Click Here for Update 66
: “Why are they raking us over the coals?”
: Today’s a Kawakami day, so we can read the book that will let us finish billiards. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got anything else to do given all of our social stats are maxed.
: “Check this picture out…! This is basically a show, considering how crazy this looks!”
: I have no idea what he’s talking about. Masse shots are technically difficult but not really that visually impressive.
: If you don’t know what a Masse shot is, it’s holding the pool cue at a high angle and hitting the top of the cue ball to put spin on it, which allows it to curve around obstacles.
: “The book even had a detailed explanation and pictures on how to do the masse shot that we were trying to figure out. But we’ll have to see if you can actually pull it off. Let’s go play sometime soon!”
: Unfortunately, we have to deal with Maruki’s bullshit today.
: “You must have a real knack for coffee, Kurusu-kun. This is fantastic.”
: “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass for today. It’s about the research paper we’ve been discussing. I’m actually putting it all together in a paper.”
: “It’s been really progressing lately, thanks in no small part to you. But I feel like I’ve hit another wall… so I’m sorry to bother you, but I’d appreciate if you’d help me talk through this again.”
: You know it’s a well-written confidant when there’s a recap episode halfway through.
: “Really!? Thank you! You’re really saving me here! In deepening our understanding of the heart, I wanted to find a means of helping those who have been hurt by traumas… I already told you that was the point of all my research, right?”
: “It’s thanks to you that my project has come this far. But because of all that progress… I’ve realized a problem. One that may not have any solution.”
: “Even if my research makes great strides, even if we DO find some miraculous way of healing psychological wounds… with the way things are now, I can only save the people directly within my reach.”
: “…True, I guess. It’s better than not being able to save anyone. But I can’t just be satisfied with that. I mean, there are so many people out there suffering so badly, they can’t even speak up and let that pain out.”
: “This is a painful, cruel, bitter world. And there’s only so much one individual can do to fight against that. I’ve said it before. Working as a counselor only makes that more painfully obvious.”
: Joker: “You know what, you’re right. We need to get air raid sirens that go off anytime anyone gets horny.”
: “Deep down, I… I don’t think it’s enough that I can just help people around me. A few people, out of billions. I want to help more people overcome their suffering.”
: “Pain can strike the heart in infinitely diverse ways. In turn, we have infinite methods by which we try to treat it. And like I said earlier.. there are people who need help, desperately, but can’t ask for it. They can’t even share their pain.”
: Great, he’s already repeating himself.
: “Even if we had a full understanding of the human heart, and an effective treatment to soothe it… I don’t think that would be enough to finally beat trauma. And I guess that’s what I ultimately realized.”
: “Yeah, that’d probably be easier… unfortunately, I’ve never been great at giving up when I should… if we could peer into the hearts of every person alive…”
: “Diagonose, understand, and then remove the root cause of their pain… it sounds like something out of a dream.”
: “Then again, that’d be impossible. Maybe truly understanding all people’s hearts is beyond human capability. Hm? Kurusu-kun… did I say something wrong?”
: “Haha, where’s this coming from? Sure, they can connect, but..”
: “The collective unconscious.. if people’s hearts are connected in the unconscious, their senses are shared subconsciously…!”
: Is this Zero Escape because I feel like we’re slowly drifting into Zero Escape, and we all know how well that ended.
: “Ah, it’s so simple! Why didn’t I realize it before…? Yes, right, and… if I can combine this with the theory I’m verifying, I can tie it all back to cognitive psience, too…!”
: “S-Sorry! But I think you’ve just helped me make a major breakthrough! I think this means something big for my cognitive psience research! I need to hurry and get this down in my paper!”
: “I knew it’d be worth bringing to you! Thank you, Kurusu-kun! I swear I’ll repay you for this!”
: “Sorry for… hah… rushing out…phew…so suddenly…hah..earlier…”
: “S-Sorry… I ended up running to the station on sheer adrenaline. I’m so out of shape, though… gotta do something about that..”
