Part 73: 7/21-7/23: The Fourth Chapter Of The Blackmail Saga
Part 71: 7/21-7/23: The Fourth Chapter Of The Blackmail Saga
Anon: online showdown!? :O
Anon: medjed is dangerous……
Anon: Hang in there you guys! ;w;
Having your money stolen sounds terrifying…
It’s unsettling not knowing what they’re going to do to us.
They’re declaring their victory? What does that mean? I really wish they’d stop that...Anon: ugh, again?
Anon: yo, where the police?
Anon: I bet they’re crying LOL
Anon: Which side’s Akechi-kun on?
Anon: Go go Phantom Thieves~!
Anon: QUE ES FANTOM THIEF?
QUE ES FANTOM THIEF? is the best damn response in the game.
Music: Suspicion
*sigh* It’s just Ryuji.
Nothing? Let us know ASAP if he tries to get in touch with you, mkay?Goddammit, Ryuji.
Music: Desire
No reason not to be polite.
Ah, you responded today.
No, I know I’m right.
Hm, you’re a surprisingly diligent student.
...I see. Hm, I suppose past calling cards did have names on them. One moment. Very well, I’ll tell you. ……. I believe their name was… Futaba Sakura. Hm, sounds oddly familiar…
If you fail in this mission, I will expose your identity to the world and to the police.Yet more blackmail!
So he threatened you then just took off!? And Sakura…? I feel like I’ve heard that name before… In any case, we should let everyone know about this.Music: Disquiet
“Futaba Sakura”…?
Wasn’t Sakura...
I honestly love that there isn’t even an option to point this out yourself. It is canon that we don’t remember the last name of Sojiro, who we see literally every day, and it has to be pointed out by Ann and Makoto, who’ve met him three times between the both of them. On my first playthrough, I didn’t remember it either and it blew my fucking mind.
Does he have any family? Does he?
We know nothing about this dude except that he hates deviancy and loves pussy.
For reals!? How laid-back are you!? Wouldn’t you normally be introduced at least? I mean, you ARE living at his place. Well, his situation does make things difficult... The calling card was delivered to Boss’s house; it’d be more natural to assume this is all related.This game was overseen by two warring editors with opposing takes on the use of apostrophes after names ending with the letter “s.”
Ha, just kidding, this game’s localization didn’t have an editor.
One of the reasons for that is because Alibaba mentioned nothing about “which” Futaba Sakura. Perhaps he thinks that the name alone is enough. That makes sense. I believe it’s adequate for us to think that this is the doing of someone close by. I see. I don’t know how Alibaba got a hold of Maaku-kun’s smartphone information. However, since he’s ordering us through chat, I do feel as though he’s taunting us. You mean, this might just be a prank? I mean, look at his demands. Pay me if you don’t want me to leak who you really are—that I’d understand. But he’s telling us to steal someone’s heart without explaining why. So we’re being tested? Regardless, I think we should ask Boss about Futaba Sakura once. That’s probably for the best. There’s nothing else we can do at the moment, and Chief might have an idea on what this is about too. I’ll check the school’s roster just in case. We must make sure Boss doesn’t figure out who we are. We’ll have to go about this cautiously.
Music: Desire
It’s got nothing to do with you. I’m going home. Make sure you lock up the place.
Music: Beneath the Mask
Could there be a reason as to why that was?
Hm. Alibaba might be our only hope of defeating Medjed. I wish we could get some info about Futaba out of Boss...
But trying to force it out would probably have the opposite effect. To be honest, I owe a great deal to both Boss and Maaku. I don’t wish for this to be a source of discord between them. Yeah, I know just what you mean! It’s probably best to wait for Boss to bring the subject up himself.
Our show managed to get a “calling card” left by—as it says here--”The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.” On it, they also claim that they will make their target “confess their sins.” Oh, we’ve gotten pretty famous. I guess it’s no surprise that we’re in the public eye now.
We don’t have any info on any of them. What in the world is going on?
Anon: can phantom thieves win?
Music: Wicked Plan
Tomorrow’s the end of the first semester, but we still got all this lame shit comin’ up... If you don’t take care of this “lame shit,” you can kiss your summer vacation goodbye. Oh yeah, about this Futaba Sakura girl… If she’s related to Boss, think people livin’ nearby would know about her? That’s some keen intuition coming from you, Ryuji. You should have made use of that on your exams. Ugh, I never wanna think about exams ever again… Anyway, askin’ around in your neighborhood might be the fastest way to figure this shit out. Then again, I doubt it’ll be that easy. It never is...Music: So Boring
There’s an urgent assembly on Monday. We’ll be taking attendance. There’s been an unusual number of strange incidents this year. Don’t do anything stupid over break. Got it? Don’t go someplace shady like the red-light district, and don’t go to the beach after dark. I wanna go to the beach… I wanna jump in some cold water… Seems like we won’t be having fun on our summer break for a while...Music: Tokyo Daylight
Let’s head to Yongen and gather info around the neighborhood!
