Click Here for Update 33
: As soon as we enter the bank, we get met with a bunch of guards.
: “I had a feeling this would happen.”
: “Come at us!”
: “No no! Wait!”
: “She’s one of Kaneshiro’s customers.”
: “I’d like to speak with the bank president.”
: “That voice… it’s Kaneshiro!”
: “Yo, banks have presidents?”
: Well yeah, most banks are what’s called a C-corporation, which mandates that there be a president, among a few other things.
: “Yes, but not the political sorts - in theory.”
: There’s nothing in this main room apart from a bunch of ATMs depositing money - not even any items to steal.
: And here’s Kaneshiro’s shadow, which is just him but purple. I don’t know why he’s purple - in the anime, his shadow just has the moustache and the yellow eyes but isn’t purple.
: “It must be quite tough gathering so much money. I’d be willing to give you a loan, you know.”
: “You gonna call it off then?”
: “No - a loan. The interest rate is ten percent a day.”
: “Ten percent interest a day… um… uh… that means… one day is…”
: “It’s three hundred thousand yen.”
: “There’s no need to be alarmed. I have a more manageable option for people like you.”
: “That was your plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
: I like that he’s basically got the exact same expression on his face that Hitler did in Innocent Sin.
: “Please don’t underestimate our intelligence network. My, what wonderful goods have come falling into my lap.”
: “Don’t be ridiculous!”
: “Young women are such great assets. They lack strength - be it social, physical, or mental. It’s as if they only exist to be devoured by the strong. That just might be the rule since the dawn of history.”
: This is where you can start to tell that the writers probably wound up just kind of gluing multiple drafts of the plot together to meet a deadline, same as Ni no Kuni 2.
: Originally, the bosses were supposed to be based on the seven deadly sins. This is why there’s seven dungeons in the base game, plus the final one.
: See if you can guess which sin Kaneshiro is supposed to represent.
: “You truly are despicable…”
: “You better be ready, Kaneshiro! We’re gonna snatch your Treasure from you!”
: “Don’t make me laugh, you petty thieves. My citadel has the highest security installed in it.”
: You’ll notice that the Sui-ki (the purple oni) isn’t here yet - instead, we’ve got two regular Oni to fight.
: In the base game, Oni were supposed to teach you about Technicals - they’re the first enemy we’ve run into that does not have a weakness. They resist Physical and Gun, but are neutral to everything else.
: So let’s play along with that. Joker goes first and freezes one. This opens the Oni up to physical damage, which Ryuji does for a technical… that I forgot to capture.
: The thing is, you ultimately don’t NEED technicals to efficiently defeat them. In fact, Ann hits harder without a technical than Ryuji did with one.
: This time, Yusuke freezes one and Joker follows up with Frei for a technical.
: Again, here’s the problem. That last hit Ann did was an Agilao. This is a regular Agi, and she’s still out-damaging the technical hits.
: Another two Oni. You can guess how this goes.
: Well yeah, that’s kind of how the whole Megami Tensei franchise up until Persona 1 worked, though you paid them in Magnetite instead of money.
: “Why did the security guards turn into monsters!? And what were those supernatural powers!? Could those have been the Personas you mentioned!?”
: Makoto somehow pulled off three interrobangs in three consecutive sentences. I didn’t think I’d ever see that outside of an Allanson game.
: “Does now really look like the time to be asking about that!? We need to retreat! Makoto, make sure you don’t get separated from us!”
: “Guys!”
: “Those would be my words. However, I do thank you for providing me with such wonderful goods. …It’s time you disappear.”
: “Managing a bank is tough as it is. So it’s my policy to kill clients who are more trouble than they’re worth. Having one impertinent brat disappear is enough to set an example in that other world.”
: “Please stop!”
: “Oh, I wouldn’t damage an asset like you. They’re dead men walking, but you’ll be just fine. Your sister is quite a beauty though. I’ll make sure to make her my personal slave.”
: Naturally it has to go right into a sex thing. I’m not sure that Hashino knows how to write any other kind of villain.
