My teammates are available for hangouts even though school’s out! Nice, it was really annoying how you got locked off from them in P3.
I hang out with Chie, but our date is interrupted by Takeshi getting mugged by some punks. Chie prepares to fight them, and my options are… “Hold Chie back” or “Fight them yourself”. Seriously, game? Not even a “support Chie” option? She’s not allowed to do anything? I guess jumping into the fight is the most supportive option so I do that. The game tells me “Chie is discontent.” What, would she have been happier if I held her back? Instead of inflicting righteous vigilante justice with my magic superpowers, the punks just get scared and run off. Then Chie gets mad at me for not letting her do this herself. WHY. YOU GAVE ME NO CHOICE. I know SMTV was made after this, but I’m still really sick of SMT games forcing me to make a bad choice and then lecturing me about it anyway. Then no matter what I say, Chie starts groveling about how she just made more trouble for me by rushing in and she’s so stupid for trying to help people. Ugh. I’d ask why she’s getting this arc instead of Yosuke, but we all know the reason is because she’s a girl.
The next morning, Chie texts me to say her favorite movie is showing at the cinema. I’d like to take her on a date to apologize for that fiasco, but unfortunately Sugar Mommy demands my time instead. She takes me to Okina City, complains there’s nothing to do, then gets mad at me when I agree. Okay, weirdo. Then Rise shows up and gets her panties in a twist over me hanging out with another girl. Where’s my restraining order?
AI: Shut up. I believe John was talking to me. It’s rude to interrupt.
Thank you.
AI: …Don’t you dare talk to other girls when you’re with me!
…Then as soon as Rise’s out of earshot she throws her hat into the Creep Olympics herself. Well, it’s still significantly less possessive than Rise’s “Don’t hang out with any girls at all,” so I’ll take it.
After that, the game helpfully informs me I can work at the hospital tonight, in case I didn’t feel sexually harassed enough today. You know, it could be interesting if the game actually leaned into this — I’m inventivized to hang out with these awful people even if I don’t want to, and to lead them on. It might be interesting to consider what kind of a person would do that and use that to give the protagonist a more defined personality.
On the 4th I do take Chie to the movies. She gets a level up and a bunch of stat boosts, plus some social link points. Enough to rank up the next day, in fact! Takeshi shows up to be an ungrateful misogynist creep and insists Yukiko’s too happy with Chie and she was hotter when she was depressed. Chie shouts him off, then gets introspective with me.
CHIE: I told myself I’d protect Yukiko… But… Somewhere along the way, I messed up, and that Shadow popped out… After that, I thought I’d try to focus on what’s good about me. I swore to quit being nothing but the girl Yukiko can rely on…
Why is Chie the only one who seems to actually care about her Shadow? Then for some reason she says, “I feel like I missed the point…” About what? Does she think she actually should do more for Yukiko? My only responses are generic platitudes. Her rank 8 skill is… Bufula? Seriously? Not even Bufudyne? Well, it’s better than the Bufu she currently has, so I replace that.
It rains all day on the 6th, which I turn into big stat boosts by spending all day reading. On the 7th I can hang out with Kanji. He gives the boy a replacement doll, and I push him into confessing he made it himself. The boy thinks he’s awesome for this, so Kanji finally gets some validation for his hobbies. Hooray!
On the 8th Sugar Mommy demands another date. We go to the food court, and she complains at how starchy the food is even though she wants it so bad. Another girl with an eating disorder, yay. Teddie comes over to be a creep, and Ai becomes the first character to notice Teddie does not look anything like an actual bear.
TEDDIE: Wow, her temper surpasses even Rise-chan’s… [blushes] But I love it! I want to see even more!
We are learning so many peoples’ kinks.
On the 9th I try to hang out with Yukiko and get ambushed by one of the inn waitresses who thinks we’re a couple. Mercifully, I can say no and Yukiko doesn’t get weird about it. The waitresses have been helping her cook more and now she’s finally able to cook something halfway decent.
YUKIKO: Once I leave this town… I won’t be able to come here again, will I…?
I ask why she can’t even come back to visit, and says she’s terrified of facing her parents. I really hope this isn’t going to end with her deciding to stay after all.
