The next day we overhear students gossiping about the volleyball team, and apparently Kamoshida’s abuse is so obvious that everyone can see how banged up the team is. That’s a lot more than Ryuji’s claim that the abuse is only “rumors”. How are these guys winning matches while covered in bruises, anyway?

There’s a students vs. teachers volleyball match. Ryuji says it’s boring even though this should be a prime opportunity to observe Kamoshida. Kamoshida spikes the injured student from yesterday in the face, but by all appearances it looks like a genuine accident.

Ryuji: That asshole’s acting like a king over here too… Get to know each other better, my ass. It’s just a one-man show for him to stroke his ego.

You’re mad the star athlete PE teacher played well? What? That is completely normal and expected behavior.

Ryuji: And how he acted like he was worried about Mishima? What an abusive d-bag!

This is Bitch Eating Crackers level of nonsense. It would have been easy to have Kamoshida act clearly abusive, like victim-blaming the student for not being agile enough to avoid the ball, but he doesn’t. You can say he’s two-faced, but “Sorry I hurt you, let’s take you to the nurse’s office,” is not abusive! Are we supposed to think he hit the student on purpose? We have no evidence of that.

Ryuji: I’ll be sure to find someone to spill about Kamoshida’s physical abuse. Just you wait, asshole.

It sure is a good think no one can overhear you in this crowded school!

> Where are you searching?
> All right, see you later.
> I don’t remember their faces…

There are our only responses? Really? Why is our protagonist such a loser?

Excited Female Student: Mr. Kamoshida is always nice to girls!
Carefree Female Student: It does seem like he talks to the girls on the volleyball team and that new first-year a lot!

What. How does no one know about the abuse if they’re paying attention to him this much? Why are they acting like “always nice to girls” and “talks to girls on the team he coaches” are the same thing? It could be a sign he’s notably egalitarian if he’s accepting of female volleyball players in a traditionally male-dominated sport, but that has no connection to being nice to all girls in general.

This is also just extremely Written By Dudes. This is clearly meant to ironically hint that he’s performing sexual abuse as well, and gossipy girls should be paying attention to that kind of thing, especially if they’re identifying that he’s going for the youngest girl in the school. At most, they could be jealous if they think he’s a catch, but they should be picking up these red flags.

Listless-Looking Student: Even if I play, I know Mr. Kamoshida’ll send some serious spikes my way…

Okay, so we at least have an implication he’s doing the dangerous spikes on purpose. That still doesn’t explain why no one blocks their face, which is actually a good counter-strategy if you know he regularly does that. (Also, gotta love how male students don’t need to be identified as male.)

NPC: Did you see Mr. Kamoshida’s spike? That was amazing!

No, actually. The goal of a spike is to hit the ground. If you hit a player instead, you failed to do that. Any idiot can hit a player, that’s not impressive.

Female Student in a Jersey: That teacher’s spike was incredible. Hey, is he always like that? Isn’t that kind of scary?
Female Volleyball Player: Y-Yeah. It is until you get used to it…
Female Student in a Jersey: People on the volleyball team get those kinds of injuries? Man, you guys have got it tough.

[…]

Insensitive Student: That looked like it hurt. Is their practice always like that…?
Hushed Student: I know, right? That guy was, like, all bruises…

Seriously, why do we need supernatural sleuthing to uncover this incredibly obvious abuse? This pacing is totally backwards. We learn Ryuji hates this guy’s guts first, then we have Ryuji somehow shocked to find out he’s a bad guy, then we have all the other students dropping information about it and specifically pointing out the volleyball students are beaten after Ryuji made a point of needing to memorize the students’ faces in the other world because there’s no other way they could possibly identify the abuse.

Ryuji can ask the newspaper student for scoops on the volleyball team, but is shocked, just shocked, that the administration is protecting Kamoshida! He also insists we can’t trust anyone on the student council. Ryuji, you didn’t notice the kids with visible bruises were getting beaten, I don’t trust your knowledge of school politics.

Ryuji’s genius plan is to confront the injured volleyball player in the middle of an occupied classroom so everyone can overhear. So now Kamoshida will think this guy snitched, great going.

Ryuji: Hey, that’s the guy who was over at that castle.

