Part 80: 11/6/11 Part 2

11/6/11

We immediately pushed forward into the strange land. While it may have looked like heaven, there were Shadows all over the place.

VIDEO- "The First Paradise"

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It's so quiet and peaceful, but…
What's this bad feeling I'm getting…?
……
Nanako-chan… Just hang in there…
We'll save you!

Rise started getting a strange feeling as we pushed forward.



I wonder why…?
Let's hurry, Senpai!

And it only intensified the further we went.



I can definitely sense Nanako-chan's presence here…
But, um, how do I put this…?
Something feels weird…
This place really did come from Nanako-chan's heart, right…?
Then why does something feel off…?

The atmosphere itself changed as we entered the fourth level.

VIDEO- "Danger"

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I can hear her!
This must be Nanako-chan's voice!
……
She's saying something…
But it's too quiet to make out…
Senpai, please find where the voice is coming from!

We soon found the source, a room up ahead.



That's Nana-chan's voice!
Mom… Where are you…?
Why did you disappear…?
Why did you leave me…?
No… Come back…
Are these… Nanako-chan's feelings…?
But I'm not lonely… I have Dad with me.
I know he's always late coming home… and he never plays with me because he's so busy…
He can't cook or do laundry either…
He tries to be nice, though he is a little scary sometimes… but I love him…
Big bro is with me now, too… So I'm not alone…
I'm not lonely…
A little kid… telling herself she's not lonely so she doesn't fall apart…
You idiot, we'll ruin everything if we act all sad.
We gotta greet her with a smile.
Nana-chan…

As we talked, Rise suddenly began to look worried.



Something's not right… There's someone here besides Nanako-chan.
It was faint at first, so I couldn't tell for sure… But there's definitely another person here.
And whoever this is… Their power's getting stronger…
*gasp *… Could it be Namatame!?
Did he duck in here after being cornered, like Mitsuo!?
Perhaps so…
It seemed as if he was particularly determined to kidnap Nanako-chan.
But why…?
If he's the real culprit, he must know the dangers of coming into this world…
I don't know…
But if it is him, he may have entered from a TV near the site of the accident… Perhaps even the TV in his truck.
Which means Nanako-chan may be in grave danger… We must hurry!

And as we advanced our worst fears were proven true.



Man's Voice: N-No…
That's not it…
I just wanted to live peacefully, that's it…
Ngh…
Nanako-chan's presence is being drowned out…
Please answer us, Nanako-chan!
Don't worry! We're on our way to rescue you right now!

And things only got worse.



Man's Voice: ……
I wish I could have lived here…
Together with…
Together…?
I-Is he with Nanako-chan!?
This isn't good, Senpai! Let's hurry on!

And the atmosphere only got darker and darker…



Man's Voice: I discovered the new world…
I must save people…
Yes, only I can…
The voice is getting closer!
We're almost there. Hang in there, Senpai!

We encountered a great set of double doors, which was clearly a trap.

VIDEO- "World Balance"

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Man's Voice: Stop getting in my way!

And sure enough it was.



Man's Voice: I'm…
I'm going to save this girl!

Boss Battle: World Balance
Okay, here's Persona 4's version of one of Persona 3's most infamous mini-bosses, the World Balance. He's actually almost identical to his original incarnation (though a bit lower level) but the changes to the battle system make him a total joke. See, World Balance will Mind Charge and then shoot for your weaknesses. But since you can Guard now, this isn't nearly so threatening anymore. A good healing Persona with no weaknesses for Souji makes this utterly trivial.

Nothing he was going to throw in our way could stop us.



Senpai, let's hurry on!

We were getting closer and closer.



Man's Voice: No matter what…
This time… for sure…
……!
What, is he going to commit suicide with Nanako-chan-
Oh…
Now's not the time to be worrying about what he's got planned…
We just need to focus on getting Nanako-chan back safe!

We finally began to hear Nanako again as we neared the top of paradise.



Where are you… Mom…?
Dad... Save me…
I can hear Nanako-chan's voice!
Senpai, she's just up ahead!

And up on the highest point, we found them.