Yosuke has been full on social points for a while now, so on the 13th I cash them in. He demands I help him with restocking shelves. I better get paid for this! …Oh, I actually do! Fair enough, then. Afterwards, Yosuke explains:
YOSUKE: They decided on the sale at the last minute, and Dad was bugging me to find helpers. I told him I didn’t have time for that, but he wasn’t listening. But hey, I’m glad you were there!
…That doesn’t paint him in a very good light. He claims he didn’t have time, but what else is he doing all day? He says it so casually that it doesn’t sound like he was stressed or even like he cared about this at all, more like he brushed it off. I can demand “Tell me next time!” which produces an interesting response:
YOSUKE: Haha, sorry ’bout that! I thought if I told you, you wouldn’t come…
So he confirms this wasn’t an accident. He deliberately manipulated me.
The whiny part-timers from before show up to complain about also having to help out with no warning. Yosuke protests that they got a bonus… of $5. They are not impressed, and go off to gossip loud enough for us to overhear. They reveal that Saki apparently tried to hook a sugar daddy in her second year, but came back home almost immediately and began saving up money by working at Junes.
GAUDY STUDENT: You know us high school girls can make easy money if we want to.
…
Farla informs me that teenagers prostituting themselves is apparently normal in Japan. I’m not sure I wanted to know that.
Yosuke pretends to be bothered by this.
YOSUKE: We caught the killer and avenged Saki-senpai, right?
Oh hey, a reference to the main plot. Does this change if you do this scene before beating Mitsuo?
Yosuke acts sad, but remains calm and decides there’s no point in confronting the gossipers.
> “You’re right.”
> “Man, you’re mature.”
> “No need to hold back…”
Hm. Yeah, I’m gonna bait the sociopath. I’m curious what he’ll say.
YOSUKE: Huh? D-Dude, don’t hit ’em or anything. Are you actually the type to move without thinking…?
…Unlike you, the one who was first to jump headlong into the TV world? I feel this does line up with what a sociopath would say — he jumps straight to assuming I mean physical violence, as if that’s the only option, and his phrasing shows that he’s viewing this in completely practical terms; he doesn’t see any way that interacting with them would benefit him, so he doesn’t. Someone who really cared about Saki would snap, “What’s wrong with you, can you at least not disrespect the dead?” — that’s a completely socially acceptable thing to say. But he doesn’t actually care about defending Saki’s honor, so that wouldn’t be worth the trouble for him.
YOSUKE: *sigh* What a pain. …… Oh, uh, not you… …I wonder what it is.
…Hm. While general malaise certainly isn’t exclusive to sociopaths, it’s definitely more common.
That evening, Dojima is finally home and invites Adachi to dinner. So I guess he’s our honorary fourth family member now. Dojima reveals the reason he’s home is because the police have finally finished their report on Mitsuo, which the news promptly reports.
ANNOUNCER: Because of several inconsistencies in the boy’s deposition, some have called for a mental examination to be carried out.
Those “some” are a lot more on the ball than my friends. There were glaring inconsistencies and gaps in his testimony.
ADACHI: All we had was the suspect’s confession and some circumstantial evidence. But the lab found the perp’s prints on the victim’s clothes, so we made it stick after all.
The victim? Only one? Does that mean his prints weren’t on Yamano or Saki? Also very suspicious that they just so happened to find prints after they already had their suspect, and on something as hard to pull prints from as clothing at that.
ADACHI: Man, isn’t crime scene investigation something? Who would’ve thought you could get viable prints from cloth?
…And Adachi explicitly brings that up. Hm.
ADACHI: Man, that guy was twisted.
And once again talks up the suspect.
ADACHI: Good thing we caught him! Now I can stop seeing suspects in every shadow! If the killer was still on the loose…
Wasn’t Adachi complaining about the murder case being too much work for him? So we have another motive for him to rush the case closed.
The next morning, Chie calls to warn me Yosuke is desperate for help at Junes. What, again? Also, why didn’t he call me after promising he would give me more warning last time? Boy, this is weird right on the heels of that social link. I agree to help out, which skips the whole week. What, I don’t even get evenings off?