He says this in the middle of the conversation. The student does not react, I guess because he thinks we’re on drugs. Possibly it’s supposed to be implied he was whispering to Damien, but the voice actor says it at normal volume.

> Are you getting abused?

Oh my god, Damien. Of course, the game has taught us by now that dialogue choices don’t matter, so sure. The kid denies it, but Ryuji immediately says he knows the truth and the delinquents totally won’t tell anyone he squealed. Unsurprisingly, the volleyball player is not impressed, and demands we find proof before we discuss this further. Ryuji is shocked by this despite it being a completely predictable outcome.

Ryuji: That injury ain’t normal!

…He got hit by a volleyball. How is that not a normal injury for a volleyball player?

Ryuji for some reason thinks we should now probe one of the third-years, the group that has the most sunk cost and the most to lose by squealing. Go after the first-years or people who got kicked out of the team, you idiot!

Bored Female Student: Those bruises… I think she’s in trouble.
Resting Female Student: She’s trying to become a volleyball starter, isn’t she? I heard she takes private lessons with Mr. Kamoshida every day. […] Anyway, acting sad like that while keeping Mr. Kamoshida to herself is kinda arrogant, don’t you think?

This is so incredibly misogynist. It would still be misogynist but at least plausible if the girls were just jealous of her, but they know she’s getting visibly injured and they’re still slut-shaming her? What the hell? These dialogues would make more sense in the mouth of the boys — the volleyball players would have actual investment in him giving girls preferential treatment while also believably being ignorant of the red flags. They’re also more likely to be sexist enough to think she should just quit if she can’t hack it as a volleyball player. Putting this in the mouth of the female students is just so contemptuous of girls and ignorant of how they actually behave. Yes, girls can be mean to other girls, but they’re also way more likely to notice these things and to know other girls are people with their own interiority.

Thin-Browed [Female] Student: I saw Mr. Kamoshida asking Takamaki out in the hall yesterday… But she just shot him down. She’s so uptight.
Duck-Faced Student: She’s probably had a bunch of boyfriends. I think the popularity went to her head.
Thin-Browed Student: And she’s looking down on us other girls, right? As to be expected from a foreigner…

Ugh. Not impossible for internalized misogyny to go this deep, but this is ludicrously extreme. Not all girls want to jump their teachers’ bones, creeps. This, again, would make way more sense coming from the boys. “Rejecting a teacher is an insult to the girls” makes no sense, “Rejecting the highest-status male in school is an insult to the boys” does. But no, only girls can be misogynist.

Also, huh, so her blonde hair is significant. Crossing my fingers she will be a better Lisa. Speaking of Takamaki, I can listen in on her loudly gossiping about me while we’re literally touching elbows.

We talk to another volleyball student, who also rebuffs us.

Assertive Volleyball Player: You’re trying to snoop on Mr. Kamoshida, right? Look, our volleyball team performs at a national level. Of course our practices are gonna be tough. Mr. Kamoshida’s just dedicated to training us. Don’t believe everything Sakamoto says.

See, this would work if it was just a bit less extreme. If Kamoshida was just pushing the students to perform above what kids were capable of, that would still be awful and abusive, but it would be less obvious than sending them home covered in bruises, less obvious that kids would know this is wrong, and also much more accurate to real-life sports abuse. Instead he’s ridiculous cackling evil, because we can’t have any subtlety in our social commentary.

Ryuji calls to tell me what I already know, that we should have gone after the first-years first. I ask the player outright if Kamoshida’s abusing him in the middle of the hallway.

Student: I mean, sure Mr. Kamoshida’s strict, but it’s like this for all the other sports teams, right?

Do all the sports teams here pummel you into a walking bruise? Kamoshida can’t be running them all, because Ryuji specifically said the track team was run by someone else. This would, again, make more sense if the abuse was more subtle, so it was harder for students to notice this was abnormal.

The first-year lets slip that we should talk to Mishima, but then school ends. While we’re waiting to meet with Ryuji, we’re ambushed by Takamaki (and learn her given name is Ann).

Ann: Can I talk to you for a sec? It’ll be quick. Anyway, what’s with you?