VIDEO- "Showdown"

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Y-You mustn't go!
Are you Namatame?
You… know me?
Taro Namatame… It's definitely him!
Then he did come in here…
So you're the killer…
Let go of her!!
Ah… Haha, you're the ones I saved…
Don't worry… I'll save this girl too…
Huh…? This dude's high or something?
Quit talking shit and let go of the girl!

But he only grabbed her tighter…



Nngh…
Nanako-chan!
Calm down, Kanji-kun! We can't predict his behavior!
We have to keep him talking. If we can discern his intentions, perhaps we can somehow deal with him.
> Nanako is in danger. You should choose your words carefully…
Why are you doing this?
To save them…
What is the Midnight Channel?
People needing to be saved appear…
That's why I put them in the TV…

It was going nowhere, to hell with asking questions.



No, we must pull his attention away from Nanako-chan!
You put the people you saw on the Midnight Channel into this world. Am I correct?
They all… want to be saved…
…Did I ever ask you to save me?
And you didn't save us, dammit! It was the exact opposite!
If I hadn't put you in the TV… how would you have ended up…?
How would we…?
Are you trying to say… we wouldn't have been able to face ourselves?
What…!? But we nearly died!
Yes… Exactly…
You kidnapped them… Yes or no?
Yes…
Why did you target local residents who became known through the media?
Why do these people appear on the Midnight Channel?
On rainy nights… on TV… they signal me… to save them…
You keep saying save this and save that… Are you saying murdering people is your idea of saving them!?
Murder…? No, I'm saving them…
How's that different, huh!? All you're doing is killing people!

I wanted to knock that smug look off Namatame's face.



I know… you chased us all the way here… to kill…
Ha…haha… Well, to bad… I'm… gonna save her…
Ngh…
You asshole… You're not gonna get away with this!
Shut the hell up!

And then Namatame was surrounded by darkness…



An unknown, unreachable place… filled with pleasant fog… I'm a Savior…
It's filthy over there… So many evildoers…
That's why I'm going to save them… I'm a Savior… A righteous hero…
Is that… a Shadow?
*cough * *wheeze * Big bro… I can't… breathe…
Nana-chan…!
…Let's do this.

Kanji and Yosuke rushed Namatame, and knocked him away.



Now, Senpai!
Nana-chan!
Nanako-chan… Nanako-chan!
Bastard…! How dare you!!
Give… her back…
I'm… I'm going… to save herrrrrrrrr!

Nanako seemed safe, but Namatame certainly wasn't…

VIDEO- "Kunino-Sagiri"

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What's happening to him?



If we don't do something, this could get bad!
His powers are attracting more and more Shadows to him!



You guys got any suggestions?
Look at him! He's merging with the Shadows!



Dammit! We've come this far. We're not losing now!

Namatame had turned into something beyond anything we ever could have imagined.



How solid is his grasp on reality…?
I… I'm…!

Boss Battle: Kunino-Sagiri
This is by far the hardest boss we've encountered so far. He starts out pretty simply by throwing around single and multi-target -dyne level spells. There's no rhyme or reason to what he'll use in this phase, and it's pretty simple. When you take off a bit of his health, things will get a whole lot more complicated.



Once you see this taunt, he'll start using his first unique ability, Quad Converge. When you see Quad Converge come up, things are about to get interesting. What Quad Converge does is powers up one element while weakening all of the others. The tricky thing is that there's no way of knowing which one he's powered up until he actually attacks. You should strongly consider guarding through the Quad Converge until you know what element he's going to use, because it can do ruinous damage. So what we'd ideally like is to have personas that repel each element, because his own reflected spells will trash the hell out of him. What you need to be careful of is what happens to me in the video. I sort of went 'all-in' on him at some point Quad Converging fire, and he never did. This drags the phase out horribly. If he's not cooperating, your best bet is to just drag him down as best you can while keeping your party healed so you can go all-out when Quad Converge runs out and he has to renew it. You might think things are as bad as they can be. You are wrong.