So, here we are in Yongen-Jaya. Our mission: to talk to everyone to discover information about this mysterious “Futaba Sakura.”
……It’s the name of my very first love, my teacher back when I was in elementary school!As you might have guessed, these people aren’t very helpful!
...Let’s ask some other people, too.
A vintage game console… Could I actually sell it if I threw in some games…? I’ m not sure anyone would buy a game console that’s this old, though... We can always come back here later. We need to get info on Futaba first.
No. No, I don’t know who that could be.
By the way, do you eat a lot?
Well, whenever Boss buys food, it’s enough to feed three people. ...What? You’re telling me you don’t actually eat that much? Maybe it’s Boss who eats a lot then...
Hm, but wouldn’t this Futaba get angry if they find out you’re snooping on them though?
I come to Sakura-san’s often to make deliveries, but I’ve never seen who you’re talking about.And that’s everyone! What have we learned?
So, up until now, our biggest lead seems to be… Boss buys a lot of food, far more than enough for one person living alone. Let’s check out all the shops where you can buy food!
…… Futaba? Over at Sakura-san’s? I haven’t heard anything… Sorry. Come again!
I think our only option now is to go home and ask the chief directly...Music: Suspicion
So you’re the one who tipped him off about Futaba. You really shouldn’t have done that. I have no intention of talking to you about Wakaba.
Tipped off…? What are you talking about? Back to the matter at hand… Your parental authority will have to be suspended. I take it you’re OK with that outcome?Huh? Parental authority?
What!? Considering the state of your daughter and your family overall, there are no points in your favor. Would you like to take this to domestic court? Our chances of victory are roughly 99.9% though.
Abuse!?
You’re going that far…!? I told you, I don’t know a damn thing about it. We’re extremely serious about this. As long as there’s a possibility that cognitive psience can be linked to psychotic breakdowns…Nuh-uh, no, that’s not how you spell that. Anyway, Sae glances over at Maaku.
Tch… Fine… I yield.
Sae puts her card down on the counter.
I doubt you’ll find anything you want to hear though. That’s fine. It will be up to us to decide whether the information you give us is useful or not.
We have pretty much no idea what’s going on here, but it’s clear that Sae should probably never show her face in Leblanc again. Finishing that conversation with the equivalent of “Toodles!” is just hilariously shitty.
That woman is real good at pissing people off… ...What’s with that look? You got something to say?
This doesn’t involve you.
That’s enough! Just behave yourself and keep going to school if you don’t want me to throw you out of here....But tomorrow’s the last day.
You got that?Yessir.
Lock the store up.
Moreso, our conjecture that Alibaba is connected to Leblanc seems to have a pretty solid foundation. Oh, and didn’t they mention “cognitive” something? ...I wonder what the chief’s hiding. We can’t really press him on the subject though, especially after he mentioned throwing you out.Music: Beneath the Mask
I wonder… 
Kizuna Fest is happening again this year, and it looks like the demand for tickets is huge. I’m a fan of Kanamin Kitchen myself—maybe that’s why I’ve just been eating meat lately… Hahaha.Kanamin Kitchen, for those of you who didn’t play Persona 4: Dancing All Night, an actual video game that really exists, is a fast food-themed idol group primarily featuring Kanami Mashita, one of the main characters of that game who was also referenced in Persona 4 as an indirect, offscreen foil to Rise Kujikawa, then on hiatus. Anyway, the “meat” line is about how each of them have a different animal they’re associated with as part of their gimmick. Kanami makes a lot of references to herself as a “prize cow” in that game, for instance, and talks up the quality of her “meat.” It’s about as weird as it sounds.
Would the chief really do that? It’s gotta be some kind of mistake, right?Must be.
Anon: I agree, it’s false justice
Music: Suspicion
Yeah, she was going on about domestic abuse and taking the case to court and stuff… …… What’s up? It’s nothing. So to summarize what you told us, Futaba is Boss’ daughter, and he’s abusing her? I don’t know him very well… Is he really the kind of person who would do that?