That does not sound like a quick topic. Ryuji shows up to slut-shame her, because the misogyny never stops, even though Ryuji is the one who identified Kamoshida as a perv for giving her a ride. He also acts like she is dating Kamoshida, even though the NPCs have been chattering about how she turned him down. I’m finding it more likely this story was stitched together by multiple writers who never talked to each other. Ann warns us that everyone is onto us because we are incredibly bad at this, and Ryuji considers this “aggressive” because he’s a weirdo. We also learn that the two of them went to the same middle school.

We tell Ryuji Mishima could be a lead.

Ryuji: True. I always see the guy covered in bruises.

You didn’t think maybe you should have talked to this guy first?

He then decides the best way to introduce himself is to corner the injured guy on his way out of school while making vaguely threatening statements.

Ryuji (still scowling): C’mon, we just wanna chat.

“A chat with me, the delinquent, and my friend, the knife murderer!” Ryuji immediate jumps to accusing Kamoshida of physical abuse based on the spike to the face. Mishima is the one to offer the victim-blaming excuse, saying he’s just not a good player. Again, this would fit a lot better if Kamoshida said this and Mishima echoed it here. Kamoshida then shows up to cut the interrogation short.

Kamoshida: Mishima, isn’t it time for practice?
Mishima: I-I’m not feeling well today…
Kamoshida: What? Maybe you’re better off quitting then. You’re never going to improve that crappy form unless you show up to practice.

Okay, so he’s pushing his victims to stay on the team so he can keep abusing them. This makes sense for a sadist, but then how is the team also the best ever? Maimed and crippled kids do not make good athletes. This would work if the students can’t quit for some reason, and that would also be a cromulent commentary on abuse in general, where the inescapability is a big part of it… but the situation as presented doesn’t make sense. The students are supposedly suffering through the abuse for the payout of recognition and scholarships because the team does so well, but it’s just not believable for the team to be doing well if the players are in such bad shape.

Kamoshida: As for you [Ryuji], any more trouble and you’ll be gone from this school for sure.

That’s exactly what you said the last time he made trouble. This is such a transparently empty bluff.

Kamoshida: Shujin Academy is a place where those with aspirations come to learn. Unworthy students like yourselves don’t have any right to be here.

This would again make more sense if he was churning through students instead of keeping them forever. As it is, this statement doesn’t actually have any relation to his particular brand of abuse.

Kamoshida leaves just long enough for Mishima to explain the obvious to us:

Mishima: Proving that he’s physically abusing us… is meaningless. Everybody knows… The principal, our parents… They all know, and they all keep quiet about it.

This just exacerbates the plot hole of why we needed to go into Kamoshida’s brain to learn this was going on. Ryuji the delinquent teenager is somehow shocked by the idea of institutional corruption.

Ryuji: Why ain’t anybody speaking up!?
Damien: They don’t care it’s happening.
Ryuji: That can’t be true.

Ryuji. The reason you hate this guy is because he did something awful to your team and nobody believed you. This should not be a hard concept for you. He also accuses Ann of not caring at all after she went out of our way to warn us. Despite this, the next day he thinks Ann’s our best lead because if the volleyball team won’t talk, we should find someone outside of it.

Ann’s friend has a new bruise today. She insists she’s fine and Ann just meekly backs down. Afterwards, some boys gossip about how Ann’s such an easy slut, which is the complete opposite of the gossip yesterday. Shiho then runs into Damien, and tells him she hates rumormongering because Ann is also misunderstood.

Ryuji, unsurprisingly, has turned up nothing. His new plan is to confront Kamoshida directly, because he’s an idiot. Out of nowhere, we propose fighting Shadow Kamoshida. At this point Morgana shows up looking like an ordinary black cat to yell at us. For some reason, only we can understand him, while everyone else just hears meows. Despite being pissed about us abandoning him last time, he is inexplicably willing to offer us another favor by telling us how to deal with Kamoshida. We overhear people talking about tracking down a stray cat, so…

…Or we could offer our bag to him instead of treating him like an object??? What is wrong with you? After cutting off Morgana protesting his funny abuse, we jump to a new scene on the roof, where Morgana explains we can lobotomize people by destroying Palaces.