: “Once I get bored, I’ll just sell her off. Oh, poor Sis… she could’ve been successful, if only her younger sister wasn’t so dumb.”
: “My sister has nothing to do with this!”
: “Then you better start taking customers tomorrow. All you gotta do is endure it and do as you’re told.”
: So, have you guessed which deadly sin Kaneshiro is supposed to represent?
: “Endure it… do as I’m told…”
: “You’ll earn three million yen in no time. Although, your life and everything along with it will be a complete wreck by then! Gwahahahahahaha!”
: Kaneshiro is even more cartoonish than Kamoshida was.
: If it wasn’t already clear that Makoto is just a female Tatsuya, this should make it pretty clear. The design for Johanna (her Persona) is also pretty close to the Final Fantasy 13 motorcycle-Shiva design.
: Even Ryuji’s like “There’s no way someone could be so boring that their Persona is a motorcycle.”
: Naturally she also has to do the Akira motorcycle slide because I mean, why not? She’s already enough of a ripoff as-is.
: Oh, right. What sin Kaneshiro represents. The trophy for clearing the bank is called “Bank of Gluttony: Cleaned Out”.
NEW PERSONA: JOHANNA
Origin: Medieval European Fiction
Persona 5 Original
Fictional character likely created with the purpose of harming the image of the Catholic church. Supposedly a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to become the Pope, then died shortly after her gender was revealed.
: I should mention that Johanna has been proven to be entirely fictional in almost the exact same way the majority of the Dragonball Z movies were determined to be non-canon: basically, there’s concrete evidence of there being a pope that wasn’t her at all the times she was supposedly active within the church. She wasn’t even an Antipope, because even those have been accounted for.
: Anyway, she’s kind of an all-rounder Persona who has a little bit of everything: she specializes in Nuclear damage but also has support skills, buffs, debuffs, and even physical skills. What stops her from being this game’s Naoto (who learned a lot of high-tier spells but not the damage modifiers for them) is that she does get Nuke Boost and Nuke Amp at higher levels.
: I have her open with Makajama, which inflicts Persona 5’s equivalent of Silence, blocking anyone affected by it from using spells or physical skills.
: Joker then inflicts a metric shitload of damage with Matador.
: I was so sure I was going to get Makoto’s finisher screen on this first fight.
: Unfortunately, no.
: “But how are we getting out?”
: “There’s only one exit, right?”
: “So, you’re totally the Fist of the Phantom Star now, huh.”
: “Do you want to get smacked?”
: This, by the way, is the only time you’ll ever actually see Makoto use her Persona as a mode of transportation. Everywhere else, she either walks or rides Morgana.
: “Daaamn…”
: “Okay, we have a path!”
: “That was no aikido - that was some hardcore ass whoopin’!”
: “I am SO not pissing her off… I feel like she’ll rip off my arm.”
: “She does exude that aura.”
: “…Oh, stop it! This is the most exhausted I’ve ever gotten these past few years. But… it felt pretty great.”
: “I never thought I’d become part of the Phantom Thieves I was after. Sis might faint if she found out.”
: “You mentioned her earlier.”
: “She’s a prosecutor for the district - and she’s investigating the Phantom Thieves.”
: “Wait, ain’t that bad!?”
: “No need to worry. A normal investigation would never lead them to a world like that. Then again, it must’ve been fate for this to happen…”
: “What do you mean?”
: “I can’t be like my sister. I had a feeling that there’d come a time when we wouldn’t see eye to eye anymore. I’m thankful to have a sister who works so hard, but… there are times I feel sorry for her too. And after hearing my Persona’s voice, I clearly understand how I feel now.”
: “It appears you’re not as reserved as you make yourself seem.”
: “I was just doing whatever the adults told me to.”
: The game is really, really trying its hardest to get you to like Makoto.
: “Sounds good to me! We’ve needed someone like that for a while now!”
: “I’d be honored if I can help out.”
: “We had way too much testosterone anyway, so I feel much better hav-”
: We have all the male party members already. Something tells me that if he could’ve gotten away with it without being accused of making a harem anime, Hashino would’ve made Yusuke and Ryuji female as well.