: “Anyhow, you helped me come to a major realization. The answer was right in front of me, and I couldn’t see it… all I need to do now is to focus on my paper! After all your help, I’m going to finish it for your sake, too!”
: Tonight, we need to uh.. visit a maid cafe in Akihabara. The reason for this is that the next Caroline and Justine outing happens here - and it’s one you have to do to get the reward at the end - but you can’t do it unless you’ve been here once.
: And now, what is probably Joker’s best response to anything.
: Even the horrible, non-canon alternate timeline that is Straight Joker isn’t horny enough for this.
: If Gay Joker was an official thing, I can just imagine this alternate scene where he’s just sitting with the waitress like it’s a hostess club and going “It’s like.. I’ve already got one maid who is incredibly horny and another who’s my boyfriend and it’s all just too many maids. I’m really only here so I can take this pair of little girls here, so they can talk about hubris or whatever.”
: The maid cafe was also in the base game, but I was basically unaware because none of the 100% routes bothered to use it. Let me explain what the special item is, because it’s part of the difference between the base game and Royal.
: In the base game, you had a choice of four food options, with each one having a progressively higher chance of the maid fucking it up. If she fucked it up, you could choose to gain a point in Kindness or Guts. If she didn’t fuck it up, you got NOTHING. This is why none of the 100% routes used it.
: Royal changes it so that you always get Charm points, and removes the fuckup chance as a mechanic - instead, you get points.. and at 20 points, you unlock a secret menu (which boosts the Charm gain to 3 points) and a PSN trophy.
: I would have had Salty Vanilla do a special “secret menu” for Gay Joker, but they’re really busy and already working on some extra Yusu-Gay content.
: We’re going all in.
: “Hey… this is pretty overwhelming… all the pink hurts my eyes…”
: Oh god. What are you doing to those eggs. I don’t even like eggs. I don’t think that’s how you hold that.
: Those eggs have been fucking murdered.
: “Why did she pick… that?”
: Joker immediately pulls out the air horn.
: Joker pulls the trigger on the air horn, and then pulls it again.
: “I feel like you’re going too easy on her… but I guess you learned how to be tolerant. sigh That sure was… unique.”
: I had to reload here because the guide is shit.
: Basically, the guide never tells you (and even the Megaten Wiki is wrong on this) that there’s new books in the bookstore in Shibuya. All but one of them are worthless.
: This is the one we need. The other ones unlock locations we already have, thanks to all those extra confidant events. In fact, we don’t even really ‘need’ it - it’s solely to unlock a non-rankup event with Yusuke in November.
: “I guess they keep it exciting by doing things like hiring famous actors as tour guides. …In any case, it’s not the kind of place you’d visit alone. I recommend taking someone.”
: “It’d be fun to go with someone. Just don’t fall asleep while they project the constellations, okay?”
: “Stores will use whatever reasons they can to pull in customers. This season in particular. Ah yes.. people also say that autumn is for sports.”
: “A while back, baseball was the national sport, but these days people have been into soccer. As you know, black and white are the common colors for soccer balls.”
: “Now then, Kurusu-san. Could you take a look at this picture?”
: “That’s correct. This ball is composed of twelve black pentagons and twenty white hexagons. It’s made up of a total of 32 surfaces. By the way, apparently soccer balls used to be only one color.”
: You can still buy soccer balls in a single color.
: “They changed it to be black and white so it could be seen better on television.. or so I hear, anyway. Television was still in black and white when they started airing soccer in Europe.”
: This is, as far as I can tell, true.
: “At any rate, the contrast of white and black next to each other… it’s a slick design, don’t you think?”
: “You think someone like her really eats hamburgers?”
: “Pretty hard stuff for the second boss… it’s gonna be even harder knowing there are people there too… welp, ain’t no time like the present! Come on, let’s go!”
: “You’re going to school!? Oh, um… never mind. Just go have some fun.”
: “I think my heart’s gonna pop out of my chest…”
: Here’s my problem with this scene. Hashino (or whoever actually wrote this) clearly wanted a scene with just Futaba and Makoto, but had to make an excuse for Joker to be there.