Morgana: A Palace is a manifestation of a person’s distorted desires. So, if that castle were no more…
Damien: His desires would go too.
Morgana: Precisely!

This sounds like getting cause and effect backwards, but fine, it’s magic. Morgana insists that removing his desire to do bad things will also make him feel so guilty he confesses. That doesn’t actually follow, but okay.

Morgana sounds really gung-ho about this, which raises the question of why he didn’t propose this earlier, and why he’s so willing to help us after we pissed him off. It would make more sense for him to hold this over us until we do what he wants, but no, he just offers it freely.

Also, Morgana reveals that this wouldn’t just destroy his bad desires, but all his desires, reducing him to a vegetative state or possibly killing him outright. For some reason Ryuji starts clutching pearls about this.

Ryuji: If we just go around secretly doin’ whatever we want, we’d be no better than that effin’ Kamoshida…

“Killing pedophiles makes us just as bad as pedophiles! Makes ya think, huh?” This is especially stupid given the protagonist’s backstory is that he assaulted someone to stop them from doing a crime (though of course he only did that by accident because he can’t actually do anything wrong). Ryuji insists we can’t possibly do it and rejects Morgana’s offer without letting me decide, because what’s player agency lol.

Later, Ryuji emails me to say there are rumors Shiho and Ann are dating Kamoshida. I thought we already knew this?

Ryuji: I’ve known Takamaki and Suzui since middle school. There’s just no way Kamoshida’s their type, y’know? So… I gotta wonder where those rumors came from.

This is the exact opposite of what he said before! In the last scene he was sneering about Ann dating Kamoshida! What was going on in the writers’ room???

Gossipy Female Student: Takamaki always looks kind of unhappy whenever Mr. Kamoshida talks to her.
Rude Female Student: Maybe she doesn’t wanna talk to him at school to show off how she’s got him wrapped around her finger?

What. No, that does not follow at all. This nonsense would be just barely plausible coming from a boy, but why are the girls the most misogynistic?

“I can almost see his face right now, in fact…”

Scared Female Student: He’s just been coming to school. Actually, he almost seems normal…

We arrived mysteriously late on our first day and have spent every day since asking to see injured volleyball players so we can corner them. We are not at all normal.

Worried Female Student: I’m so traumatized from the video of that accident. I’ve been afraid of riding the train ever since.
Talkative Female Student: There’ve been similar accidents before, right? What happens if you get a psychotic breakdown?
Worried Female Student: Well, out of nowhere, you go crazy and violent, and then you suddenly pass out. In the very end, you die in a lot of pain. That’s what I hear. You die, or you’re as good as dead.

“As good as dead” is interesting, because that sounds like what Morgana was describing. Presumably it’s going to turn out that destroying Palaces makes people into crazy monsters and that’s why it’s wrong.

We overhear Ann having an argument with Kamoshida over the phone, and he’s apparently threatening to punish Shiho as a consequence.

Ann: Wait… Were you listening?
Damien: I was eavesdropping.
Ann: Haven’t you heard of privacy? …… …No, I was out of line. Sorry.

What. I suppose this behavior makes sense from an abuse victim, but still, what. Ann runs off in distress and Damien decides he has to stalk I mean follow her. Okay. We then tell her, “Let’s go somewhere safe,” and for some reason the girl agrees to go to a private location with the creepy boy who keeps following her. The next scene immediately opens with her saying, “I don’t have anything to talk about with you,” so why did she agree to talk to us??? Despite saying this, she proceeds to have a breakdown and say that she’s been trying to rebuff Kamoshida, but he’s now threatening to drop Shiho from the volleyball team if she doesn’t put out. Oh, no, if you don’t have sex with the guy you hate, your friend might not be crippled for life…?

This is too many things at once. The only way this makes sense as a tough choice is if Shiho is actually getting anything out of the volleyball team, but if Kamoshida’s beating her black and blue, she clearly isn’t. Ann should want to get her out of there! It would also be a sensible motive if Kamoshida was threatening to prevent Shiho from leaving, and that would also fit with his refusing to let Mishima leave. Instead he’s abusive in all directions to the point they start working at cross-purposes. If all he does is cripple the volleyball students, why does anyone want to be on the team?

