Part 99: 12/25/09 - 12/27/09: Harabah The Drought (Part Four)
As a big ol' contrast to yesterday, Christmas is positively mundane.
Changing Seasons (Reincarnation) / Sun
Nothing of note happens in it by default. Which makes sense, since we WERE just told that Christmas Eve is a bigger deal and all.
More importantly, though, it's a Friday. Out of our 4 remaining links, only one of them can be done on Fridays!
Which means today is another Nozomi day!
Joy
Yes, waiter! Two bowls of the usual today! ...And as always, make sure one of 'em is extra large!
> The two bowls you were eating have been replaced by two new ones.
That doesn't rhyme.
This is the crown jewel of Hagakure's secret hidden menu.
I've always considered this lightly flavored spicy miso soup a microcosm of the miracle of creation...> The taste eradicated your cares.
You gotta know the secret menu, right? I don't know how they expect people to find out about it, though...See, this is why it pays to be friends with THE Gourmet King! Get all sorts of neat perks.
...Oh well, no point in thinking about it. What's important is that all the best stuff is hidden from normal people. ...Don't forget to keep that other bowl you took, waiter. I want to take that soup home with me. You and I are the only two people who know his sublime taste sensation. ...Don't forget to blow on the noodles to cool them off.> Nozomi seems to be displaying kindness.
> Your relationship is stronger now!
This wouldn't be possible if we were brothers, because the Gourmet King's brother cannot be the Gourmet King. So, do you "get me?" Who would you say I was...?
You are the Gourmet King! Ohh, you didn't have to say that. I'm generally shy... Want some of my egg? I ate part of it, but it's still okay.Okay but that's just gross.
Oh no! I'd better start eating it before the noodle texture goes to hell! Okay, no more talking... ...By the way, waiter! I want to save the soup in that bowl you took! Get me a take-out container!> After finishing up your ramen with Nozomi, you returned to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
never couldve guessed
Tch... Fate... Death... What a terrible Christmas. Christmas will be better next year. That's right, next year. We're not gonna let the world end.
This will be both the longest and shortest week of our lives.
All that's left now is New Year's Eve... Have you made your decision? I think so. Oh, that's good.
Is he going to spend it with a girl, having fun? Or, is he going to spend it alone, crying? I bet he'll have fun. I hope so... That would be the best way for him to spend it.
But, none of them realize what's going to happen... They have no idea about the decision we have to make...
Eh, they were pretty easy really.
I bombed all of them. But, compared to all that's going on... ...my bad grades don't seem to matter that much, heh...
I wonder what we'll finally decide... Whatever it is, I hope we won't regret it.
So, that's Christmas huh. Seems pretty boring, really...
The Voice Someone Calls
So, we're going to Tartarus today. Since Akihiko and Ken haven't gotten to do much in... a very, very long time, they get to come today and Yukari was a semi-close runner up for Christmas Eve so she gets slot 3.
Also they're all like 5-6 levels behind, and this way I don't need to grind them twice to play catchup. That helps too.
Time Castle
So he can maybe contribute something, Ken gets the Gungnir while Makoto gets to try out the Apocalypse to see how its nerfed incarnation fares.
Yukari's been using the Pleiades since we got it forever ago. That it has +4 Magic helps out there, for sure...
But she can tade it in for something else for a bit. The Luck boost is "eh," but we're not gonna be relying on her Magic much against randoms anyway.
Fuuka finds the boss when we hit floor 207. I guess that's technically earlier than normal at this point.
Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
So, we've got a few new Shadows to contend with along the way. Judgement Swords are turning up now after being demoted from a boss fight, I see. They're somehow less threatening than they were before, and that's before you realise they're weak to Die For Me! which doesn't do any favours.
Iron Dice is mildly inconvenient in that Auto/Rush doesn't guarantee wiping them effortlessly. Ziodyne oneshots them basically regardless of who casts it at this point.
Prime Magus is almost threatening! Mind Charge and Bufudyne could be a bad thing (for Akihiko), but Megido is adorably worthless and... Mamudo? Really?
Perpetual Sand is... confused, I think. It's immune to elemental damage and has Makarakarn. They CAN come in some funky combinations that make that sorta worth using, but it just looks weird. Being weak to 2/3 Physical elements also seems kinda arbitrary but whatever. At least we can smash 'em easy enough with like Deathbound or something.