: This scene feels like those early PS3 games where Sony decreed that every game had to make use of the Sixaxis, so a lot of devs just kinda shoehorned it in where they could.
: “Wh-what are you doing here!?”
: “Ummm, well…”
: “Ummm… can I use a Goho-M instead?”
: This is why I think the whole “there are correct answers” thing is kind of a bad design choice.
: “I was hoping you’d say that.”
: “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Most of the students have already left, and all the teachers are in a meeting. Oh, and I’ll join you. I can use my position as student council president to avoid any probllems that may arise.”
: “You’re incredible! If I’ve got you two with me, this place is gonna be as easy as fighting a trash mob!”
: “…I’m not sure I understand. That’s a good thing, right? Anyway, come on. I’ll show you around the school.”
: Notice how Joker is just kind of standing in the background. Here’s how I would’ve done this cutscene, and explaining it’s going to require me to spoil a few minor details about Futaba’s confidant.
: The whole promise list thing? They basically throw that out the window after the next rank. They also never really follow up on the whole “Being okay without you around” bit.
: So here’s how I would’ve done this scene. In between the last scene and this one, Joker disappears on purpose - so the rest of the event is purely between Makoto and Futaba.. which is what the writers wanted in the first place.
: Have the dialog choices happen before and after the part with Makoto, and the whole point is that the player realizes what’s going on but Futaba doesn’t - on purpose.
: Then, when it gets to Rank 8, have a scene where she’s still worked up about that last point, and then Morgana goes “I don’t think you realized it, but really, you were okay the entire time,” and it flashes back to this scene.
: “That reminds me of this time I was the only kid who didn’t get a pudding with my meal… oh, and this other time I ate a strawberry with ketchup on it. I didn’t notice 'cause they’re both red. It was really gross…”
: “U-um, anyway… the cafeteria’s pretty boring, huh? Let’s move on.”
: “We have all the regular academic fare here: textbooks, encyclopedias, study guides… but we also have a few manga and light novels at the request of some especially vocal students.”
: “So many books…”
: “Do you like to read, Futaba?”
: “Mm-hm. Back in elementary school, I memorized the titles of all the books on a shelf in just one glance. The other kids thought I was making it up when I told them though…”
: “But then when I recited all the titles to prove it… they just laughed and called me a freak… am I weird, Akira?”
: “…I don’t wanna be talented if it’s gonna creep people out. Ugh.. school is the worst..”
: “W-Well, should we move along? Only the classrooms remain… though on second thought, maybe we should just pass on those today. Shall we head back to the entrance?”
: “Don’t be. It’s my fault… I remembered all that stuff on my own… I guess dwelling on the past is a bad habit of mine, huh?”
: “Huh? Wh-what kinda weird fetish stuff are you into, Akira?”
: Joker just goes “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you” and then it cuts to a shot of Yusuke going “Joker! Hurry up! Curtain’s in five minutes and there’s a sold-out house waiting for our all-catboy stage adaptation of Hibike Euphonium!”
: Now, you might say “Wait, wouldn’t that just be Jersey Boys but anime?” and yes, but also no.
: “Honestly, Futaba… it’s clear how much you’ve improved recently. You would never have gotten so worried about this before.”
: “Huh?”
: “What I mean is, worrying about something is the first step toward changing it. Coming to school like this is a huge breakthrough, Futaba. You’re doing great… right, Akira-kun?”
: “Hmmm… is this like that saying about when life gives you lemons? Maybe I could make lemonade for the Phantom Thieves! Er, figuratively speaking.”
: “That would be wonderful.”
: “Aw yeah!”
: Position Hack doesn’t trigger often from what I remember, but it’s nice when it does.
: Yeah, Friends was really overrated and a lot of people only like it because it’s just kind of always been there.
: “Futaba?”
: “Oh, uh.. nothing!”
: “Anyways, let’s retreat for now. What’re you feeling for dinner? How about curry?”
: “Feeling crazy fulfilled, but also super tired, tbh… I can’t believe everyone runs such a high-level dungeon every single day… you guys really are OP.”