But okay, let’s say volleyball really is super duper important to Shiho and she doesn’t want to give it up even if she’s being abused. She should still want Kamoshida gone, because Shiho will not be able to keep playing if she’s crippled from this abuse. The obvious self-sacrificing thing to do at that point is to record herself having sex with Kamoshida, then out him. She’ll go down with him, but even the principal couldn’t cover up video evidence. Instead she’s just sad and ineffectual and ~doesn’t know what to do~ because girls can’t have agency.

Ann then asks outright “Are you a bad person?” What is this dialogue. She says she thinks the rumors about Damien are exaggerations and he’s not a bad guy. No, he really did assault someone! Tell her why you did it, Damien! …No, he just stares gormlessly.

Ann: I wish he’d just change his mind… Like, forget about me, and everything…

That’s all you wish for, really? Not that he’s arrested so he can’t creep on other girls? But of course she has to conveniently wish for the exact thing we’re going to do.

I do. If you’re too good for it move over so I can get this over with. I can in fact respond with, “He deserves it,” to implicate myself further, but Ryuji just waffles more.

The next day we get a civics lesson where the voice actor pronounces National Diet like the English word diet. Is that how the Japanese actually say it?

Has Morgana been in our bag this whole time??? Everyone hears him meowing but are somehow unable to see the giant cat in our desk.

Game, I already said I was down with murder. Why are we wasting so much time on this.

Class is interrupted by Shiho attempting suicide.

Mr. Ushimaru: Hey! Stay in your seats! Do not step foot outside the room!

Are suicides in Japan like school shootings in America, everyone’s just numb to them? Fortunately, Shiho survived and is being taken care of by paramedics. She says to Ann that it was Kamoshida’s fault, but we don’t hear exactly what she says. Mishima runs off and for some bizarre reason Ryuji thinks this is the fault of Shiho’s fellow abuse victim. He intimidates Mishima into revealing that in addition to brutalizing kids during practice, sometimes he just calls them to his room to beat them. Okay? This is completely underwhelming. We already saw him doing that in the Palace, it’s not surprising that he abuses kids in a slightly different way to how he’s already abusing them. This would only work as a reveal if this is knowledge we hadn’t already learned at the Palace. Maybe the Palace scenes got shuffled around and happened after this in an earlier draft…?

Ryuji: So the physical punishment thing was for real…

WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED BY THIS. Ryuji does not reflect on the fact that he could have prevented this if he hadn’t spent yesterday waffling over if Kamoshida really deserved to die, and just runs off to confront him now.

Mishima: You… You ordered me to call Suzui here… I can only imagine what you did to her…!
Kamoshida: You’re going on and on about things you have no proof of…

That is, in fact, proof. Mishima can testify that Kamoshida ordered him to bring Shiho in for a beating the day before she committed suicide, and he knows Kamoshida abused her because he’s also abused him. That’s pretty damning even if no one else on the team is willing to squeal, and Shiho already said something to Ann.

(This is irrelevant to the real problem we were already told, which is that the authorities don’t care and will cover this up even if we can produce proof. But why start having consistency now, I suppose.)

Kamoshida then says the hospital totally called him in the five seconds since the ambulance left and said she’s in a coma so conveniently she can’t corroborate anything. For some reason everyone believes him, but even if it’s true, no, Mishima’s testimony alone is enough to sway opinion — people do not just commit suicide for no reason and he was the last person to see her. Ryuji for some reason tries to punch him even though we already agreed we were going to kill him a different way.

Kamoshida: There’s no need to hold back. Why not attack me? …Ohhh, you caaaan’t. Hahaha, but of course you can’t! Everyone present right now will be expelled. I’m reporting all of you at the next board meeting.

Uh, thanks for the tip? Now they have no reason not to kill you here and now. This reads like it’s in reverse order — he should be threatening them with expulsion to explain why they can’t attack him, not gloat about how they can’t attack him and then immediately remove the reason why they can’t attack him.

Kamoshida: Who would seriously consider what scum like you have to say?

And now we’re flipping back to proof not mattering because the institution is against us.

Kamoshida: To think you [Mishima] didn’t know why I kept someone as talentless as you on the team. You act like you’re a victim, but you leaked his criminal records, didn’t you?