They drop the thing that Elizabeth wants from normal Shadows this time around, and she only wants 3 of them. Nice and easy.
Mad Cyclops is sorta like the previous Cyclops, except with a cool motif on his wheel and being strictly worse. Only two elements that are boosted? Weak to Expel? D-, see me after class.
And finally, we have the Stasis Giant who had a fairly quick turnaround from boss fight to cannon fodder. That immunity to Elec/Wind is almost inconvenient, so points for that I guess. Weak to Ice though, so we still don't really have to try at all.
Time Castle
During our ascent proper, Loki managed to hit level 63 and learn his penultimate skill removing his weakness. And also completing that request for Liz too. (His last skill is Repel Fire at 65 for what its worth)
Thor even managed to finally stop dicking around and hit level 60, granting us a sweet new accessory.
I would put it on Yukari, but nothing here has Zio spells right now so she can keep her Wind Amp.
And hey some new armor that only the guys can wear. Ken has no fashion gear right now, so he can get this I guess. It gives +2 Strength in this case, and he could use that.
And that's it until we reach the boss. Let's do the needful...
Blues of the Soul
The sand represents time itself... But since time does not exist in this room, it's just ordinary sand here. Please accept your reward.
It's a hammer. It has 302 base power, 89% accuracy, increases Crit Rate and you can find them on two floors in rare chests in Harabah. We could've already gotten one. Yeah.
Well done. You've fulfilled my request. I have asked you to create twelve different Personas through fusion. You have done so impresively, and in the process, expanded your arsenal of Personas. And now, I'm giving you the perfect reward to assist you.
Masakado is unbelievably strong, and you will need to be equally powerful to control him. But, I'm sure you are up to the challenge. Please accept your reward.
So, with this we can make
But, hey, we're level 64 now so we can do the first of a whopping five (!) Hexagon Spread fusions. Yes, that's up from three before.
Thanatos is one of the two new ones, being upped from a Pentagon in vanilla, and he was our rank 10 Death persona and...
...Boy does he look familiar.
Yes, he really learns Mahamaon at level 66. For some reason. His only other skills are 1-handed Sword Master at level 68 (whatever) and Brave Blade at level 71. 550 power Slash on a single target; 95% accuracy and 5% crit rate. It's a new skill for FES, though not super great. Not sure why they felt the need to add it, really, but I'm not gonna complain about variety.
And he even has a Heart Item if he manages to ever get to level 71. It... might happen. Maybe. Probably not, but you never know.
Anyway, that done, I'm gonna give Makoto these beads that we got forever ago and I forgot I was holding onto. Just as a precaution. It probably won't come up.
I'm just trying to rig these dice a little bit more in my favour.
Fortune Reckoning Dice (Portable) Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
It is the hardest boss fight in Harabah!
Technically!
And this is basically why. The Reckoning Dice are capable of casting Megidolaon sometimes. They only have 500SP though, and they are not able to kill anyone with it as is.
Their only other actual attack is Megidola. Yes, really. They only have those two expensive Almighty spells to attack you. And they don't have that much SP.
You could easily tank through this until they can't hurt you any more, but that'd take a while so I wouldn't.
They are cleverer than the Perpetual Sand, though. They're also immune to Fire/Ice/Wind/Elec but they have Tetrakarn to cover their only vulnerabilities.
If you leave that up and let them get another turn, they'll cast Provoke on someone which is pretty clever. They don't have Infuriate though, so they can only pick one person at a time to enrage. Makes it clear what their MO here is. While Luck is their worst stat, they have Rage Boost to make it more likely to happen.
...That said, I did spend a decent chunk of time letting it just cast Provoke over and over and over and over again and it never hit anyone. After it missed like eight times in a row, I just sorta gave up on that attempt. Great work, Reckoning Dice!
But that's it. The Reckoning Dice have 2900 HP, 40 in every stat... except Luck which is 33. Pretty boring on paper, but Megidola(on) means they can almost nearly kill people. It's not saying much compared to the other bosses as of late though.
End Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
Now that we've rolled the Dice, we can pick up our requisite Soma and a couple Attack Mirrors. That's oddly fitting, which isn't something that we get overly often.
As you'd expect from that, the next floor is a small one that serves to segue into the end of the block.
And on floor 214, we find a... barrier to the next floor. Glad that they're not doing a second fake top floor at least.