: “I get the sense I’ll level up faster if I stay close to you. But… I still think I’d run out of MP too fast. The real world is a scary place…”
: “Really!? …But I still gotta work on it, huh. So much for taking it easy on me.. urgh.”
: “But I do feel like I’m making a lot of progress thanks to you, Akira! I’m gonna keep going at my own pace for my next goal too. Gotta focus on healing when you need to, right?”
: “And I can’t just keep getting carried through all this. I gotta learn how to fend for myself. Okay, later!”
: We have Hifumi’s Rank 9 tonight, and it’s here I’m going to make a minor time digression in order to fit both her Rank 9 and Rank 10 in the same update.
: Nothing really important happens on the 25th, so what we’ll do is jump from the 24th right to the 26th in order to do both of Hifumi’s confidant events, and then jump back to the 25th.
: “However, I’m not going to give them the satisfaction. I’m going to win… with these very hands.”
: “Of course! Well, it’s time. I have to go to the venue. You won’t be able to go inside the match room, but you can watch over the internet, if you’d like. Now.. I should be going.”
: I hate that they had to add this in to make it clear that Hifumi does know how to play shogi and it’s not one of those Harvard admissions scandal type things.
: “It was as if an ant had challenged an elephant. A shogi player should know her limits.”
: “I was so ashamed of myself. I didn’t want to hurt the pieces any longer…”
: “You remembered! One must concede defeat with grace - maintaining dignity until the very end, as a queen should… but, I confess I am confused.. I mean, naturally I am disappointed that I lost…”
: “But I still feel happy… as if a demon has been purged from me. The moment I realized that victory was impossible… I felt a strange peace.”
: “What’s important is what I do from this point on… I played so disgracefully in front of you… perhaps you can just view it as an example of what not to do…”
: “And understand that there are times which require one to forfeit with valor and grace.”
: If this was Nocturne, this might be a useful ability. We haven’t run from a single battle this entire run.
: “Um, I’ve been thinking about this for a while… let’s make today your last lesson… spending time with me has only brought you pain…”
: Hifumi’s romance route is.. awkward, to say the least.
: “The things you say sometimes… perhaps I should take a lesson from that ambitious nature of yours. If that is what you wish, then prepare yourself. Your training will be quite intensive.”
: “There may be things I can learn from you as well. I suppose this is a friendly rivalry for both of us… as irreplaceable shogi friends.”
: “About how things would’ve been if I had kept playing shogi according to my mother’s strategy.. I could have enjoyed a transient, empty success. But when I looked two, three moves ahead…”
: “I saw myself in incessant hell… playing a purgatorial, Pyrrhic shogi, unable to ever win or lose.. I probably would’ve ended up hating shogi. Perhaps even given up on life.”
: “That’s why I can say with certainty. Today’s loss was not a setback, but a glorious step forward.”
: “…Yes! I was just thinking the same thing. It is so encouraging to have someone who truly understands me. I’m so happy…”
: “All right, I should go. But I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”
: The good news is that we’ve now freed up a Persona slot.. but we need one more Affinity Reading with her, as I found out when I skipped to the 26th and couldn’t progress. Let’s do her Rank 10 now.
: “That’s my intention. There were a lot of people who covered for me by saying that I was just being used by adults. But I’m the one who was most at fault. I was overconfident.”
: I mean, your mother was apparently running some kind of blackmail ring, so technically she’s the one at fault, but..
: “If only I had taken a look at myself and properly assessed my shogi skills. I believed that with my skills, I could overcome being treated like an idol. …There’s nothing I can say about my mother.”
: “You didn’t abandon me, even after you learned about the fixed matches… now i know how encouraging it feels to have someone believe in you.”
: “At first, this was just a deal… you help me develop new moves and I give you shogi lessons. But before I knew it, you became.. someone I couldn’t do without.”
: “I’m not gonna pay attention to the criticism anymore.”
: “The reason I’m able to think this way is because you stuck by my side. …I’m really grateful.”