This is a non-sequitor. Why does screwing over another kid make him worth keeping on the team? Mishima then says that Kamoshida forced him to do it, so… why wouldn’t Mishima know that’s why he kept him on the team? We keep ping-ponging between everyone knowing Kamoshida coerces people to keep them on the team and everyone being shocked Kamoshida coerces people.

Again, this could work if the game was willing to be just a little more subtle. If Kamoshida was good enough at keeping a lid on his abuses that the kids genuinely loved him and did all this stuff for him because of that, then it would be meaningful to reveal that he was actually just using them the whole time. Instead he’s punching the kids constantly, yet they’re still surprised he’s evil.

Ryuji: I can’t believe this asshole’s gettin’ away with this!
Damien: He’ll eat his words.
Ryuji: Huh…?

Ryuji, did you forget we have supernatural powers?

Ryuji: …Oh right. We have that!

oh my god LET ME MAKE JOKES, GAME

Instead of activating the navigator app immediately, we wait until after school like goody two-shoes. It would have been a strong character statement if they skipped class to do this, because they realized they had to stop faffing about and kill Kamoshida immediately regardless of the consequences. But no.

Ryuji: We gotta hurry up and go to that world and beat the shit outta that asshole!
Morgana: …We’re not beating him up. We’re simply stealing his distorted desires.

Morgana, the whole reason we’ve been dragging our feet on this is because you said this would lobotomize him. Why are you playing semantics now? (Also, I assume we will be beating up Shadow Kamoshida.) Fortunately, Ryuji has finally gotten over his uwu violence is wrong phase.

Ryuji: Someone almost died because of him! I don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to him anymore!

Thank you. Can you reflect on the fact she almost died because you didn’t resolve this yesterday? …No. Ann walks in on us talking to a cat to talk about us getting expelled.

Ryuji: That asshole’s at it again! So you came all the way to tell us that?

What is your problem, dude? You just saw her have a breakdown over her best friend attempting suicide (both of whom you’ve supposedly known for years) and this is your first response? Why do you keep acting like you have any reason to believe she’s on Kamoshida’s side? Is this another victim of multiple drafts, like Ryuji already knowing her was a later addition? Obviously, she actually wants to help us.

Ryuji: This has nothing to do with you…

HER BEST FRIEND JUST ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Morgana: …That was harsh.

That was monstrous.

After Ann runs off in tears, Ryuji insists he was only doing it because they can’t bring a civvie into such a dangerous place, even though he tagged along without a persona last time. Morgana exposits that what we’re doing is called “phantom thievery”. I’m curious what that was in Japanese.

Ryuji: …How the hell’s all this [the app] work? Someone make it?
Damien: Of course.
Ryuji: That’s kinda creepy, but eh, seems useful enough.

Why did we not tell him we know exactly who made it and we talk with him on a regular basis? That seems like relevant information! Ann eavesdrops on us, so she’s pulled into the phantom world too.

Morgana: I see. Perhaps she was dragged in because of that app thing. If multiple people can enter with the person who uses it, it stands to reason it’ll pull anyone nearby.
Ryuji: For real?
Ann: Wait, so THIS is related to Kamoshida!?

I didn’t cut anything, it really is this much of a non-sequitor. Why would she assume this has anything to do with the school or Kamoshida? The writers couldn’t spring for a few lines of exposition when it would actually matter after all the redundant exposition we’ve gotten?

Then they literally grab Ann and shove her back into the real world. Wow.

Ann: H-Hey! A-And just where are you touching!?

And there’s our funny sexual assault. I knew it’d show up eventually.

Morgana then gives us code names because “there’s no telling what kind of effect yelling our real names will have on the Palace…” That sure is out of nowhere. Why didn’t he bring it up the last two times we were here and yelling our real names all over the place? Damien is “Joker”, Ryuji is “Skull”, and Morgana is “Mona”. Ryuji goes on about how cool the codenames are. I assume in the Japanese version they’re in English.

Morgana explains that the goal is to steal the Palace’s “Treasure”, which apparently does not require beating up Shadow Kamoshida. We then get a tutorial on negotiations.

