Persona 3 FES Part #70 - 10/05/09

Part 70: 10/05/09 - 10/06/09

After last night's events, that's... quite the understatement.

> However, you must still go to school today.

Well, let's see what there is in store for us today...

Huh, that was arranged incredibly quickly. I get Ikutsuki almost certainly had something to do with it, but still.

He had a lifetime of opportunity ahead of him...

As educators, we are to blame for ignoring his silent calls for help.

We lost him to violence before we had a chance to help him realize his true potential...

Forgive us... Forgive us for our negligence...

> The principal continues with his eulogy...

.....

> You can hear people talking in front of you.

Senior in Front: I don't even know who this Aragaki guy was...
Senior to the Side: I heard he never came to school. ...Prolly just some punk. Anyway, I gotta get home... I have to study for my mock-exam.

> The seniors turn to you.

Senior in Front: Wait, you're not seniors, so how would you know? Anyway, can you believe this? Scary, huh?

Shut up.

Senior in Front: Damn... What's your problem?

......

Senior in Front: Huh? ...What're you doing?

I said shut up!!

*sigh* I'll never hear the end of this...

Tch...

Just ignore them, Junpei...

Nope. Why?

He was absent this morning... I wonder if he'll show up at all.

I hope he's okay...

Well, we'll find out eventually I guess. For now, we'll just carry on with our day.

When you get back today, please meet me in the lounge.

You know what it's regarding.

Yeah...

I don't expect you to have collected your thoughts. In fact, I am still at a loss myself...

I'll see you then.

*sigh* This'll be a fun meeting...

I do wonder how people are going to react to Ken revealing that he is in fact Pretty Interesting, even if he is an attempted TKer.

...But first!

Akihiko Sanada

this is very important maybe just watch this instead

So, as school ends, instead of skipping straight to the dorm scene we get something at the gym first...

I had the usual for lunch...

Ramen tastes a lot better when you're cutting class.

...Make sure you invite me next time.

Living With Determination

Why are you always like that?

You're so stubborn.

Put yourself in my shoes for a change...

I guess you're right...

I was too obsessed with power...

I thought that if I was strong enough, I could protect anyone...

But, I was wrong... And now, you're gone too... I'm such an idiot.

In battle, there's always a chance of dying... I knew that!

But... I was so focused on fighting that I didn't notice anything else!

It didn't matter how tough I was! Look what happened!

Silence

...Yeah, I know...

Crying won't change anything, will it...?

Alright, Shinji...

I still have things to do, right?

The Path is Open

Well... this is different.

This is very different, in fact. This is a mechanic that was, uh, revamped significantly for later games but we'll get to that later.

For now, Castor and Pollux, the Gemini Twins, have broken our Greek mythology pattern for the main cast wholesale by enabling Polydeuces evolution to Gaius Julius Caesar!

I can't carry this guilt forever...

I'm getting tired of it.

End

Changing Seasons / Sun

...Huh, rather than just carry on straight to the dorm we get to do stuff in the afternoon. Not often that happens when we've got Things To Do in the evening and all.

So, uh, I guess we'll spend some time with a different child before we have to, I dunno, scold one for attempted murder.

Emphasis is just on spending time, though. We needed to do this so we could get a rank up next time we have the chance to come here.

Troubled

Despite everything else, Koromaru's still super happy to see someone come in and immediately has a run around to say hi!

I've already consulted the Chairman.

Aigis, bring Amada here.

Understood.

When Shinjiro-senpai told me he'd be late, I thought it was strange, but I said nothing.

No, you didn't. Don't lie in an attempt to retcon a scene from one day before.

If only I'd listened to my intuition...

Don't be so hard on yourself, Fuuka.

It's not your fault.

I knew this wasn't a game...

But, I never thought it'd end up like this...

There's no point dwelling on the past.

Shinji's last words were "This is how it should be."

...That's why, from this day forward, I'll face things head on, too.

That's cool, man...

Senpai...

......

Her portrait is in the way, but Makoto, Yukari and Junpei have the surprised exclamation marks too. Notably, Akihiko does not...

He's not!?

There are indications that the window has been pried open.

...Why did we let him keep the spear?! It's the best weapon-type for a reason!

Ken-kun...!

Well... no... but we can't just let him go off on his own, right!?

So, where do you plan on looking?

I don't know, but we have to find him!

He must feel so alone...

Fuuka...

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...

Bringing him back won't change anything... and we can't keep treating him like a kid.

Akihiko...