: God dammit I already did the Hotel Mario thing, and I know this because it was in my Youtube watch history when I looked it up.
: “So the Kaneshiro over here doesn’t know what happened inside the Palace.”
: “That’s right, but his Palace will be affected if the real Kaneshiro’s cognition changes. We can’t be lax.”
: “It seems it’d be best to avoid unnecessary contact with him until then.”
: “Three weeks left, huh…”
: “There’s that security system too.”
: “But if we pull this off, it’ll definitely be great!”
: “We’ll crush him like a fly. I’ll make him regret making me angry…”
: Funny she should say that.
: “Anyways, let’s begin our operation tomorrow!”
: “First, we need to secure a route to the Treasure like always.”
: “You guys are finally starting to get used to this.”
: “I’ll be waiting for the call to meet up.”
: Horny anime games about boats - 2. Horny anime games about motorcycles - 0. Checkmate, motorcycles.
: She’s right about one thing there.
: “Well, we were at odds with each other until just a little while ago… but Ryuji’s totally right. We need to work together to overcome this!”
: We spend the night crafting lockpicks for proficiency. I’m not sure how many locked chests there are in Kaneshiro’s palace, but we should have enough.
: By the way, this is where I’m really glad I didn’t use the “regular” 100% walkthrough, because as it turns out the regular 100% route does reload for bonus stats… and as you’ll see in a bit, I had enough of that shit by the time I finished recording for this update.
: “You know, I can turn into a car too, so it’s like… I feel a sense of familiarity?”
: “Uh, no. I’m supposed to be human! Well, motorcycles are nice too, but it can’t carry large numbers of people. I really am special after… all… huh?”
: “Carry…? No… take somewhere? Something just crossed my mind… it’s no use. I can’t remember at all…”
: “Eh. There’s nothing I can do about it if I can’t remember. I need to concentrate on Kaneshiro for now. Unlike you guys, Makoto’s clever, so we can expect great things from her.”
: “But Akira, you really do have something special.”
: This is why I don’t use Morgana. By the time he gets any useful abilities, we’ll have already maxed out Ryuji and Ann (even on this slower route) and probably be pretty close to maxing out Yusuke and Makoto.
: That’s kind of a problem with the way this game is designed: you get a couple of party members so late into the game that everyone else is maxed out and there’s not much of a reason to switch away from them.
: “I know! After we deal with Kaneshiro, I should consult her about Mementos too. I’m sure Makoto’s brain can-”
: How would she even - she’s never even been there!
: Joker having exactly the same reaction I would.
: “… We got Yusuke, and now Makoto… this guy has quite the luck… could there be some reason for it? Nah, that can’t be.”
: “Oh no, it isn’t a problem… I actually find it refreshing to be asked to the student council room. Although it’s somewhat nerve-wracking as well.”
: “…I think I’m a bit nervous myself. Anyway, um… I wanted to apologize. I’m… really sorry for everything.”
: “What do you mean…?”
: “You know how I blamed you for Kamoshida’s sexual harassment? Well, I wanted to apologize for that… I’ve honestly been meaning to this whole time.”
: “Takamaki-san…”
: “I realized later that Shiho was calling out for me… and I wasn’t there to help her… I didn’t want to admit my own guilt… so I took it out on you, Niijima-senpai. I’m… very sorry.”
: “In fact, I think the two of us are pretty similar.”
: “Huh…?”
: “I was unable to save anyone. Not Suzui-san, and not any of Kaneshiro’s victims. I kept telling myself I wasn’t at fault because I was simply following orders… but that was all a lie.”
: Makoto’s only… what, 70 years too late to use the Nuremberg defense?
: “It felt like I would be admitting my own worthlessness had I not shifted the blame off of myself. Fear of that worthlessness was probably why I acted so harshly toward you and your friends… I’m deeply sorry as well.”
: “Even…? chuckle You’re right… how about we leave this conversation in the past?”
: Funny, I always pictured Makoto as more of a Knuckles than a Sonic. They’ve got that same aesthetic going on.