: Hifumi’s last ability is extremely useful because it allows us to shift party members on the fly to counter weaknesses. We’ll want this for the next boss.
: We also get the ability to fuse Lucifer. Will we be doing that? You fucking bet we will. I’ll need to do Caroline and Justine’s confidant first and farm a shitload of money.
: In fact, without the discount you get for compendium completion, Lucifer costs almost a million yen to fuse assuming you are high enough level do so. We will not be.
: “I truly hope that you… no.. that the Phantom Thieves find my lessons useful.”
: “I’m honored to hear that from one of the Phantom Thieves. I spoke to you about my mother, and then my mother changed… I knew that couldn’t be a coincidence.”
: Joker: “Look, we could easily get rid of Makoto and let you in instead.”
: “If there’s anything I can do to help, please know that you can rely on me.”
: “I will support you in whatever you want to accomplish. Now, let’s play a match. I have a lot of new moves I’d like to test out. I hope you’re okay to stay here a while longer.”
: With that done, let’s go back to the 25th. As always, Hifumi’s Rank 9 and Rank 10 on the dating route will be located under the “Alternate Scenes” header in the hub post.
: “It’s Power Intuition. A real controller-busting thumb-muncher! You have the courage to meet me in a test of mettle?”
: I mentioned this before, but Power Intuition is a parody of Atlus’s long-dead fighting game franchise Power Instinct. The last release was on the Neo-Geo in the early 2000s.
: None of the Power Instinct games were on the NES/Famicom. The first one was on the SNES/Super Famicom, the second on the PS1, and the third was the Neo-Geo one.
: “Kk, game start!”
: I’m very surprised she doesn’t recognize her console.
: “Dang.. you’re good! C’mon, it’s the final round!”
: I did not win this one because I was busy taking screenshots. On a subsequent recording (when I went to do Hifumi’s Rank 10) I did win it but couldn’t take a shot of it.
: Instead of doing Yoshida’s confidant, we opt to take Makoto to the jazz club to learn Concentrate. All I can say is that this guide had better be correct about Yoshida being available on 10/10.
: “O-Oh. I suppose it would be rude of me to look around while there’re so many people here..”
: “I tend to handle most of the general housework at home… and I realized that I go about it in a very particular way. Especially cleaning.”
: “When I pointed out that a window was dusty, Sis said I was like a ‘mother-in-law’…”
: “It’s gotten so late… I was nervous at first, but it’s very homey here. I feel like talking with you helped me to remember my original resolve. Thank you.”
: I got rid of Makoto’s one physical skill because Concentrate kind of sets her on a path of being a pure magic build the way Charge sets Yusuke onto the path of being a pure physical hitter.
: Finally, let’s get to the canon version of the 26th.
: “Don’t you get it!? You can’t just shoot all over the place!”
: “Gahhh! You haven’t gotten better at all! When are you gonna learn!?”
: “Thanks to you taking so long to figure it out…”
: “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve always been good at shooting games… but I absolutely NEVER wanna lose at Gun About. So I guess I tend to get all heated up about it…”
: He’s not gonna be happy in 2018 when the servers start going down.
: “…Shut up.”
: “…Fine. I’ll leave, all right? sigh”
: “Seriously. I… really wanted to keep playing. …My house is so boring. No one’s ever there and there’s never anything to do.”
: “Adults and high schoolers are so lucky. They get to play all night long. Having that much time helps you get stronger…”
: “…I wish I could play all day instead of going to school. I’d never lose another game… I need to get really strong, like the Phantom Thieves.”
: I mean, we already know he does, but for some reason this is the correct answer.
: “Of course I do! I wanna be just as strong as they are! I believe in the Phantom Thieves and their strength.”
: “…That’d be great! Thanks! Seriously though, I can’t stop thinking about that employee. He was super annoying, huh?”
: “If he says something again, I might just have to use that move on him. The one I taught you, remember? You should use it sometime.”
: Bullet Hail is kind of a garbage ability.
: Basically, you enter combat and you get a “Fire” prompt. This also gives us a good shot of Haru’s gun, which is a grenade launcher.