Now that we're here, we'll grab the Old Document and give that a quick read.
We even know who authored these tiny notes now. We'll see if we can ask her something about it later.
Blues of the Soul
That will be the last one I ask you to find. I wanted you to learn the truth from the eight documents you've collected... However, you are already moving towards another truth. Although, memories may remind you of the past, always walk towards the future... I must admit... I'm a bit envious, since I have neither. Please accept your reward.
Bit of an underwhelming reward for being the finale of this quest chain, really. It's a decent chunk of change regardless, though.
Real quick, since we're level 64 let's go through all the fusion skill quests we can and good Lord is that expensive!
Shadow Hound costs 25% of Makoto's SP...
For a pretty bleh and generic small amount of lasers.
It does Strike damage, with a base power of 300, 99% accuracy and a 5% crit rate. Yes, it costs 10% more SP than Scarlet Havoc despite being actively worse. No, I don't know why.
The teacher and her pupil created this maneuver while sent on difficult missions in the shadow world... I've heard that there are difficult tasks in your world as well. Things like "midterms," or "finding a job"... If you can accomplish these missions, maybe you can create a new maneuver with someone in your life. Please accept your reward.
With that incredibly weird euphemism out of the way, we get Yukari's casual winter clothing. Since they make more sense for the time of year, she'll definitely be wearing these.
Next is... one that we can't do this one yet. Gotta get to level 65 first. I could probably just grind it right now and do it, but meh. It can wait.
Speaking of quests that can wait, Akihiko's joke weapon is locked behind 3 Gold Shadow drops. In a place we don't have access to.
I really do not understand the order you get these.
But that's my problem to deal with later. Let's just head on back to the normal world.
Changing Seasons (Reincarnation) / Sun
Gossiping: What are you getting with your New Year's gift?
Listening: We haven't got ours yet! But I want to get a luck bag! I'm aiming for that purse...
Gossiping: Ooh, me too! Hey, do you want to start waiting in line today? We could bring a kotatsu..
> The first bell has rung.
Yeah, so, today's our last day of school for the year.
Since it's a Saturday, we'll be spending it with Mitsuru of course.
Joy
> Mitsuru is looking at the bookshelf.
Can I get a book for you? ...Hm? Yes, please.
Thank you.
Looking through the literature section made me realize something... There are a lot fewer books about marriage and family life than there are romance novels. Do you think that means the most exciting time in one's life is before marriage?
Is marriage worth the sacrifice?> Mitsuru seems melancholy...
Well, to be frank, the Group is in turmoil over the inheritance issue. To be honest, I'm having difficulty understanding the expectations of the other members... But, I'm the daughter of the head of the Group. I'm expected to lead the company... ...even if that requires me to sacrifice something to do it. A "fiance" has been chosen for me.
Whew boy, there's a giant can of worms in that.
But, if I agree to the marriage, the future of the company will be secured. He's planning to announce the partnership and our engagement at the same time. Doing so will give the appearance that the company is stabilizing. It's the best solution for everyone involved. That's news to me! Well, of course it is. You're the only person I've told.
My parents chose the same path. So, I won't run from my destiny. You have to reconsider. If I reconsider and decline the engagement, then what will I do? Leave everything behind and go on a journey of self discovery...? ...... If I did... would you come with me...? ...... *laugh* I'm just joking.
> Mitsuru has expressed her feelings for you.
> It seems like things are starting to get serious.
This is straight up just for show at this point.
Lately I've been hesitant to meet with you like this... It's always just the two of us... ...... I have to follow through with my decision. ...But, talking with you has made me lose my resolve. It's your fault I'm feeling this way. ...Please excuse me.> After saying goodbye to Mitsuru, you decided to return to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
My fear and anxiety still remain... ...but I'm no longer confused. I will fight until the end... I've made up my mind.That happened a week ago now. Bit late telling us that now, no?
I get so angry... If it wasn't for him, everything would be okay right now. I know it's not good to dwell on the past, but... *sigh*
Newscaster: The crowd was so large that there are no suspects or witnesses yet... However, the majority of the consumers were women buying Christmas gifts, so...
In keeping up a recent trend, we'll be taking Koromaru out for a walk again today. No one else is coming with us, though.
Joy
Unlike normal, this does not give us a small scene for +10 points with a pre-determined S.Link!
Arf!> Koromaru is looking up at you intensely...
