Part 91: 12/4/11 Part 1

12/4/11

You know I'm actually sort of used to having supernatural forces intrude on my dreams at this point.

VIDEO- "The Velvet Room"

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Welcome.
It's been quite some time…
> It seems you've been summoned to the Velvet Room…
Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world…
I have summoned you within your dreams.
Now then… Your journey has taken you quite a distance thus far.
Do you believe you'll be able to successfully solve this mystery…?

We've come so far, there's no way I'm giving up now.



Splendid.
The precise destination of this vehicle… That, too, is getting rather hard to judge.
If we continue driving blindly, we may end up leading you further away from the mystery that you must reach…
Well…? Why don't we take a moment to look back on your journey?
It was for that purpose that I summoned you here tonight.
Margaret?
> Voices you've heard many times before echo in your mind…
Yeah, well, I quit pretending.
What's right… What you should choose to do in life… The answers to those things lie within you.
You gave me the strength to start walking.
We are experiencing the words engraved into your memory during your journey…
Alright. Let's go ahead and think this through as much as we need.
If we leave any unanswered questions behind, we'll just be lying to ourselves…
I'll think as hard as I can, and try to help!
C'mon, we've accomplished this much together, haven't we?
Right… Together.
And it seems you have comrades with you as well… Those heading in the same direction through this dense fog.

Just then, the limo stopped.



We'll be parked for the moment while I confirm our current heading.
As I mentioned previously, this year will signal a great change in your life.
Though there isn't much time left, it can be worth your while to take the time to stop and reflect.
People are like water flowing in a river. There is only one stream, but all who pass through it are affected differently.
Some travel fast, some change their course… Experiencing countless events as they travel down the river of time…
Just so.
The state of this room reflects the scenery of your heart…
Perhaps this may be a time for contemplation rather than action…
> You can hear something in the distance…
> It seems that you've been sleeping until now…
> You hear the doorbell ringing…
> Someone seems to be at the door…

It was Yosuke, and his news wasn't good.

VIDEO- "The Plan"

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I looked all over the neighborhood, but I couldn't fine him anywhere…
I'm worried.
Yeah, me too. He was acting all weird lately…
Rise and the others are checking inside the TV to see if he's gone back to the other side.
We're meeting pretty soon, so will you come with me to Junes?
> Where could Teddie have gone…?
> …In any case, you decide to go look for him.

We couldn't find Teddie anywhere, though.



No luck for me either… I didn't sense anything over there. The fog's so dense, it might be affecting my readings.
I wish I could do better… I'm sorry.
That Ted… Don't tell me he really went back to his world this time…
We told him over and over that he could stay here…
> You recall the mysterious dream you had last night…
> "This may be a time for contemplation rather than action…" That is what Igor said but…

There was nothing more we could do, we just had to trust that Teddie knew what he was doing and would come back to us when the time was right. We had other things to deal with.



I guess that's all we can do right now…
He plays dumb a lot, but he's attached to us deep down… He wouldn't disappear without saying anything, right?
I'm worried for Teddie myself, but let's trust in him and await his return. Right now, we must concentrate on the case.
It won't be long before Namatame is transferred to another location.
We must hurry, or we will miss our only chance to get his perspective on this.
Y'know, I've been thinking about the case since, but something just doesn't seem right…
Let's quickly review the facts.
Of all the victims, only two were killed: Ms. Yamano, the announcer, and Saki-san.
From the documents we found in the car, we know Namatame had some sort of dealings with them.
After that, there were multiple attempted murders, in which we were targeted…
It was only when he took Nanako-chan that we caught him in the act, identifying his modus operandi in the process.
When I hear you put it like that, sounds like the dude's guilty.
As a result of Namatame's arrest, the police admitted that Mitsuo Kubo was a mere copycat killer.
Back up to yesterday… Remember when you said Namatame didn't have a motive to kill the announcer?
That's what's bothering me.
Right… Either he's completely nuts, or we're misunderstanding something…
…You lost me.

Oh, Kanji. But I have to say I'm glad we didn't throw Namatame into the TV now.



Sane or insane… Sounds like a play I saw before.
When he talks about "saving" people, what does that actually mean?
I don't think there's any doubt that it includes kidnapping people and throwing them into the TV.
Could he mean… saving them through death…?
He did call himself a "savior," and said that the other side is a "wonderful world."
So they'll be saved if they die? What a bunch of crap… The bastard shoulda gone and "saved" himself.
Whaddya think, Senpai?

I already was thinking that didn't quite fit all of what he'd said and done, though.



If you think about it normally, it's gotta be him… But there ain't nothin' normal about that world anyways…
There's something I've been wondering about for a while.
When we first encountered him, he said…
"You're the ones I saved. Don't worry, I'll save this girl too…"
So um… If he "saves" people by killing them, did he save us too?
Wouldn't he actually have failed to save us…?
You raise a good point. If he thinks that salvation comes only through death, his words to us make no sense…
And another thing… The Namatame who appeared on the Midnight Channel said he failed to save Nanako-chan.
Well, maybe he really was trying to save the victims by putting them inside the TV.
C-C'mon, don't get all quiet like that… You guys know I just say the first dumb thing that pops into my head… Haha…
The possibility that he truly intended to save us…
But he's still the one who threw in Saki-senpai and that announcer, right!?
Sure, we haven't nailed down his motives, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed them.
Or what, you think someone else was involved? What makes you think so?
> The possibility of a culprit besides Namatame…
> Could there be something that proves this possibility…?

If he thinks he's saving people, then why would he threaten us to stop rescuing people from the TV world?



Warning letter…? Oh yeah… Whatever happened to that thing?
If Namatame's the killer, he must've been the one who wrote it, right?
Let's review them…
> You recall that the first warning letter said, "dont rescue anymore"…
> And the second one said, "if you dont stop this time, someone close will be put in and killed"…
Yes, that's right.
Isn't that kinda odd?
Would someone who thinks he's saving people by killing them write stuff like "don't rescue" or "kill"?
Yeah, and the "will be put in and killed" part doesn't make sense either…
If the killer was writing it, wouldn't it be more like "I'll put in and kill"?
Hey… Could this mean…?
Namatame didn't write it.
Yeah…
It's almost like… someone else wrote this letter…
But only the killer would write such a letter and deliver it to Dojima-san's house, right?
If someone else wrote it, that could only mean…
Dear god…

There was only one conclusion that fit the facts: There was another culprit who'd written the letter.



So Namatame really was trying to save his victims…?
Everything is exactly the opposite of what it first seemed…
In Namatame's parlance, "failing" would have been the first two cases, when the victims died.
If he had used his method twice, and failed both times, he would hardly have continued using the TV. And yet he did.
It all seems to suggest that someone else wrote this warning letter while observing the entire case…
Someone else… Then…
It wasn't Namatame that killed Saki-senpai and the announcer!?
We can't say for certain yet…
We urgently need to speak to Namatame face to face…
> You all worked together to take another step toward the truth…

If we were right, speaking with Namatame could crack this case wide open. The problem would be getting to talk to him.



How, though? After what happened yesterday, they said they're gonna tighten security.
I have a plan.
But there's no time to waste. Let's hurry to the hospital!

Next Time on Persona 4: Namatame's Story