: The problem is that it takes time and does fuck all for damage. There’s a good reason why - it’s because if it did actual damage, it’d make negotiations a pain in the ass to accomplish - but still.
: “Well, it’s just a move in the game, so it won’t work against actual people.. I wish it did. Then I’d be strong in real life. I need to be able to win in real life… I’m gonna head home.”
: What part of dumping an entire magazine into someone wouldn’t work? Unless he’s talking about wasting ammo, because we know that six bullets are more than enough to kill anything that moves.
: “I was bored, so I thought I’d call. I forgot to mention earlier, but you gotta keep practicing even on single player, okay? Everyone sucks at first, but you can get good if you do it every day!”
: “You better. You’re supposed to be the adult here. I’m practicing a lot too. I wanna get as strong as the Phantom Thieves. Oh, my mom came home… I gotta hang up. Bye.”
: Finally, on the canon version of the 26th, we finish billiards off forever.
: Note that what Joker is doing here is a pretty extreme version of the masse shot. Generally, you wouldn’t do this expecting to hit a ball on the other side of the table.
: We are going to need this for Okumura’s palace. Guaranteed knockdowns are fucking HUGE, especially now that we have easy access to both Freidyne and Psiodyne.
: You might think I’m talking about Makoto and Haru, but I’m not. I’m talking about when I snap the game in two in the next update without even needing the PS5 or Network Fusion.
: Have I mentioned we’re going to be doing all ten ranks of Caroline and Justine’s confidant in the next update? We do that. In a single day.
: “I’d like to hear your opinion on these Phantom Thieves of Hearts. The ones who ‘steal the desires’ of criminals, and reportedly force them to confess…”
: “Maybe it’s a little hard to believe, but I guess I’ve taken an academic interest in them.”
: “Hmm… yeah, I guess you could say that. I’d love to sit down and talk with one of them. I just get the feeling the Phantom Thieves’ work and my own research are rooted in the same principles.”
: “That’s why I’ve decided to analyze them from my own perspective. …For example, there’s the matter of their methods.”
: “According to those calling cards they send out, their stated method is to ‘steal your desires’… how is such a feat even possible? Any ideas, Kurusu-kun?”
: Why’s he asking Joker? How would Joker know?
: “Hmm, removing them… as if they’re something material rather than abstract? So, they’d be stealing desires by taking some tangible form of them… well, in that case…”
: “I suppose it’d be possible if you could find some physical proxy for human desires. …Kurusu-kun, do you remember that story with the cookies?”
: “In that experiment, the desire for the cookies actually changed the way people tasted them. I think we can look at this in the same way.”
: I don’t recall that being true from the actual study, back when I posted it. I remember it said that they rated the artificially rare cookies more highly, but I dont think there was anything about taste.
: “They’re not something easily perceived, but desires do have a tremendous effect on our cognition. Put another way, if that desire is gone, your cognitive perception of the cookies skews back to normal.”
: “So, does that remind you of anything?”
: “That’s right. The Phantom Thieves’ own change of heart. That’s the basis of my theory: their ‘theft of desire’ is not metaphorical, but something more direct.”
: “We still don’t know exactly how they steal these desires, of course… but if this idea of physical, tangible desires can be actualized, I think it’d logically follow that they can be taken away.”
: “In a world of intangibles… let’s say, a world composed of the contents of people’s hearts.. well, they’re thieves, so.. if they could perceive a world like that, they could steal desires like any other treasure…”
: For someone who supposedly knows nothing about the existence of the Metaverse, he sure gave a pretty accurate description.
: “Hey, Kurusu-kun. You think I’m getting anywhere here?”
: “You think so too, Kurusu-kun? If it’s actually anywhere close to the truth, it’d be incredible. Then again, we’ll probably never know for sure unless we could ask one of the Phantom Thieves themselves.”
: “Mm… I think I can construct a solid hypothesis now. It feels like I’m just one step away from finishing this paper… thank you, Kurusu-kun.”