> The Promised Day is drawing near... Koromaru must be preoccupied with it as well...
> You decide to go back to the dorm with Koromaru.
Koromaru is such a good boy that he doesn't even hesitate when it comes to deciding whether or not he's gonna try and fight an unkillable god who may end the world.
Speaking of which, its now Sunday which makes this a free day. Which means!
Silence
Oh, hey, Fuuka.
What are you doing here? Nothing, really... I come here when I'm feeling down...
Is that Chidori's sketchbook...?
What're you doing here, Fuuka? Oh, I went home for a bit. I've been going back there a lot lately.
I see. 
You're totally different from when you first came to the dorm.
Really...? Yeah. You were so timid back then, but now you're so... strong. You've changed too, Junpei-kun.
I mean, just the other day I got all freaked out about being scared... I'm such a wuss... *laugh* That's not true. But, I really was scared. Actually... I'm still scared. 
If I forget everything, that means I'll forget Chidori, too. ...And I wouldn't even be alive right now if it wasn't for her, ya know? 
You're scared because you're not running away... That's nothing to be ashamed of. Fuuka...
Think about it. The Dark Hour is really scary too, isn't it? But our Personas awakened, and we're here today... The future hasn't been decided yet... And I want to be true to myself... True to yourself... You're really something, Fuuka. We should fight. I agree.I'm sure you're surprised by this stunning revelation. Just need Aigis back from her repairs now. That's taken almost the entire month, though...
Current Net Price Tanaka
Despite its name, Tanaka's selling regular ol' armor today. It's just silver platemail, basically. We CAN buy this from the police station... when Makoto hits level 70. It costs a bit over 1.5x the price Tanaka is selling it for too. Gonna snag it for sure, of course.
Iwatodai Dorm
Yukari's dialogue here is technically "new" insofar as this one line has changed. Yep. Great.
...dangit i thought i could beat it this time
Anyway, there's not much else to do right now (we'll go to the Antiques Store next time we're in the mall), so let's just go hang out with Akinari. It's a Sunday and we can finally do that again, without it ruining something.
Living With Determination (Reincarnation) 
...Just give me a minute... so I can... calm down...> Akinari is having trouble breathing.
F-False alarm... I had some pain, but... it's better now.
...It's calming down. Thanks.
I... stopped taking my medicine. It's not going to fix me anyway, right? ...It just helps for the pain and... ...spasming...That... sounds like a very good thing to get help for!
What are you thinking? ...My medicine makes me drowsy, and if my hands go numb, then I can't write anything... I have to finish my story.
The reason my story's unfinished... ...is because I haven't found the meaning of life yet. I get lost in my writing... erase it... and then don't know where to go next. ...When we're talking, I have a clearer picture. I can almost see it...
I'm probably writing this book to find the meaning of life... ...Well, if I do find it and finish the story... ...I hope we get a little more time together after that.> Akinari smiled weakly...
> Your relationship is stronger now!
I hope to see you again.> You decided to go back to the dorm.
Iwatodai Dorm
I've been thinking about what I'm going to do on the 31st... I was afraid I might go crazy from fear... But, I was wrong. I feel strong... ...because everyone is with me.
...and I won't forget that. I'd rather die than forget.
But I don't think that you can truly live, if you're always running away from danger because you're afraid. By facing our fears, we feel alive... So, I...Fear exists as a way to let you know about danger, yes. It's a basic evoltuionary trait that's there to trigger your fight or flight response. If you just ignore it wholesale, that's potentially a Darwin Award worthy decision in the making.
They're probably sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate... *sigh* I wish I could do that.I was gonna say that you still can, but it just now occurs to me that he can't. There isn't a fireplace in the dorm! Not even an electric one.
At this point, there's only Ken and Akihiko left to go and everyone's had a Koromaru walk this month. Let's keep this pattern going then.
Joy
Yeah, I made mine too. I just wanted to let you know... Oh, I saw Fuuka today. She's pretty tough. She wasn't like that before, but she's gotten way stronger. Talkin' to her was like... that last little shove I needed. Girls are tough...and that's no joke.> You spoke with Junpei for a while.
Don't worry, dude. Everyone knows what a tough doggie you are.Only a few days left now before New Year's Eve... I can already see it on the horizon.
Just a very short time between now and deciding the Fate Of The World. So, y'know, no pressure.