Summary
: “On a stakeout.”
: “A stakeout? This whole time? Didn’t they start like three days ago?”
: “Technically it was four and a half days ago. It’s not just our unit. The whole department is in on this investigation.”
: “Is it that big of a job? What the hell? You know what’s going on, right?”
: “Of course.”
: “So, what is it?”
: “Morikawa, you’ve got a big mouth, don’t you? I can’t tell someone like that.”
: “You Department of Intelligence guys are real dicks, huh…”
: As we’ll learn in this update, pretty much everyone at the Heinous Crimes Unit is a dick.
: “Same as the Multiregional Agents. It’s the same deal. Everyone hates us both.”
: “Don’t equate us with you guys… you career types are just jealous.”
: “With the key to the ‘Silver’ case…”
: “Hey, Naka. You trying to pick a fight?”
: “No. Pissing people off is my job…”
: “Whatever… I just need to ask the boss.”
: “Why not?”
: “It’s under Central’s command. Technically, it falls under our jurisdiction, so…”
: “Central? Moving the pieces in the background… Naka, you gathering info?”
: “Well, I am helping, yeah.”
: “Give us some info, then.”
: “Well, it depends on the situation.”
: “C’mon… don’t forget that we’re all friends here.”
: Actually, Friends is a pretty apt comparison to this game because just like Friends, everyone in the HCU is an asshole.
: " ‘Friends’…? Morikawa, you’re the last person I wanna hear that from…"
: “Yeah, I guess you’re right… so anyways… why is that guy here? Timrod…”
: Honestly, I’m starting to ask myself that, because I found out about another game I probably would’ve LPed if I had known about it at the time.
: That game is The Caligula Effect: Overdose. The game itself is shit, at least as far as I understand, but that’s not what’s important about it.
: The important part is that it’s written by Satomi Tadashi, and is basically the plot to the Maruki arc in Persona 5 Royal… written several years before Royal released. I am thoroughly convinced that the people who took over for Hashino simply did what Hashino would’ve and merely stole Satomi Tadashi’s plot.
: I might honestly scout that out, because as much as I like this game I can tell it gets boring in places.
: “Looks like the boss called him out. Apparently he’s getting this case.”
: We have control now, which allows us to, uh, turn to the right for some more cutscene.
: “Can’t do what…?”
: “Trust him. I can’t trust my partner.”
: “Is that the reason why…?”
: “The reason… do I even need anymore reasons? Partners who can’t trust each other hurt the investigation. I’m requesting reassignment.”
: “For who…?”
: “Boss, do you understand me? Of course I mean for Morikawa. Please reassign Morikawa.”
: This reminds me so much of my last job, it’s not even funny.
: “I’ve got Morikawa on another investigation. You still want reassignment?”
: “I haven’t heard anything about that.”
: “There are some things I can’t tell you…”
: “I don’t think so. I’m his partner.”
: “I guess so… OK, reassignment it is, then.”
: “Thank you!”
: “?”
: “Leave them here and get the fuck out.”
: “Me…?”
: “Yeah.”
: Kotobuki is a fucking asshole. The canon version of this scene is that the chinchilla tells Kotobuki to fuck himself and walks off.
: “Why…?”
: “I only need agents who can get the job done. Can you tell me you’re better at your job than Morikawa?”
: “…”
: “I have no need for people who can’t trust their friends. Whatever his background might be… is this not the time to trust him?”
: “Boss…”
: “Your words… and your actions, the way you think… it’s about time you rethought all of it.”
: “What do you mean…?”
: “You’ve been here a year… I let you in on recommendation from the mayor, but maybe he’s gone senile. You can’t see reality with just pride.”
: “You need to understand that the times are changing…”
: Look, we don’t need forensics, we need exorcists and people who can point at a corpse and blame Kamui.
: “I understand… I’ll think about it and give you my reply.”
: “Think long and hard. Don’t worry about the time. If you see your father, tell him I said “Hi”…”
: “Excuse me…”
: “Hachisuka… there’s no need to rush it.”
: “You’re all flushed - what’s up?”
: “I’m sick of this… how come you’re allowed to work the way you do?”
: “Did the boss say something?”
: “He says you’re better at your job than me, and that the way I think is the problem…”
: “Isn’t that the truth?”
