Part 6: Entry 3/31/10-06

Entry 3/31/10-06

If the doors in the desert were any indication, we were approaching the halfway point of our ordeal.



Everyone except me has fond memories of Sister, that have nothing to do with battle...
......
...Well, it's no use letting it get to me.
By the way, Sister, did you know I have no weaknesses?
I'll be fine against any attack! That's useful, right?



She doesn't seem like a bad person, but she did come here intending to kill us...
What do you think, Aigis?
She's not a bad person.
So she just went a little overboard trying to protect you?
Heh... I remember when you were the same way, Aigis...
Well... keep an eye on her, okay? You're the only one she listens to.



"A life bound to our cursed legacy"...
......
Oh... sorry. It's something I heard before, when I was young...



But there's some bizarre cultist material mixed in with them, so it's rough going.
Sorry, but I'll need a little more time...



I said before that something felt strange about it...
And I just realized what it was.
Every day is the same! The same people, the same cars, the same everything at the same time...!
It's a lot scarier than you'd think...
But now's not the time to be scared. We need to concentrate on the investigation.
My level seems kinda low...
I want to get stronger, so take me with you sometime.



I was still in middle school!? Back then I'd only been living here about half a year!
Whoa... So he's been duking it out with Shadows for that long, huh?
Hey, check out Koromaru. Doesn't he look ready to rumble?
I think he got all fired up by Akihiko-san's story, just like me!
His Persona's good with... fire and darkness, right?
I'm sure he'll be a big help before too long, so why don't we take him with us?



Though his potential wasn't that great, and we were doubtful he could reliably summon his Persona.
I told him not to do it, but he basically barged into the dorms and refused to leave.
Looking back, I guess he did it for me... *sigh *

Written in ash and frost across the door was the word "Antenora".



The Shadows were waiting, as always.

RECORD - "First Great Shadow of Antenora"

Click For Video!

Boss Battle: Judgment Sword, Ice Raven, Brave Wheel
After the Harem Dancer this is a refreshingly easy battle. The Judgment Sword uses Lightning and is weak against Wind, the Ice Raven uses Ice and is weak against Fire, and the Brave Wheel uses Fire and is weak against Ice. They all also have the Evade skill that corresponds with their weakness, making attacks of that nature unreliable to say the least. What we need for this is at most a pair of Personas that between them have a Wind, Ice and Fire attack. What I use is a Succubus and Quetzalcoatl. These two naturally have Agidyne and Garudyne respectively and I fused Bufula onto Succubus. Ideally, we start with Succubus and knock down the Raven and Wheel. Then we switch to Quetzalcoatl and knock down the sword. Since we're rocking out with –dyne level attacks now, we can take the Sword and Raven to about half if we can manage an All-Out Attack against them. A little bit of luck and some good choices in Shuffle Time can really help make this fight a lot more reasonable. The rare chests around and about this time and the Swords cards in Antenora can both yield accessories called 'Eye of X'. These give a character the same effect as 'Evade X'. If you can manage it give everyone with a weakness the Eye that corresponds with it (personally I could never see an Eye of Fire, which sort of sucked) and then give Aigis one of the three that are used in this fight (I prefer Ice because Bufu skills are a major feature of a lot of The Answer's boss shadows).

As was that shadowy figure.

RECORD- "Second Great Shadow of Antenora"

Click For Video!

What does this mean...? It feels just like a human does...
But there couldn't be anyone here...
......



But that figure over there... it doesn't seem to have any intention of attacking us.
Anyway, for now, concentrate on the Shadows ahead!
...Here they come!

Boss Battle: Primitive Idol, Shouting Tiara, Wrathful Book
Okay, this is actually a pretty interesting fight. The Primitive Idol will spam Bufudyne and Mabufudyne the whole fight and is largely immune to magical attack. The Shouting Tiara is weak against Ice and mainly uses support spells. The Wrathful Book is weak against Fire and focuses on status effects. The Tiara likes to buff the enemy party and will also use Ice Break on anyone who is immune to Ice. The Wrathful Book likes causing the Rage status, which makes a character always use their turn to do two physical attacks but also makes them take huge damage when they're hit. How I approach this with my preferred party is to just let Metis and Mitsuru go on their own and put Yukari on Heal/Support as usual. If we scan the Tiara right away, Metis and Mitsuru will focus on it and drop two Bufulas into it each turn (it doesn't Evade Ice that I saw). It's not got a lot of health so it won't stand up to focused fire like that. Then it's time to focus on the Idol while keeping the Book knocked down with Aigis. If you get some luck Mitsuru can really break this fight, as you see in the video. The Wrathful Book ends up enraging her and Metis, but since the only real damage in this is Ice based Mitsuru being enraged is possibly the best outcome. Even without the rage physical attacks quickly batter the Idol down, and the fight is basically over. I use the Persona Titania for this, I fused one with an Agi skill and a lot of support spells. Since it only resists Ice, the Tiara won't Ice Break Aigis. Being able to throw Rakunda on enemies makes them die much faster and reduces the impact of luck quite a bit.