And when you see that, he'll take control of one of your party members for a few turns. While they 'can' use all of their abilities, in practice they'll mostly use physicals. The biggest risk early on is that he'll still be Quad Converging for a while. You just need to keep on track and drag him down as much as you can each turn, because when you get him a bit farther down, it gets even more terrible.



And then he uses Control on all three of your allies. The good news is he'll totally switch to Attacks himself at this point. What you really need to do is have some kind of Persona that is immune to physical attacks you can switch into. What you need to do in this phase is just survive for a few turns like this. Then his control will break, and he'll move into his last phase. You know he's in the last phase because he'll just cast this every turn:



This is basically him spamming Megidoloan each turn. You just need to keep healed while throwing everything you've got at him and take him down before he takes you down. Use SP restoring items if you have to, that's why you've got them. And remember, this one's for Nanako!

PS- Kunino-Sagiri is the Japanese goddess of fog.

There's no way we could lose to a guy like Namatame.

VIDEO- "Aftermath"

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N-Nanako-chan!
She looks like she's in pain… but she doesn't seem to be injured anywhere…
This place must not be good for her… We need to carry her out, quick!
…We should take him with us as well.
Yeah… We can't just leave him here, I guess.

We rushed out of the TV with Nanako and Namatame in tow. But she just wouldn't wake…



……
> Nanako isn't waking up…
What are we going to do…?
She's so small, and she was stuck in there for so long… And then there was that weird fog… Dammit!
The police and paramedics will be here shortly.

They took Namatame into custody, and we rode in the ambulance with Nanako. They wouldn't let us into her room, though.



And she got caught in all that craziness…
I hope she'll be okay…
I mean, are the doctors going to be able to help her…?
Waaaah… I'm worried about Nana-chan!
But there's nothing more we can do for her…
A deliveryman named Namatame… The possibility of Nanako-chan being targeted…
If only I'd been more thorough in putting the facts together…!
Then Nanako-chan wouldn't have had to go through this…
That… goes for me too.
If I hadn't stood there like a lump in front of that bastard, Nanako-chan might've been okay…
I hate myself… Why do I always panic when it matters most…?
I couldn't do anything either…
I should've noticed sooner that something was wrong with that guy…
Why did I waste time listening to what Namatame had to say!?
If I hadn't tried to engage him in conversation, and we'd rescued Nanako-chan immediately…!
This wouldn't have happened…!

There was no point in anyone blaming themselves. Everyone put forward an incredible effort.



But… I still…
*sigh * Alright, enough of this pity party…
Is standing around and whining really what we oughtta be doing now?
Feeling pathetic, consoling each other… That gonna solve anything!?
We gotta believe in her…
So stop rehashing what's already done. Get it together, Naoto!
Sorry… You're absolutely right.
This is all that bastard Namatame's fault, and he's behind bars now, right?
And it ain't like we were too late for Nanako-chan.
Yeah… That's true.
I'll come see Nana-chan every day so she'll get better faster!
That's all we can do right now…
Gee, Kanji… You sounded cool for a second there.
Huh? You guys still here?
Adachi-san, um… did they find out anything…?
Dojima-san's speaking with the doctor now, but they can't say anything definite until they run some tests on her…
Not just Nanako-chan, but the perp, too… Who knows when we'll be able to hear his story…?
Well, it's getting late, so hurry home.
The last thing we need is for you guys to collapse too.

Adachi says some almost not stupid things sometimes.



Nanako-chan's gonna be fine. Acting all gloomy won't help anything.
When Nanako-chan's out of the hospital, what should we do to celebrate?
Dude! Isn't it a little early for that…?
Why don't we reserve Junes and have a party there?
A party… at Junes? Uh… That makes no sense.

Everyone was leaving, but Teddie was still moping around.



Of course she will.
Yeah… I think so too…
Let's all have fun with Nana-chan when she comes back!
> You sense Teddie's warm feelings for Nanako and strong trust in you…

But Teddie's always Teddie, thank god.



Thanks… I almost forgot how to keep a happy face.
But with that out of the way, I'm feeling all hungry…
*giggle *
H-Hey, where did everyone go!? Don't leave without me!
> You've done everything you can…
> All you can do now is believe in Nanako and wait for her to recover…