: This ability. It’s the worst thing in the fucking game. Flow was great when it was a once-in-a-while buff, but with this, it procced in almost half the battles I did in the first half hour of Okumura’s palace.
: The problem here is twofold. First, the animation for Flow lasts longer than a lot of the actual battles do. Second, it makes using Joker for knockdowns hard because he’ll usually instakill enemies.
: We also get 5 max SP and another Phantom Wafer, which I won’t bother showing.
: By the way, I found the calendar that fuckhead on Gamefaqs plagiarized, and as it turns out we are in fact in the clear on Yoshida - he’s available on 10/10. Thanks to the Persona 5 Speedrun Discord for providing that information.
: “All I want in a relationship is spicy stimulation followed by some smooth, relaxing comfort. And I can get both of those things from my curry and my coffee. That’s enough for me.”
: Crazy how he went from this turbosmug horny dude to just being a dad.
: “That’s a real roundabout way of showing disapproval… anyway, the only thing I care about in life is making sure my customers are satisfied. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people relax in here. Come back anytime, okay?”
: “But I guess food service relies on keeping the right distance from people. Not too far, not too close.”
: “Yeah? And what have YOU done to care for her?”
: “Don’t be ridiculous. Futaba had a terrible life living with you… plus I already gave you most of the inheritance for custody! Is that still not enough for you!?”
: “You…”
: The thing is, at least in the US, the court is the one who put the kid with a guardian in the first place - and usually when they do that, they’re hesitant to go back on that decision.
: This becomes a real problem in elder law, where you have people who get guardianships over old people for financial gain, often without the family being involved.
: “Hey, keep your neck out of this. Just get on upstairs, okay?”
: “She’s only like this because she saw you here!”
: “Grrr…”
: “Futaba… you should just head home for today. I’ll take you.”
: “Sojiro…”
: “That man.. is Futaba’s uncle. After Wakaba died, Futaba was passed around all her relatives. His place was the last. He treated her like garbage. He never fed her, and forced her to sleep on the floor like an animal.”
: Wait, is this some kind of allegory about 4chan? It’s not like 2ch doesn’t have a lot of the same problems 4chan does.
: “He didn’t even let her bathe… once I learned that, I knew I had to step in. I couldn’t stand for that kind of horrible treatment, so I decided to take Futaba under my care.”
: It would’ve been great if this was like the old Persona games and Futaba just lit him on fire.
: “Even back then, he was whining about all the damn expenses… I threw some cash his way, thinking that would put the issue to bed… but now he’s back for more.”
: “I don’t even know how he managed to find me here… maybe paying him was a mistake.”
: “Heh.. thanks. I never thought you’d be the one comforting me. Either way though, it’s my fault Futaba didn’t leave her room. I just didn’t know how to help her through it.. I’d make curry, leave it by her door, and go.”
: “If not for you, I’d probably still be waiting for her to come out. So if you asked me whether I deserve to be Futaba’s guardian… my answer would be no.”
: “They say blood’s thicker than water, right? I wonder what’d be the best for Futaba. Haha.. look at me, spilling my heart out to a punk like you.”
: “Though… it’s kinda weird. For some reason, I just feel like telling you this stuff. It’s like you’re peering into my heart.. heh, I guess there really is something special about you.”
: Another ability we will never use.
: “It’s already pretty late.. I should be heading home. I’m still worried about Futaba. Don’t stay up too late, you hear? Oh, and… thanks.”
: “Futaba’s fast asleep… didn’t mean to get you tangled up in all this mess.”
: Well, I mean, there’s going to be a very obvious Mementos request at Rank 7, so..
: “No, you don’t have to do anything. The fact that you asked is enough. Man, though. I never know what I’m doing when I talk to you.”
: “I just keep yammering on about stuff I never planned on talking about. Must be going senile, huh? Anyways, don’t worry about that guy. I’ll find some way to deal with him.”
: Next time, we’ll do all ten ranks of Caroline and Justine’s confidant and snap the balance in half without needing Network Fusion. I’ll also be putting up the alternate versions of Hifumi’s Rank 9 and Rank 10.