: “Mm-hm! Oh, but… one more thing. You’re not worthless, Niijima-senpai. You were a bit reckless, but you’re the reason we found a way into Kaneshiro’s Palace. And you even obtained the power to change people’s hearts. You did that all yourself, Niijima-senpai.”
: “That way of thinking is very much like you, Takamaki-san. When you confronted me about Suzui-san, I realized how dishonest and small I was. You’re always very direct… that’s what helped me finally realize the error of my ways.”
: “It turns out I’m a little slow on the uptake at times. Hey… can I call you Ann?”
: This sentence makes no sense in English until you realize what she’s asking to do is talk to her like a friend would.
: “Um, yeah! I… I’m going to do the same, M-M-Makoto… rgh, that’s so embarrassing!”
: “How about we get something to eat before we go home for the night?”
: “Ooh, I know a place! There’s a crepe shop at Central Street that totally stuffs their crepes!”
: “Do you want to split one?”
: On this day, we get good RNG for some reason.
: We get a chalk dodge. This gives us three points to Charm, meaning that we’re now a full nine points beyond where we’re supposed to be.
: Today, we have a lot of shopping to do. I wound up doing it in a way that wasn’t totally optimal - one thing the game doesn’t tell you is that the flower shop there is only open at night. They kind of make it seem like a 24-7 thing.
: In addition to the flower shop, there’s also a bookstore in Shinjuku.
: Joker just goes “That’s okay, I’m not horny.” while Morgana reaches out to try and grab the latest volume of Busty Catgirls Monthly.
: The first book is unimportant - Flowerpedia just gives you more hints when working at the garden store in Shibuya, and I believe we’re done working there.
: What we’re here for is that second book, The Craft of Cinema. It… I believe doubles the amount of stat gains you get from watching DVDs and watching movies at the theater, and since we’re going to be doing a lot of both we want this now.
: We also wind up buying ABCs of Crafting, though I also grabbed Flowerpedia just in case that trophy for reading all the books is still in the game.
: As it turns out, by the way, you have to pay twice when going to a non-Shibuya, non-Aoyama destination: once when you go and a second time when you leave. If we stop by the crepe shop (which we saw during Ann’s confidant) Ann and Makoto are in fact there.
: “Oh, how about some pudding a la mode? I’ll give you my tip on the best way to enjoy it!”
: Joker already knows the best way to enjoy pudding. It’s with Yusuke.
: “Oh, Akira? Did you come here to eat some crepes too?”
: “Really? You guys sure love going places like this…”
: “I’ll be here spending time with Makoto today, so just let us know if we’re meeting up! We’ll head over as soon as we finish eating our crepes!”
: We also have to borrow a bootleg of 1990s TV drama ER, which I imagine is a lot like that Turkish version of The Sopranos I saw on my Twitter TL a few days ago.
: Unfortunately, today’s another Maruki day.
: “Or will it!? Today’s your lucky day! Please take a look at what’s on this table!”
: “I thought I’d get a surprise for you, since you’ve been kind enough to indulge me all this time. Go ahead, enjoy!”
: Unfortunately, we have to pick the “nice” answer because confidant points. Honestly, I feel like confidant points for dialog was just kind of a bad idea.
: “Go on, don’t be shy! I’ve got enough for seconds, too!”
: “Oh, I know. As long as we’re talking about cookies… they actually reminded me about this psychological experiment.”
: Fucker thinks he’s Professor Layton now.
: “The scientists prepared two containers, and put the same kind of cookies in both of them. In one container, they put only one cookie. But the other one was filled with cookies - ten of them.”
: “Which container’s cookies were marked as tasting better? Any guesses?”
: What he’s talking about is a 1975 study by Stephen Worchel, Jerry Lee, and Akanbi Adewole out of the University of Southern Maine. That study was significantly different than how Maruki describes it.
: In that study, the researchers ran three groups: one who got a jar with ten cookies, one that got a jar with two, and then a third group where they gave them ten cookies and then removed eight of them from the jar. I don’t know if there was a reason for this, but all 200 of the participants were women.
: In the actual study, this was… sort of true. The group that got the two-cookie jar rated the cookies higher than the group that got the ten-cookie jar. However, the third group - the one that got ten cookies and then had eight removed? They rated theirs the highest.
