is still on the mend, so for now, I'd like you to lead the team. You never know when a powerful enemy might appear, like the one you faced the other day. It's best to be prepared, or else you may find yourself in a difficult situation. So, whenever you'd like to explore Tartarus, just let me know, and I'll gather everyone there. Also, since I'm sure there are other things you will need to take care of, you may go out at night if you need to. Well, that's it. Keep up the good work.Simply put: we can leave on an Evening now.
But first...
Tell me, what did you think about it? It was a piece of cake.
Why, that's absolutely remarkable! Would you like to apply to become the next chairman?
But, he knows about us and helps out when he can. Why does he help us?
But, he's a police officer, so he's dedicated his life to helping people. Plus, he's a pretty cool guy. Does everyone go there?
How did you meet him?
He's someone you can count on. Anything else I should know?
...so you won't be able to buy equipment during those times.
They appear as coffins. Shadows are quite enigmatic.. They only attack thoe who have not been Transmogrified. Shadows feed on the minds of their victims, leaving them unable to speak. We call this Apathy Syndrome. And those who suffer from this incapactitating afflication are known as... ...The Lost.
I feel like I spent all day hiking up Mount Fuji. What about you, Makoto-kun? I feel fine. Really? You don't look like you have that much endurance.
Well, I was thinking, why does it have to look like a gun? I mean, you gotta be a little nutty to point a gun at your head and pull the trigger, ya know?
Investigators are facing a difficult case, since there were no witnesses. This is the 12th instance of the mysterious incident. A team of investigators is working hard to track down any leads.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
Welp, no point in hanging around the dorm if we don't have to. We COULD go to Tartarus right away but I'll give it a bit of time first.
Our nighttime exploration options are even more limited than normal. I guess we'll be spending a lot of time in the mall.
So, there's a thing back here that I skipped over earlier since I didn't think it'd be relevant right now. It still isn't, but let's just get it out of the way now.
Silence
It's the door to the Velvet Room! This will prove pretty dang handy to have quick access to later, since this is the only spot it turns up in outside of Tartarus.
The Poem For Everyone's Soul
Welcome to the Velvet Room. Well... I suppose it's time for me to explain what I really do here. 
But in order to do so, I must fuse your Persona cards together... In other words, I shall merge them into a single Persona. The number of Personas you have buried within you is approximately 170... We've never seen a visitor with this many possibilities before...
Heh heh heh... This should prove veeery interesting,. So, as you accumulate cards, please bring them to me.We could fuse Orpheua and Pixie but right now that wouldn't be the best idea. So, we'll just leave for now...
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
And check out the Arcade. We're gonna be spending a lot of money and time here, for a simple reason.
Every day, there are two different game available. We're gonna be focusing on the more expensive one almost exclusively.
So, for today we'll be checking out the, uh, Haunted House I guess.
Mainly because it gives us a Courage boost. We want to get as much Courage as possible in as short a time as possible, so...
Silence
Provided we don't go to Tartarus, we can spend extra night time Studying if we really want to.
Needless to say, yes, we're going to study here very often. There's little reason not to, really.
It's an easy and consistent Academics increase, after all.
Although, sometimes this happens which is a good thing in itself. I just wish it happened later than the first possible day...
Because it lasts through to Wednesday and that's not a good thing but only in this particular instance.
Want To Be Close / Time
Dude, I thought the rumor about you and Yukari-san was true... It is what it is.
You keep saying that, Kenji. I think you do care.
But, you've sure had some bad luck since you transferred here. ...You know, dude, all the weird stuff that's been happening... How everyone's been saying they're hearing strange voices... Well, I guess since you're always listening to your headphones, you probably haven't heard anything. Joy 
> It's the classmate you were talking to earlier this morning...
Why are you asking me? No reason, really. I just don't have anything to do later... ...and I thought we could finish our conversation from this morning. So whaddya say, man? Let's get some ramen and talk.> You accepted your classmate's offer.
Super unsubtle ulterior motive... makes sense here, really.
> You have decided to go with him.
...Whew! Now that's what I'm talkin' about! ...Well, was I right, or was I right? This ramen tastes great, doesn't it?
I bet they put a special ingredient in it--something no other ramen shop uses.