: “Are you serious?! How can you say that when you shirk your responsibilities in the field?”
: “Why? I have my own way of investigating. A career type like you can’t do it. This is my investigation. Don’t come in and start bitching.”
: “We’re no longer partners, got it?”
: “Well what a shame. Breaking up with the starlet of the HC Unit. I’ll be so lonely. I don’t know if I can take the solitude.”
: “What is your problem? Are you that dissatisfied? Do you want to work with me? Then don’t treat me like a sidekick! I don’t waste time investigating like you do.”
: “Really…? What can you do with that wannabe profiling shit?”
: “It’s the real thing… don’t underestimate the deeper side of crime. Data is the most crucial evidence of all.”
: Let me just say that this whole thing seems like an argument that’d be more appropriate to, say, a game like The Great Ace Attorney than a game set in 1999.
: “You saying that because of your pride as a career type? Or as a woman?”
: “I’m saying it as a professional!”
: “A professional career woman… what a fucking joke.”
: “The way you geezers investigate is old!!”
: “…”
: “That’s the truth. Nowadays, with criminal cases getting worse and worse, it just isn’t useful now… Hachisuka, you understand that, right?”
: “You’d better get out of here before that pride of yours gets destroyed.”
: “These days, profiling is archaic… it’s obvious which is ‘old’, isn’t it?”
: “Fine… I’ll investigate my way. I’ll find out what really happened in that apartment. I’ll find the answers you can’t…”
: This entire conversation doesn’t make a lot of sense. Morikawa and Chizuru both know that the chinchilla was brought in specifically to investigate this as a murder case.
: Then again, there’s a lot of stuff that gets retconned or changed between now and the sequels, which are a lot weirder than this game is.
: “Do whatever!!”
: “Hm?”
: “I don’t care what you do in private… but please keep romance out of the workplace.”
: “Me?”
: “It looked like a lover’s quarrel to me… it isn’t very pretty.”
: “Me and Chizuru? Are you misunderstanding something?”
: “If that’s the case then that’s fine… but it feels like remnants of sex are in the air. Morikawa, you’re a grown man, so…”
: “What the hell? You’re imagining this bullshit. Naka, you’re kinda fucked up.”
: “Really? My instincts are generally pretty spot-on with this kind of thing.”
: “What makes you think so?”
: “I was an undercover specialist in the Department of Intelligence. So I’ve broken up plenty of love affairs.”
: He was with the Government Anti-Horny Squad.
: “So you’re actually a hard worker, huh?”
: “Yeah, I’m kind of a social outcast, so… I could start up my own private detective agency anytime.”
: “That’s scary… I’ll be careful.”
: “Naka… you’re actually in love with Chizuru, aren’t you?”
: Well, I guess this outright confirms that Nakategawa is a pedophile. No wonder Tokio didn’t like him.
: “Oh, OK then.” (I can imagine…)
: Was Kotobuki possessed by a crime ghost?
: “I want to thank you on behalf of all of us.”
: “Boss, let’s get down to business.”
: “Hm… OK, I’ll be frank. I’m designating you Heinous Crimes Unit Special Agent. But whether or not to accept it is up to you. Do you want the position…? Decide now.”
: “You’ve been scouted. That happens a lot here. Everyone here was scouted by the boss.”
: Clearly, Kotobuki makes nothing but good decisions, like hiring a pedophile.
: “From what I’ve seen, I don’t think you’d be able to live outside of this world. You could say you’re built almost like a criminal. Tell me if you have any reason to turn this down.”
: “That means you’ll be living in this world now. That get your stomach all upset?”
: “There’s one way to turn it down… right here and now, the Firebird Splash. Do it. What do you say? OK then, welcome aboard.”
: I thought a “Firebird Splash” was some kind of mixed drink, but as it turns out, it’s not. In reality, it’s a wrestling move. I should’ve suspected that given Suda’s love of pro wrestling.
: The Firebird Splash is basically a jump off the ropes followed by a full front flip that ends up with the wrestler bellyflopping on their opponent.
: It was a signature move for a wrestler by the name of Hayabusa (real name: Eiji Ezaki) who would have come back to Japan from wrestling in Mexico right around the time this game takes place.