: “Correct. Easy to guess, huh? There’s something called the ‘law of scarcity’. It’s about what you’d imagine from the name: people are drawn to things that are more scarce.”
: “You can see this law in action just by observing how excited people get over limited-edition merchandise.”
: If you want a good story about Connecticut ruining everything, Wikipedia actually mentions this on the page for the law of scarcity. In 1983, the Connecticut Leather Company put out this line of dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids.
: Cabbage Patch Kids were the hottest toy of 1983 - everyone wanted one, and there wasn’t enough supply to go around. As a result, there were riots at stores. There’s first-hand accounts of it as well.
: By the way, the Connecticut Leather Company was the same company that made the Colecovision and Coleco Adam, both of which were contributors to the 80s video game crash. Like I said, Connecticut ruins everything.
: “Ahaha, I know, right? Don’t you think it’s really fascinating? In becoming aware of scarcity, we trigger our own desires, and cause a change in our cognition…”
: “Not only that - the effect spreads to our senses, and creates a subjective, observable difference in our reality. Basically, your perceptions can be changed by your cogition or preconceptions.”
: “It’s all below the conscious level, but it’s really incredible! Incidentally, now that you’ve heard that story… how do you feel about that idea? That your unconscious desires may have changed the taste of the cookie?”
: “That’s definitely not the usual response. But it’s one I can understand. It probably sounds like an exaggeration, but something about that seems so beautiful to me.”
: “Maybe the human heart can falter, or be unreliable sometimes… but if this experiment proves anything, it’s that even a simple preconception can be enough to bring someone more joy.”
: “For example, take that story I just told you… what if you’d eaten that one cookie, and it had been the best cookie of your life? Say I never revealed the trick behind it. That cookie would have remained more delicious than usual. It would have been a subjective truth of your reality.”
: See, I don’t know about that. I kind of had this way back in the mid-90s when I had an N64 but a lot of my friends had the PS1 - I remember seeing a friend’s older brother playing through Parasite Eve and being absolutely floored by it.
: I specifically remember him playing through the end sequence, and being like “What the hell there’s this crazy floating zombie lady? AND she can light people on fire just by being near them? Holy shit what is this game?”
: Now, younger me could never have bought a PS1 - I was too young to have a job yet. In fact, older me has never been able to find a PS1 with a working disc drive and never had any success with the replacement drives. That’s why I have the PSP Go I used for the Persona 1 and Innocent Sin LPs.
: Under Maruki’s logic, I’d probably be one of those people who think Parasite Eve was the best game ever. In fact, I’ve never finished it, or even come close.
: “Right, I’m glad to hear you say that. Basically, what I wanted to say was… if this idea of preconception could be studied further, and actually applied to treating people… I feel like it could help a lot of people. Maybe even more than I could help through counseling.”
: “Then again, it relies so heavily on perspective. Some people might call it a lie, or see it as running from problems. Still, even if that’s true, I believe that method could save a lot of people.”
: “Oh, yikes! I’m so sorry! We wound up getting into an academic conversation after all… I really need to watch myself. Whenever I’m talking to you, somehow I always end up going back to my research.”
: “I truly am grateful for everything you’ve done. Not just because I can get your opinion on these things, either… it’s more like… it’s as if I’m talking to an old friend. Ah, but maybe that’s too personal. After all, this is for the sake of our deal, right? So we say, anyway.”
: I have no idea how well this ability works, but I’m confident it is something we will never see unless I run out of SP spamming Megidolaon at the final boss.
: “Now then, I’d better show you another way to mentally train yourself! What I’m going to teach you today is…”
: We know the drill by now. Extra five max SP for Joker.
: “It was supposed to be a chance for us to relax, but it ended up being another big academic discussion.”
: “You’re always so kind. You might be a better counselor than I am… I’ve always been like this. I get so hyperfocused on my research, I don’t notice anything else.”
: “Back when I was a student, people kept warning me about that… oops, there I go rambling again. Sorry, sorry. All right, see you soon.”