It's his choice. He's the only one who can decide how he's going to live his life.

...The same goes for all of us.

Iwatodai Dorm

It is a difficult decision for such a young person to make, but I'm not worried.

Ken has a strong will...

I am confident he will make the right choice.

Right, but... are we sure he'll be coming back? He was planning on killing himself after killing Shinji. And also before he even came up with the plan to kill Shinji.

I will stand by until further notice.

He said, "This is how it should be." Those were his dying words...

Would you be able to say that?

No way.

Same here... I could never say that.

I lost my temper and said all those things to Yukari-chan...

But I'm really worried about Ken-kun...

I know how it feels not to have a place to belong to.

We should've been more understanding...

I wonder what he's doing now...

Newscaster: Though he rarely attended school, he was often spotted at the crime scene. Police believe that it must have arisen from a dispute, and are questioning local youth.

So, I see Shinji's death is being reported... and just like with Ken's mom, it's not even close to the truh. In this case, it's odder because "shot by a shirtless cowboy" is the truth and doesn't require obfuscating Dark Hour/Persona stuff.

...Speaking of Shinji, his room is still here and we can go take a peek. It's the only other bedroom we can enter after someone's started using it, even.

That's because despite having stuff still in it, it's treated as a vacant room now. There's not much here, of course...

But Shinji's things are all here. Notably, we can take back the stuff he had equipped from this if we REALLY wanted/needed to. I'll let it be, though.

Back outside, something seems... off. I can't quite put my finger on what it is though.

Eh, it's probably nothing important. We'll just see what Tuesday has for us, since Monday was shorter than I expected.

Changing Seasons / Sun

No scenes at all today, huh? We just skip right to the after school stuff as per usual. Well, since we beat the Full Moon Shadow before we have some new sidequests available!

...Only 2 of which we can do without going to Tartarus. Let's get 'em outta the way now then.

Did you have a question about my lecture--Hey, what're you staring at?

Is it my helm...? Could that be it?

Is this really happening! Whoooop! That's a discerning eye you've got there, boy!

Isn't this helm great? Isn't it?

It's a historic masterpiece Masamune had since he was young...

> Mr. Ono's story goes on and on...

Such generosity! It's as if he foresaw his fate...

*sob* *sob*

...And that's why I couldn't possibly part with it.

I could give you something else from my personal collection, though, one with no connections to Masamune.

If you still want one... You do still want it, right?

S-Sure.

Come see me again, and I'll let you have it.

Anyway, if we needed it, this would give us a couple of points of Academics. How nice of it.

But we can't continue the quest just yet, so we'll be back tomorrow to finish this I guess.

When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars (Reincarnation) / Way of Life -Deep Inside My Mind-

So, instead, we'll take a quick trip to the shrine to visit this side area. There's some sushi sitting in here, and... even max Academics isn't enough to get it. Hrm, that's unusual.

Old Lady: Did something happen? What you need is a good meal and some rest, and you'll feel better! Here, have this Inari Sushi...

Oh, huh, that was way easier than I expected.

Old Lady: You have to be optimistic! Your generation is Japan's future! Well, good luck. Cheer up!

So, that's one of the two available requests that we CAN do, er, done. As a result of that, we'll make a brief detour...

The Poem for Everyone's Soul

Its scent really whets my appetite.

In return for bringing me such a delicacy, I shall give you one of my treasures.

My understanding is that it's used in your world for scrubbing floors, but...

With a little creativity, you can find new uses for anything.

Please accept your reward.

This is a spear, believe it or not. At least we got Ken's joke weapon way easier than everyone else's, apparently. Odd, but I'm sure not complaining.

...Still, outside of Portable this is the same as the others (100 Attack, 99 Accuracy, no added effect) and thus straight up worse than everything else available now. Doesn't even sell for much, so that's just extra salt.

Anyway, we've got exams coming up as we learned briefly before. So that means everyone at school is unavailable right now. Which means we get to focus on other people for a bit.

Joy

Yup, I have to run away now.

Remember not to tell Mom and Dad, okay? ...Bye!

> Maiko left.

Like, this is pretty much instant. There's barely seconds between Maiko leaving and this lady turning up.

Hey, you!

Calamity

She literally just left. How did you not?

> The woman seems especially nervous.

Calm down? Calm down!? What if something happens to her!

Oh please! This is what happens when you force a child to study non-stop!

This is ridiculous!

She said she hung out with a high school kid instead of practicing piano.

This is the first I've heard of it!

