Part 35: 5/22-5/23: Hurt Me Plenty

Part 34: 5/22-5/23: Hurt Me Plenty




It’s Sunday, and you know what that means...

Music: Tokyo Emergency



Throwing more money down the drain on this fucking aojiru.

Maaku gains Kindness +1.



...However, it has a dark side to it as well!




Yes! YES! The power of the Sun God has opened your eyes to the truth. Madarame is a pig rolling in a trough of money! By the name of the Sun God shall he be condemned!

Music: Butterfly Kiss



>I want to do a clinical trial.
In that case, my little guinea pig, there’s something I want to test out today… Well then, please head into the examination room.

Every time she says “guinea pig” it sends a fucking chill down my spine.

Music: Alright (Elp Version)



If you’re feeling OK, you can go home now.




...What? Again? That’s, well… that ship’s already sailed, so...




You remember that girl from the other day? The Chief of Staff Oyamada’s patient? Her dad’s been bringing her here to be treated, even though I referred them to another hospital. I even told them about the medical error I made...



I’m just a quack though… The medical error was well documented. Everyone in my field knows about it. I led the development of a new drug for an incurable illness called “Crawford-Ende’s disease.” Although I wasn’t the one who administered the medicine, it was the cause of the error.



With Crawford-Ende’s, certain cells indiscriminately attack other cells throughout the body. When it reaches the muscles, the patient slowly begins to die… There hasn’t been much progress made on it-- partly because there haven’t been many cases of it. I worked with a pharmaceutical company that had reached the final stage of production, but… One day, I was suddenly removed from my position. That Chief of Staff Oyamada, my superior at the time, took over the entire operation.

Music: Confession/Secret



He made careless mistakes and rushed completion so he could use it on a patient named Miwa. Miwa-chan had a reaction and lapsed into critical condition. The chief panicked and laid the blame on me. Miwa-chan and her family resented me… ...No matter what I said, I couldn’t change how they felt about me.



Well, that doesn’t matter… The development of the medicine was suspended, so I had no reason to stay at that hospital. At least now I can keep working as a general practitioner, on my own terms… with my guinea pig.



That’s the new medicine I’ve been trying out on you. This version is in the final stage of testing. It searches for those cells that take the offensive and destroys them upon detection. That’s why it’s harmless for people who don’t have the disease… probably.

Wait, then how do you even know if it works?



Maaku’s kind of a dope.



I’m telling you, chills.

You’d better not flake on me this late in the game. I’m inching closer to the finish line, but I need your help to reach it. In exchange, I can offer you medicine at a special price. I’m counting on you, guinea pig.
It feels like my bond with Takemi is growing even deeper...



Now Takemi has new support items for sale. We’ll see what these do in a few updates, but they’re… I want to say “useful,” but I actually mean “mandatory.” Again, we’ll get to that in time.

Now, what should I do about that girl and her dad? Being mean and scaring them hasn’t worked. It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with this kind of nuisance. It’s stressing me out. Oh, sorry, that’s all I wanted to talk to you about. You can go home now.



I feel like cooperating in that shady clinical trial has increased my Guts...
OK, thanks for your hard work.

Maaku gains Guts +1.

Music: Beneath the Mask




Here’s what we’ve got for you today! Ever need an Adhesive Bandage? Well how about fifty of them!? The most basic of first aid needs!
You can get as many wounds as you want if you have these!

That’s a weird way to sell bandaids, lady. HURT YOURSELF AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE

This is a limited item! Today’s the one and only day it’ll be available! And it can be yours… For the incredibly low price of 1980 yen!
Adhesive Bandage, huh? You wanna get fifty of them? They’re just 1980 yen.



This is an absurd deal. Fuck yeah, I want those bandages.



OK! And now it’sh time for the pop quiz ques… question! What’sh the painting… That made me, who is Madarame, so famoush?



Sadly, picking “Yukari” does not result in a Persona 3 reference.

Ding ding! Ding ding! Tha’s riiight! Ya win a prize to… a round trip t’ Yongen!

Oh boy, I’ll go pack my bags!



Shalalaaa, your smile…/Shalalala, during the rice season… No, no, that’s no good! Ah can’t let m’country side show any! I need to write a soul-shaking rock song… I need the gods of rock to speak through me!

Looks like our resident rocker is actually a little bit country.



Er, what I mean is, the food’s real good—I’m not calling you a dope or anything!
*confused meow*
Damn, I gotta get better at Japanese…

Foreign Barker is one of my favorite characters.



...And on the other end of that spectrum, here’s Mishima!

I had pretty high hopes for them, but they turned out to be posers… The Phantom Thieves are true heroes though! I wanna help out however I can!

He also nags us about that request he sent us, but we’re busy right now.



While we’re out, we buy the latest books. The other two are a spotlight on local parks and a fashion magazine “girls with unique tastes.”



You don’t know me, cat.



Oh hey, it’s that lady we saw by Madarame’s.

I guess the editor-in-chief has been nagging me about covering the Phantom Thieves though… I guess I’ll just wait and see what happens. Time for me to go get a drink.



There are less physically abusive teachers nowadays, but the truth of it all is still a mystery. I’m giving a speech again today. Do you think you can lend me a hand with it?
>Help him out
Then let’s get to it. Can you please hold the placard?

Music: Alright (Elp Version)



...Is not right! It will take time to solve this problem. However, we must start by making small changes!