: The first thing I do is go back to Shinjuku and buy six Mega Fertilizer. This is why we didn’t feed the plant again even though we could’ve - because Mega Fertilizer is that much better. Six is all we’ll need in order to max out Kindness.
: Unfortunately, I kind of missed capturing a few lines because I had to reload this part until we got the extra points in Knowledge.
: As you can probably tell, it took me six reloads to get the points we needed to avoid a potential permafuck. Because there’s no stopping point, this meant dashboarding out of the game and restarting the entire thing.
: Yeah, I did, and we’re going to see her as soon as we’ve done Kaneshiro’s palace and grinded another fuckton of money. This is basically just an announcement that she’s available, so I’ll skip the rest of it.
: There’s also some throwaway dialog with Makoto where she asks us if we want to go to the Palace or not. We don’t.
: Here, we’ll get to see what the difference between “100%” and “All Confidant Events” is.
: I forgot to grab a shot of my actual choice. You could pick “Let’s have some tea” and still get 100% - this would basically be just like the time we had Kawakami over but did not rank up.
: However, if you pick the first option…
: We can choose where to go. Most confidants have a special non-rank up scene that happens if you bring them to a specific place without ranking up - and for many of them, that involves going to a place unlocked by a different confidant.
: In Ann’s case, her special cutscene happens in Harajuku.
: I should mention that the reason the other 100% route doesn’t do all of these is because some of them require a specific confidant rank (sometimes with more than one confidant), meaning you’d have to delay certain confidants and not go for 100% as quickly as possible.
: “But all the people are such a pain… what gives them the right to be here!?” Anyway, let’s get through quickly so we don’t get caught by the salespeople!"
: “In any case, there are so many different types of people here. It’s fun just watching them. People might think I’m weird if they see me staring at them alone… but I’m sure it’s fine as long as I’m with you.”
: Staring at random people was another Lisa Silverman thing.
: I remember when Persona had a writer who was only very horny for idols as opposed to being a total hack. They should’ve put a Legendary Weapons sidequest in this game and had Ann’s weapon be with Reiji.
: Conversation would be Reiji going “Why the fuck would I have a legendary whip, I only use gloves! This doesn’t even make any sense!” and then Ann discovering that someone stuck a legendary whip in Reiji’s back pocket.
: Also a scene where Ann meets Lisa and both of them simultaneously go “My own clone! Now both of us will be thirsty for a gay guy!”
: We also get some extra points for answering correctly in this scene that we wouldn’t get if we did the generic one.
: “I mean, things are half as fun if you don’t have anyone to share that fun with, right? I wonder what all these people are thinking about right now… some of them might even be sad beneath those happy exteriors, and we’d never even know…”
: “Hey, don’t you get fired up when you’re thinking about helping them out!? Oh, um… never mind. That’s not what we were talking about… oooh, that couple’s in a big fight! The girlfriend’s totally going for the knockout punch!”
: This also gets us the first decoration for Joker’s room. You get one from each confidant.
: We have the request from Ryuji to go spy on Yamauchi now - and we’re going to do it, but we have some other stuff to do first.
: We also have to feed the goddamn plant. I’m not forgetting this time.
: …Wait, what? We weren’t supposed to rank up Kindness for another week or so, and yet here it is. This means we’re also an indeterminate amount of points ahead on Kindness, and I have no idea how.
: I’m starting to wonder if this is an intentional typo by the guide author to stop people re-posting their guide… or if it’s a Gabriel Knight 3 scenario where the guide author missed some points.
: We can also put up the Rise poster we got by interacting with the shelf next to the plant… and then promptly take it down and toss it in the trash where it belongs.
: Accepting Ryuji’s request unlocks Tsukishima on the map.
: This entire segment is a kind of long conversation between two characters who don’t have official portraits, and since I’ve already done a couple of big screenshot dumps this update, I’m just going to do it in full text.
Yamauchi: “Mmm, I’ve had some experience. Back in my college days, we’d rent a yacht for the weekend and have massive parties. I must say though, the sake’s been tasting particularly sweet lately.”