Once again we failed to catch up to the figure. Somehow by the time we reach the dead ends it's vanished.

RECORD - "The Fourth Door"

Click For Video!

That black shadow was just here...
......
I'm sorry, but I've lost the black shadow again...
We'll head over there now. Why don't you see if you can find anything else?

What do these doors mean?





Stupid old man...
How low do you have to be to get drunk on cooking wine...?



But I guess it's just as pathetic to rush out like this every day...
*sigh * Maaan... What am I gonna do...? I got nowhere to go...
Yo... 'sup, pooch? Here to join my "Nowhere-To-Go" after-school club?
Arf arf!
Heheh... Sorry, pooch, I don't have any food for ya.
Y'know... Haven't I seen you around here before...?



Huh...? Oh, hey guys.
Former Classmate: Why the long face? Are you that sad that we're in different homerooms now?
Still dumb as rocks, huh?
Wait, isn't it way past your dorm curfew? What're you guys doing out so late?
Former Classmate: Oh, we snuck out. When you get to be a junior, you learn the secret exit.
Hey, we're going to Escapade, wanna come with? We're helping this guy drown his sorrows over a girl.
Classmate's Friend: That's not true!
Former Classmate: Heheh, don't let it get to you. That's what you get for going after someone like Yukari Takeba.
Although I never expected her to hook up with the new transfer student...
I guess she goes for that kinda dark side of his.
Dark? He seemed like a regular dude to me...



Former Classmate: Someone got a peek at his file when Toriumi left it lying around.
Man, you're so gullible... That stuff only happens in soap operas.
Former Classmate: Hey, I said it was a rumor.
C'mon, let's get going! You snooze, no booze!
Booze...? Oh, uh... I think I'm gonna pass.
Former Classmate: Huh? What's the matter? C'mon, why don'tcha live a little-
I said I'm gonna pass! I just... ain't in the mood.
Former Classmate: Well, man, looks like I'm the only one you got to console you.
Classmate's Friend: I keep telling you, nothing happened!



*whimper*
Man... Is my life really as bad as it seems now...?
I wish there was like... something I could do to change the world...
Like some awesome skill that no one else has.
*whimper*
Haha, don't gimme that.
I'm sure someday... we can make some real friends that'll listen to us.
Arf!



Junpei...
Arf!
Dude, I know! I was surprised to see you, too!
So, you were the dog from that day!
Arf!
Makes it seem kinda like... destiny.
Arf!
Looking back, that was the day Akihiko-san found me.
The only place I could go from there was the convenience store, and that's where I was when the Dark Hour hit...
You were bawling in the dark with that awful expression. Honestly? You looked worse than the Shadows.
W-Well, what was I supposed to do!? That was the scariest damn moment of my life, man!
*chuckle*



So staying at the dorm, and fighting Shadows, and all that stuff looked pretty good.
I see...
Unlike me and my sister, other people usually have reasons to "awaken"...
I comprehend.
I had my reasons as well.
However, in my case, it happened in reverse. I had the power first, and gained a reason later.
Now that I mention it, you're…

But before I could finish Metis had an interesting idea.



There is a reason we see what we see inside the doors.
Doors that have delivered on that reason disappear, and those with roles still to play remain...
A reason...? What kind of reason?
I can't say for sure... bur if we keep moving forward, I think we'll start seeing it.
Let's do our best, Sister.
Y-You're right...

Things only ever seemed to get more confusing.


She's so full of emotion... Nothing like me, when I woke up in July.
But she'd never had any chance to come into contact with others...
Was there a moment when she discovered her emotions, as I did?
The seed of my curiosity was planted as I began to wonder...

Metis, the Abyss, that strange figure... We had no way of knowing if any of it would ever make sense. We just had to move forward and hope we could find a solution to it all.



You've encountered a human-like figure during the investigation, haven't you?
Since you've seen it in person... can you describe it for me?
All I could tell through Juno was that it seemed human...
That's impossible. There's no way anyone but us could be down there.
But we do keep running into it...
Anyway, we're heading for the deepest part of the Abyss. Once we corner it, we'll get the truth.
C'mon, let's go.