Regardless of the audience’s size, you must convey your thoughts as if you’re talking one-on-one. By the way, I forgot to ask you last time we spoke. Why do you want to become a politician?



Ambitious, indeed, if a little ambiguous… Well, I’m sure you’ll iron out the details as you go along. May I ask you one more question? What kind of politician do you want to be?




It’s worth noting that Sun is one of two Confidants (along with Moon, though that one has other requirements as well) that do not require points and will rank up every time you visit them. The notes are just for flavor.

...Allow me to give you some advice. If you aspire to get into politics, you must possess a central philosophy. What is it that you want to accomplish…? That is the foundation of a great speech. You’d do well to remember that.





To get your message across, be tenacious in conveying your thoughts to the audience. Have a firm point of view, and communicate it clearly—that’s the first rule of negotiating. Haha! You have me reliving the fighting spirit I had when I first became a politician.
Yoshida explained the basics of speech-giving. I feel like my bond with him is growing deeper...



Diplomacy lets you ask for more money or items after succeeding once, and is a great way to get tons of money from enemies by just asking over and over until they reject you and then knocking them back down and doing it again. Unfortunately, later upgrades to Sun make this impossible, to the point where I’ve seen people suggest keeping Sun at Rank 2. We won’t be doing that, because there’s other ways to get money, and it’s not all that scarce to begin with. Besides, not doing the best Confidant in the game because it’s sub-optimal isn’t my style.






Poor Tora.

Ah, my apologies. We’re done for today.
I feel like learning about the basics of negotiation has served to increase my Charm...

Maaku gains Charm +3. Yes, really, +3 from a single Confidant rank. Tora owns.

Thank you for all your hard work. I’ll see you next time.



Music: Beneath the Mask (Instrumental Version)



Madarame was talking to a lawyer. I suppose he’s serious about suing. I think we should advance our plans. Why won’t we go to the Palace today?



Eh, why not?

Great. I want to stop that man as soon as possible. In that case, let’s assemble after school. I’ll be over shortly.

Music: So Boring



Artists with that good of an eye are rare in Japan. I wonder if he has synesthesia. Yes, regarding synesthesia… One of many English terms that comes from Greek root words. Haven’t you heard of it? It’s a condition where your senses can cross over each other, like seeing music as color. Mr. Hamiru. You were staring off into space, weren’t you? Well, your number’s up. The root words of synesthesia are “syn” and “aisthesis.” What do they mean?



Child’s play.

Good! You’ve been studying! Unfortunately, synesthesia’s something you have to be born with… You can’t learn it. Some of the geniuses over the course of history have had synesthesia. The composer Franz Liszt instructed his orchestra to play the color purple.

Must’ve been hard teaching them all to act! ...I’m sorry.

The poet Arthur Rimbaud was also said to see colors in letters.

Maaku gains Knowledge +1, and is still at Rank 1, fucking hell.

Seeing colors in sounds and letters, and feeling shapes in flavors and numbers… Geniuses and common people see the world differently. Were you able to understand that?
Synesthesia, huh… That’s fascinating. Although, the reason Madarame sees the world differently is because of his distorted desires.



OK, let’s head there now!

Music: Suspicion



Oh, you mean about the Metaverse and the Nav. Yeah, I guess that stuff is pretty important.
Please elaborate.
OK, let’s start from the beginning. First, the Metaverse spots where we act as the Phantom Thieves are called Palaces. Palaces are worlds that take form from someone’s cognition… A materialization of their reality.
So do we each hold Palaces within ourselves as well?
No, not just anyone will have one. It’s primarily those with strong distorted desires…
They basically gotta be criminals. Real bastards like Kamoshida or Madarame.
On the other hand, Palaces can’t exist within Persona-users. It’s just impossible for them to form. Basically, your Persona is the true feelings of your heart, which arise from conquering your inner Shadow. Then since you have full control of your emotions, there’s no way your desires can get distorted.
S-So that’s how it works...
O-Obviously I knew that…! Oh, and we use the Metaverse Nav app on our phones to get into that world!
It’s actually pretty simple. Just say a person’s name, location, and distortion, then you’re in.
Location…?
Uhhh, so like Madarame’s would be “shack,” then his distortion is that he thinks it’s a “museum.”
How do you know what their Palace is going to look like if you have never set foot in it before…?

We fucking guess, Yusuke. It absolutely kills the narrative momentum.

That part’s kinda like a quiz or something. It’ll prolly get pretty tricky from here on out too.
Hm, I feel as though I have a good grasp on the basic concepts. If anything arises which I fail to understand, I’ll rely on those more experienced than myself.
Yeah! I gotcha covered, newbie!
Uh… You should probably ask Morgana if you need anything.
Thinking back to Madarame though… I can’t believe he’d consider pressing charges.
Yes, I’ve never seen him show such anger before. He is most likely quite serious about that.
What should we do…? There’s no way we’ll be able to win if that happens.
He likely won’t act on that threat until the final day of the exhibit: June 5th. Simply put, I doubt he would be so foolish as to taint his name with a trial during his exhibition.
All right, so we just gotta steal Madarame’s heart by then. There’s no way we’re gonna let him press charges… We’ll show people who he really is!

Music: Tokyo Emergency



And after all that, we’re finally ready to head back into Madarame’s Palace.