Fellow Teacher: “No surprise there. Things have been much calmer without Kamoshida. Those were some real dark times for Shujin though, huh? But now that he’s gone, you finally get the chance you deserve, Yamauchi!”
Yamauchi: “Don’t flatter me, haha. He had his strengths, sure… but because of him, our volleyball team will be forever scarred. The only real option now is to abandon it completely. There has to be a way to bring Shujin back into the limelight though. That’s where I come in…”
: That’s been the UConn football program’s only option for years, but they keep throwing money at it hoping that some day, they’ll win a game.
Fellow Teacher: “You mean with the track team, right?”
Yamauchi: “The students who went through so much hardship under Kamoshida rise again with a caring new advisor… it’ll be the rebirth of a team that found themselves in the depths of despair. The public will love it. Despite my lack of track and field knowledge, I’ll form a tight bond with the students. I’ll be the protagonist of my very own tear-jerker…”
Yamauchi: “And of course all the praise for reviving them will go to me, their incredible, loving advisor. I’ll have to hire a great coach if I want to pull this off though.”
Fellow Teacher: “So you’re gonna pretend to coach them while someone else does all the legwork? Amazing, Yamauchi!”
Yamauchi: “Such stunning achievements will look great when it’s time to hand out bonuses… but I’m not gonna stop there either. I’ll publish books, give motivational speeches…”
Fellow Teacher: “What about all the troublemakers on the team? I’ve heard that Nakaoka kid is especially bad.”
Yamauchi: “Nakaoka? Oh, you mean the one who asked them to bring the pre-Kamoshida coach back? Don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of him… there’s this other boy on the team… Takeishi. Doesn’t really excel in much of anything. Well, I said I would make him the new captain if he could get rid of that troublemaker Nakaoka. I might’ve mentioned something about how Nakaoka was working with Kamoshida too… subtly, of course.”
Fellow Teacher: “And? What ended up happening?”
Yamauchi: “Apparently, Takeishi chased him away… the plan worked perfectly! And the best part is, not only are Takeishi’s parents loaded, but his mother’s the president of the PTA.”
Fellow Teacher: “I see… he’d make a great pawn!”
Yamauchi: “Perhaps, but a nothing like him could never captain a successful championship-winning team. He may have to have an unfortunate ‘accident’ at practice one day. But until then, he can show the others the value of obedience.”
: Well, that escalated quickly.
: “Yeah. This ain’t our problem, it’s the track team’s. So… they’re just gonna have to decide on their own.”
: “Y’know, track ain’t a team sport. At least, sprintin’ wasn’t. You’ve got teammates, sure… but you’re really just lookin’ out for your own time. That’s why I never thought about askin’ people for help or tryin’ to solve our problems together.”
: “But… I can’t ignore the stuff they’re goin’ through now. I mean, even though we had our own goals n’ shit… we were still runnin’ together. They suffered with me, gritted their teeth with me…”
: “…Honestly, I think it was only 'cause of them I was able to run at all. So I can’t just go and turn my back on 'em now, right? I know that ain’t the coolest thing to say, but it’s how I feel.”
: “Huh? …For real? Thanks, man!”
: This ability was added for Royal, and I believe it works even if Ryuji isn’t in the active party.
: “Anyways, I’m starvin’! Let’s eat some monja while we’re here. So far, all I’ve seen of this place is the goddamn toilet!”
: Why didn’t he just stay outside?
: “But goddamn it… Yamauchi! That dick! Just thinkin’ about him pisses me off! At this rate, the track team’s screwed. Yamauchi’s just gonna take advantage of them!”
: “But I also don’t wanna make a huge scene. I can’t let myself mess up their chance to start the team again… besides… I doubt those guys are gonna listen to anything I say.”
: “That’s true. I gotta have faith in them. Anyhow, at least we know the truth about him. We just gotta figure out our next move. That bastard Yamauchi, munchin’ on monja like he’s got us all figured out… he won’t get away with this!”
: Next time, we’ll be meeting Yusuke for his confidant, then establishing a new one with Ohya. We’ll also finally rank up to 7 with Dr. Femdom and spend all of our money.