Morgana: If you talk to them when they’re cornered, they might offer money or items since they don’t want to die.

SMT was at least usually honest about this being a horrible thing to do. It is really awkward to do this with more developed characters who are supposedly heroes. I try asking for an item, but the Shadow says she doesn’t have anything on her, so Morgana cheerfully decides we should kill her instead.

And yes, they of course chose the sexy pixie for this. This is pretty uncomfortable.

The pixie suddenly realizes “I’m not a Shadow! I live in the sea of the human heart!” And she turns into a persona. Okay, so I guess that’s how we get them now. This makes even less sense with the lore than past games. This could work if it were tied to social links, like our empathy with someone who represents pixies allows us to emulate their pixie persona, but that would get in the way of the gotta-catch-em-all framing. She also turns into a mask, even though we were previously told we get personas by taking off our mask because it’s our true self.

Morgana is shocked by this.

Morgana: Even I’ve never seen anyone pull that off!

Except we have no idea if that means anything. You keep acting knowledgeable yet keep being surprised by basic things.

Tutorial: Decide whether to defeat your foes quickly with All-Out Attacks and earn experience, or negotiate with them to obtain a Persona or other reward.

Except we already get money and items for killing them. This would be meaningful if negotiations were the only way to get money and items, but as in SMT, it’s pretty pointless.

We find another safe room, then cut to Ann, who caught the app from us and has wandered back inside. She’s immediately captured by Shadows mistaking her for the fake Ann. I’m so glad we made sure we weren’t there to protect her! Then we cut back to the writers Morgana pulling more stuff out of his butt.

Morgana: First, we’ll need to secure an infiltration route.
Ryuji: A what?
Morgana: A path to the treasure’s location.

You couldn’t have said this before we went in? You’re supposed to plan your heist in advance! Have these writers never seen a heist movie?

Morgana: But honestly, I think we’ll need a little more manpower in order to accomplish this.

SO WHY DID YOU DO NOTHING WHILE WE REJECTED ANOTHER VOLUNTEER.

Ryuji: Hey, you say you don’t have your memories and all, but somehow you still know about that kinda stuff?

What? When did he say he lost his memories? He said he lost his body, that’s the complete opposite! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS SCRIPT.

Ryuji: You sure talk big, but what if it turns out you’re just some stray cat in the end?

Why would you think that? He’s clearly intelligent! Even if he was, why would that justify your constant dickery towards him? It is pretty surreal that we’re having a plot about abuse being very wrong while the protagonists are searching for excuses to justify their abuse.

Morgana overhears the guards chatting and deduces that Ann came back and got abducted.

Ryuji: Dammit! We let her out for her own safety

That’s not how I remember it!

We follow the sound of her freaking out.

Ryuji: She totally doesn’t get what’s goin’ on!

AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT, RYUJI?

Hello, weirdly sexualized torture. Why didn’t the boys get spreadeagled, I wonder. Kamoshida shows up with the fake Ann to say the real Ann is trash. That’s… really weird. You could do a thing where he prefers his idealized version to the real thing, but if the whole point is that he desires her, shouldn’t he be lusting after both? This implies that he doesn’t actually want Ann, he’s content with just his fantasy of her. And indeed, he immediately orders her executed for backtalking him.

The fake Ann is also completely supportive of him and thinks he’s sexy, so does he actually want a consensual relationship? If he’s not kinking on the coercion, shouldn’t he be ignoring the girls who push back because they’re more of a hassle? This would fit more if the fake Ann was offering transactional sex… but I suspect the real reason they did it this way was so the fake Ann could be evil.

But also it really needs to be here on full display.

Kamoshida: I forget that chick’s name, but it’s your fault she jumped, you know.

This makes no sense as something he’d say from his heart of hearts. He knows it’s his fault, not hers. If this is his raw, unfiltered id, he should not be capable of lies and manipulation like this. (It’s also weird that he doesn’t remember her, but he does remember whose fault it is.)

Kamoshida: You were so reluctant to throw yourself onto me that I had her take your place.

And we have rape. Also, obvious twist is obvious.

Kamoshida: Take one more step and I’ll kill her on the spot. […] Just sit back and enjoy the dismemberment show.