: “We’re buddies now. I may have pissed you off before, but let’s forget about all that now… looking forward to working with you.”
: “You’ve just started, but… the case of that apartment complex. Take over the case with Morikawa. Morikawa is already investigating. Timrod, you give him support.”
: “What’s the situation?”
: So yeah, this is the part I don’t get. Everyone in the building knew they were investigating it as a homicide, but kept telling Chizuru they weren’t.
: “I’ve checked out all the background info. The victim, Kenichi Hiruma, didn’t have any clear motivation to kill himself. I’m treating it as a homicide.”
: “Don’t let anything get by you… what about Hachisuka’s report?”
: “Still the same…”
: “Go easy on her… how was the crime scene?”
: “It didn’t look like a suicide after all.”
: “Why not?”
: “Just my gut feeling.”
: “That’s good… but don’t rely on that too much.”
: “I’ll be careful.”
: “Boss, have a look.”
: “…”
: “The kid living in those apartments? He was peeking from his balcony. That kid, huh…”
: “Timrod, keep in contact with him. He may prove to be a crucial witness.”
: “What about this ‘Hikaru’?”
: " ‘Help…’, huh… Morikawa, look into this too."
: “Got it.”
: Huh… they’re still investigating the Silver Case? I thought Kusabi solved that 20 years ago.
: “Nothing new to report.”
: “Even something small is fine… make sure to keep delivering your reports. I’m counting on you.”
: Even though there’s a contact point over the door, we can’t leave yet. We have to talk to Nakategawa for some reason.
: “I don’t like how the Chief Director thinks. What…? Stay out of my way.”
: “I’ve got some minor business to attend to… I’m taking the car. Sorry, but get a cab or something.”
: We want to go right to the 4th floor, where we met Koichi earlier. I investigated all the other rooms on the way up - there’s no dialog or anything. The 5th floor is locked right now.
: “Please, come on in. It’s a bit messy but come on in!”
: “Man, it was awesome. It felt like getting an electric shock all through my body. Like some sorta sixth sense, you know? It must be some kinda superpower.”
: “So, I guess that means that I’m a superhero then, huh? Right, Sumio? So that means you got a superhero for a partner. Must be sweet.”
: “That’s ‘telekinesis’… yaaaawn. I’m so sleepy.”
: “Hey!! Concentrate on your job! You’ve been slacking a bit recently, huh? What, you pick up a bit of know-how and think you’re a veteran now? Hah! Don’t make me laugh.”
: “That’s why you kids these days are shit.”
: “I’m 26… I’m not exactly a ‘kid’…”
: “Horseshit… is that the only excuse you got? The only real shit you’ve seen is a bunch of kids’ play. I’d say it’s six cups of sugary coffee.”
: “1 cup for adjustment, 2 cups for a slight tweak, 3 cups for your youth, 4 cups for diabetes, 5 cups to get back to reality, and 6 cups to get defiant. Basically --just a load of shit.”
: I feel like between Sumio talking about falling in love at gunpoint and Kusabi rambling, these two were made for each other.
: “Tetsu…”
: “What!?”
: “You’re super bored, aren’t you…?”
: “I want you to find him. Hikaru… he disappeared. We always used to play together, but… all of a sudden he just disappeared. Nobody else has noticed.”
: “Everyone in my class just totally forgot about Hikaru. Isn’t that mean? So I thought about it, and something’s definitely fishy. Everyone’s plotting something.”
: “They took Hikaru and hid him somewhere. That has to be it. Everyone hates Hikaru for being an outsider. Hikaru was getting bullied a lot. Everyone always does that to transfer students.”
: “When I was in second grade, I transferred here, too… for my first year, nobody would even talk to me. The same thing happened to Hikaru, too. So I’m protecting him.”
: I swear, if the end of this story is that Koichi killed him…
: “So everyone doesn’t bully him. Kojima and Nakao are really mean guys — so I’m sure they planned something. They wanted to bully Hikaru even more. I won’t let them get away with it…”
: “My mom…? She’s at work. She does a ‘grownup job’. So I’m always by myself at night. It’s not lonely. I cried a lot when I was small, but now I like being alone.”
: “But now I have Hikaru right next door so it’s really fun. He always plays the songs I like. Hikaru’s room is on the other side of this wall, so if he turns it up I can hear.”