It's probably some sort of secret spice... Oh, sorry. My bad. I get all geeked up when I eat here. I agree with you.
...Wow, you don't look like the type of guy I'd normally hang around with... But I guess looks aren't everything. ...By the way, man, I hear you and Yukari are close. Damn, boy, you move fast! I mean, you just transferred here. ...I can't blame you, though. A man's gotta be aggressive nowadays.Even in 2009, huh? I guess there really is nothing new under the sun. Hopefully Kenji is going to end up being more likable than most people with this mindset...
Hey, let's hang out after school again sometime.
> Kenji seems to like you...
> You have become friends with Kenji.
The Power of The Heart
> A mysterious voice rings in your head...
Well, I guess today could've been used less productively...
Joy
What, it's already nighttime? ...Damn, I missed my favorite TV show! Man, you're one serious dude... Oh well, let's get going.> You decided to return to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
Exploring Tartarus can be very tiring. If the exploration becomes too long, you might get exhausted.
There's a chance you might not be able to recuperate fully before whatever's going to happen. The others' conditions will vary as well, so make sure you take that into consideration before you begin exploring. If you want my evaluation of everyone's condition, don't hesitate to ask.Mitsuru remains so consistently bad at tutorials in this instance she outright got it wrong. Good job, Mitsuru.
You should return to your room and rest for the remainder of the day. Don't push yourself too hard if you're not feeling well.
Right, so we're currently Tired from getting a bad RNG when Studying. It happens. Since we can only check our own status easily (because while it makes sense in terms of plot, Persona 3 is a mechanical pain in the ass), Mitsuru exists to at least make this part somewhat easier. Bascally, we could talk to everyone separately when in Tartarus or we could talk to Mitsuru. One of these is the better option, yes.
But we're not checking stats since we've only been in Tartarus once and that was a tutorial and so it didn't even count anyway. We're just going to normally Talk.
there is a possibility you may falter. However, continuous attacks with a sword will inflict a great amount of damage. Contrarily, there is no danger of stumbling when you use a far-range weapon such as a bow. However, a bow is nowhere near as powerful as a sword.And not just because Yukari has low Strength. Though that doesn't help.
No, see, ranged attacks don't have a penalty for missing so they deal shit damage AND miss constantly because of their massively reduced accuracy (12% miss rate is a lot). Balancing!
I see that you can use both types of weapons. it is important to think about these advantages and disadvantages when choosing between the two.
And if you don't get up fast enough, you'll become the enemy's main target.
I'm not wearing a nurse's uniform, but you can come to me if ya need healing!
What, is that funny? You need to be hot to pull off a nurse's uniform, and you're definitely--*cough*--NOT. Why you little--!...Moving ever so swiftly on.
Everyone else can only use one type of weapon. For me, it's the two-handed sword. That's because real men fight with katanas! With a katana you can sometimes hit an enemy over and over... and it's super strong! Consider me the main attacker of the team! I'm one baaad mutha! Although, sometimes I fall down when an enemy dodges my attack... but don't worry about that.
The man has regained consciousness, but due to his condition, has been unable to speak. Police are awaiting the man's recovery before questioning him. And that's the news for today.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
Well, there's no reason to stay in the dorm at Night. Being Tired doesn't mean anything out here, so we'll be going to the mall every night except when we go to Tartarus for obvious reasons.
Although, today we're not playing arcade games. Instead, we're checking out the place with the empty orchestra sign.
800 yen is relatively cheap for what this does, really.
Even without the arcade machine, there are ways in the mall to increase Courage and Charm which is nice.
Silence
There's basically no reason to not study so...!
...Well, okay there is this. Since we're Tired, we can't actually get anything out of studying right now. This was just a waste of time, really.
And now we're no longer tired, and that's a bad thing right now. It ISN'T bad normally but there's something special you can do in a bad condition at school.
Want To Be Close / Time
Listening: You're talking about the Apathy Syndrome, right? My neighbor has that... He grosses me out. Sometimes I think I might have it too, and it depresses me.
Gossiping: Maybe you just need some exercise.
> The first bell has rung.
We could go and join a school club right now, or we could, uh, not.
Kenji's right here and though I don't exactly like it, he did tease us with something of maybe interest. Plus he's a Social Link and we probably should deal with those.