> The woman is pissed off.

Maybe she'd be less angry if she didn't j--

Shut up, and stop jumping to stupid conclusions.

...Yeah, that.

And, basically, we haven't seen Maiko since this morning.

We found a note in her room that said: "I'm running away. -Maiko"

She's never done anything like this before!

C'mon, we can find her.

They should count themselves lucky this scene didn't trigger a day earlier, otherwise we'd probably be much surlier.

Y-Yeah, I'm sure she must be around here somewhere.

But, why would she...?

Listen, son...

If you have any idea where she is, I'm begging you to tell us.

Maybe at the takoyaki stand.

The takoyaki stand? Oh, that takoyaki stand!

Hurry, let's go!

> Maiko's parents dragged you to the takoyaki stand.

Joy

Oh... you came too?

Well I... Um... I...

> Maiko seems shaken.

Are you okay, darling!? Are you hurt? What happened...?

Y-Yeah, I'm okay...

Oh, what a relief...

Well, that changed rather quickly.

You almost gave me a heart attack, young lady!

Geez, calm down! Can't you tell she's scared?

Y-You guys made me worry too! I was so scared...

I don't want you to get divorced because of me...!

*sob* Waaaaaaaaaaah!

Oh, so that's what this is all about...

*sniff* ...I told you to keep it a secret...

But... thank you...

> Maiko was happy to know that her parents cared about her.

> Your relationship is stronger now!

> Maiko left with her parents, so you decided to go back to the dorm.

Well, all's well that end's well and all that jazz. It wasn't really the best plan, but at least it... got real progress, at last?

Oh, and, amazingly enough we can already go back to Tartarus sometime soon. That's... odd, since Ken is still sorta missing.

Ken Amada

once again, its definitely best to just watch this

Silence

What are you doing here?

When Mom died protecting me, no one would believe the real reason for her death...

To this day, it's still on file as an unexplained accident.

That's why I wanted to make it clear...

They said he died by some violent crime, right?

No one knows the truth. ...Just like with Mom.

And once again, I'll be left behind...

Honestly, it's not much of a surprise to see that Ken has some incredibly blatant survivor's guilt over this whole thing.

...You're on your own now.

......

I'm not here to drag you back...

You can stay in this place until you die, if that's what you want.

Living With Determination

I've known it all along; I've just been lying to myself...

I was consumed by hatred...

I couldn't face the thought of being alone... But... that's exactly what happened...

......

Shinjiro-san... I'll see it through to the end.

The Path is Open

Two of these pretty quickly makes a lot of sense, really. Shinji's death is a major event in general, but especially for Akihiko and Ken. It'd be weirder if they didn't grow as people as a result of it.

End

Silence

...Yes, it has.

So, where's Akihiko-san?

He said to leave Ken-kun alone, but I don't know... Maybe we should look for him...

What's your opinion?

Let him be.

So, you agree with Akihiko then...

Troubled

Woof, woof!

Ken-kun!?

......

You were?

Yes. ...I won't run off again.

You sure?

I'm positive.

It's alright... We can trust him...

...Geez, don't make us worry like that, okay?

...Alright. I'll talk to the Chairman.

...Get some rest.

Now we're all genuinely back to normal again. Elizabeth is either psychic or just read ahead in the script and I could believe either.

Iwatodai Dorm

I admire his fortitude.

There may be more metamorphoses to come, so I will remain in observation mode.

That Aigis sees that without being informed by Fuuka makes sense, really. Just a bit odd that no one else mentions it.

I'd be so depressed... Probably for like three days... or maybe even a week...

But just one day? Geez, he's nuts!

And how they were notably all wrong, because folks with Apathy Syndrome are STILL out there?

Newscaster: So far, all of their hypotheses have been correct... Many are happy to finally have some concrete information about the Syndrome. One of the anthropologists is now trying to pin down a clear date for the next victims to appear.

Possibly yesterday, but that doesn't seem likely.

You could've said no, but you let me come back...

I'll make it up to you guys... Shinjiro-san too...

Ken's sat up on the 2nd floor all on his own. The more things change, I guess...

And then the girls are up on the 3rd floor. How odd.

To be honest, I was really worried... I mean, what if something terrible had happened to him...?

Yeah...

It's so sad... all that he's been through. He's just a little kid.

We can go tomorrow, and invite Ken-kun too.

So, since we can't Tartarus just yet today, we'll just head off to bed and see what we can get up to over the next few days...

The Voice Someone Calls