: “I was always with Hikaru. We found fun places… it’s complicated. Hikaru’s house is, too…”
: “He parked in the parking lot in a foreign car. Hikaru’s mom’s boyfriend was driving the car, and the three of them moved in. Even then, Hikaru seemed really lonely.”
: “I think it was because he didn’t like his mom’s boyfriend… I know how he feels. Mom’s boyfriends can be good guys… but some of them are really mean and violent.”
: “But since they’re stronger, you can’t fight back. I think Hikaru must’ve felt the same way. Yeah, that was it.”
: To understand what’s going on here, you have to understand a little bit about Japanese politics and the economic climate of late 1990s Japan.
: Between about 1986 and 2012, the divorce rate in Japan shot up around 66%. This naturally meant a large increase in the number of single mothers with kids. In comparison, the divorce rate in the United States actually lowered over the same period.
: Japan was (and still is, from what I understand) basically completely unequipped to handle such a situation. Joint custody doesn’t exist in Japan, and child support is basically impossible to get - it requires that the mother prove to the court where the father works and where he keeps his money.
: At the same time, you had shit like employers asking potential employees for a list of the people who lived with them as a condition of employment - which made it easy for them to discriminate against single parents. Even when they do get hired, single mothers experience a larger wage gap than usual and have a harder time finding full-time employment.
: As a result, by 2017, 55% of all single-family households in Japan were living below the poverty line. I can’t imagine that number has gotten any better since COVID hit.
: This, by the way, is one of the reasons for Japan’s low birth rates. There are groups working to try and get Japan’s Diet to do something about it, but as far as I know they haven’t.
: “But I’ve been telling Hikaru. It’s nothing to be ashamed of at all. Even if people say mean things, just ignore them and keep going. You agree, don’t you?”
: “People don’t need to feel sorry for us…”
: “He looked really embarrassed and was hiding behind his mom… hehehe. I thought he looked so cute somehow. It turned out he was the same age as me and lives in the same district.”
: “So I told him we’d go to the same school. I said ‘I hope we’re in the same class’. Then Hikaru smiled. He laughed like a frog.”
: “I taught him all about these apartments, like the baker, and I introduced him to the guy on the second floor. We ran around the building together…”
: “Oh yeah! I’ll tell you our secret. You know the parking lot down there? There’s a secret base there. We tried lots of times and failed a lot, but… we finally finished our first secret base.”
: “This here…”
: “Wow, cool! It’s a secret robot base!”
: “Wow, this is so cool.”
: “It’s the special edition of TV Dream. Did you buy it, Koichi?”
: I looked this up, and as far as I can tell it’s not a real magazine.
: “Yeah. I’ll lend it to you.”
: “Really? For reals?”
: “Also, I have a plan.”
: “What is it?”
: “We’re gonna build a secret base, just like the robot one.”
: “A secret base…?”
: “Yeah, our own secret base!”
: “Wow, that’s so cool! Let’s do it!”
: “You’re in charge of the blueprints. I’ll be in charge of construction.”
: “Yeah, let’s do it! I’ll check out TV Dream for ideas!”
: “Yeah! OK, then I’ll gather materials for the base.”
: “OK, I’ll start designing it… hey, when do we start?”
: As much as this is kinda cliche, especially for stuff coming out of Japan, it’s at least not as bad as Persona 5 was with the anime garbage.
: “Right away!”
: “OK! Let’s get started!”
: “So… we made a second secret base. But I can’t tell you about that one. Are you gonna come again tomorrow?”
: “I’m gonna make sure to find the guy who did it. So help me with my investigation, OK? I need a really good assistant. Otherwise… I won’t be able to help Hikaru.”
: “Promise, OK? I’ll be waiting here… my mom is gonna come home, so you should hurry up and go…”
: Before we go, we can go into the back of the apartment and see Koichi’s room. I believe this is required for the achievement.
: I’m not sure if those figures by the door are just random designs, or if they’re re-used from something else.
: Well, looks like we’re done here. It’s probably just a kid being a kid, there’s no need to spend valuable chinchilla-hours investigating.
: Welp. Next time, we get even more proof that the main character is actually a chinchilla and get in a car chase.