We can still decide to not spend time with him though, or we can get reminded what our rank is. Which is also in the menu, so that's just pointless here.
...Still, we've got no real reason to bail.
Joy
> Contrary to its simple appearance, the soup has a complex flavor that is accentuated by the noodles.
Hey, dude, your dorm's co-ed, right? So, can you, like, go into Yukari-san's room and stuff? No. ...No, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought.
So, a lot of dialogue choices in most S.Link scenes matter. They affect how quickly you'll reach the next rank, which is kind of important for a couple reasons. We'll get to those when we get to those though.
Well, I'm not interested in girls her age, anyway. When it comes to women, I like them to be older than me. What about you? I like girls my age. ...Psh, you don't know what you're missing, man. Older women are smart, sexy, and sophisticated. Damn, dude. I thought you'd understand.
Anyway, so, the music note from before is how you know you picked "right" and this one is a clear sign of choosing the "wrong" option. In this instance, it doesn't even matter though. You need 1 point to get Kenji up from here and getting either one correct gives 5 points (7 if you use a semi-hidden mechanic).
...Well, to tell you the truth, I--wait, this is just between us, okay?--I have my eye on someone. This is the "secret plan" I was talking about. I'm going to ask her out.
Anyways, I want you to be there when I ask her out. But you gotta promise you won't tell anyone, okay?...On the one hand, I so want no part of anything that's going to happen from here. On the other hand, I cannot wait to see (and most likely laugh at) everything that happens out of this.
Cuz if people find out they'll be all like, "That's inappropriate" or whatever...> Kenji told you his secret plan...
> Your relationship is stronger now!
The Power of The Heart
And this scene plays every single time we get a rank up in the S.Link it's dumb. I'm just gonna cut it out from now on, honestly.
> Your power to create Personas of the Magician Arcana has grown!
It's not like you're going to forget who represents which Arcana anyway.
Joy
> You decide to return to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
...Y'know, I do wonder if Junpei knows about Kenji's "secret plan" or not. He has to, right?
He said you're a pretty cool guy... Are you two friends too? Well, sort of... I've known him for a long time, even though we don't usually hang out. He's a good guy... and, man, he has no fear when it comes to the ladies...Understatement, yes.
By the way, let's go to Tartarus tonight... I hear the Lost are increasing, so we better kick some Shadow ass.Eh, there's no need to go to Tartarus just yet. We'll be fine if we leave it a couple days more.
By the way, have you joined any clubs? Sure have. Good, I hope you enjoy it. It's tough to attend all the time, but you'll really get a lot out of it if you do.
Teammates who are sick or tired should not be permitted to explore the tower.
That's why mine only learns physical skills.Among others, though since we're only like level 3 you don't know that yet I guess.
...Because dudes are supposed to fight with their fists! Mano a mano! Oh, that's right... I use a sword.
I'd have thought those two things would be the other way around, but whatever.
What's great about a bow is you don't fall down if an enemy dodges one of your arrows.
Although... a bow doesn't do very much damage, and it misses a lot... But, you can always balance those negatives with your Persona. So, no worries.Hey guys, do you maybe get it yet? There are mechanical differences between weapons! And not just the fact that there are three different Physical elements!
Our next story is about the release of the spring carp. Over 10,000 were released into the river this year. The next carp-release ceremony will be held in June.
As interesting as carp is, let's see... today is Thursday, so that means...
Karaoke, I guess. Let that Courage sour ever-higher!
And then late night studying for good measure. Academics is slowly, slowly creeping up to where we're going to want it.
Don't worry, I have a stupid plan for certain things in mind anyway.
Want To Be Close / Time
Gossiping: I got seriously hooked on that punching game.
Yeah, so, uh, the games that I'm not bothering with at the arcade don't increase Social stats. They increase your actual Stats.
Listening: That's at Paulownia Mall, right? Game Panic has a good selection, but it's always packed.
Gossiping: Oh, really? Let's go see what cabs are open today.
Gossiping: That is... if you can spot me some change.
Listening: No way! You still owe me for that game of Super Neo all the way back in 2003!
> The first bell has rung.
So, this is probably the first and last time we'll see this here. I'll see it a lot though...