Not a chance. It’s Sojiro. He’s a good gu—well, actually, I don’t know that much about him, and he seems like kind of a dick, but the funny kind, not the unfortunate kind.
I would like to believe so as well, but we don’t have any conclusive evidence, do we…?Listen, Makoto, I won’t let the good name of that asshole who hates my guts be besmirched!
Music: Disquiet
Why aren’t you doing it? I told you I’d help you if you stole her heart. What seems to be the hold up? I also said I’d report your identity to the police if you didn’t help me. Are you OK with that? I’m serious here. What a selfish person. Well, he does have information on us… Anyways, this Futaba he’s talking about have a Palace? If so, we’ll need keywords to get in. Try messaging him about ‘em.I don’t think Alibaba will know what that means, Ryuji, considering they already got confused regarding the purpose of the calling card.
Keywords? What are you talking about? Are you just saying random stuff to dodge the issue? What’re we supposed to do about this? We’d be able to figure out Alibaba’s identity if we could just meet with him… Try asking if there’s any way we could meet up.
Meet? With me? That will be difficult. I have reasons for not being able to go out. That’s why I’m contacting you like this. He can’t go out? Wait. I get it. You steal people’s hearts directly… That might make things difficult. Extremely difficult. Hold on. I’m thinking… OK. It’s a shame, but I’m calling this deal off. Stop looking into Futaba Sakura. Uh, what?
Huh…? Did he just shut the whole operation down? This doesn’t make any sense… Not only can Alibaba not go out, but he won’t let us meet Futaba either? Well, it’s none of our business now. We can’t contact him anymore. But… what do we do about Medjed? We won’t be able to get Alibaba to help us with them now. Maybe they were just prankin’ us. They made that huge declaration, but they ain’t done nothing since. I bet we got ‘em freaked out. You mean they backed out because they’re afraid we’ll change their hearts? Yup. And now it’d just make ‘em look lame if they came out and apologized!That’s stupid! Why are we pretending this makes any sense, let alone relying on the prospect?
But-- I guess with Alibaba and Medjed outta the picture, can we just say this case is closed?No! Because they’re not, at all!
Music: Break it Down (Elp Version)
...You do have a point. I guess it is safe for us to relax a little.Makoto! Not you too!
Oh yeah, remember Kaneshiro’s Treasure? Prepare to have your minds blown! We got one hundred and fifty thousand yen out of it!
That’s awesome! We can really go all out with that kinda money! Yeah! Let’s make up for what happened at the fireworks festival! We gotta go eat something fittin’ for the Phantom Thieves’ worldwide debut! Where would be good…? Ooh, how ‘bout sushi!? I could really go for some eel too! The best method is to fill yourself on ginger before beginning to eat sushi. That is my master technique.I just realized that the joke here is that he can only afford to eat ginger. Yusuke has like, one joke to his character.
You don’t need to do that this time. Actually, definitely don’t do it, OK? I’m all for sushi! You’re OK with that too, right?
Then it’s decided. All right! We’ll go tomorrow night!Music: Beneath the Mask
Now that I think about it calmly, it’s strange that they haven’t actually done anything yet. If their goal is to target the Phantom Thieves, they should want to be acting now, given our fame. Huh. When you put it that way, it kinda makes me wonder too. Especially after they taunted us theatrically like that. Yes. However, it would be best for us to come up with a countermeasure regardless.
I was thinking that too! I can’t really put it into words though. Hm, Yusuke is right. I’m sorry for bringing this up. On the day before our celebration party too… Cheer up, Makoto! We’ll be eating sushi like kings tomorrow! I hope one person in particular is on their best behavior. I’ll refrain from saying who though. ...You better not be talking about me!
As of now, no one has stepped forward and identified themselves as part of the Phantom Thieves. With the identities of both sides shrouded in mystery, everyone is watching for what they’ll do next. We were starting to get popular. I want us to live up to everyone’s expectations, but these hackers...
So, we’re giving up on this whole Medjed/Alibaba/Futaba situation, which is kind of an anticlimax. Except not, because if you actually think it’s ending here, you’re a damn fool.
The characters seem awful ready to ignore what’s happening, and fail to think about several crucial questions, like:
- Who is Alibaba?
- What is their connection to Futaba Sakura?
- Why haven’t we seen or heard anything about Futaba once in the three and a half months we’ve been staying here?
- Is Sojiro abusing her?
- Why does she need a change of heart?
- Is she even eligible for a change of heart?
- What if Medjed hasn’t given up?
- Will the sushi be delicious?