“If you don’t let me kill her slowly and painfully, I’ll kill her quickly!” Just like the real Kamoshida, he has no understanding of how threats work.

So now he does desire her? There isn’t even consistency within the same scene! Ann resigns herself, but Damien tells her not to give up so she suddenly does a 180 and tells Kamoshida off, awakening her persona. Didn’t she already have this revelation when she offered to help us take him down?

Her awakening is of course full of extremely sexualized writhing on the kink cross while focusing on her boobs and skirt. And unlike the boys she doesn’t rip her mask off, because girls aren’t allowed to be gross. Her persona is…

Eugh. It would be one thing if she was using her sexuality at any way prior to this, like say she was sleeping with Kamoshida to protect her friend but she missed one day and that’s why he did this, but instead she’s just been a virginal shrinking violet. Everyone falsely accuses her of being a whore, and her true self is… a whore. No really, her persona is Carmen, the original femme fatale. Once again, sexualizing kids is wrong except when the artists do it.

Ann: That dirtbag just sees women as sexual outlets!

…

Oh god, and she’s an Escher girl. Her powers are fire and healing, so a Yukiko clone. The boss attacks with wind magic, which is extremely unfair because Ryuji’s weak to it and there’s nothing I can do about that. He has Magaru, too, so that’s a guaranteed 1-More for him. Fortunately I kill him pretty quick.

The girl collapses from exhaustion after the fight while the boys are fine, of course.

Ryuji: Why’d you come here, man!?

Why did she avenge the friend you supposedly both know? What is going on with these inconsistencies?

Morgana: Hey! Is that how you speak to a woman!?

uuuuurrrrgghhhhhh

At least it looks like he’ll be a ~chivalrous~ horndog instead of a dudebro horndog? That’s slightly more tolerable. (Also, dude, you were fine with us manhandling her earlier.)

Ann: Wait, what is this thing? Is it alive? How can it talk?

You just fought a battle alongside this thing. Why are you only asking this now?

Ann notices her stripper catsuit and is freaked out by it, despite it supposedly being a reflection of her innermost self.

> Calm down.
> You look great.

Instead of pursuing Kamoshida now that we’ve dispatched his guards, Morgana insists we have to retreat to let him build up more guards. Even though we are on a strict time limit, we escort the dainty woman back out. Again.

Ann: …Mm, thanks.

For what? She saved herself, from a predicament we put her in.

Morgana insists we need to retreat to “a safer spot” than the alleyway. By this he means… a crowded subway. Yes, that’s the best place to talk about our supernatural adventures.

Ann: I really am talking to a cat… This feels so strange… Oh, sorry! You’re not a cat, right?

Well it’s good to know someone has etiquette. She offers to help us for the third time and Ryuji still throws up a stink about how it’s ~too dangerous~. Fortunately I can tell him to shut up this time. Ryuji still only grudgingly allows it on the basis she’d just go on her own otherwise, so really this is the safest option for the dainty damsel.

Ann: I want to make him pay for what he did to Shiho. […] I’m going to make Kamoshida atone for what he did.

These lines are both from the same conversation.

We abruptly flash-forward for some more non-sequitors.

Niijima: A group like yours must have relied on subtlety and misdirection. Otherwise, you’d never survive.

I don’t know what she just heard, but we just saw the phantom thieves blundering around like idiots while shouting their plans in public. We cut back just as abruptly to get Ann’s social link, which is… The Lovers, of course. Morgana decides to be a creep as soon as she leaves:

Morgana: She cares about her friends, and she’s beautiful to boot… What a girl! She’s captured my heart…

Nothing says respecting women like listing her beauty in the same breath as her personality traits. Sadly, this is still a step up for her.

Morgana proposes creating a secret hideout for them to discuss their plans. Yes, that would be better than discussing them in public.

Ryuji: A hideout, huh? I like the sound of that.

And I’m sure everyone eavesdropping on us does too. They settle on… the school roof, which might be the worst place they could have possibly picked. It’s off-limits to students so everyone will be immediately suspicious of us going there, we can’t even get there unless it’s a school day, and we would be plotting to kill a teacher right above the teachers’ heads. How are these people so stupid?