Afternoon Break
You doing anything after school? Maybe. Oh... Well, if you're looking for something to do, come talk to me, man. I'll be at my desk. Well, I guess I should go study... ...NOT! Who needs to study, right? Hahaha...
> Maybe you should talk to him after school...
Maybe, yeah. This scene just means he's going to rank up if we hang out with him. If this scene plays, that's definitely going to happen but the reverse is not necessarily true. It should be obvious why I'm going to skip this whenever it plays in the future.
Want To Be Close / Time
Anyway, we COULD hang out with Kenji again but we're sure not gonna today.
We're not really going to check out much of the school, but there's one specific area we're heading to.
...First though, I see someone we didn't do anything with yesterday.
Um, why am I telling you this? Well, whatever... You have to admit, he IS a hottie...
Oh yeah, dude, she's DEFINITELY checking me out...This isn't exactly the only NPC mini-threadline but it's the one that exists right now.
But what I do know is that we're off through this door next to the bulletin board that we couldn't before.
It's hard to read... It doesn't look like English... And if you listen close, you can hear mysterious voices inside... It's one awfully mysterious home economics class, let me tell you.Huh, that's a little too specifically odd. Wonder if it'll come up again.
We're going to be going through this fire exit, but those stairs there? Lead to our classroom, basically. We could've come down there and be done quicker, but then we'd miss out on Creepy Stalker and... whatever is going on with the home ec class.
Out through the fire exit, there's this... tree. That really does stand out, alright.
And since this is a Japanese high school, this path also leads to the Gym.
From here, we can pick which sports club we join. Track is the door dead ahead, swimming is to the left and kendo is to the right.
Now, let's see...
code:
Kendo: ||||||||||||||||
Swim: ||||
Track: |||||
Joy
This is Yuko, our manager.
You're a junior, right? SInce we're the same year, you can just call me "Yuko."...That might be one of the most Japanese sentences I have ever seen in an official English release of a thing, wow. See, basically, just referring to someone by their first name is either a signifier of closeness or that you're absurdly ridiculously rude. Yuko's cool though, so she don't mind which is nice I guess.
...Hey! Kazushi!
This is the future captain of this team. He's a great athlete and scores well in competitions. You two are in the same class, right? Kazushi, keep an eye on the new guy here, okay?
You got it. You're the guy who went out with Yukari Takeba on the first day of school, right? You're practically famous. I'm Kazushi Miyamoto. You've seen me around, right? Yeah.
Just because you joined mid-season, don't think I'll go easy on you!> You have made friends with Kazushi...
> You joined the Kendo Team and befriended your new teammates.
The Power of The Heart
Joy
I'll make sure your uniform is ready for next time.> After looking around, you decided to go back to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
Nope. Well, don't wait too long, cuz they fill up quickly. Oh, by the way, maybe we should go to Tartarus tonight...
Plus, I didn't have practice today, so I could use the exercise... Just don't take it lightly, okay? It's dangerous there.
I'm aware of that.We'll leave Tartarus be for the moment, of course. Before we consider doing anything else...
Equipping one of them will affect your status, dude! I think only Persona-users can use them, though.
Hmm... I wonder why you don't notice you've been infected until after the battle... Must be because you're concentrating so hard on fighting... Well, anyway, just don't come near me if you get sick.
Let me rephrase that... WE don't have weaknesses, our Personas do. My Persona seems to be weak against electricity, but strong against wind. *sigh* She'll probably never learn any electricity skills...
Our next story is about a strange animal from overseas.
The platypus, an animal native to Australia, is an egg-laying mammal. And behind the male playpus' feet are poisonous spurs! What a strange animal!
...Why is "hey guys, platypi exist!" a PS2 Persona running joke? It's here and it was a big deal in Persona 4 for no apparent reason. I don't get it.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars / Way of Life
So, we can't go to Karaoke right now. That's fine. Let's see...
Okay, good, the arcade has what we want. But we can't afford it. Hrm. Gotta flip some of this stuff from our first Tartarus run I guess.
It's worth it though. Because not only does this give us a Courage boost...
It pushes our Courage up to Rank 2 already! We can do something with this in the future now!
Academics is just a tedious, long grind that isn't even close to rank 2 yet...
Plus we're out of money now. I guess we should go to Tartarus tomorrow.